Thanksgiving is gone, Christmas is coming...

Is it just me, or is this year flying by super quickly? I can't believe Thanksgiving has already come and gone. This was my second Thanksgiving with Jonathan's family. He works a lot during the Holidays, so I can either be with him or my family. He wins. Still, I normally go see them for a few days before Thanksgiving and Christmas and then come back. This year I didn't get to go see them, but it made me even more thankful for such a wonderful family.

I miss my family, but I love my new family as well. I guess that's what happens when you get married. You make a new family together with new traditions.

I love my man! Also, please notice the stickers on my sweater. Haha. Apparently I went traipsing through the forrest or something...

Now moving on to Christmas!!!!

Yesterday I started on our Christmas decorations. I get so excited about putting up the Christmas tree and hanging the stockings every year. I love how cozy our home feels during this season. I used most of the things I bought and made last year, but I made a few new things too. Here's a few easy projects...

Glitter Candle Holders &  Pine Cone Garland

To make the glitter candle holder you will need a few glass containers, glue and glitter. I used 2 mason jars and some tea lights left over from our wedding. For the mason jars, I painted the inside with glue and sprinkled the glitter inside. For the tea lights, I put a layer of glue, sprinkled the glitter outside and waited for it to dry. Then I put on a top coat of glue to seal on the glitter. I love how they look on our little makeshift mantle.

Now the pine cone garland is the easiest thing to make. Just tie some pine cones a few inches apart with some twine. That's it! It's so incredibly simple. You can add a little glitter to the edges of the pine cones if you like as well. The more glitter the better, I say!

I also put up our tree and worked on putting decorations up through out the house. I'm sure this will be the first of many Christmas decor posts! I'm a little addicted to Christmas crafting.

My friend Ellen was so good to let us borrow one of her trees this year. Last Christmas we had a cute miniature tree. It was so small that I didn't need too many ornaments. I made the sheet music tree topper and the book page birds last year and I still love them! However, this tree has a lot of bare spots and I hope to fix that soon. I want to make some more ornaments soon if anyone has some cute ideas!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Autumn at our house...

Normally I go all-out with fall decor. I love to have lots of pumpkins and pinecones fill our home. However, being jobless has made my decorating budget go from not much at all to nothing at all! Oh well! To be honest I really haven't thought about it much either. Africa has been on my mind a lot I guess. Things like decorating and new clothes just seem less important when I know there are tons of people dying all over the world from hunger, there are people who need help and long for rescue.

Still, I do love this season so here's a few small things I've done to celebrate it. :) (Pardon the quality of the photos. This was the first time I used my new camera...I just didn't have time to redo it!)

I just took on old wreath I made last year, took off a few things and added the scrabble letters. :)

I made some bunting for photography sessions, and while I was at it I made some for us too.

Pinecones from last year....

I made another wreath out of all my old scraps and a coat hanger!

Ta da! At least is sorta fall-ish!

 Ok, this pumpkin bread isn't decor, but it sure was yummy!

And so was this soup! I love soups in the fall.

PS: God has totally provided in the past few days. I've had 3 people give me money for the things I need to bring with me for my trip! I was going to have to get that stuff from Jonathan for my birthday. Yesterday morning I didn't know where it was going to come from and today I will probably have just what I need!

The sparest of rooms...

Welcome to our spare room!

After a year of living here, you'd think we would have had this done a while ago. For the longest time it held all our extra wedding decor and wedding presents until I could sort through it all. Now it is finally an office/ music studio/ extra bedroom.

Most of the furniture is from my college days. I'm pretty sure that the book case was given to me by a friend that was graduating and moving out...I was a freshman. I suppose you could call it vintage...or just old and falling apart! Ha! All the rest were hand-me-downs from my parents that I painted black. My bedroom looked exactly like this in college, except with tons of books and minus the desk. Oh the desk! I can't tell you how long it took us to find it. We searched for something inexpensive but still sturdy FOREVER. Well, many thrift stores and yard sales later, we got this one at Office Depot. Then my sweet husband spend hours putting it together. Needless to say, we are so glad to have it...finally!

We needed a place for all our music/ recording equipment. Call me a neat-freak, but I really didn't want it in our living room floor. I'm so glad we finally have a place for all our chord sheets and random song ideas.

I had to add a few feminine touches here and there, of course!

Oh, this room also serves as a storage place for all my jewelry. We should just call it "The Everything Room".

This is one of my favorite parts of the room: my vintage window and hymnal wreath. They compliment each other so well! I am happy just looking at it.

What office is complete without a bulletin board...and a place for headbands?

So there you have it. If you ever come to visit us, this is where you will stay. I hope guitars don't look scary to you in the dark...because we have several in there...in big black cases.

I still have a few more things to add, but all in all I am very glad to have a "finished" spare room that I might actually show visitors instead of hiding. Granted, it's nothing fancy or new but it's more than a lot of people have for sure!

So...what is in your spare room?

Spring sprung into our house!

Yesterday, I woke up (as I usually do) and drug myself down stairs to start a pot of coffee. Then to my surprise I found that Spring had sprung into our house! I was shocked, but overcome with happiness all at the same time. I became so delighted at this discovery that I ate not one, not two, but three Reese's eggs. (I thought it was appropriate for the occasion! Spring is always welcomed with Reese's eggs. It's rule. Look it up! Or at least it is in my rule book.)

Am I kidding?

Maybe.

Still, our Springtime decor makes my heart smile...regardless of how said Spring decorations entered our home. Good thing I love green, because it is everywhere!

Here, you can take a look!

I am in love with these little silhouettes. I'd like to think that they look like us...but they don't really. The man's face was actually a silhouette of Edward Cullen. However, a few snips here and there helped rid us of that! Oh, and don't you love the girl's messy bun? Messy buns are best thing since sliced bread.

We still have tons of candles left over from the wedding...so they get put to good use!

I saw that the Dogwood tree by the entrance to our appartment complex was blooming the other day. I am glad someone thought I would some of the blossoms in our house! I have no idea who would stand by the side of the road and cut off some branches...no idea whatsoever. :) But I'm glad they did!

Ah, I love those blossoms!

A few managed to find their way into our bathroom too.

And now there are Azeleas blooming outside of our front window!

Don't you just love Spring-time?



B is for Blair...in case you didn't know

Happy Friday Friends! I hope you all have lovely weekends in store. We will be super busy, but its the good kind of busy! As you are reading this we will be worshiping with The 516 Nation (aka: the youth group) at our anual Disciple Now Weekend. I hope that God moves in a powerful way in their lives!

Anyway, I thought I'd share this little project. I call it...The B Project. I know, I know. It's so creative you can hardly stand it. It's just that I love our last name so much. "B" is such a good letter. This is the 3rd "B" that I have displayed in our house, and I'm sure I will add more.

There it sits in all it's glory next to our engagement photos and some birch covered candles.

Ok, so here's how I made it:

Step 1: Pick a frame

(I always get mine from the Dollar Store and spray paint them white.)

Step 2: Trace a leter of your choice on some adorable paper

Here I used one of the "B's" I had around the house and some leftover scrapbook paper.

Step 3: Glue letter to background paper

I loved this burlap scrapbook paper from the moment I saw it at Hobby Lobby. It called to me and said "Please take me home." So I did.

Step 4: Put in your frame

Now you are done! It take 5 minutes. Seriously. You can't get any better than that!

I'm a huge fan of this little guy!

*Sigh* I love that photo of my husband singing to me. At the time I was thinking, "man, I can't believe I'm so blessed." And I still think that all the time. I love looking at our "B's" and being reminded of our marriage. I truly do love being Mrs. Blair!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!