My Fall Wreath

So here it is Halloween and I have just now finished my Fall Wreath. At least I will get 3 weeks or so to enjoy it. What happened was that originally I really wanted to make this loveliness that I saw HERE at one of my favorite blogs. Although I believe it was originally from Better Homes and Gardens, but I had trouble tracing it back. I put it on my Pintrest and had every intention of making something like it.

Well... Here is my version:



I made a larger companion but it turned out hideous! So I tore it apart and decided that my flowers could not go to waste so this is what I did today:

I started off with these materials. The only reason I have the stick wreath base is because that is what I had handy. I had bought it last year and never did anything with it. A perfectly round one may have looked better in the end, but this one was free for now.

So I just glued away till I ended up with this beautiful wreath that looks great on my black door.

S I was so inspired that I decided to go ahead and make my Christmas Wreath. I just can't tell you how giddy and excited I am about it. I actually giggled the entire time I made it! Silly, I know, but I am so thrilled with the end result. I can't wait to show it to you.

Sorry, you will have to wait.

Renaissance of Tuna

Rachael Ray calls it a Casserole in her book "Book of 10"
It is not my definition of Casserole and I altered a smidgen, but she is where I began. If you love tuna fish, this is a delish meal. The fact that it has wine and sun dried tomatoes makes it a keeper for me. Plus it is super easy and quick.

First I started with about 1/2 a Cup of chopped onion and 4 cloves of garlic, sauteed in about 1-2 Tbsp. of EVOO (as she calls it)



Again, I feel  like I need to give a disclaimer. I have a cheap camera, I'm not a photographer, I have a black stove, black skillet and a dark kitchen. But this is really good.

Next add:
-2 cans of good quality tuna. She calls for Italian Tuna, but I have no idea what that is and I still can't find it so I use Solid White Albacore Tuna (in water)
-about 1/4 -1/2 cup of sun-dried tomatoes. I use the kind that comes in oil, I have soaked the dried kind to hydrate them but I think they are too chewy. I love the added flavor that the oil gives them.



Brown that for just long enough to integrate it all. Then add:
- 1/2 Cup of White Wine
reduce just a minute and the add:
- 1/2 Cup Cream
Stir well and add
-1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese.
This will thicken it up more.
 

Wow, such deliciousness!

Cook some Fettuccine. Rachael says a pound, but I found that that was WAY too much. About 8-9 oz. is what I usually fix.

She adds peas to her recipe, but they annoy me in the dish, so I serve them on the side.




This is a very quick, easy meal, and best of all it uses stuff that I usually have on hand. The wine, cream and sun-dried tomatoes make me feel like I'm eating gourmet.


Recipe:

1/2 a Cup of chopped onion
4 cloves of chopped garlic
1-2 Tbsp. of EVOO
2 cans of good quality tuna
1/4 -1/2 cup of sun-dried tomatoes
You can use less if you don't like the strong flavor
1/2 Cup of White Wine
1/2 Cup Cream
1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese

8-9 oz. fettuccine or linguine

ENJOY!

My Fall mantel (and other cool Decor)

Today I have joined a Linky Party. This is only the second or third time I have done this and I am very excited to show off my very simple Fall Mantel, and while I was at it, show you a few other decorations in my home. If you want to take a look at other Mantels and be inspired by beauty and variety go check it out over at Home Stories from A to Z.

Please enjoy the feast:



Just as a side note. I was wondering if anyone is having issues with photobucket. I spent literally hours trying to put this post together, and after wiping a few tears and trying to keep myself from destroying my computer, I gave up and used Picasa on the last 3 pictures (that is why they are so much smaller).

Let me know and feel free to give me any advice or, you can just feel sorry for me.

The Lamp Drape (for lazy crafters)

For two years I have held on to this great king size duvet and shams that I bought from a friend at her garage sale. I LOVE the print on the fabric and I just haven't been able to bring myself to cutting it up. I just couldn't decide what to do with it. Upholster my chairs? make pillows? Flowers? all of the above, or keep it in hopes that SOME day we may get a king size bed. I THINK I'm ready to pull those scissors out and begin to snip snip away.

The ugly black lamp got a paint job, but it looks awful with the boring brown shade it had on it. So, as you can see in the following picture, the duvet pattern goes wonderfully with my new rug that I'm still dreamy about. But I'm just too darn lazy to cover up the shade properly (measure, cut sew or glue, blah, blah, blah...). It has a weird shape and I'm afraid I will mess it up. Although it's not like I don't have plenty of fabric to go around! But still... So couldn't I just start a new fad and have Lamp Drapes, instead of lamp shades?





I guess I need to add it to my To Someday get to Do list.

We've Moved! It's Finally out!

The creative process is fun. I love creating and learning how to create. These past few years I have been learning to think outside the box and allowing God to show his creativity through me. Although when people tell me that I am creative I refuse to accept the compliment. I feel like I am a fraud, so my answer always is the same. I am not creative, just resourceful.

Trying to come up with something creative is fun. But the work that follows many times leaves me wishing that I had never begun. But most of the time the end result makes it all worth it.
In my creative efforts I decided to "save money" and make my own awesome change of address cards.
I must tell ya' though, the next time I move (hopefully NEVER) don't expect anything cutesy from me. I'll be sitting my tired tush down in front of the computer and picking out a very cool address change/moving announcement cards and letting someone else do the work. I'll even pay the extra money to have the addresses put on there, and pay a child to lick my envelopes!

There is just something about receiving a card or letter in the mail these days that isn't a bill or yet another credit card approval notice. So, I hope that if you got a card you enjoyed the effort I put into them. If you didn't get one, lucky you, today you get to see what I did.

These are not in good order

1. Did lost of research and looked at dozens of inspiration ideas.

2. Picked out what I liked best. I forgot where it is, so I can't give credit. It was some sort of paper company I think

3. Buy paper, lots of it. Copy paper, and green scrapbook parer to match the toll roads on the map (the regular roads are purple which is not my color) and envelopes too, because believe it or not, I was actually planning on making my own envelopes too!!! OH. MY. WORD. Thank you Lord for delivering me from that one.

4. I chose 2 maps. One for the envelope lining and one for the insert.
I used the Bing map and narrowed it down to the general area. I was very intentional in the fact that I wanted to include Dallas, Fort Worth and the airport as a point of reference to our location. (the airport btw, is straight north from the office building)

5. Pasted on a star for our address and an office building for the area where Mike works. By the way, he has a 45-50 minute commute.

6. Made another label with the "key" to the map. Our address and Mike's work info.

7. Bought some color ink so I could print all the info at my brother-in-law's house, he had the best pritnter.

7. Hopefully the card you got directed you to me!

8. Ordered the stickers and bought the cute boot stamp. (I wanted to give it a Texas flair)

9. Bought raffia, more green paper because I kept running out, and lots of glue sticks, because I kept running out of those too. (They are such a ripoff!!)

10. Gathered addresses, and narrowed it down to about 70 people.

11. Cut, wrote, pasted, tied, licked. Did lots of that. Repeat.

12. Some of your envelopes I even kissed because I love you so much.

This is what 70 people received, and today you do too:



Turn it around and see this:


open it up right and see this:


Pull out the map:


and see this:


flip it to next page and see this:


Creative?
Nah, just resourceful.

My gorgeous rug and groovy chairs. A match made in heaven.

About 5 years ago my in-laws were living in Smyrna GA. The Church that my father-in-law was pastoring was emptying out their basement of the fellowship building because the building was going to be demolished. Mike went down to help them and guess what he came back with? The craziest, grooviest chairs you have ever seen!

However, they sat in out garage for years because they are bar stools and we had no place to put them. I kept wondering what to do with them. Should I paint them? Do something different to the seats? But I never found the inspiration to do anything. So they sat and served wonderfuly as housing to my vast collection of spiders.

When we moved to Texas and bought our house, I was thrilled that we had a bar in our kitchen and that I would get to put my stools there. They are so out of place because my house is quite Traditional. But that is not going to stop me. Oh no! I love these chairs and I will make them fit in.

I have been forever looking for rugs for my house. And I refuse to spend money on anything just to get by. I have promised myself that I will only buy what I LOVE even if I have to wait. Which I will be waiting quite a bit because I can's get it all at once anyway.

So, as it turns out the chairs and the gorgeous rug I recently found at Crate and Barrel are a match made in heaven. I am so happy. The rest of the house will just have to begin to flow from here.






You are envious! I can tell.
Here is a closer look at the delicious colors of my new area rug:

What I Left Behind (Part 2)

On a lighter side. I thought it would be fun to do a few comparisons.

What I left behind



To this:

What I left behind




To two of these (But you only get to see one because the other one is empty)



I left this behind:




To this:


This is what makes Mike sad sometimes (and me too)







To this:





mercy, what were we thinking?

And here is the real tear jerker:

I left THIS





To this:




Someone hand me a hanckie!

What I Left Behind (Part 1)

I know, it is embarrassing. You probably just received my new address announcement and these are some of the things you are asking yourself. Mike and Susan..who? or, didn't they move forever ago? or, what? they moved? from where?

Well, the truth is we left our small house, huge yard in Morristown, TN June 17. Loaded to the max, even having to leave a few things behind.

We left about 2 hours later than we had planned, not bad considering we weren't just leaving to go on some long vacation. We had packed everything we owned and with one last prayer of thanksgiving with tears flowing from our eyes,  we drove away from the home we had lived in for 10 and 1/2 years.











Needless to point out the enthusiasm of my 12 year old (holding the ipod of course)

I never thought it would be as hard as it was to leave that place. I had wanted to move for years, but the Lord had me wait and off we were driving away with the flood of tears I could not stop from flowing. I realized then that there was so much more than 3 acres and a 1100 square foot house we were leaving.

We were leaving a home FULL of memories, a church with the only family we had had for 11 years, a School that we loved and friends that had become such a huge part of our life. Something else we had left behind was innocence. A time that has come and gone, a time I will never get back, a time that is treasured only in the recesses of my heart.

It was a time I nursed my babies, changed diapers and sang lullabies.
It was a time when we had themed birthday parties with pinatas.
It was a time when my kids went outside in their underwear and peed from the front porch.
It was a time when the boys played Indians and roamed around in the woods dressed with nothing but a loin cloth.
It was a time when Mike and the boys spent hours jumping on the trampoline and playing games like ball crusher (yep, it was exactly THAT).
It was a time when they often chased chickens and gathered up eggs or rode around the yard in the makeshift go-cart the boys and dad built together.
It was the time we racked leaves- there were more than we could handle-and jumped in them.










It was a time of bonfires, picnics and camping, football and family baseball games, all in our front yard.
It was a time before ipods, youtube, and facebook.
A time when it was fun to help mommy clean.
It was a time when mommy and daddy still knew everything.

It was a hard home to leave, it was a hard time to leave behind.
But, it was time to move on...
So as tears roll down my eyes I'm asking myself as I do from time to time, what you may be asking yourself just now, why DID you leave?
I have an answer for that. Stay tuned.

Welcome to My Bedroom

Walk up the stairs and make a sharp turn to the right. It still takes my breath away. First of all, again, I must apologize for the poor lighting in my pictures. The bedroom (like the Living Room) is in the South West corner of the house and gets lots of sun. Unfortunately, in TEXAS that is a bad thing. My bedroom is the hottest in the house. Even so, I still love it.
I also have big aspirations for this room that I will share with you. And if you want to share any input you are more than welcome to throw in your two cents.
Let me also clarify, that the yellow in the picture is a little brighter than it actually is. Although it is quite bright, and some day I will tone it down, I really like it the color it is.

Let me remind you of the empty room

BEFORE





AFTER

OH! and I found this cutie at T.J. Maxx Who could pass it up? Well, not me...

Now, let's take a closer look at what needs to be done here.

Hope you love it as much as I do. Perhaps some day I will have AFTER, AFTER pictures.

And also, Just in case you missed it. This is the subway art picture I made. I can't wait to get it put up.