Tag Archives: Christmas

Santa’s Elves Worked Hard On This One!

Posted by Leanne on January 19, 2012 2 comments

If you follow my Facebook page, you may have noticed how big and fun my blogging day was yesterday…

First, I was featured with as a guest blogger on Randee’s Organized Chaos! This was my first time, and was very cool. I hope you check it out, I have a few new projects on there that I haven’t blogged about yet, and would love for you to see! I will be blogging on the how-to’s soon (today I want to show you something different).

Then later in the day, I found my Dream Big project was featured as a favorite on AKA Design!! This is HUGE for me!! I am SO thrilled. Check out their blog, they are so talented, and Canadian!

I also found a blog hop on Momma’s Like Me. If you’re a blogger, and would like to participate, it happens on Wednesdays, and is a very cool idea. Even if you aren’t a blogger, it’s a neat thing to check out and visit, and maybe follow, all sorts of blogs. I’ve mentioned Lacee from Momma’s Like Me before, on my post about Smoothies!

Also by the time I went to bed last night, I surpassed 50 followers!! Whoohoo! I know this isn’t a big number to some, but for me, it makes me very happy! So welcome to everyone, and I really hope you love what you read. Thank you so much for the support!

Lastly, you may or may not have read, that my 7-year-old son has fallen in love. With Abby. Yes, he loves my table named Abby. Therefore, Abby is no longer for sale. She has made her way into our lives!

Okay, so now that I’ve finished gushing, I want to get on to today’s topic. Before Christmas, I put out a plea on all social media for help. My 3-year-old daughter asked Santa for a pink helicopter. Anytime anyone asked her what she wanted for Christmas, she said in her very determined voice, “pink helicopter”. When we went to see Santa and he asked what she wanted, she said “pink helicopter”. Obviously, we didn’t want her Santa-spirit broken, so we needed to find a pink helicopter. Do you know there’s no pink helicopters anywhere??? In fact, it was hard to find any helicopters at all! We finally found a Lego helicopter, but really, I wasn’t about to paint every piece of Lego pink!

Finally, a friend found something for us, about a week before Christmas. She found a helicopter model, made of Balsa Wood. Good enough!!

So very lucky for me, my parents took our 2 older kids for a night, and I had the chance to get this helicopter together… it took a really long time! First I built it, to figure it out, and took it apart again to paint it. First though, I found some adorable scrapbooking paper from my huge collection,

…traced out the tail of the helicopter, and decoupaged it on.

The rest I painted with pink craft paint from the dollar store, and some parts were also painted with Martha Stewart pink glitter paint. The glitter paint is adorable, but for some reason gives off a bit of a yellow hue. Oh well, still cute!

After all the paint and ModgePodge had dried, I rebuilt it again, with some of hubby’s strong glue to hold the pieces together.

When I asked her Christmas night how she liked her gift from Santa, she said, “I like it…but…maybe I would like a blue helicopter instead….maybe made out of Lego.”

Seriously child?? “Oh, honey, if only you knew how hard Santa’s elves worked on this helicopter!”

Thanks for reading!

~ Leanne

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NOEL Wall Decal

Posted by Leanne on January 16, 2012 7 comments

Whoohoo! There’s soooo much snow outside, it is so fabulous, and so beautiful! I kept the kids home today, we live a 12 minute drive away from their school, and the snow there is usually double from here, so figured safety (and fun!) first! So by 8:15 this morning, we were outside to play, and shovel the driveway! (and I did it with my 7 month old baby strapped to me! What a sight!)

My 3-year-old was quite confused this morning, she was pretty sure it is Christmas time, and we should get another tree and more presents! Love it.

So today’s project I’m going to show off is completely appropriate. A friend of mine bought this beautiful wall decal from Michaels, she just needed it put on a board.

Happy and honored to help, I painted a board white, distressed the edges like crazy, glazed the whole board, and I tried this product I had never tried before, from Michaels, Distressed Ink, to darken the edges.

Here’s how it turned out!

*K* allowed me to quote her : “LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!!!
You are the Queen!!!!! It looks fantastic, Leanne! Exactly as I hoped. THANK YOU!!!!!! Noel is sitting on the floor in front of the couch, and every time I walk past the living room I stop and see it and get this huge smile…partly because I love it but MOSTLY because YOU made it for me!!! Thanks Leanne!!!

Aww, thanks *K*!! I really enjoyed being able to do this for a friend!!

Thanks for reading!!!

~Leanne

I’m partying here!

A Gift for a Baby Girl

Posted by Leanne on January 5, 2012 10 comments

I didn’t even know where to start with showing you all the gifts I made for friends and family this Christmas (let me just say, signs with quotes was “my thing” this year…and I’m not finished!), so I figured I’d just start with my first project, and go from there!

One of my very good friends is expecting her third baby in March, and for the first time she found out the sex… and it’s a baby girl! (which immaturely we are very excited about, because then her, I and our other best friend will all have 1 boy and 2 girls! oh, so highschool… we know.) So even though we agreed not to give each other’s kids Christmas gifts this year – and just had a great Christmas party with all 3 families instead – I couldn’t keep myself from making a little something for this little baby… only it turned out not-so-little.

Cuuute! I know there are a few crooked words, and a few squished words, but I’m giving myself a break and loving it anyways! And my friend and her hubby love it, so that’s what matters!

Here’s how it all came together:

I found this on Pinterest...

(source)

and I found a big piece of pine in our "collection"... painted the border and sides brown...

...barely waited for the paint to dry, and added white...

...left the edges brown... when the paint dried I sanded it, and distressed the edges...

...using stencils, I eyed the placing, and stenciled the words on and free-handed the dragonfly...

...painted in the words with brown and pink...

...glazed it with brown paint diluted with water...

...sanded again to distress the words...

...and done!

I’d love to know what you think!!

Thanks for reading!

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I’m partying here.

Here’s to 2012!

Posted by Leanne on January 4, 2012 None comments

Whew! Well, how has 2012 been for you so far?? For me it started out with a bit of a bang – THE FLU. Yuck. It was inevitable it would flow through our house, as my husband has been fighting off symptoms for weeks without actually getting it, and his side of the family had it quite bad over Christmas. So my time was Sunday night, which put me out all day Monday and most of Tuesday… today was back to real life – trying to get too much done, feeling like I got nothing done.

As far as the flu goes though, I do have to say I was okay with it for a couple of reasons:

1.) it got me a couple of pounds closer to my loose-the-baby-weight resolution

2.) it’s better than what has happened January 1st the past 2 years… 2 years ago Jordan’s hamster of 2 years, George, died New Years Day. Last year his third of three goldfish died New Year’s day. Plus, a couple of days before this past Christmas, hubby and I thought his new hamster of 2 years, Iron Man, had died. We brought Jordan out of bed, told him, he cried for him, we had to say a prayer (!), and we all agreed we would let Iron Man spend his last night in his cage… the next morning Iron Man was running around perky as anything… Jordan called it our Christmas Miracle!! He would have been heart-broken had he died anyways on New Years Day. Besides Iron Man, the only pet we have left is our adorable puppy Cody, and we would have all been crazy heartbroken had he died, so for that I’d take the flu any day!

How about New Years resolutions? Did you make any? I’d love to hear about them if you did!

Mine, as I mentioned, is to work a little harder at those sticky little pounds that hang on after having a baby, but the big one for me this year is to try to make our home more functional.

We really have a bit of a hard time with our home. We bought it almost 9 years ago, because it was a great price, and would do well for all the ideas we had for it. It was also very much a fixer upper. Over the years we have rented out the downstairs, I then had a business downstairs, and now we have changed it all to family space. But we still can’t figure out how to make the house function well for us. Number 1 problem is we all have our “projects” so hubby’s tool boxes are everywhere, my project supplies and paints are everywhere, Jordan’s Lego and crafts are everywhere, and evidence of Anna’s storm is everywhere… I’m sure you know how it is… I’m just hoping this year I will figure it out.

Last year my New Year’s resolution was to get our lives organized. And overall (except for when the kids are out of school – does anyone else have this problem?!) I have gotten it pretty much under control… but I’ll share more of that another day… for now I’ve “talked” enough… I have way too many loads of laundry to fold!!

Thanks for reading!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider becoming a follower – and thank you for your support!!

I’m partying here.

The Eve of Christmas Eve

Posted by Leanne on December 23, 2011 1 comments

Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Every time I read that verse, I just want to burst into the song from Handel’s Messiah. You don’t want to hear me sing it, but it’s a good reminder of what we are celebrating this season!

How was your Eve of Christmas Eve today? Our kids are beyond excited, and we really didn’t know what to do with ourselves for most of the day, and I assume that tomorrow the day will be worse! It’s been fun watching how Anna, at age 3, knows we are celebrating Christmas because it is Jesus’ birthday. And fun watching Jordan trying real hard to remember this, but being more concerned about presents instead. He has a true passion for Santa, and we can see his personality change every year in December… he’s always a good kid, but every December, he becomes really…nice. It becomes a little obvious he’s being nice for Santa’s sake.

I haven’t been able to blog at all while the kids have been home for Christmas break, life obviously gets a little crazier having the kids home all day, and fitting all preparations for Christmas in between. I have also been busy finishing up some last-minute presents, and can’t wait to show them off to you after Christmas. And thank heavens for my parents who took the 2 older kids overnight, and a friend of mine (who I could just hug) for finding me a wood helicopter kit for Anna. Anna is insisting she will receive a pink helicopter from Santa. Do you know they don’t exist?! So it took me all day and evening to build the kit, then take it apart to paint and decorate it, then build it back together again with glue to keep it together. But she should be pleased!!

While I haven’t been able to blog, I’ve certainly been entertained by the ones I love to read, and by the photos on Pinterest. Here’s a bit to share with you… and in the meantime, Merry Christmas!!

xoxo