Happy New Year!

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13

I wish you and your family many blessings in 2011

Love, Molly

Christmastime Is Here

I have been busy as an elf filling our home with Christmas cheer...

The true meaning of Christmas, the birth of our Saviour, Jesus Christ...

Thanksgiving Table

Even though I am not hosting Thanksgiving at my home this year, I still decorated the table. After all I believe Thanksgiving should be celebrated every day in November, actually everyday of the year I made a Thanksgiving "tree" with willow branches and paper Japanese Lantern branches. I used vintage Thanksgiving images to create ornaments. I glued the images on a brown paper grocery bag and trimmed around the edges with decorative scissors. Then, I backed them with scrapbook paper and added glitter to the images. Finally, I punched a hole in the top and tied them to the branches with vintage seam binding.

I finished off the table with a April Cornell runner from TJMaxx, antique brass candlesticks, candle rings (I made) and Tiffany blue candles.

Hope you are having a beautiful fall day! ~Molly

Book Page Wreath

Last winter I was browsing through my Pottery Barn catalogue and saw this... I L-O-V-E-D it and have wanted to make one of my own ever since. Almost one year later I finally did... I am so happy, happy. First, I googled "Pottery Barn Book Page Wreath" so I could see the original picture from the catalogue ( I know I ripped it out for inspiration back in December of '09 but I couldn't find it) Then, I googled tutorials for the wreath. There are quite a few out there. Honestly when I followed a couple of the tutorials my wreath wasn't looking exactly like the one in PB so I merged a few of the techniques together then added some of my own techniques and I think I got pretty darn close to the original. I used 3 different vintage books so I would have different shades of worn book pages and different sizes. All of my books were thrifted. One of the books was over 100 years old, one was 80 and the other was 40. I love making things out of old books. I love how they smell and how they feel. There are so many cool thinks out in blogland to make with old books I've got to get busy.

Hope ya'll have a great weekend!~Molly

Vintage Harvest Cone

I am going on a road trip to visit my best friend from high school this weekend. I am so excited! I wanted to take her a little something so I whipped up this cone and filled it with some of her favorite treats. I could make a hundred of these. They are so fun. You can find my tutorial for crepe paper fringe here. Happy harvest to all. ~Molly

Fabric Pumpkin Bandwagon

So I decided to jump on the fabric pumpkin bandwagon. Have you seen how many versions are out there in blogland? I used Danielle Thompson's tutorial, based on one from Martha Stewart Living November 2009 issue. Mine don't hold a candle to Danielle's but they aren't so bad and they were really fun to make. You can even get your kids involved. Lilly stuffed our pumpkins for me. When we were working on them she said "Mommy, when I grow up I want to be a pumpkin stuffer." Never heard that one before :) Hope you all are having a fun fall so far.

Pumpkin Cutie

Today my daughter Lilly made this pumpkin cutie to hang in our window for fall. It is a project I made up when I taught Elementary school. I always loved making them. Below I have done a tutorial so that you can make them with your children and/or students. Enjoy! Supplies you will need:

two large sheets of orange tissue paper

a wire coat hanger

white glue

scissors

brown paper bag

construction paper

marker

Step 1:

bend the coat hanger into a circle or oval shape to resemble a pumpkin,

bend the hook at the top closed to use as a hanger

Step 2:

trace the hanger with white glue,

turn the hanger over and lay it on top of the tissue paper (with the hanger sticking out over the top of the tissue)

Step 3:

trace the other side of the hanger with glue,

lay the second sheet of tissue paper on top of the hanger so that the hanger is sandwiched between the two sheets

at this point the hanger is at the top sticking out of the tissue and there is excess tissue at the bottom of the pumpkin (see picture below)

set aside and let it dry

Step 4:

use scissors and trim the left side, right side and top of the pumpkin,

leaving the long tissue at the bottom,

cut the excess tissue into strips (like streamers)

my daughter is 3 so I used a pencil to draw lines for her to cut on

Step 5: cut eyes and a nose out of construction paper, I have also used buttons and foam pieces for this step, use a marker to draw a mouth Step 6: cut the paper bag into skinny strips and glue them on as hair, you could use raffia or yarn for the hair instead if you choose

Lilly finished off her pumpkin with a big blue bow (Lilly always wears a bow) When I had my students do this project we put a construction paper hat on the pumpkin. You could also put a bow tie on your cutie. When you finish it looks great hanging in a window or from the ceiling. Happy Fall. Have fun creating with your kids!

Love, Molly

Back To School Apple Trees

Lilly and one of her BFF's, Jo Jo, started back to preschool this week. They are in the same 3 year old class this year. Jo Jo came over to spend some time with us this week so I thought I would come up with a project for the girls to do to celebrate going back to school. I came up with a recycled apple tree. The project is made of a cereal box, paper towel rolls and red tissue paper left over from a Christmas gift...yes, I save everything :) Here's how we made 'em: First, I cut apart a cereal box and flattened it out. Then, I used a sharpie to draw tree tops and cut them out for the girls (of course older children could cut their own)

The girls painted the tree tops green. Next, I cut 2 inch slits at the tops and bottoms of the paper towel roll on both sides of the roll. Then they painted the "trunks" brown.

I set the tree top and trunk aside to dry.

Next, I cut small squares of tissue paper and the girls bunched the up into little "apples". After the tree tops are dry, glue on the "apples".

Finally, I cut a 4"x2" rectangle out of the cereal box scraps to use at the base of the trunk for stability.

Slide the tree tops into the slits at the top of the "trunk" and slide the rectangle into the bottom slits. That's it! I think they are so colorful and fun!

Lilly's Birthday Scrapbook...Finally!

Lilly turned 3 years old 8 months ago and I have been dying to make her a scrapbook to commemorate her celebration at Disney World. Last weekend I finally finished it. It was so much fun to make. I have been collecting fun Disney papers and embellishments for months now. I ended up doing my journaling in the form of a story about "Princess Lilly's Birthday". That was kind of Lilly's idea. She wanted the book to be a story. I thought that was great and I went with it. I have to add that the best part of making this scrapbook was that Lilly participated too. During one of my scrapbooking sessions I gave her some scraps of paper, stickers, crayons, and a glue stick. She sat across from me and worked for an hour! I was so impressed. She said "Mommy will you put my page in the scrapbook?" Of course I will! The next day she asked me to put it on my blog. Can you believe 3 year olds these days know about blogs :)

I punched holes in Lilly's birthday cards and added them to the end of the book...

And last but not least Lilly's first scrapbook page...

It will be placed in the middle of the scrapbook right next to Snow White. That is where she insisted it go :)

Meant to Be Hoodie

This fabric embellished hoodie was my weekend projectLast Thursday I was rummaging through my drawer of clothes that I have collected and saved for sewing projects. I found this girls shirt at a thrift store a while ago and I bought it because I loved the fabric. The shirt was way too big for Lilly and way too small for me but I knew I could use it for a project one day.

Later on that same day Lilly and I headed for one of our twice a week trips to Super Target. I was browsing the sale racks and found this baby... It was the exact same color as the background of the thrift shirt and it was 4 Bucks! It was so meant to be. I snatched it up and could not wait to get home and figure out what I was going to do. I had seen an awesome embellished hoodie here not to long ago made by Alisa Burke. She was inspired by some cardigans from Anthropologie. So I decided to cut out the front of the thrifted shirt and applique it to the hoodie.And speaking of meant to be...look at this dress on Lilly... I found it at a thrift store last week, it is a Lilly Pulitzer, excellent condition, it is her size and it was 99cents! Loving it!