Weekend Surprise: Craft Day

Yesterday was craft day at Laurel's. It's our second one. If you don't remember or weren't reading you can read about our first one here. It was so much fun!! We always have a blast and learn a lot about how to make the next one even better. We made lots of cute stuff of course. Tried new things. And just had fun. And ate of course. Micki's two aunts-in-law came down from Utah and were a huge help getting ready. We couldn't have done it without them!!! And our mom got to come to this one (since she lives by Micki now)!! Of course Teri drove the eight hours down for the occassion (but this time she planned on staying a few days instead of a few hours). Mom didn't think she would get her stuff done but she did and helped us!!! Here is some picture (only sneek peeks though cuz we are going to feature the crafts)

Who thought sewing with this many people was a good idea? But just wait until you see the cute project!!!


Teri and Mom

Are you jealous we could craft outside?

Smile...you *ARE* having fun!

Only part of the herd....

Yummy homemade lasagna! Thanks Laurel!!!

Takin' a lunch break...

More outdoor crafts...just to taunt you....sorry!

Who says you have to move the crafts while setting up the buffet?

2sisters 2gether!

Mom & Laurel....Micki's other mom.

This project was Teri's test!

*CHEESE*

Laurel (right) and her sister Kay (who was enjoying not being in the snow).

We can't wait to get some of the projects posted. We have missed all you guys and can't wait to get our craft on again!!!

Guest Day Friday Featuring Us

Okay, so we were just trying to get both Guest Day Thursday and Feature Friday done in the same post. It’s been a busy week, and this post didn’t get done earlier, so there ya go. We are featuring one of the projects that we did at craft day (click here if you missed that post). We wanted to do a chunky Christmas decoration that was still pretty simple to create (not so sure that chunky and Christmas belong in the same sentence, but it is what it is today). Here are our NOEL blocks. Sorry there are no pictures of the steps, we were just having too much fun to take the time to take pictures of the whole process. It's pretty simple though, cut a 4x4 down to size (or get friendly with the guy at Home Depot and learn his life story while you spend two hours there getting stuff cut, and then he feels so generous, that he doesn't even charge you for all those cuts. But we wouldn't tell anyone that that's what happened, because we wouldn't want to get the nice guy at Home Depot in trouble). Then you paint them your desired color, Mod Podge on some cute paper and apply the vinyl letters. Voile! It was so fun to see how different everyone's turned out depending on the paper they picked.

Micki’s blocks

Micki’s other blocks (this set has already been gifted)

Teri’s Blocks

Our “guests” blocks (really we were all Laurel and Micki’s guests in real life, but lucky for us, in bloggyland they get to be our guests)

Laurel’s blocks (she painted hers after we left, and the burgundy blocks instead of the cream really show off the letters and give the blocks a whole different look, Micki’s were painted this color and then distressed)

Sabrina’s blocks

Shannon’s blocks

Trish’s blocks (Teri so loved the cute little bird that she had to copy, but her bird met with an untimely decapitation and subsequent Mod Podge assisted surgery, that’s all she is admitting to at this time)

Rozanna’s blocks

Amey’s blocks (had to include the little strip of wall color at the bottom when editing, because it matches the blocks so well)

Suzanne’s blocks

Jackie’s blocks

Sara’s blocks

Michelle’s blocks

Just an editors note about the pictures. They were taken by different cameras, different photographers and in different lights. I have tried to edit them as much as possible to reflect the creativity of the project.

We hope you have enjoyed our celebration of a simpler side of Christmas decor and crafting. Isn’t it fun how one project can have so many unique looks?

Edited to add parties we are linking up to:

Strut Your Stuff @ Somewhat Simple

Teri’s Fall Feature Friday

I love fall. I love the colors of fall, I love the smells of fall, I love the weather of fall. I also like to decorate for fall. I wanted to share a couple of my new fall decorations I made this year.

These harvest blocks are one of the crafts we did last week at craft day. Please excuse the atrocious Mod Podge job. I didn’t realize how badly it had bubbled until I tried to take pictures. The little pumpkin I picked up on the Michael’s clearance for some insane amount like 39¢. I think it looks cute on my letters.

The floral arrangement I made using fall stuff that I got on clearance at Michael’s for 80% off. What a steal. I got everything pictured at Michael’s, except for the ribbon, and including the ribbon I paid about $18! Can you believe it! It turned out better than I had hoped. I LOVE it!!! I needed something large and decorative like that. It’s quite big, it measures about 15” wide by 26” tall. I love the little owl, he was a definite prize! It needed something around the raw edge of the pumpkin that I had cut off, and I wanted moss, but I didn’t have any, so I found this fall ribbon I had purchased at Hobby Lobby I think, and created this ruffly trim by hot gluing it down in segments. I think it added just the right touch. I hope you agree (if not, oh well, I love it).

Last but not least is my new fall wreath. I didn’t make this one, I couldn’t have made it for what I bought it for I don’t think. I purchased it last week at Michael’s. It was on clearance at 80% off and then I had a coupon for and extra 15% of a premade floral. Making the grand total just under $5. I would never have thought of this grey blue as a fall color, but I really think it works here. Plus I love the owl ribbon. Who could resist the touch of bling? This isn’t my front door, I couldn’t get a decent picture of it on my front door, so pretend the door is white okay?

This post is also linked to Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous and Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest

Tardy Guest Day Thursday: Christmas Centerpieces

Okay, so yesterday just escaped me, and I didn’t get the post done. Hopefully that means that you will get 2 posts today!!! We’ll see if it gets done. We promised early in the week we would share the projects we did last week at craft day, so here’s your first peek.

We made easy Christmas centerpieces. They were fun because each one turned out differently. To save a few pennies (because let’s face it, who doesn’t love that), we used tins from the dollar store for our bases, a coupon at Michael’s for our floral foam and instead of filling the whole thing with picks, we used garland that we cut pieces off of as a base and then used the picks (which were on sale for 50% off) as fillers. Here’s how they turned out. This is only part of them, we will edit the others in as we get pictures of them.

Teri's

Micki's:

Here's our "guests", some of the others that were created at craft day.

Edited: We are participating in Frugalicious Friday at Finding Fabulous and Frugal Friday on The Shabby Nest and Modern Country's Holiday Treat Party

Also participating in Somewhat Simple's Strut Your Stuff Party

Mystery Monday: Craft Day Thursday

This was our first bi-annual craft day at my mother in laws. She is so wonderful and hosted me, my sister in laws and my friends for a day of fun and food. The best part was that last minute Teri got to come down. I was so happy to see her and we had so much fun. We spent time crafting and if we weren't crafting we were buying stuff for more crafts!! We made so many fun projects and gabbed and ate. It was a blast!! We learned a lot about what would make it easier for next time and I think everyone had as much fun as I did. We made 6 crafts in all. Here are some peeks.....more to come of our crafts. :) That's the Mystery part....what crafts did we make? lol

The prep work......(mostly by my mother in law)






Our friends......
















Our delicious food prepared by my wonderful mother in law (it was so yummy!!) (Sorry there's no picture of it when it had just been set out, but we were ravenous).




Us......(don't mine the all day craftathon after driving 6 1/2 hours hair :)) Micki is on the left and Teri on the right.
There was even dancing that happened, and we were gonna share, but we are not technologically smart enough to edit it, and it's too long to upload.