Super Simple (and FREE) St. Patrick's Day Decor

I've been a slacker this year when it comes to seasonal decorating. I did nothing for Valentine's Day and just got around to taking down the winter decor on Saturday (to be fair though, it IS still cold out there). I use the fact that I'm pregnant and tired as an excuse, but let's be real, I'm kind of lazy. I said it.
Well, with one of Indy's favorite holidays coming up, I HAD to do something. Seriously, Indy LOVES St. Patrick's Day. It all started when he was about 3 and the "naughty Leprechauns" came to visit for the first time.  Since then, it's second only to Christmas in our house.  For a hilarious recap of last year's St. Patrick's Day, click here.  Reading that again makes me laugh because we actually had to wake him up on Christmas morning.
Anyway, while there are a lot of St. Patrick's Day decor ideas floating around the web (and they all look gorgeous!), I just wasn't up for all that work (and didn't want to spend any money), so I put on my thinking cap and thunk and thunk (ate a moonpie) and thunk some more.  I wanted to use only items I already had.  How could I do some cute decor without spending though?  It would be so easy to go to the store and pick up a few things, but that would involve getting out of my jammies and who has time for THAT on a Sunday?  Not me.  After some hemming and hawing and thinking, would Indy really care if I didn't put up some decorations?, Yes, yes, he would, I pulled out Yuka (my trusty computer) and opened up MSWord.  That's right! Word.  I flipped through their clip art (sad) and then went to check out MS clipart online.  I found what I was looking for and downloaded it (for FREE).  I printed off  some large word art letters and a shamrock outline on plain paper, a leprechaun hat on heavy paper, pulled out some green poster board (construction paper would work too), some green ribbon, a pair of scissors and some faux greenery from my stash and got to work.
I traced the letters and shamrock onto the green paper and cut them out and cut out the hat.  James Bond kept giving me weird looks, but I told him to trust me (he totally thinks I'm insane for the holiday decorating, but likes the results).  I cut the ribbon into small strips, grabbed my greenery and went to the front door. Here are the results:

Total cost: $0.  Not too bad, eh?  It's festive and very spring like.  I love the crispness of the green and white against each other.  It's so nice to know that warmer weather and pretty flowers are just around the corner.  Hopefully the naughty leprechauns will bring some gold and luck along with their craziness this year.  Have you decorated for St. Patrick's Day????

Project completed(ish)

You may remember my post last week where I wondered how some bloggers get so much done.  My mom thought I was griping, but I wasn't.  I was genuinely curious.  Well, anyway, between crazy contractions (this child wants out!), I actually got something done! Three somethings. Sort of.

Since everyone else in blogland is ripping apart old books, I thought, hey, why not? and attacked some old books I got for free. Huzzah! James Bond thought I had lost my mind when he saw me ripping off the covers.  I think he thought I'd finally been pushed too far.  Hahahahahah!  Oh, sorry.  I liked the look, but thought it needed something more.  I printed off a French postcard from The Graphics Fairy {heart!} and put it under the twine.  Cute, eh?

Here's a closer shot of the side.  The webbing and paper didn't want to come off in two ares, but had a small strip between, so I took the rest off in a similar pattern.  I like the effect.

I also put some of my mini Eiffel Towers in (under?) my cloche and printed off some more post cards from The Graphics Fairy to place behind them.  I think it looks nice.  Not really a project per se (unless you count the whole process of sizing, printing AND cutting-whew, I'm exhausted), but still.

A while back I saw these awesome Hanging Flower Balls over at House of Smith (actually I saw them on another blog that led me to the HoS, but I can't for the life of me remember which blog-sorry about that!) and knew I wanted to make a smaller version of them to...I don't know.  Sit around?  Put in apothecary jars?  In my bread bowl?  Whatever, I just knew I wanted to make them.  I got my crepe paper and read the tutorial about a million five times and went to work.  Now, over in the tutorial she says "Seriously, you CAN'T mess these up!"  Well, to quote a famous little, yellow cartoon bird "She don't know me very well, do she?" Oh believe me, I could (and did) mess more than a few of these up. Badly.  It looked like a crepe paper massacre had happened at my house.  I may have even uttered quite a few very unpretty words. Maybe.  I don't really recall.  I'm just saying it's a possibility.  I persevered though and finally got my groove on and started cranking out the crepe paper roses.  I then glued them onto styrofoam balls.  Side note: I'm afraid my glue gun, Matilda, may be on her last legs.  She's not working very well anymore.  Poor, sweet Matilda.  She's been so loyal and only burned my fingers a few dozen times..  Anyway, because of all the complete goofs minor mess ups, I didn't have enough to finish the pink rose ball and then when I went back to the store, they were out of the pink crepe.  Gah!  I got most of the ball covered though and then just put the blank spot down.  I'm smart like that.  Can't even tell can you?  Here's a close up of the white rose ball.

And finally, here it is all together.  I had to use the flash though (ick) because I didn't have enough light to get a decent photo. 

Hope you all have a lovely Valentine's Day!


Linking to:

How DO they do it????

If you're anything like me, you read a lot of blogs that feature home decor, recipes, sewing and furniture redos. Really, I am in AWE of all these projects and their creators. I want to do so may of them. My big question though is HOW on earth do these women find the time to do so many projects. Yes, I realize there are loads of different blogs, but some of my favorites are absolutely chock a block full of projects done by ONE person. I know their homes aren't perfect (they're generally very upfront about this and I love them for it), but they seem to be fairly clean and organized, their children are fed and in clean clothes and not neglected. I also know that some of them do these projects as part of a business they run, but honestly, how do they get so much done? They do still live in 24 hours days, right? I'm certain they must eat and sleep and do things other than projects, so how, how do they do it? Is there some secret I'm missing out on? Am I just a slacker?
Yes, I know I am pregnant (and tired a lot) and homeschool Indy, but many of these other women have similar lifestyles (one blog I read-I can't recall who off the top of my head-recovered her dining room chairs the DAY SHE GAVE BIRTH)!  So that's no excuse. Maybe I spend too much time reading their blogs???? I don't know. If you are an uber crafter/decorator and know the secret, why don't you share it with those of us who haven't figured out the magic? I know I (and probably a few other women as well) would appreciate it.

In case you're wondering what blogs I'm referring to, here's a list of a few I really love (if you're on the list and somehow came over to my blog for whatever reason, please, share your secrets):

Susie Harris

Infarrantly Creative

A Soft Place to Land

Funky Junky Interiors

Pretty Handy Girl

Miss Mustard Seed

Tatertots and Jello

Thrifty Decor Chick

The Nester

Centsational Girl

Confessions of a Plate Addict

Even if you're not on the list (I couldn't list you all), share your time management ideas!

Christmas Decor 2010

Well, now that it's all over, I guess I could show you my Christmas decor, huh? We were down in Garmisch during all the holiday posting hoopla and I missed all the parties. Sadness. Still, if you'd like to look, here it is. Click on the individual photos to enlarge.

Make a digital collage

Hope you liked it!

Pottery Barn, Eat Your Heart Out!

Now, we all love Pottery Barn. Their stuff is gorgeous and makes us all wish we lived a cleaner, neater, prettier, PB style lives. The interwebs are FULL of PB knock offs and their catalog is like porn for women. What many of us don't like about PB are their prices. Honestly, they are ridiculous.
This past weekend was the AMAZING Heidelberg Holiday Bazaar, which is put on my by the HD Community Spouses Club (of which I am a member). The bazaar brings vendors from all over Europe and is just amazing. The prices have been jacked up a little, but it's cheaper than traveling to Turkey for rugs or scouring various antique markets throughout France or Sweden or Germany for the perfect buffet or china hutch. The vendors range from antiques to chocolates, to cheeses, to wines, to Scandinavian sweaters, to Italian pottery, to Russian china. Seriously, if you can imagine it, it's probably there. It happens over Columbus Day weekend every year and is a much anticipated event.
While wandering through the maze of vendors, I came across a few things I'd seen in the PB catalog that made my heart skip a beat, but at a price that made my debit card run for cover.

See these dough bowls?  Aren't they gorgeous?  If you buy them from PB, they range $199-$249.  Are you kidding me?   Look what I found at the Bazaar:

Isn't it gorgeous?  Want to know what I paid?  $47.  That's right, $47.  It's HUGE!  Those are real apples in there!

For over a year I've been obsessed with baguette boards.  They are harder to find in Germany and I've only seen a few, but didn't like them for one reason or another.  At the Bazaar, vendors had them by the barrel full (literally, they were displayed in open top wine barrels) and I had so many to choose from.  Here is the PB version for $129:

Pretty!  There were at least a hundred of these at the bazaar.  I picked them up, looked them over, weighed them in my hands (some were heavy, some were light depending on the wood used to carve them) and tried not to giggle over the price.  I chose one that wasn't as neat and smooth as the PB version.  I liked its roughness.

And I paid $35 for it!  Could you die from the pretty????  I can use it for so many different seasons or for serving breads at the holidays.  I love it!!!!

Of course, I don't get all my cool stuff from the Bazaar.  A lot of our vintage decor comes from flea markets.   I love old cameras.  I do NOT love PB's price for them though.  $149, each?  Check out my collection:

The most I paid for any of them was 10 Euro (about $13).

PB no longer has the found seltzer bottles on their site, but these found soda bottles (which I will be looking for at the next flea market) are close enough.  Would I pay $69?  Nope.  For my vintage seltzer bottle, I paid 12 Euro ($15).   I'm on the hunt for more!  I really liked this one because of the streaky glass.

$149 vintage sled? Meet my $25 version (decorated for Easter because I have no current pics):

I realize how very lucky I am to live in Europe where I can find all of these wonderful items for a fraction of what I would pay if I had to buy them in the States. I'm thinking of starting my own stockpile and opening up an online shop with much, much lower prices than PB. :)

I'm linking up with Amanda.

Quick, easy, patriotic cup cake paper wreath

Hi all. Before I talk about my wreath, I want to thank all of you who took the time to say such lovely things about my sweet Pepper. We still miss her like mad and your kind words meant a lot to me.

Okay, enough sadness, on to my super cute wreath. Well, I think it's super cute, anyway. And of course since I think it, it must be right.

You all know how much I love my crazy paper bag wreath and I wanted to create something similar, but also different (cause, why not be difficult?) for the 4th of July.  I had ideas, but they all seemed...too much like work complicated.  I thought and thought and thought had a drink or two and thought some more.  I surfed the web and came across some super cute ideas, but they just weren't what I was looking for.  After another drink a while, the perfect idea, which was an amalgam of several different ideas, came to me.  All I had to do was find the supplies.  And of course I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for.  What's a creative girl in gorgeous heels to do?  Improvise!  I bought a foam wreath, some blue cupcake liners with white stars on them and some star confetti.  At home I whipped out my trusty glue gun, Matilda, and some red scrapbook paper and got down to business.

Since my cupcake liner were not solid color like I was looking for, but white on the inside, I took one and flipped it wrong side out, put a dab a glue in the middle and glued 2 of them together.  I then crinkled them up around my finger (put my finger in the center where the glue was and wrapped the liner around my finger) and started gluing them on.  I stuffed and stuffed until it the wreath was full.  I used 200 cupcake liners in all, including doubling them up.  Since they were doubled they were extra fluffy.  I like fluffy.  I then took strips of red scrapbook paper and folded it accordion style.  I glued the ends together to make a red medallion (note it must be longer than it is wide or this will not work), and then glued them to the wreath.  I picked out some of the large red and white stars from the confetti and glued them on randomly.  This took about an hour and a half start to finish, including breaks to be fascinated or grossed out by the people auditioning for America's Got Talent .  Some people don't have any.  I do though!  Check it out.  Isn't it cute?

Here's a close up of the medallions.  The one in the back was the wrong proportion so I couldn't get it to make a full circle.  I just glued the others over the open space and it looks like I meant to do that.  Clever of me, yes? Yes.

Here's our patriotic front door.  I added a few red flowers I had in my stash to the white pitcher along with some blue ribbon and voila!   Ready for the 4th.

The total cost of the wreath was about $7.  Mr. HH should really appreciate how much money I save him.

Hey, check it out!  My cute little wreath was featured!!!  I'm cool like that.

Christmas Decor 2009

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. :)

Make a Smilebox collage

Meta Monday: Great Room

It’s been a few weeks since I posted a metamorphosis. Susan hosts it every Monday and I love to see what others are up to. I’ve been planning this one for a long time, but haven’t because I didn’t feel it was finished/good enough/blah, blah, blah. I had a Nester inspired epiphany though and took her motto, It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful to heart and decided it will never really be done because I’m always changing something, and so what if it’s not perfect. I like it and feel comfortable, so that should be good enough. Right?

You may remember this photo. I showed it to way pack in Nov when we first moved in. It was a big, boring, messy room.

Oh, it hurts me just to look at it! The walls! The light fixture (which I showed you in a previous morph)! The…well, everything! Ack!

Have a look at it today:

Isn’t that better? We painted the walls a cappuccino brown, changed the light fixture, added rugs and art, oh, and furniture! I was so happy to have my furniture! Let’s take a look around, shall we?

This book case is just to left in the previous photo. It’s technically part of the dining area, but I like the book shelf there. If you look closely, on the top shelf, second cubby from the left, you can see the sign I won on Nester’s Small Words give-away. I love it! Notice Indy’s little violin case over in the corner? :) It’s so cute! The artwork on the top of the bookcase was done by Indy when he was 3. It’s a triceratops. He is so proud that we framed it and display it. He shows it to everyone. The door to the right, leads back to the bathroom, Indy’s room and the school room.

Here’s out entertainment center. We had to replace the two side pieces that the movers put the forklift through. You can tell what I was watching while I took the photos.

Here are some close ups of a few of the shelves. In order, we have stuff that was brought back (legally) from Iraq, a Paris photo I took with books and mini Eiffel towers, my cloche and another photo I took in Paris with various other chachkies.

This is the Living Room half of the room. I adore my sofa. It’s so comfy. We’re planning on getting an overstuffed leather chair to replace the small chair, but that will come later. I’m also going to recover the pillows, but another time. The cabinet in the back used to be in Indy’s nursery, but we’ve repurposed it to hold DVD’s.

This is the dining room half. Don’t look at my windows. They are filthy! Stupid pollen. The table is also a previous morph. The bench is one of my favorite pieces. When we have people over, we can pull it up to the table for lots of seating.

I would have turned on the overhead light, but just before I took the photos a bulb blew and I don’t have any replacements. D’oh!

So, that concludes this weeks meta. I hope you enjoyed having a look at where I spend much of my time.

A Toile-apalooza!

Have you heard? Pretty Organized Palace (whom I aspire to be like when I grow up) is having a Toile Party! Wooooooo! I loves me some toile! I have stacks of various toile patterned fabric in a closet begging to be used. If you're a toile nut, head over to the party and check it out. But not until after you've seen mine!


These pillows are made using Kimba's no sew method. They are actually yellow and blue, but it's hard to see the color in these photos. The pillow in the back shows the reverse side fabric. The curtains don't technically qualify as toile, but I love them anyway.


This is another of her no sew pillows (can you tell I love them?) on my salvaged chair in our guest/school room. I have more toile that will go on the bed when we actually get one. I love the red, yellow and black together.


More at my kitchen window. This is a better representation of the color on the first set of pillows I posted. These are a total mistreatment, BTW. I folded the fabric in half, clipped it up and poofed it out. Thanks Nester!


Here's my French Memo board that I made about 4 years ago. It usually has more stuff on it, but I just put it up, so it hasn't had time to get covered.


This is our last house in AZ. Back when I had my own bathroom. Oh, how I miss you bathroom. Sharing one bath with M and Indy is so not my thing. Also, it's very boyish. M has declared it a "no toile zone." Humph! This was another mistreatment. I just stapled the fabric to the wall, looped some long ribbon around the fabric and tied it up.


So that's my toile love for today. NOW you can go check out other toile nuts.