Friday Favorites // 12.20.13

Five more days until Christmas... Wow. Really. I better get a move on!

Here are a few things that caught my eye this week--

this snowflake table runner

via art bar as seen on you are my fave

gotta keep the boys busy on monday and tuesday... this may be just the craft!

Click "Read more" for the full post

Make // Pleather Bows & Other Gift Wrap

PLEATHER... Great for decorating your presents AND your friends!

who knew??!!

Click "Read more" for the tutorial

Make // Alcohol Ink Ornaments

This tutorial first appeared as part of Under the Table & Dreaming's 4th Annual Handmade Ornament Series. 

I discovered Alcohol Ink over the summer while I was coming up with ideas for restyling these recyclable glass bottles. The look was so iridescent and eye-catching that I knew that it would be the perfect treatment for simple glass ornaments. 

Flash forward six months and it was finally time to try my hand at decorating glass ornaments. I played around a bit and came up with four different, yet simple techniques. While they look a little labor intensive, they are surprisingly easy to make and not too messy (as long as you keep the ink off your clothes!).

Click "Read more" for the tutorial

Friday Favorites // 12.13.13

Ooh, Friday the 13th! I love it. And it's the hub's birthday... I love it even more! Thirteen is a lucky number in this household.

Here are some of the things that grabbed my interest this week--

this White Ornamental Kale with Green Polka Dots

found at Trader Joes-- 3 stalks for $4.99!

Click "read more" for the full post

Guest Posting at Under the Table & Dreaming!

This week I'm guest posting over at Under the Table & Dreaming. I'm sharing a tutorial for some very bright, shiny, colorful, translucent and eye-catching ornaments. Is that enough adjectives? :)

In total, there are 30 creative ornament tutorials being shared throughout the week. Click on the button below and Go check it out!

Our Lives // Christmas Decorations and Mini-Makeover

Okay, seriously? Where did last week go? Did Thanksgiving just come and go, just like that? Lets just say it was a busy, yet productive, week for us.

I started off the week by hosting a breakfast meeting for my fellow school board members. I'm not a baker, but I've been wanting to make these yummy cinnamon rolls. They came out pretty good, but somehow I forgot to serve the fruit and juices that I had chilled in the refrigerator. Oops. I've been extra spacey these days so I blame it on either my allergies or my allergy medication. I'm not ready to go with the "getting old" excuse quite yet. :)

So, besides pretending to be a baker, I also put up the Christmas decorations and hung some much needed art on our blank walls.

We've been in this house for four years so I really don't have a good excuse for blank walls. I'm just pickier with each passing year, I guess... Probably as a result of my past rash decorating decisions. I've "donated" a bunch of decorative items that we bought on whim for our old house. My hubs is of the "If there's space... Fill it!" school of thought. As a newlywed, I was less particular and too busy with work to focus on particulars, so I just went with it. Also, that was way before blogs, Pinterest and other influencers... I really had no sense of my own style way back then! Flash forward ten years and NOW I care and am picky to the point of paralysis. I'm not sure what's better-- Buy and regret? Or not buy and suffer from decorating paralysis?

Click "Read more" for the full post