House of Fifty (and a little Easter What-We-Wore)~

Today is the day! The official launch of House of Fifty e-zine! Created by the very talented Janell of Isabella and Max rooms!

I am so honored to have been one of the contributors to the premier issue of this beautiful

e-zine. As a contributor, I was lucky enough to see a sneak peak of the magazine last week...and I must tell you...it is simply stunning. A must read, if I do say so myself.

Click here (or on the photo above) to read House of Fifty!

Now for a little Easter What-We-Wore.

I just love Easter! It is seriously one of my favorite holidays. And one of the things that I love the most is dressing my children up for church in their new Easter finery! Our family tradition of getting new Easter clothes is one that dates back to my childhood...and one that I've loved continuing with my own kids.

Here are the kiddos hunting for Easter eggs on Easter morning. They found them all in no time flat. I wish I had timed them... but seriously, it could not have taken them more than about 5 or 6 minutes. You should have seem them go!

And here they are with the goods! Too cute for words, those kiddos.


On the Princess: Lady Jane Dress and Mini Frosted Flowers cardigan from DownEast Basics.
On the little boys: Shirts and sweater vests from Target, khakis from Children's Place
On Mr. One: Shirt from Target, tie - Chaps by Ralph Lauren from Kohl's, khakis from Children's Place


The hubby snapped this photo of my Easter look...

Le Petit Linen Dress and Frosted Flowers Cardigan from DownEast Basics

Tulle Underskirt from Vintage Hem

Necklace from Target

Fashionable footwear courtesy of our local Urgent Care

Bet you're jealous of my awesome footwear, huh? Last Wednesday I was just minding my own business walking down our stairs when "POP!" something popped in my ankle...and boy did it hurt. But the pain went away and I soon forgot about it. Until I was trying to reach something on a shelf and stood on my tip toes. Then "POP!" it happened again. And then again later...and then again...and then on Thursday the frequency increased until I told the hubby I thought maybe I should go get it checked.

Turns out I have a small fracture on my right ankle bone most likely a stress fracture that finally "popped" on my way down the stairs last Wednesday. Seeing as it was Thursday night at Urgent Care, however, they just immobilized it for me. I'm going to have to see a specialist this week to find out the details. Let's keep our fingers crossed no surgery is involved. Shall we?

But aside from my little escapade with my ankle, it was a perfectly lovely weekend.

How about you?

Making Valentines~

The kiddos and I finished their Valentine's cards yesterday. For reals. I honestly don't think we've ever been ready this far in advance. Aren't you impressed? ;-)


But before I get to that...I had a lot of questions about how I applied the wrapping paper to the wall in my last post...I did it the same way as I did the first time (you can read about it by clicking the link about gift wrapped walls in the post) I used my staple gun. I just stapled the paper around the edges, and a couple of times in the middle. Because the space I was covering was relatively small, it worked like a dream, and it's easy to remove, which is important because this is a rental house.

Okey dokey, now on to the cards.


I saw this very cute idea floating around blogland last year, and mentally filed it away to use for this year's Valentine's cards.



So first things first, I took photos of each of the four kiddos with one hand extended in a fist. (They are wearing their Sunday clothes because I grabbed them right after we got home from church...not a bad idea...their hair was combed, their faces were clean, they looked presentable.)

Then I used Picnik.com to add borders and text to each.

I poked holes in each card at the top and bottom of each child's fist. And then the five of us had fun putting lollipops on each card by weaving the sticks through the holes.

Didn't they turn out ADORABLE?!? (If I do say so myself.)

And the best part is, they are completely, 100% personalized. No one else in their classes will have cards exactly like theirs. I love that.

Have a great day...

Go eat a lollipop.

A Little Bit of Valentine's~

I started to pull out the Valentine's Decor this weekend. I thought I'd get more decorating done, but it was one of those weekends where I couldn't seem to stop cleaning the house. Which is good, I guess. Clean houses are always nice. (Oh, and I found a magic way to clean solid surface kitchen sinks that I'll tell you all about later this week...I know you're just frantic to hear about it, aren't you?)


So even though I didn't get quite as much Valentine's fun out as I hoped I would, I decided I'd share a little bit of it with you today.


First up, my cute Vintage Valentine wreath. I was inspired to make this after seeing one on the Williams Sonoma website. If you'd like to learn more, I talk about how I created this little darlin' here.



Next, my Valentine tree. I used the same spray-painted-white branches that I had as my dining table centerpiece for Christmas. I just switched out the birds and book page ornaments for these pretty glittered chipboard hearts. I heart them. Yes, the pun was intended.

I filled one of my apothecary jars with some funny pink vase filler and a sweet little cupid pixie I made from a baby photo of the Princess. You can read about how to make my famous pixies here.

The other apothecary jar contains a sweet pair of glittered chipboard X and O letters.

And just so you know, I've determined that it is absolutely impossible to get a decent photo of this corner in my kitchen....so I'm apologizing for these less-than-stellar images.

Last year, we started a tradition in our little family of writing love notes to one another during the month of February...then reading them on Valentine's Day. I made this sweet little Valentine pouch for us to stuff the notes in. You can read more about it here.

Finally, I'm afraid this is as far as I've gotten with my mantle decor so far. One little heart (although it's a pretty little heart.) But I'll tell you a little secret as to why I haven't done more. I finally got so sick of the ugly fireplace stone, that I was brave enough to approach our landlords about painting it... and they said "yes"! Can I hear a "woot woot!"? So the hubby and I will be tackling that project this week. I'll post about it, of course! And then I'll finish blinging up the mantle with some Valentines-y goodness!

Even though I didn't get much up on my mantle (for very good reason!)...I'm linking to Beth's Valentine's Mantle party...hop over and enjoy all the Valentine's goodness.



Have a great day~

Merry Christmas~

The children were nestled all snug in their beds...

Wishing you joy and peace this holiday season.

Merry Christmas from my home to yours.

A Little More Christmas~

I'm ready. No really, I'm ready. Okay, except the fact that I have to run to the grocery store and pick up a few salad fixins for Christmas Eve dinner. But all the gifts are wrapped. Those that need delivering are delivered. All the preparations are made. Now I can sit back and enjoy the last couple of days before Christmas.

We've had another run in with the stomach flu in our family this week. And it took me completely out of commission for 24 hours. 24 hours of down-time right before Christmas is SCARY if you're a type-A control freak like I am. But at least I was up and running in time to get everything ready. And, at least for the moment, everyone in my house is flu-free. (Knock on wood.)

So I'm going to enjoy some of this...





...pajama-clad littles reading favorite Christmas stories. We'll play a little Wii, watch some movies, snuggle and enjoy. This is such a magical moment in time...with a house full of wiggly little bodies who can hardly contain their excitement. I just want to soak it up, because they won't be this little forever.


Okay, so I haven't mastered the art of photographing in very low light. But I loved this scene in my living room last night, so I had to snap a pic. (And it shows -sort of- my two Christmas gifts...a new rug and coffee table...I'll tell you all about them later. I'm so excited!!)

And, in case you are in need of a last minute Christmas gift...check out these sweet little pillows I whipped up last night while sitting at my kitchen table and staring at the scene above. The downloadable graphics are found on one of my newly-discovered favorite blogs, Dear Lillie, right here. Just print them out in reverse on some photo transfer paper, iron them on your choice of fabrics and stitch up some pretty pillows.

Have a great day~

Faux Mercury Glass tutorial and a Last Minute Neighbor Gift Idea~

For my Christmas Mantel I decided to try my hand at making some faux mercury glass. Now, let me preface this by saying that there are many tutorials on the old www that can tell you how to do this. This is just my version, which as usual, is the lazy person's version. But it was super (and I stress SUPER) easy!

What you will need:

1. Glass containers of any configuration. (I went and bought a bunch of candle/votive holders at the dollar store.)

2. A water spraybottle (filled with actual water...shocking, I know.)

3. Silver metallic spraypaint. (I have also read that using mirror spraypaint works well...and in reality I think it would probably be better...I just happened to have some silver spraypaint on hand...and that's how I roll...)

Instructions:

1. I decided to spraypaint both the inside and outsides of my containers, so I didn't need to prep them any special way. If you want to use them as candle h0lders, I would suggest taping off the inside of the jars so you won't get any paint inside. Heat + Paint = Trouble.

2. Spritz both the outside and inside of each jar with water. I set my spraybottle on mist so that the water droplets are small in size. (This is what creates the aged look.) Some of the water will pool on the inside of the jar. Don't worry about this.

3. Immediately spray the inside and outside of each wet jar with your metallic (or mirror) spraypaint. Go over each with two to three light coats of paint. Remember mercury glass is supposed to look aged and imperfect, so you aren't going for complete coverage here.

4. Let the jars dry completely. As the water dries it will leave droplet marks and streaks which add to the mercury glass illusion.

ENJOY!

For a super easy neighbor gift, take your faux mercury glass vessel and add a bag full of goodies to the inside. Super easy and festive!

Oh, and on a last note...due to the fact that both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve fall on Fridays this year, there will be no Frugal Friday linky parties for the next two weeks. I'm pretty sure you all will be too busy to miss it. ;-) But never fear all you frugalistas, Frugal Friday will resume as usual the second week of 2011.

Have a great day~

Our Christmas Tree~

This year was something a little different for my kids. Rather than going to a tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree which had been our tradition for the past several years in Massachusetts, we went to a local nursery/Christmas tree lot to purchase our tree. (Seeing as how there are no tree farms anywhere near us here in Utah.) I don't think my kids realized you could just go and purchase a tree already cut. But they had a great time at the cute little lot. And we picked out a lovely tree.


Here's my little family with our tree. Forgive the sunflare on this photo...it was taken with my cell phone...and apparently, Mr. Three thought that being in this photo was not a good idea. So he was hiding in the car.

And here they are with the tree all tied to the top of the car ready to go...

Once we got our pretty tree home (it was seriously one of the most symmetrical trees I've ever seen) we had fun decorating. The kids actually did much of the decorating, and I think they did a great job! I only pulled out the silver and white ornaments for them to put on the tree...with the exception of a couple of special ornaments that the kids made and the dried oranges which they insisted we put up. Any other ornaments that the kids couldn't live without were placed on their own little tabletop trees that are in each of their bedrooms (I'll have to post about them later.)

So, after that lengthy explanation, I present to you approximately 20394203579 photos of our 2010 Christmas tree!

(I couldn't narrow it down. I'm nothing if not decisive.)

I'm linking up to the Christmas Tree Party at Thrifty Decor Chick.

Have a great day~

A Christmas Vignette~

Today I wanted to share with you all one of the Christmas vignettes I have throughout my home. I just love this one which I have set up on top of my pretty white buffet.

I continued on with the white and silver theme which I have going on throughout the house this year. I started by filling up this cheesedome/cloche with small silver ornaments. I love how they sparkle when the lamps are turned on!

Next, I added this glitter-y church ornament and two paper pine trees which I made using my Silhouette Digital Cutter (I have a whole slew of cute items I made which I'll share with you in a later post....and if these super cute trees are any indication...you're going to want to see the other fun decorations I was able to make!) I placed them in my little metal bird dish with some faux snow and they remind me of winter in New England. It is so beautiful in the winter there, with pretty white churches dotting the countryside. Sometimes I really miss living there.

But I digress.

Behind my little New England-y church, is a vintage white bottle-brush tree that I stole inherited from my Mom. I Loooooove it! I'm such a fan of bottle-brush trees, and this one is great because it so large and such a pretty white color! I'm smitten.

Finally, I added a sweet little glitter tree to my bird's nest. I just nestled it right inside with the eggs. Such an unexpected and fun addition to the scene.

I wanted to share with you all my dining room centerpiece as well, but decided after I had started taking photos that since the table itself isn't completely ready for the holidays and I'd rather share it with you all at once, I'm going to wait on sharing the entire centerpiece. But I will leave you with just this one teaser photo!

I'm linking up to Rhoda's Holiday Vignette party! Go check out the other festive entries!

A double-sized edition of the Frugal Round-up is coming your way with Frugal Friday this week. And just like every week, it goes live tonight at 10:00 pm EST.

Have a great day~

Our Christmas Cards~

I am so excited about this year's Christmas cards! You see, the Hubby and I had a vision of what we wanted. (If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you might recall that John is a photographer.) And he is finally doing well enough after his car accident that we could do a little photo shoot with the kiddos.

We wanted a picture of the kids asleep. Yep, you heard right...asleep. Okay, so that wasn't going to happen naturally. And a little bribery may have been involved. But, oh. my. goodness . did we end up with a beautiful picture. I think it's absolutely perfect. Good little actors, those kiddos.

A picture this sweet needed to be made into a FABULOUS Christmas card. And I wasn't going to trust that to just anyone.

So I turned to Cardstore.com. Cardstore.com has an amazing selection of holiday cards to choose from. We're talking oodles and oodles of options here, people. And they don't have to just be photo cards...although those are definitely my favorite! They have a great selection of non-photo Christmas cards as well, not to mention gift tags - with or without photos, invitations, etc. etc. etc.

A couple of the super-fantastic options from Cardstore.com


It took me a while to sift through all of the possibilities but I finally found the perfect card for our perfect photo. And I tell you, Cardstore.com was so fast, the cards shipped out the very next day! I couldn't believe it! And I was so happy with them once they arrived. The colors are beautiful and the cards are made of heavy, pretty cardstock. None of that flimsy photo paper. I just love them! Look at them all nestled in their shipping box. Aren't they pretty?

And the good people at Cardstore.com have offered the readers of The Shabby Nest a 20% discount on your first Cardstore.com purchase! All you have to do is enter the code CSHOLIDAY20 at checkout! That's it!!

Legal stuff: Cardstore.com offered me free merchandise in exchange for my review of their site, but all of my opinions are 100% mine.

Oh and one more thing...I just wanted to thank you all my FABULOUS readers!!! Over the weekend, this little ol' blog reached 2,000,000 pageviews!!! 2 Million!!! and 1000 likes on Facebook! You guys are THE BEST!!! I just love you all to pieces!

Have a great day~

My Christmas Mantel~

Today I wanted to share with you my Christmas Mantel. It has always been a tradition in my house to decorate for Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving. And so, rather than braving the crowds on Black Friday morning...my little family and I braved the cold to go pick out a Christmas tree. (Which I'll share later.) Then it was back home to spend the remainder of the day hard at work getting our house ready for the holidays.

I mentioned in an earlier post that this year I had a neutral palette in mind. Mostly silver and white with touches of black...and green of course...and everything turned out just the way I envisioned it.

So without further ado, I present this year's Christmas mantel.



Circumstances being what they are this year, I was working with an exceptionally small budget for Christmas decorating. So my goal was to use things I already had. And when I absolutely had to supplement, I either created what I needed myself, (look for upcoming tutorials on my DIYs) or I found it at the dollar store. Now, I know I talk a lot about frugal decorating on this little old blog. And I practice what I preach. But the trick is, my dear readers, not to have the space look frugal. Sure, use things from the dollar store....but NEVER let it look like you used things from the dollar store. Caviar decorating on a tuna fish budget...

Here's how I accomplished this look...

The garland is one that I have had for a few years. It is just a simple craft store faux garland that I beefed up by doubling it. Then I added in a spring green berry garland and lights. I made it even more festive by attaching a few dollar store snowflakes and some pretty white and silver ribbon from Michael's Craft. (The ribbon is actually holding the garland up...because the mantle is rough stone, I couldn't come up with another way to attach the garland...so I nailed the ribbon to the wall just above the mantel and then tied the garland with the ribbon...an easy-peasy solution!)

Then for the glitz factor, the ornament wreath. I made this darlin' out of dollar store ornaments. Really, I did. And I'll share a tutorial on just how I did it later.

Next, the fabulous faux mercury glass candle holders. Another little DIY (again, tutorial to come).

I also re-used my sweet chenille Christmas trees, just popped them on top of some brushed nickle candle holders that I pulled out of my decor storage. (I highly recommend keeping a decor staging storage area if you don't already have one. It really helps when you want to switch things around.)

The topiaries are on the mantel year round...but I made them a little more festive by adding sweet little bird ornaments.

And finally, the pretty stockings that I made a couple of years. The boys' stockings are made out of tan linen that I repurposed from an old jumper and the girls' stockings are made from a repurposed baby quilt. I just love their understated elegance.

Oh, and the basket on the hearth holds my collection of Children's Christmas books. I simply adore them, and the kids and I have a great time reading them every day of the Christmas season! It's one of our favorite traditions.

I just love it at night with the lights twinkling....magical!

So there you have it! My 2010 Christmas Mantle! I'm linking to the Mantel party at The Lettered Cottage! Hop over and check out all the festive fun!

Have a great day~