A Christmas Vignette

When I bought my buffet off craigslist last year not only did I want it for more storage but I already envisioned a beautiful Christmas display on it. Since I wasn't finished with the buffet in time for Christmas last year I have been collecting items for this year.

I can't stop staring at it. It sparkles at night when the tree is on. When I walk by it during the day I can't help but smile! What can I say...sparkles make me happy!

You can click on each picture to see closer.


The green tree and presents are from Walmart and I paid $.50 each on the after Christmas clearance last year. These are ornaments and I just cut off the strings. Walmart has a huge selection of cheap and sparkly ornaments in several colors. The balls were clearance as well. I paid $5.00 total for 2 boxes of green and brown balls. The silver star was a miniature tree topper that I already had that I spray painted silver.


This is a look at the other side of the buffet. There is another Walmart $.50 tree and a silver snow flake I spray painted. The glass cover I found at Goodwill (of course) earlier this year for $3. The gold tree in the back I made. A tutorial for that will come soon.



I love the wine decanter that I found for $1 at...you guessed it...Goodwill! I put a strand of green beaded garland in there. Simple!



This is the whole buffet. I'm in love! This is exactly how I wanted everything to look. I love the green, gold, silver and brown all together.

Have a great weekend!

Linking up here:
Christina's Adventures
Just a Girl
Chic on a Shoestring Decorating
Remodelaholic

Christmas/winter wreath

About a month ago I went to Goodwill and I found the perfect sweater to use for a Christmas wreath. It is soft and had the right colors that I was looking for. For only $2.99 this pretty little thing was mine.

You can click each picture to see closer.


I needed a straw wreath so I went to Michaels and found one for 40% off. I rushed home and started working on the wreath even though it was still a little too early to put it out.

I cut up the sweater into big pieces. I cut along the seams and along the neck line. The neck line was thicker material that I wouldn't need.


I took my pieces and started hot gluing them around the wreath. Make sure you leave the plastic on the wreath. Because this material is so forgiving and the seams do not show through I didn't have to worry about everything looking perfect.


This is what the wreath looked like when I was finished gluing everything on. You can't tell where each piece is.


I knew I wanted a pretty bow to go on the wreath but I had no clue how to tie a bow or make them. Thanks to youtube and a video that wasn't in English I made my first bow! Pretty darn good for my first time! I already had the white berries and I added those after I had tied the bow.


This is the finished wreath on our door. We really need to paint our front door and I hate despise the screen door the previous owners installed. But that's a different story. For now I enjoy my pretty wreath. It's perfect for Christmas and to leave hanging during winter too.



My total time spent on the wreath was about 30 minutes plus the youtube watching time. It really is super easy to make. I love the end result!

Linking up to:
Beneath My Heart
Chic on a Shoetring Decorating
The Shabby Creek Cottage
Christinas Adventures
My Repurposed Life
House of Hepworths

A thankful Thanksgiving

I am so thankful for my small and wonderful family. Without my husband and my two kids I would feel so empty. This year around Thanksgiving I knew it would be a difficult time for me. Why? Because November 26th was my due date for Taylor.

I did not want to spend the day crying although I could have. So that is why I was so obsessed with fixing our tree on Saturday. It was either sit around and cry for the child we lost and blame myself or keep my mind occupied with happier times. I chose the happier times.

Even as I write this I fight back the tears and I still feel sad for the baby that is not with us here on earth. Every day I see my one and only picture we have of Taylor and I smile and say a quiet "I love you" to the picture. It makes me feel good inside and not sad.

It is very strange to me to be pregnant 2 times in one year. I still get very nervous even at 18 1/2 weeks for the baby I am currently carrying. I go back to the doctor next week and the gender will be 100% verified for us. We're so excited for that!

So this year for Thanksgiving I am grateful for eternal families and the two children and wonderful husband I have been blessed with. I am thankful for Matt's job that he has and all the sacrifices he makes for our family. I am thankful for my extended family that we don't get to see very often. Although we might not be close to you being here in Texas we do think of you often. I am thankful for my parents and all that they taught me.

I wish all of you a happy and wonderful holiday season. May you remember to always be grateful not just during the holiday season.

Light Keeper Pro

I have to tell you about the best Christmas light saver gadget tool thingy (that's my technical name for it) that I've found.

Last year, the day before Christmas, part of our pre-lit tree lights went out. Of course, there were no replacement lights to be found at that point in any stores. I used the replacement lights that came with the tree but still no luck. So I decided I would just worry about it this year when we put the tree up again.

Between last year and this year we replaced at least 400-500 of the 900 lights on the tree. Stupid I know but I just think it would look ghetto putting a strand of lights on the tree and having some working and the others not.

We got everything working except this one small section and we couldn't figure out why it wasn't working. So Matt went to the store and bought this Light Keeper Pro tool. OMG!! It saved my life and if only we would have bought this last year.

All you do is take out any light on the strand that isn't working and plug in the tool to that light socket. Pull the trigger once or twice and the strand will light up all the WORKING lights. All the burned out lights will stay dark and you know exactly which ones to replace. Our problem was we had about 5 lights we thought were working because they didn't look burned out but really they were. So once we replaced those 5 lights our whole tree was finally lit.

AMAZING!!

This tool does cost $20 but most likely you can find it on an after Christmas clearance. It will save you headaches and strokes, I promise!! You can find out more information and where to buy this miracle tool here.

I am not affiliated with this company and I did not receive any compensation for my opinion. I just wanted to share my thoughts on a great tool!

Easy pumpkin plate

I know many of you are getting ready to put up your Christmas decorations or maybe some of you already have. I've been meaning to post this idea for a while but it's better late then never, right?

This is super easy and cheap to make. I think it's cute and it took me all of about 15 minutes to make. I don't remember where I originally saw this idea so I can't take credit for this.

I found a plate at Goodwill for $1. Then I purchased the pumpkin from the Dollar Tree for $1 and the ribbon is from Walmart.

All you do is cut off the back of the pumpkin so it will be flat against the plate. Measure how much ribbon you will need to tie the bow. Tie the bow around the pumpkin. I actually used double sided tape on the back of the pumpkin to hold the ribbon in place while I tied it. Once the bow is tied just glue the pumpkin in the center of the plate.

Voila! Done! That was easy!

Little red rocking chair

Way back in the spring I was able to score a rocking chair for free. Our playgroup has a "free for all" 2 times a year. You bring all the stuff you want to get rid of and take what you want. All the left-overs get donated to Goodwill.

As soon as this chair was brought in I raced to it and it was mine.


It only took me 6 months to get around to fixing it up. The chair was missing a dowel rod but that's nothing a quick trip to Lowes can't fix. You can see the missing dowel right in the middle of the chair.

So 1 1/2 cans of red spray paint later this is what the chair looks like now.


And of course a red chair would not be complete without a cute little boy in it reading his books.


I love that the red stands out against the blue walls in Levi's room. Soon enough Levi and Jax will be sharing this room.

Oh the power of a little spray paint!

16 weeks: Avocado

This week I will be 16 weeks along in the pregnancy! It really has gone by so fast. I'm almost at the half-way point. I like it when the time left is less than how far along I am. I will be so excited to say that I'm at 25 weeks and I only have 15 weeks left!

It seems as though instead of having the ickyness in the first trimester I am having it in the second. I get so many headaches right now. I called my dr and she said I could take Excedrin migraine. Usually I try to power through the headache before I pop some pills. I just hate taking medicine every day or every other day because I worry about what it will do to the baby. Hopefully these headaches will go away soon. They are really making me feel useless and I don't get to play as much with the boys.

I will have another ultrasound next month and we will find out for sure if the baby is a girl. We are pretty positive the baby is a girl but there is always that chance maybe something changed. I still haven't felt the baby move yet but that's ok. I know soon enough I will feel feet in my ribs and all the other uncomfortable things that baby will do.

As I get bigger and bigger this really is getting more and more real. It's easy to forget that you are pregnant when you aren't showing. I'm losing sight of my feet every single day and I can't hide that I'm pregnant anymore.

I love this baby already so much and I can't wait to finally have her here with me.