Merry Christmas to All...

Merry Christmas to all my friends out in blogland!

 Here is my favorite Christmas insight of the year.
"The Bible states that the wise men, having found the Christ, went home another way. So should we, after having found the Savior, return to our homes, families, and work another way. We should be different people, forever changed by the experience of turning our lives over to the Savior."

I am so grateful for the blessings of health, love, peace, and prosperity that my family enjoys. Thank you for being part of my life and sharing in the journey I make as I try to make my home a better place.

Little Rocker for the New Little Prince

My son and his wife are having their first baby and I wanted to make something very special for the new little guy. I found this childs rocker at a yard sale and got the ultimate bargain. Can you believe it? I paid only a quarter for him!! Unbelievable. Here is the before in all his nastieness.

 Sorry I got all excited about redoing and took off the rockers before I remembered to take a picture.

Lovely worn vinyl covering. And when I took it apart it was unbelievably dirty. Yuck.

I had to take the entire piece apart and then put it back together. This was much harder than you would think since it was put together with long nails and screws. I couldn't believe how much work it was to recover such a small piece. I am going to redo my wingback chairs so this was a practice run. Now I am rethinking it though until I have about a week off from work to devote to the job.

Finally finished. I covered it with Miss Mustard Seed's go to fabric, drop cloth from Lowes. Then went to the Graphics Fairy and found this cute crown to put on the back. Sorry it is a bit off to one side, but I discovered that after it was all put together and I didn't have the energy to take it all back apart to fix it.

I had some vintage decorative tacks to finish off the sides and back. Not sure how old they are, but the package was originally 19 cents so that dates it a bit. Got them from my mom several years back when she was moving and knew they would come in handy eventually. Didn't have enough to put them real close together but like the look.

 I painted the rockers with DIY chalk paint in ivory and slightly distressed them and then waxed them with Minwax. Like to use what I already have on hand.

 Cute little guy under our tree ready to go to the baby shower.

 A chair fit for a sweet little Prince.

Here is the sweet mom to be with the chair. She loved it and it is going to look so cute in her son's nursery.

There were the most amazing cupcakes at the party, not only were they cute, they tasted amazing!

And here I am with my sweet DIL. Can't wait to see our sweet little prince. He is due February 18. My birthday is the 21 so maybe she can hold out and have him on Nanna's birthday. That would be an awesome birthday gift.

Christmas Around the House

I finally got my decorations up and will be posting some of what I have done. I have had so many projects going on this month I haven't been able to post, but the projects are getting finally done. I am hoping to be able to rest the week before Christmas and just bake cookies. I will post some of the finished projects later. I know I should have posted my trees and my mantle separately but since this is my one shot before Christmas to get this posted I did it all in one, so please forgive me.

My mantle is dressed mostly in silver and white although I did leave my clocks up so there is a bit of gold thrown in as well. I made my husbands stocking from old blue jeans with a fleece cuff, made that the first year we were married. My stocking was obtained from a crafts faire and was made from a vintage coat with mink trim and tails. One big splurg three years ago. The Peace stocking holders are from Hobby Lobby bought at clearance last year. There is no Hobby Lobby here so my sweet sister sent them to me. She is always helping me out that way.

The Santa is one that our dear DIL sent us from Germany three years ago when our son was stationed there in the army. The reindeer is from Pier 1 two years ago. Not sure where the silver trees came from, but probably from Michaels last year on clearance and the clocks are all gifts or yard sale finds. If you know anything about me you will know I love clocks and have collected them for years. I also love antique mirrors and there are two of them on my mantle. The white one was found in an old barn.

 This is my Santa tree that I set up in my atrium. It is full of vintage and handmade Santas. The small sleigh is full of vintage ornaments bought a few at a time at the exellent yard sales we have around here.

 This little guy is about 50 years old and I am the only owner. My sister bought him for me when we were children and he has always been one of my treasures. He lives in a display case most of the year, but at Christmas he gets to hang on the tree. One year one of my sons threw a football through the tree and broke him, but I managed to fix him and he is no less for the wear.

This little guy was purchased at a yard sale and I was told he was a German  Santa and was at least 50 years old as well. There were three of them and I kick myself for not buying all three, what was I thinking?

 My main tree all decked out in silver and white, for the most part anyway. I have silver fabric draped beneath for the skirt.

 I found this cute idea on Pinterest and made about a dozen of them to hang on the tree. Very fun to make. 

 I tucked vintage postcards between the branches.

Also an old baby shoe I had made into a pincushion and I thought it might look cute hanging out on the tree.

My chandy lighted and unlighted. I hung more of my vintage ornaments from it.

 This is a puzzle my sister gave me one year that I framed and hang up every year. Love it, I never tire of seeing it, in fact if I could get away with it, I would leave him hanging there all year. You will have to excuse the reflection of the lights from the tree in the picture, but I am too lazy to go back and take another picture.

Last but not least in my elf on a shelf, he never really goes anywhere since there are no small children here, but I do love him. Also my snowman I bought at a crafts faire several years ago and the sign that says it all. I hope all of you will build those memories this wonderful Christmas season that will have us all "still believing." Merry Christmas my friends.