They're Not Just For Trees Anymore

I love Christmas ornaments.

In July I will look at Christmas ornaments.

I will put the tree up and think "I can't fit another ornament on this tree" then go out the next day and become all googly-eyed over Christmas ornaments.

What is a ornament loving girl to do....I guess she just must find other places to put them of course! We just moved into this house on Halloween, so I don't have as many "extra" ornaments out as usual-or perhaps it just doesn't seem that way because we have more room in our new house.

At any rate, here are some of my favorite things to do with ornaments.....


I LOVE transferware (that is where part of the "toile" in my blogname comes from) and I really love it when I hang these simple red ornaments on the plates.



I bought these little monogrammed cuties when they were 1/2 price last year, with plans to hang them on my dining room chairs, but this light fixture seemed so lonely...



This ornament is one of the many that I hang from my kids' bedroom curtain rods. I love that I can match them to the colors in their rooms. (Actually, that means I can get all excited about the fun, new colors they seem to come out with every year. (Who is "they" anyway? Experts in New York?)



This is another favorite trick, hang ornaments from your lamp switches.


Ooh, ooh, oooh, big ornaments on top of things, that is fun too...



Yet more big ornaments, on top of my kitchen cabinets.



Sometimes the ornaments don't even look like ornaments, this is an example of not being able to resist the cuteness. I haven't found a cure for that illness yet, but I'm not looking that hard for one either.



Here are some ornament (these are actually cheap, plastic ones mind you) I mixed into my fireplace candle thingy (that is a very technical term, use it wisely).



These are tin ornaments hanging from my french doors in my kitchen and dining room. Proof that we moved in just weeks ago...the paper shades. Actually, I shouldn't dis the paper shades, I used the same kind in my bedroom for 8 years, really I did.




More extra ornaments I stuck in a glass terrarium, I have also seen people put them in a glass cloche or simply pile them in a bowl. You can't go wrong with Christmas ornaments, seriously.



These ornaments are a good example of loving the cuteness yet having to find a spot for them. I found these at Cracker Barrell last year and loved the colors and the words (the ceramic rectangle and the cute stocking). I got one of each of the designs and hung them from a cafe rod that I hang my kids' artwork from in the family room.


Finally, ornaments stick in some greenery along with some lights. I love it! If you don't have lots of "stuff," fill your house with greenery and lights, it will be fabulous!

"Ladies, Frost Yourself"

Name that movie....

Okay everyone, this is one of those things that turned out even better than I planned it to. I have to give you the whole story before I get to the “how-to” so just hang in there with me.

I have two side lights beside my front doors ( I think that is what they are called) that are solid, clear glass.

Here is a little piece of trivia about me…I’m one of those people who like to drive around neighborhoods at dusk (when it is getting dark and people haven’t put their blinds down yet) and see how others have their houses decorated. I’m not a climb into the bushes “tom the peeper,” more like the drive by kind.

But at any rate, I don’t mind people seeing in my windows, but I would like to have some control about when they can and can’t. I love the light that comes in from these windows so I didn’t want to block it completely and they are pretty narrow and I thought that blinds or curtains would be too heavy. I am a “Designed to Sell” freak and I saw how they used a spray paint “frost” and I thought “I can do that!”

The other exciting thing was I have been reading about the Rust-Oleum spray paint thing at Shanty 2 Chic and I wanted to participate, but I thought “I don’t have time to create a project just to play with the other bloggers.” But last night my hubby and I were getting ready to spray one of the windows and LO AND BEHOLD….the frosting spray I bought a month ago (before I knew about this party) is no other that RUST-OLEUM! Whoo Hooo! I was so excited! I get to play too!

Anyway, here is what I did.
I found a stencil that I loved at your friend and mine, Hobby Lobby. I was going to spray with the stencil directly on the window, but as I thought about it I decided that wouldn’t provide enough privacy. (If I did it that way only the "swirly" parts would be frosted, most of the window would remain clear) Keep in mind, I have had the spray frost for over a month so I have been pondering the how-to aspect for quite some time. Just last week, as I was falling asleep, I had a revelation to use contact paper and make a sticky stencil that would cover the whole window.

So I got the contact paper and traced the design (over and over) all the way down the paper. (I first cut the contact paper to fit the window). This is the contact paper stuck to the window with the design drawn on it.

Next I stuck the paper onto the window, then the tedious part began. All those cute little swirls had to be cut. one. by. one. Remember I wanted more frost than not so I had to leave the swirls on the window and remove the bulk of the contact paper.
Here is where it helps to be very meticulous or, in my ever so grateful case, have a meticulous husband.

More trivia about me, as you have in read in previous blogs I have decorating ADHD. I LOVE projects, but I love quick projects more. Maybe I am more of an immediate gratification kind of girl.

At any rate, each step of this project is a little time consuming. So,put on some good music, put in a great Christmas movie, or have someone to keep you company while you cut, cut, cut away.

Here is my hubby cutting away with an exacto knife. That sweet man spent a few hours cutting out all those little swirls for me.

Next, get your Rust-Oleum Frosted Glass spray and shake it sister. If you are in a tight space where you can’t isolate the item you are working on, use some kind of barrier (Hubby and I held up cardboard on each side of the window) to protect your walls and other close by objects from the frost shrapnel. You will notice on the can it says “spray in a well-ventilated area,” boy are they serious. I would hold my breath, spray about a foot’s worth of window, and then stick my head out the door and breathe! We had the front doors open, but that stuff is pretty stout. At any rate, we put about 2-3 coats on the window then the removal process begins.

As I mentioned, I am not meticulous—I am more the impatient type. I started to take off some of the swirls and a ripped a few small pieces of frost off the window. Then I decided I would have to score around the swirls before removing them. I did a few, but then my precious meticulous man stepped in and scored and removed the rest.

Drumroll please lblblblblblblblblbl...(that's a drumroll)

It looks amazing! I am so pleased with the results!

Thank you Rust-Oleum!! Thanks to you I am off to play with the other bloggers at Shanty 2 chic!!

Oh, now we just have to do the second window…..

P.S. The title is a quote from the movie "How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days"

I am also going to link up to Donna at Funky Junk...I just love her and her great ideas!

What Do Math, Decorating and Christmas Have In Common?

*this is an updated post from 2009*

I am a teacher.

I must have an answer for everything.

So when a child asks me "Am I ever REALLY going to use this?" I need to be able to definitively say "Absolutely."

So when I say this idea on a napkin, I knew I had to make it mine.

For the non-math people this means "Ho ho ho." (The example I saw had (ho ho ho) under the big "Ho" (insert your own jokes here), so I understood what it meant, it might have taken me while otherwise :)

Simple instructions...
Pick two colors
Use one to paint a canvas (mine is about 8x10)
Find a font you like and print out your phrase
Cut out the letters and trace them with a pencil
Paint the phrase with the 2nd color

For those of you with a Cricut (or however you spell it) you can whip this out in a second.


I gave this my daughter's 4th grade math teacher who happened to be covering exponents that week in class! By the end of the day the whole school was asking each other:

"What is HO cubed?"

They even stumped the principal!!

I'm linking up with The Homebody. Come by for other great gift ideas!

Decorating ADHD

I sure hope I am not the only one who has experienced this. I decided to be up front and just get all the bad stuff about me out there! Today I am going to introduce myself to you all through some pictures (good and bad). I am a big believer in being transparent and I want to show you how having a beautiful home is not always a beautiful process. So many times I get overwhelmed at the mess and feel like a failure because of it. We live in a world of "before and afters," I think I personally need a little more "durings." By seeing that other people get twelve projects going at once and have decorating ADHD, maybe others will feel a little better about their own personal decorating chaos.

Speaking of projects, here is just a sample of what I have going on today (and will more that likely continue into tomorrow):

Decorating for Christmas
Here is where I get overwhelmed, this is only part of the room. It is actually my dining room, but it has become my "staging room." While it drives me nuts to have everything all over the place, I am thankful for an extra room that I can do this in and not have to live amongst it while I decorate!




Painting a Buffet
I am hoping to reveal it on "Better After" or "DIY Tuesday" It is actually turning out pretty cute. All this "blog-spiration" has really helped spur me on to come up with some new, fun projects.




Unpacking...
have I mentioned we moved into a new house 2 weeks ago. Nothing like trying to get out all your everyday pretties and decorate for Christmas too! I think there is not a corner in my house that doesn't have some kind of clutter in it. Overwhelmed is an understatement! But here is picture of the house the day we closed. I will focus on these clear spaces until I can create them again!!



Nursing a Recovering Child
My youngest daughter, Annabel,just had her tonsils and adenoids (along with ear tubes put in)removed yesterday. I'll won't post a picture of her in all her post-surgery glory. Let's just say we both are having a "keep your hair in a granny-do, wear your pj's all day" kind of day!

If you have just found me, which is the case because I have a whole TWO big posts, here are some things that I am going to post in the near future (maybe curiosity will keep you coming back!)...

1. buffet reveal
2. I'm going to join on TDC's Christmas tree shin-dig
3. What my obsession will toile looks like
4. The before and afters of my house, let's just say not a room has gone untouched
5. Christmas decorating toile in the family way
6. Card table redo
7. Ode to A's
8. Mighty warrior
9. Do it yourself silhouettes
10.Craft table

No, I don't have all these projects completed (actually most aren't even started) but knowing I have maybe someone waiting to see them, I will get them done! It is kind of like how you invite people over to your house so you will get some of those long forgotten projects done! Maybe I'm the only one who does that...?

Please come back and visit. If you have any stories of your own personal decorating ADHD, I would love to hear it and feel a little more normal!!

There's a First Time For Everything

Well, here goes. My very first attempt at blogging. It took me three days just to get the very basic set-up. I have no clue what I am doing. If anyone happens to read this and can give me any design tips or just blog tips in general I would appreciate it.

The reason I have started blogging is because of some of you. It all started when my husband and I were going to add onto our house and I was searching for some ideas for the bathroom. Somehow I ended up on some personal blog and I saw something cute and clicked on it and that took me to another blog, clicked on something else and just kept going. (I grew up in the days of the "Breck" commercials...my blog travel was much like those commercials "and I saw two blogs and so on and so on and so on.") Anyway, I am overwhelmed at all the cuteness in cyber-world. So basically I am blogging to help me keep better track of some of you. I have so many on my "favorites" but I think it might be easier to follow if you were on my blog page.

I am going to try to post some of my favorite projects and copy-cat ideas. (I have heard it said that copying is the highest form of flattery so I plan on flattering the snot out of some of you---I'll will try to give proper credit though, give me some grace as I get used to this new media.) I also will write a little about my life. I am trying to raise a blended family and I know many people out there are doing the same. Perhaps we can all learn something from each other.

Anyway, I look forward to getting to know you!