Ribbon Tree

With the holidays just around the corner, I'm dying to start decorating for Christmas. (I have a no decorating till Dec. 1st policy, I mean, lets enjoy Thanksgiving first!) But I can always craft to get started on Christmas. I found the Styrofoam tree form at my local Dollar Tree. The ribbon and flat pins are from Wal-mart and white pins are from Hobby Lobby.

Cut the ribbon into 2 inch strips. Mark off every 1/2 inch around the foam to ensure a uniform look. Layer the ribbon on top to cover. Fold ribbon in half, pin in place. I did burn the edges of the first layer to keep it from fraying. Then using my marks as a guide, I pinned ribbon in a straight line to make each layer. I used flat pins so you wouldn't see them. I used 2 rolls of ribbon, about 250 pins and it took about 2 hours since I was just making it up as I went. (I spent a lot of time burning the edges of the ribbon that I didn't need to do.)

I put mine flat on the shelf, but I as soon as my decorations come out, I'll probably put in on a candle stick or something. Let me know if you make on too, I want to see what you've done.

Come what may and Love it.

These two crazy chicks are great and take care of all my vinyl needs. A few months back I over heard the first chick saying she wanted a "Come what may and love it" quote put up on her wall coming down the stairs. Perfect, I want one too. The first one they cut was too small for the space I was going to put it, so she cut me another one. They are great, I can say enough about these two.

Now my only problem I face was how in the world do I put it up. My ladder isn't one of those fancy kind that can contort in a variety of shapes and sizes. So I had to think outside the box. A Box! That's it! I knew having a my food storage would come in handy.

So very carefully I climbed on up, adhered the vinyl and admired my happy saying.

Isn't it the perfect pep talk anyone can get before they head out and face the world?

I hope you don't mind the photography, my 3 year old was the only one home to take these pics.

Weekend Warrior

I absolutely love that this house has storage under the stairs. There were so many possibilities that I could think to use it for. But in the end, food storage won out. This is the before. I was in a pinch and needed a few items, then my youngest found that he could hide back there and play. It became a mess.

I finally convinved my husband that we needed a place to store the 6 cases of applesauce I just brought. he broke down and bought the shelves. I spent the day cleaning, organizing and drooling over the prettiness of it all

Message/Calendar Board

When we moved in, I hung up my calendar with a tack next to the computer. It was ugly but it served its purpose. I wanted a fun way to put up school reminders that kept piling up on the fridge.

I found this calendar holder at my local D.I. (Deseret Industries). The shape was perfect. I love the simplicity and lines. I knew I wanted to paint it and add a cork board.

I primed everything, gave it a few coats of red paint and super glued on the scrabble letters. (I've had the letters now for over a year, as I was going to use them to make Scrabble tile pendent necklaces for camp.)

The cork board I got at Target in a four pack. I had to cut it down to size in order to fit the space it was going to occupy. I sprayed the paint and letters with a sealer before I hung it up. I popped in the calendar and cork and hung it on the wall. It made it so much nicer to look at the calendar.

Weekend Warrior

And so it begins, the transformation of the great outdoors. Our first major rennovation for the front yard included taking out a TON of river rock. Who knows, maybe it really was a ton, but none the less, it took us under an hour to remove all the rocks to the backyard. The compost is ready to to be tilled into the dirt and in the next few weeks fall planting will begin. I'm invisioning a box wood hedge in front of the windows and piller, a variety of color flowers. Not a hundred percent sure yet what I want. But it feels good to finally get started out side, even if it is a 105 outside.