LOVE, HUGS, KISSES 4EVR

I am blessed with a serious surfeit of alphabet blocks. As in, once I culled an entire set for my kid, I still had an small shipping carton full.  Yeah, thrift stores have been good to us.  And I have a lot of thrifty friends who know I Like That Sort of Thing, so they pass them along.  Although I'll never approach the heights of elaborate holiday preparation I'm seeing on some of the blogs I read, I still thought I'd get a little creative and have some fun.

Here are some of the letters in their natural state:

Since I want red for my end result, I spray-primed all the ones that weren't red to start with:

Next, I gave everything a coat of red metalllic paint.  The ones I'd primed, I gave two coats:

Have you figured out where I'm going yet? No? 

Does that help?

I did a very slap-dash job on these, but that's okay, because if you have looked at a lot of alphabet blocks (heh) you notice that they have varying quality paint jobs and that, over time, some of them get worn and dinged.  So even a lacksadaisical job looks pretty authentic, when you're done.  I considered gluing the blocks together so that little hands can't disarrange and lose them, but then I thought... seeing what else we can spell will be part of the fun in coming years and... you know I'll need to add another initial next year. Have fun!

Just for fun, I'm trying something new that I've seen elsewhere.  You can add a link to your own Valentine's Day blog posts by clicking the link below.  Try it out!  (Please link to a specific post, not your whole blog, or the list won't make any sense!)

Not a new couch, but...

better! Why?

1. No heavy lifting. Fit in a bag, in my Civic.
2. No rearranging the room to get it in!
3. No calling special pickup for the old one!
4. It's machine washable!
5. It's just as comfy as the old one!
6. Price Tag: $18.75 plus tax and one trip through the washer.

I am so thrilled to have found a couch cover for the study at Unique Thrift today... it fits better than I thought possible, and now the marker scribbles, the torn arm (which is featured here, in case you missed it), and the sundry stains are all tidily and cleanly covered up. (Why, you ask, do I have a white couch in my study when I have a small child? Because it was FREE. That's why.)

I've known I should put a cover on that couch for a while, but the holdup was the skinny couch arms. Most covers that are made to fit the narrow arm on this couch are nearly as expensive as getting a new couch... and I confess, my thrifty soul has balked at the idea. But here you have it- the price is right, I didn't need help with the "heavy lifting," and it took very little time or effort. My favorite kind of makeover.

One last gasp for Christmas

So, yesterday morning I realized that, not only do I still have the Christmas decorations up, but I've started hanging some for Valentine's Day.  And then, it dawned on me that the Halloween pumpkins were still outside the front door.

I decided that it was high time I put my foot down.  We are NOT going to hang onto holidays long enough to do three at once.  So I sent Mister to throw the pumpkins away after Little Mister went to bed last night.  Then, the terrible mother I am told him the squirrels ate them, without a single qualm.  As it happens, given his recent Beatrix Potter obsession, that explanation went over rather well, but it was clear that if it were up to him it would still be too soon to let go of the pumpkins.  I sort of regret the decision to wait and buy them really close to Halloween, so they "wouldn't rot before the holiday."  I didn't realize that the "holiday" they wouldn't rot before was Mother's Day.

All set up for the Giving Tree Gift Swap- right down to the fake fire.

The reason I've not put away the Christmas decorations just yet is that we have a (now) annual tradition of swapping White Elephant items on the Twelfth Day of Christmas.  (Yep, that's a real thing, not just a goofy song.)

This year we were a bit late and tied it into a gently used gift swap we started for the kids last year- each family picks something they've finished with or found on Freecycle or at a thrift store, etc, and chooses one kid from the list to receive the item as a wrapped gift.  Re-using is the name of the game, and the kids have a BLAST opening gifts with their friends.  Ian insisted on taking the Bob the Builder fleece blanket that is part of his "haul" to bed with him.

In some ways, this event was almost more fun for him than Christmas, because he had the fun of getting a gift, the fun of giving a gift, but without the sleep deprivation, the overdose on sugar, or the need to "dress up" and "look cute."  (Naw, I'm kidding.  It wasn't more fun than Christmas, but it was WAAAAY more relaxed.)  And, apparently, when you're a small child, one gift is all you really need, as long as you have friends to play with after you open it. Let this be a lesson to all of us who buy more, more, and MORE trying to make Christmas "perfect" for our kids.

I did NOT make a King Cake, but Ian and I did make "dear little muffins" together, which delighted him, and everyone else brought food to share and it was quite the party.  Ian begged me to make him into a Roly-Poly-Ian-Pudding, but I drew the line and refused.  He got over it.  And, for my part, I'm excited that now we've finished that, we can pack away the tree and the Santas and move on to the mushy stuff!  Bring on the LOVE!

Well, it took almost four years, but...

I found and installed curtains I like.  We moved into the house in March 2007, so I guess it's about time.

I got lucky at the thrift store- I found curtains that worked for three rooms (and possibly a fourth- still working on that!), and, after not only paying way more than seemed reasonable for drapery hardware, but throwing away FAR more trash than you'd think possible from the packaging for a couple of curtain rods, we are in business.  It's a pity I couldn't find the hardware at the thrift store, too, but you need all the pieces, they have to be the right size for your window, and must be the right type go with your curtains, so my odds were slim!

The burgundy is flecked with gold and picks up the colors in the chair seats.  It also covers the entire wall from side to side and floor to ceiling.

In case you are thinking that the dining room drapes look a little uneven, it's because they are.  The window is not centered on the wall, so there are two panels on one side and one panel on the other.  The family that lived here before us built the house for themselves, and one of their (four!!!) daughters informed us that "Mom always said the dining room would have been bigger, except that dad forgot to leave room for the kitchen stove."  In other words, they adjusted the position of the wall between the kitchen and the dining room, but didn't move the window accordingly.  These little quirks are why I love this house.

The embroidery is the exact same color as the wall paint!

We had to add some solid panels to make these wider- they were just a SMIDGE small on their own.  The colors look better IRL.