I *Heart* Target Clearance!

I love clearance sales especially Target's after Christmas clearance sale!  I stopped into one of our Targets the other day to see what goodies I could find.  The Christmas items were only discounted 50% but I did pick up a few things (waiting, hoping for 75% on others).  I bought 2 sweater/felt trees and a small paper mache tree.  Also found these fabric and metal heart ornaments for .99 each.  The metal hearts are 3 packs.  Even though they are Christmas ornaments, I could see them making an appearance in some upcoming Valentine's Day decorations!

Trash to Treasure Dresser

Oldie but goodie!  Sharing this post in the first Twice Owned Tuesday party at House of Grace!

Inspiration for my latest project came from the picture of this kitchen island.  While we didn't need an island (we've currently repurposed our baby changer as an island), it did provide an idea for this latest trash to treasure find - a black, upright dresser. 

I started by painting the red "lip" attached to the third drawer black.  I didn't even think to match the finishes of my paint and the dresser.  I used a black paint with satin finish I already had on hand, but the dresser is more glossy.  Ooops! 

Next, I traced the template of the floral design onto the dresser.  You can find a copy of the template here.  I wasn't able to get all the template, so I freehanded the middle portion.

Note - Before you tape your template onto the dresser, don't put anything in the drawers you might need later.  Like your paint...hehe!

Now here's the dresser all dolled up!  I painted the floral design in Deep Turquoise (Laura Ashley Home).  It's such a lovely color especially with the Caribbean Sunset walls of our family room. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Linked at:

A Soft Place To Land

Christmas

Our Little Drummer Boy

Hope y'all had a wonderful and blessed Christmas!  We enjoyed a relatively peaceful time at home with family.  The house is slowly starting to settle again from the excitement of Christmas.  And our downstairs is looking a bit less like Santa's workshop exploded.  Normally at this time of year, I begin feeling a little apprehensive.  The thought of counting down to 365 days of only God knows what is a bit unnerving.  But this year, I find myself looking forward to the opportunities and new experiences the coming year holds.  We're also gearing up for our month of birthdays.  With three kids all born in January, next month is a time of celebration in our household.  And lots and lots of birthday cake!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

From Our Family To Yours

Evergreens

Long Leaf pine needles in a basket of citrus

"Keep evergreens to remind you that not all things grow down and brown in the winter".

-Better Home & Gardens Decorating Year-Round

Coastal Living Inspired - Conch Shells & Carolina Pine

My inspiration - this simple (yet beautiful!) arrangement of shells and greenery from Coastal Living.

Image: Coastal Living

For my "use what you have" version, I gathered a small wire basket purchased at Goodwill a few months ago.

For the shells, I used a conch shell wind chime purchased from Wrightsville Beach (my absolute favorite place!) years ago - maybe even on our honeymoon.  I left the shells attached to the rope so I can hang it back up this summer.

And pine branches from our yard.  I just took a basket out in the front yard and gathered up the small branches that were scattered about the ground.

Then, I tucked the shells in the wire basket and placed the pine branches on the sides.  And here's my take on a beautiful Coastal Living look!     

I'm thinking about adding a few LED tea lights to table as well.  Just depends on if I have time to stop and pick some up.  So much to do and so little time!

Linked at:

A Soft Place To Land - DIY Day

Fourth Week of Advent

Heavenly Father, help us to celebrate Jesus' coming in joy and peace.  May we welcome him into our lives in a new way this Christmas, allowing him to love and act in and through us.  Help us to be like Mary, always ready and eager to do your will.  Increase our faith and love.  We ask all this through Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.  Amen.

Recycled Paper Towel Garland

In my Christmas Home Tour post, I mentioned there were still two trees to be decorated.  One of which was the small tree in our Master Bath.  Seeing all the great ideas posted by others inspired me to get working on the tree.  Since it's one of the last trees to be decorated, there wasn't alot to work with.  Here is what I managed to put together!

The large bronze colored bulbs didn't fit in with the color scheme of the other trees, but they work well in the Master Bath.  If you look closely, you'll see the garland is actually brown recycled paper towels.  Last weekend, I bought some glass vases from the Dollar Tree and the cashier wrapped them in the paper towels.  As I was unwrapping the vases,  the idea of using the recycled paper as garland came to mind.  The color and texture seemed to fit with the natural, beachy look I invisioned for the bathroom.  

To top the tree, I used a starfish and leftover pieces of ribbon from my front door wreath makeover.

For the mirror, I hung a white starfish hot glued to a small, wooden Ikea frame.  The backing is a bronze, patterned wrapping paper - bought on clearance last year of course!

And for the counter, I filled three, tree-shaped glass jars I purchased for half off at a local thrift shop.  The tallest tree is filled with shells from our trip to Wrightsville Beach this summer.  The medium sized jar is filled with raffia and the small jar with bells from the Dollar Tree.

Linked at:

Third Week of Advent

Lord, please hear our prayers.  May we always rejoice in your redeeming love.  Open our eyes to the goodness around us and grant us the light of your grace that we may never be overcome by the darkness of sin.  We ask this of you through Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

The Nester Christmas Tour of Homes

Merry Christmas!  Welcome to our little nest!  We've been busy adorning our house for the season with items we've been gifted, thrifted, bought on clearance or "rescued" (i.e. saved from being thrown out).  I gave our front door wreath a brand new look by using some extra Christmas ornaments we had.

This is the burgundy & gold tree in our foyer.  It's also the site of our annual Christmas picture of the kids.

The little ones!  One day they will all look excited to be in the picture!

Also in the foyer, a frosted berry tree with two recent yard sale buys.

A look into our old living room, now family room.  A few months ago, I commented at Nesting Place that we would really love to have this room as our family room.  But we hesitated because we thought it might be wrong somehow.  Well the Nester visited my blog and left an encouraging comment to switch rooms.  We did and we love it!

The red & gold tree in the family room window.

Our wooden Nativity

Elements from last year's dining room centerpiece now atop of a dresser in the family room.

Our family Christmas tree.  All the ornaments tell a story of our family.

Some of the ornaments are from my husband's childhood.  Like this one from 1977 when he was 3 years old.

There are also ornaments from our life together and those of our children.

Into the dining room where we have a gold, silver & turquoise tree.  We're using this tree as our Jesse Tree for Advent.

The dining room table centerpiece

Moving into the kitchen, we have a small tree on the counter.  Just white lights for the tree this year with two Santas underneath.

In the corner of the kitchen, we have another tree with multi-colored ornaments.

In the now living room, our stockings are hung on the mantle.  In the corner, we have a thin tree strung with pearl lights and shimmery garland.

We also have my husband's latest Christmas tree "rescue".  Aside from our family tree, it's the only tree with colored lights.  We're calling this our butterfly tree (sorry for the poor picture quality).

On the upstairs landing, we have a white tree with pink bows and pearl colored ornaments.

On the long dresser next to the pink & pearl tree, is a decorative arrangement.  The apothecary jar is filled with small shells and bells.  A mercury glass tree is underneath the other jar.  The silver dish is filled with glass pinecone ornaments; with white starfish from our last beach trip on either side.

Above the dresser is our Nativity wreath.  Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus and the Wise Men surround the wreath.

Thank you for visiting our home!  We still have our sunroom and master bath trees to decorate before our guest arrive next week.   In this time of simplifying and paring down, to have eleven trees throughout the house may seem excessive.  But for us, its simply a joy!  It's time spent together as a family, laughing, listening to Christmas music and sipping mint chocolate milk (yum!).  We wouldn't have it any other way.

So whether you're celebrating simply or with a little more, our family wishes you a blessed and wonderful CHRISTmas!

Market Day - December 12th

North Raleigh (Falls River) Farmers Market

Winter Hours: Saturdays 10 AM - 2 PM

From the market - turnips, rutabagas, broccoli & Honeycrisp apples (Cane Creek Farms, Efland, NC)

local mozzarella cheese made from the milk of grass-fed cows (Calico Farmstead, Gibsonville, NC)

People Over Things ~ Our Holiday Centerpiece

Dining Room Table Centerpiece #1

I was so proud of the cute and thrifty holiday centerpiece I put together for our dining room table.  All for under $5!  The two, tall wine glass candle holders and mirror were actually two of my husband's "trash to treasure" finds.  And the mercury glass tree I picked up at the after Christmas clearance sale at Target last year.  I was so amazed that such unrelated objects could be put together to make a beautiful and eye catching centerpiece.  Even more amazed my design challenged self put it together!

Then last week, the call came.  I was sitting at my desk at work when my husband called and said he had bad news.  My heart sank.  Were the kids okay?!?  Kids were fine, but my centerpiece was headed back to the trash from whence it came.  While cleaning the dining room table, my Mom accidentally knocked over the wine glass holders and shattered them.  My husband said she was so devastated.  She thought they were beautiful and knew that I loved them too.  And she was quite concerned I would be very upset.  So he was calling to prepare me before I came home.  While I felt a slight pang of disappointment, I felt a whisper in my heart say - people over things. 

On my way home, I stopped by the Dollar General to get the makings of two Dollar Store Hurricanes and a pack of Butterfingers - my Mom's favorite candy.  The broken candle holders really didn't matter at all.  Letting my Mom know I valued her more than the candle holders was more important. 

So here it is - the new holiday centerpiece! 

Dining Room Table Centerpiece #2

I made two hurricanes - a tall one filled with gold Christmas ornaments and a smaller one with a white votive.  Also added a white finger starfish to complement the others placed throughout the house.  Truth be told, I think I like centerpiece #2 better than the first one!

Linked at:  Living with Lindsay

The Inspired Room

Awards!

Thanks to Andrea at Arise 2 Write  for these two awards - The Circle of Friends Award and the Lemonade Award.  Just like Andrea, I'm passing these along to all my readers!