Christmas Mantel

I finally finished the Christmas mantel.  I was looking at it yesterday and thought that I really wanted to have a deer head.  I was thinking and thinking and thought about those animated deer people put in their yards.  We actually have some, but we wanted to use them and they were not quite big enough.  We decided we better go hunting for one. (At the stores)  We went to a few places, then lastly we went to Michael's.  We found a buck, and it was perfect!  Tom examined it for awhile, and discovered it would be pretty easy to do, just take the head off and remove some of the lights from the body.   We put it up today.  I put a picture frame around it, wrapped in burlap.  I added some lanterns that have flameless candles in them.  I hung some knit Christmas clothes ornaments on the front.  We love it.  It is the bomb!  It looks so much better in person, than in pics.  Here it is.

Cool Project In The Works

Working on what I think will be a wicked cool Christmas item.  It is either going to go one way or the other. (The bomb diggity or cheese to the E)  We should have it done tonight, so stay tuned.  So excited!!!  We were off getting the things we needed today to do the project.

Big Thank You

I seriously have to give a big blog hug to 320 Sycamore.  She featured the Vermont license plate I sent her, along with saying nice things about my blog.  I logged on to my blog on Thanksgiving and had 16 people visiting me at once (so not the norm).  That was the Thanksgiving miracle.  I have since gotten like 5 more followers.  Wow!!  So cool! 

Thanksgiving

I am sorry I haven't posted for a few days, between Thanksgiving and Black Friday I needed a break.  I have not been into all this holiday decor like I probably should be, but here is a pic of my Thanksgiving table.  I forgot to take a picture with the napkins and silverware, but it still turned out nice. 

I wasn't that creative, I just went to Marshall's.  It was all wicked cheap.  I got the gold pumpkins for two bucks a piece, and the runner was five.  I had everything else.  I threw it together last minute, like I have been saying, I am so not into holiday decor. (don't know why, please forgive me)

We ended up finally getting a flat screen TV Black Friday.  It is awesome!  LED, 46 inch, free blue ray player, so awesome!!

It is literally not normal, it's like nothing I have ever seen.  We watched Wizard of Oz last night, and it was like the first time I ever saw it.  We plan on putting it above the mantel with a cool frame around it.  It will be a little while though, not on the top of the to do list.  Can not wait!   

I also painted my clock over.  It didn't match the colors of my decor so I switched it up.  This is how it looks now, and I like it much better.

Light My Fire

Last night was Dancing With The Stars finale, and we did it up with a cozy fire.  The fireplace is so wonderful, especially since Tom refaced it in marble.  We are able to burn wood in it, but it's kind of a pain.  We have found that the Duraflam logs are the bomb.  They burn for 3 hours which is long enough, and it is a lot cleaner than wood.  We have plenty of wood, but the convenience of this works.  So my tip for you all with a fireplace and want something safe and easy, DURAFLAM.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We'll be at Best Buy by 3pm, possibly earlier.  Hopefully we'll have a Thanksgiving miracle and it'll be warm outside. ....Doubt it, their calling for snow.

Lame Post

Sorry, but the upcoming week expect even more lame posts.  With Thanksgiving black Friday around the corner I have too much on my plate to deal with.  I did a little shopping with my Mom today.  I should have been Christmas shopping, instead it was more like me picking out stuff I want from my Mom for Christmas. (she wanted it that way)  I did pick up one little thing for the house that I couldn't resist.  It was a tall ceramic owl.  Here she is.

I also picked up this pillow from Walmart awhile ago.  I can't get over the cute throw pillows they have.  I have never been a huge fan of Walmart, but this was from the Better Homes and Garden line.

I made this silhouette print of a deer off the computer and put it in a bright yellow frame.  I don't know why there are white lines through the deer, but I still like it.  It is fun for now and was free.  Free is for me!

On a side note, I wanted to say that my personal favorite HGTV show is Color Splash! David Bromstad is the bomb.  I love the way he decorates, and he is wicked funny.  I saw him on the show Bang For Your Buck too, and he literally was making me belly laugh.  He is pretty easy on the eyes as well.

 

I did learn one little tip from him the other day that I thought I would share.  You all probably know this already, but here goes.  He said that if you want a more feminine look in a room put books and accessories on an angle like so.

For a more masculine look, keep straight lines.  Like so.

I prefer masculine, anyway.  One more tip my mom told me today was if you want  one less thing to do on Thanksgiving day peel your potatoes the night before and place them in a pan with water.  The next day change water and get your boil on. 

Not Your Grandmothers Coo Coo Clock

I had purchased these birds from Target awhile ago because I thought they would look cool, but I ended up not liking them.  I was going to return them when I thought it would be cool to use them on a clock.  I was going to put twelve of them on a circle form, and I was also going to paint the birds all different colors.  I was at the Goodwill literally like the next day and happened upon a lazy Susan for $7.00, thought that would be a great base for the clock.

So then I decided to spray paint the birds different colors, then hated it.

I primed my lazy Susan, and took the spinney part off the back.

I ended up taking a break from this project for a few weeks, because I couldn't decide what to do with it. (Lazy Heather)  A couple days ago I made a decision to paint it gray with some branches in white and yellow, and add only four birds.  I took the guts out of my old clock, and Tom drilled a hole for it.  We also added some wire to hang it. Here it is before the hands of the clock were put on. 

And this is the finished project.  I think it's pretty cool!

Time flys!

I Am Blog Of The Week

Tracy's Trinkets and Treaures honored me with the blog of the week.  She loved the black Friday mantel, and all my thrifty ideas.  Check her out!  Thanks Tracy!!!

Subway Art Take 2

Alright so I redid my subway art.  I loved how awesome it almost was the first time, that I had to do it again, and this time make it perfect.  I took my time, I measured, and accomplished what I wanted.  I totally love it, as people in blog world would say, "SWOON".  The steps to making one of these is so easy.

Step 1

Paint what you want white, or whatever color you want your letters to be.

Step 2

Measure every half an inch on each side of what you are doing and draw a straight line across so you have an even line to work with.

Step 3

Go to hardware store and buy alphabet stickers you would use for say a mailbox. 

Step 4

Place stickers on the lines as evenly as possible, personalizing however you wish.  This is the fun part!

Step 4

Spray paint the item black, including the stickers.

Step 5

Patiently wait for it to dry, then using a safety pin peel off the stickers.

Then you will have this.  I totally love it, it was so easy.  I have a feeling I will be doing another one of these.

Stylish Blogger Award

I am thrilled to say that I won a Stylish Blogger Award from Krafty Kat. It makes me so happy! I honestly didn't really think anyone read my blog except family and friends. 

The rules to the award are:
Thank the person that gave it to you. (No brain er there)
Write 7 things about yourself. (Prepare to not be interested)
Give the award to 15 other bloggers that you like. (Easy enough)
Let them know that you gave them the award. (Alright)


Seven things about me


1.   I am a stay at home mom who constantly worries she isn't doing a good enough job.

2.  I am addicted to going to Goodwill, Salvation Army, and Recycle North.  I think I have a problem.

3.  I have severe NSS (Never Satisfied Syndrome)  I literally have about 20 nail holes in one wall. I need to move on to other rooms in the house, but just can't get past the dining room and living room.

4.  I am inpatient!  When I want to do something I skip steps, rush, and it usually looks excuse my language half ass.  I.E. Subway Art which I am redoing.  I am trying to make myself slow down.  I do this because that's the way I am I guess, and I like to have a post for my readers everyday.

5.  I miss all my girlfriends a ton!!!  We are all tight, and they mostly live in other states, or one lives not even a mile away and we are just so busy we never get to hang out like we used too.

6.  I love to go on vacation!  I hate, hate, hate cold weather yet some how I live in a cold climate.  I swear my body rejects it.  My hands are dryer than dirt, my lips crack, and you could write the word dry on my legs.  When we fly into Florida I swear it immediately gets better.

7.  The last thing is drum roll please..................
      I am addicted to Real Housewives of any old county.  I could lay on the couch with a couple cheeseburgers and watch that all day.  God forbid there is a marathon on.

I passing this award on to:
Dwelling By Devore

All Things Home

Begin Again

Blessed Beyond Measure

Blush & Bashful

Dirt Cheap Decor

The Hillside Home

For The Love of It

Humble Housekeeping

Old House New Look

Real Housewife Of MN

Redoing it with DIY and PSE

Revolved Rubbish

She Is My Sister

The Ugly Duckling House

Thanksgiving Mantel

I decided to change up the mantel again.  It is pretty self explanatory.  The one cool thing I did was print up a picture of an owl, and used a clothes pin to hang it on a large frame.  I have been wanting something with an owl for a while and this hit the spot. 

I know there isn't that much on the mantel, I didn't want a lot of clutter.  I don't know if I'm the only one in decor blog world who doesn't want to deal with the holiday decor.  I dread getting all that stuff out, and then putting it away.  Ughhhhh, I just can't get into it. 
I am really excited for today!  We are going to Recycle North.  I want to find a chair, and an end table.  I have seen some in the past, but never have enough room in the car. 
Here are a couple pics of the chair style I want.  These are just the style types, not the way I would finish them up.

These are some end tables I want.

or this

I am not sure what color I would paint mine, but something awesome.  So anyway, we are off thrifting and shopping.  Have a fab day!

Pillow Makeover

Good Morning!!!  I don't know why I am up so early, but it gives me a chance to get my blog on before the little one gets up.  I have been loving the number pillow craze lately, but not the price tags.These were I think like $60.00 via Pottery Barn.

  I had to give this a shot.  I pretty much have to have dark pillows, because we have a leather couch and most of the time they are on the floor.  If they are not on the floor there are dirty little fingers touching them and bottles flown about.  I would like to brighten the joint up with lighter color pillows, but darker looks better than dirty.  Sooooo anywayyyy  I went to Walmart to get some things for the project.  I started with a black pillow $6.00.

I then printed out some numbers on card stock (a harder paper), and used an exacto knife to cut out the stencil for my numbers.

I pinned the numbers to the pillow, and painted white.  It turned out fabulous, in fact  I think I am going to do one more today.

Curtain Tie Backs

I was checking out my new copy of Restoration Hardware when I saw these rope tie backs.  I decided I wanted them, and HELLOOOOOO I was not going to pay $67.00 for them.  This is Restoration Hardware tie backs.

I decided to just go to Lowes and get two 3ft pieces of rope.  Total cost $3.50.  Love it !!

I've Been Busy

Sorry for no posts the past couple days, I have been busy!!  I have done two projects, with a possible third on the way.  I just don't have time to take pics and all that business right now.  I will post them both tomorrow.  Happy Friday...!!

New Seating At The Barski

So I showed a picture of the barski and have thought that we really need to get some new barstools.  The ones that are there now are kind of 80's, and not that interesting.  I was thinking about getting something like this.

I kind of like the idea of having arm rest.  The images above are from CSN stores.  The prices are not that bad, but with Christmas around the corner we might have to wait a little while.  Here is a pic of what we have now.

Finally Happy

I have been trying to figure out what to put in this one spot in the house, and I finally figured out what to do.  I gathered up some frames I had kicking around here, took out the glass, and hung those babies.  I love how it turned out, in fact I think it's my favorite thing I've done in awhile.  I love the fact that it required very little work, and no painting.    Check it out.