Merry Christrmas!

As we pause to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we wish you a blessed holiday reminiscing about old memories and making new ones with family and friends!

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Christmas Card Display Board

Good evening! Christmas will be here before we know it, so I spent most of the weekend in the kitchen making apple butter and Christmas jam to give to friends, family and neighbors. (Click HERE and HERE for those recipes.)

I did work on another little project this weekend as well:

It's a little framed chicken wire display board to showcase a few of the Christmas cards that I receive each day. I started out with a wood frame and then painted it red. My hubby stapled chicken wire to the backside of the frame and then he helped me out by spray painting several wood clothespins with white paint. He simplified this process by clipping each of the clothespins onto a piece of cardboard before giving them a couple of coats of paint. (He is such a smarty!)

Once the clothes pins were dry, I drew on little snowman faces and then tore scraps of gingham and homespun fabrics to tie on as scarves:

I'll also be adding some of these snowman clips to bags of baked goods and other gifts! (A magnet could be attached to each clip as well, so that they could be attached to a filing cabinet or fridge.)

These would be a fun project for kiddos to make, once a parent spray painted the clips. :)

Have a WONDERFUL week!

Blessings,

A Little Christmas Decorating Idea...

Good morning, friends! I hope that you had a very happy Thanksgiving! Ours was nice and quiet, here at home with just Mike, Justin and I, as my guys did some deer hunting in between feasting. (Yes, they even hunted in all the rain we got - lol!)

So while my fellas were out of the house hunting, I began putting up Christmas decorations. While decorating the top of my piano with a few snowmen, I had an idea! I have an old church hymnal, so I turned to "O Little Town of Bethlehem", tied a pretty red bow and added some berries to mark that page, and then placed it on the music stand on the piano...so simple and pretty!!

I love how cute this little display turned out! If you don't have a church hymnal, you can purchase or download sheet music with a Christmas hymn and decorate that before adding it to your music stand as a decoration.

Thanks for dropping by today. Be sure to check back later this week for a tutorial on how to make a cute and inspirational frame for yourself or to give as a gift!

Have a WONDERFUL week!

Sharing Some Christmas 2014 Photos...

Hi, all! I had every intention of getting these family Christmas pics posted yesterday, but time got away from me and it just didn't happen. Anyhoo...here are a few moments from our family Christmas 2014 celebration...

First off, here's a photo of my little family...left to right is my hubs Mike, me, my son's girlfriend Hailee and my son Justin:

Our Christmas celebration took place at the home of my brother-in-law (Don) and sister-in-law (Sandy); which is located just outside of Miami, OK. Here's a photo of them...they are such a sweet couple!

Here's Sandy with her grandson, Ian and daughter, Kari...I just love them bunches!

This is my beautiful sister-in-law, Lea Ann, who celebrated a birthday on Dec. 20th...

These two pretty gals are my niece Ashley and her little girl/my great-niece, Kayle Ann:

Justin and Hailee shared the big, comfy chair in Don and Sandy's living room...they're so cute! :)

I was SUPER HAPPY to get some baby lovin' time with my new great-nephew, Henry, who was born in September...he's sooooo precious!!!

Here's a pic of Mike and his brother, Royce, sharing some funny stories from their childhood after our delicious "cowboy lunch", which consisted of BBQ pulled pork, chili, and all the fixin's and sides!

The kiddos had a great time opening their gifts! My 2 1/2 year old great-nephew Jack is a lover of all things train, so he was thrilled with his presents!

Lots of laughs were shared, especially while we played our annual "Brown Family Bingo Game"!

Here's a pic of my handsome nephew, Ryan...he is the son of my SIL Sandy, and the dad of Ian and Kayle Ann:

My SIL Sandy is a quilter, and makes BEAUTIFUL quilts throughout the year. Last year she added a new tradition to our "Brown Family Bingo Games", by giving away a Christmas quilt during the last round of Bingo. This year my nephew J.T. won a gorgeous Santa quilt made by Sandy - what a lucky guy!!

My BIL Don is quite a jokester, so I had to take a photo of the "gingerbread house" that he made...so silly!! ;)

In closing, from my family to yours, we wish you a wonderful new year filled with lots of happiness! May God bless you in all of your endeavors during 2015!

Happy New Year!!

Simple Snowman Pillar Candle Tutorial

Good morning! I hope that you all had a nice weekend! We had a bit of excitement here...Justin harvested a nice 8-point buck on Saturday:

He's had a pretty awesome hunting season so far...within the last month he's bagged a large bull elk and a whitetail buck...not too shabby!

This coming weekend I'll start decorating our home for Christmas, so I thought I'd show you a quick craft project that I whipped up to go along with some of my snowman decorations:

These snowman pillar candles are soooo easy and quick to make! They are really cute and inexpensive gifts to give to your child's teachers, neighbors, friends, etc. Here's how I made them:

Supplies:

• 3" white pillar candle
• Aleen's Quick Dry Tacky Glue
• Thumb tacks
• Black spray paint
• Scissors
• Miniature loaves of plastic french bread (I found these in the doll house furnishing department at Hobby Lobby)
• Torn strips of plaid cotton fabric

Begin by spray painting the silver thumb tacks black. I stuck the tacks into the top part of a cardboard egg carton to hold them in place while applying the spray paint:

Allow the thumb tacks to thoroughly dry. Tie a piece of the torn fabric to the bottom of the pillar candle to create a scarf:

Once the tacks have dried, stick them into the candle to create the "coal" eyes and mouth of your snowman:

Since I couldn't find any miniature carrots to use for my snowman's nose, I decided to use tiny little plastic loaves of french bread that I found in the dollhouse making section at Hobby Lobby. The back sides of these little loaves are flat, and they are kind of an orange-y color, so they worked well as the noses. Add a little Aleen's Quick Dry Tacky Glue to one end and attach to the face of the snowman:

Set aside to allow the nose to completely dry/adhere to the candle. That's it...super easy and inexpensive gifts made quickly! Place your candles in cello bags with a little white crinkle paper in the bottom and tie up with a pretty bow and tag before giving to your favorite folks! Here's another pic of my finished candles:

Thanks so much for dropping by my blog today!! Have a WONDERFUL week!!

Merry Christmas!!

 

From our home to yours, we wish you a VERY Merry Christmas! May your holiday be filled with much love, laughter and joy as we join together to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Blessings,

An Ice Storm; A Simple Gift Idea; and Festive Gift Wrap...

Hi, friends! The weekend brought an ice storm to a large part of NE Oklahoma, so the hubs and I just enjoyed a couple of quiet days at home! Here are a few icy pics from my yard that I thought I'd share with you:

BRRR!!! Thankfully we didn't lose power - several areas of Tulsa and the surrounding area lost electricity due to the ice buildup on the trees falling onto the power lines and causing them to snap.

Can you believe that Christmas Eve is tomorrow?? If you are still in need of a simple and useful gift for the gals in your life, then consider giving them a purchased fleece headband that you've added a hand stitched felt flower to, like the ones shown here that I gave to 3 of my friends at work:

I purchased 3 black, fleece headbands and then simply stitched up some simple flowers from felt. I added a cute button to the center of each flower, and then stitched the flower to the front of the headband. So cute and easy too! These come together in a matter of minutes, and would make FANTASTIC stocking stuffers!

I love wrapping packages...presentation is everything! I wrapped up the fleece headbands in simple, red bags that I'd added a paper doily, a candy cane, and white satin ribbon to:

Thanks for dropping by today! Be safe tomorrow if you are out and about doing some last minute Christmas shopping!

Blessings,

Altered Window Frame Card Showcase

Hi, friends! Can you believe that there are only 9 more days until Christmas??? Where has the month gone? I have been working on the final touches on the gifts that I've been making...more to come on those in the next few days!

Today I'd like to share with you a fun holiday project that I made for my best bud Jamie. Her hubby works for a window company, so when he finds neat, old windows that he thinks I can use for a project, he nabs them for me! Recently he found 2 old windows that had been painted green, and I immediately knew that I could do something Christmas-related with them!

For starters, my sweetie removed the glass from the window panes. (It was stuck in there pretty good, so he had to muscle the glass out!) Next, using a staple gun, he attached chicken wire to the back of the window. Then the fun started for me!

Last fall I found several rolls of GORGEOUS red organza wired ribbon in the clearance bin at Hobby Lobby. You'll never guess how much I paid for them?? $.79 per roll - yup, you read that right...only $.79 per roll! I scooped up all they had because I love beautiful ribbon on packages and crafty projects! (I am kind of a ribbon junkie...I should probably find a 12-step program for my ribbon addiction - lol!)

Anyhoo...I used the ribbon to tie red and white berry stems to the wooden cross bars of the window, as you see in this photo:

I purchased a package of wooden clothespins for $1.00 at my local Dollar Tree, and painted 20 of them with barn red acrylic paint. I attached a glittery snowflake to each clothespin using a dot of Tacky Glue. Once the glue had dried, I clipped the clothespins to the chicken wire to hold the Christmas cards:

Oh! Just for reference, here's a photo of the bag of snowflakes that I bought at Hobby Lobby. They were located in the Christmas craft section and were half-price, so I only paid $1.00 for each bag of 15. (I bought 2 bags - which gave me a total of 30 snowflakes.)

Lastly, at the top of the window frame I added the phrase "Seasons Greetings" using black alphabet stickers. I then glued snowflakes to the top and the bottom of the frame:

Now, for a photo of the finished project...I just LOVE how it turned out and I can hardly wait to give it to Jamie tomorrow!!

Thanks for dropping by today! Enjoy the rest of the week!

Blessings,

Red Bird Winter Wreath (Say that fast 3 times...ha! ha! ha!)

Good morning! It's reeeeally cold here in Oklahoma - the temps are in the teens and are expected to drop into the single digits - BRRRR! We received about 5" of snow last Thursday and Friday, with a thick layer of ice under that. The icy roads have made traveling difficult, so school was closed last Friday and today as well. (I watched a neighbor through my front window this morning trying to navigate his SUV down my street, which is covered in a 1" layer of ice - YIKES!! He was slipping, sliding, and spinning all the way to the end!)

A lot of folks get "cabin fever" when they are home for several days...but I am NOT one of those folks - LOL! I LOOOOVE being home! I bake bread and muffins and make pots of soup to carry us through the cold week ahead! I even made a home-made pizza yesterday - delicious! (You can click HERE to get my recipe for home-made pizza sauce and pizza...so much better than anything you can carry out or have delivered!)

I've been working on several craft projects, but I can't post them yet because I am giving many of them away as Christmas gifts and I want them to be a surprise to the recipients. Photos of these projects will be coming in the near future...but for now I can share a pic with you of a pretty winter wreath that I made for my friend Megan F.:

I really love how bright and festive it turned out! The little red birds that I wired to the wreath, along with the white and red berries and the white letter "F" really pop against the evergreen wreath. I'll be giving it to her this week...hope she likes it! (I think that I am going to have to make a winter wreath like this for my front door too...except with a letter "B", of course!)

Thanks for dropping by my little blog today! Stay safe and warm if you are in an area that has been hit by this winter blast!

Blessings,