I have been working on my family room for a couple of months now.  (And I use the term "working" very loosely!)  Back in October, I ordered an instructional DVD on how to make custom slipcovers.  You can find the DVD on Shelley's site here.

While I was on Shelley's site, I came across this project, and of course I "pinned" it! (If you follow me on Pinterest, it's on my 'For the Short People' board.  Yes, I really do refer to my kids as the short people.  Is that bad?!)

Anyhow, when I saw this DIY dart holder, I knew I had to make it for Quinn!

(Please pardon the crummy pics!  I REALLY need to learn to use the camera with the manual settings!)

All you need for this project is an old fabric belt, some ribbon, some "ammo", and about 10 minutes.

Measure your little soldier and determine where you want your ammo to start and stop.  Secure the ribbon at your starting point.  Then, slide a dart as close to your seam as possible, wrap the ribbon over the top of the dart, and sew another seam.  Remove the dart and repeat.

And repeat and repeat and repeat.

That's it!  Now let your little soldier try it out, and then take cover!

How fun is that?! 

On another note, thank you all so very, very much for the outpouring of prayers, kind words, and encouragment!  My inbox was FLOODED with messages after my last post, and it was such a blessing to me!  Many of you shared your own struggles and sadness with me, and I am humbled to be trusted with your heartache. I am covering you in prayer. 

My husband's surgery went well, and he is back at work today--much faster than I anticipated!  He is in pain, but it is manageable.  We will have the biopsy results next week, but the surgeon did warn us there might be more surgery in the future.  I am trying not to freak out about that, but you know me...

Thank you, friends, for your support!  It means a lot!  Enjoy the Son!

Picture of our family around the time of the great dinosaur sobfest

We talk about death quite a bit at our house.  (I am in no way suggesting that everyone go and have a talk about death with your very young children.  Death has greatly affected our life, so we talk about it.)  That may seem morbid, but death is a part life.  I think that by talking about it, it helps my kids to not be afraid.  By NOT talking about it, it turns it into something scary for them.  We try to talk about it in a very matter-of- fact way.  Everything that lives dies.  Flowers die.  Trees die.  Grass dies.  Animals die.  People die.  Mommies die.

Since we always talk about it in such a matter of fact way, my kids feel very free to ask questions, and I am thankful for that.  However, this season, the kids talked about my mom so much, it was almost unbearable.  My son is so curious, and he wanted to know what it looked like and what it felt like for my mom when she died.  He wants to know if she was scared and if it was hard for her to breathe.  I explain that I do not know for sure, but that it was probably scary.  Her lung collapsed, so I figure it was hard to breathe.  He starts to ask more questions, and I ask him if we can please not talk about it.  He moves onto questions about Legos without missing a beat.

I am crying now and losing my train of thought, if there even was a train to begin with…

Oh yes.  The "mass".  This part is hard, too! What a bummer of a post!

My husband has been having pain in his jaw for about five months.  He has gone to the dentist several times, with no real answer.  A couple of weeks ago, he went in for another visit, as the pain was getting worse, and the dentist discovered a mass growing in his jaw that was not there on the most recent X-rays.

I try to take the news calmly, but I have a tendency to jump to the worst case scenario, and this was no exception.  I do trust that God is in control and that this is part of His plan, and I find much peace and comfort in that.  When I start to get amped up, I just take some time and pray.  So, basically, I pray 24 hours a day!

My husband and I met with an oral surgeon last week, and he is scheduled for surgery on the 16th.  The surgeon feels 90% confident that it will be a cyst that is easy to remove with no follow up surgeries.  He feels that there is about a 9% chance that it could be a more aggressive cyst, and need more surgery.  And there is a very small percent that it could be something else.  Those are the surgeons estimations, not mine.  We feel very at ease after meeting with him.

Despite the sadness, I did have a very joyful Christmas and we are all doing well.  I am so thankful for all of the blessings in my life.  

Picture of our family today

Now that I have this message off my heart, I hope to be able to return to sharing my projects with you very soon!  Enjoy the Son today--I promise you will have great day if you do!

Remember when I built my faux fireplace?  Well, I have been having SO much fun decorating it for Christmas!  What do you think?!

I already had loads of garland and berries from our previous house, where we had a two story foyer with an open banister.  I also had almost everything else I decorated with, too! 

The ornaments are from my MIL.

The vintage-looking tree and Santa candle holder were purchased a couple of weeks ago from Hobby Lobby--$10 each!  What a deal!

The reindeer was a very random purchase in SEPTEMBER from Michael's--for $6!

I bought the wreath at Hobby Lobby for $5 a couple of years ago, and finally had a place to use it!  I have a large bin of Christmas picks, ribbon, miscellaneous greenery, berries, ornaments, etc.  I went to my trusty bin, and found EVERYTHING that I decorated the wreath with! 

I originally only had lights on the hanging greens, but decided that I needed to add them to the greens on top of the mantle and the wreath.

Seriously.  It looks way better with lights, right? And at night it is just the sweetest thing!

Have you finished decorating for Christmas?  Praying you had a blessed day and that you took time to enjoy the Son!

My partner has a blog, and she makes some UH-MAZING things!  You can check Michelle's site out here.  She made me a scarf, headband, and earrings, and they are lovely!  Thank you so very much, Michelle!

I didn't spoil Michelle to the extent that she spoiled me, but I did make her something!  I had all kinds of ideas, and after several messages back and forth, I decided to make a wreath for her front door.  She said she has a burgundy front door, and she has always wanted a wreath, but never had one.  Well, I could change that!  Guess who made a wreath for her new friend?!

I wanted to make a neutral wreath for two reasons.  First, I thought it would look great against a burgundy door.  Second, if I kept the wreath neutral, Michelle would be able to keep the wreath up for awhile.  (As opposed to a fall themed wreath or a Christmas wreath that would only be displayed for a short time.)

Here is a brief (well, as brief as I know how to be!), step-by-step process of how I made this wreath.

I started with a foam wreath form and I wrapped it in a couple of layers of batting.

After that, I wrapped the wreath with strips of drop cloth.

I loved the texture, but it needed something else, so I cut part of an old doily and attached that to the wreath.  Much better!

Next I added some floral picks.

Then I added some "flowers", also made out of drop cloth.

The flowers needed a little something, too, so I added some vintage pearls that I recently picked up at the flea market.  Lovely!

And there she is!

I hope Michelle enjoys her wreath!  I will see if she can send me a picture, and I will share it on here if she does!

I had a very blessed Thanksgiving, and I pray you did too! 

Enjoy the Son!

P.S.  I have soooooo many projects to share with you, and I have not made them time to post them.  My goal is to share one post every day (Monday-Friday) next week.  Just a fair warning for your inbox! ;)

I have worked on so many projects this past week, and I didn't even post any of them!  On some of the projects, I didn't even take pictures!  Bad blogger!

I did take some pictures of my mantle, and I thought I would share that with you.  Here she is, updated for Thanksgiving.

This was so simple to put together.  A few gourds, some Indian corn, and hand printed banner.

I LOVE Indian corn! And a little bit of twine on an old bottle of corn kernels was an easy decoration!

For the banner, I cut triangles out of duck cloth and hand printed the letters with a Sharpie. 

Simple, yet lovely.  Just my style!

(If you missed the post on how I created this faux fireplace, you can read it here.)

I am thankful for all of the blessings in my life, and I am thankful for all of the sweet comments and encouraging e-mails that so many of you send to me!  I am so blessed!

Enjoy the Son!

We live in a comfy little house that was built in 1972, and it has never been updated.  We have lived here for two years, and there are plenty of projects to keep us busy!  Most recently, we really need to replace some windows.  Well, actually, we really need to replace ALL of the windows, but since that is currently not in the budget, we only replaced the second floor windows this year--and even that cost a small fortune! Anyhow, while the windows were being replaced, there were several spots where the wood (we have a cedar-sided house) was completely rotted.  Great.  That meant much more work than we anticpated.  Then they discovered a huge section on the roof that needs to be repaired, and we are still waiting for the estimates on that.  (Random side note: I used to be a roofer--about 100 years ago--so my husband thinks I should just replace it, and has confidence that I could do it.  I , on the other hand, have no confidence as I hung my roofing shoes up many years ago!)

Also during the window replacement time came the discover that one of the porch supports was rotted.  While that was being replaced, we discovered ANOTHER support was rotted, and that is being replaced as I am typing this.  Kinda feels like a small earthquake here...

The windows are in, and they are fabulous!  Now, it is my job to fill in all the little trim nail holes with puddy, and then paint the trim.  (We decided to save $1000 and do that part ourselves!)

Next up, the trees.  Isn't this tree beautiful?

We have loads of beautiful trees--but they have apparently never been trimmed.  Since we have moved in, we have had the trees trimmed three times in the hopes to extend their life, and, so far so good.  But tree trimming is not cheap...

And does anyone remember the hole in our kitchen ceiling?  You can read a little about it here.  It has been there since we bought the house.  It's not that we are afraid we can't repair it--I used to do drywall, too!--it's just that we want to change the light fixtures/add can lights, etc., and we only want to do drywall once.  So the hole has been there for two years.  Well, this weekend, I was so glad it was there!  A few weeks ago we had to replace one of our 1972 toilets, and there was an installation error.  Yesterday, right before church, the toilet overflowed, and water came pouring out of the hole in the ceiling!  Totally gross, but had the hole not been there, we would have had an even bigger problem on our hands!  My husband was able to fix the toilet himself, and I am so thankful for him!

There are loads of other projects keeping us busy, but I won't bore you with all of them.  We did finish painting the shed.  We have more than 30 hours and 10 gallons of paint invested in it.  Unfinished cedar sucks up A LOT of paint.  I think it turned out great though!

So, why am I rambling about this?  For one, because I can, and I thank you for sympathizing! And two, I wanted to let you know that if you have been missing my projects--I have too!  It is hard for me to do the "grown-up" thing and work on all the projects that I know must be done, when all I really want to do is create something fun!  But, I am a grown-up, so responsibility wins.

Now, even though I have limited time these days, I really CANNOT go very long without creating something.  So here are a few pics from Halloween, along with a couple of simple things I was able to make!

Rapunzel and Captain America

Annual pic with Mommy.  The kids only wanted to eat their candy.  We only took one photo, and, even though it's not great, since I look decent, I am okay with it!  ;)

Some of the neighborhood kids in the middle of their sugar high.

Peanut butter sandwiches I made to go with the chili.

Mummy juice boxes.  I wrapped some white crepe paper around the boxes and made eyes with a Sharpie.

Did you know Captain America like apple juice?  Lots of random info today!

And my priorities probably need to be adjusted, because even though I had little time for errands, I managed to squeeze in a record breakingly quick trip to GoodWill and scored this fantastic lamp base for $1.99!  (If you follow me on Pinterest, you have probably noticed a new board for my family room.  I am hopeful to redo that soon, and this lamp is one of the pieces that will go in the room.)

So, that's what I have been up to!  How about you?  

I imagine everyone is busy this time of year, but don't forget to make time to enjoy the Son!

What do you think?

This centerpiece hangs from the chandy, and it hovers about four inches off the table.  This allows us to still use all of our table space, and it is low enough that we can still see each other across the table during meals!  I love that it is easy to clean under, and I never have to move the centerpiece!

I was going to do a tutorial on this, but there was just not much to it, and I didn't have my camera.  (Sorry about the lousy pics!)  Anyhow, I'll give you the basic instructions, and if you would like more details, just leave a comment and I will get a tutorial together for you!

I started with:

A charger plate

Spanish moss

Some floral picks

Ribbon

A scrap of fabric (mine was actually a drop cloth)

I cut out a very large circle from the drop cloth.  I gathered all of the "edges" together, and "eye-balled" where I thought my printing should go.  I took a permanent marker and wrote on the fabric.  I got lucky, and it actually is centered...mostly!

After I wrote on the fabric, I took a needle and a very long piece of thread, and I hand stitched an outline all the way around the fabric, about 1/8 inch from the edge, and I cinched the fabric together as I went along.  I was essentially making a giant yo-yo flower.  I know that I haven't shown you how to do that yet, and I promise I will!  In the meantime, here is the tutorial I used to learn to make these flowers. Again, the pumpkin was basically just a giant yo-yo.

After I had sewn all the way around my fabric and cinched it as tight as I could, I was left with a very big hole at the top.  Don't worry!  You won't be able to see it!  I stuffed the fabric with some batting I had on hand, just fluffing and smooshing as I went along.  (Yes, these are VERY technical terms.  Fluffing and smooshing.) Once my "pumpkin" was sufficiently stuffed, I grabbed a thick stick from the yard, pushed it in the center of the pumpkin, and covered the hole with Spanish moss, being sure not to entirely cover the stick.  I used a small amount of hot glue (Oh!  Who am I kidding?!  I put a couple of giant blobs of hot glue on the top and just "smooshed" away!) to secure the Spanish moss.

To put it all together, I put some Spanish moss on the charger and laid some of the floral picks on top of the moss.  I set my pumpkin on top of that, and then I tied two very long pieces of ribbon to my chandy, and I set the centerpiece in the middle.  It really is that simple.  The ribbon is not attached to the charger.  The charger just balances on the ribbons.  Cool, right?

Again, if you want more details, let me know!  Have you tried something unexpected recently?  How did it turn out?  I'd love to hear from you!

Enjoy the Son!

A little boring, which is actually right up my alley...  Anyhow, I thought I would step it up a bit!  Here is what I used to make a very simple and cute Halloween banner

My assistants diligently folded all of the cupcake liners.  Aren't they sweet?

Then we just stacked them on top of each other.  I trimmed the edges on some of them so that I could add more layers. 

While we were working, my little guy asked if he could make a spider.  He got out his craft box and put this little guy together.  This crafty mama is SO proud!  What do you think!

I hot glued the assembled cupcake liners to a ribbon, and added some buttons and other embelishments.  Then I hung it up!  (P.S. It was insanely windy on the day I was hanging this, and I was sure it would blow to pieces, but it hasn't!)

You can see that I used some Krylon to spray paint the tin next to the pumpkin.  That little change and the addition of the banner looked great!  But...it still needed something.

When I picked up the cupcake liners at the dollar store, I also picked up these cut outs and paper bags.

So I glued some of the cut outs to the paper bags, filled the bottom of the bags with beans, and set them outside.

Better, but it still needed something!  Maybe some little pumpkins...

...and the spider!

There!

And look how fantastic the bags are at night!

I hope you enjoy this little peek into my decorating craziness! ;)  I love to move items around.  Sometimes, as in the case of this little display, I can just look at the set up and know what needs to happen.  Other times, I will let arrangements sit for several days, slowly shifting them around, adding or removing items, until I get the right balance.  My point, I actually have one, is: Don't feel like you have to set something up and have it be "perfect" right away.  And don't be afraid to move things around and try something crazy!  It might not work, and that's okay.  Or it might just be genius!  Want to see what I mean?  Check out one of my favorite bloggers, Donna at Funky Junk Interiors, and see what she did!  I love it!  Absolutely amazing!

And, just because this is too cute not to share, here is a pic of my daughter playing outside while I was working on the Halloween display. 

Doesn't she look like some sort of raggamuffin Hanna Andersson model?  (No, I am not biased!)

It is cold and rainy here today, but that won't stop me from enjoying the Son! I pray you can enjoy the Son, too!