Reflecting on 2014

This past year has been a quite a year for us, we moved back into our house after rebuilding from Hurricane Sandy.  Even though the house was rebuilt, we moved in before the house was completely done so that we could be home.  We still have so much more to do, the list is a mile long!  Just means more projects to share.  

Here are some of the project we tackled this year...
We reconfigured our living room to accommodate a new fireplace  that I had always wanted.  We also installed dark espresso flooring throughout the first floor.  

Living room after the rebuild...

Living room before Hurricane Sandy

Our master bathroom got a complete remodel too.  I don't have any before pictures of the old bathroom, but you could just imagine 60's, never touched, ugly, decrepit bathroom.

I love that there is no step into the shower and the wall tile looks like a water fall.  The entire bathroom floor is waterproofed with underlayment to prevent water from leaking to the next floor.

Thanks to the One Room Challenge at Calling it Home, I completed my bedroom in six weeks with some fun DIY projects.  If it wasn't for this challenge, chances are we would still be sleeping in a headboard less, curtain less, undecorated bedroom like the before picture from below.  

Before

These were our major undertakes for 2014.  I hope to tackle some big challenges in our home in 2015, like finishing our basement, finishing the exterior of the house, installing another bathroom, etc.
I hope you come by and visit often to see the progress and DIY projects.

Have a great day!

Sherry

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Gift wrapping idea for any occasion

I know, I know it is a bit late to be sharing a Christmas gift wrapping idea with you four days after Christmas.  But, I think this gift wrapping idea is so pretty it can be used for any occasion.  It does take a little more time than just making a bow with ribbon or putting a ready made ribbon flower.   So, I make it for special occasions and for my friends and family who would appreciate it,  not like my kids who'll tear open the wrapping like a crazed animal to get to the gift.

I wanted to create a poinsettia flower so started off with red felt fabric and cut two different size square pieces for the petals.  Size of the flower will determine the size of the petals and the amount of rows.  I cut 9 pieces of 3" squares and 7 pieces of 2" squares and shaped them into petals.  Then cut a round piece of felt for the petals to glue on to make the flower.

Fold the bottom of the petal and glue the bottom tips to create the petal,  glue the petal around the edge of the circle base.

Add a second row of petals over lapping the first row.  I made a little rosette by rolling  a thin strip of felt for the center of the flower.

The red flower looked great against the black and silver zebra print wrapping paper.

Thank you for stopping by!

Sherry

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More Christmas decorating...

Hi everyone!  Christmas decorating goes on in my house till the very end.  I had bought these adorable santa boots planters in Costco last week to put on the front porch.  I bought an evergreen garland and a few different bunches of greenery at a local market to fill the planter.  
I took out pieces from the garland and placed them on the planter, then layered the other greenery on top.  I added some silver Christmas balls and pine cones painted in turquoise.  Real simple and so pretty!

Let's go into my kitchen... It wasn't very festive in my kitchen, so I added left over garland on the mantel over my stove.

First, I lightly sprayed some pine cones I had with a bit of gold, twisted a wire around the base of the pine cone and attached them to the garland.

The garland looks good with my deer antlers my friend gave me!

Santa boots and front door at night!

Well, I don't know about you but I still have to get a few stocking stuffers, start baking and wrap, wrap , wrap!

Enjoy the Holidays!

Sherry

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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here...

While it has been looking a lot like Christmas for many of you for awhile, it has not been around here till a few days ago!  Instead of being busy with the hustle and bustle of Christmas, we had to get our house ready for a commercial!  Unfortunately, can't divulge any info on that, but it was exciting to say the least!  Now that is over, we are scurrying to get everything ready for Christmas.  We finally got our gigantic 11ft. tree as always and decorated it.    

This is a special Christmas for us, we are celebrating our first Christmas back in our home since Hurricane Sandy hit back in October, 2012.  Every single decoration we had saved over the years are gone, so we had to start all over again with buying new decorations. 

My favorite thing in my new/old house is the fireplace.  When we rebuilt the house, we added this fireplace...  We originally wanted a clean look with just stone all the way up to the ceiling without a distraction of a mantel.  Then we realized that at Christmas time we won't have a place to hang our stockings, so we added a floating mantel covered with the same stone so not to give too much variation.  So glad we did!

Our Christmas tree all decked out for the holidays!

Pretty little birdie perched on the mantel...

Some of our new ornaments!

That's our tree this year, it is big and beautiful!  

Hope you are enjoying this special time of year!  

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Sherry

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How to make Blue and White Chinoiserie ornaments

It seems that Blue and White China ornaments are all the craze.  Blue and White China is such a classic that no wonder Chinoiserie style ornaments would be a hit.  When I saw a few Blue and White ornaments while I was browsing through Pinterest, I had to try to make some.

I only had time to make one for now and it was pretty easy so I will be making a few more in a few days.  For now, here is how I made the Blue and white China ornament, I love the way it came out.

I couldn't find a pure white porcelain looking ornament, so I took a clear ornament and put white paint inside and twirled it around till it was opaque.

This is what the clear ornament looks like with white paint inside.

I looked at some Blue and White ginger jars for some inspirations.  

I can't wait to paint some more!  How about you, have you made any ornaments this year?  

Thank you for stopping by!

Sherry

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Little North Pole Lighting

On the first weekend of December,  our friend Joseph Mure, Jr. puts on a Christmas lighting extravaganza called the "Little North Pole" at his home to raise money for the (JDRF) Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. November 1st, Joe and countless volunteers from the community start setting up the displays and spends the month fine tuning till it is perfect.  Last year, he raised close to $200,000 from this event for JDRF.

The street gets closed off and tents with free food and drinks are set up, dancers and singers entertains hundreds of people coming to enjoy in the festivities.  There is a $20 raffle to win a free three year lease for Mercedes-Benz SUV which one lucky person wins at the end of the night (would've loved to win that)!

All the lights are off on the house until everyone counts down with excitement and at zero magically the entire property is lit up and the figurines come to life.  It feels like the New Years countdown!

Afterwards, Joe makes an announcement to all the children that Santa Claus is on his way and a helicopter hovers overhead shines lights down from the sky.  Then Santa Clause arrives and gives out  thousands of toys to the children.  

Joe's two car garage is transformed into Santa's workshop with little elf figurines busily making toys.

You can see more of the beautiful display from 2011 here. 

People come to see the spectacular display every day from all over, it is a beautiful sight to see!

Joe and all the people who volunteer and donate does an amazing job each year for this cause.

If you would like to help this cause also, you can make a donation to JDRF

Thanks for stopping by!

Sherry