Best of 2011

Can you believe 2011 is coming to an end!? I can't. We thought we'd do a recap of the best of 2011. Thanks to you we've had over 100,000 page views. We know that may seem small to some of you readers...but to us that's amazing for two moms who use this blog as an outlet for our hobby!! Thank you!

So, here's our list of your favorite 5 posts we've done this year.
5. DIY Cafe Shelves (Ballard Knock Off)

4. Baseball scoreboard wall art

3.Kitchen Table Redo

2. Cowboy/Cowgirl Birthday party

1. DIY Stick Horses

We hope that 2012 brings with it INSPIRATION (and TIME)! With six kids under the age of 5 between the two of us, Tiffany and I enjoy this outlet to share with you what we find/do/create and are inspired by. Thanks to our husbands who give us the encouragement and allow us the girl time to do what we do!

Getting Ready for the New Year!

The year is almost over... and I have cleared out all my Christmas decor and I am staring at a LOT of blank spaces.

Oh my... I have a ton of work to do. My hubby is out of the country until after the New Year so I have my work cut out for me with the goal to be done by the time he comes home!! Wish me luck.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

We hope that you're having a wonderful Christmas and pray that Christ dwells in your heart today and always!

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord. Luke 2:11

Love Lindsay & Tiffany

MIL Sugar Tea Cakes

These are the best sugar cookies EVER!

And you guessed it, they're my mother-in-law's recipe.

I've started making them every year for her birthday and this year I wised up and made enough for myself! The best thing about them is that you probably have all of the ingredients already in your pantry. (Maybe with the exception of cream of tarter. What other recipe calls for that?)

Anyway... here ya go!

Ingredients:

2 eggs

2 sticks margarine

1 c Wesson oil

1 c powered sugar

1 c sugar

1 t cream of tartar

1 T vanilla extract

1 t almond extract

1 t baking soda

4 1/2 c flour

Directions:

Sift together flour, cream of tarter & baking soda. Set aside.

Beat margarine, oil & sugar until creamy.

Add eggs. Add vanilla and almond extract.

Add flour and stir until it becomes dough-y :)

Refrigerate dough overnight. Then pinch of pieces and press each cookie (with a glass dipped in sugar) onto an un-greased cookie sheet.

Bake 10-12 minutes on 350.

Enjoy!!

Quick Gift Tags

I ran out of gift tags early this year, so I decided to make my own.

I just used my paper cutter, wrapping paper and double sided tape.

They were cute, different, and didn't require another trip to Target!

Window Painting

Paint a window!

This is a 10 minute project that can be changed out with the seasons.

I picked up my window from Round Top a few months ago & had great plans for a Halloween "boo" & then a Thanksgiving "Give Thanks", but life & laundry, have been slowing me down. :)

So here is it's debut, featuring JOY!

Just find a font that you like, print out your words & tape them to the front of your window.

Flip the window over & paint/trace your letters.

Try to keep your paint strokes smooth.

Wait a few minutes for it to dry and then go over it a second time so that it won't be transparent.

And when the season has passed or your mood has changed :), just scrape it off and start again.

Chocolate Party!

Chocolate What a fun excuse to get together!!

We began the night with an open hot chocolate bar.

Complete with wafers, caramels, marshmallows & candy canes.

And then spent the next 2 hours making chocolate covered pretzels, marshmallows and oreos.

Yum!!

The idea was to make goodie bags for girlfriends, neighbors, teachers, etc., but I don't think that many (if any) actually made it into the goodie boxes.

I also got so caught up in all of the chocolate, I mean excitement, that I forgot to take any pictures of us actually making our yummy treats. So... so that you don't have to imagine, here are some of the fantastic things that we made.

Ours turned out EXACTLY like this :)

It was so much fun!

Next year, I'll remember to buy more almond bark!

The difference a lamp can make...

I am a huge fan of lamps. I can see 5 from right where I'm sitting as I type. If I had a sofa table I'd see two more. But I am still on the hunt for the perfect table. And since putting up my Christmas tree we are more convinced we need a new couch. More on that later...

I decided to spend a little time in my son's room this weekend. It's amazing what a little vacuuming turned into. One area that has bothered me since I made his Hudson Field sign is the top of his dresser.

He's almost four so there's not just a whole lot of stuff that can really be used for decoration without him getting into it. {The basket of baseballs in the picture above were purely for staging! haha} So, for the most part it's sat pretty empty and I just didn't like how it looked.

Enter a lamp...
I moved the lamp that had been on his dresser to this side of the room and like the heigth it brings and love how it looks from the door way {although I'd prefer to have the lamp on the other end of the dresser, but there's less wording to cover on the right side}.




Of course this rearranging has left me with a bit of a problem on the other side of the room!!

So, take a look around your house today... do you love lamps too? Do you have some areas that could use some lamps? TJ Maxx, Marshalls & Home Goods are great places to find some nice lamps (and a lot of times they have matching lamps). Happy Shopping!

Christmas Tour 2011

It's a Christmas tour! I have had my decorations out since before Thanksgiving...but just now have found the time to upload the pictures to the computer and onto the blog. Without further adieu...

The Dining Room

The Kitchen Shutter (where my Christmas cards will be displayed)

I had this urn on the mantle for the Fall. I decided it needed a new home for the holidays. I added some glittery Christmas picks to make it festive and added it to my entry table.



This is probably the most important decoration I have. My husband even told me that I needed to add "a little Jesus" to my decor before it made it out of the box. On a side note... how do you decorate and incorporate THE reason for the season? I've found most nativities and Christian Christmas decorations aren't that "cutesy".... anyone have any good suggestions of places to look for cute things that focus on Jesus more than Santa?

Remember how I made this chalkboard? I finally changed the verse that had been up there for 2 months or so and made it a little more appropriate for the holiday!

On my kitchen table I used a $10 glass canister from Walmart and two packages of $5.00 ornaments as an easy and cute centerpiece.

The mantle... ah, always the hardest thing to decorate! I used a Santa that is usually on my front porch to fill up some of the height, hung an old window pane my husband found on the side of the road & added a wreath that I made for a little extra dimension. My lighted garland was made from two lengths of garland from Hobby Lobby and a strand of garland lights. Then once it was hung I just went through and added the ribbon and a few picks of color & greenery.

I picked up this hurricane at our last trip to Canton. And lucky for me I already had stockings that went with the red and green theme that I seem to have going on here.

I made these wooden JOY candlesticks after seeing them on Shanty2Chic. I love their simplicity. This Santa has made it's round through 4 houses in the last 7 years...

Well, that's it for now... I hope you're enjoying the weather where you are and that you are looking forward to the Christmas holiday coming up. I still have quite the list of "to do's" for shopping and parties. Take the time to relax and enjoy... and remind yourself what this holiday is really all about.





Linked to these fabulous parties:
Home Stories A2Z
Ten June
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia