Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime!

The exhaustion of this pregnancy is more than I recall from the last one, but I refuse to let it derail our December festivities.

Last weekend we celebrated both of our work Christmas parties. The white elephant exchange at Justin's party made me the proud new owner of reindeer antlers and a red nose that attach to your car.

It was love at first sight.

Just call me Rudolph.

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On Sunday we saw our first few snowflakes.

If this isn't proof that my husband is still a kid at heart, I don't know what is: he promptly bundled up and took Kendry outside...while the Seahawks game was on!

The snowfall was short lived, but it inspired my very own Clark Griswold to string up a few more Christmas lights.

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Earlier this week we prepared some homemade Christmas gifts: chocolate dipped candy canes.

The kiddo ate waaaay too much chocolate.

 

He dipped four candy canes and then told us he needed to go lay down because his tummy was hurting.


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On Tuesday night we had our friends Wendy and Jacob over to decorate gingerbread houses.

The boys' attention spans were pretty short, except when it came to sneaking candy into their mouths.

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Up next?

Christmas baking on Saturday with some wonderful girlfriends.

Bring on the LB's!

I don't know about you, but I'm on doctor's orders to keep gaining until June.

Harvest Party 2012

Our harvest party this year got a little rained out, but that didn't stop us from having a grand old time.

In anticipation for the party, my friend Wendy had the great idea to turn our orange front door into a jack-o-lantern. Genius, she is!

All it took was some black craft foam and double-sided tape.

We kicked off the party with the pumpkin carving. Here are a few of the masterpieces:

After some hot cider and delicious snacks, including jello worms and mummy hot-dogs, we took the kiddos outside for some games.

This year we added a potato sack race to the festivities. By the way, if you're ever in search of burlap sacks such as these, check out your local farm/feed store. Amazon wanted $20 for four; I got these locally for $1.50 each. (Thanks to my big sis for the great tip!)

We weren't sure how the kids would do so we made the race track pretty short on the first race.

Too short, in fact.

They were done in no time.

Kendry had a ball.

Kacen missed the starting gun on the first race, but he sure loved watching the older kids finish.

The second (longer) race resulted in a wipeout or two.

Time for apple-bobbing!

Kacen knew just what to do on this game.

Each of the kiddos received a goodie bag and a jack-o-lantern smile (thank you, Pinterest!).

Getting a photo of all the kiddos together proved easier said than done, but we managed to round most of them up.

 

A big thank you to all our friends who joined us for our 2nd annual harvest party! See you again next year!

HAPPY FALL FROM THE GIMLINS!

A Touch of {Functional} Vintage

I love a little vintage here and there in my decor.

I snatched up these two old suitcases at a yard sale awhile back.

I could stare at their wear and tear for hours and ponder where these suitcases have been, who they belonged to, how old they are...

 

There are some incredible decorating possibilities out there for old suitcases like this:

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One reason I fell in love with the idea of using these suitcases in my decor:

STORAGE SPACE!

In my opinion, you simply cannot beat a fun accent piece that doubles as storage - something our house seriously lacks.

Would it have killed the builder to throw in a linen closet or a coat closet somewhere?!

Anywhere?!

Sheesh.

Anyway, back to my suitcase.

As much as I love these pieces, I couldn't bring myself to throw a cherished item like my Christmas quilt into an old suitcase not knowing what that inner lining has been exposed to. Eww!

So I ripped it all out. Then I picked out some spare fabric, fired up my trusty hot glue gun and got to work.

Hot Glue Guns 101:

STOP all projects by 11pm or you are sure to burn yourself.

Doh!

Here is suitcase #1 with her new pretty lining:

 

Not only does she add a little character to our guest room but she also provides storage for the beautiful tree skirt I completed in December. Remember all those 'ruffles, ruffles, ruffles'?

Yeeeaah, ruffles = poofy.

Very poofy.

"Where on earth am I going to store this mass?" poofy.

But she fits well into the suitcase, and now I have peace of mind that my tree skirt is staying clean and pretty.

On a side note, do you ever have those moments where you forget about a craft/project you have finished?

Last week I went to retrieve some old drapes from my fabric stash and stumped myself for a few minutes when I couldn't find them.

Then I remembered I used them to make this tree skirt.




My beautiful shabby chic tree skirt!

I swear I'm not looking to set up my Christmas tree any time soon, but that tree skirt is really calling my name.

Seeing Orange

It all began with that orange door.

I loved the orange contrast against our house paint color so much that I needed another dose of orange somewhere.

For awhile now this little storage bench (a $5 purchase from my neighbor's yard sale) has been sitting in the carport looking pretty drab.

It has been incredibly useful for seating in that location, but the dingy white was so blah. Not to mention that we couldn't really store anything in it because the bottom board was busted out.

By now you know that I like my furniture to be useful and have character.

Voila!

She got the same orange paint as the door (Bird of Paradise). Then I roughed her up a little around the edges before a final coat of rub-on poly.

Once she was thoroughly dry I installed some new wood slats in the inside so we can finally fill 'er up with some outdoor essentials: gardening gloves and clippers, sidewalk chalk, water guns and a surplus of baseballs.

Can't find the outdoor pillow/cushions your heart desires?

Make your own!

I searched the clearance racks high and low for a pillow in the color/design I was looking for; finally, I took my 50% off coupon to Joanns and picked out a fabric to suit my fancy.

I love how welcoming our carport looks with these punches of color.

Before and After:

This was my first attempt using the paint sprayer Justin got me for my birthday last year.

I would love to provide you with a review of this little contraption but I think I'll need to use it a few more times to really form a final opinion. All I know is that my coats went on too thick for my liking (probably operator error since you can adjust the spray settings), and the contraption started clogging a bit on my second coat. I was not impressed with that mess. However, the bench still turned out great. So until I use the sprayer again I remain an impartial consumer.  (Sorry, Jaim!)