Christmas Vignettes from my Mom

I wanted to share some of my mom's touches of Christmas she has spread throughout the house. She has such a great design eye and everything was so festive and fun. I love how she brought out my grandmother's ceramic pieces she made when I was a little girl. My grandmother never finished this Santa but that's how I remember him and in my eyes, he is perfect!! Mom and I have a large collection of Wendy Addison glittered pieces and a few knock off artists' glittered pieces too. We love them all!

Here is my grandmother's nativity scene she made. The mantle is the perfect spot!

Mom, Andrea, and I have a thing for old glass cloches. My mom's collection has grown since I was last home. I love her snowy combination in this one below.

Merry Christmas,

♥

tia & andrea

Oh how I love this ;)

Countdown to Christmas

I was so excited to find this advent calendar that my girl Janae and I made before I moved from Chicago. I couldn't find it last year as it was hidden away in a random box from the move. We had so much fun making these! Boy do I miss our craft nights!

These were so easy to make. We purchased a metal tray from Goodwill and spray painted it black. We used random size and shape containers to make it interesting and covered them in different papers and embellishments. We both used a lot of leopard print since we both love some leopard!! Then we hot glued magnets to the backs of each container and voila....a magnetic advent calendar! You can fill each container with candies or little notes and turn it into a scavenger hunt for your children. The possibilities are endless!!

Happy creating!!!
Tia and Andrea

Some life lessons...

Well..."they" are at it again. For a long time I stayed away from church. I was struggling with my first son's diabetes diagnosis (which unless you have experienced that, you can't begin to imagine how one would feel) and very angry that in my mind, God put this on us. And another reason I stayed out of church was because of all the hypocrites. Someone very important in my life once told me, "if you go sit in your garage, does that make you a car?". Meaning....just because you go to church every Sunday, does that make you a Christian? I have met so many hypocrites in my life that I can't even count them. They go around preaching scripture, posting it on their Facebook status yet doing things to others that are not very Christian like. And some are using their fan pages to show their fans just how insecure they are. To be such an unGodly person to sink so low as to post about me, making fun of my 2 sons' diabetes and the cause that I work so hard for, is one of the saddest things I've witnessed. Well, I choose not to go down that road again. As the quote below says "Never look down on somebody unless you are helping them up."

I am not a lucky person.....I am a blessed person. I choose not to be a hypocrite. If only the haters would spend more time focusing on their family and their own business instead of being so infatuated with me and what I'm doing, maybe they would be in a better place.

xoxo,

tia

Fabulous Chandelier

I am in love with vintage French drying racks but they take up so much space. So since we needed (well, not really needed...you could say I wanted) a new chandelier for our morning room, I thought....why not incorporate a French drying rack with a chandelier?

This thing holds 40 bottles and let me tell you it is very heavy!! I highly recommend having a professional hang this if you decide to duplicate this design. We used a heavy gauge wire to secure the drying rack through the chandelier chain. It is definitely a show stopper and conversation piece and I absolutely love it!!

Have a great day and keep shining ;)
Tia

"Bedazzled" Fall Pumpkins

Decorating with white pumpkins is one of my favorite things to do in the fall. I put a cluster of varying sized white pumpkins in my dining room and as much as I loved it, I just felt it was a tad blah. I lucked out and found a HUGE lot of vintage upholstery tacks and thought they would be the perfect thing to spruce up these plain pumpkins. And ya know what.....I LOVE them! I already have my black pumpkins ready to go for Halloween. Gonna add a spider web design in vintage nail heads. I think it's going to be so cute!

Happy Fall, Y'all!!

tia

Precious Time...

It seems we are all so busy these days. And even though technology can make things easier for us, I also feel it makes things busier for us. I think about time a lot and how quickly it goes by...right in front of your eyes....poof!!

I finally took the time to take down all the summer coral and sea shells and start thinking about fall. Here by my front door, I did a very simple display with vintage clock faces and my vintage # 5 collection. I love the number 5 because it represents my 5 children. I can't believe how quickly they are growing! And paired with one of my favorite quotes, it's a great daily reminder to sometimes stop everything that keeps us so busy and embrace the time we are so blessed with here on this Earth.

Walk for a Cure 2001

Headed to our first Virginia JDRF walk for a cure! We are so excited to be a part of this amazing event!! Thank you to all who have donated and supported this cause that us so dear to my heart! And thank you to all the Crimson Clover customers who support this every day!

Burlap banner wreath

Hi all! It's been a while since I posted. As a lot of you know, our 9 year old son was just diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes so I have been taking some time off. Now with 2 diabetic children, I haven't felt much like crafting or decorating. I thought it was time to get the easter egg wreath off of my front door...LOL...but really didn't know what to put in its place. So I had my sweet friend, Amanda make this adorable mini burlap banner for me and just added it to this wreath I had covered back in the winter with jute webbing. It's simple and I love it. Thanks Amanda!! And thanks to my sweet sister-in-law, Andrea...my other "two junk chix" for keeping up the crafting and creating. It has really helped get my little spark back. Love you!!!

xoxo,

tia

Happy birthday wreath

Michael's birthday was yesterday and he turned 11 years old. Happy Birthday to him!!!

To celebrate our family's birthdays, I have a yard flag that I put out for the week of the birthday. You all know me and know I like have something on my door. I have wanted to make one of these balloon wreaths after the first time that I saw it done online somewhere. Sorry I don't know who to credit. :(

It is really easy to make though. Sorry I didn't take any pictures of how to because I literally made it during one of Michael's baseball practices. So it doesn't take that long to make one BUT it does take a lot of balloons.
So here is what you need to create the wreath:

A wire clothes hanger

Wire cutters

Balloons in different sizes
(i used water balloons and regular size ones for mine)

decorations if you want to add to it

How to:
First thing you need to do is take the wire hanger and snip off the hook part of the hanger using the wire cutters.
Next you need to shape the wire hanger into a circle and secure the loose end.
Then take the balloons and tie them to the wire. Use the smaller balloons as filler on the wreath until it is full.
Add decorations if you like.
I used a Ribbon Rosette from the Bravissimo line from Making Memories that I bought from Michael's. I punched a circle and stamped "happy birthday to you" using the AE April kit from Technique Tuesday. Then added some stickles on the edge for some sparkle.



Happy Crafting!!!!
♥
Andrea

Color my front door....

I wanted to get something different this Easter for my front door. I kept looking around not really finding anything that I had to have until I saw this egg wreath at Target. It was small but I loved the brightly colored eggs and I knew that I could add something to it and make it bigger and better. I did hear that Target does have bigger egg wreaths but I never did see them at mine. My wreath was only about 10 bucks. Fun little carrot bunch that I got a Pier One. I think it was suppose to be an ornamnet. I think it us super cute!!! I think it was $2-3
I added a grapevine wreath that I spray painted blue. I made a mistake when Paint shopping. I got the blue thinking it was the blue color that was actually the teal color that was in the wreath. Not a problem I popped off 3 of the eggs that were white and I spray painted them too so it all matched.
Problem Solved!!!

Cute little banner that I made. I used some glitter carstock from American crafts in a blue-teal color. I just handcut the triangles for the banner. You need a front and back triangle for each letter if you can see your wreath from the other side like I can on mine. Glue the triangles front and backs on a cord or sting to form the banner. I embellished mine with ribbon trim, alpha stickers and brads. I used hot glue to adhere the banner. The ribbon trim and brads are from Doodlebug. Letter sticks are from American Crafts and are made out of vinyl. I used hot glue and used floral wire to hold it all togehter.

Happy Easter and Crafting!!!

♥

Andrea

Lucky banner

I had this idea last year to make this wreath for St Patrick's Day and then ran out of time. That is the story of my life running out of time. lol!!! I loved the wreath last year when I saw it it at Target and was super excited when I saw it there this year too!! I ripped it of the wall and ran. Just kidding!!

I was just going to make the banner and add it to the berry wreath until I saw the cute glittery shamrock at Target too so I picked it up to go with the berry wreath. Both were inexpensive. $15.00 for the wreath and $3.00 for the shamrock. Not bad if you ask me!

I made the banner from a piece of cardboard that I hand cut into the banner shape. Covered in burlap secured with hot glue (lots and lots of hot glue). Stamped the word lucky using foam stamps and green ink pad and hot glued that baby on the front of the shamrock.
So glad that I could get it made this year.

Finished wreath on my front door

Another view of the banner!!

Enjoy!!
Happy Crafting!!
♥
Andrea

old type

My mother in law picked up this awesome old Underwood typewriter over the past summer and gave it to me. ♥ her and it!!!! Thanks Phyllis!!!

I cleaned it up and got rid of the old dirt that was on it.

It doesn't work anymore but that doesn't matter to me. I added a piece of paper that I stamped the sentence ...we are lucky onto the paper. I used a mini typewriter font stamp set to stamp the words. I think it will be fun to change up the "type" every once and while to say other fun things. I thought that we are lucky was perfect for the month of March.

Be lucky!!!

♥

Andrea

X O and hearts

With only a few days to go to Valentines I thought I would share a little 'love"decor with you.

This is my hutch in the dining room filled with a mix of heart decor treasures.


Picked up this little sign and the X & O wood blocks on a little shopping trip with my mother in law at a great little store in Pomeroy Ohio called the Harmony House. Do check it out if you are ever in Pomeroy. Loved it!!

I love this little froggie prince holding a heart candy box. So cute!!!

Love much canvas from my previous post on the Ikea Wall unit.

Happy Valentines Day!!!

♥Much Love♥

Andrea

Chalkbord Canvas

I ♥ this spray paint. Just spray a couple of coats on anything and voila you have a Chalkboard surface!!!

Over the past couple of weeks I have been cleaning out my scrapbook/craft room and reorganizing it. What a job but it looks great. I will share pictures soon. As I was going through things, I came across a 2 pack of inexpensive canvas from Michaels that I had bought several months ago. They may have cost $5.00 at the most. I sprayed a few coats of the paint on the canvas and the plain o'canvas was turned into super cute memo chalkboards!!!!

This one is just leaned up on one of the baskets on my Ikea Wall Unit. I wrote love much for Valentines day. It will change to Lucky soon for March :)

This one is in my hall and will have different quotes wrote on it from time to time.

Right now life has been a bit stressful and I need this for a little reminder ;)

Enjoy!!!!

♥

Andrea

Bedroom Before & After...

We've been givin' our master bedroom a little TLC lately. It all started with this yummy Anthropologie bedding I purchased in Chicago before we moved. It looks fabulous and feels even more fabulous but was just a little bland for my taste. I found this gorgeous deep robins egg blue quilt at Target and put it under the comforter for a layered look. It breaks up that sea of beige and was just the perfect shade I was searching for. Anything too light would have gotten lost with the beige. I love Euro shams but for me, they are kind of difficult to work with.

While unpacking, I found my body pillow I had used for many of my pregnancies. It just so happened to be the perfect size pillow I needed for the bed. I had my very talented friend make a slipcover for it in this gorgeous vintage Hollywood Regency pattern. It just so happens to be the same shade as the quilt. And now I think my favorite burlap Mr. & Mrs. pillows stand out even more!

We are still looking for that "perfect" chandelier but just wanted to share with you the ceiling. I had it painted in my custom mix of robins egg blue paint that I have used for years. Why mess with something that is so great, right? It is so dreamy...I'm not really a taupe kinda gal, but my friend picked out this gorgeous shade of taupe for me that matches our curtains that my friend made so very well. I could not have picked it out myself. It has just the right amount of gray in it that I love so much.

I'm not much of a photographer like my awesome sis in law is, but wanted to give you an idea of what the curtains look like. The room has 5 of these panels. The fabric is a vintage cream and taupe with robins egg blue birds. And yes, my hubby actually loves it! It is very flea market meets Anthropologie.....just what I was going for.

This is just a small corner of the sitting room. I have some grand plans on vintage built-ins in here but this will have to wait for a while. First things first!!!

Happy Decorating!!

xoxo

tia