DIY Ornament Shadow Box

I added a little bit of festive to our gallery wall this year! I found a great tutorial from Two Yellow Bird Decor for an ornament shadow box. It was just too cute to not make one for our home.

Fun, right?!

Things I used:

12 x 12 Shadow box frame (about an inch deep - $10, Target)

Sheet of glittery scrapbook paper (which reminded me why I hate glitter...)

Glue gun
2 boxes of mini silver ornaments ($3 each, Target)
Snowflake embellishment sticker (found these while cleaning out some things - nice)

Put is all together in a fancy-shmancy fashion and - jingle jangle! You have yourself a festive little piece to add to your holiday decor! YAY!

That's one thing crossed off the ol' Pinterest board. About 500 things left. Gotta love it! Are you crossing things off your to do list? Share with us what you have been up to in the comments :)



**Linking up with**
Organize & Decorate Everything - Deck the Halls Holiday Pinning Party!
I'm an Organizing Junkie 
A Bowl Full of Lemons 
Diana Rambles - Pin It Party 
Smart! School {House} 
Skip to My Lou
The NY Melrose Family

Gallery Wall {Updated}

Ok, updated a tad. I am waiting on my giant print of our new family photo to replace the one from last year.

But this is where I am at now with the updates. What do you think?

 You like?

My hallway in too narrow to get a better picture, but here is what I have (from left to right):

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Small black quote block - "In everything give thanks" Bought last year on clearance at Family Christian. 

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Our family photo art I made last year - here

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We finally have a Crucifix - Yay! Found the perfect one at Family Christian. My brother, Sean, told me I need to take it down after I take the picture, though, so I can get it blessed. Thanks, man. Will do! (similar)

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Next is the DIY Ornament Shadow Box. I saw a great tutorial from Two Yellow Birds Decor. Loved it so much I had to make one, too! (my post here)

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Below that is my other DIY family photo art - here

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Next up is something fabulous!! My Birmingham Plate that my mom and here fab friend, Denise, found while out shopping at the antique shops. And it was $1! Hang on, more on that in a sec!

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Under the plate is something so dear to me that it will never be taken down. A picture of my Bea-Bea and Grand Daddy. He was an Episcopal priest and I remember playing in his church while he worked on his sermons. I made sure to grab it when I said good-bye to my Bea-Bea in October of 2008. Miss you both so much. 

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Next is Andrew's school picture from this year. Such a cutie!

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Finally, the last item to list is so much fun - my personalized subway art from PB&Jcreations I won it in a giveaway last year and I cannot wait to get another couple of items from her this year. Her shop is ahhh-mazing!! (shop here!!) We have all things special to us written out. Just lovely!

Now, how about that awesome plate that was just a buck and super fabulous?! Coolness.

Isn't that so super cool?! A Birmingham plate found in some random antique shop in Pensacola. Love it. AND! It was designed specifically for Bromberg's - where I would love a few pieces to wear on me (coughhintcoughJasoncough). I love it. Thanks again, Mom and Denise!

You wondering how I hung this with out those icky plate holders? Have you seen/heard of these?

Invisible Disc Plate Hangers. Awesome. I first heard of these on French Country Cottage and couldn't wait to get a fabulous plate. Few months later I got it! So, I needed those plate hangers. Courtney pointed me over to her friend, Nancy, who sells these (and about 500 other things I now want LOL). If you are in need of these super cool hangers for your interesting plates, check out her shop!

I'm so excited that our gallery wall is all done - for now. Just waiting on my prints to show up in the next week or so. Yay!!


**Linking up with**
Organize & Decorate Everything - Deck the Halls Holiday Pinning Party!
I'm an Organizing Junkie 
 A Bowl Full of Lemons 
Diana Rambles - Pin It Party  
Smart! School {House} 
Skip to My Lou 
The NY Melrose Family

Christmas!!!

I am so happy that MOST of my decorations are up and MOST of my Christmas shopping is done - YAY! I have a few projects I am working on around the house still. But, I can show you what we have done so far. Ready?

 

First thing first - the kiddos need their stuff up! We LOVE our Little People Nativity - so cute! Alex loves to keep Baby Jesus with him all. the. time. Andy gets a little annoyed that Mary isn't with Baby Jesus in the stable. But is fine with it as long as he gets the 3 kings. Goodness... 

 Yes, we have the North Pole, too! This set actually belonged to my little brothers!! How cool!!

 Playing in the morning when they found the Christmas stuff I put out. 

This cracks me up. The boys made Santa take his train over to the stable because Baby Jesus needed some toys. I told them how the 3 kings brought gifts to their king (which is yes a baby at that moment) and they were confused why Baby Jesus couldn't play with those presents. So Santa took care of that part, I guess LOL Too cute.

 After breakfast, we set up the tree. This is how a toddler decorates the tree :)

Andrew puts all ornaments in his favorite color on first while Alex pulls off all the hooks. LOL

 After the tree was up, they guys wanted their other trains to play with. That's when I brought out yet another Christmas surprise that belong to my brothers. The tree from the Polar Express! And, it makes magical noises and lights up :) FUN! 

 We bought some impromptu decorations for trees I didn't think I was using. I had these 2 tiny trees before we had the boys - one was in our guest room and one was in the kitchen. Now, they are decked out in the boys' favorite colors and in their rooms!

 Andy's Blue Christmas :) The tree is from Hobby Lobby years ago, but still available. The star, ornaments, and battery-operated LED lights are all from Target.

 Alex's Ever Green!

 Of all the decorations, this is my favorite! It took me FOREVER to figure out how to display my Nativity scene, but it's up! I have all the pieces, but not enough room to put it all up this year. Plus, I have 2 toddlers who want to touch every. single. thing. So, yes, this was the solution. The cranberry wreath and star are tied together (both from Target a few years ago). I figured they needed the STAR over them somewhere and I needed to add in some color.  LOVE IT!

 In the bottom of one of my Christmas boxes, the guys found the Packer Santa hats. We had a lot of fun with those!

I was playing around with my camera settings on my phone last night trying to get a picture of our tree. These were the best ones :)

I love Christmas!! Do you have your decorations up yet? When do you take them down?



**Linking up with**
Organize & Decorate Everything - Deck the Halls Holiday Pinning Party!
I'm an Organizing Junkie 
 A Bowl Full of Lemons 
Diana Rambles - Pin It Party  
Smart! School {House} 
Skip to My Lou 
The NY Melrose Family

Wordless Wednesday

Merry Thanksmas in Augusta

Did that title confuse you? Or have you been following long enough to know my mom and I? ;)

After Jason's family moved out-of-state from where my parents are, we had to split up the holidays. One year it's there, another year it's somewhere else. This year, we had Thanksgiving in Augusta - but also celebrated Christmas since we won't be seeing his family next month. My mom came up with that term "Thanksmas" last year. Isn't she hilarious!? I love it. So it's sticking.

Anyway, I did manage to grab a few pictures here and there. We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too! Or, if you're like us - a very Merry Thanksmas!

 Alex and Andrew loved these Snowmen matryoshkas - they are pretty cute!!

Also, sadly, this is the ONLY picture I got of them on Thanksgiving Day with their turkey shirts...grr... I thought with mom brain that was a given that I would make them sit and smile together in matching shirts...ugh...I guess next year, right? These shirts were made by the fabulous, Chi, from our church! So cute, right?!

 Opening up some Christmas gifts! Thanks, Nana and Papa, for all the fabulous things!

 Andrew cooking us a feast with his cookware (this is going with a certain item from Mommy and Daddy they will both find on Christmas morning! YAY!)

 Speaking of feasts...yum :) I'd like to point out to all my brothers...haha! I got a leg this year, boys! They - meaning whichever two steal them first - never let me get one. Stinkers. Love you, guys!

 Being with family is great. Many of my mornings looked like this. Sip, sip, ahhhhh. 

 And many of our evenings looked like this - CATAN!!! 

If you have never played this game - 1st, what is the matter with you? And 2nd, put this game on your Christmas list. It is awesome. It is the ONLY strategy game I LOVE. 

This was my Thanksgiving card to my hubby. He cracked up with this one :) 

I don't usually do Thanksgiving cards, but this was PERFECT for him. He LOVES my mom's Candied Yams - that I have tweaked, which makes him ask for them all the time during this season. 

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with their families! Time to get those decorations up now!!

Triangle Park

Ready for another fun park? A mom from our church told me about this great little playground, so I knew we had to check it out this past Sunday.

 A playground filled with dump trucks! How fun is that?! 

 Alex is having dun with picking out his trucks. 

 Time to check out the playground - giddy up!!

 

Super fast!

 The boys' first tire swing ride :) YAY!

  Andrew being silly and pretending to be trapped in a tunnel :)

 Me enjoying the fabulous late-November weather and listening to the adventures happening in the park.

 Back to the dump trucks - Alex found a cool nut(?) of some kind

Another great day at another great park!

Happy Thanksgiving from Our House to Yours!

 Over the weekend we made a craft to share with everyone! 

Such a fun Saturday morning with my family!!

Wordless Wednesday

So Many Books...So Little Time

I have a never ending list of books that I want to read. I have about 8 pages of books on one of my Amazon wish lists...and on my Kindle there are about 12 pages of books I have downloaded, but haven't gotten to yet.

And, as great as it is to have books instantly in my fingertips, some are still a bit pricey - especially for an electronic edition. My latest splurge was on Life of Pi (read it over the summer and cannot WAIT to see the movie!) - I think it was listed at $12.99 at the time. I can't do that with all the book I want to read.

Luckily, I came across a new site, thanks to Money Saving Mom, for us who love to read on the cheap! Crystal and Ashley, from FiveJs, have teamed up to offer the best free and cheep books available to download to your Kindle or your Kindle app on your smart phone (also available via PDF file). Stop by eReaderGirl to check out what titles are available today. We have a nice long weekend ahead of us, maybe it is time to get your reading on!

For more ways to stay connected with ERG and see new deals posted every day, just follow them!



Disclosure: The opinions in this post are 100% mine. I have received no compensation for this post. This is a great site that I wanted to share. 
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McWane Center

We went to the McWane Center again!! I LOVE going there. I have just as much as the boys do! But, I didn't realize that last Monday was a holiday until we were already in the car and the destination was known... Oops. Oh, well.

We ended up having a ton of fun! We actually spent most of our time on the third floor where the model trains have been set up. Way cool. Those parents muttering about skipping that floor? Yeah, you missed out. Just sayin'.

Andrew LOVED this one! He stayed in that spot for probably about a good five minutes. Then he just inced over a bit to see the next one come by. LOL

 I have a confession to make: from the back of Andrew's head...I had no idea that was him when I was editing these pics until I got to the one on the right. LOL They really DO look like twins these days!

 Andrew had a blast making Thomas and James run around the track...

 ...which could possibly give you a slight case of whiplash when trying to take a picture. LOL

 This was Andrew and Alex's favorite. The train on the top moved along with one that runs on the inner track. The other two you see do not move, but the yellow one was Andrew's favorite. He said it looked like the ones in "Boomingham." Such a cutie.

 As we made our way around the trains, Alex found a crane and he hung out there a bit while Andrew finished watching another train running nearby.

 They he came over for a try on the crane.

 This is where it got chaotic. The Clifford exhibit (which we all loved) just opened over the weekend and we were excited to go see it. Only, it was chaotic because of - ready? - the parents. Oh. My. Gosh. One of them nearly knocked over Alex. Wanna guess what I nearly did? Kidding. Sorta.

We stayed there for not even five minutes. But the buys did get to play with the giant doggie treats for Clifford. I love Alex's face! I got him mid-word: "Bone!"

 While the trains and giant treats were fun, Alex LOVED looking at the fish. 

Andrew told me to take a picture of the "Nemo tank" but not of Nemo. He likes Gill. No...I couldn't remember his name or what kind of fish he was either. But here he is!

And, now that I look at this pic vs what I took a pic of...they aren't the same. Close enough!

source

Another great day with my little guys!