I was in France during Nester's big Christmas Tour of Homes and by the time I got around to taking photos, it was way too late to join. Sadness. I still wanted to show off my pretties though, so here are some photos for you to enjoy. The color scheme this year was red, white and silver, , which I have to say, I loved. It's all so pretty. I'll be sad to put them away, but am already planning what I want to do next year. :)
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Some days I really just have nothing to blog about. Isn't that sad? I live in Europe for goodness sake. My life should be exciting and my blog should be filled with beautiful photos, fabulous events, overnight get-a-ways to historic, glamorous places, blah, blah, blah. Unfortunately, real life (and lack of funds) get in the way of all the excitement and glamor. Not to say we don't have money, but we'd like to have money when we're older too, so the jet-setting is not done as frequently as we would like. This of course doesn't leave me with a whole lot to blog about. Actually, I probably have a lot that I could blog about, but it's just dull, every day stuff. Yawn. I decided to rifle through my photos on my computer to see if I could come up with something. I did! In fact, I came up with several posts, but I'm going to have to stretch them out. Today I'm going to show you a little project I did back in Sept, while we were still in AZ. I totally stole this from The Nester, BTW.
We had 3 brothers in our homeschool group that Indy loved. The oldest (7) and the youngest (4) had birthdays 2 days apart. They had a little combined b-day party that we were invited to and I needed to come up with some gifts. These boys had a ton of stuff already, and their mom asked us to only bring small gifts if we brought any at all. I remembered a post I saw over at Nester's place quite a while back and decided I would swipe the idea. Well, I guess I didn't really swipe it, since she put it out there for anyone to see. She's nice like that. If you haven't been there, WHY NOT? Go there! She's amazing. Wait until you're done with this post though. ;)
So, Indy and I hauled ourselves over to the local dollar store and found some packs of little action figures, some Chinese style take-out boxes and ribbon. Here's what we ended up with:
I made 3 because even though it was only the oldest and youngest boys b-days I could leave the middle one out. They got a firefighter set, a police set and an Army set. Pretty cute, huh? The boys loved them (of course!) and the moms all thought it was an adorable gift and complimented me on my creativity. I have to say, I did take full credit for it and didn't tell them I got it from Nester. I'm sure she's fine with it though.
Indy made the 2 b-day boys cool pop-up cards. He was really proud of his creations.
And there you have it. My not-quite-as-excting-as-I'd-like post. Enjoy and big interwebs hugs to Nester for being so super fab.
Before I get to my wreath, I have to tell you what a fab time I had yesterday at Nester's Garland Shebang. It was so awesome to see how different people decorate. Also, it thrilled me beyond reason to watch my hit counter go up, up, up. I feel so popular! ;) Also, thanks to all who left comments. I tried to leave comments on most of the blogs I visited, but I have to say I HATE that verification thing, so I did refrain from commenting on many of those. Sorry.
Okay, onto the wreath. As you may (or may not) know our stuff has still not made it to our house. The last time I saw it was Oct. 14 as it was loaded into crates and sealed up for a voyage across the Atlantic. Here's a question: what would you do without your "stuff" for 2 months? I'm getting a bit stir crazy. I know it's just stuff, but it's my stuff and I want it. Not having it is severely cramping my crafting. Oh, and here's something interesting. Yesterday, I called the inbound shipping office to see if they had any news on when it would arrive. Guess what? It's been in country for almost a month! A month! They just forgot to contact us. I was so mad I nearly jumped through the phone to smack the lady I was talking to, who thought it was all somehow amusing. Whatever. It's here and it's being delivered next Thursday. I cannot wait!
So, since I did not have my stuff (grrrrrrr!) I did have to buy some things to decorate for the holidays. I bought garland, ribbon, berries and my super cool (and on sale!) IKEA ornaments. When I was done I thought the door was pretty, but somehow missing something. It needed a wreath! I was not about to buy another one, so I decided to make one. But what to use? Also, there's no Hobby Lobby or Michael's or anything like that over here (I fear Nester would not survive), so I couldn't just dash over to my local craft shop for supplies. They do of course craft over here, but their selection is rather limited. How do German people decorate? Curious.
I looked around at the scraps I had scattered on the floor in the house and a plan began to form. I think I might have looked something like the Grinch when he was planning his first trip to Whoville, but I'm not sure. I had a coat hanger from getting M's jacket cleaned so I decided to start there. After seeing that movie about Joan Crawford, I generally try to avoid wire hangers, but the dry cleaners don't care, which in this case was a good thing. I was going to twist it into a circle, but thought "Mom in High Heels (that's totally what I call myself in my head), why just a circle? That's so last year. Why not something awesome? But what?"After pondering this for a few minutes it finally came to me! I would make our monogram! How though? HOW? HOW Mom in High Heels? HOW???? As I looked at the various scraps, I suddenly thought, WWMD? That's What Would MacGyver Do, in case you didn't know. As I pondered this, RDA's (that Richard Dean Anderson who played MacGyver for those of you not on an initials only basis with him like I am) face flashed in front of me . I picked up various doodads and scraps and then, boom, just like MacGyver trying to get out of a locked room on the verge of being crushed by a crane I knew what to do! I think I may have even hummed the theme song, but I'm not sure.
First I opened the wire hanger and used two of the wire stems I had stripped the berries off of and used them to create my base. Not bad, huh? RDA would be proud.
It was good, but not sturdy enough so I rooted around for something, anything to make it stronger. I found.....a roll of painters tape, a stick Indy had dragged inside for whatever reason, and some cardboard that had been in the box of Christmas lights. Oh yeah! I broke the stick to a length of the long side of the 'B' and the center of it as well. I taped them in place and then cut strips of cardboard to go around the curves (taping them down too) and then began to wrap, wrap, wrap the entire thing with tape.
Here's a close up of the cardboard covered curve. Ohhhh, onomatopoeia!
And completely covered with tape. Seriously, I used almost the entire roll.
I took some left over garland (maybe 4 feet long) and began wrapping it around the base. I had a roll of floral wire and used it to hold the garland in place.
Some leftover ornaments, berries a few pine cones and voila! One monogram wreath. I'm sure I can hear RDA applauding somewhere!
Oh, I also had about a foot and a half of garland left so I put it around our hideous dining light fixture and hung a few ornaments and crystals from it. HUGE improvement.
ETA: I'm reposting this for BooMama's and Julia's parties, since I have nothing new to show you. You know, because our stuff hasn't come yet (not that I'm bitter). So, if you've seen this, sorry. If you haven't, enjoy. Leave me a comment. It makes me ridiculously happy.
Today is the big day! Miss Nester (whom I love, adore, copy and stalk relentlessly) is throwing a garland party!!!! Weeeeeee! You know how I loves to par-tay.
I have been garlanding up my house. As you may know, house stuff is STILL not here (grumble, grumble,stupidarmy,grumble,grumble), so I actually had to buy everything. The horror! That just means I'll have lots of stuff next year. Also, IKEA (Wait...what's that? Do I hear Kimba squealing?) has all their ornaments on sale (at least in Germany) and I got them all for a song. No really, I was actually singing I was so excited. The Germans were afraid. I'm sure they were telling their children (those not lucky enough to get into Smalland, that is) to stay away from the crazy American woman. Who wouldn't sing though when they're getting 48 ornaments for 4 Euro (slightly less than $5)? No one, that's who!
So, since we didn't have our stuff, we (meaning me, M just nodded as I spoke more words than he can keep up with-see, that's how I get stuff done my way, talk fast. It confuses him so he just agrees) decided to go with a color theme. We (again, me) opted for blue, silver and white. M did catch some of this though and asked for deep blue. I can live with that. Here is the garland (and wreath-check back for that post. I'm calling it, Holiday Wreath: McGuyver Style) I made for our front door.
This is blurry, but you can at least see it lit up. With this fancy new camera I have, you'd think I could get a good photo. Well, okay, I could....if I weren't lazy and actually got my tripod intead of just trying to hold really still while the shutter stays open.
Close-up.
Blurry close-up, but you get the idea.
More close-up.
Oh, and here's our tree. It's actually much prettier in real life, but I was too lazy to get the tripod so I couldn't get one showing the lights lit up, so it's lacking some zing.
I also made a garland and wreath for the outside of our building. I went with a red and gold theme. I have to give big thanks to my awesome neighbor. She's taller than I am (by about 5") and she brought the height. After she went upstairs though, while I was "tweaking" of course it came crashing down in the center. See a trend? Seems like everyone's garland is falling. Sounds dirty. Since I couldn't really call her back down (she's across the hall from me, so it's 3 floors), I flipped over an empty flower pot and stood on that to get the center back up. It is also lit and looks lovley at night. Take that, other stairwells! Oh, wait, I mean, um....Happy Holidays.
Is your garland showing? If so, show it off!
Also, Super-Duper Fantabulous BIG thanks to Nester (and her random number generator) for picking me as one of the small words winners. I cannot wait! I've never one an online contest before. This is so exciting!
We've done a lot of fun stuff since we arrived (I'll post some of that at a later date), but in the evenings we sit in our apartment and wait (and wait, and wait, and wait) for our household goods (that's military speak for our stuff) to arrive (maybe next month), I have little to do but plot and plan . Where am I going to put this? Where am I going to put that? What color to paint the walls? What curtains (or mistreatments) should I put up? Oh, I go round and round. Maybe I want a new sofa (which I do, but M is violently opposed to-whatever). Maybe I want a different set of dishes. Maybe I want to change the colors in our bedroom. Maybe I just want to throw everything out and start over. Nothing to do but think. And stalk Nester. Seriously, I wait and wait and wait for her to update her site and then when she does, rush over with ridiculous excitement beating a heavy tatoo in my chest. What wil it be this time? What nugget of decorating wisdom will she dole out today? Oh, the joy! The rapture! Sad, isn't? Don't worry Nester, I'm a a whole continent away. You're safe.
Well , last night my obessesion spilled over into my nocturnal musings. Oh, that's right! I dreamed about Nester! I think it's Indy's fault. He likes to look at websites with me and every time I cruise over to the Nester (not THAT often, like 20 times once a day) he comments that he would like to play with her boys. I explained that to play with them he would have to make that really long flight again, and he decided that maybe they could come to our house instead. Smart boy, that one.
In my dream, Indy went over to their house to play (how we lived close enough for this to happen I never quite figured out, but it's a dream, so it doesn't have to make sense. Right? RIGHT?) and Nester invited me to come along for coffee (or tea in my case, since I loathe coffee). In my dream I was practically skipping to her house. Believe me, it's humbling to type that. So, into that mecca of home decor all us faithful readers can only dream of (see, I made a funny) I went. It was amazing! There were mistreatments and toile and barn stars and feathers and tassels galore! There may have been some squealing and covert picture taking on my part, but I cannot confirm this. Oh, and guess who else was there? Go on, guess. That's right! Emily, Kimba and Fussy! Can you belive it? They were all sitting around a table crafting! Crafting! It was the Round Table of Awesomeness (I'm totally trademarking that). Actually, Emily was taking pictures, but I consider that crafting too. Nester invited me to join them! This was a really good dream, people. We crafted, we giggled, we talked about shoes and our kids and homeschooling and decorating! Yea! At some point in the crafting hoopla Indy and the boys came running through the house (as boys are want to do) and somehow red wine was spilled onto a cloth covered side table and some mistreatments. I'm still not sure where the wine came from, but that didn't matter in the dream. Whatever. I was slightly horrified and just knew she'd never invite us over again. Not that I think Nester is like that, it was just something that ran through my head (in my dream). Nester, with typical Southern graciousness, said not to worry, whipped off the table cloth unclipped the mistreatements and took me to a room full (FULL) of fabrics. She rifled through some of them, found exactly what she was looking for, grabbed Priscilla (her hot glue gun in case you don't know), some fringe and whipped up a new mistreatement and table topper in about 10 minutes, oh and a new tassel because she was inspired by the color of the fabric, put them all up and went back to the crafting table. Oh, and she did it all in a gorgeous pair of heels. I think I might have been clapping and jumping up and down, but again, I cannot confirm this. And then.........then my alarm went off (stupid alarm-why couldn't you give me another hour? ) and all the fabulosity faded. But it was a good dream and I woke up smiling. If Johnny Depp had shown up with a car loaded with Prada, Ferragamo and Manolo Blahniks all in my size it would have been the ultimate dream, but as it was, it was pretty awesome. I did worry for a few minutes though that I might be ever so slightly obsessed with Nester. Do you think?
What, you haven't heard? The Nester has yet another party going on. I'm beginning to think somebody just likes to party. I'm just sayin.
This new party is about P.O.O.P.I.E.S. (People Opposing Objectionable Pretend plants In the Environment). Sadly, I am a rebel rule breaker. I've got faux plants/fruits/vines in my house. Gasp! Shudder! The horror! The hor-ror! Oh, hush up, you do it too. Don't lie. So, here are some of my faux pas.
This is is onion grass. I actually think it was alive at one time, so maybe it's not too bad. Except that it's been dyed blue. I'm pretty sure onion grass isn't blue in real life. Oh, and in case you're wondering that's me and M at Stonehenge in the photo.
Here are some pretty little blue flowers in a jar and some potpourri. I dig the flowers. Soon they'll be switched out with fall leaves or something. Probably faux again. Oh and the little boy in the photo is my grandfather in about 1904. He was born in 1899. Isn' he adorable in this photo? He was 2 months shy of 50 when my dad was born. My grandparents slept in seperate beds for the rest of their lives after my dad came along. Wonder why?
Hey look! More onion grass! Probably not quite this green when it was alive though. Oh well.
Ooooooh, here's a BIG offender. It's PLASTIC! Ahhhhhhhhh!
I showed you all my 'B' wall before, but I thought I'd toss it in again as it's got a faux rose wreath on it. I actually love this wreath. The roses look pretty real. Or as real as they can considering they're not.
Lemons! In a jar! Actually these fooled my mom. She asked what I was going to do when they rotted. Teehee!
I loves me some eucalyptus. It smells so good. Wasn't it alive once? That's my grandparents in the photo the year they got married (1927). Yes, that's my grandfather who was the little boy in the pic above. He grew up to be quite handsome. And my grandmother is rocking the roaring 20's look.
More eucalyptus. Those tall stick things in there? Plastic. Oh yeah, breaking all kinds of rules here! Hahahahahaha!
Oy, here's my biggest offender. Fake (so fake I can't even pass this one off as 'faux') ivy. Shield your eyes! Run screaming! 50 lashes for me! I know, I know, but that ledge really needed something and since we're about to move again (for the 2nd time in 3 months) and can't take real plants with us, this will have to do for now. BTW, are you totally digging that awesome light fixture in the far right? Oh yeah, the military spared no expense when they built this house. Fancy!
Close up! Be careful. Do not look directly at it. It's like a solar eclipse. Look at it too long and you might burn your retinas.
So, what are your offenses?
ETA: I have posted some Fall POOPIES! Check them out!
If you haven't ever heard of "mistreatements" you need to haul yourself over to The Nester and do a quick read up. If you do, well, then, here's my mistreatements and some other random stuff. Enjoy!
A close-up. Notice all the dog toys in the basket at the bottom of the screen? You have 3 dogs, you have a lot of toys.
Ah, the master retreat. See the high windows? The bedrooms, dining room and baths all have these weird looking windows. This is actually 2 windows, but I put the panel in the middle to make it look like one long window. M nearly had a heart attack when he walked in on me hot glueing the trim to the topper. I was standing on the bed (heels off of course), I had an extension cord hooked through my belt loop, trim tossed over my shoulder and my hot glue gun (Annie-get it? Like Annie Oakly) in my hand. He thought I had clearly lost my mind. The panels BTW are actual curtains. I need to glue some trim to the bottom. ;)
Okay, so this is not a mistreatment, but I saw something similar on someone else's blog and loved it (sorry, I can't remember who you are, but thanks for the idea) so I thought I'd show it to you. Can you guess what our last name starts with?
And this is our new entertainment cabinet. I love it. Love. It. But, it needs some color as the wall behind it is white and M won't let me paint because we are moving in a few months (check back another day and I'll tell you where-it's exciting!). Where the TV sits is actually open, so that's the cinder block wall you see behind it. I've put some scrapbook paper (2 patterns) on the one shelf (left side, where the B is) and M and I both like it, but I'm thinking I need something other than black and white. Any suggestions?
Oh, and if you're interested in knowing how the military live, I'm planning a tour of our post and its varying housing (some of it you just won't believe). I just have to figure out how I can get pics of some of the places without the MP's coming and taking my camera away and hauling me off for questioning. See the things you have to think about when you live on a military post? Sigh.
My favorite blog, Nesting Place is having the first ever It Doesn't Have to Be Perfect to be Beautiful link-a-thon.
Here's what it really looks like on any given day:
Not quite as romantic. In addition to the HUGE bottle of water and glass, there is a pair of sunglasses, a box of brass fasteners, a can of chalkboard spray paint and a cell phone. Oh, and Lightening McQueen of course. Can't have a day without Lightening McQueen. Underneath is a camcorder and a dog toy. On the sofa behind sits my computer Keiko (yes, I name my stuff), the cord to the camera, 2 remotes, a work file and the yearly alum magazine/update/plea for money from my high school. Ah, every day.
Here are my favorite imperfect pictures:
This was the first day of C's new job. He now has to feed the dogs. He takes it seriously. He heaps the bowls, occassionally to overflowing. The dogs LOVE him.
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