September Acres

I have opened a shop at Society 6 .  I am super excited to share some of these fun holiday items with you!  There are pillows and prints and canvas and travel mugs.  Even clocks!  Head over and take a look.  I'd love to hear your feedback too. I'm also open to your ideas - I have a bunch swirling around in my head but I love to hear what other people think and would like to see. I can do custom items too.  Or just switch out colors to match your decor. These items make really fun and unique gifts.  And did I mention the free shipping? I've ordered a few things from Society 6 in the past and have been happy with the quality and I'm sure you will be too. I hope you'll head on over to the shop and take a look.  Thanks!

K & Co. Smash Book LM got a Smash Book and some accessories for Christmas.  I got hers at Micheals - the Micheals that is now closed.  Can you believe that?  In this itty bitty town where there's not much in the way of shopping, one of the only 'fun' places to shop closed its doors at the end of January. Something about rent being raised when the new owners of the mall (I use the word 'mall' very loosely) took over.  Thankfully, we still have a Hobby Lobby.  And they also carry Smash Books.  You can also get them at Amazon and straight from K&Co. They're every where these days. The idea behind them is having a fun 'girly' place to store all of your keepsakes.  Things like concert tickets, notes, letters, pictures, magazine clippings, etc.  It's kind of like a scrapbook but more random.  You don't spend hours doing one page (in theory)- you just place your keepsakes on the page, add a little note, some stickers, tape - whateve...

   I was watching a local lifestyle show the other day and saw a segment about Valentine's Day gift giving.  The first gift shown was a diamond necklace for $100 - very pretty but a bit pricey for a Valentine's Day gift.  Next up was a Bose iPod docking station for the man in your life for - get this - $299.  ( note: my husband thought this sounded like a great gift for him! )  These are both lovely gifts but it got me thinking about Valentine's Day and how it's almost turned into a mini-Christmas. I've always thought of February 14 as a day to show those we love a little extra affection, not buy them another huge gift.  If you are young without a mortgage and college tuition to pay, it's one thing, but for the rest of us I think it's really easy to go overboard and try to keep up with the masses. So, what's a girl to do if she doesn't want to spend a king's ransom on the one she loves? I'm a fan of some good old 'lovi...

Last night LM worked on Valentine's for her classmates while I worked on this little Valentine 'tree'.  I mentioned the project here , knowing my tree would be completely different from the original .  And it definitely is.  When I spotted the inspiration piece I thought the tree was made out of clothes pins (yeah, I don't know what I was thinking, but it was before I got my new glasses) and I had it stuck in my head that I would make a tree with clothes pins.  So that's what I did! I had the red glitter & pink clothes pins on hand.  The red and white ones are regular old clothes pins to which I mod podged scrapbook paper.  The hearts are made from some scrapbook paper scraps.  I attached the clothes pins to a lolly pop stick (the kind you buy to make your own pops).  I bought nothing new for this project - you have to love that - well at least I do! I think the thing I love the most about this project is that after the holiday...

Over the weekend I worked on my version of the 'XO' letters I saw at Tatortots and Jello .  I fell in love with the vintage looking Valentine paper at Hobby Lobby and knew that's what I would use for these letters - even though it was nothing like what I had in my head.  I painted the sides with red craft paint (Tuscan red, that is) instead of using a different paper as I originally had planned.  I mod podged the paper after painting the sides and added some ribbon & a glitter mini-clothespin (which I got at our now closed Michaels). This is a super easy project and one that the kids can be involved in as well.  It took me about 30 minutes to complete plus drying time (which wasn't more than another 20-30 minutes here in dry Arizona).  And the possibilities for colors, letters and accessories are endless.  It goes way beyond Valentine's Day. Initials for new babies or birthdays. 'Hop' or 'Egg' for Easter. 'Love' for a weddi...

I found a super cute idea for a Christmas tree decoration in a book a while back and decided to recreate it this year.  Not only was it cute, it seemed really simple and used only a few supplies: Paper Cone type Christmas tree, any size. Scrapbook paper (I used a pack of paper with coordinating prints) Adhesive Circle punch (mine was 1 3/8") Ribbon - I used a fairly wide one but I think you could use whatever you like Punch out circles of scrapbook paper.  I started by punching out 125 circles and ended up punching about 25 more to finish the tree. Starting at the bottom of the tree, glue the circles to the tree with your adhesive of choice.  I used glue dots but I've had to re-glue a few of the circles after they fell off.  When I re-glued, I just used good old Elmer's glue & and haven't had any of those fall off so maybe that's how I should have started. :) Work your way up the tree, overlapping a bit with each row. Add a ribbo...

There are so many cute advent calendars out there this year and if you're not careful you could end up spending a small fortune on one of them.  Before you do that, consider a fun DIY advent calendar.  There are many ideas and tutorials out there that are budget friendly and really fun to put together.  In no particular order here are 12 of my favorites - I'd  have them all in my home if I could! The Envelope Advent Calendar - I just love the idea of this because it's super easy and pretty inexpensive.  Most of us have envelopes on hand to make this happen.  This is the perfect type of calendar for 'experience' treats as opposed to toys or candy.  Things like: watch 'Elf' tonight, go sledding or make cookies with mom can be printed out on the computer on paper and tucked in the envelope for a fun activity.  This one from A Few Things From My Life is one of my favorites. A Few Things From My Life Muffin Tin Advent Calendar  ...

Creativity  isn’t about wild talent as much as it’s about  productivity .  To find new ideas that work, you need to try a lot that don’t. It’s a  pure numbers game . —   Robert Sutton