Finally!

Hello everyone!

I can't believe I haven't posted in such a long time. My Mom and Grandma came to visit and then my husband spent extra time at home so I've been busy and haven't really sat down to get online. But alas, I'm here! I'm from the wonderfully sunny city of El Paso, Texas so when Mom and Grannie came, of course it snowed! They were excited and even brought their snow boots!

We did lots of eating (ugh!) and shopping (yay!) One of my favorite places to go antique shopping is downtown Littleton, Colorado. Main Street has just the cutest stores filled with anything you could want. (I bought several things that need to be put together, so I'll post pictures soon)

Before my Mom came into town, I of course cleaned, cleaned, cleaned, and I knew that I had to fix my mantle.There's this guy who works for Marcos' company that paints landscapes that have to deal with the company. So for Christmas last year, Marcos' department each received a HUGE framed print. And though it's lovely, it always seemed more "den-ish" then hanging over the mantle-ish. But, alas there it hung for a year. Well, a couple of weeks ago, I had enough. I took it down and started my quest for a new mantle. First, when I saw THIS I knew I had to make one! Since I love books and I love to read, I knew that this wreath would be perfect for over my mantle.

And this is my final product! All I did was take a wreath form that I got at Joanns and an old paperback I had in my closet and set to tearing out the pages and rolling them up and gluing. Word to the wise, you WILL burn the flesh right off your fingers with the hot glue if you don't use something ( a pencil or pen works great) to help you glue the cones of paper to the wreath. I don't think I have a picture of my before mantle, but here's the final product so far.

And yes, it's a horrible picture! Sorry, my camera needs to be charged and I just took this half-heartedly with my phone. But, I hope you get the gist.  Starting from the far left, that is, I guess a key holder? It's a dark wood and has an old key on the front. You can then open the front and there's about 6 hooks inside. I really just liked the look of it and I got it a thrift store here in Denver for 5 dollars! Can't beat that. Next, is my fabulous, giant "L" that I'm in love with. It's a big paper maiche letter that you can buy at Joanns and all I did was paint it with a deep red and a mustard color. Those will run you about 9 dollars, but I had a 50% off coupon so another score for just under 5 dollars! Next, we have a frame that I had bought even before I was married and it has an engagement photo in it. Then last, I have 3 moss covered cones. I was happy with my other cones I made with twine, but for my mantle I needed something that was taller. So I bought 3 tall cones and some moss from the dollar store and went to gluing.

I'm sure at some point (maybe when and if we move soon) I'll change up the mantle again, but for now I really like the way it looks. And as for the book wreath, it may just be my favorite wreath yet! I have big plans for making more of those.

On a Stella update, she's doing so good at puppy classes! Besides being the class favorite ( I mean, look how adorable she is!) she's very smart and can now sit, lay down, and we're working on short leash walking. I'llleave you with a "Stella in the snow" picture .

I'm glad I finally updated, I promise I'll do better!

Gotta love that Dollar Store

I've seen many designs with a set of cones that look like they're made out of twine or covered in moss. I really like the way it looks so I went to the dollar store and sure enough, they sell Styrofoam cones there. They only sold ones that were all the same size, so I decided to also buy another piece of Styrofoam and just glue it to the bottom to make one taller and just cut another one to make it the smaller size. I had previously gone to Michael's to find a thick twine but I couldn't really find anything I liked and most were averaging 6-8 dollars. Luckily, whilst perusing the Dollar Tree I found some twine that I thought would look good.

So easy enough, I just wrapped the cones in the twine, hot glued the ends, and added a little bow in the center.

I think I'd like a thicker twine, but for a total of 4 dollars, I think they're really cute and they'll definitely have a place in my mantle once I figure out how I want to decorate it! I may also go back and bye more and cover them with moss to see how those would look too.

On a side note, my Husband, who is the most amazing guy, thinks the absolute world of me and he's constantly telling me I can do anything and everything. (Which I cannot!) So, one Saturday we went looking for some art for our mantle and when we didn't find anything he suggested that I just buy a canvas and paint something myself though I have no painting skills whatsoever. Well, this past weekend we found ourselves at Hobby Lobby and we bought 2 canvases, paint, brushes, and he even insisted on buying me an easel! Well, I painted both and though I like the way they came out I'm not sure about them. I'll post pictures tomorrow, but you just have to remember that this was my first try! (Oh, and I told him he needs to paint some too then when my Mom comes to visit next week she can judge them! Haha)