'Tis the Season

'Tis the season to be JOLLY!  I love Christmas time.  It is my favorite time of the year.  Decorating Christmas trees, celebrating the birth of Jesus, Christmas treats, buying presents I can't get enough.  It does have its down side though…Christmas pictures.  I have a very unique family.  I have two 15 year old boys that I am adopting.  I also have two girls (8 and 4) that I fostered for 14 months that I still consider family.  You can imagine the nightmare of trying to get everyone dressed, happy, and smiling at the same time!  When the 4 year old was smiling the boys weren't.  It took forever, but we eventually finished and they turned out great.  Oh and I forgot to mention, I didn't have anyone there to take the pictures so we were using the 10 second timer!

To make this I bought some chipboard letters and scrapbook paper at Hobby Lobby.  Then, I bought the bell at the Dollar Tree for $1.  I traced the letters onto the paper and used Modge Podge to glue the paper to the letters.  Last, I hot glued the bell to the "O" and this is the outcome!  The inspiration for this came from http://brittanyestes.com/2013/12/15-diy-christmas-decorations.html.

This candle holder was so simple.  I added the festive candles and then put in some light Christmas bulbs and sparkling balls.

Here I took a strand of lights and just tied fabric in knots all down it.  This was inspired by http://www.topinspired.com/top-10-last-minute-diy-christmas-decorations/.  I tried using burlap but it kept coming apart so I just used fabric.

For this centerpiece, I found candles of all different sizes.  I put them in a bowl and arranged them randomly (the bigger the bowl the better).  Then, I just added bells, Christmas bulbs, sparkling balls, and rope garland.  This page inspired this centerpiece.

I got this vase at Dollar Tree for $1.  In case you can't tell I LOVE that place.  I added a candle and some sparkling balls.  Super cheap and easy.

The Finished Product

Reusing Wedding Items!

Like many of you, I have boxes of stuff from my wedding that I just can bare to part with.  I have been married now for 4 years and this box of stuff just sits in my garage.  I probably will never do anything with it, but I can't bring myself to get rid of it.  I decided to find some way to put some of it to good use.

At my wedding I had these really cute kids' tables.  I would recommend that everyone have tables just for the kids because they stay occupied all night.  My husband made these little sandboxes that we put in the middle of the table.

It felt like a shame to just let these boxes go to waste so I created shadow boxes out of them and they turned out amazing!  First, I painted them.  Then, I hot glued some fabric in the background.  Last, I just decorated them they way that I wanted to.

On the adult table, I had vases with flowers and vases with candles in the center.

I used some of the flowers to make a wreath for my door.

Class of 2012

I love throwing parties!  I think I could make a great party planner.  So when my sister was graduating from college of course I jumped at the chance to throw her graduation party.  The first thing I did was made an invitation.  My sister majored in photography and journalism so I knew right from the start that a newspaper would be the best invitation.  I even used her picture from the school newspaper on it.

As for the design of the party, I made these clotheslines and I put pictures of my sister and pictures she had taken for photography on them to showcase her work.

No party is complete without a popcorn bar, an apple/marshmallow station, and a candy bar.  These three things are delicious but also cheap!  Popcorn is not complete without some m&ms, nuts, and different flavors to add.  I also put out some apples and marshmallows on shish kabob sticks.  Then, I had lots of yummies to dip them into including hot fudge, peanut butter, nuts, and sprinkles.  These were a hit!  At almost every party I throw I put out a candy bar.  I just go to Party  City and pick out candy that matches the theme of the party!  All of the containers were bought at Dollar Tree, my favorite store!

For drinks, I took strawberry Crush and made some cute little graduation caps for the top.  I just cut a square out of black construction paper and took a piece of yellow ribbon to make these.  I also made some delicious punch.  I just used some sprite, juice, and sherbet for the punch.

I couldn't help but make some beautiful cupcakes for the party.  I found these graduation cupcake papers at Walmart.  On the other cupcakes, I made little diplomas.  They are very simple.  I used Pepperidge Farm creme filled Pirouette Wafers and wrapped a little red ribbon around them.  I also wrote "Congratulations Hanna!" on some of them.

I made these little centerpieces by putting some tissue paper in the bucket to cover the styrofoam, which held up the balloon and the little black graduation toothpicks.  Then, I laid out articles that my sister had written during college.

New Home

So my husband and I spent 2 years after college building up our credit to buy our home and we finally accomplished it!  It felt like we would never have a home of our own.  We wanted to build our own home, but the banks wanted a ridiculous down payment.  We eventually found a great house and we got a great deal on it!  It was almost perfect.  It was in the same neighborhood as most of the family, but it didn't look great inside.  Once we found the home, we started saving money.  I made this from a shadow box.  I put a picture of the house inside and cut a hole in the top.  We slowly put away money for the remodel inside the box.

The hideous kitchen was the first thing to go.  We remodeled it before we even moved in.  Then, we slowly made more changes including lots of painting, adding a half wall, and making the office larger. Two years later we are still working on making it our own, but I LOVE it!

Before & After

Kitchen

Before

 

After

Living Room

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After

The Office

After

Bedroom 1

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After

Bedroom 2

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After

Guest Bathroom

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After

Master Bedroom

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After

Scrapbook Area

After

Master Bath

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After