As we sit here together post-Christmas, we're thinking about our favorite projects and upcoming plans for 2015.
Let's start with our 2014 list:
#1 The Paris Street Market This was our first joint venture and it was a huge success despite lots of heavy lifting. We loved planning, displaying and selling. It was wonderful to see so many of our friends and followers come out for the event as well. View the posts about our goods and the market here, here, here, and here.
#3 Creating a Funky Junk Mailbox Dwight got involved in this DIY project---so much so that we call it "Dad's Project." The results are still holding strong!
#5 A New Old Farm Table Kandy found and refinished an old farm table for Karli's new dining space. It made a huge difference in the transformation of the room!
#6 Giving an Old Christmas Village New Life After years of storage in Kandy's barn, these ceramic houses got a new modern look. Karli is loving the finished product.
#7 Karli's Christmas Tree Makeover After imagining a white, light tree Karli is thrilled with her new ornaments and tree elements.
#8 Painting the Front Door Black Kandy painted her front door in May and hasn't looked back.
As we enter the New Year, we'll be sharing a few things we're excited to start, continue and/or finish in 2015. More to come!
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with lots of great food, love and laughter!
If you follow me on Instagram then you saw a little teaser about my tree this year. It is my very favorite so far and I was thrilled to find so many great ornaments that matched my inspiration look.
Here's the overall look at the tree. Sadly ,one section of lights decided to burn out the night before I took these photos. But you get the idea.
I just love the mix of mercury glass with silver, burlap and white.
This is one of my favorite new ornaments. I wish I could say I made it (and frankly I may get crafty and do something similar) but I found it at my favorite shop called Dwell.
I also found the burlap at Dwell. The white "pinecone" ornaments came from TJ Maxx Home Goods. The silver keys I found last year when we shopped downtown Littleton with Brent's parents. They were on sale after Christmas.
For the mantel, I like to keep it simple. I just add a few sprigs of greenery and some silver bells.
In the front room I added a few things and I have more to go! I love this silver reindeer alongside a basket of pine cones with small silver bells and some greenery.
Right when you walk in our front door, you see our closet door with this simple wreath. I also put a fun banner on the stair rail.
I still have a bit more to do. I need to set up my newly painted village (thanks, MOM!) and work on the outside decorations.
Sorry it has been so very long since I've had anything interesting to share. Sometimes life just gets in the way. I have been working on projects for people, but not really anything that I felt was worthy of a post......enough about that.
Today while in the midst of other work, I decided to tackle one fun thing. Last year Karli mentioned that she would love to have her Christmas Village painted white........Then she would perhaps want to display it at her home for the Holidays. That meant she was interested in taking all those boxes that Mom had stored all these years. Say what..........She'd had these since she was just a little girl. People started getting them for her as gifts. She does have a few pieces that are Dept. 56, but many of them were purchased for her at the Grocery Store or Drug Store. Some are not of the highest quality. That is why I am willing to paint them.....and also the fact that they are hers, even though I've been storing them for the last 25 years. She can do with them what she wishes. So......white they will be. I found this picture of how she set them all up one year. She spent hours working with the snow to hide the cords and also to get the trees just right. And then, there were all those little village people who had to "stand up" in that snow. Oh, the memories.
This was the last year she set them all up. She put them on the shelves above the buffet in the dining room here at home. I had made the "sky" on the top shelf out of painted plywood. If you look closely you'll see Santa riding across the moon.
But.....that was a long time ago. She is over that now. The Christmas Village needed a fresh new look so here is the one house that I started with.
The colors were a little bright and "perhaps gawdy" so I decided if it turned out terrible it would only be a small loss. This particular ceramic house was also extremely shiny, maybe even more than a little bit cheap looking. It did not even have a brand name on the bottom.
I used the Krylon Dual Spray Paint in Flat White. It has the built in primer so I didn't sand the house or anything. Just sprayed on three light coats. (Easy Peasy!)
Here are the befores:
Here are the afters:
I think Karli is going to love these. They have a fresh new look and will be beautiful at her home this Christmas season. I think she had a great idea for making these into something that she will love again. I'm betting they will give her almost as much enjoyment now as they did when she was only 8. And, if I hadn't painted them, they would still be stored in boxes at my house.
Look for a post later when she displays this "White Christmas Village" at her house.
