I'm FULL

I - am - FULL!! Full of food, full of laughter, full of LOVE, and full of.....shopping. Lol.

First, happy (belated) birthday to my sweet Mother in Law. Her birthday was yesterday but we celebrated at her house on Wednesday. Here's a family pic with my sweet MIL...

(as you can see, by the time family pictures come around, my kids are already in their pjs).
We had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving, a special birthday, and hanging with some of our favorite people :)
On Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving with my side of the family at my house (while my hubby was at work). My mom always makes a marvelous feast (with enough food to feed a small village) and I love my siblings and cousins so so much! Friday morning I started decorating for Christmas, and then met my sis and sweet nephew at the mall for some shopping. I got some super cute stuff at great prices and had a great day!

I hope you are all recovering from the carbo load and are having a great weekend!

Chalkboard tins

Happy Tuesday everyone!! Tomorrow we are off to my mother in law's to celebrate Thanksgiving with my hubby's side of the family. Then on Thurs my fam is coming over to chow down (and lucky for me, my mom is still the cook in this family - phew)

Today I have an easy peasy cheap and quick craft to share with you. I was at the dollar tree and I saw these little (ugly-ish) tins (sorry for the crappy phone pic)
.

I love giving (& getting) gift cards for Christmas. Really, is there much better than the gift of shopping?? My answer would be NO. lol. Anyway. I typically give the gift card with some candy or small goodies instead of just putting it in an envelope. I thought these tins would be perfect for that. I wanted to cutify and personalize them a bit first (I got 3 for my trial run). First I spray painted the lids with chalkboard paint.

Then I sprayed the bases with colors I had on hand (those colors being red and aqua). Then I had fun doodling with my chalk pens :)

The only bummer, is the pattern on these particular tins wrap around to the inside :/

 If I was actually going to give these away, I would take the extra step and tape out the inside and spray the rim. Luckily these three will be staying in my stash, and I don't mind patterned rims. When I make more, I will find tins with solid bases rather than patterned.

More doodling....

So, there you go. An easy peasy craft :)

I will most likely be MIA as I stuff myself with many many carbs (& a bit of turkey too). I hope you all have a wonderful holiday!! Gobble gobble!!
xoxo

A few of my favorite things...

I wanted to be a part of the "Favorite Things" linky party over at A Pretty Life in The Suburbs this Sunday. While sipping coffee and listening to my kids fight play, I rounded up some of the things I really REALLY want this year (hint hint to my hubby). Take a look....

THESE Mugs....

 

I would love to have these to sip coffee out of on Christmas morning while watching my kiddos open their stockings from Santa. Too cute!! 

 

THESE shoes....(I am a big fan of leopard)

 

 

OR

 

THESE shoes....(I need some more red in my life)



 

 

THIS Initial necklace with my kid's initials...(I have a silver necklace with their monograms but I would love a dainty gold set)

 

THIS phone case for my (lame non-iphone phone)...(I have some rewards points for my Discover card and I can use them on Amazon....hmm...may have to pop on this cutie). UPDATE: I bought this using my points. Couldn't resist, it's SO me!!

 

THIS print....(ahhh, sooo cute and a great message)

 

 

THESE bottle brush trees...(I bought the aqua one last year on clearance but I need MORE)

 

 THIS poster....(picture it in a gaudy gold frame - yes!!)

 



THIS chunky scarf....(it comes in a lot of cute colors and looks super warm and cozy)

And soooooooooo many more awesome things!! Funny though, it's way harder to make a list for myself than it is for me to make lists for my kids. There are always so many cute things for them. Ah, the life of a mom :)
Happy weekend to you all!!

Monday randomness

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend!

I wanted to say a special thank you to all the veterans out there that have fought and fight every day to make this country a safe and wonderful place to live. Thank you dad for serving in the Navy years ago and for telling me amazing stories of heroes in action. I am forever amazed by their courage.

Moving on....to randomness that has me smiling this Monday.

First on my list - washi tape. I know it has been all the rage for a while, but I just hopped on the bandwagon and will most likely never hop off.

The ones on the left are from The Washi Shop on Etsy and the 2 on the right are from Michael's. Michael's now has a whole wall of it made by the Recollections brand (although they call it craft tape). There are so many great patterns and colors to choose from...makes me smile.

I am already putting it to great use :)

Next up, I got my craft of over the weekend and made some vintage ornaments inspired by the plaques and boxes that my guru Cassie made last week :)

Poor little vintage Golden Book. Didn't even see my scissors coming ;)

These were a huge hit with my friends when I posted a pic on Instagram (I'm arichardson79 on Instagram if you want to follow along) so I am considering this batch "SOLD." This is not a bad problem to have. I ordered another copy of the book on Etsy and bought the rest of the stock of paper machier ornaments at Michael's so I will be making a second batch soon. My sis-in-law and I will be doing a craft fair together in December, so hopefully I will have some to bring with me there :)

Last but CERTAINLY not least - I got some HAPPY HaPpY mail on Saturday.

For some reason, I was having a hard time finding this HaPpY magazine here in SoCal. Why is it so happy you ask?? I am very proud of my sweet friend Andi of Natalily Designs and Jane of All Crafts!! Take a look at the awesomeness!!! (btw - I demanded the autograph)

Um. yeah. Better Homes and Gardens. Andi. She MADE those awesome Christmas bulb ornaments.

-Andi Morris, Superstar!

There's even a tutorial for all of us DIY'ers :)

Seriously, I could not be more proud of my sweet friend. Such awesomeness, huh!!? YAY Andi!

So, that's it, my randomness for ya :)
I hope you all have a fabulous week!!

Simple Fall and some fleas

Happy Moan-day everyone. The time change made my morning a bit more sunny and a bit less dark and night-ish. I like it :) I hope you are all having a great day. I wanted to share my simple Fall decor as well as some cute little treasures I picked up at the Flea market yesterday.

First - My simple Fall mantle. I played musical art this weekend and changed things up a bit. I made a new chalkboard and relocated my family sign to another wall. Here's my simple Fall mantle :)

Wanna see a close-up?

I already had a foam wreath wrapped in thick cream yarn. I took some time yesterday to add some colorful stripes (my version of a Fall color scheme).

Last night my mom was over and said..." I like the new wreath thingy. But...is it for Fall? It's not really Fall colors. It's not shaped like a Turkey, why does it say gobble?" Haha - she's more of a traditional decorator I suppose.

My turquoise painted pumpkins get to stay out for November and I brought a bit of Orange back into my life (remember, I was not feeling Orange this season).

In the kitchen I Fall-ed up my buffet.

Last year my sweet friend Andi made me these adorable sparkly acorns and they look perfect on my branches...

That's about it as far as Fall decor. I'm trying to keep things simple in anticipation of a much more full Christmas set-up. Stay tuned ;)

I was lucky enough to sneak out and wander the local flea market yesterday morning. It really is my happy place so I'm glad it worked out. I got a few cuties while I was there (Christmas - of course). First I got this vintage ceramic tree (missing the light inside but I don't mind).

My neighbor growing up had one of these on her kitchen counter every year and I just love it :)

I also got this little box of cute little ornaments...

I think they would look super cute tied on to packages and they were only $1 for the box :)

I also got this happy little Santa. I love his sweet face :)

So, that's about it for today.
Have a GREAT week everyone :)