Happy New Year!

May the Lord's Peace be with you in 2011!

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Colossians 3:15-17

-Amelia

Dressing up Pearls

I am a southern girl, so I have probably 5 or 6 different sets of pearls. Some are very special to me. One was my grandmothers, one my parent's gave me for Christmas the year before I got married, and one my husband gave me on my wedding day.

I save those to wear on special occasions.

The other sets, however, I never wear. They are pretty short strands and I just don't think to wear them. I wanted to change them up a bit so that I would wear them more often.

I chose a necklace and a bracelet to work with. They have a "creamish white" tint.

To make the necklace, I cut a piece of lace from an old express lace shirt.
I tied it on either end of the pearls and then pinned on a fabric rosette. So easy!!
You could do this with any of your short necklaces.
Add some lace (or any pretty fabric for that matter) and a rosette and you're done.

For the bracelet, I simply cut three short pieces of lace and then tied them in three different places on the bracelet! Once again, SO easy!

Have fun changing up some of your jewelry and have a happy New Year's Eve!

-Amelia

Puzzling Tradition

For a while now my dad and I have been putting together puzzles during the Christmas Season. It has become a tradition. We pick a Christmas puzzle and start it after Thanksgiving.
Since I do not live a home anymore dad does most of the work.

Our goal is always to finish before or on Christmas Day, but the puzzle Dad chose this year was ridiculously hard. It was a 1000 piece 3-D puzzle with postcards and pictures of Vintage Santas.


Tonight, James and I were out at Mom and Dad's for supper.
We recruited James for extra "puzzle finishing support" and we finished!
Whoo hoo!

The before picture.
See that little picture on the right??
That was the only picture of the puzzle we had to look at.

Yay!
The puzzle is finished!

Happy that we are done.
I don't think we can handle another 3-D puzzle.
I love that dad is holding the magnifying glass...we used it often!


I love traditions...especially at Christmas! I wonder what puzzle we will do next year??

-Amelia

Mr. and Mrs. Placemats

I have been dying to share these with you.

A while ago I saw these adorable monogrammed placemats over at Dot, Dot, Dot.
I loved them and thought they would make awesome Christmas presents.

I never did find cute placemats at the Dollar Store like she did, but I did find some on sale at Target that worked perfectly. I ended up deciding I would make 3 different sets of placemats. 1 for my brother and sister-in-law, 1 for my friend Caroline, and 1 for my friends Karey and Phillip.

I sat down to start the monogram, but instead I had the idea to put "Mr. and Mrs." on the top.
I used felt for the yellow and black ones and this silky black and white patterned print for the black ones. It was so simple to applique.
If you want to make some of your own, Angel at TaDa! Creations has a great tutorial.

I love how they turned out.

I think they did too!!I forgot to take a picture of the placemats I made for Karey and Phillip! Bummer.
This was their first Christmas with their little baby boy so I made 3 Christmas placemats and put "mommy", "daddy", and their little boys name on top.

On another note, is anyone else having a hard time taking Christmas Decorations down?
It makes me so sad. I think I'm keeping mine up until Saturday. I just can't do it yet.
Don't judge me.

-Amelia

My husband and I have been working on our bedroom for quite some time now. We painted the walls and made these canvas look alikes. But it still didn't seem finished.

I decided that we needed to add a little something to the bed. I made this pillow for James for Christmas and he loved it! I think it turned out pretty cute! I used some fabric that my grandma gave me for the pillow and I appliqued our wedding date on the front.
It adds a nice touch to the bed.


We also ordered a black and white canvas print of one of our engagement pictures.
It will go above the bed. It should be here soon. I'll post pictures!!

-Amelia

I hope your Christmas was filled with memorable moments...

lots of happiness and joy...

magical sights...

and special times with family you will never forget.

Need a last minute gift?

I needed gifts for my two 10 year old cousins. I just wanted to give them a little something so I decided on these rosette headbands. They turned out to be so adorable and they look awesome on! It is so simple.

The rosettes were made from leftover fabric I already had and the headbands were 5 for $1 at the Dollar Store.

I made the rosettes by cutting 1 inch strips of fabric in varying lengths.

Then I tied a knot in one end and rolled the fabric around the knot hot gluing occasionally to make sure it stayed in place.

Once I had the three rosettes made, I cut a piece of felt to fit the back and hot glued the rosettes in place.

Then I hot glued the rosettes on the headband.

I hope they like them!!