Interchangeable Wreath...what?

As you may have seen before in some of my pictures, or if we are “facebook friends”, you may have noticed my old “vintage” shutters that I have hanging on my wall in my family room.  Well, a while back {after I initially hung them up}, I thought they were missing something….while I think the shutters themselves are beautiful just the way they are, they looked a little “plain” hanging on my wall….I just felt they were a little “random”…SO, I thought…”what can I do to these without compromising the “integrity” of these AWESOME vintage/shabby shutters”??

Why, what other than to hang a WREATH!?  DUH!  Isn’t that the answer to everything??  Or in the words of Beyoncé, “If you like it then you should have put a ring wreath on it”….oh….wait…..  =)  ….kidding…..

Here is the wreath that I had on there pretty much since Christmas...

 

So here is that I did {I didn’t want to spend a lot of money…and I wanted something neutral and simple}, so I headed to my local closest AC Moore {which is really something like 25 miles away…}….I perused the aisle of “Spring Wreath’s” they had on sale….{for $19.99 I even picked one out, which I returned later…}…..but then I came to the aisle of “moss”, and “planters foam”, and “faux straw”….and voila!  Right in front of me, for $4.99, was a whole STACK of plain “grapevine” wreaths….so I grabbed one and figured I had enough old {artificial} hydrangeas laying around at home that I could SURELY do something with….

So after I got home, I scrounged around for the {not-currently-being-used} hydrangeas and proceeded to cut the stems off of them so that I could stick them in my new wreath…I literally just shoved them into the “wrap-around” vine, fluffed them up a little bit, and BAM!  Done.

Here it is…AND, the best part about this….is that come FALL, or Christmas, or heck, even July 4^th, I can switch out the flowers to be more “festive”!

 

 

DIY Gift: Celebrity Game

So, last month, during our bimonthly Dinner Group, a friend of ours introduced us to a fun party game, called Celebrity.

We had such a fun time with the game that we played it at a party the following weekend with neighbors.  Have you heard of it?  It's sort of like Charades mixed with Taboo... using only names of celebrities.  I was surprised to Google the name of the game and find tons of links!  How had I never heard of this super easy and super fun game?

Here's a quick explanation of the game:

*Each player writes the names of celebrities onto 5 or 6 strips of paper and puts them into a hat.

*There are two teams formed (although you can do more).

*Whoever is up tries to get their own team to guess the word on the paper, and you go through as many papers as you can within 60 seconds.

Round One:  With each turn, you can use motions, sound effects or words to get the others to say the name on the paper.  The ONLY thing you cannot say is any of the words, or variants of such, on the paper.  Try to go through as many strips as you can in one minute.

Round Two:  Same as above, but only ONE word may be uttered (it can be repeated though).

Round Three:  Same as above, but there can be NO words.

The best part is that you control the names on the slips... so they can be historical, sports-related, political, cartoonish, TV or movie actors, or even mutual friends.  Rules can be made as needed to limit names to those that most of the players would know.  With adult peers, we picked all sorts of political and musical and Hollywood names.  

We played this with the kids and simply had to adjust the "John Boehner" and "Sting" types of names in the hat for names like "Spongebob" and "Selena Gomez".  We had a ball with the kids!  I was shocked at how well they could act and give clues.  :)

I wanted to make a gift for my mom for her birthday, so I created a DIY giftable-Celebrity game.

It's super easy.

You'll need the following items:

a jar or container

several sheets of white paper

a small pen or pencil

a small tablet or pad of paper

the directions sheet

jar decorations

I used a pint size Mason jar.  After decorating the jar with scrapbook paper and a homemade label, I began to fill it up.  I created the directions sheet using an explanation I found on About.com.  After folding the printout (I printed front and back to save on paper), I rolled it into the jar.  Then I added the pad and pencil (for scorekeeping).  I also cut the white paper into strips about 3/4"x4.25" and put them in a rubber band.  

The only things that would be needed to play the game is a wide-mouthed bowl or hat (to pull names from) and a timer (most cell-phones have one).

                                                                                                                                            

What's Where?

My name is Christy, and I'm a label-oholic.  Yes, if there is a bin, basket, bucket, box, or drawer in my house, most likely it's been labeled (...or will be soon).

I am not THAT obsessed though.  For example, I did draw the line at the powder room.  I figured that not every guest needs to know where the feminine products and toilet paper were hidden.  And, I do not label drawers to wood dressers or cabinets... I desire "pretty" over "well labeled".  {But believe me, if I could make labeled kitchen cabinets look pretty, I probably would.}

When I think of my labeling addiction, I remember a friend of mine, Maureen, who said a post by Catalog Living reminded her of me.  

Here's the post.     

A real basket case…

...although, I label with words, not clocks and clipboards.  :)

Recently, we bought a full-size upright freezer to hold our new acquisition of 1/3 of a cow.  It was a bit cluttered and hard to figure out what we had.  So, I bought these bins on Amazon.  They fit perfectly in our freezer, two per shelf.  After loading them up appropriately, I decided it was necessary to label them.  Of course.

Recently while browsing the Better Homes and Gardens website, I found a link to free labels (to print). I printed out what I liked, wrote the words by hand, backed each to a card stock paper, and then laminated.

Popped a hole in each and tied them on with ribbon.

It may seem silly to label a freezer, but now I know where to find each type of meat, without searching all over.

I just realized the green labels even match the very green vegetable bin.  (Yes, I admit... I'm very messed up.)

I wasn't too crazy... the veggie basket is obviously the veggie basket.  And the door... yeah, you can see what's there, too.  Not terribly necessary to label... plus, I was afraid to put stickers on the doors... might be more permanent than I'd prefer.  :)  (OK... the latter reason was the biggee.)

But, while I was printing labels and had the laminator out and ready, I found a few more areas to label.

Here are the medicine bins in my kitchen cabinet:

And the bags holding paper products in my butler's pantry:

And the bags in my closet where I hold kids' shirts that I'm saving (for future quilts):

And yes... I was a Thirty-One consultant.  And yes, I didn't personalize.  Why?  Because I was really bad at figuring out exactly how I was going to use something, and I didn't want to be held to one purpose.  Labels make it easier to switch the purpose later.  I do admit, though, I'd rather see the pretty embroidery.

And one more photo... here is a drawer unit in my closet:

The BHG labels came in quite handy for me, as you can see.  Don't be surprised if I blog later about more labeling.  

Seriously, it's an addiction.

Blue sky turned......Brown!??

Not much of a "blog" here today...but just wanted to share some pics of my most recent project....

If you have ever been in my house, you may notice I like the color brown....like...a lot.  I look around my house and all I see is Brown. Brown. Brown.  Seriously.  You would think I had a problem or something....so it should come to no surprise that I decided to paint my "Boothbay Grey" dining room (which is really a more of a blue than a grey) ....none other than the beautiful color of.........(drum roll please)......BROWN!  Well, "Deep Creek" to be exact.

Why can't I stay away!?!? I should have known better....but either way...here are the "before and after's"... (excuse the poor quality...taken with iPhone)  =)

BEFORE:

Another BEFORE:

 AFTER:

 AFTER: