Usually it’s Me Knocking Off Pottery Barn, but Looks Like This Time They Copied Me!!!

I was checking out Pottery Barn to see what else I would be adding to my project to-do list and I found these:

Looks like they must have been checking out my blog ;-) and come across my “beach balls”

that I made after our trip to Tybee Island last May. PB’s  name is a little more dignified though…”Shell Spheres”.

I don’t mind, I copy their stuff all the time! lol

Two of My Favorite Projects

I love The CSI Project!!! It is very inspiring to me…each week they have a project theme and you link up your projects that fall under that category. Sometimes the upcoming themes inspire me to finish a project a little faster or maybe even get started on one. Seeing all the other projects usually inspires the copycat in me! :-) Sometimes I already have something finished that I am proud of and ready to show off and I just link up! This weeks theme is “Favorite Projects of the Year”. As I was looking through past posts and projects, I found several that were my favorites, two that I did last spring and one that I just finished last week and haven’t really shared yet. There are two more, but they have already been entered and made the Top 10 in previous weeks, so I don’t know if they are even eligible.

I started my blog in March and so my ideas and projects quickly turned to the outside and garden as the temperatures warmed up. My Tipsy Pot Planter has always been one of my favorites! It was fun to put together, it looked amazing as the flowers grew and filled it up and was a great conversation piece all summer as I was asked “How is that standing like that?”

I also made one for my Mother-in-Law.

The tutorial for one of these is here.

Next is probably one of the easiest projects that I’ve done. You can turn an ordinary nursery pot into a gorgeous stone look planter with just textured spray paint and foam pipe insulation! Complete tutorial here.

So, I’m linking these up at:

Do you have a favorite project…or a few favorites?? Come join me and link up too!

 

Oh, my post last night may have been misleading…you can still vote today at Dollar Store Crafts! I’d appreciate your vote, just click on the picture of my candy stand in the top right corner!  Thank you!

A White and Wonderful Christmas…And Last Day to Vote!!!!

Just like many of you, my family awoke to a white Christmas! This was a first for our family and everyone was very excited!! While the snow was falling outside, we stayed warm and cozy inside exchanging our gifts. Traditionally, we start with our stockings, which are full of fun things

 

and that keeps everyone busy for awhile.

Next we start with the youngest child and each person opens a gift, one at a time.

This gives everyone a chance to enjoy each other’s gifts. It takes a while to get it all done, but not nearly as long as it used to when all of the kids were at home. Then we took a break for breakfast of homemade cinnamon rolls, sausage balls (yes, we eat these for breakfast! )and sparkling orange juice. I didn’t think to take a picture, so we’ll move on to phase II.

Over the year as our family grew, we realized that rather than each of the children trying to buy a little something for everyone they should draw names and focus on a special gift for that one person. When each daughter married and our son was engaged, their spouse or spouse to be was also included in the drawing. The “sibling exchange” as they call it has become a very special part of our Christmas. Almost as soon as they draw the names on Thanksgiving, they start plotting and planning and secretly talking with one another to try and find out what would be the perfect present for their “person”. Here are a few highlights. With ten kids and four spouses this takes  a while too….

 

 

All my kids and grandkids at home and a white Christmas, what more could a mom ask for?!?!? Well, they came bearing gifts….

   

I’ve wanted beaded white dishes ever since I saw these at Pottery Barn:

I can’t wait to try them out!! I also received a certificate for a massage at a local day spa! I have awesome kids!

A little something in my stocking from the hubby:

Was I really that bad???

I guess not, ‘cuz I got these adorable Christmas Bears too!

They found a home right away in my Candy Corner.

  

We ended the day sledding in the dark!

While taking pictures of the kids sledding, I decided to take a picture of the snow-covered crab apple tree. One of the snow flakes coming down in front of it appears to be heart-shaped..., picturing what I was feeling at that moment, watching my family all together, enjoying a first white Christmas and each other...a very bright and FULL heart!

PS I almost forgot this, but tomorrow is the last day to vote at the Dollar Tree Craft Contest. I would appreciate your vote! Just click on the picture of my Candy Stand in the upper right hand corner….thank you!!

I'm participating in the Shutter Love Tuesday blog hop at Trendy Treehouse!

Christmas came a little early to my house…

yesterday!
First, I received a package in the mail that I figured had to be one my daughter had shipped to my house so that her husband didn’t see it, but it was addressed to me, not her as they usually come. So, I decided to check it out, figuring I could let her know what had arrived and….SURPRISE! It was for me!! A special gift from Roeshel over at The DIY Showoff!
Thank you Roeshel! I have already been enjoying my coffee and a little tea in my mug! I usually use the same mug for my coffee and tea, and I have a new “special” one.  It always tastes better out of a favorite!
Secondly, my family and I have been “fostering” two puppies for two families that will be getting  the puppies for Christmas. I delivered them yesterday and was presented with this beautiful basket filled with goodies as a thank-you! It even had goodies for our puppies. It was a very touching surprise! YUM!

We may also be  having a white Christmas here in North Georgia!! I just hope it doesn’t prevent my married kids from getting here….
Well, almost all the cooking is done, but none of the wrapping has been started, so I had better get started!
Enjoy your Christmas with your family and loved ones.
Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!

I Would Appreciate Your VOTE

I actually entered a craft contest outside of linky parties and The CSI’s Weekly Challenges! Dollar Tree.com is havingand I entered my Peppermint Candy Stand.

   I hesitate to ask for votes, but they said on their site to
get the word out” to family and friends so that’s what I’m doing! Take a look by clicking on my “VOTE” box in the upper right hand corner. Again, it feels funny to mention this part, but they are allowing one vote per day. So if you think about it you can vote more than once, til December 28th! I’ll try to give little reminders!:-)

There are other bloggers participating with some fantastic projects too! Check them out and if you find mine vote worthy then I’d appreciate your vote!

I’ll be back later with some more Christmas Finals!

Finals: Giveaway Winner and Mantel

I  wanted to share a few “finals”. I finally went Christmas shopping Saturday and I think finally learned not to wait, for whatever reason, to the last minute! My first New Years Resolution is going to be “Prioritize and Plan”!! Christmas 2011…I will be ready!! So now that it’s in print, I’m committed, right?
Moving on to the final that everyone is really interested in, how about the final winner in the CSN giveaway? I finally remembered that I needed to choose one! Using Random.org (what would we do without it?) I chose a winner.
AND THE WINNER IS:

#27….Courtney, from Living a Bona Fide Life!
Congrats Courtney! If you don’t have that last 33 % of your shopping done, maybe this will help! I’ll be sending you and email.
Courtney has a fun, faith-filled, frugal and encouraging blog. Check it out!
Thank you  all who  entered and followed! I hope you will continue to find a reason to come back, from sharing creative projects to future giveaways! I do have  a few lined up for after the first of the year! I truly enjoy sharing what I’ve made and I love your comments and feedback!
Now, my final final. I received some feedback on what I should do with my new faux-mantel shelf and I got to work! I had my Christmas Tree Word Art and Joy-full frame but couldn’t decide which one to use. Sunny and Jenn suggested using both! Kristin voted for the red one, but I already had the mantel done! I’m new to the layered, rule of thirds, kind of decorating. I’ve always been a “balanced and centered” kind of girl, but I took the plunge…

I put the red frame on the end on an angle and the joy frame slightly overlapping. The vase holding the assortment of odds and ends ornaments is a DIY Dollar Tree Hurricane, yet another copycat project! :-) I was able to find some pretty pine, cedar and holly at a friends so the greenery REAL! The candle is a flameless LED from Dollar Tree. I painted it red with some craft paint. I can’t believe that I haven’t seen any projects using those candles. I bought several and have all kinds of ideas bouncing around in my head, but NO time yet!
Some close-ups:   
  
What do you think?
And finally, good night!

PS I'm going to show off my first try at this at these fun parties! Come along and check out some inspiring ideas!

   

Copycat! Copycat!

Yup! That’s me! I’m a creative copycat. Occasionally, I will come up with my own original ideas but many times I see something and know that I have to make one for myself, like my Martha Inspired Candy Stand:

Or  my copy cat ornament wreath:

I have seen these wreaths everywhere in blogland and they were even around last year, so I wouldn’t even begin to know who to credit with this idea. I just knew that this year I was making one!

And my Pottery Barn Inspired wreath that I found over at Made With Love and Glue. She has an easy to follow tutorial and great pictures! They just POP!

The Original Inspiration:

And Rachel’s finished wreath:

My Copycat version:

 

Then while  doing some blog hopping,  I saw several takes on Pottery Barn’s Frame Christmas Card Holder:

and I knew that I had just the right one in my stash. This one was an easy one. I left the frame like it was and added the wire and some 3-D Christmas stickers. The cards are clipped on with plain, yes plain, mini-clothes pins. I have decided that not everything has to be painted or embellished to work, especially when you are running behind with your decorating!

There have been a lot of inspiring Christmas projects at the linky parties lately. I wanted to try sooo many of them, but time is working against me! Here are a couple that fit so well with my home and family that I had to make time for  them!

First, I have really enjoyed seeing all the word art projects and was getting ready to try my hand at making my own that reflected more of what Christmas means in our home, when I came across this at Betty Crocker Wannabe.

Kristin created some beautiful word art expressing “what Christmas is all about” and  all I had to do was hit “print”! She is sharing this printable with everyone! Thank you Kristin!! Hitting print takes much less time than creating a work of art! :-) And Kristin’s would be hard to top!I chose painted a frame red and printed on this wonderful textured cardstock from Joann’s.

My copycat:

 

Finally, I saw this over at Clean and Scentsible:

and I couldn’t believe it…I have the same frame, I had been holding it in my hands earlier in the day wondering how I could use it but put it down because nothing came to mind. To top it off, the theme for our home this Christmas is JOY!! So I went back upstairs, got the frame and started gathering what I had on hand to make one of my own:

The frame

    

Scrapbook paper with holly and the same textured white I used for the Christmas Tree word art.

I cut the letters for JOY from a similar textured red cardstock. 

I taped everything in  from behind and put the back in.

My “Joy-full” frame:

I’ve had a lot of fun being a Christmas project copy cat this week, but need some input (and yes, I know that it’s only a week before Christmas and I’m still decorating…better late than never!) I don’t know which piece of art work to put on my new shelf, this one:

Or this one:

along with greenery and some other embellishments?

Please help me make up my mind!