Look who is in town !!!!!

WELCOME Santa !!! Yes I went and got him this morning... I saw him on friday and for the rest of the day and all day saturday he was on my mind. I could barely sleep knowing we were apart so first thing this morning (after coffee of course) I was on my way to get him. I walked up and it was like I could see the relief in his eyes that I had come to take him home ! He will be assisting me the next two months getting all the trees up and ready! We start in the morning. We have a big journey ahead of us on uncharted territory. Not knowing just how or where everyone will go but I feel confident that we will figure it out. So for the remaining part of today we have to get the front ready for Halloween. Yes we are crazy behind the scenes but from the street we are on holiday proper schedule :) Hey I have my limits !!!

With that being said here is our new little friend for upcoming halloween holiday ! Thank you pinterest for the idea :) @

It's polite when it's pretty

We are in a new neighborhood and we all know what that means..... SALES PEOPLE !!! I know it is a job and they are only doing the job but with the crazies nowadays it just isn't worth the free carpet cleaning or the 25% discount on the monitor of the alarm ( especially when I get a bigger discount from my home insurance through USAA ;) I looked for the NO SOLICITING sign at Lowe's and Home Depot, just not real pleasing to the eye... I mean I want to nicely say - NO! What can I make to be nice and still say NO!???? I look through my box of things to re-do and I see it and then I hear my Big Shot scream out to me " use me ang, use me !!!" Well I'm not wanting to tell everyone NO! just the solicitors..... I grab the chalkboard message thing I had in my house at least 5 years ago, YES you read that right...FIVE years. I told you I was frugal ! I changed out the pic, made a pretty NO SOLICITING framed message and now I have a chalk message board by the front door so that at CHRISTMAS time I can leave a nice nice message to SANTA !! :) <3 @

Before

After :)

framlites are my friend :)
 

Don't whine, use twine

This was a couple of days ago that I actually finished these, and I think I am happy with the turn out. I had these tall metal vases that we had purchased to use as stands for some speakers in the old house. Again, the color scheme from that house to this one - not going to work.... I love the shape and size of these vase things and so I wanted to keep them but you know that color thing ! My first plan was to paint them of course....spray paint now is made to go on EVERYTHING right??? I think that would have been ok but I could totally see myself re-doing the re-do and with the other million things, re-do of re-do's just not on the schedule. Then it hits me...go old school :) Get that twine and glue and get after it ! Round and round and round I go...twine glue twine glue twine burn finger on glue. I'm still thinking they need alittle something but just hasn't come to me YET :) I can say I know that they will fit in nicely with the CHRISTMAS decor for the mantel. @


Before

Re-done

3 ingrediants :)

I sometimes can be long winded ...lol so I will try to make this LONG story short. In our last home I started off with the "formal living" as a playroom and made a border around the room of scrapbooked pages of friends and family ( actually I think I may have completed 4 but you get the point) then I changed that room (shocker) into the Zebra lounge. The Z lounge did not have the border of unfinished scrapbooked pages in it but I still had the 20+ frames :-/ OF COURSE I tried to put them in every other room in the house but it just didn't work out, so I packed them in a tote for just in case :) Well today just in case called and woohoo I made a dry erase month board...yes I have at least three of these that no I do not fill out but hey ....you NEVER know ! As I was taking my weekly stroll through HL I find this template and just next to it was some scrapbook paper that I am sure I probably have four sheets of at home already but this time it was on sale ;) I then think hmmm I have that tote of frames! So I skip to the check out and get my things and rush home and here's what I did .....



ingrediants 1,2,3
 

Ta Daaaa :)


 

Here is what is my favorite thing about it.....the background paper is changeable so when December gets here I can add my CHRISTMAS paper and keep track of all my parties that I will be attending!This has tons of room for embellishments but I have three other things I started and need to get to so I will have to come back to that part !! @

Lack of craft

I got absolutely zero ornaments made this weekend! Yes I am very sad about that but I do however have a wonderful ornament closet for the trees built :) aka shed . I almost want to be able to put the trees up to take them down to put the stuff in the closet :) hahahaha - in due time , in due time. NOW I need to pretty up the outside of the shed, you can't close up glitter and not look good while doing it ! @

Move over design on a dime !

ARE YOU READY FOR THIS??? No I did not get my ten ornaments made, I barely even started them but I did however finish another project and SAVED SOME MOOLAH !!! :) Once again in the BallaedDesigns catalog I see something that I really like but can't afford and don't think I would pay this much even if I could afford it, there is Christmas trees that need to be decorated for goodness sake ! hA
What caught my eye was a burlap message board -


( by the way I just took this pic with my webcam...hee hee , first time I have ever done that, this could mean crazy new things for me )
Sorry the picture is soooo large and blurry but I have to be at the school in ten minutes- but as you can kinda see the board is anywhere from $49.00 to $219.00~~ CRAAAAZZZZZIIIIEEEEEE
My little mice start churning in the wheel in my head and this is what I came up with ......

The color is a little lighter because of what I am going to paint in the room but other than that I saved mucho dollars. My boards are a 22x28, not a size available at Ballard so I will just compare against the medium sized one they have for $89.00~~ Canvas boards 2pk that was a buy 1 get 1 free ( I got 4 boards total for 9.99, the fabric was 3.99 a yard before my 40% off coupon and the tacks.... 300 for $1.00 at the dollar tree. Big savings = more to spend on CHRISTMAS !!!!! @

 

10 days and counting

I am scheduled to start putting the trees out on 10/1.... there has been much movement within the house that is allowing me access to put more trees up than I had planned ( bummer :( LOL ) but I have to admit that I am VERY far behind on my ornament making. I have been so wrapped up in making other things I am in a panic. BUT that is exactly why I start in October !! Gives me 60 glorious days to get ready. Tomorrow I will be making at least 10 ornaments, its my goal and I'm pretty sure I can make it :) !! I'll post pics once done. I tell you now that I am actually typing this out and having to think it has hit me hard that I need to finish staining the fence, paint the bedroom , paint the baseboards, move the cross wall and get organized..... OH MY ! No worries right? :) @

Re-vamp that lamp (shade)

As some of you might know I am "frugal" - and I am only saying frugal because CHEAP just doesn't sound as nice.... haha
For someone that doesn't like change - I sure change things up ALOT! I paint and then re-paint, I decorate and then re-decorate , I move furniture and then re-move furniture , I blame it on my ADHD that I have self diagnosed myself with :)
SO moving into the new house I just feel that its color scheme (for now) needs to have blues and greens in it. The last place was more of the carmel, red , goldenrod tones....I'm just not feeling it here. Since I am not feeling it and EVERYTHING I own seems to be of the carmel, red, goldenrod color I say to myself..do I force the wrong color feel ? Do I buy new stuff? OR do I revamp it all???? Yes revamp revamp revamp. And do it with glittery frugalness........
Over the dining table is one of those lights where you can put those little shades on the light bulb. I bought some little shades on clearance  for $1.29..... they are a deep red, which at the time I bought them I didn't know that I wasn't going to be "feeling" that color, anyhow who turns down $1.29 , right? I get a catalog in th email from Ballard Designs.... after I got finished choking on the prices $$$$ I started my frugal wheels turning. The red shades just stuck out like a big finger in the eye. I see these little shades in the catalog for a price of 21.00 EACH or if you kindly order 5 or more they are ONLY 19.00 each... humm I would need 5, so 95.00 for some tiny little shades - NOT HAPPENING TO THIS GIRL ! Instead, I take my 1.29 shade , rip the top layer off and add natural colored raffia and wa la! So doing the math of 1.29 x 5, plus 1.00 for raffia , and 2.00 for the glue sticks= $9.45 hummm YES TO THIS GIRL !!! :) Of course the shades do not look exactly like the catalog but if I am saving $85.00 - it sure is close enough. How does this relate to Christmas 365??? I bought the shades after Christmas when they were clearancing out :) Christmas might have been over but the shades I will use the entire year (or until I change ;) @

Before

during
 

After

40% off Heaven

Hobby Lobby finally put there Christmas stuff on sale...yep 40% off all Christmas !!!! It was like magic as I walked through the doors and saw glitter EVERYWHERE ! I was beyond happy, my heart skipped a beat , and a big grin was slapped across my face :) I do have to say that I feel I should predict what the future of ornaments will be as it appears I always think of what I want and can't find it anywhere so I have to make it and then the next roll out of Christmas stuff it's everywhere and I find myself once again trying to configure the images I have dreamt up in my head :) SO this year I am on a HUGE kick of using my big shot and framelites... I am once again in love <3 The crazy thing about this trip to Hobby Lobby today was not even suppose to be for Christmas items, it was to get things to finish 9 other projects so that I could decorate for Christmas ;-)
13 more days :) , who's counting with me ??????? @

Make room for one more ~

I am still trying to figure out where to out everything in the new house..... that being said, managed to move one room to another and flip things around (again) only to discover with this new arrangement there is now room for another tree :) Wasn't sure how I was going to manage a tree in the front room but low and behold she will have three windows for her eyes only !!!! Pretty happy about that. @

Garland garland everywhere !

This year will be something new for me as I have stairs now. I have never been able to decorate with garland down a staircase. I am beyond excited as the first time I saw the garland they have at The Gaylord with the ice shows I KNEW I wanted to do that at least once in my lifetime. Well it's time !! I know my budget comes no where near the budget of the Gaylord but I have ideas swirling like a crisp minty peppermint candy in my head. Of course, I always vision something that rarely comes to life but I try and I tweek and I figure I have 365 days to make it closer to the image next time :) @

Day one ~

So I am starting this Christmas 365 blog ..... I should say attempting to start it. I know this is suppose to be sooo easy but I have to tell you I am struggling with it like crazy.... WHY can't I add a cute image here and change the color of the font along with the font faster than I can snap??? Well anyway , I apologize if it looks crazy but I soon hope to get some blogging layout 101 from a dear friend who actually encouraged me to do this :) xoxo Melissa B
Now that I am finished ranting about my inadequacies I can get to business! Christmas 365 is truly something I do in my own life.... think , dream, sleep, craft, miss, anticipate, Christmas 365 days a year :) It's true. Christmas is my most favorite holiday EVER !! The meaning is true to my heart and Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, and then top it off with glitter, bling, lights and all the beautiful colors, I mean come on !!!! :)
Just for a little background info on this addiction I have so having this blog may make sense to you as you follow along ;) I have been known to have over 15 trees up for the holiday season. I'll post pictures for proof soon. Anyway, I have so many because I LOVE IT but more so because I can't decide on just one color choice or theme as sometimes it goes. I have dabbled in the thought of year round holiday tree and trust me, I have sketchinsg of each months tree but I seem to be the only one on board for such an idea- (for now) I am working on it....daily ;)
My year goes something like this: I start with putting the trees up October 1st....Calm down and keep reading so you will understand why . I make alot of my ornaments for the trees, so I am making year round or at least planning. Then I have everything done by December 1st. All decor is up, all presents bought and wrapped , all cards mailed off and I enjoy the entire month of December with all the parties and get togethers and FOOD ! Starting in January I am already thinking about Christmas again :) I usually know what colors I will go with and spend the next 9 months prepping. So lets journey through this craziness together....Welcome to my world 365 ! @