The Favorites of Christmases Past.

As mentioned previously I haven't done a thing toward Christmas decorating.

 Nothing.

Bupkis!

( Remember Bupkis??) 

Actually that's not completely true.

I have looked at all the blog tours of already decorated homes.

#seekinginspiration

#seekingmotivationtoo

Does decorating the dog count??
#notthrilled

But in years past I have been spot on

and accomplished Christmas décor greatness 
 (ok, at least gotten the tree up - with lights!) in a timely manner.

I also used to make cute Christmas projects and share the DIY!

Let's remember fondly and revisit my top Christmas posts.

In case you,too, are #seekingmajormotivation.

They are all simple and easy I can assure you!

This guy is and has been my number one blog post "view"

and my number one "pin" on Pinterest!

This paint stick project of the Three Wisemen

is also a top post.

It is practically a "free" green craft.

This simple outdoor Nativity that I first did with children

waaaaay back in 2011 is still a top 10 post year round.

It is made with concrete landscape pavers.

 Mine still looks like it did when I painted it four years ago!

(And we do use it outside)

A little more involved but a keeper from year to year-


is this Advent Candle Wreath made from terra cotta pots.
I made it with groups of children for a few years in a row so we painted the pots and made candles and "flames" from TP rolls and tissue paper. 
Many of their parents supervised its use and substituted real candles. 
It is equally pretty left in its natural terra cotta state and filled in with real greenery.
One of my  volunteer moms had her children craft them for their grandparents one year and it was a HUGE hit!


And I have a bunch of Snowman projects
 but this one is the second most viewed post of all time.

Snowman in a Baggie!!!
It was a simple idea I cooked up for a school party activity and it is still being used year after year.
So easy and inexpensive but everyone loves to make him and then squish that nose around!

If you are looking for more projects then check the archives!
I have several Nativity projects, more snowmen and some burlap and painted canvas projects that are 'oldies but goodies."

And maybe I'll be back soon with some actual Christmas decorating pictures -
from my actual house!!!
#icanhope

Junior League Christmas House!

In the midst of the One Room Challenge hoop la

 I was invited to be part of the design team at a house on the

 

2015 Junior League of Woodstock Christmas Tour of Homes

.

That's a mouthful.

And pretty "big league' for me.

 

The lead designer at this home invited me to help and I chose two small areas.

Let me preface by saying that this was a model home. 

 The only nonresidential home on the tour and it was drop dead gorgeous

 from top to bottom.

It's very industrial chic and lots of moody colors and textures.

 To die for painted brick in the interiors in some spots.

 Really amazing.

I want to move in.

 

 

 

I chose a desk/study area in a small landing at the top of the stairs.

It's the hallway between the master and the other bedrooms. In many floor plans it's open in this area like a catwalk but this is a great use of space.

 I knew I wantd to do a gift wrap station.

And I wanted it to look like it was in use right now!!

 

We covered existing framed art that we couldn't move with pictures of the Big Guy in Red that I printed off of the internet.

We typed notes to Santa to go in the antique typewriter and left lists of naughty  and nice people laying around on the desk!

This cart was very popular. It's a hand me down .

It is really used to store floor plans in a drafting office but I like gift wrap better :)

 

 

 

It was a ton of fun and the hit of the whole deal was my tomato cage tree in a galvanized bucket.

 It's so simple and easy but sometimes that's the best.

We have a couple and I use them on our screened porch at Christmas. They have pebbles in the bottom so they don't blow over and I use plastic ornaments.

 

 

My other spot was in th kitchen on the main level.

 It was a huge bakers rack in between the kitchen and eating area.

 I knew what had to happen there the minute I saw it ... cookies for Santa!

 

This popular guy made an appearance at the Christmas Tour of Homes

 and, once again, was a big hit!!

 



 

I made stacks of air dry clay gingerbread men (I use Crayola Model Magic), painted them  and glued them to cookie sheets, spatulas and drying racks from the Dollar Store.

 

 

The "Fresh Milk" sign was a last minute, night before the tour project.

Someone asked how old the sign was and we said, "24 hours :)))))"

 

   Mollie helped me swirl white paint in milk bottles and add cute straws.

what did we do before you could buy cute straws in every color??

 

It put us all in the mood to decorate at home after Thanksgiving.

And that may be all the cookies that get "baked" this year.

 

Think I can get away with it??? 



And They're Off...

... to good homes! I've been delivering for 3 days and my kitchen table is finally clear. Now we can fill it back up with baking and wrapping!
 

 

The Gingerbread Man on the right has his saying permanently painted on instead of a chalkboard!! The owner said she wanted it painted on because she doesn't write like I do and she wants it to look like that all the time :)  Too funny.

 

Mr. Snowman is all buttoned up!
Check out the roll of cute owl Christmas paper on the left.
Guess whose gifts will be wrapped in that?

 

 

Again, middle-of-the night pictures but two long, skinny signs off to the same house.
Two little custom order ornaments are left to deliver and I'm closing up shop until after the first of the year!! It's been fun to be this busy but I'm ready to finish my decorating and bake some cookies when College Girl rolls in from finals!

Painting Peppermints...

Several people have asked how to paint the peppermint part of this guy, a cute Gingerbread Man! *
It was giving them trouble and I have a few heading out the door tomorrow so I took some pictures while I was painting this week. 
This is how I do it...
I use Krylon Dual Spraypaint and paint the pizza pan white. I cut triangles from repositionable vinyl that I use on my Cricut. You could use painters tape as well.



Then I use a flat paintbrush and paint the edge of each of the triangles. This keeps the red from seeping under and gives a nice clean edge.
This step is well worth the time - it makes all the difference!

Then you can spray paint the red triangles or brush the red paint. Either way works well.
Carefully peel up the vinyl triangles. You should be left with nice, clean edges!
( Check out that messy work table - crazy!
 I cleaned it up today so I could actually do some work!)
 

Then I use a thin flat brush and lightly paint a highlight about an inch in from the edge.

The last step is spatter painting the whole thing with white paint.

It's pretty simple and if you remember to paint the edges with white before painting the red then you will have a perfect peppermint pinwheel when you finish!

 

* According to my Google stats the original post on this guy has been viewed over 24,000 times. I think that is amazing - that he has drawn that much attention and that Google keeps track and I can know this. And I am fascinated by the fact that people who are thousands of miles away look at blog posts about Gingerbread Men!!

 

Showtime!!!

One day down and one day to go !

Here is my little booth. I was worried about having enough stuff to fill it but it worked out. Most of my "art" is made from recycled and found items, scraps of paper, fabric and ribbon, etc. so I decided my display would be the same. I gathered up all my galvanized items from the house and porch and a galvanized ladder from the backyard. The "filler" around the base of the trees is shredded newspaper and the tags are paint strips - may I say that I have used paint strips for art and gift tags since before anyone even thought up Pinterest :)



This was first thing in the morning!

 

 By late afternoon all the pumpkin stakes except one lonely guy were gone along with the snowman and gingerbread ones !

 

I sold most of these long signs and took some orders, too.

 and people started to ask : Are you going home to paint some more tonight??

I decided to be wise and go out to dinner with a friend instead!

I was pooped - Craft Shows are fun but they are work!!!!

I'm off to the show... have a great day!


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"my Mummy said there'd be days like this..."

... so I took my scraps of white paper and got busy!!!
This one may take the cake for easy, peasy.

 

These are gingerbread man shapes cut from white paper and then skinny strips of scrap white paper to "wrap" the mummy. Two black dots for eyes peeking out and some Mod Podge. This can be done any size you wish - it all depends on the size of the gingerbread man to begin with. This is a great project for children because they can trace a cookie cutter and cut out the shape. Then just supply them with a pile of skinny strips and let them "measure" how long to cut them so that the mummy/gingerbread man shape is still obvious. This can keep your own children or a classroom full of children busy for quite some time. And then just glue it all together!!! These are small ornament/package toppers on scraps of wood but they could be done on canvases from Dick Blick - some day they will send me some canvases and say thanks for bragging on us :) - or just out of construction paper and use google eyes for a budget version!! Cute any way you go - my Mummy says!

** I've got to finish at least one thing in the daylight hours
 ( instead of the middle of the night!) 
so that the pictures will be decent!! Sorry for the quality!

50,000 reasons... or read the LARGE print, not the fine print!

I thought I had a few more days to put this post together but it all happened so fast!!

I had decided last week that I would do my first giveaway when I reached 50,000 views. I know some blogs have that in a week, probably a day, but it's a big milestone for me - it means someone besides my mom and my friend DeDe are reading :)

It is mostly thanks to this guy.

So run, run as fast as you can and read about the Gingerbread Man! It's funny actually. He has had a bazillion hits - thank you Pinterest and Be Colorful Blog - a fav, but when my friend commissioned him I struggled a bit with how to make the brown Gingerbread Man cute and colorful. Turns out he's a charmer. There have been a few other high traffic posts:
like the Pumpkin Totem, and Snowman in a Baggie, which is about the simplest thing I ever thought up!
I planned to set up a new mollie's mom Facebook page** and then have a giveaway.
 Well, I struggled with some of the FB set up issues and linking the blog and FB so that delayed the giveaway a bit.
But I finally got it all pulled together and we are over 50,000 views so here are the "deets", as they say:
Just "like" mollie's mom on Facebook and then leave  a message on this post that you "liked" the new FB page ( if you want to have two chances to win then "pin" your favorite project from this blog and tell me that in the message also!)and what you want to win because you can choose:
either a burlap candy corn door hanger
like this

 or a canvas with a favorite verse or quote
like this



You choose and I'll send it your way.
Pretty simple. And I'll choose a winner on....
 a favorite day of mine ... 9/29 ... College Girls birthday!!!

Good Luck!!!

** The Facebook page is set up but I still am having trouble with the FB "Like" button for my sidebar!!! Any tips???  I've had some choice things to say about the FB" help" pages. :(

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