Tis Christmas

In light of all the crazy things happening in the world right now, I'm trying to keep my children smiling and keep them from worrying. It's my job as their mother to let them know they are safe. I don't think they should fear living their lives. I keep reminding them that it is Christmas! We celebrate Christ's birth and the wonderful blessing that Him living gives to us: that GIFT

We celebrate the spirit of giving.

I love that my daughter drew this picture for a little girl she doesn't know well, but loves!

I love how easily children love. They love simply because they are alive. It's so so easy for them. They are so unspoiled, so whole.

I love that my children are wanting to give. Oh, they're not little saints...they want gifts too. They are kids after all. 

You know what, that's fine. They are living, they are learning. One day they will understand how much more fun it is to give than receive. 

I want them to know how to receive gratefully - to understand that the real gift is that the person giving it found them worthy of a gift. That is the part I want them to hold to. The people in this world that love them.

I received a gift this morning from a friend and it made me smile. The gift is great, I love bracelets and Home Depot so I adore the gift. But, what I love the most was written in the 'message' space on the gift card, "To the lady in pearls while painting! We love you!"

Those words say it all to me. They KNOW me and love me and were thoughtful enough to give me something meaningful. The card will be used and the bracelet will be worn. Every time I look at the bracelet I will think of my Trey baby running around saying "Lala, I love you" and the gift card holder with those sweet words will be tucked away in a box with my other precious memories. 

One day, later in life I'll probably be going through those boxes with my daughter as I've done with my own mother, and she will ask me why I kept it all these years...I hope I will have taught her enough that she will know that it was because I love the people who gave it to me and was humbled by being worthy enough to receive.

So this Christmas I want my children to feel joy. Things have been so bleak since Friday and I honestly can't even think of it without tearing up, but I'm trying to center myself and find the joy in celebrating the season. He has given me so much to be thankful for all under my tiny little roof. Those little ones need to celebrate Him and feel the joy of life.

Dining Chairs

My dining chairs were not an easy project for me. I had seen individual chairs for sale in antique shops all over the place...until I actually started looking for them. I knew I wanted all four of my chairs to be different. I thought I wanted all four of my chairs to even be different colors only linked together by upholstery fabric as well. So, my chairs have been difficult for me. I even lost one before picture. That's what happens when your chair search turns into a 6 month project. 

The Chairs Before

This chair I found quickly, so naturally I thought I would find them all that fast. I loved this chair and claimed it as the one that would be mine at the table. It's still my favorite one.

These two fell into my lap almost 2 months later. Problem was I only wanted one of them and the shop wouldn't split them. So I talked down the price to what I would have willingly paid for one chair and it worked. Now, one of these now resides in my mother's master bedroom.

This was the next one I found and the only one that I can't find the true before picture of. This was raw pine with a rattan seat. So I had to make a board that I could add foam and upholstery to in order for this one to work. This is how I painted it originally. Sorry about the yellow-ness of the picture, we went through a phase where the hubs wanted to use curly bulbs...everything in our house looked sick for a while.

This is the last one I found. It's is also the one that my daughter Jade claimed. I found this one almost exactly six months after I found the first one.

I will have you know that I have since found individual chairs all over the stinking place. I guess our town was just going through a dry spell in the single chair department when I was searching.

You can see how they looked after their first paint and upholstery jobs here. It just wasn't to my liking and the upholstery was a stupid idea. Even with it being outdoor fabric and scotch-gaurding them they were trashed within a few weeks. 

This is why

Children children everywhere! For those of you that don't have kids you should know; kids are gross! I love and adore them but they put their shoes on upholstery, touch things with dirty hands, wipe their noses on your couch, and ram sharp toys into wood furniture. This is why I love the distressed look - it camouflages what all the wee ones have actually done to the furniture. Also, baby wipes clean microfiber like a dream ;)

Then I found this one day

MmmmHmmm, in all its yummy vinyl durability! To me the multi-colored chairs didn't make sense without the upholstery fabric tying them all together. So, I got busy painting and upholstering some more.

I'm well pleased with these now! I love how easy the vinyl is to take care of. I love how just about everybody that sees them, touches the seats. They make me happy and it's one more project down for my own home.

The Antlers

My husband is a hunter. I'm more of a fancy girl. I like things that sparkle and while I don't decorate my house with Art Deco all over the place, I am drawn to that era of lushness. My husband would throw a hideous 1982 lounge chair in the living room and live with stained carpet forever simply because they are comfortable. I don't blame him really, I love comfort just as much as the next person. But, why do comfort and beauty have to be separate? I've tried really hard to incorporate things into our home that my husband loves so that he feels comfortable and at home when he's here.

I say all of this to just point out that I would not normally be the type of person to decorate with antlers regardless of their current popularity. For me the fad of rustic chic is just a happy coincidence.

We now have antlers in several places...

On top of my Entertainment Console - a shed

Above my Magnetic Board - a plaque

Even above my head where I type out my blog - yes a whole mount

You know what? I kinda love them. At first I wanted nothing to do with this style and I fought to have the deer head mounted in the garage...I lost that battle. It's in the master bedroom because our house is open concept and I didn't want it staring at my guests in the living room. I just pretend he's not there for the most part. 

I feel like he's glaring down at me now for daring to ignore him...oh well!

If you are squeamish in any way - please look away from the next picture. I am including this picture because this is my life, what I live with from the end of October every year until the beginning of January. I tripped over this in the dark garage and found it wrong on so many levels. I took a picture with my phone and sent it to a friend to complain. Friends just laugh at you. Maybe they would feel differently if they tripped over a severed deer head wrapped in a Walmart bag in their own dark garage.

So I had my husband cut off the antlers and wash them so I could get crafty with them.

I was thinking chrome and gold, so that's just what I did.

Gold

Chrome

My husband even bought me white hydrangea for my vase this morning. He's totally worth tripping over a deer head for ;)

All grossness aside I think they all turned out pretty beautiful. So I'm the fancy girl that decorates with antlers...and loves it. Who knew?