Come to See Me!

Thursday {5/31} I will be at Honeybear Lane. If you haven't 'met' Heidi yet, you really should. I was chosen to be a contributor on her blog, along with some other fabulous ladies, and tomorrow is my first post there. My contributions will be baby related, so fun. Hope to see you over there!

In other news, I hope to have a tutorial for these chevron glasses cases up in the next few days.

Thanks for visiting!

A Weekend Away

Last weekend my husband and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. Thanks to a good friend of mine offering to watch our kids, we were able to enjoy a full 24 hours alone together. We hadn't had that kind of time together since I was 8 months pregnant with our youngest who is almost two. We stayed at a bed & breakfast in a town nearby. The house was beautiful, the room was so comfortable and the host was kind & gracious.

After checking in we drove downtown, just a few blocks away, to the antique shops. I wish I had taken more pictures, there were so many items I loved. Several things I remembered seeing in my great grandparent's house. Other items I remembered having or seeing when I was a kid. That stung a little. ;) I wanted to share the few things that I did get pictures of though.

Isn't she pretty? I really wanted to take this home with me but it was out of budget and I have no space in this house for another piece of furniture.

I thought these Pepsi crates were fun. It's pretty common to see vintage Coca-Cola items but I prefer Pepsi, just like my mom did. My husband is a Coca-Cola fan.

Oh and this cabinet is just my style! Can't you picture it filled up with pretty fabrics, or vintage glass and other fun antiques?

And lastly, my most favorite and totally impracticle piece. A large spinning wheel. It reminded me of Rumplestilskin {aka Mr. Gold, if you're a fan of Once Upon A Time}. The table in the background is also pretty and the firetruck toy made me want another little boy since mine is growing up much too quickly.
I hope to visit antique shops again soon, not so ideal with little ones in tow but my husband and I had fun.

Thanks for visiting!

Mani/Pedi Monday

Hello, hello is this thing on? I don't even want to look at how long it's been since I've posted a blog. A month at least, I'm sure. While browsing facebook I came across an update from Glitter and Gloss about Mani Monday and I thought that sounded like fun. So here I am!

I hardly paint my fingernails because it comes off so quickly between washing dishes, cleaning house, sewing and hot gluing things. I see fun nail polish pins on Pinterest that I think are cute so maybe I'll take the leap and try something other than my nails naked, shiny nude or red.

Until then, I do paint my toes often and keep them maintained during sandal weather. I love this combination and will wear it often.

Do you paint your fingernails or toes?

Thanks so much for visiting! I hope to have more of an update for you soon. Lots of fun things going on. :)
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Welcome Spring!

Hello friends! I've been so happy to have some consistency in the weather here. It's warmed up but not terribly hot {yet}. No more questioning if the kids are dressed too warm or cool or wondering how much the weather will change by the afternoon. Other than thunderstorms that roll in on occasion the weather is fairly predictable now.

This last week was Spring break for my older two. One day was spent having lunch and catching up with a friend and we decided to take the kids shopping. While at the crafters mecca, also known as Hobby Lobby, I picked up a grapevine wreath. The last of the winter decor had finally come down and my door was looking naked so I thought a new little something would be nice.

And this is what I came up with. I have had this chipboard bird (and it's brother) for a while and was glad to finally use it. I kept it simple, mod podged some paper to cover it and added the beak and wing with other papers. Though, the wing blends in too much and will be changed soon. I knew I wanted a little bunting on it, I love a good bunting. After that I wasn't sure what to do next. It was missing something but I didn't want to put too much on it. I ended up making some rosettes using fabric scraps and called it done.

So welcome to my home. Welcome spring. And summer. Because I don't have enough storage space, extra money or time to decorate for each holiday let alone all four seasons. And really, around here spring and summer aren't too different from each other anyway.

Do you keep a wreath on your door? Thank you for visiting!

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Happy New Year, Valentines, St. Patricks....you get the idea

Wow, I've been a slacker! Sometimes life gets busy. Sometimes life gets messy. Sometimes you don't have much to say and just need a break. Things are still busy and messy but I'm hoping to post more often.

While away I've opened up an Etsy shop! Crazy right? Three kids, two dogs, a husband changing careers, preparing to relocate my family and managing our household wasn't enough I guess. Gotta keep things interesting. ;) Actually, this is something I've thought about for a while now but the time never seemed right. One day I decided to throw caution to the wind and just jump in. I am focusing on photography props but many items can also be used for home decor and I'll have some birthday sets that can be photo props or party decor. I have many more ideas than time, think of too many details but it's fun so far. I've had a few sales and still working out some kinks on the technical side of things. Buttons? Banners? What? I'm not tech savvy so it's pretty slow going and what I have come up with so far isn't so fabulous. I'll get there.

In other news my children are growing like weeds, will still have no idea when my husband will be retiring or what exactly we'll do afterward but the relocation location is chosen. Yay! Without a date and more specifics it's hard to do more but daydream of a house with more space and try to picture how life will change.

I hope to have a button for my shop soon but until then, if you're interested in checking it out the link is http://www.etsy.com/shop/PrettyPicCreations. I have a few more items to add tomorrow and hopefully some more this week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Merry Christmas! {& decoration wrap up}

I know I'm a day late and several Christmas related posts short. My apologies. I got so busy making decorations and gifts along with the normal daily responsibilities that I was lucky to remember to take a picture, most of the time. Today I want to share the rest of the Christmas decorations I made while there may still be some interest. My kids are already thinking about New Years eve plans so I better get on it.

I have had the same decorations for eight years. Bulbs, tree skirt, even the strands of lights {that still work and remain untangled because of my OCDness when putting things away the same as they came}. This year I decided I needed something new and fresh and more 'me' or fitting for my style now. I had cranberry/wine and gold colored bulbs with matching tree skirt and while it was pretty it just isn't 'me' anymore. The bulbs were scratched up and obviously old and I couldn't wait to give them a makeover. Until I opened up my Christmas boxes and discovered they were gone and remembered throwing them away last year determined to get new ones this year. This is what happened before pinterest, perfectly useable bulbs gone to waste. Hope was not lost, I found boxes of free bulbs on a local facebook page and made {some of} my pinterest dreams come true.

I covered bulbs in sequin trim, fabric, added glitter to a pinecone, covered a bulb in pinecone pieces, stamped some bulbs that were in good shape, used white vinyl to make a Santa 'stache, made paper pinwheel & doily ornaments, covered bulbs in sheet music, twine, glitter and yarn. I added some madeover acorn bells to some as well. {The mailbox ornament wasn't made by me but by my great grandma so it's pretty special, we each have one and each year Santa leaves a little something in there too.}

My favorite makeover is the music sheets. They remind me of singing Christmas carols around the organ at my great grandparents' house. I didn't care for the bulbs covered in pinecone pieces, the idea was better than execution. Also, if you cover bulbs in fabric I found better results using hot glue compared to mod podge. Stamping on a sphere is trickier than it looks so I didn't have very many stamped {joy, merry christmas, ho ho ho, fa la la la la, silent night/holy night}. Next year I have plans for clear bulbs that I hope to find on clearance this year. Overall it was totally worth the hot glue burns.

My plans for a tree forrest were scratched when I ran short on time and shorter on sleep. But I did manage to cover one cone tree in burlap & lace trim and another in yarn. Next year I want to use book pages, twine, doilies and other things I've pinned but since forgotten.

And last to show is our stockings hung on the bookshelf with care!

With the same drop cloth I used for my tree skirt and a template I found online I made these stockings. I am thrilled with how they came out. Last year I wanted to make some but didn't so this year I was determined. I wanted something simple and cohesive but individual for each of us too.

The first is for my son. He likes wearing a tie or bow tie and is very particular about his clothes. I couldn't think of anything better to embellish his stocking. My oldest daughter asked for flowers & butterflies so we compromised on flowers. {while writing this I had an idea to put birds on hers, will I ever be satisfied? haha}. The baby didn't have much to say about hers so I layered petal like shapes and added some holly berries for a pointsettia. I still need to add some red trim to my son's and am contemplating adding their names somehow but not decided.

Around here Santa doesn't leave anything for mom & dad but sometimes we leave a little something for each other so we needed stockings too. Mine just had to have ruffles. My husband's is still plain because I couldn't think of something that was masculine but still worked. Any thoughts? I may just leave it as is, he's a simple guy so that may work perfectly.

I didn't make these bird hooks but had to share the story behind them. Back home we used to have a Pier 1 outlet store. It was fabulous. My sister used to work there and she told me about a great sale they had on Christmas items. Everything was 90% off! Of course I jumped on it. They had these pretties for $1.50 each, meaning the original price was $15.00, yikes! What would have costs me $60.00 was only $6.00, probably my best bargain to date. Only problem is I only bought four and now we are a family of five. My OCDness won't let me have one that doesn't match and I love them too much to get all new ones. Maybe one day I'll find a fifth bird somewhere. Until then dad & mom share a hook for their stockings.

Thank you for visiting!

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Paper Garland {pinspired}

I still don't have pictures of the ornaments I made and madeover but I do have pictures of the paper garland I made. This is another project that I pinned AND executed. It seems like I've executed a lot of pins lately, but when compared to the nearly 2,000 pins I have a long way to go.



I wish I had better pictures for you but the week after making this it was wet and rainy outside and then I got busy with other projects and before I knew it, it was time to put it on the tree.



I went through my paper stash and pulled out reds, greens and creams with various patterns. They don't really 'match' but they 'go' so it works. I used my cricut to cut the star shapes and hot glued them together and then onto the yarn.



I can't remember how long my garland ended up being but it's long enough to zig zag across the front of my short tree. I think it would look cute on a mantle, shelf or staircase also.

I got the idea from this post {she used scalloped circles, but I don't have that cartridge} and I pinned it here.

Thanks for visiting! I'm hoping to share the ornaments with you tomorrow.

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