saw it. pinned it. did it. ~ noel

well another week and another pinterest craft has been completed.  i feel a bit like martha stewart over here.  then again, perhaps not.  i'm not all that interested in insider trading.  but when it comes to super easy do-it-yourself noel signs ... well sign me up (pun was definitely intended).  i've always wanted a sign like this before, however in our old house there was no room.  no where to put it out and no where to put it away.  now that we're in the new house i finally have a place for a sign like this and the storage to house it the other eleven months.  the husband is not too happy about this ... just means we're going to need more and more and more christmas decorations.  'tis the season right?

original pin

 Source: everycreativeendeavor.com via MJ on Pinterest

materials:

four letters to make 'noel' ~ got mine at michaels $6.99/each (the cashier asked me what i was making with letters that spell 'lone'.  he looked totally confused when i told him they also make the word 'noel')
red craft paint
paint brush
glue
cardboard to attach the letters together (i cut out tabs big enough to connect all the letters together then glued them on)

eat your heart out martha.

saw it. pinned it. did it. ~ snowflake art

i came across this wicked series, saw it. pinned it. did it. via julie.  stephanie and katie hold it every week.  (go and checked them out)  it's given me some motivation to actually do some of the projects i've been pinning.  and with christmas fast approaching it was needed.  this year we are trying to create more meaningful gifts for liam's grandparents.  what do you get for the people who don't need anything?  why get more stuff?  having liam create something unique for each of them is way more meaningful than just stuff.  not to mention it was something we could do together.

original pin:

via

as soon as i saw this project i knew we'd have an absolute blast working on it.  liam loves anything to do with paint.  he practically vibrated his way to the kitchen table when he saw the paint and paint brushes come out.  we were able to stretch the activity out into three different painting sessions.  woo hoo!!  we also ate up some "activity" time by going to get the supplies.  i love how a trip to michaels is so exciting to a two year old.  

what you need:

art canvas, any size

paints, complimentary colours

paint brushes

masking tape

a lot of newspaper if your son likes to paint all over the table 

 we  had a great time doing these and they turned out great!

our first diy christmas project complete.

time to hang around

One of the many reasons why I love long weekends is the amount of stuff that we can accomplish.  Our Saturday was spent running errands and gettin' things done.  We hit Costco early (cuz really Costco is pretty much a disaster on the weekends), the husband got the garage finally organized (thank you thank you thank you) and I spent the afternoon creating my first ever DIY project ... a jewelry board.  Did I mention that Liam had a two hour nap??  This is the real reason the jewelry board was completed.  Anyways ... all of my necklaces used to be clumped together on a very small hook in our closet. This was NOT optimal.  I couldn't actually see what was what and usually didn't wear any of them for fear of the tangled disaster that would ensue.  Now everything is organized and I can see them (truth be told I found some necklaces I forgot I even had).  Not to mention it's just so darn pretty.

~ Materials ~

1 vintage frame

1 meter of fabric (this is a Ty Pennington Print ... since when does he do fabric??)

1 sheet of plywood or MDF to fit inside your frame

enough batting to cover the plywood and make it cushy

spray glue to hold batting to plywood

staple gun and staples (stapling was my favourite part)

enough nails to secure plywood to frame

hooks to hang from

Martha Stewart eat your heart out.  ; )