Christmas Ornaments from Christmas Cards

I like to reuse and recycle.
Here's a great idea my daughter bought home from school one day many years ago. It is a great way to be able to save some of those favorite Christmas cards from years gone by.
A very simple way to make a Card into an ornament, for hanging on garland or on your tree.
Like little presents!

Start by cutting the card in half.

Fold all the edges

and cut the corners. Fold the middle flap down  to create a pocket

Fold the corners in to create your box end and fold the middle flap down over them.

You can tape it or glue it. I chose to staple. simple and quick.
Do this to both sides of your card, to create a little box.

and go ahead and fit the top onto the bottom!

You wind up with some cute stuff on the back of the box. Nice verses...Signatures from old friends...

And the finished product is a delight!
Just slip a ribbon  thru the top flap.

And you are ready to hang on your tree or garland!

Happy Holidays

Thank you for stopping by!


I'll be linking up with a hand made ornament party, at Under the table and dreaming!
 Stop by and get some ideas!

November is such a pretty month!

I am really enjoying this November. Aren't the leaves so luscious this time of year?
The weather has for the most part been warm. We are only wearing light jackets or sweatshirts. A few crisp days turned the leaves their lovely colors but no nasty winds yet this year for us here in Jersey!

The grass is just such a pretty shade of green. And the trees so vibrant. Here is a shot out the back door of my daughter's house.
And the one below I am peeking through her flowers to the end of the yard.

You can see we had some bit of wind that knocked down a couple of branches, but only one day.

The skies are just incredible! November Skies! This next shot is from Atlantic city. 41st floor of Ceasar's

The Trump building was in the way of the glorious sunset. This is from the hallway. There is a reflection in the glass of the ceiling lights.
And the one bellow is the other side of the building from the room.  Some dirty window spots kind of ruin this photo.

And they are getting ready at the Casino for Christmas too!

After work today the sun was setting so pretty so I went down by the river after leaving my daughter's house to snap a pic or 2

There were little ducks enjoying a float, about 12 of them!
On my way home, ( someone's gotta make dinner for the hungry teenagers!).. I had wished I'd stayed, just a few more minutes, because the sky just got pinker after the sun went down.

I love when the sky turns pink!

November has some of the prettiest skies, don't you agree?

Thanksgiving Decorating

I thought I best get a little bit going on around the old homestead in honor of Thanksgiving, which by golly is just 1 week away. I have been inspired by so many talented women out there in blog land, but I am rarely finding the time at home to decorate peacefully ( hubbo works out of our home). And I am often too busy running to my daughters house to tend to our fabric business. But today I found a few minutes.
I started with ribbon, and leaves and wreath from the dollar store & hot glue.

I doubled up on 2 color ribbon, tied the ribbon in a simple bow.

And a simple braid.

Added a few natural elements.

And here is the final result.

So this was the start of decorating my foyer.

Now for the table below...

 I went for my old ironstone antique wash basin and vase that has a beautiful history behind it.

My mom found this in the attic of her mom's house sometime during the 1960's.

The pitcher has little shafts of wheat all around the top edge.

I stuffed it with natural elements from mother earth.

The house was a very old home in Philadelphia that had been built in the early 1900;s

 The pitcher and bowl were covered in dust when mom carried them down the rickety attic steps and when she washed them off, both the washbowl and the pitcher were in pristine condition!

Sorry to say sometime in the early 80's when my mom was watching my boys, who were very little, they got to rough housing in her house and banged into the bowl. So it suffered a huge crack in the interior. It did not go all the way through so there was never any need to apply glue or anything, but it is a visible crack, and I always have to handle with extreme care, when washing, now that it belongs to me.

I just filled it with some pumpkins

I like how they all look together.

I am liking how it all turned out in my hallway, what do you think?

Simple but  Autumnal

Vintage but Fresh

Now if I can just keep the family from throwing mail on the table, and dropping their shoes in the hall!

Everyone being grown up now, they don't listen so good!

Anyone  in bloggyland got tips on control, when they are in the 20's??

Thanks for stopping by!

Join us over at Transformation Thursday's

And at Strut Your Stuff

Finally a Soaking Tub!

I am married to a plumber. You heard the old adage "A shoe makers kids have holes in their shoes".
supposedly because a man doesn't want to do his line of work when he gets home!
Well that used to be true for my family too.
I first thought when I married a plumber that I would have the most luxurious bathroom possible. You know, get the top of the line products at cost.
Talk about disillusioned!!!
I lived with a bathroom that was 35 years old for a number of years. I'd probably venture to say untill it was 48 years old. Yep it was old when we bought the house.... and it just got older.

But once we finally proceeded with the re do. I got what I wanted. !!! BIGGGGG smile here.
I don't have any before pics because it was ugly and I just wasn't into blogging ugly.
Sorry I know you all would have loved it!!
 But check out the finish product.  I finally have a soaking tub!

My Soaking Tub

I have to show the faucet which is modeled after an old water pump. I picked this because I adore vintage , and wanted some taste of it in my bath.

Antique Pump Styling

And a great big shower, with a place to sit, It has 2 heads one  hand held, on the wall, and a large rain head on the other wall. I am proud to say I designed every inch of this room myself. there is nothing I regret.

My luxury shower

Another great feature is when I designed this bathroom I made the laundry room right next door, and had the contractor leave the bottom part of my closet, open (back wall open) so the clothing could go right thru to the laundry room!  My idea garnered raised eyebrows from the contractor who hubbo hired to do the carpentry work. Not quite understanding where I was coming from. I really had to stand my ground on a few issues, but I did stand my ground and got what I wanted.

And this is a pic of how it  the closet - into- the -laundry works. The bottom part is opened high enough for a hamper to slide in right thru to the laundry! See the wicker hamper in bottom? That is actually pushed thru when I took this pic.  Sorry so messy, some days it is neater than this. But you get the idea of the convenience.

Closet with a hole in the bottom wall

 

It goes right into the laundry room on the other side of the closet, so here is the laundry room. I know I need to pretty it up a bit with some new machines , but for now they are working, so I'm stuck with them.
I love that commercial where the lady takes a sledge hammer to an appliance so she can get new ones. hhhmmmn yeah I have thought of that!

My secret hole in the bath linen closet to the Laundry

I can laugh now at those days of disputes with the 2 men who were building, as I showed them my layout each day it seemed like they would make a decision that I had not approved and just was not going to work for us.
The one man who was the son would often be heard yelling at his dad. " Just give her what she wants !"
And that became a little bit of a joke around our house when all was done. But during the building process, it was just nerve racking to hear them fighting with each other over what my ideas were, and how they should be carried out
I had put a really lot of thought into it and knew exactly what I wanted. They even wanted to NOT give me the step in front of the tub!!

At the entrance there was enough space for a small chippy white shelf for handy face towels and wash clothes, which I picked up at a flea market. The entrance wall is on a small angle to just accomadate a little more room which I needed in the laundry. Of course they argued with me on this too. But I won. the entrance was spaced the way I wished and I was able to use the space for my little shelf.
I really wanted to be able to grab a towel with out opening the closet which I knew would hold toilet paper and shampoo, lotions and potions.

The Entrance

Below is the sink and the medicine cabinet, which I got from Home decorators on line.

 I just could not find one I liked more, anywhere else. I wanted it to be more useful than just a mirror. 

Medicine Cabinet

Sink

And I wanted something special over the tub, in a curved arch to coincide with the arch on the mirror. I had been inspired by a very large architectural piece that was awayyyy to much money for me, at about 1200.00  I loved, loved, the look though, and searched high and low and luckily I found something similar for 89.00, So I grabbed it.

Above the tub

It is made of resin instead of stone so no worries about it falling on my head! I think but am not 100 % sure that it too came from Home Decorators.com. It has been a while now since this was all done. but it turned out to be the perfect piece. Of course I found a great fabric for the window, which you can sort of see to the right of this picture.

So there is my dream bathroom designed by me. Good things come to those that wait!

The following are the rough sketches of the  existing bathroom before the remodel.

 My plan was to steel about 15 inches of space from my son's room, which was on the opposing wall, in a step fashion to accamadate  the larger bathroom.

On paper it looks a little crazy but the outcome turned out fantastic. And my son did not mind losing a little bit of space foe a really nice bathroom His room was really big anyway.

You can see from the plan, I completely nixed the laundry which was in the hall at the top of the steps, stole part of the original bathroom for the new laundry and part of my son's room for the new larger bathroom.

We are all happy with the outcome.

Thanks for stopping by!

Since this bathroom has 2 pieces of furniture( the sink, and the little chippy shelf)

 I am posting with the wonderful Miss Mustard Seed for her

Furniture Feature Friday - 

Come have a look...