Table “Pin-spiration”

Well, hello there!

Bet you’re surprised to see me on here so soon! I’m making more of an effort to post regularly…we’ll see how long that lasts!

This weekend we’ve got a yearly event at our church called Rejoice. It’s basically a dinner with some testimonies and singing at the end. But what makes it unique is that all of the tables are decorated by individual women in the church. No two tables are alike and it’s always AMAZING to see what people come up with!

I signed up to decorate a table for the first time this year and I gotta admit, I’m a little intimidated! I’ve got some basic ideas in my head but this week I really need to get it nailed down…seeing how the event is on Saturday –ha!

My plan is to go really natural – burlap, greenery, etc. Here are some of my “inspiration” pictures from my Rejoice pinboard on Pinterest.

Source: la-petite-cuisine.blogspot.fi via Amy on Pinterest

 

My “centerpiece” is going to be a Christmas tree in a galvanized bucket, kind of like this. I’ve already got a tiny porch tree and a friend is letting me borrow a bucket. I’m planning on wrapping it with some sort of burlap garland and maybe adding a few simple ornaments from my stash.

Source: confessionsofaplateaddict.blogspot.com via Amy on Pinterest

 

I absolutely LOVE this ruffled burlap table runner – I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make mine look that pretty so I may need a back-up plan if not

Source: tradgardsflow.blogspot.com via Amy on Pinterest

 

And these big hurricane type candleholders with the greenery and burlap – so pretty!

Source: vintagefeedsacks.blogspot.com via Amy on Pinterest

 

I also love this old sheet music printables with Christmas carols. I’m not entirely certain yet how I’m going to incorporate that – maybe one under each plate?

Source: 4.bp.blogspot.com via Amy on Pinterest

 

I also love the idea of “brown paper packages tied up with string” – and I just noticed these have sheet music wrapped around the middle too!

Source: pinterestschunt942.blogspot.com via Amy on Pinterest

 

And finally, I’m going to use Scrabble tiles to use as name placeholders at each setting.

Hopefully it will all come together as beautifully as it looks in my head!

Have a great day!!

Christmas Tour of Homes!

Happy, happy Friday!

Today I’m linking up with several Christmas blog tours to give you a peek at what our house looks like all decked out for the holidays!

I’m still loving the bronze/gold colors that I’ve been using upstairs for the past couple of years.

I absolutely love these old ice skates that I got from a junk sale this fall. I love how scuffed they are – you can tell somebody got a lot of use out of them!

The crates are also junk sale finds – I love them!

Last year I had used tulle for a tree skirt but since I made the new ruffled tree skirt this year, I decided to wrap the tulle around the tree instead. I think it looks really pretty!

Don’t you just love the mantle with that one lonely stocking hanging there?

This slate was yet another junk sale find! I just love pieces that have history! Anyone else think of Anne of Green Gables smashing her slate on Gilbert’s head?

Dave bought me the Willow Tree Nativity last year – someday I hope to collect all the pieces!

Here are the fun ornament window clings that the girls love to play with on our always dirty glass door

And here’s our dining room table.

(Thank you, Captain Obvious.)

I found that candle centerpiece at Kohl’s on clearance last year – I think I paid $2.90 for it? It goes perfectly!

I never quite know what to do with all our Christmas cards and I’m too cheap to buy a card holder so I just strung them along our staircase with some twine.

In the basement, we have our “fun tree”. If you ask Lily which tree is her favorite she will say without hesitation that it is this one because of the colored lights. I remember feeling the same way when I was a little girl! I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to put boring white lights on their tree or outside their house!

I used all the fun red decorations in our basement bath. They just didn’t seem to fit with the way I had things decorated upstairs!

And just for fun, let’s look at the differences in our living room over the past three years:

2009

In the process of building our fireplace!

2010

Fairly similar to this year, but a few small changes.

2011

Always good to be reminded that making your house a home is a PROCESS, definitely not something that happens overnight!

So that’s our Christmas home. Hope you enjoyed!

*************

This post is linked to:

Show us Your Life – Christmas Tour @ Kelly’s Korner

Tree Skirts and Stockings and Pageants, Oh My!

We’ve been having fun doing lots of Christmas-y type activities around here.

I finally got around to making a tree skirt and some stockings that have been on my To Do list for some time.

First, a tree skirt. Last year I used tulle which worked fine but then I saw a link for this tutorial via Pinterest. It looked easy and I already had everything on hand so I thought I’d take a stab at it and I think it turned out pretty well!

Like everything I make, it’s completely imperfect – mine is smaller than the one you see in the tutorial because I somehow managed to cut my circle lopsided and had to make some adjustments.

Also, I used painter’s drop cloth for the ruffles instead of linen.

And I burned my fingers with the glue gun approximately 874 times. That doesn’t really have anything to do with anything, I just thought that you should know.

Then I made these stockings.

Ok, I made this STOCKING, singular. The rest of them are in the works. The plan is to do two of them with ruffles and two with pleats, as per my inspiration found here.

She used burlap which I loved but I used (surprise, surprise) some canvas painter’s drop cloth because it’s what I had on hand.

Plus it will match my tree skirt and I’m just going to pretend like I planned it that way.

I’m also going to pretend like I meant to make my stockings with a square toe instead of round.

And last, an Advent calendar, which is also not completely finished.

I was inspired by this calendar that I saw….wait for it…on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Amy on Pinterest

 

I just used…drumroll please…canvas painter’s drop cloth to make the little pockets, but I have yet to number them. I’m still trying to make up my mind how to do that. Possibly stencil them, maybe find some fabric and do an iron on or make numbers with buttons. Clearly not something that’s going to get accomplished this year, but if I start working now, maybe it will be ready for next Christmas

In other non-crafty news, Lily had her first Christmas program a few weeks ago.

She was adorable. And I’m not being biased, just see for yourself.

And this was what her face looked like when she spotted us in the crowd. Be still, my mother’s heart! I hope she’s always that happy to see us

We’ve also been doing lots of other neat Advent activities, but this post is already insufferably long so I’ll save that for another day.

Happy Wednesday!

Tree Skirts and Stockings and Pageants, Oh My!

We’ve been having fun doing lots of Christmas-y type activities around here.

I finally got around to making a tree skirt and some stockings that have been on my To Do list for some time.

First, a tree skirt. Last year I used tulle which worked fine but then I saw a link for this tutorial via Pinterest. It looked easy and I already had everything on hand so I thought I’d take a stab at it and I think it turned out pretty well!

Like everything I make, it’s completely imperfect – mine is smaller than the one you see in the tutorial because I somehow managed to cut my circle lopsided and had to make some adjustments.

Also, I used painter’s drop cloth for the ruffles instead of linen.

And I burned my fingers with the glue gun approximately 874 times. That doesn’t really have anything to do with anything, I just thought that you should know.

Then I made these stockings.

Ok, I made this STOCKING, singular. The rest of them are in the works. The plan is to do two of them with ruffles and two with pleats, as per my inspiration found here.

She used burlap which I loved but I used (surprise, surprise) some canvas painter’s drop cloth because it’s what I had on hand.

Plus it will match my tree skirt and I’m just going to pretend like I planned it that way.

I’m also going to pretend like I meant to make my stockings with a square toe instead of round.

And last, an Advent calendar, which is also not completely finished.

I was inspired by this calendar that I saw….wait for it…on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Amy on Pinterest

 

I just used…drumroll please…canvas painter’s drop cloth to make the little pockets, but I have yet to number them. I’m still trying to make up my mind how to do that. Possibly stencil them, maybe find some fabric and do an iron on or make numbers with buttons. Clearly not something that’s going to get accomplished this year, but if I start working now, maybe it will be ready for next Christmas

In other non-crafty news, Lily had her first Christmas program a few weeks ago.

She was adorable. And I’m not being biased, just see for yourself.

And this was what her face looked like when she spotted us in the crowd. Be still, my mother’s heart! I hope she’s always that happy to see us

We’ve also been doing lots of other neat Advent activities, but this post is already insufferably long so I’ll save that for another day.

Happy Wednesday!