Decorating Shift: 3 Favorite Things

"Ok, I start to see it now. What's the name of your look that you're changing to? Whatever it is, your house is starting to feel that way." -Rena, one of the teenagers who comes over for small group and occasional babysitting. She mourned the end of my baby blue/burlap combo but respected my decision for the switch. Obviously, we only focus on big, important subjects at small group. 

I made a new little spot in the living room with a few favorite things: 

1. fun shaped mirrors from Urban Outfitters (a new favorite resource)

2. Our photo books that I made last year and will continue to make!

Last Christmas, I invested a lot of time in pictures. I pruned each year, double backed up everything, and made a photo book for each year. Artifact Uprising is the first company that meets my expectations. Matte print. Pick my own layout. Prints to the ends. And the prices are extremely reasonable. I'm sure there's a fancier way to say all that, but I don't have time for fancy lingo. These books are good y'all! My family has enjoyed looking at them all year long! 

3. My faux tapestry/mop art. I bought a $5 mop from Walmart and got a stick from the yard, then I delayed dinner prep one night and made this. I've added some braids and twists since them, but it's pretty basic. The kids think it's the coolest thing that I've ever made-and we even made a tiny one for the Barbie house. 

It's only a tip of the hat to my new look but it's still a notable shift. I'm hoping to add some wall baskets eventually. It's such fun to make any progress from images in my head to my actual home. 

Fun Weekend Recap

I've been missing Old Meg, the one that's not in her third trimester, the one who can play with her kids, the one that has leaps and bounds of energy, and the one that, you know, can do things. Our weekends for a while have been quiet and boring. I've needed the downtime, but to be honest, it's hard on me. Luckily, last weekend we had a fuller weekend and it wasn't too strenuous. 

A friend had two extra tickets to Monster Jam, and I couldn't accept them fast enough. That was an experience. The people watching. The $15 icee. The people watching. The trucks. The people watching. Burl enjoyed it all.

Saturday, were able to fit in a little hike. It was unseasonably warm, which made the hike even better. 

The hike was simple, so Burl & Fern had no problem hiking and running on their own. We were able to take our time and let the kids explore parts of the trail. 

Fern had a little fall, scraped her knees, and milked it for what she could. John and I traded turns milking it for the sweet snuggles. 

Burl got to skip his weekend nap and go to a birthday party for a school friend. He is always looking for opportunities to make cards for people, so he was excited to make a card for his friend. "I like to find out their favorite color and use that for the their card." Melt my DIY, letter writing heart, I've found a kindred spirit in my own son!

That night we hit the town with a game of bowling. It was the first time for my children. Burl told me that he already knew how because he's seen it on Curious George. Before we left he was doing push-ups "to make his muscles strong for bowling." 

Fern told us before we got their that she just wanted to watch, but as soon as we got there she was all in! Both kids celebrated each pin they knocked down, and they about lost their minds when they got strikes. (We had free passes, but oh my word, that would have been expensive!!) The kids had a blast and now they talk about it every time we pass the bowling alley. 

The next day Burl got to skip another weekend nap and go with his dad and uncle to the climbing gym. He was very excited and talked constantly about his "guy time." 

The whole weekend was so good for me. This pregnancy has been completely different than my first two, presenting more emotional challenges, but now that I'm just three months away from the due date, I can't believe it's almost here! I've had baby fever more these past few months than I ever have in my life-which if you know me and my baby obsession, then you know it's saying a lot. We are all very excited to meet our little boy!

Bedside Table Reads

As I've been reading through this book, I had the itch to purge and organize just one little space. Whenever I think about which part of my house needs to be made pleasing, I always go to our bedroom first. It's often neglected and cluttered, but I want it to be calming and soothing. Master bedrooms are often last on the list of decorating priorities, and that is sad. 

I trimmed my bedside books down to a realistic stack of what I want to focus on right now (and looking at the stack, I see that I need some fiction in my life). I think there were three stacks of "current reads" which is completely unrealistic. 

Here's my most grabbed books right now:

Bibles: The Message and ESV
The Screwtape Letters
The Nesting Place
Composition Journal (my favorite brand)
Wisdom of God (not pictured)

Now taking fiction recommendations...

DPP / December 25

Hell done froze over. My mom and I could not believe our eyes when Daniel walked in with his gifts. They were wrapped like they were straight out of a magazine. Granted, Daniel stopped by yesterday to borrow ribbon, tape, scissors, and twine (he asked for it by name). To top it off, he stuck a fern branch in Fern's present. It's better than anything I've seen on Pinterest. I'm so proud.

Christmas Card, 2014

Our cards have been mailed and hopefully delivered just in time for Christmas. Every year I like to include a letter. Sometimes it's simple and lame, sometimes I make stuff up (to keep people guessing), but I always try to keep it a little bit silly. This year's letter basically described us as the typical American family with nothing new or special to report. I included Burl's description of each of us because he hit the nail on the head:

Mama is cute and good at cooking and washing dishes.

Daddy is awesome and strong and good at fixing things.

Burl is good at inventing things.

Fern is good at drawing.

While this year has not been anything special, it's been one of our best years as a family.

 We've had so much fun along the way and hope you have too.

Merry Christmas.

DPP / December 19

It's almost sick how much I love Christmas card season-

especially my little card station to send my own cards. 

...........................................................................................................................

Pen To The Paper

Fern walked in the den wearing her glasses and carrying her notebook and pencils. She started writing and told John, "I'm gonna be a mama."

At home one day, Burl brought me leftover valentines and asked if he could send them to his friends. He asked me to write a letter to each of them. One of the letters is pictured below; the other said something similar but included, "thanks for fighting with me." He's learned to write his name, so letters are one of his new things.

John pointed out that they're doing this because they see me do it. It's true-I've been journaling since I was a child and I write letters almost daily, so naturally these small events thrilled me.  

Christmas Card, 2013

I'm still at the point in my life where I can't just send a simple, online bought Christmas card. I still feed the need to touch and artsy each one of my cards-oh, and it's so much cheaper! It wouldn't be Christmas if I wasn't staying up late at night watching TV and crafting. 

This year, I am all about the same-ole-same-old things: neutrals, clean lines, and simple*
*simple, fancy for plain 

craft envelopes 

+ watercolor paper (thick and textured)
+ a square photo
+ masking tape

+sarcastic letter (see below)

The Christmas letters and cards are just like the lights on the Christmas tree, I used more than the year before and still did not have enough. If you didn't get one from us this year or you are stranger who wants a recap of our year, this post is for you. Merry Everything, people!

Merry Everything, Friends!

We hope that you all are enjoying this season and this letter finds you well. We want to share what we’ve been about this year, but as you will see, there’s nothing special. While we’re having fun and feeling fancy, we are a typical family of four:

Fern is the epitome of girly. Her days are spent cooking in her kitchen, taking care of her baby dolls, wearing pretty dresses & jewelry, and dreaming of the day she’s allowed to use makeup. She speaks in a delicate little voice, and this sweetheart has everyone in the house swooning over her. However, if she feels threatened by her older, much bigger brother, then she can throw a slap, shoot a gun, or swing a sword. In this house a real lady can hold her own.

Our worker-man, farmer Burl is putting down the shovel and sweat these days all in the name of fighting. He spends his days playing hunt and wrestle with anyone who is strong enough-thank you ninja turtles. He’s growing up and often asks how much longer until he’s a big as his uncles, can drive his car, and go live by himself in the woods. However, he still takes a nap everyday and needs help getting dressed, so it’s not anytime soon.  He’s at such a fun stage.

There’s nothing notable about John and me. John’s like the average hardworking man who takes care of his family but much stronger. I’m like the average cook-and-sometimes-clean stay at home mom, but hopefully more fun. The only noteworthy change in our lives has been the addition of the iPhone. While sometimes suffering from tech-neck, we’ve enjoyed more texting and constantly being connected to the internet. Directions, quick shopping, and random facts? We’ve got them all. Nothing has been more fun than recording all of our good times and sharing them with family and on social media. We’re having so much fun doing nothing special and telling everyone about it.

Typical or wild, may you have a very fantastic Christmas season.

(Christmas cards of the past: 2010, 2011, 2012)

Bundles Of Fun

This mama loves her some pretty packaging. I'm actually not that good at wrapping with paper, and every year my mom seems to point out my bad wrapping job. I make up for it though.  I like simple, pokey knots over big perfect bows, and I just die over some cute gift tags. That's where it's at in my opinion. 

Above are my cookie boxes I gave this year:
White boxes. 
Mountain gift tags
DIY Wonky stars (tongue compressors and hot glue gun)

Below are gifts this year:
Wrapping Paper (white, kraft, and some inexpensive patterns from Home Goods)
Ribbon from our local ribbon factory and twine
Animal gift tags (so our family right now as Burl wants a pet bear for Christmas)

My mom and I are the only wrappers in our family, and we always laugh as my brothers tell everyone to close their eyes as they hand us our gifts, get this, RAW without wrapping. We laugh every.time. 

Happy Gifting!

Linen Ruffled Invitations

I'm all about some homemade invitations with a side of creativity. 

One of the co-hosts made the pdf file with the words, font, and color for the baby shower invitations. (We both sort of love this stuff!) I made some ruffles to embellish them. There's no tutorial, because I figure if you're the type of person who does this stuff, a picture/idea is enough to get the job done.

Most of the wording is blurred out, but the linen ruffle is really where it's at! Actually, the font is really cute if you can see it in the top picture. Here it is, a homemade linen ruffled shower invitation.
Surprise, surprise...it's a girl!

The invitations are mailed and I'm so excited to throw a shower for my sweet friend!

Currently On My Nightstand

What is currently on my nightstand, in the den, on the dining room table, in the kitchen counter, and beside any comfy chair in the house are a few of my books. There are my books for reading, for journaling, and one book for volunteer stuff for church. Want to know the details?

Reading: I'm currently reading:

1. Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott. A book on writing and a book on life. It exceeded my wildest expectations. 

2. Comforts From The Cross by Elyse Fitzpatrick. A birthday gift from a friend, which I've read almost daily since then. Such a sweet devotional for someone (me!) who is skeptical of devotionals.

3. The One Year Book of Hope by Nancy Guthrie. The same friend gave this to me to pass to Lauren during her grieving. When I gave it to Lauren, she smiled. She read it after her mom died and said it was the only book that she liked and it helped. Now, I'm reading it too and it is marvelous. I look forward to reading it everyday. I would highly recommend this to anyone.

4. Country Living and Better Homes & Gardens. I hang onto these all month, reading a little bit at a time because I love them so. I stretch them out to last all month!

Journaling: 

1. I had a cute little floral journal that John gave me. It's colors and design were my taste perfectly, but the tiny size made it hard to write.

2. After a few weeks of writing in it (or not writing because it was difficult), I gave it up for the standard black and white composition book that suits me just perfectly. Why do I think that anything else will suffice? Besides, I love to get a little craftastic on those composition journals and make them my own.

Two questions:

1. I've been nonfiction heavy with my reading this year. Could you recommend any fiction books?

2. Do you journal? What inspires you?

My Minimalist Craft Space

Oh heavens, I feel like I've been gone from this place forever.  An over-exciting weekend and a sick computer have kept me away for a few extra days.  I'm back and I'm ready to talk about my little minimalist make-over of my life.  Well, makeover might be too strong of a word, but things are changing at my house.  Aren't they always, though.  Gosh, sometimes I crave change and growth and evolution so much, that I'm looking for it all the time.  

So, here's the thing: I started reading the Minimalist blog.  Have you tried it?  It's good stuff.   My favorite entry is where they talk about how decluttering is a farce and not the answer to our excessive lives like we think it is.  A close second is the entry where they drop this line: Organizing is often well planned hoarding.  These reads are the things that have really helped me put into action some of the things that have been tugging on me since I got back from Belize in June.  There's excess.  There's stuff.  There's life.  And I want to do it all.  While I do like my possessions, my excess shows up big time in the things that I want to do.  Some have issues with having, I have issues with doing.

 

While I've been examining all areas of my life, just for fun because that's my idea of fun, I've been thinking about my crafting area.  It's been messy and cluttered for a bit, and I've left it that way.  That's how "artist" are...they have messy, cluttery spaces.  The stuff was getting on my nerves and I needed to clean it out, but I needed more.  I had to give up on a lot of stuff that I wanted to do.  I wanted to make everything and it just wasn't happening.

While I'm still interested in crafting some things, I've found some freedom in letting a large portion of my projects go.  I'm not starting on anything new.  I'm not holding on to several little half finished projects.  I'm just laying low and working on a few things here and there.  I think that's called growth.  

I highly recommend subscribing to that blog, and start asking the questions: what do we need to cut down on?  What else do we need to let go?  Where else can we find freedom?

O Christmas Card, O Christmas Card

If I've learned only one thing this go around, it's this: I love Christmas Card Season.  Receiving beautiful pictures from my friends is wonderful.  I display them with excitement as I string them across our dining room windows.  They are the first decoration that arrives, and they are the last to be taken down.  I wouldn't be surprised if they stay up until Valentine's Day.  To all my friends who send me one, thank you.  To my friends that don't, that's cool.  It's not everyone's cup of tea.

For me, making and sending cards is so my cup of tea.  I love finding cheap and creative ways to execute it, as well as writing a fun letter to accompany the picture.  To keep costs down, I usually print a plain picture and snazz them up a bit.  The first year, I tied them to card stock and last year I bundled them together.  

This year, I found a deal that was cheaper than printing pictures at Sam's.  {Card Store is where it's at, people.}  I printed a matte 5x7 picture on thick card stock and cut a fancy design.

That's right.  I cut them myself.  Something about touching each one, cutting them imperfectly, and sending them off make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  The cutting was done anytime I was still.  With Burl, during nap time, watching Survivor, etc.  Some people knit...I snip.

This year, the letter was smaller and less funny.  I used to try to make our Christmas letter funny every year, but I just didn't have anything funny to write.  Instead, I just wrote a few thoughts that I had:  

Merry Christmas!

This year’s Christmas letter is completely empty of hilarity.  When it comes to laughing and shaking like a bowl full of jello, this package will come up empty.  I’m sorry.  Instead, you are each welcome to stop by our house, where laughter and craziness are fresh on tap and available daily.

Until we see you again, we hope that your Christmas season is amazing!  May it be full of fun and laughter; joy and jolly; special treats and good eats; fresh air and deep breaths; rowdiness and energy; quiet and calm; mountain top perspective and ocean deep relaxation; open window days and fireside nights.

Happy Holidays to you all and never forget: ‘Tis the season to be merry & bright.

Love, The Days

Here's wishing you a merry Christmas card season!