the orange vase

i have missed crafting.  i needed to do something.. even if my house isn't completely done and ready for all the fun accents.

I want to add pops of color in various ways through out the house... one way is to use vases.   I saw some great orange vases at Hobby Lobby the other day.. but even at 50% off i didn't feel like it was a great deal.  I have a bunch of vases at home... they just need color.  I found the paint isle and bam! color :)

i chose this warm orange.  it's called pumpkin :)  perfect for fall.  and grabbed this vase from the plethora of vases i have saved for just this occasion. 

i painted the inside of the vase .. wanting to make it look like colored glass and not painted. this took about 5 minutes.

it dried a few hours and i added another coat.

add some beautiful Hobby Lobby flowers.. 

put it on the lanai.. and smile :)

Fall meets beach.   love.

linking for fun:
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cherished bliss

first post of 2012

we had a wonderful christmas. i missed blogging! so many times i wanted to jot down the memories, and maybe i should have. but... time. we all struggle with having enough of it, especially during the holidays. i really tried to let go of things that were not as important, hold tight to traditions that we have come to love as a family, start a few new ones... things of that sort. so i had to let go of logging our season as i felt sleeping was more important! lol.. i'll figure how to work it all some day. wait. no i won't. anyway.. it didn't seem to matter that i seemed to have a little typewriter in my head dinging at the end of a thought i would have liked to write about. it still didn't make it to the computer!

not quite back to the daily grind here yet.. the kids are off this week too. they went to school right up till friday before christmas. it was nice as it did allow me to get a little extra wrapping, crafting, gifting while they were at school. then we didn't have the lead up to christmas excitement either. it was christmas eve and it was here! liked that. then we took off for san diego two days after the big day and enjoyed the wonderful warm sunshine and beach and time with friends. it was Truly relaxing. just what we needed.

now back to the mess of a house we left. yesterday we had to dechristmas the house. i tried to be extra careful packing up everything.. we not only will not see that stuff for a year... but next time i open those red and green bins we will be in an new house and a new city. a lot will certainly transpire between now and then and i'm looking excitedly towards it. (well, not sure about that cross country drive yet. i don't travel well!) but all the same it's daunting. and it's different. and unknown. we've come to feel at home in this little town. not love it, i'm not going to lie. but definitely feel that we have carved out our spot. we spent our second quiet -just our little family- christmas here. we've made some wonderful friends... proving once again that it's not the place... it's the people!! sooooo.. i think i need to get to cleaning up this house so i can spend time with those people in this last part of our stint in Nevada. :)

here's a few cute pics of the kids on christmas...

fall decor

i just love decorating during this time of year. last year, i didn't really get into it that much. being pregnant with 2 other busy children left me completely exhausted most of the time. i even went to bed before 11 most nights! crazy for me.
so, i'm sort of making up for it this year. i'm busy well into the night a lot of the time!
i'm trying to use as much stuff as i can from what i already have... but making some fresh changes. most fun, for me, has been adding to my collection by creating some fun new items. and i've tried to use a lot of natural and recycled materials. it's really fun to save something and say "what can i make with this?" i have to admit... i'm kind of hooked on it!
Garrett is really the one who started it. but that's another post all together...;) so either he's just like his mommy or i'm following his lead of changing the world .. one saved container, cardboard, or "treasure" found on the ground at a time.

fun, right? yep, those are beer bottles. i put matt to work all in the name of craft and decor! he seemed not to mind ;) i glittered the tops with a copper color glitter and wrapped a ribbon on the top. for the letters i stenciled onto foam art and then glittered them. the kids gathered some sticks to finish it off. the striped white pumpkin has green glitter on the stripes.. though you can't tell in this pic.

this stand used to sit in front of the fire place with lots of candles on it.. pretty. but the reason i didn't feel like decorating last year is now into tearing any decor within reach apart!!



this is the back side. this area is a large open space above the tv, kind of a waste really. and it's a challenge to decorate. can't put pictures because when you walk in the door, you would only see the backs of picture frames. so it has to be a two sided affair.

random.. but this glittered wine bottle with dried flowers in it was an addition to the fall mantle of a previous post. i was bored one day and wanted to try the new glitter i bought. ... verdict is Love it!



Happy Fall
Give Thanks

mixed up mantle

i have always wanted a house with a mantle. though we have lived in 6 houses, there has only been one mantle. now that i have one.. i can't go back. when we move to jax, should there be no mantle... i will have to find a DIY project to make one myself! it's just the focal point of the room. sometimes it has family photos on it. sometimes it's simple with candles. but honestly i think i like the seasonal versions best. pottery barn worthy.. but with out the price. so it started like this. but it needed something.


i like to use some stuff i already have, but a trip to Micheal's i.s usually in order to add a little something, in this case - sparkle :)


here's the sparkle... Love it!!





its never really done. it changes all the time. i like to tweak till i'm happy with it. i think i'm done with my fall mantle now :) the last tweak was added today- it's probably a permanent fixture. i LOVE our new family photo!