Eggs-cellent decorations

My Big Martha is really talented at holiday decorations, so much so that when she is in the mood to decorate, I simply get out my storage totes of seasonal eye candy and let her do her thing.  Here's what she came up with for Easter at my house:

Isn't that mantle display gorgeous?  I love it!  Thanks, Mom!

I put the plastic eggs and bunny ears in the baskets from Easters past, so at least I contributed in some small way. The beautiful "Happy Easter" banner is from Wanessa Carolina Creations, and it is available for free download on her blog. 

My Big Martha also made a display for the media cabinet.  The carrot Easter basket is the perfect size for holding our DVDs from the library, making it both functional and decorative. Score!

Finally, here's the tablescape on the dining room buffet.  It's two Easter-themed tea sets, a bunny pitcher, candy dish and two sets of salt-and-pepper shakers.  They're bunnies, of course.

For the most part, my kids are really great at not touching any of the breakable decorations.  They understand the difference between a "pretty" and a play thing, and so far they are content to look and not touch.  Even with the jelly beans!  I wish I could say the same for myself about those.

Though I notice that the bunny salt-and-pepper shakers occasionally shift position ever so slightly.

I suspect Little Miss might have something to do with that.

Down on the farm

Little Miss' farm-themed second birthday party was a hoot. If the barn door invitations didn't let guests know what they were in for, then the kid-size barn and animatronic pony in our living room certainly did. Howdy!

My regular blog readers will be able to correctly identify this as a Handy Freddy creation.  The large part of the barn is actually a facade attached to the television puppet theater, while the door and chicken coop are mostly free-standing structures. It's all made out of cardboard, and the only costs were for the red spray paint and some red duck tape. Thanks, Freddy!

My Big Martha handled a lot of the country-farm-themed decorations, including everything on the mantle. Folks were impressed with her collection of antique tins...my only contribution was the Clabber Girl baking powder container, which is not an antique and came right out of my pantry.  That's proof that I made a really good decision in handing off a large part of the decorating to my mom.

My Big Martha took the kids' farm toys and made a super cute display on the dining room table.  See the farm table runner underneath the toys? Yep, that's all My Big Martha.  Thanks, Mom!

Other small farm scenes were scattered throughout the house, including this tractor that I put to work next to the punch bowl. It held the bottle opener and permanent markers so that guests could write their names on the plastic cups.  How's that for fancy, y'all?

With the barn, mantel decoration, tablescapes and more, I didn't put up a lot of streamers or other typical party decorations.  The decorations were assembled from things we already had: farm toys, my mom's country-style decorations, a ton of cardboard in the basement, etc.  By using what was available to me, and with the hard work of Handy Freddy and My Big Martha, the decorations were big on country farm style and extremely small in terms of cost.  Which is exactly how I like to party. Thanks, y'all!

Framed corkboards

This is a story about a project I dreamed up years ago and took forever to get done.  In March of 2010, I told BFF Laura about my great idea to frame cork boards and hang them in the toy room as a way to display kids' artwork.  Essentially, I wanted to create a kid-friendly art gallery.  With gold frames, I was sure the drawings and pictures would be elevated to high art. 

Months later, Laura gave me some large pieces of cork board, and fancy picture frames that she had spray-painted gold.  The frames and cork board sat, and sat, and sat.

Over this summer, I bought several cork boards from yard sales and thrift stores, as well as several fancy frames.  They went into the stack of cork board and frames from Laura.  And they sat, and sat, and sat.

Finally, faced with a ridiculous pile of cork board and frames and no spare time or know-how to combine, I asked myself "What would Martha do?"

Obviously, Martha would give this project to a member of her staff to complete.  I don't have a staff, but I do have Handy Freddy.  I gave this entire project to my brother, and things really started to move.

Here's how to make your own framed cork boards:

1. Buy fancy picture frames and large sheets of cork board at yard sales, thrift stores, etc.
2. Pop the frames off the cork board with a screwdriver.

3. Measure the cork board to fit a fancy picture frame. 

4. Carefully cut the cork board with a hacksaw.  Go slow during the cutting or the cork board will tear.

5. If you want to paint your fancy frames, now is the time to do it. I simply used gold spray paint on mine.

6. Fit the cork board into the empty fancy frame, and staple it in.

Ta-da! A beautifully framed piece of cork board that is ready to display just about anything.

Handy Freddy made seven framed cork boards for me and no two are framed alike or the same size. After all of his hard work, it was the least I could do to get someone else to hang the framed cork boards--I made the Big Guy do that. 

My original plan was to put the art gallery in the toy room, but instead I settled on a large blank wall in the foyer.  I immediately put several drawings/colorings from the kids in the frames, but lately they are quickly filling with Christmas cards and pictures.  Everything is secured with thumbtacks.

This project turned out even better than I had imagined--I am thrilled with how it looks!  For my part, I'm putting the cost at under $25 for all materials, though I'm sure Laura spent some money on the cork boards and frames. 

I owe a huge thanks to Laura for getting this project started, and to Handy Freddy for getting it done!  And another huge thanks to Freddy for taking the step-by-step pictures. 

By coming up with an idea and having my 'staff' do 95% of the work, I really am becoming more and more like Martha Stewart!  ;)  Kidding!  You know I love Martha more than my luggage.

Handmade at its best!

Little Guy gave me some handmade gifts he had created at preschool.  I am a sucker for this kind of thing and I immediately melted! Take a look:

He even made the gift wrap.  Love it.

It's a sled ornament!

Little Guy also made this penguin ornament, complete with his thumbprints for the penguin's feet.

Finally, there was one last gift that he put a lot of time and effort into...

It's a framed picture, and he decorated the frame. It had magnets on the back so it immediately went on the fridge.  Darling! 

After a ridiculous amount of 'oohing' and 'aahing' over his obvious artistic talents by this impressed Mommy, my Little Guy proudly hung his ornaments on the tree. 

I just love, love, love stuff like this.  These ornaments will be on my Christmas tree for as long as I have one, and after that I demand to be buried with them.  Sniffle.

Thanks so much to my son's preschool teacher, and to all teachers, who help their students make gifts for their parents for Christmas and other special holidays and occasions.  This truly made my day. 

Martha Monday--Oooo, sparkly!

Inspired by Pinterest, I decided to get my holiday craft on with Martha Stewart's glitter and some old Christmas light bulbs to make a fun, festive, and frugal centerpiece.

I bought the glitter (on clearance!) and the glittering glue (with a coupon!) at Michael's. I'd never really glittered anything, save for grade school art projects, so I bought the smallest bottles of glitter in case the whole thing turned out to be a big, sparkly disaster. I will say this to the good people at MS Crafts: Glitter is intimidating!  Put some directions on these things!

Fortunately, I got an astonishing number of those huge Christmas light bulbs from a coworker for free.  Most were dead by the time I received them so they were perfect for the project. 

The glittering glue comes with a brush inside the container. I simply brushed a coat of the glue on...

And then covered the thing with glitter.  I did this over sheets of waxed paper so when I was done with a color I could pour the excess glitter back into the jar. Less waste!

Not that I have a lot of experience with glitter, but I have to say the texture and colors of MS Craft glitter is amazing.  I doubt my pictures do it justice, but trust me when I say these colors are incredible!

I made 12 bulbs with each color, and that only took up half the jar.  My estimate is that you could do 22-24 large bulbs with one small vial of glitter.  A little bit goes a long way.

Once the bulbs were glittered, I began preparing the vessel. The outer vase is from Wal-Mart and cost less than $5.00. The tall glass candle in the middle is from The Dollar Tree. 

I waited a few hours for the glue to dry before putting the bulbs in the vase. Once I started moving them around, I realized that I should have waited overnight to give the glue more time to dry.  Again: some directions on the products would have been handy here. 

Because of my haste, there is some smearing and smudges on some of the bulbs which is unnoticeable unless you are right on top of the display.  I had plenty of glittered bulbs for the main centerpiece, and I put the remaining bulbs on another glass tray with another white candle to complete the scene. The glittered bulb display is on the mantle now, but it will be on my dining room table in time for Christmas dinner. 

Overall this was a very simple and frugal centerpiece project.  I estimate the entire project cost under $17.00, and I still have plenty of glitter and glue left over to tackle another project.   Which is great, since a few more projects are needed to take me from glittering newbie to sparkling expert.  I hope.

Have you glittered anything lately? Or ever?  I'd love to hear about it!

O Christmas Trees

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!  Thy leaves are so unchanging;
Not only green when summer's here,  but also when 'tis cold and drear.
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!  Thy leaves are so unchanging!

Of course, my Christmas tree is green because it's fake, but let's not quibble over details. I have eight Christmas trees in my home...would you like a tour?

Let's start in the living room:

The living room is also the toy room, so all the ornaments are break-resistant.  The lights are colored, but all the ornaments are gold and red.  There is no real theme to this tree, unless you count "festive and sparkly" as a theme. If so, there is a definite theme!

Next, let's head to the dining room:

Last year, there was no tree in the dining room--this is one of the four new trees I bought on clearance after last Christmas.  The dining room has a circus theme going on already with the artwork, so I carried that over to the tree.  This tree has white lights and jewel-toned ornaments.  It also features several fun circus-style ornaments, like this Santa using a bullhorn while riding a unicycle:

I have a very small tree in the kitchen. It has to be small, because it sits on top of the fridge; I just can't spare the counter space, especially during this time of year.  The kitchen tree is decorated with handmade snowmen holding cinnamon sticks, baking-themed ornaments, and white lights.

Next is the 12-foot tree in the family room.  This one holds all of our heirloom and family ornaments. It has white lights and an angel on top.  This is where Santa leaves his presents for the kids, and where we exchange and open presents as a family.

Now, let's head upstairs...I now have a tree in the master bedroom (one of the four new ones to the house).  It is a (scrawny) four foot tree pre-lit with white lights, and a strand of iridescent pointy bulbs added for effect. 

This tree has a Wizard of Oz theme, which is actually more appropriate for the guest room.  Perhaps in the next year or two my dream of a beach-themed tree for the master bedroom will happen.  In the meantime, I am really enjoying Miss Gulch on her bike along with all the other Wizard of Oz ornaments.

Thanks to my after-Christmas shopping spree last year, the kids each have a tree in their rooms, too.  I thought I was buying two foot trees for them, which would have been suitable for their dressers, but they turned out to be three foot trees so I kept them on the floor. Little Guy's tree was pre-lit with white lights, but I threw a strand of blue lights on there to brighten it up. 

I tried to include ornaments on each tree that corresponded with their personalities and/or interests.  Here is the Hallmark ornament "Max Sets Sail" from the book Where the Wild Things Are, which is wildly appropriate for both the Little Guy and his very own Christmas tree.

Little Miss also has a tree in her room. It also has white and blue lights, though I added strands of pearls to give it a more feminine touch.  The ornaments on her tree, once all evenly distributed, are now mostly all of to one side: Little Miss likes to redecorate and reorganize her tree, it would seem.

Instead of a star, Little Miss's tree has a butterfly at the top.  I think it's a nice touch.

Christmas tree #8 is one I've had for a while, and it's also one of my favorites.  This tree is on the second floor balcony overlooking the foyer and just outside the master bedroom.  It's theme is The Twelve Days of Christmas and almost all of the ornaments relate to the theme.

The some ornaments are grouped closely together, which is Little Guy's tree-decorating style.  Fun story: the Little Guy and I decorated this tree, just the two of us.  It was after his bedtime, and I knew that he hadn't fallen asleep yet. I peeked into his room, got him up and told him we weren't going to talk, just work.  So (almost) silently we decorated this tree, all the while giving each other smiles and thumbs-up.  It was a fun mother-son moment I will remember for a long, long time, and I hope he does, too.

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!  Much pleasure thou can'st give me;
How often has the Christmas tree afforded me the greatest glee!
O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!  Much pleasure thou can'st give me.

I hope you enjoyed this Christmas tree tour. Over the weekend, I'll put up a full photo album of all the trees and special ornaments on facebook.  Become a fan to see the gallery. Have a great weekend!