2009 November | Beneath My Heart

Crazy about Cranberries!

November 30, 2009 AT 11:06 pm 27 Comments

November 30, 2009 By 27 Comments

One thing that my mom decorated with every year was cranberries.

She usually placed them in a glass container with a white candle in the middle. It was always stunning.

You know how I love me some RED!

So I wanted to come up with some ideas to decorate with cranberries this year too.

I searched the BHG website and found some inspirational photos I wanted to share with you.

Isn’t this a beautiful tablescape?

I love the way they layered some greenery underneath the cranberries. Gorgeous!

Here’s a beautiful idea for a napkin ring. Some green ribbon, holly leaves, pine cones, and cranberries…beautiful! Ladies, we could sooooo do this one!

Cranberries look beautiful in silver dishes. I like the rose below, but I think I would have put a touch of white in the middle instead.

See how the touches of red from the cranberries look amazing with the silver? LOOK CLOSELY…those are cranberries in the bases of the layered cake stands. That’s an idea I want to steal!

Have you ever strung cranberries on a string? I haven’t, but I’ve always wanted to. If you have tried it, let me know how it turned out. Any advice would be appreciated. :)

And stringing cranberries from a chandelier is always charming.

Okay, I love these! They gave directions at BHG.com, but I think they just pinned the cranberries onto a foam ball. How cool is that?

Here’s another idea you could make with a foam ball.

Another lovely….

And who wouldn’t want to see this when visiting someone’s home?

You could fill the glass jars with real snow if you are lucky enough to have some of the good stuff. But if not, you could fill it with the fake stuff and get the same effect.

Purely magical!

Well, that’s it. Now run off the the grocery store and buy you some cranberries. If you have any more brilliant ideas for cranberries, please share!

Have a blessed day!

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My Burlap Beauty

November 30, 2009 AT 12:13 am 51 Comments

November 30, 2009 By cyndi 51 Comments

(I posted this as a guest blogger over at Shanty 2 Chic a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted to share it with you again in case you missed it!)

Check this out!

I got this chair at Goodwill for $6.50. I know “she” looks a little rough, but all she needed was a second chance.

So here’s what I did:
First of all, I decided to paint the chair black. I used Valspar spray paint in satin from Lowe’s.
Then I used a fine grit sandpaper to sand down the edges a bit.
As you can tell by the picture below, I left the chair in my garage too long without supervision.
One of my boys thought it would be fun to tear the material off the chair, thus the result…

Oh my, she’s looking really bad now!
But I didn’t let that stop me. I still had my vision…
She just needed a little more cushion, so I used my staple gun to apply some extra batting to the seat and back of the chair.

Now she was ready to cover with my material.
Of course, I chose burlap. My current obsession!
I started with the seat, using my staple gun to secure the burlap.

I cut the fabric around the arms of the chair, folded it under, and then stapled it down. (This part was not easy, and it did not turn out perfectly, but it still looks good to me!)

When I saw the extra burlap hanging below the staples, it looked like a cute little ruffled skirt. That’s when I decided that I wanted to add a skirt to the chair. (The above pictures were taken at night in my garage, so the burlap looks darker.)
Next, I covered the back of the chair using the same process as I did on the seat.

Then I stapled and trimmed the burlap on the back of the chair.

Next, I stapled on a piece of burlap to cover the back of the chair.

Now for the skirt…
I placed the cording in the middle of the burlap, folded the material over, and sewed it up using my zipper foot. Then I trimmed the excess material.

Notice I didn’t even use pins when I sewed. I’m dangerous like that!

I made a long piece of burlap that measured 5 inches wide and sewed a small hem. Then I pinned some ruffles in the material. I didn’t even measure them the same length apart. I just eyeballed it. That’s how I roll.

I attached the cording to the skirt, and sewed them together.

I made some double cording and hot glued it over the staples on the back. I got that idea from an upholstery book. (I will be explaining how to make the double cording in a future post on my blog.)

Then I attached the skirt with my staple gun.

I bought this chair for $6.50.
I bought about 4 yards of burlap from Hobby Lobby when it was on sale for $1.99 a yard. That’s $8.00, and I have some left over.
I already had the black spray paint, cording, and staples. So this whole transformation cost me about $15.00!
I’m lovi
ng that!
Every lady needs some cute accessories, so I made her a little pillow.
This picture was taken in our master bedroom, but I made the chair to go in our guest house.

Here it is in our guest house…

Well, there you have it!

My sad-looking seat is now a Burlap Beauty!

I am linking this post to…

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch,

Make it for Monday at Cottage Instincts, and

DIY day at A Soft Place to Land.

Have a blessed day!

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Tagged burlap projects, furniture makeover, goodwill goodies, guest house, makeover Filed Underburlap projects, furniture makeover, goodwill goodies, guest house, makeover, Uncategorized 51 Comments

Christmas Carnival begins at Midnight!

November 27, 2009 AT 7:54 pm 4 Comments

November 27, 2009 By 4 Comments

Just wanted to let you know about the Christmas Carnival that begins at midnight tonight!

It’s 24 hours of giveaways hosted by Gina at The Shabby Chic Cottage.

She is featuring a different seller each hour. And each seller will have a great giveaway!

I can’t wait!!! I will definitely be entering the giveaways!

Two items from my Etsy shop will be featured tomorrow morning. And I am giving away one of my

Gingerbread Family Ornaments.

These are my best sellers at all of my craft shows!

My gingerbread family ornaments can me made as big or small as you need them to fit the size of your family just perfectly. The girl gingerbread ornaments have red polka-a-dotted bows on top of their heads. The boy gingerbread ornaments have green polka-a-dotted bow ties on. I can write each family member’s name on each gingerbread boy or girl.

These make great gifts for grandparents too!!

You can have grandma and grandpa on each end with all the grandchildren in the middle!

Please be sure to stop by the Christmas Carnival and check out all the wonderful products.

If you don’t win my giveaway, you can stop by my Etsy shop and order some ornaments in time for Christmas. I am offering all of my followers a 15% discount on my gingerbread ornaments. Just enter the code “BMH4″ in the “message to seller” at checkout. The discount will be refunded via Paypal after payment is received.

You can visit my Etsy shop by clicking HERE, or by clicking my Etsy button in my sidebar.

Have a blessed weekend!

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Wednesdays with Wanda

November 25, 2009 AT 9:16 am 53 Comments

November 25, 2009 By traci 53 Comments

Of all of my “Wednesdays with Wanda” posts, I can bet that this one would have been Mom’s favorite so far.

Because it’s about my 10 year old son, Jonathan.

(She would much rather talk about her grandchildren than herself!)

Jonathan held a tender spot in my mom’s heart.

He was my first child, her 4th grandchild.

Jonathan was born with a hearing loss. He has only 50% of his hearing in both of his ears, and has worn hearing aids since he was 3 years old.

She helped my husband and I purchase his first set of hearing aids. (They are pretty pricey and not covered by insurance.)

Mom paid for Jonathan to go to weekly speech lessons for a year when he was 4 years old.

Throughout his 10 years of life, she was constantly assisting us in caring for Jonathan and his sweet ears.

Mom wanted Jonathan to get a new pair of hearing aids this year. The ones he has now are several years old, and there are newer models out there that are of better quality. And if there was something better out there for Jonathan, then Mom wanted it!

This past summer, Mom was saving money to get Jonathan some new hearing aids. She had almost half of the money saved when we found out she had cancer. It broke her heart that she had to stop working. Not because she had cancer, but because she knew she wouldn’t be able to buy Jonathan his hearing aids.

Mom knew she would need that money for medical bills.

Though I knew she was upset about this, I knew that Mom had given Jonathan something more priceless than hearing aids. She gave him her amazing love, her words of encouragement, her faith in Christ, and a wealth of precious memories!

When Mom was sick, she didn’t talk much about dying. But one thing she did say was that she wanted Jonathan to sing “Amazing Grace” at her funeral.

He had sang it as his school talent show five months earlier. Mom was there to see him sing it. She was so proud. I have often thought that as we sat there and listened to him sing, we would have never dreamed that in a few short months, he would be singing it again at her funeral.

(Here are my boys the day of Mom’s funeral. Jonathan is my oldest.)

Jonathan sang at mom’s funeral. He sang with all his heart. I KNOW that Mom heard his sweet voice all the way to the heaven.

Of course I didn’t video tape him singing at the funeral, but a few weeks later, he sang it again at our church.

I video taped it and wanted to share it with all of you. (Its a little shaky at the beginning because the usher got in my way.) :)

Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
——Chris Tomlin
Amazing grace
How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I’m found
Was blind, but now I see
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed
Chorus:
My chains are gone
I’ve been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love, Amazing grace

The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures
Chorus(x2)
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow
The sun forbear to shine
But God, Who called me here below
Will be forever mine
Will be forever mine
You are forever mine

Mom’s chains are gone, and she has been set free! Thank you, Lord, for the gift of heaven.

I praise God for giving my son the gift of singing. It’s hard to believe that when he was born, I was afraid he wouldn’t even be able to talk! I pray that he will always use his voice for God’s glory.

Have a Blessed Thanksgiving!

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Tagged Mom Filed Undermama's boys, Mom, Uncategorized 53 Comments

More Inspiration

November 24, 2009 AT 3:42 pm 4 Comments

November 24, 2009 By 4 Comments

Check this out….

After seeing my post on how to make some (look-a-like) Pottery Barn collector’s shelves, Stephanie at Frugal Home Ideas made some for her son’s room.

If you missed my post about how to make these, click HERE. Here is an example of the shelf I made for my son’s room.

She made some for her son’s room, with her own little twist, and gave a great tutorial on her blog. Her little guy’s bedroom is adorable, and she does everything very frugally. Look how cute this is…

I loved looking through her blog at all her great ideas. She shows how she made those cute black shelves in the nursery, how to make a roman shade, and many more great tutorials. You can check them out HERE.

Thank you, Stephanie, for sharing your shelves with me. I think they turned out fabulous!

Blessings,

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Birthday Blessing

November 24, 2009 AT 6:30 am 24 Comments

November 24, 2009 By 24 Comments

I just had to share with you my Birthday Blessing.

A couple of weeks ago, I celebrated my first birthday without Mom. It was definitely one of the hardest days since she passed away.

I knew that I would not be receiving a “birthday phone call” from her, or any special little gifts like she would always get me.

It was tough.

However, I had won a giveaway the previous week at Melissa’s Heart and Home. It was a FABULOUS giveaway!!!!

And ironically, the huge package of goodies arrived at my doorstep on…

MY BIRTHDAY! What a blessing!

To receive such a wonderful gift, when I was missing one from my mom.

I had to smile as I opened it. It was almost as if Mom had sent it herself. Now I know that wasn’t really the case, but I do think God can bless our lives in unexpected ways sometimes. It definitely touched my hurting heart!

Melissa had everything wrapped so beautifully with little curled ribbons on everything…

It was quite a loot! Look at this…

A table runner, fall cheese spreaders, a book on chocolate desserts, 3 fall dish towels, truffles, a candle, a rooster plate and cup, a vinyl “welcome” door sign, and a decorative acorn that didn’t make it in the picture somehow.

I had fun decorating my “new” kitchen with all of my goodies.

Thank you Melissa, for such a wonderful giveaway!

And thank you Lord, for my unexpected birthday blessing.

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Our Kitchen Renovation is Complete!

November 23, 2009 AT 4:36 pm 85 Comments

November 23, 2009 By traci 85 Comments

****First of all, I would like to ask you to pray for Rachel who’s surgery is Tuesday, the 24th, at 7:30 a.m. Click on her picture in my sidebar to find out more. Thanks!

Finally!!! We have finished our kitchen renovation!

For those of you who are new to my blog, about 8 weeks ago a pipe burst in my kitchen and made a huge mess!

So we then had an unplanned kitchen renovation on our hands!

But I have to say that we took our lemons and made some lemonade.

This is what our kitchen looked like before the pipes busted.

(Some of the following is copied from a previous post.)

These were the original 40 year old cabinets in our kitchen.

Notice the soffit above the cabinets? Every since we moved into our house five years ago, I have wanted to tear down that soffit to see what was underneath. Were there pipes that couldn’t be moved? Wiring? Nothing at all? I wanted to get rid of the soffit so I could have taller cabinets.

Well….since our kitchen already looked like a dump site, we decided to bust a hole into the soffits and see what we could see…

Nothing much there….

Or there…

A little wiring there…

But nothing that could not be tucked up into the rafters.

I was SOOOOO excited! I was about to get me some new tall cabinets.

So we tore it out. (No my husband is not going gray…that’s just drywall dust in his hair!”)

Now the soffits are gone! Yipee!

Then I decided to hire the hottest cabinet maker I could fine…

and well, my husband won hands down!

He started by building the cabinet frames.

Then he hung up new drywall to cover the ceiling, installed lighting in the cabinets, and underneath the cabinets…

He also added crown molding to match the rest of the kitchen.

The microwave goes in the space where you see the wire and metal frame. I wanted the cabinet above the microwave to stay open, so we added beadboard to the back of it.

Here’s the other side of the kitchen…

The two cabinets in the middle do not have lights inside them because they will have doors. We put beadboard in the back of the cabinet above the refrigerator because it will be left open as well.

Then my husband added some trim inside the cabinets to hold glass shelves. I wanted to be sure the light on top was able to shine all the way down to the bottom.

We had a carpenter from Georgia make our cabinet doors. He had made some cabinet doors for my mother and father-in-law, so we knew he would do a great job!

To our surprise, my in-laws paid for our cabinet doors in honor of my mother who just passed away. What a precious tribute! Thank you!

For the hardware, I decided to go with handles instead of knobs on my cabinets. I think they fit perfectly with the “look” of the kitchen.

We got our light above the sink at Lowes. It’s called a vintage schoolhouse light.

I still haven’t decided if I want a window treatment over that window.

itle="IMG_4225" border="0" alt="IMG_4225" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_2biIHt1YrHA/SwsAJKqxO7I/AAAAAAAABuE/LxEPCCblgF0/IMG_4225_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="626" height="823" />

I love that we left the cabinets above the microwave and refrigerator open so I can create cute little vignettes for each season. (However, I am not very good at creating vignettes. I need your help! Maybe a “vignette party” in the future?)

Here is my kitchen all lit up. I love having the extra lighting!!!!

Now I am going to show you something even more amazing!!!!

You want to see the “before the before” picture?

This is what the kitchen looked like when we bought our house 5 years ago…

(I took this picture with a disposable camera, thus the poor quality.)

And now 5 years later…(at the same angle)

I am DEAD serious! That is the same kitchen! Can you believe it? We’ve come a long way baby! I think the hubster and I have a pretty good eye for “potential”!

I asked my sister if she would have bought my house 5 years ago with a kitchen that looked like that? And she said, “I wouldn’t touch it with a 10 foot pole!”

Oh well…

Since we worked really hard on this kitchen, I am going to share it on

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Make it for Monday at Cottage Insticts (I love this girl!)

DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land

Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage

It’s so very creative at It’s so Very Cheri

Blessings,

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Tagged makeover, My Kitchen Filed Underhusband's handiwork, makeover, My Kitchen, Uncategorized 85 Comments

Our Fireplace Make-over

November 20, 2009 AT 7:00 am 27 Comments

November 20, 2009 By traci 27 Comments

We have lived in our current house for 4 1/2 years. It was built in 1968 and was definitely a “fixer-upper” when we bought it.

I hope to show you more pictures of the changes we’ve made on future posts, but my before pictures were not digital, so I will have to take pictures of pictures. Like this post…

One change we made to the house this year was the fireplace in our bedroom. It was hand made from Kentucky fieldstone. I love that it looks rustic, but it didn’t seem to fit in with the way I wanted to decorate our bedroom.

It was very “dated”. It had a huge solid wood mantel, but it was stained an “orange-y” color. And then there was the gold tone fireplace cover that seemed to SCREAM 70’s.

I told my husband I wanted to cover it up with paneling like the rest of our room, because I couldn’t figure out how to make it look the way I wanted. (I am SOOOOO glad we didn’t!)

This is a “picture” I took of a “picture” several years ago. Yikes! It’s painful for me to look at. Sorry the picture quality is so poor.

Can you see why I just wanted to cover the whole thing up? So dull and bland.

Finally, this fall, we decided to do something to change it. It was a very SIMPLE and CHEAP re-do.

We started by painting the mantle white and adding some molding details on the top and bottom.

Then we took out the old gold-tone fireplace cover, cleaned up the inside and painted it black, and bought a black fireplace screen from Target to place in front.

My husband also installed can lights in the ceiling to spotlight the mantel.

That’s it! And the difference was amazing!

I added this Christmas picture to compare to the old Christmas picture. And it seems I only take pictures of my fireplace around Christmas time anyway.

The picture below shows the molding he added to the top and bottom of the wood mantel.

We were very pleased with the results.

Blessings!

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Tagged fireplace, makeovers, master bedroom Filed Underfireplace, husband's handiwork, makeovers, master bedroom, Uncategorized 27 Comments

Our Master Bath

November 18, 2009 AT 10:22 pm 46 Comments

November 18, 2009 By 46 Comments

Last year, my husband and I renovated our master bath.

Unfortunately that was before I started blogging, so I didn’t take any “before” pictures.

But to me, it was the ugliest room in the house. Our house was built in 1968, and the bathroom had never been renovated.

It was the typical square-shaped bathroom with the tub/shower on the left, and the vanity and toilet on the right.

The vanity had a very ugly tan and white marbled sinktop.

The toilet and tub were a “flesh” color that I thought at times looked pink.

Okay, I did have this picture, and I just had to share it. (Someday my boys will probably kill me for this.) The tub looks more brown in this picture.

The shower walls were covered with white tiles.

I used this picture for our family Christmas cards several years ago. However, I could not get my littlest, Adam, to put the bubbles on his chin.

So we busted out a wall, and used what little space we had to make our bathroom a little bit bigger.

We bought two marble top vanities at Lowe’s. Everything you see was included, including the bowl sinks and the oil-rubbed bronze faucets.

It was actually cheaper for us to buy these two vanities than to have a custom vanity built to go all the way across the wall, and then have a sinktop made to go with it.

You can see our walk-in shower in the mirror above.

My very talented husband did this all by himself! We found the 12 x 12 square tile and trim pieces at Home Depot. It was on clearance, so we got a great deal! You can see a snippet of the smaller travertine tiles on the floor that we bought from a local tile shop.

The oil-rubbed bronze shower head and knob are from Lowes. (We had hoped to add a glass shower door, but the budget hasn’t allowed for that yet.)

To the right of the shower was a narrow space that we were going to add some built-in shelves….until I found the perfect piece of furniture to put there. Do you see it in the picture below?

I got this tall black cabinet at Hobby Lobby, on sale, of course!

I got the little rabbit at Goodwill for $1.50, the towels at Walmart, and the fleur de lis plate and candle at Hobby Lobby.

In our old bathroom, the toilet was about a foot from the vanity, providing no privacy. So I asked my hubby to add a privacy wall, and I absolutely love it!

My husband also tiled the floor with the same tile that is in the shower. I love the look of the darker grout we chose.

The double light fixture, towel rack, and toilet paper holder all came from Meijers! I couldn’t believe it when I found them there. They were exactly what I was looking for.

For a punch of color on each vanity, I took an old arrangement that my mom had in her basement and wasn’t using anymore, and separated it into two “bunches”.

Then I got two clear vases and filled them with some clear “stones”, all of which I got at Walmart. Then I just added Mom’s flowers to each vase.

I always love a touch of red in a room. It’s my favorite color.

Do you see me in the shower? :) You can see a glimpse of our bedroom f
ireplace in the mirror on the right. I’ll share our fireplace re-do this week too.

Well, there you have it! My small, yet bigger than it was, bathroom.

Completely renovated by my amazing husband!

Blessings,

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Tagged bathrooms Filed Underbathrooms, Uncategorized 46 Comments

Wednesdays with Wanda

November 18, 2009 AT 6:00 am 25 Comments

November 18, 2009 By 25 Comments

If you have read any of my other posts about my mom, you know that she loved collecting inspirational stories, poems, and letters. She has a file on her computer labeled “reflections and poems”. When I clicked on it, I found the letter below, “The Best Day of My Life”. I smiled as I read it, because it sounds so much like Mom (though she didn’t write it).

And I thought it was appropriate to read during this Thanksgiving season.

*************************************

The Best Day of My Life

Today, when I awoke, I suddenly realized that this is the best day of my life, ever! There were times when I wondered if I would make it to today; but I did! And because I did I’m going to celebrate!

Today, I’m going to celebrate what an unbelievable life I have had so far: the accomplishments, the many blessings, and, yes, even the hardships because they have served to make me stronger. I will go through this day with my head held high, and a happy heart. I will marvel at God’s seemingly simple gifts: the morning dew, the sun, the clouds, the trees, the flowers, the birds. Today, none of these miraculous creations will escape my notice.

Today, I will share my excitement for life with other people. I’ll make someone smile. I’ll go out of my way to perform an unexpected act of kindness for someone I don’t even know.

Today, I’ll give a sincere compliment to someone who seems down. I’ll tell a child how special he is, and I’ll tell someone I love just how deeply I care for them and how much they mean to me.

Today is the day I quit worrying about what I don’t have and start being grateful for all the wonderful things God has already given me. I’ll remember that to worry is just a waste of time because my faith in God and his Divine Plan ensures everything will be just fine.

Tonight, before I go to bed, I’ll go outside and raise my eyes to the heavens. I will stand in awe at the beauty of the stars and the moon, and I will praise God for these magnificent treasures.

As the day ends and I lay my head down on my pillow, I will thank Him for the best day of my life.

And I will sleep the sleep of a contented child, excited with expectation because I know tomorrow is going to be…..the best day of my life!

*********************************************

I pray we will all have an attitude of gratitude today and every day!

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;

I will recount all of His wonderful deeds.
—Psalm 9:1

Have a blessed day,

(This is a weekly post that I am doing to honor my wonderful mother, Wanda, who passed away on September 22, 2009. It is a place for me to share precious memories of her…for myself, for you, and most importantly, for my children.)

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Tagged Mom Filed UnderMom, Uncategorized 25 Comments

Crazy about Cranberries!

My Burlap Beauty

Christmas Carnival begins at Midnight!

Wednesdays with Wanda

More Inspiration

Birthday Blessing

Our Kitchen Renovation is Complete!

Our Fireplace Make-over

Our Master Bath

Wednesdays with Wanda

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Blog Post Calendar

November 2009
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