decorating
Christmas Mantel – Peace
I brought my scrap wood dove out of storage for the Christmas season. He’s fragile, but resilient. He just needed a little time and some wood glue to pull himself back together. Before long he was flying high above our Christmas mantel again representing peace, hope and love. As Christmas approaches and world events unfold, peace has been on my mind lately. Having peace doesn’t mean that we never disagree. Having peace doesn’t mean that there are never endings. Peace stems from the ultimate realization – a belief at the very center of one’s core – that as human beings far more binds us together than tears us apart. That there must be…
Christmas in the Foyer
Last weekend we pulled the Christmas boxes down from the attic. All three of them and a wreath box. Even after culling out over half of my Christmas decorations in preparation for our overseas move, it still feels like Christmas vomited all over my house. Why is it that decorating a tree and putting up a few festive touches means that the entire house is destroyed in the process? After I took the kids to school on Monday, I returned and tidied up one area. The foyer. Don’t foyers look so much better without the stuff that actually goes in a foyer? Backpacks, jackets, shoes…so many shoes. I even dusted the Christmas glitter off…
How to Reshape a Flexible Woven Plastic Basket
This is a story about Target…which I just found out ships to Ireland. And my world is complete. Do you hear angels singing? I’m pretty sure the angels are singing. Anyway, this isn’t a story about Target. It is a story about a basket I purchased at Target though. A basket that the movers CRUSHED in a box along with my hopes and dreams. Kidding. Hopes and dreams were intact. I just needed to add that for dramatic effect. I stalked this basket for a good long while at Target. When your daughter’s room is decorated in lavender, gray and navy, you need this basket. However, I’m too cheap to pay $12…
Free Fall Printable Round Up
When I like something, I really like it. Perhaps that gives me some creature-of-habit tendencies. Therefore, it was no surprise that when we rehung our Pottery Barn knock-off shelves, I propped the same frames up that I usually rest on those shelves. That’s really all the brain power I was willing to devote to Project “We Just Moved In, Now Get All the Things Off the Floor Before I Go Crazy.” What is usually up there are these drawings my mom made in fashion design school in the 1970s. Fast forward a couple of months. Things settled down and autumn rolled around and I was finally in the mood to fall-ify…
Fall Mantel
If you live in the United States, Thanksgiving is a nice buffer between Halloween and Christmas. No such buffer exists in Ireland. But, old habits die hard and traditions are important. I have no idea if our grocery store will stock whole turkeys in November or if I can find the ingredients to make my grandma’s pumpkin chiffon pie recipe, but I’m curious to find out. Even if I can’t find those things, it’s really the spirit of Thanksgiving that matters. While the leaves are still turning colors here and the temperatures have started to drop dropped, I’m going to savor autumn. Because I get to experience it in Ireland. Because…
Wrapped Wheat
I’m going to tell you this straight away. I am not above shamelessly copying someone else’s awesome idea. Today’s craft was inspired by one of my favorite bloggers, Michael, at Inspired by Charm. It seems he picked an apropos blog name. I’ve wanted to wrap wheat stalks with embroidery thread ever since Michael shared the idea last year. But I guess the wheat stalks just haven’t aligned for me. Until now. Here’s how it went down. Because there’s always a story. A couple of weeks ago I dropped my daughter off at her painting class, which is in a run-down, kind of deplorable-looking building. This really isn’t all that unusual in Dublin. The only…
DIY Palm Leaf Broom
Prepare to have your mind blown. There are palm trees in Ireland. No, not the big, tropical island-type palm trees, but definitely another variety. It’s called the cabbage palm and it is originally from New Zealand. I have two in my backyard (or garden as they call it here). Here’s one of them. The cabbage palm drops its leaves all. the. time. We pick them up weekly. Sometimes when I can’t sleep, I lay in bed thinking of things I want to do around our home. It helps me fall asleep…unless I come up with a really good idea. Then it’s all “who wants to start a project at 3 a.m.?”…
Problem Room Update: Petite Fireplace
If you recall, I have been pondering how to decorate around a petite fireplace in our dining room. Clearly, I’m focused on the important things in life. I was contemplating decorating the space with some sort of gallery wall or collection. I’ve been trying to get rid of things, not collect things lately, so this would be a gallery wall or collection that I do not currently possess. In the meantime, I decided to go big or go home big. Literally. We have a photo of our daughter when she was 3 years old that my husband just happened to snap at the most perfect moment. I think he was actually setting up…
Halloween Bat Mantel
A couple of weeks ago a strange man at the train station offered my kids packages of Starburst candy. I’m sure the man was just trying to be nice and the candy was unopened, but still. In context, it was an uncomfortable situation. It was one of those lessons in “we don’t take candy from strangers.” Except on Halloween, right mom? GAH! My kids are wild about Halloween. They’ve been planning their costumes for months. And they really, really, really like it when we decorate the house for Halloween. Just because one year I went a little crazy with Halloween book covers and such and now they think we should decorate…
How NOT to Make a Book Pumpkin
This is a cautionary tale should you fall down the Pinterest hole of comparison inspiration and decide you too need to join the throngs of DIYers making book pumpkins. As I did. Please heed these warnings. STEP 1: Put one foot on the slippery slope to a moral abyss. To cut a book apart you’re going to have to throw your moral compass out the window. Let’s just be frank about that. It doesn’t matter how bad the book is, one simply does not cut a book apart. To loosen yourself up for the slide down this slippery moral slope, might I suggest doing something equally egregious, like double-dipping your chip in some…
