The stockings ARE hung!

Since Chris and I aren't lucky enough to have a mantle, we have to come up with creative ways to hang our stockings each year. This year I decided to use something I bought at a yard sale. I don't know what you would call it, but I fell in love with the legs and had to have it. Chris took it to work and cut it apart for me and I gave it a couple of coats of black craft paint and sanded the edges.

Before

After

I realize this would look so much better if we had matching stockings and the dog's names weren't scribbled on in sharpie.

Yeah, I used thumb tacks....I meant to get little hooks but I forgot.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

I am going to try to post some pictures of our tree tonight!

Janna

Ornaments and Jewelry

I hadn't posted any pictures of our tree yet because it wasn't fully decorated. I had held off on putting the ornaments on the tree while we decided if we were going to get a real tree or not, and since we're not it's now decorated. I couldn't believe how much better the tree looks with ornaments on it! It looks complete now. I will take some photos of the full tree tomorrow, but I wanted to share some of my favorite ornaments with you.

The second one on bottom is a plumber santa for 
Chris. The silver ornament use to belong to my grandma.

My future SIL Kim was recently given a shoebox filled with brand new Lia Sophia jewelry. She was so generous and shared a few pieces with me.

I love this necklace!!

I know this is a bad picture, but do you know how hard it is to get a good picture of jewelry??

I tried taking a picture wearing this bracelet, but it was horrible.

Some cute silver earrings.

Janna

Bringing the Outdoors IN!

Chris and I decided not to get a real tree this year because a) I think 60$ for a tree you'll use once is too expensive and b) because I don't want to mess with the mess this year. I do miss the smell and the texture that comes with a real tree... I decided to bring in the texture at least by trimming a few branches of our local trees and arranging them in different ways. I LOVE them and can't wait to bring in more.

This is one of the wall baskets I got for free at a yard sale.

So Cute!!

                              

 

I also brought in some holly branch

  I just stuck them in a cute little vase.

  This helped fill the void of not having a real tree this year and brought in some cute decorations.

Janna

Christmas Photos

I don't really have anything to blog about today. I have been working a lot and havn't had time to do any decorating or crafting. The other day, my sister posted a picture on faecebook of the two of us at Christmas time many years ago. I love looking at old pictures of myself and my family so I thought I would post a few of my sister and me at Christmas time.

I have always loved this picture of me! My mom decorated this scene on the porch and she even won the decorating contest in our town that year.

I believe this pic is from the same year. Did you notice my pink pacifier?? That was my "bobo" and I had to have it with me at all times.

My mom started a tradition of buying us pajamas every year and we got to open them on Christmas eve. These were drop bottom pajamas... I loved that cardboard doll house, and I could even fit inside of it and close it around me. I told my sister she looked like a boy in this picture!

That's all I have for now. I hope you enjoyed them!

Do any of you have some old Christmas pictures you want to share????

Oh, I  have a brother too, but by the time he came around my sister and I weren't so cute.

Snowflakes

Hi my name is Janna and I am a copycat... I can't help it, there are so many creative blogs out there with so many great projects. I have been following Let it shine for a while now and she is so talented and creative. If you havn't checked out her blog yet, you should. A couple of days ago, she posted about these adorable snowflakes that she bought at the Dollar Tree. She used a glaze on them to make them look old and german glass like and hung them from the ceiling. I fell in love with the idea so I had to run to the Dollar Tree as soon as I could. I didn't get the same snowflake ornaments that she did, but I love them just the same. I also didn't have a glaze, so I just sponged some Minwax stain in dark walnut on mine and I love them. They are cute when you buy them, but they are just a little too glittery and bright.

It is so hard to get a good picture of the before and after.

I think they look a lot better after the stain and not as cheap either.

As you can see they are very messy.

I couldn't get a good wide shot last night, but I'll try to today.

Janna

Christmas Wreaths!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. Chris and I went to his aunt's house for dinner and we are going to my parent's house this weekend to visit with them. I have been very busy lately with work, but I did find time to make some cute little wreaths. You guys have probably seen, or made, these before, but I love them and they are so easy to make. All you need is a wire hanger and about a yard of material.

I start by cutting my fabric into strips about four inches long by an inch wide.  Next you take your hanger and form it into a rough cirle and secure it at the top. .

Then you start tieing your strips into a knot on the hanger.

I used a faux silk fabric on this wreath and it frays so bad, so I singed the edges a little with a lighter.

This is the faux silk wreath and I know... it's a little lopsided.

I think this is the cutest wreath!

Please ignore my ugly scrub top...

I thought this fabric would look like a candy cane, but I think it looks more like a circus tent.

I also wanted to show you this pretty wreath that my soon-to-be SIL made for me. Thanks Kimmy! Love you!!

Janna

Window Frame

Do you guys remember the small window frame I got at a yard sale a while back? I would show you a before pic of it, but after installing Windows 7 I can't seem to find any of my old pictures. It wasn't a real window, more of a decorative one. I didn't really have a plan for it when I bought it, but it was only fifty cents so I couldn't pass it up.


Last night I was a little bored, so I pulled this out and began to work on it. I painted it an off white linen color, sanded the edges, and used a little Minwax to darken them. It looked really cute, but I still didn't know what I was going to do with it.... then I remembered what Angie did with an old window. She placed scrapbook paper behind the glass and it turned out so cute. I thought that was a perfect idea, so I copied.

Do you think I need to add something to the middle??

I kinda like it the way it is.

I know it blends in with the wall, but I'm going to move it.

Did you notice the mistake I made??

I didn't have enough paper to spread all the way across..

Oh well...

I also wanted to show you a couple of pics of my roomate's dog,Wrigley.

Isn't he adorable?

Wrigley thinks he's a pug too, at least that's what his dad says.

Janna

Cafe chalkboard

I have been going through a dry spell over here people!  My schedule for the past two weeks has been work,sleep,work,sleep. I agreed to work some twelve hour shifts(which totally kicked my butt!) and even worked some overtime. All I can say is (A.) I am glad the long hours are over with and (B.) I am glad Chris is back at work! Speaking of, guess where Chris will be working for the next few months... At SIU! He's so happy about getting this job because it's right here in town and he gets to sleep in since he doesn't have to be there until 7:45. Usually he has to get up at 4:30 or 5:00 so this is going to be a treat for him!


My sister,Jennifer, called me the other day and asked if I could make her some kind of chalkboard to hang on her refrigerator. So I started thinking about what I could use and I found these in my to do pile. I have a plan for them, but I thought three of them would look just as good as four.

So I painted it,sanded it,destressed it, and painted their initials on it.

I had trouble coming up with a board for the actual chalkboard, but I eventually used the back from a poster frame. I know this isn't what most of you would use, but I am impatient and this is all I had around the house.

Speaking of impatience...This is me trying to cut through this board with a steak knife!

It didn't work by the way....

I went to my sister's house tonight and we used her skill saw to cut the board. She was even nice enough to cut out three for me! We both felt like the frame needed something at the bottom so we printed out this scroll design and transferred it using a pencil and then I painted over it.

Jennifer is doing a french cafe theme in her kitchen so we decided to paint "cafe" at the bottom. Let me tell you I am not good at painting anything this small. The "cafe" is horrible, but it works for now.

To finish it off, my sister used her staple gun to hold the board in and I had a roll of magnet tape that I put on the back.

Janna

I'm so sorry I have been away so long! I had a major case of the flu all last week, and am just now feeling human again. I have never ever been hit with the flu like I did this year, and I even had myself convinced it was the swine flu.(it wasn't) Anyway, I'm better and I can't wait to get back to my normal life and crafting!

I just got back from the HUGE yard sale, and I don't think I lost any fingers from frostbite but I'll have to get back to you on that. Seriously, it is so freakin cold outside and I bought so much, and had to carry it all by myself, that I thought my hands were going to fall off! Chris and Matt, our roomate, went with me but they kept running off to the food stands.

Look how full that bag is!!

The yard sale went all the way around the top of the stadium.

That's Chris in the grey hoodie in the pic on the right. He had three shirts on and two pair of pants.

Okay, on with the loot!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this, but it was only fifty cents.

This is actually a beadspread (that's what the little lady told me), but I'm going to try to use it as a tablecloth. It was only 25 cents.

And because I didn't want to just buy stuff for myself, I bought this Griffon leather bottle holder for Chris' man room.

What was the first thing Chris asked??? Does it have any alcohol in it? I should have known! This was three dollars.

I bought these cute candle holders. The big one was four and the small one was a dollar.

I was so excited when I saw these and I'm not even sure what they are for sure. I think I'm going to put some fabric behind them. I got four of them for  two dollars.

I love this! I'll have to paint it, of course.

I also bought this cute purse for four dollars. It is brand new and it's from NY and Co.

Well, that's all I bought. I almost bought a pair of milk glass lamps, but I forgot to go back and get them.

Janna