The Valentine’s Touch

So….Valentine’s Day is coming. I wasn’t even going to put anything out until my daughter reminded me that “it’s a holiday, Mom” “that’s what we do.” Huh. Who’s her mother?!

I’ve expressed my feelings before about Valentine’s Day. Small. Doses. It won’t work if it looks like Cupid threw up all over your house. Unless you like Cupid. And vomit.

I guess if your house looked like this, what difference would just a little more red make?

I find that I’m pretty conscious about how I go about this holiday that too many people overdo holiday of love. A small touch of red or hearts can go a long way. Case in point?

One of my favorite decorations is one that has a little ribbon to hang it from. I think they’re pretty universal. Anywhere you have a little knob or thin candle, these hang wonderfully! There’s usually a feather ornament here, but this little heart does quite well in its place.

Why, yes. That frame does still say Hobby Lobby. Why, no. I don’t plan on changing it anytime soon.

Well, looky here. Another heart from a ribbon. The frame houses a picture of my husband and me, but we don’t mind being smothered by a giant beaded heart.

It’s a cute touch, and it can easily be removed. On February 15th. At 12:01am.

I finally tried my hand at a pennant craft, and it nearly broke me. I couldn’t figure out what I wanted, but I think it turned out cute (and simple). I used my Silhouette to cut out the flags (genius!), and stuck some little letters on there. Done.

I used thin jute/twine, and it wasn’t quite the effect I was going for. It works, though, and I’m liking it in this space.

A little touch here, a little dash there. I can live with that.

Oh yeah. Resolutions.

1. Lose 50 pounds. The key to attaining this goal is to not be particular about how I lose the 50. How much does a right foot and two pinkies weigh?

2. Go to bed earlier than midnight. Or start sleeping in until 10:00 every morning and get fired from my job. Not sure which direction I’ll go on this one just yet.

3. Cut Justin Bieber’s hair. I have no plan of attack at the moment, but I think achieving goal #2 will be a step in the right direction.

4. Have my eyebrows waxed more often. This might not seem like a significant goal to you, but when your hairdresser refers to you as a wooly mammoth, you might consider it.

5. Make my kids do more chores. This goal allows me to negate what would be goals #6-72 for myself. It’s quite brilliant of me, really.

                              Less                                               More

 

Whatever your resolutions are, I hope you have a wonderful new year! Stay safe!

2010: In a Nutshell

Another year gone by? Really? This is the point where I start to think, “Did I even do anything this year?” and my friend Rhoda from Southern Hospitality decides to have a party to remind myself that I did!

Perhaps the largest undertaking was also the most rewarding. Board and batten treatments were quite the “blog rage” this year, and I’ve never looked back since completing mine. I’m simply in love.

You can read more about it (including specifics about the how-tos) here, here, and here.

The year also included some other projects around the house. Making the office into my craft room was a moment of genius (albeit much delayed genius), and I had fun putting the girly touches on it.

This girly lamp wasn’t so girly when I purchased it. We’re talkin’ eww to ahh here, people.

Adding some spray paint to an organizer helped me to organize my obsession with love of stationery.

Then there’s the ol’ “fly by the seat of my pants” project that made me swear like a truck driver. If you’re a truck driver who swears a lot. When reupholstering chairs.

What’s a craft room without organization? I was in some definite need of storage space, so I resorted to a $23.00 beauty (that didn’t start out that way) to add to the space. Just another one of those love at second site things.

Organizing. It makes my heart flutter with delight.  I gutted by laundry room cabinets and prettified them with spray painted bins and colorful ribbon. How can you go wrong with those elements?

Speaking of colorful ribbon (nice segue, huh?) Some chopped up cardboard and a dollar store basket changed my life—well, the life of my ribbon—by keeping it all together.

I was able to use a picture-turned-canvas as my inspiration for a baseball wall for my son’s room. Unfortunately, this is temporary. Yup. 2011 will bring some major changes for this room. Until then, appreciate the baseball nostalgia.

And with a year-end wrap up, would it really be fair to exclude the holidays? Remember any of these around here? You can click on the pictures to go there.

  

Well there you have it. Some highlights of 2010 at JaG’s place! The good thing is that now I’m looking forward to the new year—which includes new projects! That’s normal, right?

The Wishmas Tree

 I started thinking that I push the idea of thankfulness at Thanksgiving, but then I turn around and encourage the kids to “make Christmas lists”, “think of what you want for Christmas” blah, blah, blah. I spotted this little tree at Lowes, and a light bulb literally went on over my head.

When I brought it home, I cut up some strips of craft paper and was ready to tackle the decorating. If you ever take on a similar project, I have one piece of advice—don’t get overly wordy in explaining it to your little ones. Kids apparently “get it” that you want them to think outside themselves every once in a while. They made that very clear to me.

The concept was simple. While we sat down for lunch, the kids were to come up with wishes for other people this holiday season. I tried to keep the guidance to a minimum, and they came up with the most heartwarming wishes. Some were more universal…

Some were reflective of what 8-year olds are thinking about right now…

And some made me cry…

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Some coffee filters served as a little bit of filler, but the decorating was left up to the wishes. I think I’m in love.

So that leaves me with my wish. I wish for all of my blog friends—my blog family—to have a safe and happy holiday. I am so thankful for your comments of encouragement, your words of advice, and your ability to make me laugh. THANK YOU!

I’m off to visit family for a few days. I’ll be back next week! Stay safe!

Wrapping Presents: Keep it Simple

I tend to get a number of comments about my wrapping paper. I think I need to let it be known that I would love to spend more time on my wrapping. The idea of giving a beautifully wrapped gift is an important element of gift-giving to me. 

However, when it comes to Christmas wrapping, it’s a matter of survival for me. How can I wrap 6,319 gifts without drowning in the time it takes?

Here’s how…

I keep my paper and tag choices to a minimum, and I use jute, twine (are they the same?), and yarn to wrap them.  In the past, I found that half of my wrapping time was spent choosing the paper for the person or finding different coordinating bows to wrap them with. Indecisiveness, be gone! It’s so much easier now.

And here’s the result I get from it…

 

I can’t tell you how much easier and faster this process is, and I highly recommend it. What I do NOT recommend is to continue buying different holiday papers because you just can’t help it when you see them in the store.  It kind of defeats the financial benefits.

So when wrapping Christmas presents, perhaps you could consider the three F’s 1. Festive 2. Fun 3. Fast. Of course, maybe your F’s are 1. Fondue 2. Floral wire 3. Fushigi. That would be just as acceptable, I’m sure.