This year's Christmas Mantel

I LOVE LOVE LOVE having a mantel. It is truly my seasonal canvas! If I didn't enjoy it so much though, the mess would get cleaned up a lot faster.  Do you ever get in one of those "Oh I just don't know..." and there it sits for a day sort of moods. This mantel went together fairly quick when compared to some others. It was fun though and I am definitely happy with how it turned out.

The mantel is where the framed peace art found its home

A side profile

Looking in the mirror...

One of my mischievous elves

And now for the "lower mantel." We have this old railroad shipping crate. It was displaced a couple months ago when the living room was rearranged. I am thinking it works well here! :)

The village was one of our summer yard sale treasures.  I PROMISE you it was a thrifty purchase!!!!
The bigger church is one that we have had.

Christmas is such a magical time of year! Thanks for stopping by.  Hope to see you again soon!

Linking up here:

Tomato Cage Tree

The first weekend of December is almost over. That seems COMPLETELY crazy! The weather here, in Western PA, has been a little goofy too. Yesterday Jim raked the rest of the leaves and cleaned out the gutters...in jeans and hoodie. We also put up some outside Christmas decorations...in jeans and a hoodie.  CRAZINESS!!!! I do not want the snow that is soon coming, but our plants are confused.  The spring hyacinths have popped through the ground. :(


Anywho. While Jim was raking leaves I decided I was going to "Christmas" the front porch. I had a real vague plan in mind, which changed and changed again. In the end I made a tree. Yep! Made a tree! I used the following things:

A Wreath 

A tomato cage

Evergreen garland

A flower pot. The pot wasn't the size I had in mind, but it works.

I used the pot because I wanted the tree to have a little more height.

I put the wreath inside the tomato cage so it sat on the top of the pot. (forgot to take a picture) Then I wrapped the garland around the tomato cage. I also added a string of white lights and set inside a picnic basket.

I only had one length of garland. I don't know if I would have used a second one if I had it or not. I am pretty partial to it this way. We had a grapevine star upstairs that I used as the topper...

Homemade with items on hand! A little rusty, a little quirky, A LOT us!!!  What do you think?

I am linking up to the following:

Christmas in the Dining Room

The halls, walls, and most any other surface....have been decked for the holidays. I am going to let the pictures do the talking.  I am going to start with the thrifty corner...

Pin It
Picnic baskets and the santa picture...from summer sales! The baskets make a perfect table for the lamp..

The Nativity Scene given to me by my Grandmother. The color of it works so well in the dining room. It doesn't photograph well here though. I do apologize.

Now it wouldn't really be Christmas without at least one of those ceramic trees!!!! This one is from Jim's family.

MOST of the dining room. I am pretty happy with it. I took a picture of the church pew wall *mostly windows* but all that picture proved was the church pew looks empty. It sure would look nice with some pillows. I guess pillows will go on the list of things to look for on Pinterest. I am definitely paying full price for pillows.

Did you find the two elves that are hanging out in the dining room for this Christmas season?

Thanks for stopping by. I am linking up here:

Reindeer Card using Create A Critter

Hey Everyone! Tomorrow is December 1st. Where oh where did this year go? These last "few" days will go unbelievably fast since it is such a busy time of year.  So much to share this time of year too.


Today I am sharing a card made using the Cricut Create A Critter cartridge. I used the reindeer cut. I used my Gypsy and filled the page up. I cut three different layers to make this adorable reindeer Rudolph.

I cut them out, put them together and put each one on a card. Isn't it cute????

I also used...

and 

And of course red glitter glue for his nose. I used premade 4in x 5in cards in green and red...

I stamped the inside of the cards with this Stampendous! Stamp

I was thinking I was going to make a set of reindeer for the wall but I am not sure there is enough time given all the other things I want to  make for other people. Perhaps I can make reindeer for myself after Christmas. :)

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you will leave a comment and come back again soon~!

I am linking up here:

Have you repurposed lately?

Awhile back I mentioned we had gotten some freebies! It is time to share one of them. I am still trying to figure out why Christmas decorating leads to other projects like moving almost EVERYTHING, but I am glad it did. Our kitchen has a couple things about it that always annoy me just a little. I am not going to get into those details, but things are looking up with a few changes!!!

Anyway, we had gone to pick up some old wooden doors from a friend's Mom. When we got there, there were a couple pieces of wood with a design on them sitting next to the doors.  She said they just looked like something we would like. ...and like we do!!!!!!

There were two of these.  The other one is brown, not painted. Moving some things around (like a microwave) changed the visual appeal. There I was in the kitchen saying to myself (and Jim if he was within ear shot) "But what on Earth will go on the wall now.....?" and then, the moment we all love, the light bulb came on!!!!! and off to the basement I went. We hung it up (after we moved previously mentioned microwave) and wah lah! Here is what we have!

Jim added two of the knobs off of the kitchen cupboards that were in this house when we bought it.

You can't really see them, but I promise they are there.

Moving the microwave has gained us some counter space.  woo hoo!!!!!! I think it looks nice here too.

Pin It

Freebie style is definitely fun fun fun!!! I hope you will let me know what you think. I am off to pick up the odds and ends of the disaster area Christmas decorating, and clean the house. I am so ready for the clutter to go away. I also have incentive to get it cleaned up today because we have some friends coming over tonight. The boys will be playing cards and watching sports and I am thinking us girls will have some wine and crafts!

Hope to see you again soon!!!! ~Jen (I really need to learn how to make a signature!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! We have been busy decorating for Christmas. There are some fun blog times ahead.  Those times will have to wait though. We are going to enjoy each other and our family this evening. There may be some grey days, but we truly do have plenty to be thankful for *including you, our readers!
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

Yard Sale Christmas...

Hi everyone! I needed a break from the computer, especially since I work with one all day.  I was also busy decorating for Christmas AND doing something I don't normally do and actually spent some time doing NOTHING over the weekend. Okay it wasn't actually nothing, it was enjoying some hot tea on the couch with Jynx while Jim was working and watching those hopelessly romantic and great acts of humanity movies on the Hallmark channel. Total ME time. I don't do that very often.

The house isn't completely done yet, but close. Maybe it can be finished when I am done working for the day.
I am going to share with you some of our yard sale finds from this summer. You will have to be on the lookout for these items when I finally share the decoration pictures. I will be sure to point out other yard sale treasures as we go along.

No great projects (or not so great) just some pictures to ponder and possibly a peak into Christmas past. The following are pictures of things we picked up this summer. What would you do with them?

 A cool vintage village

A Santa's PJs stocking

lots of icicles

some small finds (they were part of a box of stuff)

picnic baskets

a nutcracker

A cool little santa mug that is...

 MADE IN THE USA!!!!!!! woo hoo!!!! :)

Picked this beauty up for just a couple bucks! :)

...bulbs...

YES! Those are bobble heads.

Where will they or where have they found a home? That is a question. Most of the things in the last photo have a home. There are a couple that keep getting moved around. It has been fun. The big Santa in the above picture, we got him for 50 cents!!!! fun!

Here is a look into Christmas Past. I love mischievous elves. Where will they end up this year? That is a great question. Only four of them have been given homes so far.

Have you started Christmasing or will you be waiting until after the turkey coma? I hope to see you again soon. Thanks so much for stopping by! ~jen