Eclectic Nature-Inspired Mantel

I have been seeing some great Spring-inspired decor out here in bloggy-land lately, and I gotta say I am ready for Spring too.  Just haven't *quite* gotten there with my decor yet.  I've been enjoying my late-Winter mantel since I took down my solitary Valentine's Day decoration.  Care to take a peek?

So I was given a whole mess of pheasant feathers by my dear sweet friend Astor, whose husband goes hunting on an annual trip out West.  I've so admired her use of the feathers in floral arrangements, and I wanted to give it a shot too.  What do you think?

The feathers star in my zinc planter.

I love the wildness of it...makes me feel ready to be outside!

Feathers have such intrinsic beauty that they're great all by themselves.  Beautiful patterns and colors--what's not to like?

They inspired me to celebrate natural textures and patterns in this mantel, as in the zebra stripes in my photo there, and the really rough, weathered wood of the frame I put it in.  But I also really like the bit of shine in the lantern, and the sparkle of the glass up there as well.  Am I just unable to stick to a theme?  I don't know, I just like mixin' and matchin' I guess!

I used more feathers in my other vignettes around the family room--Astor, you were so generous to give me so many!  I tried to replicate the "feel" of the mantel (nature-inspired eclectic? point-and-shoot safari?) but added some blue accents in these other areas.

Sweet little feathers in a burlap nest.

I *love* decorating with books--even with their covers on!

So, how long it lasts is always an open question with That Mommy on the prowl.  I'll probably simplify for Spring, but enjoying the richness of it for now.  How about you?  Have you moved on to Spring yet?

Sunday Funnies

Isn't it so cute when your preschooler is trying to pronounce something and it comes out all funny?  Biggest is real into doing mazes, but I can't get him to say the word right.  He always calls them a-mazes.  As in, "That was a really fun a-maze, Mommy.  Can we do a a-maze later too?"

He is also convinced that bubble wrap is actually called "bubble wrack."  He actually gets mad when we call it by its proper name, and insists it is "wrack."  I have a vision of our family all calling it bubble wrack someday, due to his stubbornness commitment to his pronunciation.

Just last night I was explaining what Lightning McQueen's race official does, and he goes, "Okay, okay, so this guy here is the artificial.  He's the artificial and he decides who wins!"  Cracked me up.  Earlier yesterday we were pretending to be pirates and he repeatedly shouted the phrase, "Shimber me tinders!  Shimber me tinders!"   I think he's got that one right, at least.  The artificial says so.

Introducing the New Me!

So...notice anything different about me???

And...you likey?  Because I love-y!  I haven't been around this week because I decided I would not publish one more post until my Comments window was working again.  I have learned that being able to receive your comments is so huge for me.  Not so much for the sweetness of them (although that is very nice), but because I blog to connect with people.  So writing posts without even an option to write back...uh, that wasn't workin' for me.

Long story short, after many hours trying to fix the problem (including calling in my very special reinforcements who speak HTML) I realized it would take a redesign to fix the problem...so I called the Fairy Blogmother!  Now, not only are my problems solved, but I also have a cute new look...yippee!  And the best part is that it was affordable, which if you know me and my commitment to Uncle Dave, you already knew it had to be.

Watch out now 'cause I am baaaaaaaack!!!

Sunday Funnies: Private Parts Edition

One morning, back when Big Boy was about three and a half, I was getting him dressed.  We got to his underwear and he spent a couple seconds looking at it.  Then he asks me, "Why is the design on the back of my underwear and not on the front?"

Me: "I guess to make your bum look cute."

Him: "Maybe it should go on the front and make my penis look cute!"

We have a bunch of other penis stories too.  My husband tells a hilarious one involving very loud talking about other people's penises in a locker room.  Then there was the time that we took him to a very nice restaurant.  The pianist (am I like 12 years old for chuckling to myself at the word "pianist?") comes over to our table to chat and says to him, "Ooh, that food looks yummy!  Does your tummy feel good now?"

"Nope," he says, "just my penis."

Cute Monogram Art

Remember the other day when I told you about my Craft Gone Wrong?  Well, here is the final result of that particular project, and in the end I think it turned out pretty cute:

Awwwwww!

I made this monogram for my dear friend's daughter who just moved into her "Big Girl" room.  It was pretty simple, really.  I used the Silhouette to make the letters themselves out of cardstock.

Then I used spray adhesive to attach the monogram to scrapbook paper, and then framed it in a 12x12 frame.  I really wanted to get this done quickly, so I ended up buying a less-than-perfect frame and fixing it up a bit.  Here's what the frame originally looked like:

Of course, I was not going for primary yellow, so I also picked up a can of white satin spray paint.  I liked that the frame was wood, but like I told my friend, I think a cuter frame would be...um...cuter.

Okay, so why was this a Craft Gone Wrong?  Mostly because the Silhouette is a fickle friend.  Yes, she can do some amazing things.  She (and her software) can also give you fits.  I won't bore you with the play-by-play, but if you are having trouble welding letters, email me and I will send you my nitty-gritty instructions to make it work.



P.S. Lovin' the Linkys at:

Truly Lovely

Finding Fabulous

The Shabby Nest

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Beautiful Before and After

{Sadly I am still having trouble with my comments field!  If you have any comments I would still love to hear them...please email me at thatmommyblog@gmail.com.}

Remember waaaay back when I told you all about my friend Jessica and her amazing ability to be inspired by fabric?  Well, she's all tucked into her new home and you've got to see this! Here's her inspiration fabric for her new bedroom:

Pretty gorgeous, right?

And here's the Before picture of what her bedroom looked like under the previous owners of her house:

Here's her beautiful and serene After:

Hello gorgeous!

Jessica went with subdued, neutral colors with hints of the blues and grays you see in the fabric.  Her new white wainscoting is such a pretty backdrop to that gorgeous bed.  Here's a closer look:

Notice the headboard--it is natural linen with a nailhead trim.  Jessica and I worked on that one together using the tutorial from Isabella & Max Rooms, although Jessica certainly did the lion's share of the work nailing each and every nail in!  I think it turned out great, and for much cheaper than she could have bought one.

The bedside table.

Does this girl have great taste or what?  She also used beautiful fabrics to update two chairs in her living room:

This one is near and dear to my heart since we found it at an antiques store together.  She tore off  the old upholstery herself and painted it, then had an upholsterer do the rest.  And check out this old armchair:

Hope you're inspired by Jessica's beautiful fabric-inspired decorating...I know I am!

How To Simplify Your Crafting

Last week I experienced something that anyone who's even a little crafty has experienced: the downward vortex of the Craft Gone Wrong.  You think you're getting into something terribly simple, and it ends up just being terrible.  A trip to the craft store is made, then a return trip to pick up something you forgot, then a third trip because you've gone and screwed everything up and have to start from scratch.  Ya feelin' me?

I'll be showing you the finished product of my Craft Gone Wrong real soon, but this one got me thinking--how can I simplify my crafting?  It's so easy to get caught up--nay, obsessed--at least for me.  But I do have a few suggestions for simplifying and maybe you can offer some too!

Use what you have.  I made this owl for Littlest for Christmas, using only fabric I had on hand, which is just so fulfilling compared to running out to the fabric store and throwing money at them.

Orange ears: cashmere sweater that got holes in it.  Denim: kids' jeans with holey knees.
Yellow eyes and back: leftover flannel from sewing a sleepsack back in the day.  Brown tummy:
microfiber left over from some pillows I made.  Prints: old cotton T-shirts of mine.

If at first you don't succeed, try again--once.  Only once.  If it's not working, just stop and wait until you get a simpler solution in one of those strokes of genius that can happen only after all the supplies have been put away.

Do what you know (and love).  I love the cake decorating aisle at the craft store.  All that fondant, all that sugar, all those adorable little toppers.  But I refuse.  Flat out refuse to get into cake decorating.  It would be a whole new world of tools and supplies and learning curves, and for now I am just not going there.  Stop tempting me, Cricut Cake machine!

Make a list, then forget it.  I have been driving myself crrrrazy lately with the ongoing list in my head.  As in, every time I walk into a room I think of 24 gazillion projects I want to get to in that room.  So the other night I made a list.  It had some realistic goals and some pie-in-the-sky projects...the only question was, "Do I think about this project on anything like a regular basis?"  My project list was 5 and 1/2 pages long and covered every room in my house, the garage, the exterior and our closets.  Woah.  I'm even crazier than I thought.  But since I wrote the list, I haven't been nearly as tormented...the list is on paper so it doesn't need to be in my head.  Try it--it's really a relief.

That's it!  A few suggestions to get you started on making your crafting simpler.  If you have a suggestion, I would love to hear it!



P.S. I am having trouble with my "comments!"  Was trying out Intense Debate but it is only working sporadically, so going back to basic Blogger comments for now and will try and troubleshoot soon.  In the meantime, if you are having trouble commenting, please contact me at thatmommyblog@gmail.com.  Thanks!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope your day is full of...

love!!!

Sunday Funnies

We were racing up the stairs, as we do every night, to see who would get to the top first.  "That was too close to call!" says Mommy.

Big Boy shouts, "Yeah, Mommy!  That was a close macaw!"

Love it.

The Preschool Portfolio

Today I am taking a break from my incessant crafting and ignoring of my blog to bring you this idea for corralling your child's artwork.  The looming threat of my house drowning in colorful paper became a serious issue when BB simultaneously started preschool and developed a love for coloring here at home as well.  And woah...was there ever an explosion of paper.  Like, six deep all over the fridge type of explosion.

So, here's what we do now:

It's a Preschool Portfolio!  Every day (after we show off the artwork to Daddy), I punch holes in it and put it in a category:

"School" or "Home."  The reason I split them up is because at the end of the year we're going to throw most of it away and I think more "Bert and Ernie" coloring pages will be recycled and more cute school projects will be kept.  

I mean, how can I throw this out?  So cute.  And the best part is that there is also a spot for the notebook.  Lately I have been designating spaces for things that have heretofore been "floaters" in the house.  Do you know the type?  Magazines, notebooks or toys that have no true home?  Tell them where they belong--you will feel so much better!  So, the Preschool Portfolio has its space in the cabinet along with the Mommy Notebook:

No more drowning in paper, and no guilt for throwing artwork out or stuffing it in a drawer.  Aaaahhh--now that's better!

Little Old Stylish Me

Well, whaddya know!  I actually convinced someone out there that I am a Stylish Blogger!

My evil plan to fool you all and gain world domination is working!  Bwa ha ha ha hA HA!  And now, you know for sure that I am sooooo not stylish.  Anyone who tries to do an evil laugh in writing (or in person for that matter) definitely isn't.  Nevertheless, sweet Stephanie over at Binkies and Briefcases nominated me for the Stylish Blogger Award, and I think I'll go ahead and accept, knowing full well that every one of you is more stylish than I am.

So, now I must engage in the ritual telling of seven random facts about me:

1) Olives, avocado and cheese are my favorite foods.  I was supposed to be born in the Mediterranean.

2) My guilty pleasure is watching "The Bachelor."  It's gotten harder lately because I just get all maternal-feeling toward these girls.  Like, why is this beautiful, sweet girl crying over this dude?  Maybe she never learned that she has great worth even without a man...and that somebody out there is just made for her.  I can identify because it took me a long time to learn the same lesson.  So much for mocking all those girls for crying on TV.  Darn maternal instincts.

3) I am terrible at spelling.  I misspelled "avocado" and "Mediterranean" in the last two minutes.  Twice.

4) I used to be an amateur boxer, and I still enjoy hitting a heavy bag.  My new love is for Zumba, though.

5) Eighties music is tops.  I like 80s pop, rock, alternative...whatever is eighties, I love it and probably know the lyrics.  In fact, I know so many lyrics that now I can't remember things like people's birthdays, or what I ate yesterday, or...what was I talking about?  Yeah, that too.

6) I am currently reading The Girl who Played with Fire against my better judgment.  I have to watch what I read and look at because it sticks in my head and bothers me.  Are you like that too?  If you are, don't read any of the books in this series.

7) My favorite scent: fresh-cut limes.

Geez, that was hard.  It's no so easy to find seven things to say about yourself.  Much easier to pass the award along to these seven stylish women:

Leslie at A Room Somewhere
She is both adorable and cool.

Shannon at Googiemomma
She totally cracks me up.

Mama Hall for her honesty.

Cara and Ann Marie at Twice Lovely
Furniture renovation to die for.

Delores at Vignette Design,
because every post is drool-worthy.

Cyndy at The Exchange
Check out her new laundry room!

Lisa at A Vintage Vine
and her fabulous new kitchen!

Please go check them out--they're awesome!  And, just a note to those of you I chose--I have mixed feelings about awards...they are fun but I can understand why some bloggers opt out of them.  If you don't want to pass it on, please don't!  That's totally cool with me.  I don't wanna cause any craziness, I just wanna have fun.  It's the Cyndi Lauper in me.

Sunday Funnies (Goin' Back to the Archives)

It's basically like Murphy's law for bloggers: the moment you start an official "series" your material dries up.  As in, my kids said nothing funny this week.  Or, they said so much funny stuff that I am inoculated and can't hear it anymore.  So, we're going back into the Mommy Archives for this week's Sunday Funnies.  What follows are all things said when Biggest was two or three years old:

One night Daddy had a headache, so Biggest wanted to pray for him.  He got the words almost right: "Dear God, I hope you make Daddy feel better.  Um...in Christmas, Amen."

Daddy: "See the baby dogs?  What are baby dogs called?"
Biggest: "Doglets."

My trip to Belgium got postponed because of that volcano--remember that?  When Biggest was asked why Mommy wasn't going on her trip, he said, "because there's a volcano interrupting in Iceland."

Potty-training can be so confusing.  One day we were going through the process and got to flushing when he asked, "and when I flush it goes down into the solar system, right?"

Overstock Love (and a Discount Code)!

Have you ever bought anything from Overstock.com?  They're wonderful...and I love them super-mucho today because they are offering you--dear readers--a discount code for 10% off! Hip Hip Hooray!

When we moved from our condo to our home three years ago I ordered this chair and have been extremely happy with it.  It was delivered quickly and was very true to the picture online.  It sits in my little "contemporary corner" in my office and I love it!

So, what will you buy with your discount code?  I have been coveting this mini chandelier for my closet re-do:

Versailles Mini Chandelier

And a gorgeous chandelier might get lonely without a cute new chair, right?

Chippendale Occasional Ivory/Black Chair

I can totally see myself sitting there and admiring all my new jewelry!

Hermosa Bracelet

Robert Rose Goldtone Hoop Necklace

Swoon.  The possibilities are endless!  Y'all know I am on the Dave Ramsey plan, but if you're in the mood for saving money, just use discount code 121745.  It is good for 10% off anything except for movies, books and electronics and it never expires!  Just make sure you order everything all at once because you can only use it once per email address.  

The main reason why I first went shopping at Overstock was for their shipping--did you know it is always only $2.95 shipping?  That's all I paid for shipping on my chair and that alone is a huge savings.  

Now, for the legal stuff: y'all should know that all the ideas and opinions expressed in this post (and of course, on all my posts) are my own.  No monetary compensation was received for doing this post, however, I was provided with a discount code.

Happy Shopping, friends!