Lovely Holidays...

I hope every one had a lovely Holiday season. Hope you got spend it with family and friends. Its always nice to have the house full with family and everyone enjoying themselves. Brings a big smile and a nice warm feeling inside.

Went by rather fast for me. I spent my Christmas season being very busy. Doesn't help that I work in retail right now and that sucked away a lot of my free time. The days off were put to good use though. 

I was able to get the tree put up on the first weekend of the month.

 

 

Putting up the tree and decorating has always been my job since... Honestly I have no idea why I'm always the one to do it. I think I just started doing it so my parents didn't have to take time away from their days off to do it. My little gift I guess. Plus I seriously enjoy it. Make a day of it. (Even the little things in life are worth enjoying.) Took a little time to find all our decorations, because the storage room is full with all my stuff. I was able to organize a spot for all the Christmas stuff to go though. Once the tree is done its time to get the other decorations up.

 

 

I love finding all the hand made items. That to me is what I love most about putting out the decorations. The ornaments we have made over the years and the ones that were bought on our births. Things like that make a family. Mom made all our stockings, including hers and Dads. She even made one last year for my newest cousin Liam. Those make a deep personal touch. 

 

 

Since I like to remake the wicker wreath in my room every season I tend to have left over items from previous designs. I was able to repurpose last years Christmas decorations in my window bottle display.

 

Of course I needed to do a new design for the wreath, so I did that at the same time. Did a little more traditional and nature look this time.

 

 

Was surprised I had time to get any Christmas cards out, let alone make them. I made stamped cards last year and so I thought I would do the same, but with a little more flare of the season.

 

 

 

I love giving things with a more personal touch, so this is a nice little thing I can do that makes brings out a smile or two.

 

 We did get a white Christmas eve and Christmas day, which was nice. My brother stayed over on Christmas Eve because he thought it would be easier drive wise. Made for a fun night of cards and sitting by the fire.

 

Christmas day was a bit hectic for us. We all opened gifts and joked around. Put out a ton of food too. Then Andy picked up his girlfriend and her daughter and they opened gifts at our place too. Was a nice full house. Love that.

 

 

There were cookies (tons), snacks, chips, ham and turkey and laughter all day and night. Just perfect.

 

I hope your Holidays were just as lovely as mine. 

Hidden in plain sight.

In the last post I showed you how to make your own water proof coasters. Since I made those sets (12 in all) for my living room I wanted to have a container for them. In the process of figuring out how I wanted to contain them I made a set of 6 for my bedroom, so I wouldn't ruin my bedroom furniture.

I found a wood box that fit the coasters perfectly and has a magnetic closure. I didn't want it to be plain so I sanded it down and picked out a color that fit each rooms's themes. (yes I have themes for my rooms)

Since my living room has a country irish theme I went with green. I painted the box, but it look boring just painted. So I found a wood flower detail accent and painted that as well. I also painted a coat of glaze on the box and the detail accent to seal the paint color.

Once the glaze dried I worked on my other box that would hold my bedroom coasters. My bedroom has a vintage french royal theme, so I went a little more classic. I painted the wood accent in a metallic sky blue. Those also got a coat of glaze to seal the colors.

Once they were both dried I sprayed them with my Mod Podge acrlyic sealer to protect it even more.

I didn't paint the inside, but it still looks great to me. The coasters fit great, event the 12 I made for the living room. (No I do NOT need that many, but I was testing out this project, so I did a basic pattern and then did a group of coasters in the theme I wanted. Why waste them?)

Bird Houses

While I was at Michaels I saw some bird houses that I thought would go well with my other items. I was a little stupid and didn't use pastel paints on the bird houses, but they still are useable. Just darker than I would have liked.

I thought it would look cool if I painted the roofs copper like real bird houses. Plus it gives it a kind of classy look I think.

Once I finished painting the bird houses I put rose stencils on either side of them all. They actually turned out pretty well.

vibrant quilt project

I will be starting a new quilt project. I wanted something vintage, but also something that would look cottage/country. I think I found the perfect combo in a precut package I found at work.

 

 

There is another print in light blue, but I forgot to take a picture of it. I will have to do that later. I'm happy that they all work so well together. I might make the border either a purple or a light green. I'm leaning more towards purple since it would be more contrasting. Any ideas?

It will have 10 inch squares and a border about 7inches wide. The backside will be one solid color (I think... haven't desided if I also want to do the backside.) The colors are very vibrant, but have a soothing cottage country feel. I think it will turn out pretty good when I get done. I don't know how to do all the super fancy detail quilting work, so I might just skip that part and do ribbon ties to secure the quilt and batting together.

Anyway I washed and pressed the fabric being used, so I need to do the cutting and sewing. I haven't gotten the border fabric yet, but I know what I am going to use. I just want to be sure of the size before I get it.

I thought you might want to take a look. I got the idea from a magazine called Perfect for Precuts from Better Home and Gardens Special Interest Publications.  It one of the several ones I picked up from Border's going out of business sale.  (40% off of Magazines is too much to pass up!) The article is called "Sew Easy" from designer Anna Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts.

 Well I'm off to get cutting! Let me know what you think!