Our Christmas Card!!

Classic Scarlet 5x7 folded card

Unique party invitations and announcements by Shutterfly.

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50 Free Shutterfly Christmas cards!!!

Hey out there! Haven't posted since before we moved, it's been crazy with classes and home projects but I have LOTS of before/after pictures to show you all. Anyway, on to what I'm really writing about this morning.

I was made aware of this really super fantastic deal from Shutterfly this year. For those who don't know, I adore them for photo books and personalized calendars. Their quality is great and they always have great deals and/or promotional codes. This year I'm thinking about ordering our Christmas cards and/or some gift tags. How cute are they?!? This is the card I'm considering- Christmas Letter, it should be perfect for us. I want to do a family picture and then pictures of each of the girls individually. I love the letter aspect, it gives me the ability to put a more personal touch on the cards then just "hey, here's our family." I don't know that we are doing them for family/friends, but we are definitely sending them out to Micah's business contacts. I love the other cards we get from contacts, it's so nice to put faces with names.

Also... How about Christmas gifts? These wall canvases would make fabulous christmas gifts for grandparents, or even a spouse. I usually order stretched canvases of one of my favorite photos from our Christmas session and it hangs in a prominent spot all year long. They are a great "fresh" look and since they don't have a frame that needs to match with room decor they are easy to move around in the house.

Lastly... Bloggers go HERE to find out how you can get 50 free photo cards from Shutterfly!

Mod Podged mason jars

I have a decorating blog addiction. There, I said it. The good thing about this addiction is I find all sorts of way.stinkin.cool ways to make our living spaces more "me"(I guess I should say "us" but Micah doesn't really care). I found this great, fabulous, awesome, cool idea at The Hand Me Down House and knew right away that the mod podged mason jars would make wicked awesome hanging lanterns for our back patio area.

Of course I neglected to take pictures while I was putting my mod podge on the jars, but here they are drying in my(disgustingly dirty) oven.



When they are done I will wrap some wire around the tops and drop some tea lights in them. They will be so pretty lit at dusk :)

Ciao Bella!

Making our House a Home- Master Bedroom

We close on our new house in exactly 14 days, so, on Aug 26th we'll get the keys and then the real party can begin :)

This afternoon the fabric samples that I ordered came in the mail and they are *perfect*. I mean seriously, absolutely *perfect*.

And this one-
They are slightly different in color when you see them in person and I like them even better in natural sunlight.

I'm imagining the birds on a pair of accent chairs like this, which should be fairly straight forward to reupholster. Or maybe something like this-

I'm going to pick up the wood to make this headboard this weekend, once we're settled in then I'll make the rails as well.


I'm envisioning all white bedding with accent pillows made from the two different fabrics. The walls in the room will be painted the robin's egg blue color from the fabric. I can't decide if I want to paint all the walls that color, or if I want to do one big accent wall in the blue and the other 3 walls in the taupe color?

I have some other ideas floating around as well for things like night tables and decorative accents but I don't really see much point in posting pictures of ALL of them :) You'll get to see the finished project anyway.

Ciao bella!

$2 Thrift Store Shelf makeover

I finished up my $2 shelf last night and got it put in it's new {temporary} home. It's cute, but if it stays in the main living area of our house then it might need some beadboard... or something. It was really a very straightforward project. Sand, add shelf, sand more, prime, sand, paint, sand, add some feet, and paint. It's a great grey color that is almost black but not quite. I'm thinking it might get some beadboard panels(especially a back) and go live in the girl's room for toys? Or maybe in Micah's office for books.

Before(ugly, no shelf, no feet but nice sturdy bones)-


After-






































I'm joining the before and after party at ThriftyDecorChick!

Yet another new blog....

So, this is like my third blog. Everytime I start one I promise myself that I will write at least once a week, but really, that just isn't me. So this blog will be more a chronicle of my latest hobby- thrift shopping and redoing furniture to make our home more of a home. I'm always on a budget(and I'm just plain old cheap) but it doesn't mean that our home has to look all mismatched and slopped together. There is such a thing as eclectic chic ;)

I love finding items with good bones and building on them, or refinishing to make them lovely.

For example, this lamp was a $2 thrift store find. It has a great shape but brass is so not my thing. Never fear, it's nothing a bit of spray paint and a great shade can't fix!

Before:










































After:






































Now, I'm off to fold some laundry and then off to Lowe's for a shelf for a $2 "This End Up" shelf that I picked up on Thursday.