My favorites of 2012

Well, everybody is doing it...so I thought I would post some of my favorite photos from my blog in 2012.

 

I decided early in the year that it was "the year of the ruffle" for me. I did not get as many ruffly project done as I wanted due to lack of

cooperation from my ruffler attachment. I do love this tablecloth I made of a bedskirt though. This was my most popular post :)

 

I love my bookcase backed in fabric using starch to adhere the fabric.

My melted rose caused me to have some burnt fingers but was another of my popular posts.

My picket fence is still one of my favorite projects of the year. I love hanging fresh flowers on it!

I adore my garden chair. It looked so pretty on our front porch all spring and summer.

 

I so loved this year in my garden. It produced an amazing amount of roses, and  I loved my white lilacs.

I had fun dying patterned fabrics!

I won this beautiful stencil and stenciled my first wall. I love it! I have yet to stencil the wall behind my bed but hope to get that done in 2013!

 

I painted my back door pink and have enjoyed it ever since :)

A big part of my 2012 was rescuing these sweet babies. It was exhausting bottle feeding these babies every few hours but they were so worth it. We adore them!

 

Angel wings has become one of my favorite things this year too. I made some for Janae, and made some for a giveaway, and this year hope to make some for me!

I look forward to doing lots of projects in 2013. I am the most content when I am creating something pretty!

Wishing you and yours a wonderful 2013!

Now what?

It is so weird how there is this huge build up to Christmas and then -boom- it is over! Putting up the decorations is so much more fun than taking them down. My tree is so dry it is about to take itself down. I am just itching to do some crafty projects but have to force myself to take care of the Christmas stuff first. At least get the tree down.  The rest of the stuff is just kind of wintery--maybe it can stay up a bit longer :)

I didn't do hardly any handmade gifts this year--just didn't want to stress myself trying to get them done. But I did make my Grandkitty a new collar.

 

Isn't it pretty?

 Lulu looks so sweet in it! I am going to make one for my Phoebe too. It is hard to see, but it has ribbon roses and tiny rhinestone buttons.

Anyone else itching to do projects? I think I want to make curtains for the door window in the sun room and ruffly covers for my chandelier shades. What I should do is start making gifts for next Christmas! Can't wait to get in the creative mode again.

Thought I would share this picture we had taken for my parents for Christmas--my girls and I.

This photo makes me happy :)

Thanks for visiting!

Family celebrations continue...

Every Christmas eve we spend with my side of the family. This year Janae and her boyfriend Sidney hosted it. It was such a nice family time spent in Janae's beautifully decorated home.

I always think my son Wyatt is an angel but I thought he looked extra sweet in the bar chair with angel wings :)

Grandpa (my Dad) always has a good story to tell.

LuLu (one of the kittens I bottle fed) looks so cute in her Christmas dress with Chantel.

Dylan, Staci, and Cole

It was good to see my brother and his family... we just don't see each other enough!

It is so nice to have a grown up daughter to host a family get together like this. I couldn't be more proud of her!

I was so glad Janae set up her camera to take a picture of all of us. Even though I was tired (Christmas can be exhausting!) and it shows--these family times and capturing them in a photo is priceless!

Merry Christmas to all!

Family celebrations begin...

Nothing is better about Christmas than spending time with family!  Tonight we had my husbands side of the family over for desserts.

I made double layer pumpkin pie, peanut butter cookies,chocolate chocolate chip cookies, lemon bars and peanut butter pie. Yum!

Grandma Suzy with Janae and Chantel

My sister in law Stacey with my nephews, Drew and Michael

Michael (the Marine in our family) got to come home for the holidays!

Wyatt and Daisy May

Brother in law Scott and my nephew Noah

Scott's girlfriend, Kirsten and kids

My Gage :)

Mama Suzy and her husband, David

Janae and Lacie

Many more family events the next couple days :)

Hope this finds you enjoying family and the holidays!

Christmas at our house

I can't believe how close it is until Christmas! The fact that the weather was so warm for so long this year I think kind of made me feel like I still had a lot of time til the holidays, but now ready or not they are here!

I finally got the bathroom decorated..something I was thinking of skipping this year but turns out the kids like it when I decorate the bathroom so I decided it must be done :)

 

Afterall, for me Christmas is all about making happy memories for my children.

We are having a family get together at our house on Sunday night with my husbands side of the family so it gave me added inspiration to decorate the bathroom.

I leave the outside of our house to my husband and kids. I am sure you can probably guess my choice would not be to fill the yard with holiday blow ups. :) But again, it is all about the kids, and they love them!

 Had to add a little fake snow to this photo for fun (gotta love Picmonkey!) because though we have been doing our snow dance, there has yet to be any snow that lasted more than an hour or two. It sure feels cold enough though!

Duke has been keeping warm in his Christmas pajamas.

 

Other than a couple times the kittens (I suppose they are cats now!) have been really good about leaving the tree alone. I have been proud of them.

Even though there has been a lot of sadness in the world recently I am warmed by all the good that is out there too. I think recent tragedies have made us all realize how important we all are to each other.

There is more good than bad, and that makes me feel really good about the holidays. 

I hope everyone is warm and cozy this holiday season!

All wrapped up

I am a strong believer in the packaging of a present making that present so much more special!

After many years of hastily wrapping up barbies the night before Christmas, this year I am trying to take a deep breath, be relaxed and enjoy wrapping my gifts. Afterall, there is no barbies to wrap anymore.

There is so much inspiration out there in blogland for gift wrapping. Last night I spent about an hour looking thru blogs and getting inspired on how to wrap my gifts.

As I shared before wrapping with brown paper and tying with lace is a favorite of mine. But then I saw people using torn fabric  and I love that idea!

This was so easy! Just tore some long pieces of fabric and wrapped them around the gift as I would with ribbon. Then I took a torn piece of eyelet and folded it back and forth. I took one of my paper roses (cue Marie Osmond) and they have an attached wire. Wrapped the wire around the folded fabric, and then around the fabric on the gift, fluffed it up and done! I love the look.

 

A little bling always looks good! This is some of the fabric I dyed a couple months ago.

So my sons and I have not been feeling well. We have had the stomach flu and it hasn't been fun. But I am feeling better, as are the boys, and so today I was actually able to take my parents Christmas card pictures.

I love my Dad's sense of humor. I was happy to get out of the house after a few days of being sick :)

Still really enjoying my tree!

So, how is wrapping going at your house?

Thanks for visiting!