Nursery Wall Mural

 I've been cleaning out the office to make a little spot for DD to nurse Baby Lyla, or for Lyla  takes a nap.  I cleaned out the closet the other day.  Got rid of a LOT more stuff that was NOT needed or I had no clue what it was. 
Yesterday, I decided that Lyla's little corner was naked.  It needed something.  So, I did an Internet search for wall mural's.  There are a LOT of soon-to-be-mom's doing trees.  I have nothing against trees.  I actually LIKE trees. But, I didn't want what everyone else was doing, either.  I sat in the middle of the floor (YES! You can actually sit on the floor now) and stared at the wall.  I got my paints, brushes, and embellishments out and decided I would paint a few little flowers on the wall.  Not a lot, mind you, but a few. :)

Now, before I post the photos, let me put this out there: I AM NOT AN ARTIST OF ANY KIND.  That is DD job.  She is the artist in the family.  So, no judging on the job. :)

 This is the wall I stared at for a very long time.

 Boomer making sure I got it just right. :)

 So Here is what I started with.  I was happy, but it needed more of something.

 So, I decided to do the other side of the corner....

 Cute, huh?  But, it STILL needed something.

 So I added some vines.

 and some butterflies and bees...

 and some heart leaves...

 Close up of the butterflies.  I just hot glued them onto the wall.

 I then added some more flowers...

 and leaves, and even added a couple of lady bugs.

 This is the finished results.  Again, I am not the artist in the family, but I like it and it is colorful and it give Lyla something to look at.  I am going to add a few more items, like some window boxes and put some fake flowers in them, and I will hang a lady bug from the ceiling.

My little Lady bug.  I am also going to stencil "Lyla's Garden" on the wall, as well.  DD saw it, loved it.

Is it a professional look, no.   Was it done with a lot of love?  Most definitely.  Within 10 or so days, Miss Lyla will join our family and we sure can't wait.

Closet Makeover

Hey everyone!  It has been a CRAZY week!  The other morning, as I was sitting in the living room with J, he looks over at me and says, "Ya know...DD is going to have that grand baby of ours any day now."  (REALLY?  You just NOW realized that!)  I said, "Yeah, I know."  He says, "Maybe we need to clean out the office and make a space for the baby and DD."  After picking myself off the floor, I said, "That's a big project, honey.  It could take WEEKS."  DH says, "Yeah, but you can do it.  I'll help."
And, so the cleaning out process began.

This is the closet before I tackled it.  It is such a tiny closet. Deep, but not very wide. So the first step was to take everything out.

And, it's now cleaned out, including any spiders that were in there.  As you can see, it's deep, not wide.  Of course, DH left for work, so I was the one doing it. :)  There were things in there I had no clue what they were.

 All of my craft supplies are on these two shelves.  They were sitting across the room in the corner.  I wanted to put them in the back of the closet, facing out, but again, not a wide closet.  They sit nice and snug to the side.  I tried to get an inside photo, didn't work. 

Here is the 'for now' finished closet.  I am going to get a hanger for the ironing board, and DH is taking the door out (it's one that slides and is very noisy) this weekend.  I'll hang a cute curtain up for the door.  We also have a couple of shelves we're going to put up inside the closet for extra storage.  

This is going to take a little longer than a few days, I think.  

This is what it looked like a few days ago.  We had already began cleaning and as you can see, we have a 55 gal. trash bag almost full of trash.  That bag is full and the second bag is half full.  

As I/we work on the room, I'll post about it.  And, hopefully, we'll have it done (or close to being done) by the time baby Lyla arrives.

Gershelda

Christmas Curtains

 I hope you all had a wonderful food filled Thanksgiving.  I made a big mistake the other day.  See, I have a few slipped disks in my lower back.  I've been unable to go to the Chiropractor (time and money shortage) so I had my son try to pop my back.  HUGE MISTAKE and yes, I know better.  Needless to say, it's been a very long week waiting for the office to reopen.   I manage to do a few things to post this week, and I hope you enjoy them. :)

Compared to some, I'm not a big Christmas decorator.  Oh, I put up the tree and do a few things like my bird house village and my Nativity on a side table in the dining room, but that's pretty much it.  I decided to do something in my kitchen this year.
See, my dining room and kitchen are one huge room and it looked really...wrong with the dining room decorated for Christmas and not the kitchen.  It was like I stopped half way through.  So, I did a little something in the kitchen.

For this idea, all you need is  Kitchen curtains, ribbon and a few embellishments.  This is a 2 part tutorial.  It's not hard to do, nor is it time consuming.  Thanksgiving got in the way and  I had to stop.  I will bring the rest later today.

 Get some ribbon that 1. goes with the color scheme of your kitchen and 2. has a Christmas feel to it.

 Cut your ribbon into 12 inch length strips and find the center of your curtains and tie a bow.  Trim the tails.

 That's it.  You can use clip on Christmas flowers, hang pine cones, or ornaments in the window using fish line or Christmas ribbon. Which I did and will post photos later today.

 Close up of the bow.  My windows really need to be cleaned. :/

Sit back and enjoy the view.  

I'm sure after my back popping this morning, I'll feel like a new woman!  That's the goal anyway.

Have a great day!

Happy Thanksgiving

As usual, I'm busier than an cat in a room full of rocking chairs!!!  It's been a crazy week and it's getting even crazier because tomorrow is Thanksgiving!  I spent most of the day sitting in a doctor's office just to get a couple of refills.  Don't they know I've got things to do? :)

My wish is that everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving, filled with fruit pies, turkey, dressing and hot rolls.  Take a look around you tomorrow, while you are spending time with friends and family, and say a prayer of Thanksgiving for what you have.  Live in the moment, take it all in, and hide it within your heart.

I'll be back next week with some great crafting projects, recipes and thoughts.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

The Page Family

Santa Pillows

Are these pillows NOT adorable?  I'm going to show you how I did this and just how simple and easy it is to do.

I wanted to dress up a few of my pillows for Christmas.  I did a little search on the Internet for some inspiration.  Wasn't much out there. The CLOSEST I got was this pillow found here.  But, I didn't have the white fluffy stuff or the belt. 

And, since I am a huge fan of "using what you have on hand", I wasn't willing to part with the green stuff and buy it.  So, after a quick inventory run through my head, I got some of the left over black felt I have from Halloween, my red pillows, and my hot glue gun and got busy.

 So, the first thing you need to do, is wash and dry the pillows and black felt.  Smooth out the pillow, pulling out the corners, if needed.

 Take your felt and cut a strip about 4 1/2 inches wide and long enough to go around your pillow.

 Fold the felt over to make a strip that looks like the one above.  Hot glue the edges if needed.

 Take your hot glue gun, and run a strip of glue on the edge of the felt and place the felt on the pillow.

 Go all the way around the pillow, hot gluing where needed.  Overlap the edges and hot glue them down. 

 Turn pillow over and this is what you have.

 Next, take some toilet paper rings (I have plenty)

 And, cut them open, like so.

 Take gold glitter spray paint and spray them.  At this point, I would strongly suggest you put some paint in gold on the toilet paper rings before glittering. I didn't and it soaked in big time!

 Once they are dry, take them to the pillow, or bring the pillow to them, :)  Measure the strips to fit over the black felt. Take hot glue and glue all four pieces into a buckle.

 If you pre-painted, you will probably get to skip this part.  Respray the buckle with glitter and allow to dry. 

Then, line up the 'buckle' and hot glue to the black felt

 I placed my pillows outside.  I suggest if you are going to be using these inside, you use some clear coat spray to cover the buckle so glitter doesn't get everywhere.

 They look like Santa's belly.

Here are the finished 2 that I did.  I actually love them.  I placed them on my front porch.  Now if we just had some snow and not leaves, it would be perfect.

Thanksgiving Center Piece: Looking back

It was an insanely, busy weekend, beginning Friday night.  Hubby and I went to Walmart to buy groceries and a few Christmas gifts.  We got in bed late, and was up early Saturday morning.  We spent most of Saturday store hopping, and when not doing that, we were putting up our Christmas decorations outside.  Saturday night, hubby and I went on a "date".  Yes, we still go on dates.  Sunday, more of the same...stores, decorations and in between all that, we had visitors,  tried to keep all the trash picked up, we cooked lunches and dinners, and generally had a great weekend!
In all the busyness of the weekend, I had no time to set my weeks schedule.  So, I thought since Thanksgiving is 3 days away, I'd take a look back at some past posts and see what looked good.

Take a look at this tutorial for a Thanksgiving Centerpiece.

It's easy, simple (my favorite craft) and elegant.  Have a great day.

30 Days of Thanksgiving: Part 2

Monday, I did of my 30 Days of Thanksgiving Part 1.  Today, I will try to finish it. 

30 Days of Thanksgiving Part 2

16.  I am thankful that all my bills for the week are paid, and we have a little left over.
17.  I am thankful that I have most of my Christmas decorations up and no one has been seriously hurt. :)
18. I am thankful my Aunts will be joining us for Thanksgiving this year.
19. I am thankful we have a wonderful person taking care of our Father and keeping him safe.
20. I am thankful for the warm sunshine we're having this week.
21. I am thankful for the peace and quiet I get every afternoon so I can reflect on life.
22. I am thankful that we have freedoms to worships the way we want.
23. I am thankful for the hidden gifts we don't realize we have until we need them.
24. I am thankful that I have the ability to forgive those who hurt me, or disappoint me.
25. I am thankful for my Memory Garden my husband made.  All the plants and flowers have come from family or holds a special memory for me.
26.  I am thankful for laughter and love in my life.
27.  I am thankful for the abundance of God's blessings for my family.
28.  I am thankful for my washer and dryer.  They make life so much easier.
29.  I am thankful that I am able to wake up each morning and thank God for yet another day.
and...
30.  I am thankful for Thanksgiving!  The day we can come together with family and friends and just be together.

What are YOU thankful for?

Picture Frame Wreath

Don't you just LOVE wreaths?  I LOVE them.  I have one on my front door almost all year and for every occasion.   I have a LOT of picture frames....5 boxes of picture frames.  I found them at at yard sale for 5 bucks!  I saw a few of them I liked and was looking at other things, when the lady brought out 5 boxes of picture frames!!!  I asked "how much?" and she said "5 dollars for all 5 boxes."  I grabbed them up so fast made my own head spin!  Most of them I used to put my photos of family in, some just stayed in the box until I needed them.  I have a few left and decided to make something with one of them.

Pick out a frame

Sand the frame

Take those tabs on the back...

and bend them down.

Get a stack of paper plates to pour the paint in.

Paint the frame, including the sides white

Apply 3 coats of white paint

Then, apply red paint (or paint of your choice).

Apply 3 coats of paint.  Let it dry.  Take sand paper and lightly sand the frame.  Then, take some distress ink and rub it on the frame.

Pick out some pretty lace and grab the hot glue gun.  Don't rush this part.  Take your time.

Then get some cording in a coordinating color.  I picked gold.

And hot glue that on top of the lace.  Again, take your time.  Don't need any burned fingers. :)

Get some ribbon and make a bow, or if you have a bow that is in your color scheme, use that. Attach to the top of the frame.  I needed to add a dot of hot glue to hold mine in place.

Pick out 3 ornaments, and use some 1/4" ribbon to string them up.  Tie to the frame and hang.

This project takes about 3-4 hours because each coat of paint must dry before proceeding to the next step.
Simple and easy, but packs a punch!  Try it and let me know how it turned out.