Fairies Out...Gnomes In!

Awhile back I blogged about our "Fairy Door." You can read about that HERE It's a tiny little door in our dining room on the floor and it's where the fairies live. The "fairies" would leave the boys little notes and treats in the mailbox and the boys had a lot of fun with it. But then like all things when you get super busy...it fades away. Ben and I started talking about the fairy door last night, and I told him that the fairy must have moved away because all of the dust on her doorstep. I honestly think she got way to busy with taking her kids to hockey practice, painting, cleaning, and laundry...but I didn't tell him that! ;).

So before bed, Ben wanted to write the fairy a little note and leave it in her mailbox. It says: "I hope you enjoy." And he also left her an Andes Candy! She like Santa Claus LOVES Andes Candies and coffee! ;)

 Here he is putting the note and Andes Candy into her mailbox with hopes she will find it and enjoy!

 And this morning Ben checked the mailbox and the note said: "Thank you Ben! From Mr. Gnome...enjoy!" And Mr. Gnome left Ben a "Crabby Patty!"

Apparently the fairies have moved out and the gnomes have taken over! :)

So in the next couple of days we will be decorating the "Gnome Door" with St. Patrick's Day decorations! I'll be sure to share what we come up with!

And hopefully this Spring I'm going to create my own set of "Gnome/Fairies Doors" for my Etsy Shop! So stay tuned for that!

Living a chaotic life!

Wow, it has been such a long time since I last blogged! I apologize, and I probably lost many readers, but December is one of the most chaotic months for me!

My photography business is finally picking up, Alex's birthday is on December 12th, and then there is Christmas! There's just a ton of stuff packed into one month! I know I'm behind, but I'd still like to share some photos from December! Here are some photos from Alex's 4th birthday party! As you can see it was "Lego" themed. I was so excited when I found this t-shirt, I thought it would be perfect for him to wear for his party!

 He's very excited that he is now 4!

 I haven't made a themed birthday cake in a few years, but this year I thought I'd try to tackle a Lego Brick cake.

 I made this yellow brick cake and the blue one that you can see behind it. I wasn't super happy with how it turned out, but the kids seemed to love it! I even used one of his little Lego characters to hold one of the candles!

 Here is the table centerpiece. I used a Lego gameboard that I found at a thrift store and a vase that I filled with Lego Bricks. The little boxes were filled with treats and I stamped each child's name on the box. I wish I would have gotten a photo with all the little Lego Man boxes, but the kids snatched them up pretty quickly! lol

 I made these gift bags for each child that were made to look like Lego Bricks. I purchased solid color gift bags and used a hole punch to punch out circles from cardstock and used dimensional stickers to add them to the front. Very inexpensive and very easy.

So that was basically his fourth birthday! He had a great time and got tons and tons of what else...LEGOS! :)

I plan to start updating my blog on a regular basis, just please stick with me. I've gone through a tough time in the last month and I'll share that with you soon. Hope you are staying warm in whatever part of the world you are in! Have a great week!

Great Yard Sale Finds

I haven't blogged in over a week and I am very sorry! Things have been busy with Ben's school, soccer, and Alex's gymnastics class. Plus the doctors appointments and everything, my head has been spinning.

I do however have good news. Ben's heart is fine! YAY! Thank you everyone for all your well wishes, positive thoughts and prayers!

I wanted to post about the wonderful day I had today and the great things that I bought!

I am so lucky to live close to Kimba from A Soft Place To Land! If you read her blog you would know that she was clearing out a lot of her fantastic pieces, and I went to her yard sale today!

And let me tell you, it was by far the best yard sale of the year! Lots of great pieces, and I cannot wait to incorporate them into my home!

And I am so sorry Kimba for not introducing myself. I woke up at 6 got a shower, barely did anything with my hair, got the kids ready and I was on the road! It took me about 40 minutes to get there, but it was definitely worth it! I'm the one with the kids that were watching Star Wars in the car! lol

As you can see in the photo below, I got a metal planter, a of white couple of plates, and a magnetic board in the beautiful blue frame.

Isn't that blue magnetic board fabulous? It's covered in fabric and completely jumped out at me! I have great plans for that little board, and I cannot wait to share them with you! I just love that color, so fresh and relaxing!

The metal planter might end up being another fairy garden or a planter for the Cats & Kittens plants that I love! And the white plates will eventually have a vinyl monogram on them!
Look at that lovely green frame! It is sooo beachy and I just love it! I am going to put a photo from the beach in it once I get some glass for it. And can you believe that she had a pink frame similar to this and I passed it up! Yes I did! And I do regret it! lol I'll probably be going to the local goodwill stores over the next week trying to find it if no one bought it! lol

And I love this chippy white frame with the stitchery that says: "If the shoe fits!" I love Halloween and witches so this is just perfect for my home! And it's already on my mantle! Here is some scroll work plaques and a black metal frame. I think they are eventually going to go in my living room since it's accented in black. And this black bird cage is just one of my favorite finds! It's making me reconsider my bird themed loft/meditation room! It would look perfect in there!

And can you believe that I got all of these goodies for UNDER $20! How awesome is that?!
And lastly here is the strawberry pot that I got. I've always wanted one of these for my Cats & Kittens succulents, so I was happy to score this as well! Don't mind the house wrap still on my house, we are going to get siding really soon and I cannot wait!

The raccoon rock isn't from Kimba, it's a rock that I painted a few years ago and he just hangs out on my front porch.
Does anyone having any recommendation for planting Cats & Kittens? Should I wait until spring until I plant them in this pot? I know they do well in the Winter so I thought that they'd be fine in this pot on my front porch? Any suggestions?

Back To School Tree-Mini Tutorial

It is hard to believe that summer is almost over! My oldest son Ben starts Kindergarten this year and we're very excited! I wanted to celebrate this event, so I decorated a pencil tree in a "back to school" theme!
This will be my first mini tutorial. I guess it's not really a tutorial, but just some helpful tips to help you decorate your own back to school tree on a budget.

Here are some basic supplies. I forgot to take a photo of my ribbon. I used about two spools of ribbon. One that had polka dots, and the other, which is my favorite ribbon, looks like a ruler! Very cute for a back to school themed tree! :)

Besides ribbon, you'll need a box of chalk (12 count), 2 bags of mini chalkboard ornaments (found at Joann's), 2 rulers, and a white gel pen for writing on the mini chalkboards. You could also use white acrylic paint, but I found the gel pens are much easier to write with.

In the above photo notice the pink marks on the ruler. That is where my husband cut the ruler in three places. He cut right above the three ring binder holes. We cut it this way so we could skip the step of drilling a hole in the ruler to hang it from. This way is quicker and your ornament is ready to string with ribbon immediately!

In the photo below is the cut rulers, but really you only need about two. Each ruler makes three ornaments, and I found that six was enough to decorate the tree adequately. The rulers were $.50 a piece at Walmart. Just a little tip.... before you cut the ruler, use pliers to remove the metal strip that is along the long edge of the ruler.

I also made salt dough pencil ornaments to decorate the tree. A great recipe for salt dough ornaments can be found here. It's amazing what salt, flour and water can make!

This recipe was enough for about 10 ornaments. Plus I actually made two cupcake ornaments as well in the batch. So you can get about 12 small ornaments out of the batch. They were fairly easy to make. I just rolled a ball of dough into a log and pinched and rolled the end of it to make a pencil point. I then took a butter knife and made the groves of the pencil and stuck a wire in for hanging. They baked in the oven, came out cooled and then I painted them in about an hour! Easy peasy! :) Before I painted them my husband said: "They don't look like pencils!" I kind of agreed, but I had a vision in my head, and I'm sooo glad that I didn't abandon the craft! I love how they turned out! Very stubby and cute!

I painted them with several coats of acrylic paint and left them to dry. After they were completely dry I rubbed on a stain and then sprayed them with a clear coat of varnish. When they were completely dry (front and back) I tied on a ribbon to complete the look. I just love how they turned out!

I topped the tree with a faux apple that I got at Joann's, but you could also use the kind from the Dollar Tree. They are cheaper at the Dollar Tree and in my opinion the same quality. To get it to sit on the top of the tree, I hollowed out the apple with a pair of scissors. You could also use a knife, but be very careful. They are usually made of foam, so they are rather easy to hollow out. You don't need to make a very big hole, just keep trying it out and see what fits on your particular tree.

I also used this method with the small faux pumpkins that you can find around Halloween. They make a cute topper for a Fall themed tree!

The little chalkboards that I mentioned came from Joann's craft store. They are very inexpensive and come in a package of three for $1.49. They are 2"x3" in size and you can do soo much with these! I used six on my tree and wrote things like "1 +1=2" and "CAT" and the boy's names. The added bonus is that these are already ornaments and are ready to hang instantly! I love when I can accomplish something quickly!

Like I mentioned above I used a white gel pen to write on the chalk boards. I'm sure if you had one of those cool chalk pens you could probably do the same thing, but wipe it right off instead! I am sooo drooling over those chalk pens, I hope to buy some someday! I have used white acrylic paint in the past on the chalkboards, but it's a lot harder to write nicely with a paint brush! The plus side to using gel pens is that if you mess up you can quickly wipe it off with a damp papertowel!

Here is a look of the chalkboard ornament hanging on the tree.

I also mentioned that I used a box of 12 count white chalk. Yes this is real chalk. It's inexpensive and looks super cute hanging on the tree! A 12 count pack of chalk from Walmart is $.74! I just used ribbon to tie on it and make into an ornament! You could probably cut the chalk in half and get 24 ornaments out of the box, but I found 12 was sufficient enough for my tree. Here is the chalk and ruler ornaments.
Here is a photo of one of my salt dough pencil ornaments.
I put my pencil tree in a basket, covered the base with yellow fleece fabric, and threw in some faux apples to complete the look of my back to school tree! I think it would look super cute filled to the max with apples, but that would be quite expensive since each apple costs $1.00. These apples are from the Dollar Tree. I hope they also come back out with the tiny apple ornaments that they had last Christmas. Those would be a cute addition to the back to school themed tree!

Joann's had a box of mini apples that would have been cute as ornaments, but at $5.00 a box I thought I'll wait until the ones from the Dollar Tree comes out and save them for next year! I suppose that I could have used my 40% off coupon, but I left it at home! :(

And here is a look at the completed "Back to School"themed tree, lit up, and made on a budget! :)
School starts here on August 30th. Stay tuned for my "Back to School" themed dinner that I have planned for Ben! I have a lot of cute ideas!

I am linking up with some cool blog parties. Check out many awesome projects at House of Hepworths, Strut Your Stuff Thursdays at Somewhat Simple, Craft-O-Maniac Mondays, and Skip to My Lou.

Gnome Garden

I have a gnome obsession! I just love these little old men with pointy hats! They are sooo cute! I have a lot of gnomes. Unfortunately my bigger ones are packed away because they do not go with my current decor. Hopefully next summer I'll landscape with them outside and create something cute!

In the meantime I wanted to create a "Gnome Garden" on a smaller scale. A few months ago, Alex and I picked up a fairy garden kit that was unopened at the thrift store. He had so much fun painting the pot and arranging the little house and stones. We also planted seeds that came with the kit, but unfortunately they never sprouted. So for the last few months I had a decorated planter full of dirt on my kitchen counter! I was so sad, so I decided to make another for outside. And this time I bought real plants for in it! Buying real plants is much more satisfying. You don't have to wait days for your seeds to sprout!

Alex was uninterested this time around, so Ben helped me with the dirt! Here he is making it flat!
Here's a closeup of the sign that I made for the garden. I found this sterling silver spoon for $1 at a local thrift store. I used metal stamps to engrave "Gnome Crossing" into the spoon. I can't wait until the silver tarnishes!

Here is a closeup of one of the many mini gnomes in the garden. He's about 2.5 inches tall.

We even planted some fake carrots that I bought in the miniature section of a craft store! I think they add such a whimsical touch!

Here is a mini fireplace that was a tealight holder. I thought it would add a perfect touch to the gnome garden. I can picture the gnomes and fairies enjoying themselves in front of the fire! I added a flameless tealight so it's safe for the kids to play with.

I planted Irish Moss throughout the garden and used a little mini metal house and white picket fencing that I had in my craft stash.

You are now entering the Gumball Forest! I found this little metal mini gumball machine in the dollhouse miniatures section of a craft store. I thought it was soo cute, and bought it to save for a future project. I wasn't sure what I was going to use it for, so I thought it was perfect for this little gnome garden! A gnome can't be without his gumballs, can he?! And to the left of the gumball machine is a small plant that looks like a tree in a miniature world.

I used those small colored glass pebbles which are also found in craft stores. You can also use aquarium gravel as a path in your garden. That works well too! In our first gnome garden we used green aquarium gravel. It turned out very cute! You can also use small stones from your neighborhood. Use what you already have and have fun with it!

Here is another view of our magical garden! I also added some succulents, which you can see on the right hand side of the garden. I love succulents! They are my favorite plant, and are so easy to care for!

If you had a mini garden, what type of whimsical things would you use for decoration?

Fairies Gather Here

A few years ago I was inspired by this website that talked about Fairy Doors in the town of Ann Arbor. I thought it was so creative and cool, and I just knew I wanted to get one for my boys! About a year or two ago when Value City Department Store went out of business, I found this Fairy Door and immediately bought it!

Back then our house was being remodeled and was a complete mess! I stored it away and remembered about it today when I was in a craft store! I was in the miniature section of the store, and I thought the little potted plants would look so cute outside of the Fairy Door that I had stored away. I bought the plants, the little red chair, and the mailbox. Don't they look cute outside? Please ignore the grout in the photo along the bottom of the wall. We don't have the oak trim up yet in this part of the room, the little door will sit above the trim.
Alex was so excited when I told him about the Fairy Door. He wanted to leave a little treat for the "fairy" inside the mailbox. He thought the fairy would love a Hershey Kiss in pink foil....and I love it...I mean the FAIRY loves it! ;)

Ben on the other hand is one smart little cookie for being 4-years-old! He asked: "Won't the fairy get squished?" And I asked "why?" He said: "It'll get squished because there is a wall behind the door, and there is nowhere for the fairy to go!"

I figured the mailbox would be a cool tool for leaving the boys little notes of encouragement and such!

Here is the front stoop of the Fairy Door. Don't the little plants add such a cute welcoming touch? I can't wait to make some Easter decorations for this little door! The problem is is that I will have to make everything by hand since it's such a small little door!

I'll add more photos in a few days when I get it all decorated for Easter! Our next little project is making Fairy Garden! I can't wait for that! Hopefully in the next couple of months I will dust off the scroll saw and add some Fairy Doors or Gnome Doors to my Etsy site!

T-R-O-U-B-L-E

When I was a little girl, my nickname was "trouble!" I'm not sure how I got that name, it was something that my uncle use to call me.

If anyone should have the nickname "trouble," it should be my youngest Alexander! I'm not sure if you remember what he did to my Christmas cookies, but you can read about that here! He's always getting into something, like the time he threw half a dozen raw eggs all over my kitchen! He always keeps me super busy and super exhausted!

Anyway, I try not to have many knickknacks sitting around, but I do have a few things that I collect. Gnomes of course and Willow Tree figurines. Willow Tree figurines are the ones that resemble carved wood and are faceless. Here is a set of sister figurines that my sister bought me. They are supposed to be holding hands, but Alex thought a tire would be more appropriate! I had to laugh. If you were to come to my house and see this figurine, she would still be holding a tire...it just makes me smile that way!
A lot of people don't like the fact that these figurines are faceless....apparently Alex does not like that either! Check out what I found one day!

This figurine was bought for me by my husband after Alexander was born! I guess one day my little Picasso got bored and decided to create his own work of art! lol Thank goodness for washable markers! Even though it'll wash off, I choose to keep it this way because this one makes me smile as well! Hope my little trouble maker put a smile on your face!

Crafter's Withdrawal

I am totally going through some crafter's withdrawal or something! Especially spray painter's withdrawal (must be the fumes)! lol Just Kidding.

I'm not able to spray paint because of the cold weather....I hate this time of year because of that! I can't wait until Spring, so I can spray paint until my heart's content!

This week I'll share with you some projects that I finished, but didn't blog about! I can't believe that I didn't blog about them! That's probably because I was busy trying to get things completed before the cold weather hit! I have so many other cool projects that I want to complete, but they will have to wait until Spring!

So I've been going crazy because I've been so pre-occupied with the Holidays that I haven't had a chance to create! A few weeks back I was participating in "Make Some Art Mondays" over at Chrissie Grace, but she stopped hosting them for the time being. Also, I take a painting class on Wednesdays but they've been postponed after the first of the year. So I'm absolutely going crazy since I haven't created anything lately!

Tonight I was tired and didn't feel like anything but surfing the Internet. That's when I came across "Design Sponge" and spent the last few hours looking at before and after projects! My favorite one is this dog bed that was created from an old tv! You can read about the project here! Isn't this dog bed amazing?! And the dog is absolutely adorable as well! I think that Allie may just need one of these in pink of course!
So tomorrow I have decided to create something! That's my goal! There are so many projects inside my head, that I'll probably decide sometime tomorrow what I want to create! I'll make sure to post a photo! Have a wonderful night!

Oh Christmas Tree! Oh Christmas Tree!

Oh Christmas Tree! Oh Christmas Tree! Thy leaves are sparse and pink!
This is the small pink tree in my kitchen that I call my "sad little pink tree!" It's really my pink and girly Charlie Brown tree! It's just missing a little pink blanket wrapped around the base of it! I didn't really think it was really all that sad until Kristin commented on it!

As sad as it looks with it's puny little branches...I really love this tree! I think I got it at Big Lots or Hobby Lobby a few years ago, but I cannot remember. And this is like my third or fourth year with this tree and each time I pull it out it gets worse looking! lol

It came strung with a set of pink lights! The tree topper and pink ball ornaments came from Hobby Lobby on sale. The big light pink ornament towards the middle is a cupcake. This tree makes me so happy it may remain in my pink kitchen all year long! Although I'm not sure now that everyone is making fun of it! lol
I participated in an ornament exchange this year and this lovely pink glittery shoe ornament came from Kelly! Thank you soo much Kelly, it is perfect! And thank you Kristin for organizing the exchange!

And here is the other ornament that was given to me from Kelly. It's a pink bulb and just perfect for my pink tree!

So that's the story behind my sad little pink tree! I have a really big white tree that I decorate with all pink ornaments, but I didn't put it up this year. Just wondering, has anyone tried spray painting a Christmas tree before? I'm thinking of spray painting the big white tree pink! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! More Holiday photos to come!

Pumpkin Cookies and Treats Bags-OH MY!

Benjamin's Halloween party is tomorrow, so yesterday I volunteered to bake sugar cookies! Why I always volunteer to make something that is complicated is beyond me! I mean it may not be complicated to some people, but with two toddlers, and coming down with a virus myself, it was way too much for me to handle!

So after I dropped Ben off for school yesterday, I went to the store and bought my baking supplies. I proceeded to make the dough and then bake the cookies. I baked at least three dozen cookies and then I had to go pick Ben up from school. On my way to pick him up, it popped into my head that I didn't add the salt to the recipe! And I had used unsalted butter! When I came home ,I tasted them, and they tasted "ok" but left a weird after taste! Ben said they were good of course, but you know how kids are....they find sand and dirt delicious! lol

So I looked at the recipe, and I realized that I left out the baking powder too! Where is my mind?!! I blame it on the Nyquil that I had the night before, but my friend had referred to it as "mom haze!" So I threw that batch in the garbage and started over again! By this time I was feeling really sick! My throat was raw and my body ached! But I knew I had to continue, because I may feel worse the following day!

Finally at 11:45 last night I was finally finished decorating them! This is only my second time working with royal icing, so they're not perfect! But I'm sure any 4 year-old will love them!

Today I woke up feeling even more sick! I could barely talk, my throat is still raw, and I have a bad cough! I'm just praying that I don't get a fever so I could go to Ben's Halloween party tomorrow!

Today I put together his little treat bags for his classmates. I'm not really big into giving my kids candy, so I wanted a treat free alternative! I decided to give each child a container of playdoh and a Halloween cookie cutter! I wanted to personalize the playdoh, so I put our own label on each container! At first I tried putting one on top of the playdoh label, but it looked like crap! I then decided to peel off each label...which was a huge PAIN! But here is what they look like 24 containers later! :)

A huge stack of playdoh fun!

Here is what the treat bags looked like with the cookie cutter inside! I really think they turned out cute!

Tomorrow is his party and I will try to post the photos either tomorrow or on Thursday! I'm very excited! If I'm feeling better, I will be dressing up! But I'm not telling what I'm wearing...you'll have to come back and see for yourself! Have a great night!

Chandelier For The Seasons

Now that my kitchen is close to being finished, I finally finished my chandelier! I got this brass chandelier off of Craigslist for $30.00 last year. I realize now that I overpaid, because I've since seen this type in thrift stores for $10!

Anyway here is a blurry photo of the chandelier. Excuse the mess, our one garage is completely disorganized-especially since we're remodeling. All the tools and old doors and whatnots end up in here. I wish I would have taken a better photo, but I totally forgot until it was ready to be spray painted. So here it is, ready to be painted.
I lightly sanded it and used baby wipes to wipe off any excess dust and fingerprints.
I primed it and then painted it white. I actually painted it off-white, and then after it was hung in the kitchen it looked bad! Because the walls are white, it made the chandelier look yellowish. So I took it back out to the garage for another round of spray paint! So here it is finished and white!

After it was hung, I had a wonderful idea to take the candle cover parts that cover the wires and mod podge seasonal scrapbook paper onto them! I figured I could change them out each season and it would add to the decor!

You can buy the candle cover things at Lowe's. They are super inexpensive, a pack of two is about a dollar or two! Here is what I did:

First, I layed the candle cover thingy (my technical term) on the edge of a sheet of 12x12 scrapbook paper. I measured it's height, and then took my paper cuter and cut a long strip off.

Next, I layed the candle cover thingy onto the long strip and rolled it until it was completely covered and marked the paper so I knew where to cut. I then cut the paper and adhered it around the candle cover thingy using permanent scrapbook adhesive. You could use Mod Podge, but I wanted to finish this project quickly. If your measurements are a little off and the paper is sticking above the candle cover thingy, you could use sandpaper to sand it off before using the Mod Podge. I sanded the first time that I made these, and then discovered it's easier to just use scissors and trim of the edges!

Finally, I put a nice layer of modge podge on the candle cover thingy and left it dry! It was then ready to slip onto my chandelier! Here is a closeup of my chandelier decorated for Halloween, using candy corn scrapbook paper!

My kitchen is pink, so here is the everyday look.

The possibilities are endless! Think of the fun you can have decorating it for Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter and Oooh the Fourth of July!

Go on over to "A Soft Place to Land" and see more DIY projects!