Category Archives: Decorating

And Now … On to Christmas!!

Posted in Beauty, Brag Monday, Decorating by

After listening to Christmas music and looking at Christmas products since before Halloween … I am now officially embracing the Holiday season!

* Do I have my home decorated? No
* Do I have my lights up? No
* Do I have my music out and on? No
* Have I bought all of my presents? No, but some of them.
* Do I want to do it all now? YES!!

However, I have my son’s wedding to go to (Dec. 1st) and so I’m chomping at the bit to get him married, so I can …

* Relax after the wedding and start stressing out about Christmas
* Decorate til the cows come home – my favorite part of Christmas.
* Buy my “Christmas Vacation” sized Christmas tree (has to be real or it’s not Christmas) my husband so graciously puts up with every year.
* Stress over all of my last minute orders in my shops.
* Stress over the perfect holiday menu and then cook until I can hardly stand, barely eating the food because I’m not hungry over smelling the food all day.

Did I say the word STRESS enough?

Sounds like fun, huh?! LOL!

Seriously, I love the holiday season. I love finding just the perfect gifts for people, and then going all OCD over the wrapping of the gifts. I love decorating my tree so that it’s beautiful enough to be on the front of BHG magazine. I love the smells of spices in the air. I love the generosity of people, and the goodwill that you just don’t see at other times of the year. I may even like my neighbor (who is a very crabby man, and very hard to like … but you never know!).

So, in the spirit of Christmas, my Brag Monday entry for the Graphics Fairy are more Christmas gift tags. Hopefully you have taken advantage of some of the sales going on and you have presents that they will work perfectly for!

Bonjour mes amies, and have a wonderful week! Mine will be filled with last minute wedding preparations, and the excitement of seeing family members I haven’t seen in over a year.

Au Revoir!!

Lorraine

*As always, these are for personal use only.  Please feel free to click on the picture and right-click to save to your own computer.  You may, of course, send anyone my way to download their own copy!

Beauty Within, Without, or Not at All

Posted in Beauty, Brag Monday, Decorating by

I believe I may have mentioned earlier that I have been really working hard on finishing up some projects in my home. It is truly coming together, and I’m so excited about how I feel when I open my door, walk into my home, and just feel … aaaahhhhhh … I’m truly home. Not only is this transformation the result of trying to create a beautiful home, but it is also an internal transformation … a realization of who I am and what makes me happy — what “speaks” to my soul.

I’m in my late 40’s and it has taken some time for me to figure out what truly is me, what truly makes me happy, what truly speaks to my soul. There have been several times in my life when I thought I had figured it out.  However, what “spoke” to me at 20, isn’t what speaks to me at 48. Too much life has happened in the meantime.

I’m reminded of the analogy of us starting out as lumps of coal, and through life, God creates a diamond … something that He saw in us from the very beginning, but that we aren’t able to see in ourselves. At least for many, it takes a long time, for others, they never see their full glorious worth. How incredibly sad that is.

So, today, for my Brag Monday, I’ve created a free printable to help remind us that we have to carry the beauty within to see the beauty outwardly. I particularly hope that it will inspire you to remember how beautiful you are … and that you will believe it!

I love this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson. I created the printable using a peacock graphic (with many thanks) by the Graphics Fairy. As always, feel free to click on the printable and right-click to save to your computer. It is for personal use and you may not mass-produce or use in any commercial way. Please feel free to send people my way so that they may download their own copy.

Au Revoir mes amies … have a wonderful week!!

Lorraine

Decorating the Home: On a Very Small Scale

Posted in Beauty, Brag Monday, Decorating by

Have I mentioned before that I absolutely adore fall? I know it’s probably overkill, but I truly do. I love Halloween as well. Nothing is more fun than opening your door and seeing little ones in the cutest outfits and looking so hopeful. So, I always make something new to decorate my home for Halloween.

So, for today’s Brag Monday (see the Graphic’s Fairy button to the left) I decided that since I’m in the process of really amping up my home decor, I could do an overhaul to a smaller home, a la Halloween. Here is my final Halloween House:

 

 

 

At the risk of sounding a tad bit OCD (okay maybe a lot), the orange roof is actually hundreds of little circles of paper so that I could have a spanish tile roof. Need I say more. I apparently LOVE tedious work. Would this be the project for everyone? No, However, anyone can do it. Truly.

I purchased a card board house from Hobby Lobby (with my 40% off coupon, so it was around 4.99), but Michael’s and JoAnn’s have them as well. I then found scrapbook paper that fit the Halloween theme, covered the major parts, and then made X’s in the holes so that I could push the paper back inside and glue it inside of the house (resulting in nicely finished doors and windows. I used scrapbook borders for the window shutters.

I then looked the Graphic’s Fairies Halloween images to find the skeletons and cats so that I could have them peeking out of the window.

I love my little house. It looks perfect in my entry hall. I will turn on a flameless candle at night so that it will flicker through the windows (I used vellum for the window pictures) and light up the house within.

I hope you enjoy!  What do you do to decorate for Halloween?