A tree, a movie, and a gun

I am pretty big on traditions, especially around the holidays. When I was little on Christmas Eve we would drive through the festival of lights every year as a family. Its a pretty cheesy adventure but a tradition so it doesn't matter. Another tradition is watching the movie White Christmas while putting up the Christmas tree.

So last weekend I popped in the movie and began the decorating. Our Christmas tree is obviously tall and skinny, kind of like what I wished my body type was!! our first place was super small so we needed a tree that was skinny. It actually looked big in our old place. I am hoping to find some good sales this year on trees once Christmas is over! I wanted a different color scheme this year so I ended up making quite a few ornaments. But let me back up. I had seen a picture on pinterest of a ruffle tree skirt. So I wanted to make that first.

Be warned...it will take you hours...like 5 or 6. And you will burn your little fingers off with the glue gun and your hand will cramp from holding the gun for that long. But you have no choice because ruffles are a must and they are fabulous. It is a super cheap project too. I bought a $4.00 drop cloth at Walmart to use as the skirt part then I got 3 yards of a white cotton fabric. I think it all cost me less then $10.

And because I wasn't sick of using the glue gun yet I decided to use it again but this time on ornaments! I had seen this picture on pinterest and loved the idea.

I just punched out a bunch of circles and glued them on clear ornaments. I started at the bottom and worked my way up to the top. I bought a few sheets of scrapbook paper in a navy glitter and a gingham. I think they are my favorite ornaments on the tree.

For the other ornaments I made all I did was buy some craft paint and clear ornaments. I squeezed in the paint and added a little bit of water and swished it around on the inside until it covered everything then let them dry overnight. I picked up a creamy Orange, a coral and navy craft paint. I wanted some unexpected and fun colors!

The rest of the ornaments and garland I either had or picked up this year. I really liked how it turned out.

 



Grab your popcorn...

It's movie time! I have had these vintage movie posters stashed away for a long time. I have been so excited to use them somewhere in the house. We thought the back room/sunroom would be the best space to use them in. First because there was a huge blank wall and second because that's where we watch most of our TV/movies and it only makes sense to have movie posters in a room with a TV. Cody and I love old movies. I grew up on old movies and musicals and Cody loves old westerns so we have watched our fair share of them all. I always tell Cody that in my perfect world everyone would sing how they feel just like in the musicals and we would all sound great too...he just looks at me like I'm crazy. I had seen this image awhile ago with really colorful mats and prints and simple silver frames. I knew that's what I wanted to do with mine too!

I ordered all the movie posters off of Amazon. They were only a couple bucks each and since I knew I wanted to do 8 pictures I wanted to try and keep the cost as low as possible. For my mats I headed to good old Hobby Lobby. The hardest part was choosing a complimentary color to go with each mat. The frames will be 16x20 so it will be a pretty big and fun statement in the room. (Sorry the pictures are terrible, they are from my phone) Here they are all laid out on the floor...

I defiantly got the effect that I wanted, colorful but not too crazy. First up we have Rio Bravo and the original Ocean's 11 with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Cody loves John Wayne movies, and can you blame him? He was a pretty cool cowboy....

Pillow talk and Breakfast at Tiffany's. I love Doris Day movies, they are always super cute and cheeky. And can you get any more classic then Breakfast at Tiffany's?

Meet me in St. Louis and the Sons of Katie Elder. I grew up watching Meet me in St. Louis. This is one movie I could watch over and over again and never get tired of it. The Sons of Katie Elder is another classic western and has Dean Martin in it too. Let me just tell you about our love of Dean Martin... He is our favorite singer by far, wayyy better then Mr. Sinatra if you ask me. We own all his variety shows, movies and CD's. And yes I have even read his biography. And Cody's great Grandpa's name is Dean Martin...no joke.

And then we have Guys and Dolls and Singin in the Rain. How can you not love Gene Kelly? And how can you not love a movie that that makes a song and dance out of a gambling session in the sewers like Guys and Dolls and doesn't make it seem weird??

The mats were around $14 each since I had to have them cut to fit each poster. I found a place online that I can get 16x20 poster frames in a matte silver for a reasonable price. I can't wait to get the frames and hang them up. So, if you haven't seen any of these movies I highly suggest that you do so. And hopefully afterwards you will either be running around singing everything or shooting bad guys with your pistol.



Catch Up!

Holy smokes it's been almost a month since I last blogged. I don't know how you Mom's with kids and a  blog do it! All I have is a husband and a dog, and they are pretty low maintenance so I guess I am just a slacker...so it is time for some serious catch up!

Let's start with the basement...it is coming along nicely! We finished the treatment to the paneling and primed and painted it. Our process was pretty simple...we filled in the seams of the paneling then just used drywall mud and went to town. After it dried for a few days we primed it all then painted it. I will say it looks a whole lot different in person.

It's hard to get on camera how textural it is. But when you look at the before pictures...it is quite the improvement!



We are by no means finished with the basement but at least we can mark this job off our list!

This weekend I have plans to overhaul the bathroom down there, paint, new mirror, new counter, shower curtian, the works! I will post about that next week!

We finally got our new couch in our sunroom! It only took like 8 weeks of waiting! But I love it! These pictures are bad but its a really pretty linen.



We also got our new rug. We got it from rugsusa.com. That is the BEST place to get rugs from! This one is an 8x10 and I got it for around $150. They have the cutest patterns too and free shipping!!!

Ok so we still have a lot to do in here. Remember when I showed you the fabric I was going to use for the room and had everything planned out? Well I changed my mind...It's a wonder  I can even decide what to wear every morning! Anyway, This is the plan for curtains in there...I found the stripe fabric and I am going to buy some white curtain panels and add the stripe to those.

I also have 8 vintage movie posters that I am getting mats cut for and will hang above the sofa. I am super excited about those. All the mats are in really fun colors and I think it will had some color to those walls! Here's the lamp I am going to use in there! I am doing the white one and I am thinking of adding some kind of fun trim to the shades! They are from pottery barn.

And in some kitchen related news...We went to Lumber Liquidators to get some flooring samples. We are planning on doing cork in the kitchen/dining/laundry room and hard wood in the hallway and front room (where the fireplace is). I have been reading a lot about cork flooring and I am really excited to use it! We knew we didn’t want tile in the kitchen because it is a much harder surface and I feel like it makes kitchens colder….the hardwood option was also nixed for the kitchen/dining because it would be a whole lot more expensive! The cork is really reasonably priced, it’s softer, and wears the same as hardwood. Here's a sample of one of the cork options.

My process was pretty high tech for choosing the best cork and hard wood options. I ruled out all the hardwood that was over 5$ a sq. foot. I knew I wanted something dark with wider planks as apposed to the skinny kind. Once I found a few hardwood options I liked I laid them with the cork to see what went better with what.

I basically came up with 2 options.  Option one was a speckled looking cork with almost a ridged looking hard wood. I have no idea what the technical term is for that. The second option was a pretty basic bamboo hard wood. The cork almost has a marble effect to it. Here is option 1:

And Option 2:

I am waiting to get the samples of these in the mail so I can see what they look like in our house. We also have to make sure whatever cork we use matches the wood floor we have in the sun room. I am hoping to have pictures of the hall closet makeover I started. Let's just say it turned into a whole lot more of job then I thought it was going to be...