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