I am woefully behind on all of the things I have to get done in the next couple of days.  Thankfully tomorrow is Saturday and I’ll have my Hubs around to help.  Laundry is still not caught up, my bedroom is an absolute mess, I’m not done with my sister’s baby shower invitations, and then our Christmas cards arrived in the mail yesterday (they turned out so great, I’m tickled to send them,) and that means that I have a gagillion to now stamp and address.

Today is my annual day of Christmas baking with my dear friend and soul sister of years, Emily.  Back in 2000 we met and became fast friends.  One of those friendships where it all falls into place literally in the first 5 minutes you’re talking… and here we are almost 12 years, a husband each, and 5 kids between us later…still doing our baking together annually.  We’ve gotten it down to a science now, which is a good thing because with lots of kids running around underfoot, we have to be on the ball.  Last year we make 40 gift boxes of goodies between us to give to friends and neighbors, and this year, we’re hoping to increase that number.  We’ll see how it goes!

Anyhow…that means that my chance of catching up on laundry and cleaning today is not highly likely.  It also means, that I’m not ready to show you my sister’s baby shower invitations.  What can I say…real life once again trumping my ideas for a great blog post when I want it.  We’ll get there eventually!

So, since I’m obviously behind on a few things…I thought I’d go ahead and show you some zoomed out pictures of a couple of rooms in my house.  The kitchen is a mess right now, and you know about the current state of my bedroom.  If you want to see my baby’s room, you can go HERE, and I did a post on my bedroom awhile back, so if you’re curious about that, you can go HERE.  Tid Bit’s room is probably going to have to be a future post too, but for now it has some extra stuff accumulating in there to have made room in the den for our Christmas tree.  See…real life.

But here’s our den…the room with the funky mantel.

I’ll do my best to get another picture facing the direction of the polkadot sofa, but for now, this side of the room has more decorations going on.

Here’s the top of my funky tree on the left…with mismatched lights and ornaments from my childhood, our travels, ones my kids have made…you know…all the good life stuff!

My living room tree on the right is much prettier…in a more subdued sort of way.  Between the two though, my favorite is the funky one.  It holds all of the memories.

And here’s a zoomed out picture of my living room.  It’s the room that generally always is in order.  It’s the place I go sit when grown-ups come over without kids…the place I go curl up to read when it’s quiet in my house.  It feels good to me.  And there isn’t a single toy in that room either…typically.

My dining room is a really neat color called Begonia.  It doesn’t translate well in pictures, but it’s really exactly that color…begonia.  Sort of pinkish with a tinge of salmon…it’s bright…it’s happy…and I like it.

You can see on the table some of the additional fun I had with the hymnals…I used spray glue and stuck overlapping sheets onto a runner that I made from brown craft paper.  I did the same thing on my buffet and sideboard, and I LOVE the way it turned out.  I’m not done messing with the centerpiece of the table yet…so excuse the unfinishedness of it.

You like the huge green power strip on the right?  I knew you would! 🙂

Ok peeps…I have to get going on this day.  I’m already pushing it to get out the door in time for school!  I PROMISE I’ll show you my sister’s baby shower invitation and how to make one like it yourself on Monday!

Much love and have an awesome weekend!

(I’m linking up to Women Living Well Wednesdays below too!  Check out all the fun projects other people in blogland have got goin!)

I realized as I’ve been editing all of the pictures of my home decorated for Christmas that I am gonna have to break it all down into parts because there are SO many things to show you.  Today, I noticed that some other blogs I enjoy are hosting mantel  decor parties, and since my mantels are probably among my favorite things to decorate for Christmas…I figured we’d start there!

I have 2 fireplaces in my home and this year I’ve had a really good time decorating both of them in completely different styles.  My den is the more funky room by far…with a pink recliner and a polka-dotted sofa…so for that mantel, I have a good time with non traditional colors.  So here’s what’s going on in there….

I saw stockings really similar to these in the Land of Nod catalogue a couple of years ago…for like $30 each.  I figured we could make a craft project out of them one day and that’s just what we did.  I actually like the way mine turned out better because  I added a cuff at the top with some leftover fabric I had that’s used on a chair in the den.  We cut circles and then glued them on with fabric glue and then did the same with the ric rack…it was SO easy and occupied a couple of afternoons for Tid Bit.  I sewed them together one night and that’s it.  I LOVE the way they turned out.  I used white flannel for the main part and felt for all of the circles.  Aren’t they so cute?!

I’m always keeping an eye out for fun ribbon…and this one is PERFECT for my den.  I think it was like $20 for a roll of maybe 30 feet or so (which is a bit steep) but I just fold it nicely and re-use it each year…so for me, it’s been worth the investment.  My mom bought me 6 ft of that garland with fun colored balls on it, and it’s made it SO much easier to just mix that in with a fake greenery garland and some real greenery for a full look.  I’m always sticking other random stuff I happen to find in my Christmas boxes in there too.

These branches are kinda sparkly wacky, but I love them.  This year I stuck them in a couple of large glass jugs that I had and wrapped them up in this iridescent fabric I had leftover from last year and tied them with a short length of my fancy ribbon.

I’ll show you a more complete picture of the whole room later this week.

For my living room, I’ve been wildly inspired by the wreath I made of old hymnals recently.  I also made some flowers out of the hymnals as well as some ornaments…so those things helped me determine the direction I wanted to go.  I wanted it to feel more traditional but still with a little bit of glam.  The best thing I did was to put an old door that I had in the garage over the mantel and I love it so much…i believe it has found a more permanent home there.

The taller plants on the sides are just some $3 peace lilies that I bought and stuck a couple of sparkly branches into.  I found some containers I had that were the size I wanted, but didn’t match…so I just covered them in burlap to add some uniformity.  The tissue paper flowers are like the ones I made for our Easter party, but this time I used a natural colored tissue paper.  The small hymnal flowers are made the same way, I just don’t cut the edges because I love the natural yellowed part.  It also makes the flower look more like a peony than a dahlia to leave the edges raw.  Check out the tissue flower tutorial and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.

The small balls you can see are just some cheap non-breakable ones that I found at Hobby Lobby.  We tore the hymnals into smaller pieces and decoupaged the ornaments with the pieces using mod podge.  Once the ornaments were covered, we sprinkled some iridescent glitter over them.  This was so easy that once I showed my 5-year-old how to do it, he made almost 2 dozen of them.  A great craft project for him, and it gave me loads more fun stuff to decorate with!  He’s particularly proud as well that I’m using his project to decorate all over the house.

I think that’s it pretty much.  I’ll zoom out the camera on Friday and show you what the actual rooms housing these mantels look like.

Happy hump day!

PS. For other inspiring mantel ideas, check out these holiday decorating linky parties that are going on right now at Southern Hospitality, Home Stories A to Z, and The Lettered Cottage.  Also check out my friend Myra’s adorable vintage inspired mantel!

I woke up really early this morning kinda stressed over the Christmas party I’ve been planning.  When I originally planned it, in my mind I was having it on a Friday night.  When I sent the invitations, I was in such a tizzy to get it done amidst the other million things I’ve had on my plate lately, I sent the invitation dated for Saturday.  And right after I sent it, I realized what I’d done.  But I am from the South, and it’s kinda tacky to go about changing that sort of thing….especially once people have said that they can come.  But as the responses have come rolling in, an overwhelming number of people have been super bummed to have conflicts that they are committed to for Saturday night.  And so you know what….I did the unthinkable….I changed the date!

Yep…Logan Griswold here.

Bringing about tacky just in time for Christmas.

And you know what I decided.  We’re throwing a party for other people to be able to come…and if the date is a big fat conflict for pretty much everyone who has responded thus far, well then….It’s my party, and I’ll change if I want to.

Truly though, I know it’s not that big of a deal to change.  But, I REALLY hope that the 6 couples who had responded already that they could come to the Saturday night party aren’t now disqualified because of the change.  If so…well, I owe you guys another party…so pick a reason to have one and we’ll do it.

By the way, looking at this picture above and seeing Ellen’s fabulous hair reminds me that I completely forgot to show you a picture of my fabulous hair when the Hubs and I recently went to a 1970’s themed Murder Mystery party.

 

Yes ladies and gentlemen….that would be my husband….dressed as his yuppie, tennis playing, alter-ego who we decided to name Gary P Knight III for the event.  And just like my husband and I agree we would probably not have much liked one another had we met in our early college years when I partied too much and he had that awful long haircut that was shaved halfway underneath, our characters for the party would have probably not ended up together either…me a stylish feminist and him a tennis-playing yuppy.  All’s well that ends well though…we both reverted to our normal selves who DO really like one another at the end of the evening.

And interestingly enough for this part…I didn’t have to buy a single thing.  Thankfully fringed boots and graphic, kimono styled one-armed dresses are in again.

And while I’m on the topic of random things…I did a really cute craft with my kids yesterday that I thought I’d share with you.  I don’t recommend doing this with almost-2-year-olds though because it does result in an unusually high number of candy cane casualties.  My 5 year old loved it and we made 20 of them to give to his class at school for Christmas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To make 1 of these cute Candy Cane Reindeer you’ll need:

• 2 candy canes
• 1 red pom pom
• 2 googly eyes
• 1 tiny bell
• 4 brown pipe cleaners
• 1 green pipe cleaner

I found it easiest to go ahead and twist the 4 brown pipe cleaners together prior to wrapping the candy canes.  I did this long twisting step and began the wrapping process like you see above, and my son did the rest.  It was easy, fun, and pretty cheap to do.  Wrap the candy canes with the brown pipe cleaners, then thread the bell onto the green pipe cleaner to wrap for the belt.  Glue on the eyes and nose and voila…easy peasy.  If you have older kids though, I found that hot glue holds the stuff on better than Elmers….obviously.  So if it were me just feeling the need to make loads of these guys by myself….I’d be hot gluing the heck out of them.

Well, I’m headed to the Biltmore House again today.  Taking Tid Bit out of school and all going to see it decorated for Christmas.  If you live close enough to go to Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC…I HIGHLY recommend it.  Money well spent, and for just a total of $50 more for 1 couple, you can upgrade your daily pass to a season pass.  We’ve LOVED having the opportunity to explore the grounds this year, see the small farm there, walk through the gardens, and enjoy the house.  Time and money well spent for sure.

Ya’ll have a good weekend!  I’ll show you pictures of my house all decorated this coming week!

 

 

I have a confession.  I think I’ve been kind of a jerk.  And, well…in my heart I’ve been a total jerk several times lately.

The Lord pricked my heart on something this morning that I think is a great thing to consider particularly during the Holiday season…

Hospitality….to our families

You all know I love a good party.  Whether it’s hosting one like I did for Lily Pottery the other night, having a small group of friends over for dinner, or throwing a huge bash…I love hospitality and entertaining.  And for the most part, I think that I do both of them well.  I’ve spent a lot of time studying hospitality over the past few months, and awhile back I read something that said that hospitality is about relationship, and entertaining is about well…entertaining.

The holidays always bring about lots of opportunities for both, and I have to say that in my efforts to be hospitable and entertain lately…there are a couple of people who have really gotten the short end of the stick as my efforts have been focused elsewhere.  They’re among the people who really should be getting the first fruits of my efforts to serve others too….my kids.

Yep…I’ve been kind of a jerk a good bit lately to my kids.  Man.  That feels pretty sucky to say out loud.

And here’s why I am saying it out loud…to put it in front of my face, and to hopefully put it in front of yours too in an effort to encourage you away from making the same mistake.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been busting my tail to get my house cleaned and decorated for Christmas…you know, the holiday where we celebrate the birth of the Savior of the world into a regular old family.  Where we focus on God coming to earth….as a BABY.  Yeah…that holiday….the one about great gifts to mankind, and about God as a child.  That one.  That’s the holiday I’ve been getting ready for… and being pretty much a total ass to my own children at least once a day in my efforts to “entertain” and prepare to serve others.

See…here’s the problem I’ve had.  It’s called an agenda.  A “to-do list.”  And my kids have quite frankly interrupted my efficiency to get those things done.  Sure I’ve included them along the way.  We’ve made ornaments together, decorated a tree together, done some baking together….but including them takes time, and sometimes I just want to get things done and be done with those things too.  To check things off of my list….and when that efficiency goes out the door, I begin to see my selfishness creep right in.

This morning I have spent some time really thinking about how “the holidays,”  more than any other time of the year, present loads of opportunities to serve others.  Whether you serve a special meal to the needy on Thanksgiving, or host a bunch of people at a festive party, get together with family more, spend time with friends more….whatever it is, our schedules get busy with giving and going, and at the end of the day for most of us and our families….that pace isn’t sustainable.

I don’t want “the busy” to become “the business” of my time or of my life.  I want to remember to serve my own family before I even serve others….because that’s my mission… my job… my calling.  If I busy myself with always serving others, but forget to serve my own family in the process, I’m just cultivating hearts in my children that resent hospitality and serving.  And if I do that, then all I’m doing is making yet another contribution to an already selfish society…teaching them that our own agenda to “serve” is really more about entertaining than about relationship.  And I don’t want to do that.  I want my message to them to be to serve because we love….not to just entertain…to be about relationship, not presentations.

I just read something from a lady named Dorothy Patterson based on Isaiah 40:28-31 that said “Gods strength is for what He plans for you to do….not stamina for everything you might want to do.”  Proverbs reminds us, lest we forget, that our children are a gift from the Lord (even in the moments where they make us feel crazy.)  And I’m just gonna be honest and say that my “gifts” have frustrated me lately as they interrupt my agenda of what “I might want to do” sometimes.  During this season, we all get so easily wrapped up in our own agendas, and someone, somewhere often pays the price.  Who’s it gonna be?

So…here I am.  December 1st….saying that the next 25 days counting down to celebrate the birth of a child will be much different than the past week of preparing to celebrate.  I want to show hospitality to my family first…and out of that heart, overflow the fruits of hospitality onto others.

 

I’m sorry I’m just now getting this post up with the Lily Pottery Giveaway winner from yesterday!  I’m so tired!  I think all of the adrenaline from the days prior that I needed to get my house decorated and cleaned for the show last night must have gone straight out the door with Lily as she left last night.  Yes friends…the adrenaline rush is over and the low has definitely hit…which mainly just means that I’m beat!  (That… and I’ve ended up running around with my mom who was here from out-of-town to help with the show, had to take the littlest guy to the pediatrician for an ear infection, met with the cabinet man for my laundry room this morning, and the list goes on.  You know how it goes…busy, busy day!)

I’m going to try to get some pictures taken of my house in the next day or so while it’s all clean and Christmas decoratey to show you. (And yes…I wrote decorateY…that wasn’t a typo…it’s a real word in my real vocabulary…that I’m pretty sure I really made up.)

And it’s a good thing that it’s all decoratey already because I’m so tired now, that I’m pretty sure were it not all finished, I’d be swaying towards the kind of decorating exhibited in this last home pictured below….

Hilarious huh?  No idea whose home this is because I saw it on Facebook, but I just have to say to that family…”If not the most decoratey, you are definitely the funniest person on your street!”

Ok…so I know what you all really want to know is who won the amazing Lily Pottery giveaway from yesterday.

And the winner of any one item from Lily’s shop valued up to $100 is….

Comment #43 Debbie W  who said…

I am a follower of your feed. Look forward to your posts!

 

Thanks Debbie, and I hope you’re reading from your feed now, because you have 48 hours from this post’s timestamp (4:30pm EST)  to claim your prize (or bummer of all bummers for you, I’ll have to pick another winner!)  Congratulations!  Looks like you will just have to decide between all of your favorites now!

Thanks to all of you who came to the show as well!  You were each entered to win a $25 Lily Pottery gift certificate just for coming, and the winner of that gift card is….

Lisa Fricke!

Congratulations Lisa!  See ya’ll….it literally pays to show up!

Thanks to everyone who entered, and don’t forget that you can still save if you order from Lily Pottery online by December 1st.  Lily is offering FREE Holiday giftwrap AND FREE Shipping when you enter the code LIFEFORDESSERT at the checkout!  Happy gifting!

I hope all of you had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend wherever you were.  We headed up to the mountains (where I got to enjoy my favorite kind of coffee several times) with my parents, sister and brother in-law.  My actual brother is still on the aircraft carrier, and thankfully he’s finally headed homeward after 8 long months.  I cannot wait to see him!  My brood headed home on Friday and I spent the rest of the weekend decorating my house for Christmas and getting it ready for the Lily Pottery show that I’m hosting TONIGHT!!! (Once my house is completely clean and the show is over, I’ll give you a photo tour of it later this week all decorated for Christmas.)

To celebrate the show and the Christmas season, Lily is offering a giveaway of any item from her shop valued up to $100 on Life for Dessert today!  Go to Lily Pottery’s shop and select your favorite item.  To enter, come back here and leave a comment with your pick!  For extra entries you can do the following (leave a separate comment letting me know for each additional action that you take):

• Like Lily Pottery on Facebook
• Subscribe to receive the Life for Dessert feed (there’s a box on the right hand side of the blog where you can enter to do that)
• Like Life for Dessert on Facebook
• Follow Life for Dessert on Twitter
• Share this giveaway on your Facebook wall and Retweet the link to your Twitter followers as well!

The contest will end at midnight tonight (Tuesday, Nov. 29th)

Lily is also offering a coupon code for Life for Dessert readers until December 1st.  Enter the code LIFEFORDESSERT at the checkout when you purchase from Lily Pottery online to get FREE Holiday giftwrap AND FREE Shipping!  

If you’re in town (Greenville, SC), and would like to come to tonight’s show then shoot an email to Logan @LifeForDessert dot com, and I’ll send you the address.  Bring your sister, a friend, a neighbor…and I’ll look forward to seeing ya’ll drop in anytime TONIGHT, Tuesday, November 29th between 6-9pm.  You’ll also be entered to win a Lily Pottery gift certificate just for showing up! And as a super special thank you for coming, this amazing Vintage Garden Necklace pictured above (my personal favorite, but in your color of choice) will be on sale ONLY at the show…just because it’s my favorite and just to give those of you who come another little bit of love!

And, while you’re here, I hope you’ll stay for a glass of wine or cup of coffee with Lily and me.  Oh, and even if you are one of those crazy people who does the whole midnight on Black Friday deal and are now done Christmas shopping for the free world… but may still want to look for yourself, come on!  Lily has wish list forms you can fill out and I will personally be delighted to give your favorite Santa a call on your behalf.  And if that clever Santa takes the not-so-subtle hint and jumps at the chance to score you something you already want without you standing right there, Lily said she’ll even giftwrap and ship the item to the aforementioned Santa to help lighten the Christmas-gift-finding load.

Happy shopping!  Don’t forget to enter the giveaway by leaving your comments below!

 

You know if you’ve been here for any length of time that a laundry room overhaul has been on my brain for awhile.  Remember when I bought THE boots with my birthday money instead of putting it towards the laundry room?  Yeah…it’s been partly my own fault, but this project has seemed forever away.

Not anymore!!!

The Hubs and I talked about it, and we have decided that instead of doing Christmas presents for one another this year, we’re going to finally do the laundry room project.  I’m so stinking excited I can hardly stand it!  The cabinet people are coming next week to see what I want.  My job now of course is to get together my pictures to show them.  Since I sketched the whole thing over a year ago, and have been dreaming about it since we bought this house 3 1/2 years ago…I’m pretty sure I do know what I want.

Here’s what I’m dealing with now…in all of it’s horrid, messy glory.  And no…if you’re from my 31 Days to Clean Bible/Book study…I hadn’t done the laundry room part of the study yet.  Busted in the very worst way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If I’m being honest too….unfortunately, even when I clean it…it doesn’t stay that way long.  That stupid craft cabinet on the right is a disaster and my kids pull stuff out all the time…knocking everything in their way over as they go.  It’s one of those places that I hate to be.  It’s really no wonder that laundry remains my nemesis.

There’s a lot of great space in the room, but as you can see on the right hand side, it’s horribly utilized.  Mostly I’m sure it’s because of the big gray main electrical panel on the wall.  I’m going to put a cabinet over it to keep it accessible, but we’re doing SOMETHING to at the very least make use of all the rest of the space.  We’ll see what we can get away with there in terms of code and working our way around it.

I’ve been looking at pictures, and this one is the closest to what I think that I want.

I love the glass cabinets on the very top…they add a real airy-ness to the space.  I’m not probably tidy enough to have plain glass, but even a frosted look would conceal the cabinet contents and lend to the illusion of that open look of a standard glass front.  Also, instead of a lower cabinet on the right hand side, I want more floor to ceiling storage going on like at the end of that right hand side.  Also, my washer and dryer on the left are separated by a sink so it’ll be similar to what you see there with just appliances on either side of the sink.  White cabinets are a must for me…but I’m planning to go with a more plain shaker style cabinet to achieve really clean lines.  I do LOVE that light fixture in there…or maybe the blown glass Edison bulb looking style.  I really like the look of wood floors too, but there’s tile in there now, and really, for durability sake…it’s probably the best choice for us.

Check out these other pictures I found though that I love.  Pretty much all of these were found on google images and several occurred multiple places…so I have no idea of the original origin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Um…I’m seeing a trend here.  You?

When I think of the whole room, I just keep thinking…CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN.  White, beadboard, cup pulls, and farm sink.  And the best part of all…LOADS AND LOADS of storage.  Everything from pantry items, to craft supplies, tools, lightbulbs, batteries…you know, all the random indoor stuff too.

These cabinets here to the left are pretty much the exact styling that I want…only in white.  Ahhh….so pretty.

We’ll see what it all comes down to in the end…but this is my general direction.  What do ya think?

And…if it were your laundry room…what thing do you think I should make sure I have in there? If we’re gonna spring for it and get it done, I want to make sure I dot all my i’s and cross my t’s!

Suggest away friends!