Christmas Tree Skirt

So this year Steve and I got to decorate our house and have our own tree for the first time since we've been married. Even though we don't get to have a traditional christmas with our families we are super excited to celebrate with friends and this year while decorating I discovered that our tree skirt was missing. I bought this one like 4 years ago and it was nice but definitely cheap so not too big a deal, but still a trees just not the same without a skirt. First I decided to improvise a pretty poinsetta tablecloth. it was nice but definitely wasn't our favorite choice, but you know they charge so much for tree skirts at the store and we really are trying to save money so while we were choosing our awesome christmas sweaters we found this plaid tablecloth that I liked.

 I brought it home and a couple hours later, voila! A brand new homemade tree skirt. I think it turned out so pretty and it was so easy to make.

 Best part about it is that we only paid $5.99 for it as opposed to $20 for a store bought one that isn't as special since I made this one! I never thought about making something like this before. It was so much fun! 

For anyone interested in making one for themselves here are a few tips that may help.

• Start by laying the cloth on the floor or a table depending on your space.
• I used a tape measure and found the center point of the clothe and then measured out about 30 inches this is where I put pins to mark how far out to cut. 
• Make sure that you have 2 pieces of cloth to cut in the circle. 2 make a better and more professional looking project.
• Then cut the circle and then cut a slit to the middle. I luckily had the plaid to measure by so this was easy.
• Then cut a circle in the middle about 3 inches wide. Mine was square to match the cloth pattern.
• Next making sure the two circles are pinned together with the inside facing out you sew around the edges and the slit but leave the middle circle un-sewn so you can turn right side out.
• Then turn right side out and iron.
• I sewed around the outside edge again this time taking extra caution to make it straight and everything is done except the middle.
• For the middle I just put some cloth folded over bottom and top and sewed it around so that it has a hem over it and it looks very nice. And I guess thats pretty much all.

Ugly Christmas Sweater Fun

Over the years we've all witnessed some truly unique Sweaters on TV. 

Mr. Rogers with his family friendly beautiful day in the neighborhood. And the Dr. on "The Santa Claus"whose sweater is literally screaming!

 We all Remember Mrs. Weasley and her knitting fingers, and Lastly and maybe the king of ugly sweaters Bill Cosby who doesn't need to go to the gym, a runners sweater really get the heart pumping!

So here is our tribute to years of yarn abuse. We went to the Goodwill in Appleton over the Thanksgiving break and would you believe we found so many ugly sweaters we had a hard time deciding which was ugliest. So we tried them on and below are the results.

Now I know some of you out there are still ugly sweater wearers so don't by offended by this post. We all have at one time or another. We just thought we'd share the joy of christmas! Also its funny how an astonishing amount of the sweaters were found in the women's section. I wonder why it seems girls are more prone to the ugly sweater than men. Either way we will be wearing our awesome sweaters this weekend for a christmas party and then those of you holding your breath in anticipation will see what our final choices were.

We Decked The Halls Early

           

        
              Here are a few pictures of our tree. I don't have a picture of the entire tree cause I'm having a hard time taking one with the lighting in out house. Its nothing fancy anyway, but that actually suits me just fine. I don't feel like its christmas unless the trees has all those fun ornaments that you collect over the years. I like trees that don't have to match and be all fancy. 

I also put some decorations on top of the piano for fun. I have a santa hat and stocking and I made some Lego houses and a christmas tree and the words Merry Christmas. I know, and yes I am a Lego nerd. When I teach piano lessons I let the kids play with my Legos and they have so much fun, but I still love to play too. I still remember when I was a kid. I had a hard tim sharing cause other kids didn't build as nice as me. I have to have perfect patterns and clean lines. I love to organize. Weirdly enough I'm still like that. I just love to organize.  Now if only I can find a career that lets me do that all day long and never get bored.

Gift Wrapped Just For You!

All right here is another project born out of laziness, making more work, meets inventiveness. I had a baby shower to got to for a dear friend and I got her these adorable christmas onesies, but I failed to buy wrapping paper at the store and I hate spending money on things like that, so I got the onesies home packed them in a box and then started the fun part! I decided to invent my own wrapping paper. I took some copy paper and drew out the words "Its a Boy" in block letters and then cut them out to use as stencils. I then stenciled them on and drew boxes with pictures all over and tapped those papers on the already covered in white paper box. I then filled in all the gaps with random pictures and Voila! A gift is born. The ribbon was the perfect accent and I luckily already had that on hand, Yay! So for anyone else who likes to doodle while your in church and thought it would never come in handy, here you have a new outlet.

Fall Wreath On A Budget

So in case you hadn't noticed I've got the crafty fever. I'm now mildly addicted to all these craft and furniture remodel blogs and I'm so excited to be able to create its so much fun. So I wanted to make our house feel like Autumn was here. I love fall and its the first one I've been able to enjoy for a while. So back before halloween I got this idea to make a fall wreath from real leaves. This craft literally cost nothing, zilch, nada! I went to the park with Sophie and while she chased the squirrels I collected the pretty leaves. Its interesting cause even though all the leaves are pretty much the same I did have standards and would only pick leaves that were dry and not holey. I got home and took some cardboard and stapled together a bunch of strips until they were the size of circle I needed then got out the stapler. Stapled the leaves in groups of three to the cardboard and kept adding til it was as full as I wanted. I think it turned out pretty dang awesome. I added some pretty orange ribbon to the top, though it doesn't pop out enough it still has the effect I wanted and ta-da!!! One beautiful fall wreath paid for only in the hour or two that it took me to put together! I also used some wire and made a garland that looks pretty awesome. 

A Look Of Complete And Total Boredom

Some days I'm amazed our dog doesn't fall over with boredom. We're really not that entertaining and so she often sleeps through the day that is when she isn't out in the yard keeping it safe from our jackolantern face eating squirrels. She's such a sweet dog though. We are often amazed at how evenly tempered she is. She doesn't bite or have annoying habits and asks permission before doing things like jumping on the couch (we don't give permission for that) or trying to eat our food. Anyway I just love our Sophie and wanted to share how much joy she brings to our lives.

Also this picture shows a little sneak preview of our new couch. which I will do a whole separate post on since its pretty much our dream couch and we are so excited to have this new one.

S is for Steve or Smelly or Smarmy. Seriously!

So I didn't do this exactly like the one I saw online done, but I spent less money on it so I'm happy. I added a sequin flower to it for color and S is for Smith. I just loved this idea and this frame was less than a dollar at the Good Will here in Saginaw, plus instead of fabric I just printed polka dots on paper and wrinkled it up before adding it. I also drew and cut out the S from a cardboard box. Yay for inventiveness when you don't have what you need! Here's the link from the blog I got the idea from. House of Smiths Go ahead and try it yourself you know you want to!

Book Wreath

This week I've been working on a few random projects to make our house prettier. Its a bit tough since we have a strict budget and can't spend on decorations much but found this fun idea tried it out and I think its so cute. It was almost a free project since its made from book pages and ribbon I already had. If you want to see the instructions to make your own here is the Blog link; Katydid and Kid

Sharing Time

Fall ends for me when there are no more leaves left to fall!

I wanted to share some fallish pictures I hadn't added yet of things I done and seen this fall. Anyone who knows me knows I love fall and can't help but wanting to take a drive into the mountains to see all the beautiful colors every fall. I used to make that drive with my friends in Utah, but since I'm lacking the mountains and those friends I've settled for non mountain fall. Its been beautiful here though. I've been able to visit lots of fun places I never would have in Utah. I went to apple orchards, a pumpkin patch and down to Frankenmuth to see there fall festivities. So its been a great fall and I've been happy.

Here's a little catch up on what's been going on around here. Steve is almost done with his OB/GYN rotation, and for that we are so very thankful! He is excited to be done. Some days he comes home happy and he got to help with some births or the surgeons he worked with were awesome that day, but some days are not so good. There are some doctors that are hard to work with, like the one that yells and swears at his patients. (I think he usually does that to the unconsious ones) But still working with him is not a hay ride and a stroll down a lane. So obviously we've marked this area off our list of possible careers and thats fine with me. Last week he had to work the late night shift and would go in at 6:30 PM and come back at 8:00 AM it was probably our worst week.  It sucks having him gone all the time. and I was busy running errands in the morning so I didn't see him a ton. My week was awful because everything that could go wrong did. My computer crashed I locked myself out and I got paid to stand out in 36˚ weather for 10 hours and came home a semi-human popsicle. Not to complaing or anything but I'm glad that week is over. This week has been much better. but I want to leave its events for the next post when I can put some good pictures to it. So anyway so excited to keep moving forward!

Birthday Cupcakes

I forgot to mention that one of our friends was so sweet. She made a birthday cupcake snake and it was so cute and delicious. I just feel awful that I didn't get a good picture of the snake it was so so cute. It had M&M scales and black licorice legs. I love excuses to eat cake and candy. I never really loved black licorice, but I need to find out what she used for the legs cause it was so good and I feel like I've been converted. Thanks Natalynn You're the best!

Jackolanterns to Squirrel Food

So here are some pumpkins that were carved at our house this year. We had such a blast carving and I was so excited cause I made a vampire pumpkin and there were some really fun designs. Then we set them on the porch and slowly at first the teeth started getting shorter and then the eyes got bigger until there was nothing but a gaping hole and I totally caught the squirrels eating my pumpkin. I'm glad we can help set up their winter food storage. They are so lucky to have us. Sophie especially loves chasing them. No worries she's never caught one and when she almost did she starting swerving around so that the squirrle would have a chance to get to a tree and that just gave her a longer funner chase. I just love our silly dog.