I’m Dreaming Of A White Christmas…

 

Well… dreamin’ is right.

Because there won’t be any snow in Tennessee this Christmas…

or at least not outside???

That’s right folks… I brought it indoors this year…

with a FLOCKED Christmas Tree!

I mean… doesn’t it look like real snow???  So cool!

It is my first one e-vuh!

I had them go a little light with the flock

because I wanted to see some green.

Now all I need are presents under the tree!

Let’s see…3 more days ‘til Christmas… YIKES!

Better get shopping!! LOL!

But before I go…

I want to wish everyone a

Very Merry Christmas

&

 

A Happy New Year!!

May they both be filled with joy, peace and many blessings!!

 

My Christmas Barn Mantel

 

So… it hit me…

Why not bring the outdoors in…

by BUILDING an OLE RUSTIC Christmas Barn…

For my Christmas mantel this year!

Since I didn’t have any scrap wood, I had to take a trip to the hardware store.

I found some light cut wood and came up with a plan.

Here… I’ve cut and glued some of the pieces together as you can see.

Now… it’s starting to take shape with the beginning stages of FAUX PAINTING.

Remember… I wanted RUSTIC!

After the faux painting was done, I cut some strips and added that ole barn door.

with a little BLING, BLING!!

Ready for the WHOLE finished barn?

DrUm RoLL PLeASe…

TA DA!

I LIKE!!

Now…

Here’s some Christmas Barn Mantel photos for you to enjoy…

 

Notice the snowy branches?

They came from flocked scrap branches at a nursery…free! 

 

I added some stacked wood around the barn for an outdoor feel.

The lights all around the barn make it real nice and cozy at night!

And that’s my 2011 Christmas Barn Mantel!

What’s great about this piece is that I can use it anytime of the year.

OK…well…

Next up… the Christmas Tree!

I did something this year… I’ve never “had done” before!

Hope your Christmas Season has been Merry and Bright!!

 

Shutter Signs on My Shutter Wall

I had bought several shutters at the Habitat ReStore several months ago…

@ $2.00 each.

Not knowing what I would do with them…

they sat in a closet all spring/summer/fall long!

But finally a breakthrough.

Soooo…

I painted three of them white.

Hung Faith, Hope, Love signs (from Hobby Lobby) on them using hemp string.

Added some sprigs of fresh cedar, some hand picked pine cones from the woods,

and some fake berry stems.

Arranged them over my farm table bench I made last year.

Now, I have a my version of shutter signs on a shutter wall!

What do ya think?

AND

Just want to say…

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Praying you have some FAITH~HOPE~LOVE this holiday season!

1 Corinthians 13:13

(And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.)

Who Wants To Go Back to the Garden of Eden?

 

ME… that’s who!

Do I have something to share with you…

It’s a film… yes, a film.

(Back to Eden Film)

I know some of you either have land, farm or a garden

or want to have land, farm or a garden (like me!)

Well… you should watch this documentary.

A few days ago, Sharon (a friend from my blog),

who shares “THE DREAM” with me…emailed me a link to this film.

It’s about gardening… but SO much more!

God showed the gardener in this film (Paul) how to grow a self sustaining garden…

like the Garden of Eden!

It is a wonderful testimony of God showing Paul

how to grow beautiful, great tasting food

WITHOUT all the tilling, irrigation, commercial fertilization, and weeding.

WITHOUT the toil of maintaining it!

Just like the Garden of Eden.

WOW!

OK

so look at those Garlic cloves… they’re HUGE!

All of the produce grown here are big and full of juice!

Well…

It blew me away on so many levels and I hope it does you!!

 

Here is a trailer for the film to show you a snippet of it.

BELOW IS THE LINK TO THE FILM ONLINE:

http://backtoedenfilm.com/

And please…

if you watch it or have watched it… let me know if it “moved” you… like it did me!

Thanks For Stopping By!

 

Hello Friends and Hello Fall!

 

Hi Everybody!  Hope you all had a wonderful summer!

I know I did.  It’s been awhile since I posted and just wanted to check in and say Hi!

Is anybody out there?  Anyone? 

“Crickets chirping”… lol!

Well, let’s see… in my last post I had begun planting flowers in the front yard back in May.

 

I know most of us experienced a severe drought this summer.

It was terrible!

However… with… what I believe was the hand of God (yes… I believe He blesses our land and our efforts)

… and with some effort on my part… my flowers survived!!

There were many days of struggle… but they made it!

Yay!

(NOTE:  I use annual Impatiens BUT if you wait ‘til they form their seed pods and bust them open…

you will get a variety of colors that come back the next year… as pictured above by the tree)

SOOOoooo…

what did I do this summer?

Swim for the most part.

We are blessed to live in a neighborhood that has a pool!

There was some definite family time spent there this summer.

As for creativity?

I used none… or had none… or there was none… you get the picture. 

So, I have nothing new to share on that note.

As for time with the Lord… there was much of that… and still is.

I started out reading some of these.

BUT… ended up reading more of this…

I have been “in” my bible most of the summer…

reading, seeking, listening, doing and being renewed!

And now it is … FALL… Ok not really but …it FEELS like it!

Do you know what the temp is RIGHT NOW …here at my house at 10:30 in the morning?

58!!!  Yes… 58!! Oh… and breezy!  The high is suppose to be 73ish.  Ahhh… feels Great!

And now…

for the finale of this post…

DRUMROLL….  BDDddddddddd…..

Do you know what I recently discovered?

Yes… Chai Latte Creamer! YUM!

Wow… I’m usually a French Vanilla kinda girl when it comes to coffee…

but this creamer has rocked my world!!

YUM and YUM and YUM again… or at least I think so!

Ok… well…

that sums up the summer for me.

Thanks to all those who checked in on me and wrote to me this summer…

I loved hearing from you!!

I will be honest… I STILL don’t know how much I will be blogging for the rest of the year.

I feel the Lord moving in my life and want to remain open to what he has for me to do.

But thanks for hanging in there  with me

and I hope to continue to be creatively ambitious… in some way!!    

Taking a Break… Gone Fishin’

 

Hey everyone!

Well… I’ve been out planting annual flowers in the front yard.

It will be a red, white, purple and pale yellow color scheme.

AND this year

I am adding some deer resistant plants to the landscape and to my flower pots

Or at least that is what the tag said.

Last year… the deer decided to eat a lot of my impatient!

I had to spend the rest of the summer spraying hot sauce on them and adding my husky’s hair to them.

(It seemed to work)

We will see how these hold up.

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So why does my title say “Taking a Break”???  Well…

I have MANY projects to finish… some I have been storing until I got to them.

So far… I haven’t got to any of them!

There are these old windows…

And this cabinet thing that hangs on the wall…

A coffee table, frame, old wash boards…

And then there is all of this…

Plus SOOOOOO much more that I didn’t even take pics of.

ALL waiting to be done SOMETHING to.

I had planned to work on each, do something with them in my home and then blog about it.

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Well… TWO THINGS have happened…

FIRST…

I had a heart to heart with the hubs a few weeks ago…

AND I gotta say…

He has been so supportive of all my creative adventures… REALLY.

Has never complained or told me no… not even once.

BUT… a few weeks ago… I brought home the old windows and had planned to hang them throughout the house and that’s when I could tell… something was wrong.

We didn’t talk about the expression on his face that day but I eventually brought it up.  And that’s when it all came out…

He told me that he doesn’t like all this old stuff in the house.

He’s not an antique person and he’s not into the… “making things look old” décor either.

Nope…

he likes new, traditional, minimal and comfortable.

Which I have tried to maintain a balance of both old and new in the home.

But the more he hears me talk of the old and the more I bring home… I think he worries…LOL!

Another complaint was the “storing” part.  You see… the hubs does NOT like to store anything.

He’s a “throw awayer.”  Maybe not everything… but most everything. 

OH ME (sigh)…

I feel bad for him.  I mean… he has to live here, too.  And he has been so quiet about all my changes I’ve made with the décor and all the stuff that I have been making and storing.

Don’t worry though…

I will keep doing and adding some things to the home because he says he truly doesn’t mind all of it and he likes to see me being creative…

But maybe a break from it will help ease his mind??  maybe?…LOL!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ANOTHER THING IS….

I have kinda lost motivation to finish all these projects I dreamed about doing.

Yes… there… I’ve said it!  Motivation gone… or at least for right now.

I think when spring and summer hit… I want to be outdoors or/and on vacation! 

YOU KNOW?

There are just other things on my mind right now.

So… I plan to take a break from blogging for a bit.

That means my posting won’t be a weekly thing for now and I’m not sure when I will start back.

I am praying about what the future holds for my creative ambition.

And while I wait for that answer… I will be reading and reevaluating things in my life! 

I love Joyce Meyer’s books… I read them and then wait awhile and reread them.

She tells me like it is!

Anyway… I plan to keep my Facebook going with a few posts here and there… so if you want to chime in over there…please do!

But until I post again…

I hope every one who reads this has a wonderful and exciting summer!!

I love my fellow bloggers and readers!! 

SOOOOOOOO….

With all that being said…

I have officially…

Wedding Dresses… what have you done with yours?

So…did you watch the Royal Wedding this past Friday?

What did you think of the dress?

I thought it was absolutely gorgeous!

As everyone is saying… very Grace Kelly!

I LOVE the lace on her dress.

In fact, my wedding dress was made of lace.

The whole dress including the train.

 

Soooo… the burning question is…

What to do with the wedding dress afterwards?

Kate’s dress…

well, I read it will go on display in London.

Mine?

Mine is still in the bag in a closet!

I had big plans for my dress.

As you can see it has a halter top and I had planned

to shorten it and make it into a sundress.

But weight gain came quickly there after…

like 10 pounds from the honeymoon alone…LOL!

So in the bag it stayed.

But… I still have hope I will fit back into it one day…

I am currently working on that!

All this leads me to the question…

What did you do with your wedding dress?

Is it bagged up and stored in a closet?  Did you make it into something else? 

Did you pass it down to somebody in your family?

Did you sell it?  Burn it?

Do you display it?

Kate’s dress made me think about my dress…

it was nice to revisit it… in the closet.

Maybe one day I will get to alter it and wear it as a sundress!