My Front Door Christmas Garland

My birthday was a few weeks ago. I love to decorate my home for Christmas as my birthday gift to myself. My birthday fell on Saturday. Delight! My family was so sweet to let me get a little sleep. I slept until 9. I was thrilled! This was the first Saturday in about 8 weeks that I didn't need to rush off to a photography session. While I absolutely love photo sessions, I had carefully circled and marked the 17th on my calendar as a day to decorate and get ready for Christmas. It was such a relaxing day.

 Hannah fixed the BEST breakfast casserole in my honor. The tomatoes were from my garden and delicious!  Fresh tomatoes in November. Who would have thought?!

After the majority of the house was decorated, we headed for Hobby Lobby.  Yes! One of my favorite stores on my birthday.  Mr. Incredible waited in the car...a football game was on.  Hannah and I had as much time as we wanted to shop.  Yes!  I found what I was searching for.

We ate dinner at Outback...some sweet friends and clients had blessed me with a gift certificate. Yum!

While we watched the movie Brave, I put together my front door garland.  I didn't purchase my things at Hobby Lobby, I found it all, except for the garland, at Sams.

All you need is enough garland (I bought pre-lit garland) to line your front door and sidelights.  I purchased 27 feet, or three garlands. You also need netting (also from sams).  I think I used about 5 rolls of red and lime green.  And then I also purchased shatter proof ornaments from Sams and 2 packages of large ornaments from Sams.

I carefully placed my garland on the floor and gave it a good fluffing.  Then, I started putting the netting in loops and using the garland, attached it to the garland.  I used some garland to tie each loop to the garland.  You could use wire or zip ties too.  Here is the garland with the red mesh added:

And then I added the lime green mesh/netting.  I tried to alternate loops:

I made fairly large loops.  I wanted to cover up the greenery so that you mainly saw the loops, ornaments, and the lights.  Hannah and I carefully placed the 8 large ornaments.  They are also from Sams and shatterproof.  We used green zipties that I already had in my craft closet to attach to greenery.  You could probably use wire if you prefer:

The large ornament that says, "Believe" is my favorite.

Then we filled in with various shatter-proof ornaments. I also used zip ties on these:

And then I would like to say that we hung it up and it was fabulous! But, I can't! We had super small command strips that didn't hold the heavy garland.

After church the next day, we headed back to the store for much larger command strips.  They worked perfectly! Here is my garland:

I love it! 

Prom Tables

I didn't mean to leave you hanging from last week's, I think it was last week's, prom post. The centerpieces were finally finished and it was time to decorate.

My camera was already set for group photos, so I simply snapped these two images with my Iphone:

I thought the centerpieces went pretty well with the decor of the beautiful atrium. And this year instead of giving students commemorative wine glasses, I don't like the message that sends, we opted to give frames instead...I really like this idea.

We put together all of the animal wrapped columns...I burned three blisters on my fingers in the process with the hot glue gun.  My instinct was to put my finger in my mouth to cool the burn, I'm so thankful I didn't.  A burned tongue too would have not been fun at all!  I didn't take pictures of the food tables or the chocolate fountain because I was too busy once prom began.

I had fun taking portraits of the Juniors and Seniors and the Prom King and Queen.  We didn't just take traditional pictures.  I thought this was more fun:

Here is one of the portraits that I took.  Yes, we had a serious shot too, but the student seemed to like the mustaches that Hannah and I had made and I did too:

It was a fun night, but I am soooooooo thankful that I had my Rachel to help me. We were crazy busy and on our feet from 5:00 until we fell into bed around 1:30 that morning. Whew!

Prom Centerpieces

This was my second year to get to plan the Junior/Senior Prom. It's always a fun challenge to carefully plan every detail while staying within budget. I met with the Junior prom committee and we decided on the theme, "Safari Romance." I like anything animal print, so the color scheme was fun, and the venue is decorated with a rain forest, safari theme already. Our invitations were so cute and the student body seemed especially excited about prom when they saw them.

Thursday evening before Prom, Hannah helped me with the centerpieces. I thought you might like to see what I came up with.

I purchased 12 jars from Dollar Tree..the were a dollar each. And I gathered rocks from my vegetable garden pathways and filled them halfway:

And then we looked at what was suppose to go in the jars and realized, we filled them with rocks too soon.

So, we dumped them back in a bowl and started over. OIY!

I purchased the rain forest like greenery from my favorite place, Hobby Lobby, when it was on sale for 1/2 off.  Yippee!  I found some curly willow branches to add to them too.  We carefully added the greenery and branches to the glass jars, added more pebbles and rocks to keep the jars sturdy and used some left over burlap to tie around the jars:

We added some green rain forest like leaves and bamboo sticks to the larger arrangements that would go on the food tables:

And then I cleaned up my kitchen that was covered with broken pieces of willow branches, pebbles, and dirt from the garden...and then we fell into bed exhausted. 

Toga, Toga, Toga!

This past Saturday night, after returning from Hannah's cross country meet, and after taking a delightful 2 hour nap, and after purchasing a few awesome new photography props for some upcoming newborn photo shoots (that was a long intro huh?), it was time to Toga, toga, toga!

Rachel was invited to an "epic" 18th birthday party for her friend Jami.  Everyone was invited to wear a toga to the party realizing that black lights and washable paint loaded into water guns would be there too.  I grabbed a cheap black top sheet and started working on a toga for Rachel.

I use the word "working" loosely because it was 20 minutes before the party when she asked for my help.  Oiy!  No pressure!  So, I ripped that sheet in half and started layering.  I was working at the speed of light, she even had a cute little flower made out of the sheet by the time it was over.

Rachel looked in the mirror and wrinkled her face.  No go!  So, I tried it again, and I liked this one even better and it was without the fancy flower.  Nope!  She didn't like that either.

Hannah and I wrapped her again in the toga and finally...success!  Before she walked out the door, I snipped off a little of the edge of the toga, braided it together and threw together this fabulous headband.  Please, now refer to me as "so very Martha!" Oh, I'm kidding! 

Here is the 3rd toga attempt...and I think the toga princess is actually smiling!

Yes, yes she is smiling.  Woo hoo!!!!  Toga, toga, toga!

Rachel had an absolute blast at the party and came home covered in glow-in-the dark paint that looked quite fabulous on her toga underneath the black lights.

Hannah and I celebrated creating 3 different toga looks in a matter of 15 minutes by having Chilis to go for dinner.  Delicious!

Office Overhaul

I can't believe I am going to post these pictures....I really can't.  If you have read my blog long enough, you know my life is certainly not perfect and I don't always have it together.  Most of us have a junk drawer, right?  Don't you have a junk drawer?  Anyone???? 

For the last few months, as I launched my photography business, put together all of my marketing materials, and dreamed big dreams for this new adventure with the Lord, I collected more than a junk drawer...um I hate to admit it... but I had a junk room. Yes, an entire room.  Granted my office is only 10 x 14 but still, it was junk-y!

My office became the catch all, end all, throw it in there and hope to be able to close the door room. Really, it did and I'm not proud of that fact.  My mother raised me better than that!  When it became difficult to navigate my way into the office in the wee, hours of night, (where I could work without feeling guilty that I might be neglecting my family) without fearing that I would hurt myself, I knew it was time to fix my junk room. But, I really didn't want to.  It was a mess!

I put on my big girl panties and got to work.  Wanna see the before photos?  They are straight out of the camera...I didn't even take the time to set my white balance so the photos are as bad as the room.  Ready?  Ok, here goes (deep breaths on my part...starting to break out into hives...not believing I am sharing this with the world):

See where it would be hard to navigate my way to my computer in the dark?  I was taking my life into my own hands, I tell you!  And see in the top right photo all of my beautiful marketing materials put away so carefully...on the floor!  I couldn't stand it.  They needed a better home.

I don't have an explanation for this photo above...or even my quirky decor on the right.  It was during my Mary Engelbreit phase, ok?  I actually sewed this little wall hanging and hung it on a twig I retrieved from our front yard.  It has hung in this same spot for the last 10 years and it was past time to go.

I carefully cleared out the room and realized what a great space it really is.  I am so thankful to have a home office and I hope to take much better care of it.  Here are a few pictures of the Office Overhaul...that was done for less than $100. 

I have room to walk around and everything.  Woo hoo!  My photography marketing materials have a new home and even the tissue paper for my packaging has a home too.  I used inexpensive curtain rods from Target (tar-jay) to hang my tissue paper from and I think it adds just the right amount of color over there and it's practical too. 

I bought sheets to make a sort of covering for my new shelving unit but I'm taking them back tomorrow.  I thought that I would like to have my "stuff" covered up but I know myself well,  it will just get messy again so I'm trying to embrace the open.  I cleaned out the tall shelving unit and now I have a place for photography props and I really like that. 

Not bad for a few hours and less than $100.  I like my re-organized space so much that I actually spent the afternoon designing Christmas cards for my clients.  Delight!

Okay, I exposed myself to the world...my office anyway (where is your mind?).  Now, it's your turn.  Do you have a junk drawer?  Or room?  Tell me, tell me.  I want to know...so I can feel a little better about myself.  Ha! 

A Summer Scarf

A few months ago, I watched the Martha Stewart show where she made spring ombre (my spell check would really like for ombre to be Hombre~ha!) scarves. I thought that they were so adorable and since my girls and I like to sport a scarf, I thought this would be so fun. Here is a link to her instructions.

I went back to Hobby Lobby for cheesecloth, tie dye, and soda ash a few months ago and once again stored them in my craft closet for a rainy day craft project. Again, I was trying to keep my baby girl happy and off of her leg so this was the perfect day. I carefully washed the cheesecloth and dried it and then soaked it in soda ash for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, I covered my kitchen island in black trash bags and used little post-it (oh, how I love Post-its!) tags to mark every 6 inches. After the soda ash soaking, it was time to wring it out and then begin the dye process. It was fun but messy.

I kept thinking as we were creating, that Martha makes everything look so easy! My beautiful white sink was now all manner of colors and I even had some dye on my tile floor and on my cabinets. So not-very-Martha! Oh, well, it was fun!

We let our little scarves dry for 24 hours and then I began rinsing them...individually of course. I looked like Smurfette when I was done. La, la, la, la, la, la (remember the smurf's?). My hands were a nice shade of blue. Note to self, put the gloves back on when rinsing dye out of the scarves! Oiy!

I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed until I looked like I had dish pan hands. I washed each scarf and then dried them on high. The colors held so well and they sort of look like Martha's Ombre Scarves, but not quite as perfect. Fun times together!

A Little Tote Bag Makeover

I saw this idea few months ago but carefully tucked the idea away in the back of my brain somewhere for a fun, summer craft project. Here is where the fabulous ideas came from: http://ashleyannphotography.com/blog/2009/11/21/diy-doily-canvas-bag/

Since the nurse told us to keep Hannah off of her leg for 2 weeks, this was the perfect time to craft. Just FYI, it turns out, the nurse was mistaken...can you believe that? After the Holy Spirit's prompting, we again called to talk to the doctor. He was a little upset when he heard what his nurse told us to do! When I explained to him that she was able to play for the rest of the basketball game after her fall, he was more than reassuring that her hip does not have a fracture and he wants Hannah to walk on it as much as she can. Yippe!!! But, during the 2 LONG days that I kept Hannah off of her leg and at home, I tried to be creative.

I bought canvas tote bags from my favorite craft store, Hobby Lobby. I bought them when they were on sale and just kept them in my pantry until the perfect craft day. I already had craft paint and doilies and a fabulous assistant.

It was really easy. I lined the inside of the bag with newspaper, sprayed elmer's spray glue on the back of the doily, placed it on the canvas bag, and then used a foam brush to stencil the doily to the bag. After we were done and while the paint was still wet, we removed the doily. Easy-peasy! I would like to paint a K or a cute saying or verse on the inside but my helper was getting tired and I like the simplicity of just the doily so we called it a day.

Here are our pictures:





Thanks, Ashley for a great idea!!!

I Skinned my I-Phone!

I'm still thinking about that photography part-time thing and then I take 200 photos of my girls at the beautiful Botanical Gardens in Ft. Worth and they ALL turn out in hues that are too warm. Oiy! Thankfully, I have some Photoshop skills that rescued them. So, yes I'm still on the fence about the whole thing.

Anyway, I found a cute idea for possible clients that have I-phones. I think it would make a nice thank you gift for them or even as special father's day gift (don't tell Mr. Incredible...his Motorola Droid will be so fabulous on Father's Day). But, I wanted to try it out myself first.

I uploaded one of my recent favorite photos and placed an order for an I-phone customized skin hoping that I would love it.

UPS dropped by my house today with the skins and they are so cool!

Here is my I-phone before:





The skins just waiting to be applied:



And the after. From drab to fab!



I don't know how well they will protect my I-phone; I may have to purchase a clear protective cover but I certainly like seeing my photograph on my phone. What do you think?

I am Sew on a Roll!

I am having so much fun taking pictures with my "Big Girl" camera. Mr. Incredible blessed me with my Nikon D60 over a year ago and I love it! But, after seeing so many cute camera straps around blog land I started to want one too. I finally decided which one I wanted to order from SheyB and when I started to order it, I realized that it was going to be at least 4 weeks before it would be mailed. Shey B camera straps are gorgeous but patience is not my strong subject, so I decided to make my own very simple version.

This is what my camera strap has looked like for the last year:



I looked in my craft closet and found this beautiful black and white damask-like curtain material that was left over from Rachel's bedroom makeover. I found some cute pink ribbon too:



I like all things girlie, so I wanted a ruffle on my camera strap. I sewed a somewhat straight stitch down the middle of the ribbon. I didn't back sew because I wanted to be able to pull the strings tight to form the ruffle:



Then I carefully sewed the ruffled ribbon to the material:



It isn't perfect, but that is okay.



I then turned the material insides in and wrapped it around my camera strap. I pinned it close the edges of the camera strap...I am so good that I didn't use a ruler~I hope you heard the sarcasm in my voice. And then I carefully sewed the length of the material.




The hardest part was turning it right sides out after sewing it. It's certainly not perfect, but neither am I. I like having some girlie-ness on my camera strap and it only cost me a little bit of time...as in 20 minutes.



I might just have to hot glue something over that double crazy-stitch on the pink ruffle. Ha!

Sew Easy T-shirt to Halter Transformation

I don't know about where you live, but goodness, gracious it is HOT in our part of Texas. You know it is going to be hot when you wake up in the morning and it is nearly 70 degrees already. I hear a cool front is on its way....we are looking forward to 98 degree temps instead of 108. Oiy!

Needless to say, we are doing our best to stay cool. I don't know what came over me, it must be the heat, but I actually got out my sewing machine....yes you read that correctly, I GOT OUT MY SEWING MACHINE...instead of my beloved glue gun. If you have read my blog for a while you know that I love my hot glue gun. Mr. Incredible has his real guns and I have my hot glue gun. I would rather hot glue than sew any day! But, this project needed a little sewing.

So, I took a few deep breaths and dragged out the sewing machine. Deep breaths...deap breaths....I think I can, I think I can. I even remembered how to thread the bobbin (I think that is the right wording). Woo-hoo! My goal was to transform a t-shirt into a halter-like top.

This is the t-shirt that I started with. It belongs to Hannah; we bought it on our trip to St. John, USVI last summer. The sleeves are a little long so she doesn't wear it very often:



Presto, chango-o, I grabbed some scissors and cut the sleeves off. Speaking of scissors, I don't have any good sewing scissors anymore. When I was a little girl I remember my mom protecting her "good" scissors from my all manner of craft projects....now I understand why:



Next, I cut across the top of the t-shirt. I just eyeballed the whole thing. Remember I am not a seamstress....I am queen of the glue gun:



I then folded down the rough edge of the top of the front of the shirt about an inch, I think, and carefully tried to sew a straight stich from one side to the next. I did the same thing on the back of the shirt. Surprisingly, it looked okay:



I rummaged through my craft closet and found some cute black with white polka dot ribbon which would be perfect for Hannh's new shirt. I cut off about 3 feet, give or take ten inches~ha! and then attached a safety pin to one end and began threading it through.



And here is what the new t-shirt looks like now:



Hannah loves the new look and so do I. The back of the shirt looks just like the front-I didn't want it to be a true halter top. I liked it so much that I fixed up one of my old Baylor t-shirts and one of Rachel's t-shirts too~she is at work, so won't she be surprised when she comes home (no, I didn't cut up one of her favorites). I think the whole process took only 30 minutes and the best part is that it was all free. Hello sewing machine....it's nice to see you again!