My first Christmas......Sort of....

This year was my first Christmas in my new house. I think I went  a little overboard (so my checkbook tells me anyway). I bought a tree, tree decorations, craft items, garland, etc.

My first craft project (or should I say, MOM's project) was a tree skirt. I found a super cute burlap tree skirt on Etsy, but it was $125 dollars. WOW! So I promply emailed mom the photo and put in my request for assistance :) She spent $10 on burlap fabric and hours of cussing at the thickness and raveling. We now know why it was $125, but it turned out amazing!

This was my living room looking from the dining room. I decorated in red and gold. Notice the pretty tree skirt. I changed out the photos on the wall for xmas themed photos and hung garland and a wreath on the barnwood wall.

On the tv wall, I deocrated with a simple poinsetta plant and the handmade ceramic Santa Claus's that I inherited from my dear friend, Floretta, when she died. I smile every time I see them and remember the days when I used to help her decorate her house for Christmas.

In the entry way, I made some handmade decorations. In the corner I used 3 huge bulbs and ribbon to hang the bulbs from the ceiling. In the entry I used foam board, fabric and painted letters from Hobby Lobby to create the JOY artwork. I was impressed with how it turned out. It definitely filled up that empty space.

I put my tree directly in front of the picture window so you can even see it from the street. I wanted to do outdoor lights, but my budget did not allow, plus I am too dang picky and couldn't get what I wanted!!

This completes my wrap up of Christmas decorations!

ji

Dedicated to Jennifer (co-worker extraordinaire!!)

Yes, once again it has been a while since I have blogged, but I promise I have lots of goodies coming up for you to see. I have been busy this Christmas season creating all kinds of stuff.

Today's blog post is dedicated to my dear friend, Jennifer. She is one of the bestestest coworkers a girl could ask for. A while back, Jennifer came to me with an idea. She had a frame and a quote and she wanted to make a wall hanging to hang next to her wedding photos. Luckily she is a patient woman, cause it took me a while to get to it.

When I had some time to breathe after a whirl-wind Ocotber and beginning of November, I brought out her project and dusted it off. Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE it when people give me free creative rein on projects? She just gave me the frame and the quote she wanted and said I could do what I want. (Picture me giddy with excitement!!)

Here is what I started with:

Now I could have just created the quote letters with vinyl and put them on the glass.....but if you know me, I had to do something extra special. So I decided I would etch a design on the glass first, then put the quote over it.

Here I have placed the vinyl template on the glass and applied the etching cream.

Here is what it looks like after I peeled away the template....never mind the fingerprints :P

Now the next few steps, I wasn't so good at photographing. I decided to do a two-toned text. Now, my machine will only cut out one color of vinyl at a time, so I was concerned about getting the letters lined up (I hate crooked and imperfect) so I created markers in each of the 4 corners and lined each color marker up. This ensured that the letters were spot on and the bottom of the text was all even. It worked like a charm. I then just peeled the markers off the corners. This next photo is the final result. Sorry about the quality of the photos, but have you ever tried taking pics of glass or mirror without a glare.

This one more accurately shows what it looks like on the wall. The etched designs shows up, but it is subtle enough that it doesn't take away from the quote.

This photo is taken with the flash and makes the etching appear more dominant. In actuality, it is not that distacting.

This has to be one of my favorite projects to date. It was simple, but very cute. I am happy to report both Jennifer and Doug loved it. It is always nice when my creations are enjoyed. Maybe one day, Jennifer will send me a photo when she gets it hung and I can share with everyone ***Hint, Hint :)

Later!!
ji



It's been awhile!

I haven't forgotten about you! It has been a super busy couple of months at work and I haven't got many projects done. But I have a few posts coming up!

I love fall! I have never had the space anywhere else to do fall decorations, but this year I had a ball with it. I did all outdoor decorations.

I have this awkward corner in front of my house. It has lava rocks (which I HATE!) and nothing else. I thought it would be pretty to put in a fall display. But I had to start by eliminating those hideous lava rocks. Boy did I not know what I was in for!!

I started removing them and little did I know, I cleaned out 1 garbage can and 2 5 gallon buckets full. That space is only a few square feet!!!

Luckily I work at a place that allows me certain priveleges :) We have a tree trimming crew and they kindly saved me some cedar/pine mulch....FOR FREE :)

The plan is that next spring I will move aside the mulch and plant flowers. Mulch=No weeding=Happy Jerri!

I decided I needed something to put the pumkpins in to display to their full potential. A coworker had given me an old wagon a couple months back so I thought that would work perfect. I use somecorn shucks in the bottom and set the pumpkins and gourds inside. TA-DA!

If you look closely, you can see that I have orange lights on the right porch railing. They look super cool lit up at night.

Total Cost:
$40-pumpkins
$0- mulch
$- corn stalks and shucks (thanks to Goossen Farms :))

See ya!

TV Debut

Most of you know that I work for the local electric cooperative, and as a part of that job, I coordinate a community health fair. This year I was intereviewed for tv.....and they actually aired it!!

It's totally true! The camera ads 10 lbs....or in my case 20. Ok, Ok....so I've gained a little weight....I will fess up!

Hope you had a great laugh. After my test this week, I should be getting back into the project mode and have more posts!

JB

Bedroom Reveal

After cleaning my house this weekend and having everything clean and put away, I took some photos of the house in its current state.

Today I am going to show you the master bedroom. Keep in mind, I have all of the work done, I just need to decorate. Problem is....I don't know what to do. I desperately need help. So if you have any creative ideas for me....send them my way!

Here are the "before" pics: Good thing I have some vision and can see beyond paint and and decor!!!

I started by ripping out the carpet and removing the wallpaper border:

Then came the not-so-fun part. PAINTING. I did have a little help. B came up from Okla and Kaci came over an afternoon to help me out.

I chose a steel grey/blue for the wall color. Its like a good pair of blue jeans, it matches anything :)

And now for the carpet! Some of the boyfriends buddies came up from Pueblo, Colo., to help out with tile and install the carpet! Thanks!!

And it's DONE!

And now for the finished product!! I chose mulitcolored floral patterned curtains (that my mommy made for me). The curtain rods were brass, leftover from years ago, I painted them silver and they look great. I already had the furniture and all of the bedding. Mom made the matching pillows.

I don't have a single thing on the walls. I can't decide what I want to do. As much as I love the curtains, a solid shade or something with a little less pattern would be easier to decorate with. It is such a loud pattern, I can't figure out what would look good on the walls. Any ideas?

Well, my lunch break is almost up, so ADIOS!

JB

My furry friends

I have several trees in my front yard. One of them is a walnut tree, therefore my FAVORITE furry creature is the squirrels. I haven't picked up ONE walnut yet this year. They just haul them off and hide them.

These squirrels really entertain me. I can sit and watch them forever. They make me laugh. Last week, this little guy was in the tree right outside my picture window so I snapped a few pics.

He is too cute!! On the last photo, look really close at the trunk of the tree!

See ya,

JB

Turquoise-aholic

Hello friends,
Sorry it has been a while since the last post, but I have been busy with work and other stuff, but I finished another project yesterday. I am especially proud of this one. I found it while hunting though an old grainery (which my idiot brother bulldozed and ruined my favorite treasure hunting place). Trust me....it didn't look like much. When he saw it, my dad asked "what the hell is that, and why in the hell are you taking that piece of junk home? Better yet, what the hell are you gonna do with it?" If you know my dad, it's even funnier to picture him saying that with his slow oklahoma drawl.

I did you a favor and cleaned it first. (Actually, I just forgot to take the "before" pic!) It was covered in 1/2 inch of dust and had at least 6 or 8 muddobbers nests on it. I had to be super careful because all of the deocrative scrollwork was crumbling. You have to keep in mind, this had probably been in that grainery for 60-80+ years. The mice, muddobber and critters had done a number to it. The back was chewed up pretty good.

This really was a mess. It is real wood and all of the fancy carving stuff was crumbling and came off really easy. I started off by giving it a good coat of primer to hold everything together and block the stains. I prefer Zinsser oil-based cover stain primer.

TADA!!! Here is the final result.

I painted it turquoise and dry-brushed some antiquing glaze on it to give it the old feel and bring out the details (although dad would ask me why in the hell did I paint it if I wanted it to look old!) I also added a cream matte and a peice of scrapbooking paper (which was difficult to install because the back portion had been chewed up by the critters, but painters tape is working for the time being!). Here is a close up of the detail work. SOO pretty!

This was a relatively simple project, but tedious at the beginning because I didn't want to lose all the beautiful detail work. I spent arund $4.75 on this project. I bought small craft bottles of turquoise and antiquing glaze at 1.50 apiece (half price). A mat for 1.25 (half price) and a piece of scrapbooking paper (.50). Not to bad for a custom piece of art.

I am hoping to finish another piece this weekend, so stay tuned for more posts!

JB