The Lion and the Deer and the Pioneer Woman

It's not everyday I get to see deer on the way to work. Lucky Pioneer Woman... she gets to see them regularly, I'm sure.

When I saw these three this morning, I had to stop my car and snap a picture with my phone. (Sorry the quality is not better. The car behind me made me nervous!) And there's a fourth deer to the left of my camera's field of vision... Pretty cool sight at 7am!

Here's a story about the lion and the deer.

In race between the lion & the deer,

Many time the deer wins,
Because the lion runs for food and a deer for life.

Remember... "Purpose is more important than need."

 

Happy Wednesday, Everyone!

**I originally posted this over at StrongMothers. The deer were too cute not to share with you readers, too!

I'm linked up here:   
     

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all have a blessed and wonderful Christmas!

Finally, a book page wreath!

You know I love vintage. You may not know that I love to read. I also love clever humor. Like this:

Source: etsy.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

(I think you had to have been a teenager/college student in the 90's to appreciate it!)

Imagine how happy I was when I scored this at the thrift store!

Can you read the title?

 

The Metropolitan Opera Guide. And notice the date on the check-out slip on the back page of the book:

Pretty cool, huh??

I thought this book would be perfect for my first attempt at a book page wreath.

All I did was tear out the pages, roll them into cones, hot glue them to hold their shape. I then cut a ring out of cardboard and glued on the cones. {I used two layers of cones.}

Here's how it turned out:

I wasn't sure how to make the inside circle look nice. The pages were so fragile, they didn't make a nice pointy end, and I didn't notice that others cut their ends off before putting the wreath together.

I used my circle cutter to cut one circle out of cardstock and another circle from a page in the book. Then I glued them together. I used distressing ink to darken the circle a little.

What do you think?

It's hanging in my bedroom right now. Once I get my new bookcase, I may move it there. (Or I may just make a new one!)

Thanks for stopping by!

A Wonder-ful Tablescape

I created a little tablescape on a side table in my living area. We have a huge open area, with the kitchen, dining, and family room all in one big area with no walls to divide them.  Our kitchen table is a tall, square table, and I was having a hard time doing a tablescape on it becuase it has a lazy susan in the middle of it and the kids do their homework there. (And with a daughter who's a high school freshman this year, she was studying for her exams there!)

I really love mercury glass, and I bought some mercury glass trees at an after-Christmas sale last year. I combined them with my new turquoise (or is it just light blue?) cake stand, and some anthropologie-inspired mason jars with trees.

Here's a peek...

I put a layer of epsom salt in the bottom of the jars and just placed Christmas tees I found at Michael's at the bottom of the jar into the "snow."

I've thrown out most lids to the mason jars, so I didn't get to do the anthropologie knock-offs like Aimee over at It's Overflowing. Here's hers: 

Here's a close up of mine. Isn't she cute!

I used a "snow blanket" on the tabletop and threw in a few silver and sparkly ornaments I had in my stash.

Here's my new cake stand. I hear Stevie Wonder....   "Is-n't she love-ly. Is-n't she won-der-ful."

I used a glass cheese plate & cover to create my little winter birdie home. I used epsom salt again as snow and placed a few ornaments with birdie. {The eyes are kind of wonky, huh?!}

What is this style called, anyway? I've got my mantel styled as rustic, but is this something else? Vintage? Bling? Country? Eclectic?  Help!

Thanks for stopping by!

Here's a little Stevie for ya!


I'm linked up at

It's Overflowing

My Re-vamped Christmas Mantel

Well... I finally caught up with everyone else in blogland and made a coffee filter wreath. {I swear, the styrofoam wreaths at JoAnn's must have some kind of special coating on them, because even with a drill bit, it was hard to poke the coffee filters into the wreath!} I made my first trip ever to JoAnn's this weekend... that could be a post all in itself!

All of you ladies (and I guess gentlemen, too) who have made one of these wreaths, I hope you'll tell me the secret to the styrofoam because at this rate I don't think I'll ever tackle one again! I burned my fingers twice and have two huge blisters to boot.

Anywho... enough of my moanin' and groanin'.... let me show you my inspiration first!

Source: littlemissmomma.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

This is why I love Pinterest. When I got brave enough to tackle this project, all I had to do was go to my Pinterest board and click on the link to Little Miss Momma's blog for the tutorial.

I won't bore you with any details about how I did it... there are about 64 thousand tutorials in blogland.

I first posted about my Rustic Christmas Mantel here. I love the rustic, cabiny, ranchy look. It's always seems so warm and cozy. Today I caught The Pioneer Woman's cooking show on the Food Network channel. Her kitchen is to.die.for. And in the background was a beautiful rustic fireplace. {I had to show it to Hubs, who being from Wyoming I thought he'd love the lanscape there. He said, "Wouldn't it be great to have land and a house like that at the lake?" Booyah! That's my boy!} 

My mantel is nowhere near the size of The Pioneer Woman's, but I still love my little rustic corner in my home. When I did the first reveal, I mentioned that I thought I needed a little somethin' somethin' on my "gift" on the mantel.

Enter, my coffee filter wreath.

I wanted to take the burlap off of the "gift," but I had hot-glued it to the paper! I think it looks okay with the burlap, though. What do you think?

So... here's my mantel BEFORE:

Here's the AFTER:

I think my burned fingers may have been worth it!

P.S. If you have tips on the styrofoam, let me know! :)

I'm linked up here:

      

                                               

Elf Delivery

Yay! Santa's elf made a visit to our house! (The elf who wears brown... aka the UPS Man)


Here's what lies under my tree!

It's a gift from Hubs. I can't WAIT to open it on December 25th.


Then I'll be doing things like this...

Source: thenester.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: houseofhepworths.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: burtonavenue.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: andreasteed.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

You guessed it...

A Silhouette Cameo!!  Thanks, Honey!!


What is Santa's elf bringing you this year?

Rustic Christmas Mantel Reveal

The other day my youngest daughter told me that she wanted the house decorated "like you see in the movies."

Ack! That's a daunting task! In the movies, it seems that Christmas decor is everywhere you look. (And usually with a large budget!)

I've been working on the house this weekend, and the mantel is always the hardest thing for me to decorate. I decided to go rustic this year... think cabin-snow-woods kind of rustic.  I think one of the reasons it's so hard for me to decorate is that I'm kind of a schizo-decorator. I told Hubs the other day that I felt a little overwhelmed. I wanted to decorate with a whimsical theme, but also with a rustic/country style, and a glitzy/glam style, too. I didn't even want to start. (Thus the reason I'm STILL decorating on December 11!)

I knew I had to get crackin', though, for my two daughters... so I just took the plunge and created a few different styles in the house. {That's okay, isn't it?}

Today I want to share my mantel with you, but first I wanted to share a few that I found in blogland that I think are just awesome.

The first is this one from Positively Splendid. It's a cute cute cute whimsical mantel. I love the pictures of the kids and the charms on them are adorable!



This next one is a traditional scene. I especially love the pinecone wreath on the mirror. Thanks to Missy over at Lookie What I Did!


I've got a crush on all things turquoise or aqua right now. Erin, over at Sunny Side Up, created a beautiful mantelscape with aqua, white, and silver. So. Cool.

Okay.... here's mine. (Think I'm procrastinating showing you?!?)

For the large "gift" in the middle of the wall, I just wrapped the picture of the sailboat (it lives there during the spring and summer) with brown craft paper. I then wrapped a strip of burlap around the middle and tied a bow on the burlap. I used a clip-on greenery from the Dollar Tree in the middle of the bow. {Seeing the picture now, I may take the bow off and hang a wreath in the middle of the "gift."}

The reindeer I purchased about 10 years ago at Target. I purchased the trees at Target, too... probably about 10 years ago, too. (Where does the time go???) The trees are in little galvanized pails,  and I just wrapped a strip of burlap around the pails.

The candle holders are vases I already had. I used red filler from the Dollar Tree, white candles from Hobby Lobby, and put the vases on silver candle holders that I got from Target (seeing a trend?) about 3 years ago.

Did you notice what I added in this picture? Leave me a comment if you find it!

All of the mantels in my post {including mine} can be found over at the Christmas Mantel Link Party hosted by Beth over at Home Stories A2Z