He is Risen! Happy Easter!

We had a lovely warm and beautiful Easter here in southeast North Carolina. :) We had most of the family with us and that always means fun, laughter and chaos. 10 adults and 9 children. Throw in 3 dogs and 2 cats and like I said, chaos. But it's always a good chaos. Lots of food, love and Easter eggs to be hunted.
And Jesus too. He's here every day but remembering him on Sunday in our church service is just a reminder of all he's done for us. All the blessings that He has given us. All those blessings dressed up in pretty little dresses on Sunday. Thank you Lord for all you did on the cross and thank you for all you continue to do in my life. :) 
Hope y'all had a wonderful Easter! From our family to yours!

SOME OF MY FAVORITE THINGS OF 2014

And these are a few of my favorite  things…LOL...y'all remember the song from Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music? Well, you'll just have to imagine yourself singing it as you read. :)

I thought since we were closing in on the end of the year it would be fun to share some of my favorite discoveries or just favorite things of 2014.  Just for fun….

First off, I gotta show y'all a picture of one of my favorite trees... I love this tree. It's so old fashioned and yet contemporary. Simple and elegant. I am really sorry that I can't tell ya where it's from because I couldn't find the source online.

Unknown source

And of course my favorite tree would include my own. We have a 12 ft tree in our Family room and then another 6.5 foot tree in our Living room. I'll post pictures later. But for now, here are a few of my other favorite things...

MY WONDERFUL CHARLESTON TRIP AND MY BEAUTIFUL COW!

Charleston was fun! It was the first time I had ever been there. My son Eric moved there for a job opportunity about 4 months ago. I miss him so much and hate that he is 4 hours away. Yes I know 4 hours isn't much and lots of grown kids move far away from their parents, but I don't have to like it! I miss being able to just meet him for lunch or go listen to him play out at one of the local music venues. (He is also a musician)  I simply miss him. Okay, I am done venting and I will share with you the upside of him living in Charleston where I will continue to visit him...

How to Make A Simple 5 minute Christmas Wreath!

This was the easiest wreath in the world to make! It literally took me 5 minutes. I was going through my decorations and I had a strand of wimpy garland left over and nowhere to use it. I said to the hubs...I wish I had one of those wire wreaths I could wrap this on. Light bulb idea!!! And before he could answer me I said, "Oh my gosh! A hanger!" Yep. Grab a hanger, shape it out, wrap the garland around it.

 
   Add a few little ornaments or wreath decorations, (I used bells) and......... Voila! Done deal and I love it! Seriously, c'mon...could a Christmas decoration be any easier? And it looks even better in person. Its green and gold glittery garland so it shimmers. And I love it on the door. Pretty proud of myself with this one. :)

Holiday Decor

Horrible pic (new camera on the way!)

So.... the holidays are coming. YAY!!! I love this time of year!!! I also like to decorate for the holidays. Well, I love to decorate for anything! And I think I do a pretty good job for an amateur in home decor, (unless my friends are all lying to me! cuz I seem to get a lot of compliments). But I seem to have a hard time with tablescapes and mantles. I always have the best of intentions and then when I put them together they just don't seem to quite impress me. In fact, they fizzle. I get no "wow" factor. So I could really use some pointers if anyone cares to give me some????? :)

This is my fireplace now. It's kinda barren -if you saw my previous recent post you'll know it's because we just re-did it. And I just felt like less is more for right now. And that is VERY odd for me.
Here are a couple ideas I have. I walked through Pottery Barn the other day and saw some decoration ideas but whoa......they are pricey! So I'm gonna make my own. Here is a sign I ran across on Pinterest which led me to a great little blog called http://growingupgardner4.blogspot.com/

I just love this sign and the simplicity of the mantle.

So that's one idea. I really like the sign and might try my hand at making one. Don't you love it? She also has an etsy store where she sells them. And I'm thinking some different size poinsettia's to the left, maybe 2 and an over sized candle on the right or a basket of pine cones?

At almost 40 bucks for these at Pottery Barn, I can make them myself cheap!

 










Or maybe...

...this potted Christmas tree on a much smaller scale next to the sign? I usually do lots of reds, greens and blues but I think I want to do more "natural" this holiday season. What do you think?