Advent

hello and happy December!  There is frost on the ground this morning and it will be chilly on our way to the shoppe today.  I like a good chill now and then..... I make exceptions for December. But, after the New Year, I want warmer temps pronto!!

Have you ever seen something raw... like in its original state and completely see something else... what it could be?  Well, I did this summer.  Mr. Hughes brought home a big buffet for me to paint and I saw this velvet board set aside.  Now, I have painted a few buffets and I have seen a few of these boards that go in the silverware drawer.  But there was something about this board's faded color and its perfect velvet-y-ness (fact: the Mr. doesn't like velvet.) I immediately brought it into the house and told him that whatever he was planning on doing with it would not work.  That it would be our Advent calender.

Immediately the wheels started tuning and I starting thinking... brass window/ screen door tacks... I have some of those... but I don't have a whole set... off to etsy/ ebay I go!!  But they were a bit pricier than I remembered. I eventually found some goldy brass, not the white brass.  I looked and saw #1, #2, and #25... okay they are all there... add to my basket.

When I got them, they weren't #1- 25.  Oh well, I will use what I have.  And I did... I pulled together some random numbered tacks and now have a complete, perfectly mismatched set.

The idea behind the calender was to add one item each day of December to our little tree.  After we add the item to the tree, then we write our favorite memory of the day and place it in the envelope to save.  So, we will have an empty board, full tree and hopefully at least 25 perfect Christmas memories.  

 

I thought this would be an easy way for baby hughes, who doesn't really grasp time in weeks and days... it is "now" and "in a minute" to him.  And, I have seen so many fun interviewing things done with kids and just thought it would be great to hear what he thought the most important part of our day was.

I quickly put this together last night so we will have it ready for tonight.  I truly wanted fun little ornaments that he would like, but I couldn't find any small ornaments, so I used what we had.  These are small, and either durable or un- precious.

I really can't wait until tonight to see what his favorite part of the day was.  I may ask Mr. Hughes and write mine down as well.  This is really the important part of the season for me.  Besides, the Reason, of course.  It is making these little memories.  This year will be busier than I expected when I quit my job in June.  The shoppe wasn't in the plan, or in ours anyhow, back then.  I still think that we can make great memories, even if we are working a little more than expected. It will be special memories that only we have created.  Maybe I won't be crafting each and every day or baking cookies til we all explode.  But, I bet we can manage to fill all 25 of those envelopes with happy little memories to share for years to come.

What is something YOU do to celebrate this season?  Any fun traditions?  Okay, time to wake up the boys and get this day started!

bye for now!

Something Christmas-y

Hello there!  I finally went to see Breaking Dawn today with a sweet friend.  That little break was SO needed.  Before I left though, I did my first Christmas-y, wintry thing for the house.  I think if you have seen my house at Christmas, you know I have a thing for snowflakes... I have it bad, folks.  And, I am sort of obsessed this year with kraft and white.  So, after I finished doing a doormat for the shoppe, I decided to use the other (which I bought for the back door... or in case I messed the 1st one up!) for our house.  I am one of those people who really likes a new doormat... it is almost as good as a new toothbrush or a haircut.  Anyhow, I figured let's combine a long time love affair with snowflakes and a new lusting for kraft on white.  Oh, and this is an official Vintage Junky DIY... ha!  I am so bad at tutorials!

Okay, so I started with a very plain doormat.  

Then, I cut a bunch of snowflakes out of printer paper.  I even noticed that on the front of this printer paper that it now has a paper snowflake.  See... they are on to us... they know we don't use a ream of paper for printing anymore.  And, if you don't cut snowflakes as often as I do and you forgot how to fold them, here is a little tutorial with some fun cuts that I asked the Mr. to put together a few years ago.  He is much better with that sort of thing than I am *wink*

So, I then pinned them all in place.

Then I asked myself... Michelle, could you have picked a worse day to spray paint... and I answered.. yes, I could have.  Yesterday it was raining/ snowing. Today is is a warm 30. 

Besides, I think those directions on the back of the can are for best results.  And I just wanted results.

So I sprayed.  And sprayed. And warmed up and sprayed again.

Now, if you are wanting a really BOLD design with loads of contrast, then you would want to pounce and stencil... and it would  be mighty frustrating to stencil paper over coir.  So, this is the method I chose.  If you had a metal or plastic stencil, it would be much easier, and BOLDER.  I knew there would be some overspray and it would be a bit softer.  I wanted snowflakes.  I had paper.  This is what I got:

The overspray wasn't too bad... it didn't leak under the paper too much... I used quite a few pins.  If you do this, don't spray at an angle, it will muddy your snowflake shapes.

And here it is all happy in front of my door.  Sort of a faded Fairisle Sweater/ Nordic look.   Now, I need to get to decorating the rest of this house (still not clean!)  Okay, I am off to work on our Advent calender... something I have been planning since this summer, yet did not really start it until tonight!  I have some ideas though *wink*

bye for now!

Something Crafty

Hello all!  How is October treating you?  I miss September, but I am determined to make October just as wonderful... I am going to will the warmness to stay around a little while longer!

So, I did something sort of "crafty."  Does anyone else not like that word?  There is something about it that brings forth memories of wooden bunnies and toilet paper cozies... both things that I am not really into... if you are, please don't take offense.  I just think of toilet paper of something that is okay to be seen... you know, so you can use it.  I actually like little stacks of rolls, provided that there isn't too much quilting on the toilet paper (Cottonelle,  anyone?) How did I get off on this tangent... oh well, back to the matter at hand: being crafty.  Sometimes, we have things around here and I wonder what in the world I will do with it... this time it was two big bags of crocheted little flowers.  I have used them in the past on various things... they look like little doilies.  One day, for some reason, I decided that I would dye the little circles. All 5000 of them.

So, then I had a big box of aquaish crocheted circles...thinking back, I shouldn't have dyed all of them.  I may have had a purpose when I dyed them... I am sure of it.  I just can't really remember why I did it.  

Fast forward to when I got a little package of ribbon goodness in the mail... and I decided not to use one of the ribbons for the purpose I had originally intended.  But, as I was seriously obsessed with said ribbon (talking about things like the "hand" and the way it didn't crinkle when I tied it,) I had to find something to do with it.  Enter the Jo-ann's 40% off coupon and a trip to buy a wreath form.  After lots of hot glue, I had this:

A new fallish wreath.  It sort of reminds me of a sweater or an afghan.   I only hope that I did the person justice that sat there and crocheted all 7500 of these little flowers.  I wonder what he/she had planned for them.  Probably not anything like this.

Check out that ribbon... can't you just imagine how well it ties?  I rarely change out my wreath...for someone who likes change as much as I do, I am pretty set in my ways with my door decor.  

I just realized what an extremely wordy post this is to show you my new wreath..... I could have titled it "New Wreath" and simply posted a photo... maybe a short sonnet on the beauty of the ribbon...

Okay, I am off to go clean the hyena's room...  and possibly move his newly painted bed upstairs.

bye for now!