Long Winter’s Nap

Just in case you were wondering, I haven’t fallen of the face of the earth.

Where have I been?

Celebrating our Savior’s birth

Giving (my favorite part, really) and receiving fabulous gifts.

Celebrating some more.

Driving “over the river and through the woods…”

Celebrating some more.

Yesterday I went back to work for 12 hours, and last night I slept for 12 hours. 

Seriously.  Doesn’t anyone else NEED to do that occasionally?

I hope that you all had a fabulous and Merry Christmas and are planning a New Year celebration that suits you just fine.

Okay, enough with the pleasantries.

Even though I LOVE giving gifts, I can’t help but share what Santa brought me!

Look!

Yay!  It’s not a fancy model, but just enough to get me (and you, by association) in to ALL SORTS OF DECORATING TROUBLE.

I can’t wait, but I’m keeping my tube of fabric glue, JUST. IN. CASE.

Have a great Tuesday, and remember Trash to Treasure Tuesday starts up again NEXT WEEK!

Trash to Treasure Round-Up

 

Hi everyone, how’s it going?  Is your shopping done?

Me neither. 

Cookies baked?

Nope.

Gifts Wrapped?

I have started…

 

Are you enjoying this wonderful season?

Me too.

 

So is Archie.  He is feeling GREAT, despite the bland, low residue diet we’re feeding him, and sends his appreciation for all of the get well wishes you all sent on Thursday.

Yes, my dog can READ.  He really likes Highlights.

 

Anyway, there have been some REALLY COOL  projects linked up to Trash to Treasure Tuesday the past two weeks.  I have a few here to share, but please check out as many as you can!

 

You all know how much I LOVE a monogram and polka dots, so I just couldn’t resist these adorable ornaments from  Embellished Bayou.  I’m pretty sure these letters were painted on free hand.  Wow. 

 

Holly at Homebody made this fabulous recipe holder from a thrift store fork, some fabric and a frame.  I.  LOVE.  THIS.  Just imagine all of the personalization possibilities and oodles of beautiful fabric choices.

 

 

This canvas Bible verse art, from The Persimmon Perch, is a FABULOUS interpretation of expensive word art.  I’m wishing I would’ve seen this in time to make some for gifts.  Directions are included, just click on the link above.

Finally, check out these beautiful lettery, glittery stocking holders from Livin the Simple Life.  Just in case you’re interested, and I think you might be now, I saw Martha Stewart’s tinsel glitter on clearance at Michael’s today. 

If it’s okay with all of you, we’re going to take a couple of weeks off from Trash to Treasure Tuesday for the holidays and resume on Tuesday, January 5th.  Save up your projects and we’ll make the first party of 2010 the BEST EVER!

Must. go. wrap. presents.

Random Inspiring Internet Ideas

 

Whew, it’s been a STRESSFUL couple of days.

First, the good news.  I lost THREE pounds.

Now I’ll tell you why I couldn’t eat.  Our precious dog, Archie, has been hospitalized with pancreatitis for the past two days.  We brought him home yesterday and are HOPEFUL that he’ll get better. 

It’s no fun explaining to your even more precious children what will have to happen if he doesn’t.  I don’t want to think about it either.

I need some FEEL GOOD pictures today, so I’ll share a few I’ve been saving for JUST THE RIGHT MOMENT.

I want to live in this room.  All that red and white…swoon.  just love it.  (picture found on Restyled Home)  Do you think that’s a puff ball garland?  I wonder if you could make that with cotton balls…smile.

Lovin’ this ornament garland too.  How fabulous on a mantle.  (I can’t remember where I found this, if you know, leave it in the comments, please!)

 

This one’s from Better Homes and Gardens.  No one ever closes drawers at my house, anyway, I should just add some ornaments to them.  Wrapping paper in boots?  Genius.

 

 

Buckets instead of stockings.  This is fantastically fabulous.  How cool for a fireplaceless house.  (also from bhg)

Must go stuff another pill down the dog’s throat.  If you haven’t tried this, you haven’t lived.

Have a great weekend everyone.  I’m hoping to feature some Trash to Treasure highlights on Monday.

Use What You Have Ornaments

Hi everyone!

Welcome to Trash to Treasure Tuesday here at REINVENTED. We’ve had a lot of fun over the past few months sharing our projects, so I wanted to say THANK YOU to all of the fabulous bloggers that share their creativity with us each week.

And, now for a project from me.

I entered Blissfully Domestic’s Fall Tour of Homes this year, and because I was one of the first 50 entries, I got an Glade Apple Cinnamon candle in the mail.

You’re right, the candle doesn’t have anything to do with Trash to Treasure, but the packaging sure does.

Check out that fabulous curly paper. THIS kind of packaging I just couldn’t throw in the recycling bin.

So I stuffed it in a plain glass ornament from Hobby Lobby, like this.

I added a rub-on monogram and a ribbon and it looks like this.

My apologies for the picture quality, it was almost impossible, as you can see to get a good shot, but I loooove the folded and crinkled paper inside the ornament. You could get the same look with leftover curling ribbon pieces.

OR those pieces of leftover wrapping paper that are too small to wrap another gift. Just cut into strips, fold them up accordion style and stuff them in.

You could also put leftover “snow” inside.

Kosher salt and Epsom salts work great for fake snow.

If you have a kitchen tree, add interesting spices, like cloves, or bay leaves to an empty ornament.

Or basil or parsley.

Or colored sugar, M&M’s, or other cookie decorating items.

Oh my, the possibilities are really endless, the cost is only for the clear ornaments, if you use fillers you already have, and I have a feeling these craft ornaments are gonna get really cheap in the next couple of weeks.

Link up your projects! Please don’t forget our TWO SIMPLE RULES

1. 1. Link up to your project post, not to your blog’s home page.
2. 2. Include a link back to REINVENTED in your post.

Have a great day!

Home Tour at Nesting Place

Oh, how I love a party at the Nester's house. Or, I THINK I would like a party at the Nester’s house, and if I lived in her neighborhood, I’m sure I’d be invited.

I’ll settle for an invite to her Tour of Homes Christmas party.

EVERYONE is invited and we’re all sharing pics of our holiday decorated homes. This is gonna be SO FUN.

Guess I’ll start with my F.A.V.O.R.I.T.E. holiday decor item, the Christmas tree. We drive out to a tree farm every year and cut down our own tree. This year my twelve year old son cut it down for the first time. With supervision, of course.

We’ve had plenty of sitcom worthy adventures on this trip to the Christmas tree farm. Like the time our tree fell off of our vehicle and bounced down the road behind us. I was 8.5 months pregnant, and did NOT think this was funny at the time.

Yes, I made him go back and get it.

And rinse it off before he brought it in the house.

As you can probably tell, our tree has no theme. The Nester says thats okay. We have a mixture of homemade ornaments and family heirlooms, along with the new ones I can’t resist each year. The tree skirt I made out of felt, and for several years I made the kids cover their palms in paint and press them on. Then they got big and uncooperative. That’s why there’s only three years of hand prints. It has NOTHING to do with me being unable to keep up a tradition…

I like to have a new dated ornament each year, but those can get kinda pricey and sometimes they’re ugly, so I just buy one I like and write the year on with a silver paint pen.

My taste can change A LOT from one year to the next.

I like ornaments so much, I use them wherever I can.

I filled my glass jar on the kitchen island. I just can’t get enough of the sparkle.

These came from the Dollar tree. I added some ribbon and clippings from our tree, all in my wooden pedestal bowl in the foyer.

This plate is also in the foyer, on top of the bookcase, next to the bowl. I added rub on letters and puffy paint dots for the season. In January, I’ll just scrape them off.

Above the bookcase, still in the foyer, I’ve added our folk art Nativity to a narrow shelf, beneath some more canvas drop cloth art that I stenciled.

My kids look forward to placing the Baby Jesus in the manger after Mass on Christmas Eve.

You’ve seen my five dollar dining room centerpiece, but today I’m happy to announce that the dining room table is actually CLEAN.

Then there’s the canvas and scrap paper wall art I made for over the couch. I’m still in love with this.

And it’s been a whole week.

If you’d like to see the decorating I did above our kitchen cabinets with just a roll of wrapping paper, look here.

Thanks so much for stopping by. If this was your first visit, then PLEASE come back sometime.

I wish for you all a happy, healthy, peaceful and joyous season and a Merry Christmas.

Also linking with Sarah at Thrify Decor Chick!

Trash to Treasure Tuesday-The Wrapping Paper Edition

Tell me if any of these sound familiar to you:

1. I like to change up my holiday decor a little each year.
2. I like change, but I don’t want to spend much change.
3. I like to add touches of holiday color to every room in my house.

If you answered “Yeah, that’s me” to any of the above statements, then you have fallen into my trap, my pretties.

Don’t worry, I’ll let you go, as soon as I show you some cheap ideas to accomplish your goals with WRAPPING PAPER.

Some of you might remember this wrapping paper that I found for half off at Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks ago.

I loved the color and pattern so much, I decided to use it around the house for everything BUT wrapping gifts.

It’s a BIG roll, so I can wrap some gifts with it too.

AND, I’m thinking about buying out Hob Lob’s stock as soon as I can get there again.

With beautiful paper like this, you can even use TRASH for holiday decor.

Just wrap some empty boxes and display “gifts.” While you’re at it, write a Christmas message on that chalkboard plate you made.

1. Frame a piece of paper and add a crooked monogram. Crooked monograms are ALL THE RAGE in Christmas decor this year.

Next, pay 25 cents a piece for some plates at the thrift store, spray paint them, and add some paper with double stick tape. If you’re REALLY crazy good, add rub on letters that you can barely see, and make your eyes cross when you try.

Finally, when you’re getting really tired of this, cover a craft paper ornament with paper to add another touch of pattern.

I’m thinking of covering the toilet lids in paper too, but I gotta rest for a minute. Go wrap some stuff!

But, before you go, please link up a Trash to Treasure project.

Remember those rules:

1. Please link up to your individual post, not your home page.
2. Please link back to REINVENTED in your post so we can share the fun!
3. Have a great day.

A Rustoleum Party

Y’all know by now that I NEVER miss a good party, so when I heard that my girlfriends the Shanty Sisters at Shanty 2 Chic were having a Rustoleum party today, I was pretty sure I had a “few” ideas to contribute.

I hope they meant spray paint, ‘cuz if Rustoleum makes anything else, I sure don’t know about it!

Party guests are supposed to include a picture of the Rustoleum product they used, so I borrowed the picture from the Shanty 2 Chick girls, ‘cuz I use the same amazing formula that they do.

There is NOTHING in this world that transforms something that someone else threw away better than SPRAY PAINT.

I found this bench for $4.99 at the Goodwill store.

After a little upholstery and some Rustoleum Heirloom White, it looks like this at the foot of our bed.

I also transformed an unused door into a headboard, with, you guessed it, Heirloom White.

Just to prove I know that they make OTHER colors, I changed my Grandma’s chair (with Canyon Black) from this:

to this:

I’ve used Expresso Brown to turn spaghetti sauce jars into stylish storage for dry goods.

And Canyon Black again to make jars to store just about anything.

Spray paint can transform a thrift store frame into a message center.

Or a tray to serve summer beverages.

You can use it on clay pots.

I could go on F.O.R.E.V.E.R.

I think I’ll let you off the hook now, so you can go check out the party!

Christmas Wall Art

My friends, I was a DOMESTIC GODDESS today. I cooked (ham and bean soup and chocolate chip cookies), I dusted, vacuumed, mopped and scrubbed.

And my dining room table still looks the same. A girl can only make so much progress in one day.

No, I won’t show you again, you’ll have to scroll down to see the mess.

I even MADE something today, during my “breaks”.

Remember these?

This scrapbook paper “art” hung above our family room sofa when the walls were still Humble “the walls are so bright I gotta wear shades” Gold. My, how I dislike that color.

Anyway, you know that the walls are “Flax” now, so I decided to change out the art. I saw a cool Holiday window display at a shop nearby and thought I’d try and copy it.

I reused the canvases, but it would have been easier if I wasn’t so cheap and was willing to spend the $20 on new ones. Mod Podge STICKS, people. For good. I finally gave in and spray painted the edges of the canvas with Heirloom White, then brushed on some RL smoke glaze to make it look like old canvas.

The letters are chipboard from Hobby Lobby, (I warned you you’d see these again!) painted silver and hot glued on. Yeah, the “E” is crooked, I know. Hot glue sticks even better than Mod Podge.

I had a REALLY hard time getting a good picture. I didn’t get these done until after dark, which is at, like, 2pm now. Remember, I was cleaning ALL DAY.

I hung these with those Command Adhesive picture hanging strips, they worked like a charm.

This post is linked to Show and Tell Day at Blue Cricket Designs, check it out!

Dollar Store Centerpiece

Remember my Five Dollar Fall Centerpiece?

Believe it or not, the white mini-pumpkins were still in pretty good shape, but I decided to update the table for Christmas.

Sticking to my FIVE DOLLAR budget, I ran to the Dollar Tree, and spent FOUR DOLLARS.

Here’s how it looks now.

(please ignore the paperclip)

Remember, my dining room walls are “apple green”, so I stick pretty monochromatic in there, I don’t want to BLIND the people who walk by my dining room, wondering why we never eat in there.

I bought two bags of cinnamon scented pinecones, a sleeve of green ornaments, and the larger green flocked ornament.

I already had the garland.

I even used TRASH. See the silver ribbon? It was leftover from the year I had the bright idea to hang GLASS ornaments from the stairwell railing.

DON’T EVER DO THIS, especially if you have boys…

Just sayin’.

I’m loving the “ornament on a candlestick pedestal” idea.

Are you wondering why I am only taking CLOSE-UPS?

Because the rest of my dining room table looks like THIS:

NOW you know why we never actually EAT in there. Just keepin’ it real.

Don't forget to enter the Christmas Ideas book giveaway!