Christmas Card Art

One of my friends sends me beautiful handmade Christmas cards each year.  Last year I packed away the card with all of my Christmas decorations knowing that I had to find something to do with it this Christmas season.  It really is a piece of art, so I decided to frame it as such.  Not only is this a no cost project, it holds special meaning to me since it was given to me by a great friend.

I borrowed a frame from my office, and some scrapbook paper I had laying around.  I probably would have gotten a different paper if I was at Hobby Lobby, but this is what I had.  Best of all this cost me nothing, and I didn't have to put on makeup, do my hair and bundle up the baby.

After I cut the scrapbook paper to size I realized that I liked the back side of it better with this particular card.

...and her she is!  I think it turned out great, and I love having things of importance to me out around the holidays.

Once I get feeling better, caught the bug from the little man, I'll post the rest of my decorations.  I.heart.Christmas!!

Christmas Countdown Printable & Great Blog

While looking for a Christmas printable to do a craft DIY project I stumbled across this very cute printable that Life {Sweet} Life posted earlier this month.  I scrapped my other project and am printing this out instead.  You can put it in a frame and use a dry erase marker to count down the days to Christmas.  The rest of the blog is great too!  Stop on over at Life {Sweet} Life to get this printable for yourself.

Leftover Turkey Pot Pie

While grocery shopping earlier in the week we took into account that we would most definitely be eating leftover turkey the entire weekend.  I have this great EASY chicken pot pie recipe and I just substituted the turkey for the chicken.  I realized the pictures didn't come out great, but trust me this recipe was sooo good {and very, very easy}.

 

I always use less of the spices as I find that the stuffing tends to have quite a bit of seasoning already {except for the cayenne pepper, what can I say we like it hot}.  I have also discovered that the generic brand pie crust and stuffing is MUCH better for this recipe. 

Basically just dump everything in a bowl and mix.  For the substitution from chicken to turkey, I used about 2 cups of turkey.  Then throw it in the pie crust.

and like I said, the pictures didn't come out looking that great but it is really tasty {and it gets rid of your leftovers}!

Christmas Inspiration

I have a little rule in my house, you can't get ready for one holiday before another has past.  So now that Thanksgiving is over here are a few inspiring photos that are getting me in the holiday spirit.

Southern Accents

Southern Accents

 Southern Accents

Cottage Living

So now that I'm inspired I am going to start working on my Christmas decorations!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Since I will be preoccupied tomorrow {and I'm sure many of you will be too} I just wanted to say...

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving full of great food, friends and family!

Christmas Photo Books & Cards

I feel like I had a very productive weekend, and that I was minimally active.  Can you be both?  I didn't even touch the office :( but I finished addressing my Christmas cards and signed all of them.

Again, my little helper

I also decided that I would save the money from doing one of the photo sites card layouts and do my own {more of that later}.  Most of Saturday I converted all of my 2010 photos over to Shutterfly's photo book as they are having a $10 credit on $50+ orders and free shipping on $30+ orders.  By taking the extra time I am saving $43!

For the Christmas photo cards I took the photo that I was going to use and edited it in Photoshop.  There are many sites that offer digital scrapbook paper.  I went for the freebie paper and added it as a banner on the bottom of my picture.  Then I added text and a green banner from Photoshop to tie in with the actual Christmas cards I am sending out.  I uploaded this image as a 4x6 to Picnik.  Instead of using one of their standard photo cards I just selected prints in a matte finish.  I was even able to add our name as a watermark on the back of the print.  Where I spent $75 on photo cards last year, I am spending only $7.50.  I'm a little upset that I didn't do this last year!

Office Makeover, A Work in Progress!

Goal for the weekend:

1.  Finish my Christmas cards

2.  Finish some photo book Christmas gifts {ugh, already finished once, but new site has better deal!}

3.  Finish the following office project

4.  And most importantly, spend some quality time with the family!

I will am hoping to finish up this project this weekend as it has been sitting mostly done for three to four weeks.

A work in progress!

Vintage Inspired Wooden Signs

As you may now know I have been working on finishing up the exterior painting of our home.  I also have been salvaging some wood from my neighbors house {no I didn't rip it off the side of their house, they had it out for collection}.  When I grabbed these pieces of wood it was spur of the moment and I wasn't sure where I was going to use them, but I knew I could make some really cute signs out of them.  So when the exterior was painted the blank wall was calling for one of these signs to go up there.

Pottery Barn

 

Country Living

This one is winning out, I just think that it is so charming!

 

ThisNext

What do you all think?

 

Painting Metal Windows

I finally finished painting the exterior of the house.  I had lost all motivation two weeks ago and we had just a nice relaxing weekend.  That left me to get to it last week, and I finished it {I break things down to manageable size, so I still have other parts of the exterior to go}.  It looks pretty much the same as my last post {here} since all I had to really do was the final coat of the trim work.  The biggest difference was the painting of the window mullions.  I can't believe what a difference it makes.  

Before of the Window {and a peek at my helper}

After

I started by scraping off all of the gunk from the mullions, and giving them a good wash.  I didn't sand them because the metal was pretty weathered.  I started taping off the glass, but it was taking a really long time to make all of the cut ins and I knew I would still have to scrape the glass when I was done {like my rationale?}.  After all of the coats were applied to the window mullions I went back in with a glass scraper and got all of the paint off of the panes.  

...and the result is much better than I ever could anticipate!  Before the mullions just blended into the window, now the pop out and you can see all of the detail.  Here are a few more of the After photos!

Now all I need to do is get that same lantern as I have on the front of the house, but that'll have to wait until after the holidays!!

Beautiful Thanksgiving Tables

I am getting so excited for Thanksgiving this year, it will be the second Thanksgiving that we will be staying at home for.  It will probably just be my hubby, little man and I as our families can't make it down here.  Even though it is just the three of us I like it to be a special day of family, feast and football!  I am loving these table scapes and they are giving me inspiration for our table, and the challenge is going to be making ours look just as great with what we already have.  The little man was picking up tons of acorns from our lawn the other day and I though about throwing them back into the yard when we were done, but I brought them in and I think they'll find a way onto our table.

 Traditional Home

Better Homes & Gardens

Better Homes & Gardens

Owls in Home Decor

Lately I have been enthralled with owls in design.  This has taken me by complete surprise, as I have always found them a little bit creepy & old lady.  However, grandma chic is in, and they can't be too scary if they eat Tootsie Pops right?!  

You may have read my post on the TV show Modern Family.  Since I am so in love with this shows set designs... they may have swayed me over to the dark side with that adorable cookie jar in the Dunphy kitchen.  Can you see it there on the island?

 Lonny Magazine

 Delight by Design

I don't even have an umbrella like these, but this stand makes me want to go out a get a few of them! 

Burke Decor

Jonathan Adler

Tammy on Twos

These last couple of owls started out as the "creepy" kind, but Tammy on Twos took a few coats of glossy white spray paint to them.  Aren't they so chic now?  I will be near Goodwill today, maybe I should stop in for a peak and see if they have some that I could transform.