DIY Advent Calendar

I want to share with you a project my mom worked on last week.  I'm sure a lot of you have seen the Evergreen Tree fabric from Ikea.

There have been several blogs that have done different things with it.

Normally, the fabric is just $6.99/yd (which is awesome already) but we were lucky enough to find it on sale for $3.99/yd.  Crazy!

My mom's idea was to add 24 buttons to various spots on the tree.

This would allow for little ornaments to be hung.

And here is the entire tree "decorated" with felt ornaments.

I think my  mom found all these ornaments at JoAnn Fabrics.

She will be giving this tree as a gift to a friend's grandkids as their Advent calendar.  Cute, huh?

Joining Metamorphosis Mondays with Between Naps on the Porch

Chalkboard Door

This is our pocket door in the kitchen that leads to the basement.  I thought it would be fun to paint the entire door in chalkboard paint.

And since it's a pocket door, you can just slide it into the wall when it's not in use.

This was a quick Saturday project.  But the chalkboard couldn't be written on for 3 days.  

And now I have my own Advent calendar :)

I originally thought this would be fun for my 19 month old son to use but I seem to be enjoying it more!

And when I don't want it to be seen...just slide away.

Here are some great inspiration chalkboard art.

Linking up with Thrifty Decor Chick

Fall Pinterest Challenge: Pinata Costume

I'm joining Sherry and Katie on the Fall Pinterest challenge.

I saw this pinata costume on Pinterest this summer and knew immediately that I had to make it for my son.

And here is what I came up with.

The hat is made out of foam sheets and hot glue.

I just hot glued 4 pieces together as the hat base.

And I added some elastic string as the chin strap.

The outside is covered in rows of felt that I later cut into fringe.

Same thing with the ears: foam sheets that were rolled into cone shapes.

Hot glue those to the base of the hat.  (If I had to do it over, I'd make the ears smaller.  Theses are too big and make the hat top-heavy.)

I found a large footy pajama set at Goodwill (only $2!!) and used that as my costume base.  I bought it 2 sizes bigger to accommodate for layered clothing underneath.

I sewed rows of felt to the entire outfit and tried to work around the zipper.  I hot glued the rows of felt to the sleeves since they were too small to fit into the sewing machine.

And here's the finished product!

iPhone photos from Friday night trick-or-treating

Show Us Your...

...family space!

Here's what our living room looked like when we first bought it a year and a half ago.

And here's what my it's looking like these days.

 This is the view from the dining room.

 I love our big windows in the front of the house.

 The little nook behind the front door where my son can sit for me to put his shoes on.

I painted the bookshelf built-in right after we moved it.

I also removed the bottom shelf to allow for taller items to fit.

My gallery is probably my favorite aspect of the room.  The Ikea frames are filled with black & white photos of us and our family.

 The view from the front door.

Of course there are some toys in the room but most of them are hidden in the baskets under the TV.  It makes for quick and easy cleanup, too.

Some of the throw pillows are new additions, like this one.  My mom made 2 pillows with fun patterns on one side and left over fabric from these chair cushions to line the back side.

Linking up with Thrifty Decor Chick