Our Advent Calendar

I love Christmas! Love, love, love, love, love Christmas! The music, the baking, Santa...all that good stuff.  This year I wanted to try something different and decided to make an advent calendar for the kids.  The only advent calendar we ever had as kids were the little boxes with the windows that you opened and got chocolate out of.  In true Kristin fashion, I decided on 3pm on December 1st, that yes, I was going to make an advent calendar.  I headed out to Target to grab a couple of supplies since I had most everything at home that I was going to use.  While I was wandering around in the holiday section, I stumbled upon the Christmas trees.  I thought how fun would it be to surprise the kids and get them their very own Christmas trees and decorations for their rooms? SO FUN!! So I gathered what I needed and headed home to get to work on the Advent Calendar. I Incorporated the trees in the calendar so the note that they read in the bag for Day #1 was, "There is a surprise in your rooms!" (to find out what was in the rest of the treat bags keep reading). The excitement on their little faces were almost too cute to bear, and luckily I had the video camera rolling to capture there reactions.  When they opened their doors and saw their very own trees all lit up, they were a little speechless at first. And then it happened.  My darling 7 year boy, started yelling, "YES! YES! THIS IS WHAT I'VE ALWAYS WANTED! MY DREAM COME TRUE!"  He had been asking me for the last couple of years to decorate his room with lights and we just never got around to it.  If I would have known that he would have been this excited, I would have done this in years past. The emotion in his eyes and face were something I will never so real and sincere, it nearly brought me to tears.  He was bursting with happiness like I've never seen from him, and it was one of those mommy moments for me that I will never forget! (also because I video taped it).  I hope this is one of those childhood memories that he remembers forever as one of his favorites when he is grown because it sure was one of mine. Sam was also thrilled to pieces, but the best part about it was that when it came time to decorate, Tanner dragged his tree into his sisters' room so they could decorate them together.  It was so fun, and they're so excited to be able to get their very own trees out every year now and add to them.  Pics of this below...

My DIY Advent Calendar

I've had a few questions about our advent calendar, the most common one being, "What's in the bags?" So, here's how I made mine.  I scoured the Internet and Pinterest for all things Advent Calendars.  I was late in getting started on mine since it was Dec. 1, so I needed something quick, simple and cost effective.  I decided on hanging paper bags with goodies in them on our little chalkboard wall that is between the kitchen and the mudroom/garage door.

Supplies:

Twine
Laundry clips
paper bags
whatever is going in the bags
hammer/nails

This project to me about an hour from start to finish and here is the process...

First, I drew out the month of December on paper and filled in every day with what was going in each bag, so I didn't double up on something or forget something.  Once I was satisfied, I cut little squares out of scrapbook paper so I could write little notes on them.  I gathered all my goodies and started filling bags.  Of course I could have made them cuter, but I didn't have time.

 Of course we have to make them perfectly level...

Scary Photo Bomber!

TA-DA!!

Examples of goodies I put in the bag: Halloween candy, candy canes, animal crackers, fruit snacks, unopened Pez dispensers they got last year for Christmas, a couple of crafts from the $1 bin, stickers.
I tried to use what I had at home already and only picked up a couple of cheap goodies at the store for fillers.

Some examples of what I put in bags without treats; mostly they were notes for doing a Xmas craft, doing something as a family or doing something for someone else. Here are a few examples of what ours say.
       
       - write letters to Santa
       - make snowflakes to hang around the house
       - watch Sound of Music as a family, and clap as mom sings along to all the songs
       - go on a carriage ride
       - gather unused toys and things and donate
       -  pass out teacher gifts
       - bake cookies and hand out to neighbors (with a note clearly stating, " EAT AT YOUR OWN RISK. MADE BY LITTLE PEOPLE"
       - watch Polar Express
       - Drive around and look at lights
       - sleep under the Xmas tree (this one may be a big hit. It will probably turn into, "hang out under the Xmas tree until mom and dad decide it's time to sleep in our own beds," in which case there will most likely be tears).
       - make Xmas ornaments
       - make Xmas cards and send out to family and friends
       - (Xmas Eve) open 1 gift, our tradition

So, that's it! Simple and quick! Also, pleased that our Advent calendar doubles as a place to hang holiday cards, since I don't currently have a specific place for them it is perfect!!

Landry wanted in on the action...Holy Cow, Look at that mess!!!  Landry, naughty...

Like I said, nothing special about these bags

 Sam's pouting because she just realized that she doesn't get to open Bag #1 :)

Decorating their trees together

Merry Christmas!!

A Welcoming Front Door

  Monday I shared my color swatches that we were considering for our front door.   Of course nobody wants a "before" pic if there isn't an "after" photo.  And if you're anything like me I like a good tutorial to go along with someone's sharing of anything.  This was a pretty easy project and quick.    I painted the door in one afternoon.  Our door started off beige, and in desperate need of a makeover.  Since I didn't want to paint our options on the door, I instead took a bunch of swatches of each color we were considering and taped them on the door so we could see what they looked like.  Once we picked a color I went back and grabbed a small can of paint and a short time later? WA-LA! A brand new door! 

As for the color we chose, it is Behr's "Jamaican Bay".   I couldn't take my eyes off this color and it just makes me so darn happy when I see it, so it had to be.  Sam is upset that it isn't pink, but I can't win them all.  Mike seems to like it so that's all that matters.  

  Here's what I used:

1. angled 2 1/2 inch brush and a 1 inch brush for the nooks and crannies. 

2. a sander- fine

3. Behr's Jamaican Bay in exterior satin finish with primer (2 coats). The nice man at the counter suggested a satin finish and he seemed to know what he was talking about.

 ALL DONE!! AIN'T SHE PRETTY?

I can't help to smile when I pull up to my house now! Before my front door said, "I'm boring." Now it says, "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!" I love the color so much, I may just paint the inside of it...and the garage door leading into the house too.  The possibilities are endless!  Did I inspire you? Do you have a fun and fresh front door? If so, I want to see it. 

A Splash of Color

So, for a few months now I've been pondering painting our front door.  The front of our house is east facing so in the summer the morning sun can be excruciating so I've been waiting for some milder weather before taking on this small project.  Right now I have taped up a bunch of different paint swatches and periodically go outside at different times of the day to see how they all look.  Like all the colors we've painted in our house, or bedrooms mainly I should say, once I get an idea in my head nobody can sway me from it.  Like the morning I woke up thinking I wanted to paint ginormous navy and white stripes in Tanner's room, Mike tried to talk me out of it, but it was, eh..too late!  I've gotten excited about it and no matter how crazy it seems to anybody else it's happening.

This time, it's a little different.  I'm painting our front door which is visible to everybody on the outside.  I want it to stand out but I don't want it to be an eyes sore for neighbors (yes, I care about their feelings too).  The outside of our house is a rich brown color and I want to go BOLD with a much cooler contrasting color.  Am I pulling out colors out of our stone? Noooo.  Am I going against all the laws of decorating which this choice? Yessssss. But I want our door to make a statement.  Since we'll never be painting our vinyl siding on the house, the door is my only hope for any change (color-wise) that I'll be making.  If we hate it, we can always change it.

Right now our shutters are a maroon-ish color and I'm not a fan.  They look fine, but when the door is painted, they will not, so those will be changed as well.  We're going to replace them since we need only 4, but for now they may actually be painted for a quick temporary fix.

Here's what our door looks like today....

The next 2 days look nice so hoping to actually get some painting while it's still warm and sunshiny!

Happy Monday!

Painting a nightstand

I decided that I liked the dresser I painted for Tanner's room so much, why not try to paint a nightstand for him too. I snagged my old college nightstand from my mom's house that I faux painted green and blue "crackle" paint (I know...*sigh*). I did sand it down a little bit with 100 grit sandpaper (prob could have used some with more grit or used a circular sander) but I didn't it need to be super smooth or perfect, because my boy will beat the crap out of it anyway. Oh, and when I talk about sanding I do my best to pretend I know what I'm talking about.

However, painting furniture is a great, inexpensive way to update old funiture to make it look new!  It's my new favorite thing, because I'm on a budget and it's a quick decorating fix.

Lesson learned: Do not sand outside when it is super windy, and wear sunglasses so the dust doesn't get in your eyes, ugh.

Here is most of the nightstand I was so proud of 10+ yrs ago without the drawers b/c I forgot to take a pic of the total before product




I'm sure there are 100 better ways of doing this out there than I chose, but I'm on a budget and I have limited time.

STEPS:

1. Sanding it down



2. Making sure to get around the bottom edges where there were some previous dried paint bubbles and even some splintering going on



Here is the end product, again this was a bit different than the dresser becaue it was real wood and had the texture of the previous crackle paint. The dresser was maybe vaneered wood? I don't even know if that's what it's called, but it was really smooth. You can still see the crackle texture through the paint, but again, I don't care much :)

I used the extra navy  paint I used for his walls for the knobs.  You can't really tell that there are stars on them.  And there we have it, a free nightstand for T-man's room!

Stay tuned for pics of Tanner's new room!

In case you missed it here is the dresser I painted for his room as well.