Something old, something new, something borrowed

Something BLUE!!!!

No, not a wedding...CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS!!!!

I kind of look at my heirloom pieces as my "borrowed" since I will eventually pass them along to one of the kids! And of course I always have my "old" decorations from years past!

This wreath on Pinterest was my inspiration for one of my "something news".... (click on the photo and it will take you to the website with a tutorial!)

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I love it and I wanted a wreath to hang over my funky little mid-century leaf clock in the living room. I wanted to do blue and silver but I guess the "soft blue" isn't in this year so I couldn't find any small light blue ornaments. This is what I ended up with....

A grapevine wreath, crystal covered stick garland, dried baby's breath and ornaments. And a LOT of hot glue! Mine's a little "fluffier" but I like the fullness of it!

Since I had garland, baby's breath and ornaments leftover, I decided to use it on the fall box I featured here....

All I did was remove the "fall" foliage and sunflowers and stick the Christmasy stuff in it. I am contemplating putting some lights in it but for now I think it is pretty as it is!

And since I had a few of the blue ornaments packed away from last year, I have my "something blue!"

As I have mentioned, I am not really into the "vintage" decor stuff. But I like little bits of it here and there. This little box is turning out to be a handy little decorating element...super easy to change with the seasons. I think in the spring I will stick some daffodils in it and then maybe some big yellow sunflowers in the summer...the possibilities are endless. My kind of decorating!!!

And while I am at it, I will share my other "new." Every year when Brian and I go to Colorado I try to pick up a little something Christmasy in one of the many little shops in Georgetown or Breckenridge. This year it was these little guys...

Little snow birds. Perfect!

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.....

I'm linking up with The Humble Brag!!!

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The most important tradition of all...giving!

If we are smart, we set budgets for our Christmas giving.

So before we get too far into the season, I want to challenge each and every one of you to budget for a very special gift! The gift of "random acts of giving."

For years our family participated in the Angel Tree...and I still think it is an important thing to do as a family. But several years ago I decided that I wanted to make an immediate impact on as many people as I could.

Random acts of giving...

Every year I put 5 $20 bills in my wallet. When I "hear" a tug, I give one away to a complete stranger.

I've given them to Sonic car hops, strangers in line at the gas station, a small child in the checkout line at the grocery store....whenever my heart says "give."

Trust me...if you listen very carefully, your heart will tell you the person to give it to. And trust me, it will be a person who desperately needs it.

Take the challenge....

Merry Christmas!

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Traditions....pajamas!

There are a few traditions you just don't mess with. Katie reminded me of this last year when I contemplated changing the colors on my bannister wreaths from gold and red to blue and silver. Gold and red are traditionally the colors I decorate with during the holiday season.

She isn't old enough to remember when I switched from silver and red. And she doesn't seem to mind that most of my Christmas wrapping is now silver and blue rather than red and gold.

In her mind, you don't mess with "traditional decorations."

So when I did my "traditional" decorating on the Friday after Thanksgiving, I pretty much stuck with the tried and true...the red and gold "traditional" colors, with a few little "changes" here and there. I know burlap and chevron and "vintage" decor is all the rage, but I'll just stick with "tradition."

Over the next few weeks I will feature a few simple decorating ideas that may help you start your own decorating traditions! I try to keep it "timeless." In other words, I tend to avoid the "fads." Makes it easy to decorate year after year and it is a heck of a lot cheaper than buying all new decor every year.

Traditions are important.

The few years I didn't do the traditional Christmas eve pajamas I heard about it.

This tradition started when my kids where younger and insisted on opening "just one present" on Christmas eve. I don't do gifts on Christmas eve, but they were little and impatient. So I started getting Christmas pajamas and that was what they opened Christmas eve.

The older they got, the more fun it became to find the perfect Christmas pajamas!

The down side is I make everyone shower and primp Christmas morning and then put their pajamas back on for pictures. All that has to be done BEFORE we open gifts. For "little guys" that can be a drag but I think the older "kids" appreciate the fact that once a year we get an awesome picture of our entire family...all decked out in pajamas...lol!!!

This was the ONLY year Mitchell couldn't make it home because of a bowl game!  I mailed a "stocking box" with his pajamas to his hotel! — This was the ONLY year Mitchell couldn't make it home because of a bowl game! I mailed a "stocking box" with his pajamas to his hotel!

I have no idea what Katie is laughing about! But the boys are always doing silly things so it is a wonder we ever get a straight smile in any picture of all of us!

I have hundreds of these pictures...and even now going through them to find a few to feature is so much fun!!

Yes, traditions are important.

More importantly, it is never too late to start a new tradition...after all, it has to start sometime!

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A week to give thanks....

It is a shame so many people limit themselves to ONE day of "thanksgiving." We should be thankful for every day and every person who touches our lives! EVERY day!

Thanksgiving should be the day we celebrate the things and people we are thankful for!!

It is no secret I am thankful for my family. And tomorrow I will celebrate with the people I am most thankful for!

I have featured my grandparent's china here and here. But I have never featured one of my FAVORITE pieces I inherited from my Great-grandmother. A turkey platter! I remember my great-grandmother serving our turkey dinner on this platter the years we spent the holiday with them in Dallas.

I forgot to feature it in "My Favorite Things" because I normally store it on the top of my cabinets and only thought of it when we needed it to serve the turkey!

That was a mistake. I am so thankful for my family...past and present...and from this day forward it will be displayed with all the other family heirlooms I have inherited!

Make an effort to incorporate a "family treasure" in your holiday celebrations. Even if it is just a tiny token.

After all, if it were not for them, we would not be here to celebrate with our family and loved one.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

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Christmas stockings....

I can't believe it is time to start featuring Christmas decor. I have been trying to get my son to take "professional" pictures of my fall decor so I can feature it, but time is running out. In a week, it will all come down and the Christmas will go up!

This week has just flown by! I'm still in "Monday mode." But I have had 3 vacancies in the last week and my new on-site manager is just moving in, so I have been working every day.

Last night I got to go to "teen court." Interesting process. My baby daughter had a little fender bender in her new car. Didn't hurt the other car, but it deployed her airbag. Any idea how much one of those puppies cost? A pretty penny, but not as much as it would cost long term to claim it on insurance. So she has to pay 1/2 the cost of the repairs and the worst...her car has sat in the driveway for two months.

Anywho...teen court. She pled guilty to "careless driving" Tuesday and agreed to go to "teen court" last night. She had to get up on the stand and a "jury" of 6 of her peers asked her questions about school, work, the accident, driving record, etc. Then they "deliberate" and hand down the sentence. She got 10 hours of community service, a defensive driving course and 4 weeks of "jury duty." Nice little lesson.

So in my tiny bit of spare time I have been doing a little sewing. Again, not my favorite thing to do but I had a little leftover burlap and fabric and wanted to make something special for Christmas.

As I have mentioned, chevron and burlap are not necessarily my "decorating tastes" but I knew these would look cute in my flea booth. And both are really popular right now. I have to admit, I really think these turned out cute!

One of my favorite things on these stockings are the little "tags." I made them out of large paint stir sticks. First I cut the sticks in 4" pieces. I painted one side and the edges a festive color (red on some, teal on a few), painted the other side with chalkboard paint, drilled a whole in the end and tied them on each stocking with festive ribbon. Cute....

I made a few extra chalkboard tags to sell by themselves. I think they would be neat to tie on a big gift....maybe one too big to wrap...like a bike or Barbie house! Or someone could add them to their own stockings!

The stockings are one of the "Pinterest" projects I tagged eons ago. Not a hard project and takes very little fabric. And as always, if you can sew a straight stitch, you can make one!

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Um...no...not exactly right....

Even the best of us make mistakes. I made one this time...not the first time...probably not the last!

I brought this nifty little coffee table home from the apartments. Solid wood and it was very sturdy. It had awesome bones, but it needed a little facelift!

I thought I would give it the ole' "chalk paint" treatment. I painted it a nice off-white chalk paint and then hit it with a little sand paper!

And I HATED it. It just did not want to be chalk painted. Yuck.

I knew better...this table is just not "right" for a chalk paint treatment.

So I stripped it down and started over. Sometimes in order to get it right you have to bite the bullet and start over.

Stripping wood down to natural after painting it is NOT an easy task. But I knew I had to do it. A little sanding, a little stripper, a lot of elbow grease. Fortunately I only had to strip the top and the drawer front. I was painting the rest of it so I just sanded it smooth, hit is with Kilz and then sanded it again before painting it....this time with a nice latex paint.

And I am sooo glad I did! I stained the top and the drawer front with my favorite java gel stain and painted the rest of it with my favorite Valspar Dune white...identical to the little side table I did here. A simple little brush nickel knob.

Much better.

I get my stain fix and the table gets a much needed facelift!

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Pocket Ts...all the rage...

This is the tutorial I had 1/2 written and then POOF...it disappeared. I bet paper never disappeared out of a typewriter. But in the world of digital, disappearing blog posts are equivilant to "the dog ate it."

Anywho... I am a mom first and foremost. Which means I participate in whatever it is my kids are doing. (HINT, don't expect your children to be a part of YOUR life...you have to be a part of THEIRS!) When the boys were in athletics, I was the mom who sat through practices and every game, sold apparel, organized banquets and handed out water after practices and scrimmages. I didn't cheer too loudly at baseball games (the boys could hear me!) but I was a little hoarse after football games!

Now I am a choir and debate mom. I have figured out that they don't appreciate cow bells or foam fingers at choir concerts. Seriously, I never even liked them at football games...but my point is, the "etiquette" is much different. There is no "cheering" and I have never heard a choir parent scream during a concernt. Heck, I'm not even allowed to attend "debates."

So I am feeling a bit left out and unneeded by my teenage daughter's extracurricular activities.

Until last week when she called and said there was something I could do for the debate team. Wouldn't you know, it was one of my LEAST favorite things to do.

S.E.W.

It is no secret...I seriously dislike sewing. But I can do it and normally I can do it fairly well.

But it was just a little pocket on a t-shirt. Nine of them to be exact!

Sooooo...since colorful, funky pockets on t-shirts are all the rage, here is a little tutorial on how to sew them on stretchy, uncooperative t-shirt material. Trust me...your kid will think you are the coolest mom on the block if you can pull this off!

One suggestion I will make...wash and dry the t-shirt BEFORE you apply the pocket. Even if it says "pre-shrunk." Just trust me!

Now, make a pocket. This is a great use for scraps of material or you can let your kid pick out a funky fabric. You only need a smidge. My pockets were about 4" x 4" with a little "point" on them (see picture). I cut them 1/2" wider than my desired width and 1 1/2" longer than the finished height. This allows for a 1/4" "hem" on the sides and bottom and a 1" (with 1/4" turned down) hem at the top.

If you are going to make multiple pocket ts, you can make a pattern out of paper.

If it is a shirt that will get a lot of wear and tear, you may want to run a zig-zag stitch around the entire cutout to prevent raveling.

First, iron a 1/4" hem all the way around. Then turn down the top 1" and iron that. Then sew the top hem down.

This is what your pocket should look like....

Next you will want to figure out where the pocket should go on the shirt. Trust me...huge difference between boys and girls...the shirts just fit differently. I had Katie try hers on, then carefully pinned it where she wanted it.

Then I folded the shirt in half and measured from the center and made sure the pocket was "square." I also measured from the shoulder/collar seam to the top of the pocket. These measurements are important if you are going to do more than one t-shirt.

(Ignore the fact that this pocket is already sewn on the shirt...I kinda forgot to take a picture of how to measure before I sewed it on)

I placed Katie's pockets 1 1/2" from the center and 7" from the shoulder/collar seam.

Then I pinned the pocket in place. Here is a little HINT on how to pin the pocket to the front of the shirt. Put a piece of cardboard or a cookie sheet or magazine between the back and front of the t-shirt. Then place your pocket and pin. This allows you to pin the pocket to the shirt without pinning the back of the shirt to the front.

Now, here is the most important part...if you don't do this, you will end up with a stretchy mess.

Hand baste the pocket onto the shirt BEFORE you sew it on with the machine.

For "non-sewers," basting is just a long stitch used to temporarily secure the pocket in place so it doesn't move and the t-shirt won't stretch while sewing it with the machine. I baste by hand...just a long stitch that is easy to remove after the pocket is permanently sewn onto the shirt. Once it is basted in place, remove the pins before sewing.

Now is the time to try on the shirt and make sure the pocket will lay properly. At this point, it would be very easy to remove the baste stitching and reposition the pocket. Once it is sewn it place, it is very tricky to remove stitching from t-shirt material!

If all is well, take it to your machine and run a simple straight stitch approximately 1/8" from the edge starting at the top of one side, along the bottom and up the other side. Naturally, you don't want to stitch across the top.

Make sure you lay the shirt as flat as possible and don't tug or stretch while sewing. T-shirt material is very easy to stretch and if you do, it will pucker! After you have sewn the pocket on the shirt, pull the basting stitch out.

And there you have it...an easy way to be a "cool" mom.

These shirts were for the debate team but again, you are only limited by your imagination. And if you google "t-shirt pockets" you can find all kinds of nifty ideas!

And just for the record, my daughter pulled 3 "excellent" awards at Student Congress this weekend! It was probably the shirt!

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Window signs....

I have sooo much to share this week. I even started a tutorial on sewing pockets on t-shirts and then somehow "lost" the entire thing...grrrr! So annoying. Later.

I went to an awesome auction Saturday. Matt was my auction buddy this weekend. Brian had a memorial service to attend but showed up for about 30 minutes, loaded the "junk" I had already bought, and then decided he was not interested in hanging around a "junk yard" sale. Admittedly, it was pretty nasty. And the stuff I brought home was major nasty. As always, there are little treasures hidden behind the muck and yuck. So I spent Sunday scrubbing, repairing and organizing and I will share some nifty pieces eventually!

But for now I want to share a simple little project I completed last week. My window guy gave me some old windows a few weeks back. I have shared a few little projects here and here and of course old wood windows are all the rage on Pinterest and blogs. I was fortunate to have old windows from remodel projects and my window guy, but you can pick them up at most flea markets for a few bucks.

An old wood window, a little latex (or acrylic) paint, a little burlap and you too can make a nifty Christmas wall decor. I made one for my flea booth in Tontitown because I needed a sign....

First I used my Photoshop application to make and print out the letters. No, I don't have a printer that prints that large...I had to put 1-2 letters on each page, print and then tape them together. Then I taped the paper sign to the BACK of the (clean) window pane, traced the lettering with a dry erase marker on the FRONT, took off the paper sign and painted the BACK of the window pane with latex paint. It took 3 coats to get decent coverage. Then I stapled burlap on the back of the window.

It is easy to clean the front of the window because all the lettering is painted on the back. And honestly, if I ever want to change this out, all I have to do is remove the burlap, scrape the paint off with a razor blade and start over...easy!

I have another window like this and I thought it would look neat to do a Christmas sign...maybe do "MERRY CHRISTMAS" in a pretty script and then back it with red burlap!

If I ever get around to it, I will share!

Simple little project that would look cute hanging on the wall for the holidays!

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Christmas already? YOU BET!!!

I am exhausted.

Having a flea booth is normally fun. It is a place where I can share my "creative stuff" and it is an outlet for my auction addiction.

But today was one of those days that reminds me that doing it "right" can be hard work.

I started at 9 this morning and got home around 7:30. I think I took a 15 minute lunch break!.

But it was worth it...

(Pardon the Iphone pic!)

It is officially Christmas in Timeless Treasures at Midtown Eclectic Mall!!!

It's funny...I have no problem "staging" my own home. But when it comes to "staging" a flea booth, I just go blank...

Literally...I mean, I literally had to remove EVERYTHING in the booth and completely start with a blank slate.

When I decorate my own home for the holidays, I know exactly what I have and where it should go. Because honestly, I pretty much do the same thing every year, with a few additions here and there.

I honestly didn't know what I had to resell. I bought most of the holiday decor at auctions and sales throughout the year. Then I boxed it up and put it in the attic....so I was a little clueless about what I had or even how much I had.

When I started digging through it, I found a few things I wanted to keep....a beautiful small pre-lit tree and a few knick-knacks. But most of it went to the flea market...mostly smalls, but quite a bit! The neatest thing I have is the collection of Precious Moment ornaments and Thomas Kincaid ornaments. Hopefully they will attract a lot of attention!

In the end, I am pleased with the way it turned out. I still have my booth in Tontitown to do, but after completely overhauling this one, I think it will be a breeze!

My house still looks like fall puked all over it...and it will be that way until the day after Thanksgiving! The weekend after Thanksgiving is when the Christmas holiday start at home.

But today, I got a little taste of the "spirit."

Give me some egg nog and put on the Bing Crosby....

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Mid-century TV cabinet before and after...

Did you ever get a piece of furniture that you just knew from day one you didn't like?

That was the TV media cabinet in my den. I bought a cheap little black media cabinet for my den 13 years ago. It had shelving for the cable box, VH/DVD player and blu-ray. It served the purpose...but honestly, it kind of sucked and I never liked it!

Side note...I know a lot of people put their flat screen above the fireplace...but I love my picture above the fireplace (here) and at Christmas I have this totally awesome HUGE wreath that I display there!

Anywho...I have always disliked the black media cabinet. I knew what I wanted but I also knew I would probably never find it. I wanted a walnut "mid-century" type thing.

That probably wasn't going to happen.

And then it did. At an auction...there it was.

Now I must admit it was a hot mess....

There were no chips or major dings...the sides, trim and doors were in perfect condition. But the top was a mess. Someone had STUPIDLY used it as a plant stand (please don't put plants on wood!) and obviously thought little of letting it get wet. There was a large dark water stain in the middle and several smaller ones all over the top.

But it is walnut. It is in fantastic shape structurally. It has super funky doors on the front!!! It is the perfect size!

The doors are the neatest thing I have ever seen. Little 1" fluted slats with strips of fabric glued on the back so that when you slide the doors open they "bend" into the sides of the cabinet. That's the best I can describe them. They are super cool!

Seriously, I have never seen anything like it...but it was exactly what I wanted.

As you can see in the second picture, the old vanish was not tough to strip. I used my old favorite...Formby's furniture refinisher and it melted right off. The stains were another issue. This is one of the very few times I had to really sand on a piece. But I really had no choice. I tried mineral spirits and bleach to no avail. So I began sanding....VERY carefully!

If you have to sand water stains, don't just start hacking away with a harsh sand paper...work "backwards." By that, I mean start with a very soft grade...I started with a 220...then worked my way down to 80 grit. Then I started working my way back up when I felt I had done all I could to remove the stains.

Truthfully, unless you know where and what to look for, you would never see the water stains. I would say I got 98% of them.

And with the tv setting on the top, you honestly can't see any discoloration, even if you know what you are looking for!

After removing all the old varnish, a light sanding with steal wool and tack cloth, I put 3 coats of Tung Oil on the piece. I sanded with 0000 steel wool and wiped it down with a tack cloth in between each coat.

I wish my photographs showed the true beauty and depth of this wood grain...it is gorgeous!

Now...anyone want to guess how much I paid for this awesome mid-century walnut cabinet?

Anyone?

This is one of those AWESOME auction finds. They were trying to sell a little fat TV (vs. flat). No takers...so then they threw in a little plastic kiddy chair. Still no takers. So then they threw in this cabinet.

I bought all three for ONE DOLLAR.

Seriously.

The chair and the tv will be going to Salvation Army.

This piece is one my kids will probably fight over!

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