Oh yes! Mercury candlesticks are my friend.

What do you get when you combine a mercury candlestick, a glass pillar hurricane, and hot glue?

This.
LOOOOVE. And I love my fake snow. Hey, Christmas maybe over, but it's still winter, people! Wanna know how I got it? Wanna, wanna???

Oh, alright!

Take a disposable diaper and cut the thin film open on the inside. See that cotton stuff? Pull it out and put it in a bowl, and add water. Knead it...like meatloaf. Add more water until it has a light fluffy consistency. And its safe! (Hello, it touches your baby's bottom, it better be safe!) But, look it up, you'll see.
Purty!

Oh, and here's another purty...in her new "made by Mommy" pillowcase dress, with her name on it. She insisted on the shoes...go figure. (I just noticed Isaac is hilarious in the background!)



Love her!

Bye-bye Christmas

I've still been in Christmas mode.

If you came to my house right now, you'd see our ornament wreath on the screen door still. You'd walk in to see our beautiful-I'll-remove-it-someday-tree. Walk past the stair case and my dining room table still has my silver bead topiary tree, er....thingys. In my kitchen? Still got my two foot Christmas tree on the counter, poinsettias in the jute vase and a snowman head cookie jar on the counter, not to mention read and white snowflake plates. I loooove them.

My mantel is still the same, save for a lovely inclusion of mercury glass candle holders I got on clearance at Target. They bring me pleasure. They bring my mantel some height next to the "Believe in Bethlehem" frame.

I also have three trees next to our couch. Yes, three. Still fully decorated. Upstairs, our bedroom still has the pottery barn inspired addition and our kids' doors are still adorned with garland.

*Sigh*

Until I saw this:

http://www.thenester.com/2010/01/lessons-on-accessories.html

And now...I can't wait to get rid of this stuff and get movin' on decorating my house with silhouettes and Valentine's Day!!!

Where have you been?

Oh my! It's been a long time since I posted! Well, here's a short glimpse into what I've been doing!

First, I went to a wonderful Women's Tea and Silent Auction put on by Brooke and her mom, Grandma Dot, that benefitted World Vision and won these:


I love that I can add a smiley face to this little guy with dry erase pens.
And I also received some red and white snowflaked platters and bowls. Love them!

Then, we did a snowman family night with the other Llanos family. Or did the family night come first and the tea come second? I can't remember. Anywhooooo....

Snowman soup:
My partner for many crimes against myself, my husband, my kids...
Complete with krispy treat snowmen for dessert.
We had breakfast with Santa:

Found out Santa visited our house and left letters for the two older boys:
Celebrated the first-ever birthday of our littlest little (who will soon be just our "little" because he is surpassing his sister in size):


Can you see the snowman cake balls on the right? Wish I had gotten a closer picture? Yeah, me too. :(My beautiful sister, Becky, with the red scarf that I covet like a mad woman! Oh, and she's holdin' my new one year old who has manage to develop a two-year old attitude!
The snowman cake says Happy Birthday Isaac around the back in case you were thinkin' I attempted to make orange ear muffs for him. I did not cause that would have been silly. Ahem.

My wonderful mom and world's best Nana:
The sweetest Grammy and Ya-ya ever:


Every one...and I mean every one played Mary and Joseph with Hannah. She would say, "I Mary. You Jofes." And no, that's not a typo. JO-FES. No joke. And I refuse to correct her. I hope she says that for the rest of her life.

Becky, once again. She looks like Mary, don't you think?"Away in a manger...." with Aunt Vicki.

I painted wooden spools for Becky and Brooke for Christmas. The other side has the city of Jerusalem and says "O Holy Night" but I couldn't get a picture to focus on that side.
Baked waaaaay too many sugar cookies (with the help of my own personal Santa elf, aka, Brooke):


And had the stockings ALL hung by the chimney with care...but when St. Nicholas came...well, he brought too much stuff for them and they ended up on the couch. Eh.

And the best thing of all: We celebrated the birth of when love came down. And there just aren't any pictures that do that justice.

I spent time with my family and left my cyber friends to fend for themselves. And no offense to all of you...but it felt good and right.

And now, let us all kiss 2o09 buh-bye:
And say:

Bring it on 2010!!!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

We went and took Christmas pictures yesterday. My old dance coach is amazing at everything she tries to do...and she's taken up photography! I can't believe what a great job she does. I was just lookin' to get one...ONE picture of all of us looking in the camera with me looking at least half-way decent. I got so much more...and a fun time catching up with her and her husband (who was also my dance coach and my old boss).

Our Christmas Bedroom

When I saw this picture in the Pottery Barn Catalogue, I knew I had to do something similar for our bedroom.


And here it is with our lights off.


I love our bedroom. Black, white and red...but I'm lovin' the mocha color on the walls in the Pottery Barn picture...

A Bit of a Beauty Lesson

Hannah is already checking herself out in the mirror. Oh, how the small things women do send a big message to little girls! I have made a conscious effort not to weigh myself in front of her and am desperately trying to curb my negative tongue about my body. And after four kids...wow...I have some complaints!

I've been wanting to do something like this in Hannah's room for a while, but just recently remembered this flower frame I had in my craft stash. I thought it was a fitting Christmas present for her adornment gift and since she's young enough to not care that it came 2.5 weeks before Christmas...I went for it while she watched.

So, I drug out the mirror, had Hannah stand next to the wall so I could see what level to put it at and then drew on her wall. And then painted on the wall. It took all of fifteen minutes and the only thing I could think of was how there went all the lessons about not drawing on the walls for my kids. Oh well. It's for a good cause, right?

After drawing the stems, leaves, other flowers...I put a scripture all the way around the mirror:

It says:
"Your beauty should come from within, the lasting beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God." It's a paraphrase of 1 Peter 3:3-4. I conveniently put it below her pegs of hair bows and head bands. Maybe someday she'll understand that the outer adornments are not nearly as important to God as what she chooses to adorn her heart with.

Maybe someday I'll fully understand that the older I get in Christ, the more beautiful I become.

Hhmm.

Christmas Tree Meaning for Pennies

Or...you know...free.

One of my friends gave me some oval frames and I've toyed around in my head what to do with them for a while. Leave it to Christmas and some blog stalking for me to find an idea.

I found the meaning of the Christmas Tree for Christians at a blog (sorry! I can't remember which one!) and copy and pasted it into a word document. I shaped the meaning to be a tree and then cut out the paper, glued it to some burlap (I still have tons left).

Then, I lined it with some ribbon and glued the burlap to the back of the frame with a few dots because I didn't necessarily want this to last forever in these frames (they are gorgeous frames), but if you had frames you knew worked perfectly for this, you could make it more permanent.

Then, I took two smaller frames and made scrapbook paper trees out of three triangles and a rectangle. Slapped them on some burlap and there you go.
I added ribbon (with just a dab of hot glue) to the back of the frames, tied them in a knot at the top...
and hung them by my Christmas tree.
I also framed (with red foil ribbon that you have to uncurl and scrap paper) a Santa Claus quote from Miracle on 34th St. (1994) and hung a Santa hat next to it.

The quote says:
"I'm not just a whimsical figure who wears a charming suit and affects a jolly demeanor. I'm a symbol. I'm a symbol of the human ability to be able to suppress the selfish and hateful tendencies that rule a major part of our lives. If you can't believe, if you can't accept anything on faith, then you are doomed for a life dominated by doubt."

Both things, I think, would make cute ideas for hostess gifts for parties this holiday season. Lowe's has gift certificate holders that are Santa's coat and it has a hanger, too, which would be a cute ornament if you put the Santa quote on card stock that would fit where the g/c is supposed to go. It costs all of $3. You could put candy in a Santa hat and have the quote in a small frame. The possibilities are endless, really. You know you've got old frames just hanging out waiting to get a coat of black or red spray paint! Get 'em out! Send 'em out! Make someone happy!