Christmas Decor or {Inside Edition just not the "trash" TV edition} Sequel

Hello friends!

I finally got all my pictures to send to my email so I can do my Part Deux of Christmas Decor Inside Edition. I still take phone pictures so sometimes out here in the boonies it takes for-eva to send! Does anyone else ever just putter around all season long tweaking their decor? I do it all the time! And I continually think "Silly girl you are gonna take it down in just a few weeks/days!", but it make me a happy silly girl! So here's the rest of the inside decoration and the tweaking decor.

This is my stairwell (duh?! lol). This year I didn't use the normal garland and ribbon on the hand rail and next year I DEFINITELY will, this looks so sparse to me. Simple does NOT equal sparse. This is also where I hang our special stockings, the ones that we've picked out or had as children.

Bubba Hubster's (Jeff) is his from his childhood, we started a tradition a few years ago with his family that we adults do not exchange gifts. We use that money and support a family, or give to a charity, etc., so his momma gave him his stocking (it's what she used to use as the bag for gifts).

My stocking was made by a sweet 13 yo girl that I was partnered with one year through Mary Janes Farm for a gift/stocking exchange. She did all the work herself and I absolutely LUV it!

Buckaroo's is the Cars stocking, when he was little we would watch that movie over and over and over.....everyone in our family knew that movie line by line. We went through three,  yes THREE (3) dvd's from wearing them out watching it so much. When he saw this stocking he was over the moon that year.

The red one is an antique one that has a fur stole (sp?) as the trim, we are using it for Brother. Brother has an affinity for the movie "A Christmas Story," I've looked high and low for the "leg lamp" stocking but haven't yet found it. He has the lamp and everything, but I WILL find the stocking and that will be his. He's OK with the red one, as he loves antiques and fur, but my biggest "baby" WILL have the leg lamp stocking!

The first picture that is cock-eyed will be the advent calender for next year. Twenty five baby socks, glittery pompoms, and mini clothes pins is all I need but I didn't want to make myself frazzled so I up it down for next years crafting.

This little vignette's home is on my great grandparents dresser I was so lucky to receive, it took lots of love and care to get it to this. The box and red container are music boxes, Buckaroo and I could spend hours listening to them. The deer are just another representation of my love affair with 70's cheesy decor, I can't leave one when I see it. The red book is a memory book that you can record your holiday happenings and you can write about them and attach a holiday picture or card.

This is my Santa/Ornament vignette, the taller Santa is a musical one <be still my heart> 70's, Santa AND musical?!?! The Santa with sleigh right next to it was one of our first Christmas decorations BH and I purchased as a couple.

This sweet little apron is my one and only (lonely) kitchen Christmas decor - BUT - I finally hung my potholder and hand towel hangers so next year that will be totally remedied. and YES that is an electrical outlet in the middle of a wall that has NOTHING on it. I have no idea why the builders put put it there other than the previous owners had an awesome idea that I'm not privy to.

And that my friends concludes the inside edition of Christmas decor, until I putter around again.

Much Luv,
Michelle

New Do for the New Year!! {or I Got Tired of Migraines}

Hello Luvs!

Just a quick note this morning - lots to do!

I was trying to let my hair grow out, but migraines insued and I *finally* found someone that can cut great short haircuts. So tell me what ya think?!

I could just feel the weight lifting off as he was cutting and my neck started to move upright.

And this my friends is why I was having migraines! Yes!! This was my hair he cut off noone else's was in the picture. If you remember my hair wasn't that long - barely jaw length. I am blessed (or cursed depending on the day) with amazingly thick hair.

So tell me what ya think about it? I absolutely LUV it - little hairspray and wax if I've got the time and bam I'm done!

Much Luv,
Michelle

Thrifty & Some Not So Thrifty November Finds {or an outlet for my repurposing}

Hello Friends!!

I know it's a bit into December, but I was just able to get all my thrifty finds photographed last night. I found a wonderful new (to me) store in November. It's the Restore for Habitat for Humanity. It's actually been there for 10 (T-E-N!) years and I'm just now finding out about it. I blame BH - He lived in the area almost his entire life and never told me about it. They recently put up a sign and we did a quick U-Turn when I saw it and checked it out. The clouds parted, angels sang, and a light shone down, Thrifter's Paradise. All is well in the world.....

Seriously, it was great! Here's the crue de gras I found:





I found this awesome idea over at While Wearing Heels, Amy decided to do some kitchen cabinet feet and me being me I decided to copy cat her (by the way you MUST check out her blog it's AH-MAY-ZING). So I was on the look out for some cheap feet, i wanted simple as our kitchen cabinets are very simple, almost Shaker style simple. I couldn't find anything that I was in my price range willing to pay (yes I'm super duper cheap - but y'all all already knew that - right?) So we found Restore store and guess what they had - a basket full of couch legs!! For real I grabbed the 11 feet ran around till I found BH and tried to explain myself. Although he said I sounded like a boy getting his first BB gun ever, but he managed to get the general understanding of what I was saying.


Next I found these CA-UTE party trays with cups, they are beauties! They totally sang to my vintage heart. I can't wait to host a party (like I'm a real social butterfly or something but maybe these might help be not be a recluse at least LOL) and use these.

I found them in their ORIGINAL box, and TWO boxes for a total of 8 sets! I was so excited. Now these were NOT a thrifty find. I found these at an antique store that I spent a glorious 2 whole uninteruppted hours in all by myself!! BH and Buckaroo were at the shooting range having some "man time" as Buckaroo calls it. They were $10/box but I think it was still a great price for these. I technically didn't find them at a thrift store so I don't know if you would classify them as a thrifty find or not, but at that price I say thrifty is all in the price not the place. hahaha.

At the same store I found this great little metal tray that I couldn't resist as it is so kitchy and in my kitchen collors too! In my mind I want to use these trays as a back splash, but I just don't know if my heart can cut up something so sweet.

I wouldn't classify this purchase as thrifty by any stretch of the imagination. it was $7!! But I loved everything about it, the metal, the birch looking background, the aqua, the pine cones, just everything so I paid the $7.

Then this piece, the table. For my taste and budget it was expensive, but I love the copper top and the patina of the wood that age brings, plus it was in the same antiques shop as the two items above. So if you are looking at where I bought it, the age, and mark downs it had on it I supposed it could pass as thrifty. It was originally $175, down to $119 down to $75, of course I wouldn't have paid over the $75 for it. As it was it took several phone calls between me and BH and him telling me to just get it a gazillion times before I allowed myself to pay that price. But it does look AH-MAY-ZING in my living room!

 

Plus you see where that antelope is on the bottom shelf? Yea that's right I got more display shelving :D

 

This is a combination of all my Goodwill hauls, I've gotten mucho better about being ok about going in a place and leaving empty handed. It's actually what happens most times now days.

 

 



The flag picture frame is Buckaroo's Christmas gift to G-ma & Papa, they have a game room done in Americana.
The Jets jersey and UT Longhorn shirt are for Buckaroo, I buy every kind of jersey I can for him and anything to do with football. I bet his platelets are little footballs!!
The books are for Buckaroo of course, I always check out their book section, $.79 vs $4.99 (min) and new to condition - oh yes please and thank you!
The basket that you can barely see peaking out from behind the frame was a great sturdy tall rectangular one that was only $3! I'm using for fruit snacks.
The round trivet I'm going to spray paint aqua and use it as wall decor in the kitchen.
The picture is from October's thrifty finds, yes it's still sitting where I took the picture a month ago, and my vacuum is over in the corner photo bombing it. I would hang my head but I like keeping it real, or maybe I just know that y'all care about me and not my undone projects or photo bombing vacuum. :D

I've already had some great finds for December and can't wait to post them! I've been throwing around an idea in my head, and want to get your opinion on it. I've been thinking of doing a no spend month for January. Now I don't mean die hard nothing at all, but nothing other than necessities, gas, groceries, etc don't count. I'm talking about just no going out to shop, and to use up all the miscellaneous things we've bought but never got around to doing or using. For me it would really only be two weeks that I would have free. Our office has inventory the first weekend and then it's New Years also. The next weekend I promised to clean a friends storage unit out here for her, they now live in Wisconsin and can't get down here to do it and need it done. The next weekend will be our second BSA camp out, so it would really only be two weeks for me. So short story made long I need accountability partners. Wanna try it? Let me know!

Much Luv,
Michelle

Merry Christmas 2012 {A Look Back}

Every year I like to send some sort of picture with our cards. This year I did a little something different, I stole the idea from Amy over at My 3 Monsters from her Christmas card post. I threw it togather this year, next year I hope it will be much better.

 The front of our 2012 Christmas card.

The back of our 2012 Christmas card.

 

I really liked them this year, although next year will be tweaked a little better, I still really love the look of it. I always emjoy getting cards in the mail that give me some insight into what's going on with people and their lives, esp. if they live far away.

 

 

So from our family to yours Merry Christmas 2012!

 

Much Luv,

Bubba Hubster, Michelle & Buckaroo

Christmas Decor or {Inside Edition just not the "trash" TV edition} Part I

Good Monday to you!! I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend and an even better start to the week. I finally got all the finishing touches on my inside Christmas decorations this past weekend. I actually ended up making two more wreaths for my outside doors so the two end ones would match (which if you do quick match you realize I have three front doors!) more on that later this week with a tutorial for wreaths.

So this weekend I finished the inside decor and BH took the empty boxes to the shed, so that I could take some respectable pictures (HA!). Hope you like them!

 Top of our entertainment center. The star up there was the first star we ever bought together, I can find the clip to hold it on, the garland is bare, half the crystal cuts are missing but I refuse to part with it!

 The mantle - I have an obsession with nativity scenes, so this year I decided that our mantle was going to be nothing but nativity scenes. This is how it will look from here on out, I feel in love with it and them all over again.

Our stockings I got at our local Nutcracker Market last (alas we didn't get to go this year - boo!) I hope to have them embroidered soon. Come back tomorrow to see our "special stockings" and where I hang them.

 "Where are the diamonds?! I NEED my diamonds!" I tell BH that if it hangs in my living room I have free decorating reign over it, he doesn't really care. He *totally* rocks like that.

 Yes I have an affinity for decorating taxidermied animals, LOL! Now these two are the extent of what animals I allow in the living room. The hog is just too ugly to be in there although I could *totally* detail it to the nines at Christmas time.....



 BH has hung this Santa wind chime up every year since he was a little boy! We are now able to carry on that tradition in our home. BH always puts the star on the tree and this guy.

Top of the Christmas tree (it's really not that big or tall. It's just in a corner and it was hard to get a full on frontal picture in one shot.

 Bottom of the Christmas tree - I collect Christmas tins and this is how I display them. I also use the to put gifts in. The tree skirt is one that BH and his momma and sister made one year when they were younger. We were so blessed to inherit it!

 Christmas tree vignette - can you guess which one Buckaroo picked out? ;D

 

 

Come back tomorrow to see the rest of the living room decor and the stairwell.

 

Much Luv,

Michelle

 

 

It's Beginning to Feel Alot Like Christmas {or my collection of outside decor this year}

Hello Sweet Friends!

DO you have your Christmas decorations out yet? We took off the week of Thanksgiving and thanks to Bubba Hubster (who shall be now known as BH around here cuz I'm lazy like that) we got our outside decorations done.

Peeps this year as been crazy as well...a four letter word that rhymes with bell, and my heart, soul and being just craved simplicity. Friends, it is something that I'm craving more and more these days, hopefully I will soon learn a good balance. This year we went simple, festive and it stirred something in my soul, but that's for another post (that I've got sitting in my drafts folder because I have a hard time being nakky and vulnerable). I love my lil farm house looking home, there's alot that I want to do but it's the type of home I've always wanted. So this year I took full advantage of the posts on the front porch. I add some large christmas bulbs (not gigantic but good takes-two-hands-to-cover-them size) from Big Lots (LURVE that place! and no sadly friends this is not a paid post just wanting to pass on a wonderful place for things with good pricing) from many moons ago. I strung them with fishing wire and hung them from the planter hooks we had for the ferns (that died no matter what I did with them). I was short by five, so fingers crossed I took off for Big Lots and prayed they had another pack (they come in a pack of six). That's one of the things I like about Big Lots, they have alot of the same staple items year after year. My kinda people, you know why reinvent the wheel if it already works. Thank goodness they did have them, so I snatched (and yes I do mean snatched them) up, paid for em, went home and strung em up! What do you think?


 




These are the close ups and yes in the right picture that is a camo hunting 5 gal seat stool as a table, and yes that is a dead mini rose bush on the table in the left picture.

Why yes, yes we ARE the Beverly Hillbillies of the Neighborhood, we just don't have the concrete pond out back, the HOA did NOT know what was coming when bought out here!!






I also made a knew front door wreath, here's a close up of it:

Yes I made this bad boy all by myself - I was actually really proud of it.

Every year we try to buy a blow up that we all like as a family usually after Christmas, because well I'm cheap, but this year was different we got it early but it's not out yet. Here are the blow ups that we have out right now. We have three more to set up, but I have no clue to if we are gonna get to them or not to be honest. I hope we do, but I'm not pressuring us to. Me and my darn throw it all in a box without labeling and that is why we have three blow ups not set out they were in the what we thought were inside decoration boxes. Do y'all like it?

Tractor & Motorcycle Santa

 Nascar Santa

One for just good measure :)-

 



We just string our C7 lights along the porch, bay and kitchen windows. I would love to do the dormer windows, but BH isn't find of roofs. I will have to learn to be fond of them so I can have my dormers done with lights. Along the walkway from the driveway I have gigantic replicas of C9 bulbs and Christmas ornaments. I want to get more of the C9 bulbs but they are expensive 4/$10!

 

Hopefully Thursday I will have a post on the inside decor. I'm going to try my hardest and get one up Wednesday night of at least my stairwell. I can't find the stuff to make my Advent calender out of though. So if you come across 25 baby size Christmas themed socks PLEASE let me know. I can't find any. I've thought of buying plain white and glueing a Christmas colored pompom to the toe, but I really want the themed ones.

 

Much Luv,

Michelle



Breakfast and Dinner meat for $2.46! {or me being a cheapskate}

Good Morning Friends!

I hope everyone had a great and blessed weekend, we did! It was a super busy, but great weekend. Saturday we had church choir practice for three hours, lunch and then two Boy Scout service hours “Ring the Bell”. Sunday we had church and then the choir program at 4:30 then dinner with the family afterwards. Just because y’all know I can’t post without putting a picture of my sweet boy up, here are a few:

 

Here is Reindeer Buckeroo! The boys were done done done by the end of the two hour segment but I think they did wonderful being 7!

 

 

 

Here he is at the choir program. He sang, had a speaking part and was a wise man. I was so surprised when he tried out since he normally doesn’t want to do anything that causes attention to be strictly on him. He did wonderful!

 Now onto the reason for the post’s title. I’ve been following Danielle over at Blissful & Domestic and one thing I’ve really learned is planning planning and more planning goes a L-O-N-G way. So I planned out what I wanted for breakfast and dinner and went about grocery shopping. I decided to go with an open mind and check everything out – no more run in go directly to said item, get only what we are used to purchasing. While I’m not advocating MORE shopping I’m advocating SMART shopping, look at all options for what you are wanting.

Now this time I wanted a spicy-ish sausage to use for breakfast tacos and spegahti. Normally I would just go and get a roll of Owens breakfast sausage and two rolls of hamburger meat. This time I looked through all the meats they had for sale. I found a spicy Italian sausage; I knew this would work for both. So I snapped up the one and quarter pound package, when I got home I rolled it into small balls, like mini meat balls (I would suggest for the breakfast tacos to divide the mini meat balls in half as they are a bit big for burritos). I let them fry up half way thru I put water in the skillet and somewhat boiled them with the lid on. I did this because I wanted to make sure the meat was done all the way through without becoming hockey pucks! Also to make sure there weren’t a lot of fat /grease left in them.  This is what you come up with:

 

I know it doesn't look like alot but this was a huge, deep bowl.

 

I then mixed about a third of the meatballs with 15 eggs, cooked them with sautéed onions and bell peppers (except for Buckaroo’s his eggs is the small bowl without the green flakes otherwise he wouldn’t eat them – and yes I do this often but it beats having to pick the bell peppers and onions out later and double yes I have done that numerous times before).

 

 

It makes a ton doesn’t it?!

 I then scooped two serving spoons on each tortilla topped with half a slice of cheese (we don’t count it as food in our house if it doesn’t have cheese ;D), rolled and wrapped in Saran wrap. This made twelve breakfast tacos, and the bowl of Buckeroo’s eggs which is about eight serving spoons of eggs and meat. I’ll add yogurt or a small bowl of cereal (he insists of cereal every morning so I feel better when he eats more than just something cold).

 

 

 

 

 









We were left with approximately 80 mini meatballs, which allowed 40 meatballs per meal, allowing 13 minis per person per meal. It takes three mini meatballs to make a regular size meatball, so it really is a good amount of meat. I’ll make alfredo or tomato spegahti or some sort of pasta bake.

Another thing to keep in mind is serving size, while it doesn't sound like alot of meat - it is the correct amount that we are supposed to eat. Our fist or palm only is a rough size of what we are to be eating of our main protein. I'm not a professional, but like I told my neice if you want to know anything about weight loss ask a big person. We know what does and doesn't work, I'm just not good at following through. I wish I had more will power, maybe some day. 

So remember plan, have an open mind and remember serving size. I hope that this post has helped you or maybe gave you some ideas of how to stretch your meats.

Much Luv,

Michelle

Bobcat Badge Ceremony {or my lil man growing up to be a young man}

Morning!

Just a super quick post before I jet off to Buckeroo's school to help with their annual ornaments. Last night my lil man got his Bobcat Badge from Boy Scouts. He was so proud [as were momma and dada - but I bet you could never guess that with the smiles on our faces;)]. And he should be - he is just growing up so fast sometimes I sit back and wonder if it will ever slow down. So without further adeu {cuz i'm running late at usual} here are a ton of pix and i'll try to upload the actual ceremony video later.

I'm so proud of all of our boys - it takes alot of work, dedication, and focus to achieve all that they have achieved and are working on!!

Much Luv!
Michelle

Thanksgiving Tablecloth {or proof of how forgetful I am}

I recently became aware of the fact that I never did a Thanksgiving Tablecloth post (thanks Amy @ While Wearing Heels). By the way y'all totally need to check her blog and her Etsy shop they are Ah-MAY-ZING! I want her United States quilt so bad!! Well one year I wanted a tangible way to remember the memories and all the things that we were thankful for. So I thought about a Thanksgiving tablecloth. The first year I did leaf shapes cut out of felt. Well have you ever tried to write on felt before? It’s not too pretty or easy, although I told everyone to suck it up and make it work! I know so nice on Thanksgiving huh? But that’s how I roll sometimes, lol! No, seriously I was way nicer and begged people to trace over and over on their words and they begrudgedly graciously obliged me. That was in 2010 and I didn’t get around to sewing them until this year along with the table cloth (because that IS how I roll). So I got one yard of fabric (umm one piece of advice – make sure you actually measure your table to make sure it covers said table) hemmed it on all four sides. I then sewed the leaves on from 2010 (we weren’t here for 2011 we were in OK for hubster’s family), yea umm, not so easy so I decided that this year would be “Thankful blocks” simply square shaped fabric that they write on and then sewed together and on the table cloth to try and get some extra footage to make the table cloth actually big enough to cover a table :0. It really was an easy easy craft to do, yet one that everyone loved and talked about so much and still do. This year people really liked the blocks as it was just quilter grade fabric and the fabric markers worked much more easily.

 

What do you think? I really enjoyed doing this and reflecting on how things changed and how they stayed the same, how many more things we have to be thankful for. I will continue to do this tradition. We like it so much that we decided to do a Christmas Tablecloth. This will be with an angel made out of felt and her wings will be quilter grade fabric and the wings will be made up of lots of small pieces and this is where they will write what they are thankful for.

 

See how these wings are made up of individual little feather type pieces – each family will have a feather piece and I will attach these and continue on to build up her wings. What do you think? I welcome any comments and or suggestions as I always like and easier way to do things!

Much Luv!

Michelle