Valentine's Day Art

I have recently decided that I am going to start decorating my home for whatever holiday is in a given month.  What brought this on?  After I take down all the Christmas decorations, our home looks incredibly bare!  From October through December the house is full of holiday decorations and very festive.  I would love for our home to look like that all year round.

My husband would not be happy if I spent money on Valentine's decorations, so I had to put my thinking cap on and become crafty.

This is what I came up with and it cost me just $4.00!  It will have a home in the center of the mantle, along with some other things.

I bought this board at the craft store for $1.00 and I had the paint on hand.

I asked my husband to make me a frame out of his pile of scrap wood pieces, then I painted it red.

I bought some candy conversation hearts in the bulk candy section of the grocery store.  I used one pound's worth for $2.50.    While my husband I were watching a movie, I sat and hot glued these hearts onto the board.  All 318 of them.

I thought about attaching a ribbon to hang this up, but then decided that it would look best on the mantle.

I am posting this over at The Girl Creative for her link party, Just Something I Whipped Up Monday.

Our Home at Christmas Time

We have a rather large front porch, and it's my favorite thing to decorate for the holidays!  Lots of lights, presents and trees.

How fabulous is she?!

I guess Caroline wanted to make herself clear:

I absolutely love my little Christmas Village!  I have been collecting different pieces since I got married over 8 years ago.  Some pieces light up, some pieces spin around, but my favorite piece is the mountainside with the motorized sledders going down....

So there's our home at Christmas time. 

 

There's 5 days left and my kids are just beside themselves with anticipation....

Merry Christmas everyone!

Kids' School Papers

If your home is anything like mine, the papers that the kids bring home take it over!  No one told me that there would literally be a mountain of paperwork that comes home with *each* kid.  Guess how many pieces of paper the average child will bring home from one school year alone?  Well, I looked it up... and it's 900 pieces.  900 pieces!  Times that by two kids and that's nearly 2000 papers in just one year.  Wow.

When my youngest started Kindergarten this year, in the first month alone, the papers had overwhelmed me.  Not to mention, the dates that I had to remember for this and that, the homework that had to be returned the next day, plus the homework that was due the end of the week.  Oh yeah, don't let me forget about the sports schedules *for two kids*, or what the school happened to be serving for lunch on any random day.

I stared at all their paperwork for a few days until I figured it out! 

This entire system cost me $30!  The dry-erase calendar and cork board were $5 each at Walmart and the magazine bins were $10 each at Office Depot.  I used the 3M velcro to attach everything to the door. 

Only school related information goes on the calendar.  It's nice this way, so my regular family calendar doesn't get too cluttered.  The cork board holds all the miscellaneous stuff that I need to keep track of...lunch menus, master school calendar, any sports sign up sheets, etc.

When the kids come home from school, they know to take everything out of their backpacks and put it in their own bin.  They were very excited to draw some pictures to make the space their own!

This was the best thing that I've done for myself in years!  All the paperwork is in ONE place, and off the counters.  Now, I can go to one spot and see everything I need to.

My favorite thing about this little station?  The door closes.  Bye bye papers!

Decorating For Fall

Fall is by far my favorite time of year!  There is a chill on the air, football season is in full swing (go Hawks!), the aroma from spiced candles fill the house... you get the picture! 

But, the real reason I love fall is because I get to bring down all the orange bins that have been shoved up into the rafters in the garage.  I swear, they are calling me all year long...

I usually start with the front porch.  Every year I forget to write down how many hay bales I buy versus how many I actually use, same thing with the corn stalks. This year though, I finally had the forsight to write it down!

My daughter has an affinity for white things....  white rocks, white shells and she always picks out white pumpkins.  Instead of carving them this year, we decided to paint them!  I spent $1.50 on three different colors of paint and had one happy little girl! 

The lanterns were an addition this year also. I've been seeing them in the Potterybarn catalog for some time now, and I love them!  A very homey touch.  I couldn't see spending $100 per lantern, so I went in search of some knock-offs.  I found some at Walmart for $10 a piece!  Score!!

I found the sign at a small shop down on Main Street.  I told myself that I wasn't going to buy anything large this year, but I just couldn't resist.  Pie Maker's Best?  How PERFECT for my porch! 

I picked up the broom at Walmart also... then I painted it black and green to look like a witch's broom.

 I love everything on my porch, but I think my favorite item would have to be the spiders.  They're just the right size.  The string on them is very long, so you can hang them just about anywhere. They even have black and orange glitter on them!  They are all throughout my home, even in the bathroom!

As you can see, I go a little overboard decorating for fall. I found some great Halloween fabrics and covered up a few of the pictures on the walls, added seasonal pillows to the couches, and a Yankee cranberry candle burning on the stove... 

After Halloween, all the spiders, witches and jack-o-lanters will come down. What's left (hay, un-carved pumkins, candles) will stay up through Thanksgiving and keep the house festive!

Ally