Christmas time delights

I LOVE decorating for Christmas! Although I'm fairly newly married and don't have too many decorations yet, I absolutely adore the ones I've collected thus far. Luckily for me we've lived in a home that allows us to have a ginormous tree (we're talking 16+ feet, the kind where youneed a ladder to decorate it)! Here is a sampling of the holiday cheer we have going on at our place...

getting back to it

Last time I blogged I felt like I was finally getting into it with two posts in one day and all... Then I followed up with no posts for almost two months. This blogging thing is hard. We are however in the midst of selling our home, and figuring out where to go and what to do (can I use that as an excuse?). I have been busy crafting a lot lately. Thanks to my wonderful in-laws, I am the owner of a new brother sewing machine. She saw the sorry excuse for one that I was attempting to learn to sew on and went and bought me a legitimate machine. I have been pumping out projects ever since. Many are gifts, so I will have to post them after Christmas. However, I can show you my proudest accomplishment so far...

a newsie hat...



I also wanted to share a neat little idea that I made for Thanksgiving (I got the idea from my friend Lauren's blog). They are individual blackberry and apple pies baked in mason jars to boot! So delicious, and so cute.

two posts in one day

Today is a good day for blogging. Some may say I'm going overboard by posting twice in one day. However, there is much I've been wanting to share with little results. Refurbishing, refinishing, and reinventing are what I love. My heart leaps when finding things for sale well below their actual value, or better yet, for free. It makes me feel like I've discovered treasure, or outwitted greedy business giants. I find value in cherishing simplicity and figuring out how to create common experiences in a cheaper way. Today, Jake and I picked flowers in the country. It was so fun to create our own bouquets, then come home and arrange them. And best of all, I didn't have to pay $20 for them at the store.

practical projects

During the last couple weeks, Jake and I have been working on building a couple projects. This has not always been Jake's favorite thing to do in the past. He has been so kind to humor me this time around, and since we got rolling I think DIYing has grown on him. We finally finished two of our endeavors recently, and I LOVE the way they turned out!

a mason jar shelf: We made two and haven't decided where to hang them yet. They would be great in so many places- the entry way to collect keys, coins, pens, notes..., the garage to hold nails, screws, hammers, screwdrivers..., the kitchen to store teas, coffee, utensils, flowers..., the office to organize crafting supplies, paint brushes, ribbon, buttons... the possibilities are endless here. They are so neat though!

AND an over-the-door drying rack (as our "laundry room" is a closet and up to this point drying clothes has happened in our hallway). It has a wainscoting background made from scraps that were left from putting it up in our living room, and the rungs were salvaged from our old broken drying rack. We also screwed in little knobs on the bottom to hang clothes on hangers from. So chic and relatively simple to make!

LAST BUT NOT LEAST, a simple refinishing of a headboard. I had been looking for one to fit our queen sized bed for awhile. Then I stumbled upon this beauty at a garage sale. I'd say $2 was more than a fair price. It was a funky pale green color and I simply spray painted it a crisp white to update it. Here's before with no headboard:

and after: I am still yet to figure out what to hang above the headboard, and I would also like to trade out or redo the side tables. At least for now I have a lovely new headboard.

paint crazy

Since I was litttle, I have always loved to craft. Although my materials as well as my design asthetic have varied over the years, I have never lost the joy I feel when crafting. Many times being hyper involved in sports (although I enjoy these too), drowned out my ability to exercise this love. However, recently I've ventured to make various projects that although simple in design, have become personalized gifts for family and friends. Branching out from these, I have also attempted a few canvas paintings. It has been great fun to dabble in the right side of my brain. I also have given etsy a shot (attempting to sell some of these items on a hand-made website). We'll see how that goes...

new to this stuff...

Hooray! We finally have jumped on the bandwagon and started our own family blog. We hope this is a place where we can share what the Lord is doing in our lives, whether it's big or small, difficult or easy, interesting...or not. It will be a record of our adventures in life, business, family, and crafts. We're thankful for where the Lord has us at this very moment and are looking forward to where He's taking us.