Summer Banners

I've really gotten into making banners for the holidays and events since the spring. These banners were super easy. I cut the stars and letters on my Cricut. To cut the letters out of the star shapes as I did on some, I used the Cricut Design Studio which allows you to design your own elements, in other words, I simply put the letter inside the star and press cut. On some of the stars, I added background colors, put the letters on top and matted a few. I used some star brads I've had for a while to attach them to the red ribbon. This banner hangs across our double front window in the dinning room.
For the boys bedroom doors, I used the same pattern, but made smaller stars. I then just ran the fuzzy string right through the stars. Some of the paper is a little patriotic for the 4th, but I'll probably leave it up until the end of July.

Baby Shower Banner

This past Saturday, I hosted a baby shower for a friend who is expecting her second daughter, Tracy, in the next few weeks. I made a banner to hang behind the table, across the window with her name. She's doing her room in lavendar and light green, and we also did her shower in those colors. I "had" to add some florals and pink though to "girl it up."

All of the shapes and letters were created with the Cricut cartridge Storybook. If you click on the image, it will open into a larger screen for a closer look.

Friend Makin Monday

Happy Monday! Today, Shawn at Seriously Shawn is hosting Frind Makin Monday while Kasey is out of town on a little Vaca. Today's all about the 4th of July!

What are you doing this July 4th?
We will be spending the 4th with my husbands extended family as we've done the last several years. We always have way too much to eat, an increasing number of baby cousins and usually the boys head out to toss the football.

What is your favorite dish to pass when attending a 4th of July party or summer barbecue? I am making my requested brownies again this year and a fruit salad. The brownies, two boxes of 13x9 brownie mix. Place one batter mix in the pan, layer with Hershey's symphony bars and top with the second box. You'll need to extend your back time. They are wonderful!! The fruit salad, start with a can of peach pie filling and add any fruit that you like. Mine will most likely have strawberries, pineapple, bananas and madarine oranges. And maybe some blueberries. Easy and good!

Do you have any July 4th traditions?
We always spend the 4th at my husbands grandmothers. We also usually do fireworks in the evening.

Share Your Favorite 4th of July Pic(s)

4th of July 2007

4th of July 2008

Show Us Where You Live - Master Bedroom

Kelly over at Kelly's Korner is showcasing Master Bedrooms this week during Show Us Where You Live Friday. Welcome to our room. This room is the one I've never "completed." I love the room itself, but we've never bought any furniture for it and slowly but surely I'm adding things here and there.
For 10 years, I've known exactly the bed I've wanted. We even went once to buy it, but got sticker shock and were afraid to spend the money. Shortly after, we got pregnant and part of the money went to our crib. One day! We want a hand-forged iron bed that's made just a couple hours from our home in the great little Ozark town of Mountain View at Stone County Iron Works.

I do love my bedding. The comforter and skirt are by Ralph Lauryn and my MIL bought it for us as a present after months of us looking for what we wanted to replace the one we had. I then made the shams and pillows to match. I really like the colors and forever I had loved the dragonfly fabric, but didn't have anywhere to use it. As soon as we picked the comforter, I knew I would be making shams to match.
This is looking from the outside corner of our room out the door that goes into the living room.

Both pieces of pottery I made when I took a pottery class at the local university.

Both pieces with our name were made for us as wedding gifts. The pictures we had made back in the fall. In the picture above, you can see a canvas behind the chest, the story about that at the bottom.

Another piece of pottery I made in the class. Back before I had kids and had a lot more time, I made all of the balls and eggs in this basket. Including the silver and gold balls which are sequins stuck on with straight pins. Some are beans, some are rice painted gold and the rest are hand painted. Oh to have that kind of time now!

My mom made this rabbit for me years ago. She sits on top of some of our old Bible's from high school and college.

The hope chest was a Christmas gift from my dad when I was in early high school. It still holds a set of China that I don't have room for with my other China, some Christmas stuff and lots of memory type items.

One thing I love about this room is the coffered ceilings. It makes the room big and open and adds a lot of detail.

The chair sits to the side of my bed. It was an old chair that my husbands grandmother gave him and I recovered the cushions to match the rest of the bedding.

Things I'm currently reading.

My plate rack between the closet door and bathroom door.

My closet which I thought was huge when we bought the house. I quickly realized it's pretty much the only storage we have in the house.

Our bathroom. I didn't post this when I did my bathroom post because I'm working on new artwork for the room - it's still not done. Long story. But here's a quick look.

The ONLY thing we didn't like about this house was that it didn't have a jacuzzi tub, but we couldn't justify not buying it because of something that everyone said we wouldn't use anyway. We've always said we could put one in, but probably never will. The double sicks are a must!

Looking out of the bathroom. You'll notice the large blank space above the bed. Again, another area that's been neglected. But NO MORE! I just bought a canvas and I'm going to start working on a painting to go in this space. It might be the end of the year before I finish it, but it's already been 8 years, what's another 6 months!

Okay - for funsies, I decided to do a very quick Photoshop job to show what my ideal room would look like finished. The painting won't be that bold, but it gets the idea. Doesn't the bed make a big difference! Everyone should talk my husband into it!

One Tip Wednesday

Far too often, my small craft space quickly looks like this:
Unfortunately I don't have a craft room or large space to craft and the space I do have is in the dead center of our house, very visible. On days when I'm crafting a lot, it doesn't bother me, but eventually it does have to be cleaned up. And what if someone calls and says they are on their way over? My motto is "A place for everything and everything in its place."

Although it sometimes looks a mess, everything on this table has a place where it belongs which helps me quickly be able to take it from the mess to this: 

The key truly is storage. Having a place where you can put things away and yet be able to access them when needed. I can't live without my paper drawer. Many scrapers would ask how I get away with just 1. Two reasons: I have a Paper Keeper where I keep scraps, holiday themed paper and other papers I don't use except for special type pages. And two - I really try to only buy paper that I need. I no longer go to the scrapbook store and go crazy. I have found that far too often, I never end up using that cute paper I just couldn't live without. Same with stickers and embellishments.

Here's another storage container I love. After spending too much time digging mangled messes of thread out of a box, I found these and think they are the best use of storage for anyone who who sews.
And this is an idea I saw a while back on another blog. She took scrapbook paper and cut it to fit the sides of her drawers. So on this cleanup, I made that addition. I think it keeps the area looking even neater since you now can't see the mess on the inside.

Where You Live Friday - Laundry Room

This week, Kelly at Kelly's Korner is featuring playrooms, bonus rooms, laundry rooms or any extra rooms you may have in your house on her Show Us Where You Live home tour.

I'm showing our laundry room. One thing I had high on my want list when we were house hunting was a laundry room, not a laundry closet or any type of outdoor laundry room, but an actual laundry room. We found that in this house, but for our next house, I change that. I want a laundry room that is its own seperate room - NOT a room coming in from the garage. Basically that turns the laundry room into a hallway that you must keep clear and come in and out of several times a day. I didn't realize that when we were house hunting. However, it is better than a closet I think and it does basically meet our needs.

Looking from the living room through the laundry room.

I like having the hanging rod, but it could be twice as long sometimes.

I recently found this sign/hanger at Hobby Lobby 1/2 off. It's great storage for empty hangers, but mostly I bought it to hang my keys on because I'm always losing them.

As you can see, the room also doubles as the cats room. We can actually tell him to go to his room and he will.

I got this sign several years ago from one of the home party companies (can't rember the name of it now, not sure if it's still in business).

I recently added wall words and pictures to the blank wall in the laundry room. I bought cheap black frames at Wal-Mart and blew up some of my favorite seasonal pics of the boys. I used my Cricut to cut out the vinyl adhesive letters. I really like how it turned out. I wish more people could actually see it, but usually when we have company, we have the cat shutup in the room and never open the door.

Thanks for stopping by. To see my other rooms posted previously, click on the Show Us Where You Live Friday tag.

Tablescape Thursday

Visit Between Naps on the Porch to see other great Tablescapes!

On our recent anniversary trip, I took the opportunity to shoot the very simple place settings the cottage had set up for us.

Very simple, but the settings coordinated very well with the cottage.

I loved how the thrown pottery place settings had the cottages logo on each of the plates.

Simple glassware, but much nicer than dixie cups!

But the best part is the view out the glassed front to the lake below!