DIY Christmas Stockings

 My husband and I have been married for 6 years and we have never done Christmas stockings. I have always wanted to get us some but the designer in me could never decide what direction to take. How do you accommodate changing holiday decorations and a growing family? My holiday decorations I have now are silver, white, gray, and gold, but what if I want to do traditional red and green someday? How many stockings do I purchase so as our family grows they all match? These are the questions that go through a designers head. I'm crazy, I know. So, with my daughter being old enough this Christmas to understand a little more about what is going on, I wanted to start some Christmas traditions, one of them being Christmas stockings. I decided to make my own, and I bought enough fabric to make additional stockings as we have more children. I even have them all cut out and in a ziplock bag ready to be sewn. :) Anyway, after all my deliberating here is what I came up with:

  

 

I went with all white stockings. That way I can change up my holiday decor and they will go with any color scheme.  I used the same linen and fur fabric for each stocking but added unique white touches to each of them. For my husbands I cut a deer head silhouette out of felt and sewed it on.

 

 

On mine, I hot glued a bunch of pearls on it. Yes, it took me a while, but I think it was totally worth it. I love how it turned out.

 

For my daughters, I found this really cute tulle flower trim at JoAnns. I sewed three strips of it on in a row. It would be cute to do it from top to bottom of the stocking, but the trim was a little pricey so I kept it simple. 

 

The last one is for our unnamed baby boy that we will meet in March, hence the no letter. I cut out a bunch of random sized circles in white felt and hot glued them on, which also took a lot of time. Speaking of the letters, I debated on whether to do mine and my husbands actual initials or do M and D for mom and dad. Since our kids will be calling us "Mom" and "Dad" I went with M and D, but I have had a few people question it, so now I am doubting myself. I would love to hear your opinions. What names do you put on your stockings?

 

 

 I am so excited with how they all turned out! I tried to keep the girl ones feminine and the boy ones more masculine. Here is the link to the pattern I used for the stockings.

 

And since we don't have a mantle, I just cut a branch off a bush in our back yard, wrapped an artificial evergreen garland around it, and hung it with some ribbon. A very inexpensive and fun way to hang your stockings.

Fall Decor

I am finally getting around to posting my fall decorations for this year. This year I splurged and actually bought some decorations. All of Michael's fall stuff was 50% off, plus I had an additional 20% off coupon. So I was able to get some jar fillers, a garland, 3 bigger pumpkins, and a bag of small pumpkins all for $25! Not bad, I thought. The brass candlesticks I sort of inherited.



I like how it is not too "themey" either. It will work through Thanksgiving, until I am ready to get the Christmas out.

 

I love how it turned out!

Surprise...

I'M PREGNANT! I realized I hadn't annouced that yet on this blog. I am 20 weeks pregnant and our bundle of joy is expected to arrive sometime around March 14th. I found out this week what I am having so I wanted to share my reveal because I had fun doing it. To keep myself busy the day before my ultrasound I had some fun with my kitchen chalkboard.

Here is a before shot.

E helping me with the reveal...

IT'S A BOY!!!

We are all pretty excited around here. We can't wait to meet our handsome little man, but there are still a few months to go, so hopefully I can find some projects to keep my busy. Not that my almost 2 year old doesn't keep me busy enough. :)

The Playroom

I'm finally getting to the playroom in the house I did for the Parade of Homes. I saved the best for last. I didn't have much to do with this room, but it is probably my favorite room in the house. I think it is everyones favorite room. Just look at it!

Yep, that is a pirate ship playhouse! AND my amazing husband built it all from his head! Of course you can go inside the ship to hide from enemies or climb the rope ladder to get to the top and attack from above. :) The wall murals were done by a local artist, Nicholas Owings, and he did a fabulous job making it look like the ship was docked in an old pirate village.

In the bathroom I added a fun striped shower curtain from Target. I think it has a bit of a pirate flare to it.

The muralist painted the other half of the boat on the wall. Doesn't it look amazing?!

 

 

 Home built by Guardian Homes

 

The Basement

The family room with more beautiful built-ins and a fireplace.

The basement kitchen. This was taken during the parade and the architect had all of his advertising spread all over this space, so that is what all the papers and pictures are.

The cabinet people are eventually going to make a custom table that fits in front of the bench under  the window, creating some nice banquet seating.

Billiard Room

Looking back into the kitchen and family room.

Bedroom

Another bedroom.

We created a nice corner in this bedroom room using some antiques the homeowner had purchased.

All of the bedrooms in the house have their own bathrooms too, the pictures I took of them just did not turn out so I didn't show them.
The next post is the big reveal of my favorite room in the house, the playroom!!

And the rest of the main floor...

The Keeping Room:
Love these beautiful built-ins and fireplace.

The furniture was the homeowners. I added accent tables, lamps, and pillows.

Upstairs Porch:
The house has this amazing outdoor space, complete with T.V. and brick pizza oven.

I could see myself enjoying a lot of summer evenings in a space like this.

Upstairs Guest Bedroom:

The bed was the homeowners. I added the nightstands, bedding from Target, and the lamps from TJ Maxx. I would have been nice to have some art above the bed, but like I said before, my time was limited towards the end.

Master Bedroom:
There are a lot of great architecutual features in this room - curved walls and tray ceilings. The mantle and stone on the hearth and around the fireplace were reclaimed from old buildings.

The furniture was the homeowners, and the bedding is from JC Penny.

Master Bathroom:

Home built by Guardian Homes.

The Kitchen

Sorry it took me a few days to add more pictures. This last weekend seemed like it lasted forever. We started potty training our 22 month old. It was just like having your first baby. Everyone keeps telling you how hard it is going to be and you just think, "Oh yeah, but I can totally handle it." Then it comes and you realize how naive you were. :) We did this 3 day method some friends of ours told us about and....it actually worked really well! The first day I kept thinking, "This is never going to work in 3 days." But on the second day it was like it all of the sudden clicked for her. Seriously amazing! She is not perfect yet, but we are getting there. No accidents so far today! So anyway, I will get back the house now. Next am going to show you the kitchen and breakfast nook. Not a lot of decorating here, but what was really fun about this house was I was involved early on in the building process and was included in a lot of the finish selection.

(Sorry. The pictures aren't super great. There are so many windows in the house and I took the pics mid day, so lighting is not working with me.)

The homeowners actually custom ordered a bigger round table like this one that will seat 8, or 10-12 with a leaf. The furniture store was kind enough to let us use the one they had for the parade. The bigger one will fit the space a little better.

Pretty awesome kitchen, right? And yes, that is a T.V. coming out of the island in the picture above.

The Parade of Homes

I'm done!!!! The house was finished and The Parade of Homes was a success! There were many times last week that I kept thinking, "The house is never going to be done in time. There is no way. There is still so much to do." And I am not talking about my decorating part. The day before the show started carpet was still being installed. That is how close it was. And I guess I should say that the house didn't get 100% finished. There is still some outside rock to complete and some bathroom tile to be grouted, but by 10 o'clock Thursday morning, it was showable. Other than getting the house completed in time, another exciting thing happened. I mentioned a while ago that the model home I did back in May was also in the Parade. (See pics of that here and here.) That home won the Builder's Choice Award (built by Phelps Homes) AND the Decorator's Choice Award!!! Can you believe it?!! I was so honored and excited. It may seem small to some people, but this was definitely a huge highlight in my life so far. I am so flattered. It also just goes to show that you don't have to spend a lot of money to make a home look good. I had such a tight budget on that house. Most of the furniture and accessories came from places like Target and Walmart.
Anyway, let's get back to the other house and start showing some pictures. The house is a custom home built by Guardian Homes. It is a five bedroom, five and a half bathroom home with over 8,000 square feet. Let's start when you walk in the front door into the great room:

As you walk in the entry you are greeted with this beautiful mosaic. The homeowners purchased it and I think it was a good choice and a great piece of art for the home. It showed their design style perfectly. Rustic, elegant, and warm.

The art above the fireplace is Thomas Kincade painting that the homeowners wanted incorporated into the home.

The furniture was purchased at local furniture stores. Accessories are from a million different places. :)

I wish I could have decorated the firepalce a little more and put a few things on the coffee table, but there just wasn't time. Oh well.

The dining area is just to your left when you walk in the front door.

 

Stayed tuned for more pictures.