a busy weekend + JOY wall display

How are all my friends on this Monday morning?  Today, I have declared as a stay-in-our-jammies, snuggle-on-the-couch kind of Monday.  Well, it's cold outside for one, and I am exhausted from the weekend for another, and major reason... I have to work tonight, and the thought of it is making me tired...

Speaking of a busy weekend.. remember when I said I was going car shopping?
 OK are you ready for this?

BAM!  Be jelly!  A minivan driving momma!  It doesn't get much better than that.  I'll spare you the many reasons why this is good for our family from space, to expansion {no not currently}, to finances... I never thought I'd be sporting the minivan but for now, this is IT friends.  Awesome-sauce!

and since I took one for the team with my minivan purchase... I also got a little reward.

that's right, Christmas came early for me.. I had to convince my husband that it made entirely way more sense for me to start using this camera now instead of waiting until Christmas. I mean we wanted to take lovely photo's of us actually enjoying the holiday right.. So yes, I have been taking pictures of anything and everything in my path. and YES I am loving this upgrade.  and also, excited to brush up on my skills and hone in on my inner photographer. {right}


so Let's get down to business...

************************************************************************************************************************************************
continuing on my 12 days of DIY Christmas lovelies...

another sign/wall display/sits on a plate holder DIY
{mine is sitting beautifully on my mantle}

the JOY wall display

I had originally planned on making some sort of sign for my mantle that said JOY, however, the craft store was not cool with that, because they were out of O's.. OK, I am actually glad they were out because I improvised and replaced my O with a holly wreath and think its cuter...

first step... spray paint your letters. I love the metallic spray paint and I went with bronze. I think the metallic silver is bomb, but it just doesn't go with my house.. but either way will look great.

 I had a piece of thin MDF from home depot, that was left over from another project... so find a board, whatever size you want.. Or else ask the gentlemen at home depot to cut it to size, or in my case my handy dandy hubby cut mine... I would guess mine is 2 1/2 ft by 1 1/2 ft...

 I had {still do} a ton of left over red burlap from my Christmas skirt tutorial, you can read about here if you missed it {it's a good one}.. and I cut it a fuzz bigger than my MDF board

 pull the edges of the burlap around your board and staple them into place.  pull it tight as you go

 if it's not perfect, don't fret.. the burlap is really forgiving...

 tada! nice work..

staple your wreath in place, yes staple, don't worry it will still look OK...

 I stapled the wreath in place underneath where the leaves were, knowing that I would just dab some hot glue to keep those leaves down and hide my staples...

hot glue your letters in place.. and ...

display that baby for all to see...

You just made an easy peasy and absolutely adorable JOY sign...

cost:
MDF 6.77 per sheet {I only used about a quarter of mine}
burlap // on sale for 2.99 a yard... {you could get away with 1/2 yard for this project}
letters // on sale for 1.50 each
spray paint // I had laying around but you can get it for around 3.00 at home depot
holly wreath // 50% off at Joann 2.99

I'll be back tomorrow with some more goodies... until then, peace I'm out!

12 days of DIY christmas lovelies // Yarn Christmas Tree's

I absolutely love to decorate my home for the Christmas season.

and being my first year in my new home,

I was ready to hit the ground running.

Being on a budget,

I decided to hand make some of my christmas lovelies this year.

and I kind of went, well, overboard...

I made A LOT of lovelies.

and thought why not share with you...

I will say, that most of these projects are super easy,

so follow along for the next 12 days,

as I kick of my 12 days of DIY christmas lovelies...

Enjoy

Let's start with these super easy and totally adorable

Yarn Christmas Tree's

You'll need

1.  a styrafoam cone {found in the floral dept of your craft store}

2. yarn {I used olive green, deep red, and a creamy white}

3.  a hot glue gun

4.  scissors

Now, I am sure there are about a hundred different ways to do these,

however, I love my hot glue gun and so I went that route...

so....

start by adding a bead of hot glue around the base.

place your yarn around the base of the cone making sure to push it all the way along the bottom edge.

next, wrap your yarn around the cone.

no rhyme or reason here.

I quickly wrapped the yarn up about 4 inches and then I went back down, winding the yarn in layers to cover the empty spots where the styrafoam was.

I found doing this was easier than trying to be systematic and fill in the empty spaces as I went,

and also liked the look better.  It gave it more texture.

anyways...

continue your wrapping method all the way up the cone,

once you get to the top

add some more hot glue,

and place your yarn in a circular shape at the top to secure it.

as long as you keep the yarn tight, no glue is needed in between





super easy! 

and the cost...

yarn // on sale at Joann's $2.99 each

cones // ranged from $3.99 - $6.99 each

the biggest thing I ever MADE...

Well, not me exactly.
No, a lot of contractors, and guys who have crazy amazing talents..
 
That's right!
I {well, we} built a house
and it's to date the biggest thing I have ever made.
Yes, I will go ahead and take credit from here on out.
You know why?
Because building a house is a roller coaster of emotions...
It's fun, scary, pricey, unknown, unsure...
but now... ALL WORTH IT.
 
Last year about this time, we decided, "let's put our house on the market and see what happens?"
We lived near our hometown, but not in. 
And we knew at some point before the peanut starting school,
We would have to move to get in the school district.
So may as well start, Right?
 
Lucky for us, our house sold, happy dance...
However, and maybe I was being too picky, but I just couldn't find the one!
I wanted to find a house where we could expand our family, and live there until our kids were grown... and while there were several that could have worked.. I just never had that A-HA moment.  At about the same time when I was starting to think I would have to settle, our realtor mentioned that a new builder in the area was going to be building in the neighborhood that was our #1 pick...
{funny how things just seem to work out.}
 
But wait, ummm...  What do we know about building a house? And isn't that ridiculously expensive.. We were clueless, but, we had a meeting with a builder.  He said all the right things and more importantly all the right numbers, made it sound terrific, we negotiated, agreed on price and a few short weeks later, were signing papers and writing checks.
 
The process itself, is pretty crazy.  I was absolutely in awe of how fast things went.  I mean of course I drove by everyday to check out that days work and yes, took pictures of every step.  I am sure the guys who worked on my house were very appreciative of the many pictures and drive-by's that I did. NOT 
 
We were able to pick paint colors, tile, floors, cabinets, carpet, where we wanted electric outlets.. Ahh.. It was overwhelming to say the least.  BUT, I think we did a pretty good job because I love how it all came together.  I am a very indecisive person and sometimes I would think "OMGee, is this all going to look ok together, maybe we should change fill in the blank. 
 
All in all, the building took a mere 4 months to complete in the dead of winter, might I add.. 
We had so much love and support during this process.  From our extremely considerate friends who took us in during this time and made the best roomies, and for my dad, who did all the dirt work and dug the basement and saved us a         S!%* ton of moolah... thanks daddy-o..!
 
 
 

The first choice that we would make..  Where would we build our house?  We knew the neighborhood, but which lot?  hmm... hard choice.  Ultimately, we went with the biggest back yard and with neighbors all around so that we wouldn't have to be in a construction zone in the future as more houses were built. 

 

Isn't it purdy?  Our little peice of real-estate.  The place that would soon house our family and memories for years to come!  

 

 
You see that giant pile of rock?  Ya, well that's not good.  Makes the basement harder to dig and will automatically up charge the price of your home.. I remember when signing our contract, the little clause at the bottom that said something to the effect of 'this price not reflective of rock removal including jack-hammering, ram-something or other dot.dot.dot'...I looked at the hubbs and said, "will we hit rock?"  His answer, no there are houses all around, we will be fine.  And, well we sure did!  So, thanks again daddy and sorry to my neighbors.. oops! 
 

and there's our basement... ^

 

 

The builder told us that his guys would have the house framed in about 4 days.. 4 days?  We called his bluff, no way! 

In one day! 

 ONE DAY,

we came to check the process and this was what was done! 

holy smokes...  impressed!

 

 

Freshly painted, and trimmed and cabinets in place...

We were turning cart-wheels this day! 

yes in the house...

 

 

All buttoned up as the hubbs called in.. roof on, sealed, no water can get in, and best of all..

It looks like an actual house. 

 

 

And with the exterior paint color we chose...

I learned a lot during this process, like I will never do it again! {ok, ok, it wasn't that bad} 

 
 Can I tell you what I did for 4 months while living with friends?  I pinned and searched and dreamed and decorated and re-decorated and shopped... now that we are in the house, I am continually decorating and DIY-ing to get it just right, but it is a process.  And I am on a budget {who isn't?} I would love to share my decorating, room by room, because that is pretty much what I am up to these days.  This house. Oh yea, and a puppy and a 3 year old! 
 
The hubbs and I love to DIY and have really done some incredible things to the house.  I'm a pretty lucky gal to have a hubbs that can pretty much make anything I ask him to and he has pretty good house sense too {like fashion sense, but only with a house, you get it?} I can't wait to share some of his projects as well.
 
So tune in for what's to come. Hopefully, you can find some inspiration and some decorating.on.a.budget tips and projects as well.
 

All righty my little lovelies..

 

The little sugar dumpling is with grandma this morning, which means I have a few hours to myself...

And what does every momma do when their little one is out of the house?

Yes, we crank the tunes and clean like mad crazy because it is the only time that after you are done cleaning, everything is actually still put away?

Uh-huh, momma's.. I see you shaking your heads!

 

and Dixie land delight is on just in time...

off to pat my knee obnoxiously and skip around the house while doing a little dusting.

 

It's the little things!