Show and Share Day

Before I say anything else, I want to make sure to remind you that Monday is a BIG, BIG day at JaG! W'e’re kicking off the holiday season with the 3rd annual Handmade Holiday party! Work like crazy over the weekend and get those tutorials ready! See you then!

If you’re the type of person who’s looking for a good deal every day (who are we kidding, right?), then my giveaway this week is JUST for you!

A Side of Peaches is a daily deal site that offers goodies for women for 50-80% off!  This is one site that you will not want to miss! It’s basically like Christmas every day. You never know what you’re gonna get!

A Side of Peaches is offering this B-U-Ti-Ful owl locket for one lucky linker! I love this, and I have three outfits picked out for it. Just sayin’…

Link on up, and I’ll announce the winner next week! I can’t WAIT to see what you’ve been up to this week!

Mantle Fallification-ism-ty.

*~*Scroll down for the Geezees canvas winner!*~*

Soooo it started with this wreath (thanks for all your encouragement, by the way).  Whatever I did to the mantle was just gonna have to work around this bad boy.

 

I shopped the house for most everything. I snatched these cone trees up at Hobby Lobby a few years ago, and I’ve loved them ever since. They’re the perfect sparkle and color for this spot.

I basically shopped the house for the other items. It’s amazing how fun it can be to move things around and feel like they’re new. It also helps that I stick to a general color scheme throughout my home. It sure makes it easier to shop it!

I knew I wanted some extra pops of orange this year, so the only things I purchased were the two glass pieces below. One was .99 and the other was $1.99. Big spender, I know.

Orange sticks in the candle below. $4.99 at Meijer three years ago. Another lucky find, I guess!

I definitely wanted something a little more streamlined since Halloween had a lot going on! It’s festive, yet calming for me. Can’t go wrong with that! Of course, after all that work, my husband’s response about the mantle was, “Yeah. Nice. I like how cheap it was.” Of course you do, dear.

  

Congratulations to the winner of the Geezees canvas!

Kalleen At Second Street

Just send me an e-mail, and I’ll get you in touch!

The Pinecone Hunt=The Pinecone Wreath

• Me: Hey guys, who wants to go on a pinecone hunt with me?
• 8 year old: Yeah!!! Come on, everyone! Let’s go on a family pinecone hunt! (Yes, she really did say that.)
• 11 year old: Ehhh, I think I’ll just stay in here.

It’s official. 11 years old is apparently the age in which our annual pinecone hunt is no longer worthy enough to get my son to go with us. Never fear. He went. With some persuasion.

It’s at this time of year, that I find myself once again on the prowl for some free, natural items to decorate with. Thank goodness for our backyard. 

While my daughter daintily carried her basket and picked the “perfect” cones, this is how my son decided to hunt.

Even my husband decided to get in on the search. Notice his vice grip. Poor little cone was probably screaming for dear life!

And then there’s the Nemesis. He kept catching deer scent, so he was running around all over the place. This is the only picture I have. And it’s of his butt.

Luckily, the hunt proved very plentiful for us! My husband kept saying, “Isn’t that enough?” Poor guy. So naive.

Well. Wanna see how I did it? Here we go. First of all…I gathered a lot of pinecones. :)

I had a styrofoam wreath in my basement (yes, really) that I decided to use. I think it was about $5.00. I spray painted it brown so it wouldn’t show through as much when the pinecones went on. I couldn’t find my dark brown paint, but I would recommend that in the future.

At first, I tried to place the pinecones in some sort of pattern, but it really didn’t work out for me. I basically placed them on one at a time and squished them into some sort of fit.

I worried about the top first, then I plugged the cones onto the exterior and interior sides.

 Once it was all done, I went back with some tiny pinecones and filled in some gaps that I thought showed too much.

While it only cost me $5.00 to make, I’ll admit it took me a while to do. I’d say it took 3 episodes of General Hospital and a half a Lions’ football game. Yes, that’s how I think.

Oh, and a ton of glue sticks. Like, literally a ton. I guess you can imagine how heavy this wreath is then.

This is a sneak peek of the fall mantle. I’ll be back later to show the rest!

SAS in Review

It was another one of those weeks. You ladies are so talented! I had sooo many I wanted to feature, but alas, my children took precedence. Darn Rugrats! Here are just a few highlights of your fabulousness!

Paige at Faith’s Place transformed (and I mean transformed!) her stairwell. You have to see the before pictures to truly appreciate how beautiful it is now!

Really? WHY haven’t I thought of this already? I love it! Go visit Birgit Kerr to find out how she did it.

Cassie at Hi Sugarplum shares her easy and inexpensive (and beautifully simple!) mantle.

The point of her post is to show us her cute door-turned-welcome board, but I just couldn’t let the whole porch go without being seen! LOVE! Go visit Wendy at Ordinary Miracles of Life

Michele at Primp (love that title!) shows us a project that really needs no words. Go. See.

You’re kinda not gonna believe how Erin at The Little Apartment made this chandelier. Well, I couldn’t anyway. Pure genius. Pure patience. Great job! 

I’ll be back later to announce the winner of the BEAUTIFUL canvas from

Show and Share Day

The holidays are upon us! Yikes! If you’re starting to get a teeensy bit nervous about what to get people this year, I have JUST the giveaway for you this week. 

Stephanie at Geezees Canvas Art is offering a free 10x10 canvas to one lucky US resident.  Not only is it a quality piece of art, but the personal meaning behind her work is what makes it so perfect! Take a look at some of the things she can do!

Subway art is hot right now! It can be so significant in so many ways. One of my favorites, for sure.

Oh my word. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t half as beautiful on my wedding day. If I were Morgen, I would have ordered 12 of these and just passed them out to people.

Kids. Can you ever go wrong with kids? How precious is that?

If you’re looking for inspiration, her Etsy shop is full of it! I had such a fun time simply looking at all the different ways to use the canvas. Stop by to get some ideas!

How can you win?

1. Link up to the party this week!
2. Follow Stephanie on her blog

Paint Colors

Woah. The e-mails. I get a lot of questions about the colors used throughout my house, and if I were smarter, I would have typed up this post a long time ago.

It wasn’t until this weekend when I was trying to find out the color of someone’s living room that I understood. It took me forever to find it, and I quickly realized that maybe you go through the same thing here. There are some colors that I don’t know. Grr. I know. Sorry.

Let’s begin. The dining room.

The top half is Favorite Tan by Sherwin Williams. I love it because regardless of the light, it’s a beautiful color. The bottom half is a gloss white by Benjamin Moore (no mix).

The mudroom cabinets are Benjamin Moore’s Wind’s Breath.

I’ve been asked quite often about the finish. I’m all about DIY, but I had these professionally painted. It’s definitely better than my little sponge roller could have done!

The #1 inquiry? My daughter’s room. It’s Benjamin Moore’s Iced Green. Don’t let the name fool you. It’s definitely a blue. A perfect blue.

If you remember (and I’m sure it’s all you think about), this is the room that sent me to the hospital a while back. Bad memories, but good color. It’s Benjamin Moore’s Soft Chamois. She’s gonna get a little trimwork makeover in the next few months, by the way.

So far, my “go to” color has been Grant Beige. Again, it’s Benjamin Moore. I’ve used this color in my family room, mudroom, and garage. Yup…garage. You can read more about that here.

The fireplace wall is just a shade darker than Grant Beige. It’s called Berkshire Beige. I wanted something a tinge deeper to really show off the chunky fireplace. It’s just enough that you don’t really notice the difference, but it makes me happy.

This picture shows a closer angle of the color, but the one above shows the subtle difference between it and the Grant Beige.

If I didn’t give you a room color it’s simply ‘cause I don’t know it. We have since disposed of the paint from when we built this house, and I’ve torn apart our files looking for swatches or names written down. No luck. So sorry!

~*~*~*~*FYI~*~*~*~*~*~*FYI~*~*~*~*~*~FYI*~*~*~*~

This post will be part of a FAQ page that I’m working on. As a matter of fact, I’m diligently working on making my blog more “reader friendly” in general. I hope this helps!

Yeah, she’s my designer.

In case you haven’t heard me shouting it from the rooftops already, I wanted to make sure you understand just how wonderful my blog designer is. Danielle from The Design Girl is beyond fantabulous (yeah, that’s a word), and she’s sharing a special deal just for you!

Danielle is offering a custom blog design for only $65 right now!  Say what? I had a reeeeally hard time choosing a couple of my favorite designs she’s done, but here’s a start.   

Danielle does everything from custom designs, holiday blog designs, and even pre-mades! If you want to see more of her spectacular work, you can check out her portfolio here. I’m not gonna lie. This  girl knows what she’s doing.

If you’d like to spruce up your blog, Danielle is just the girl and now is just the time!