. . . Flameless Candle Valentine's Day Makeover . . .

I'm in full Valentine's Day mode around here.  I love this simple little holiday for the colors and hearts and love and romance and sparkly things.  It might not really be a holiday but it's an occasion that I have always loved.  Maybe it's because it's the only time of the year that my guys don't fuss at me for decorating with PINK--my favorite color.  

We have lots of flameless candles and I love them because they last forever and they have remote controls that make them very easy to light up.  My favorite flameless candles are by Luminara but they are expensive so I can't go buying a bunch of colors so I just buy the basic colors and then make them over for each occasion we are celebrating.  The best thing about Luminara is that the flame moves and flickers just like a real candle.  I have yet to find any other flameless candle that looks as realistic!  You will fall in love with them.

You will need:

Baker's Twine or ribbon

Heart Shaped die cut hearts.  Mine are corrugated cardboard hearts from Hobby Lobby.

Flameless candles

Any other embellishments you'd like to add to your candles

 I picked up some chipboard hearts and used some red and white baker's twine I always keep on hand.  This is simply a way to recreate your candles for any occasion without ruining the candle.  If you don't mind making the candle permanent for that holiday you could use glue to add cute buttons or any other embellishment.  

 These Luninara candles are the best flameless candles because the wick moves to look like a real flickering candle.  I just love them!

 Simple and Sweet!

Valentine's Day is fast approaching so add a little pop of color to your house by adding some pink and red for the occasion!

L♥ve!

. . . No Sew Throw Pillows . . .

Say what?   Christmas is over already?  I spent a year getting ready for it!  Buying gifts and crafting and thinking about recipes and it all went by in the blink of an eye. I remember when I was younger I heard older people say how fast time flies and yet it never seemed to move that quickly as a kid, especially at the holidays, but now that I'm older I realize how true that statement is. I marvel at the speed of time these days. There is never enough of it and the time that we do have passes so fast. I can't believe that the Christmas tree is put away and the gifts are all opened and the cookies are gone and I'm now moving on to Valentine's Day ideas.  Despite the brisk passing of time I hope you had a wonderful holiday season!

I am embarrassed to admit I don't sew. I can sew but I don't and that is probably because my mom and grandma are such great sewers that I don't have to. I had my mom make me several throw pillows for my front porch last fall and they were great for that season but now that it is coming up on Valentine's Day my orange and black assortment of pillows just looked funny with my pink and red banner and wreath.  My mom had elbow surgery right after Thanksgiving (really great time of year go be out of commission. Doesn't she know I have crafting and sewing projects that need her assistance. Just kidding) and sewing is out for her and grandma had a million other projects going on. That meant being creative with my pillows and coming up with a no sew idea. This idea worked perfectly and the best part is that I can quickly change out the fabric for any occasion without pestering mom or grandma to sew or to motivate myself to pull out my machine.  Who wants to do that when I have this super easy and super fast alternative for you!  

You will need:

Throw pillow form and it won't matter if it already is covered in fabric.  *If the pillow is already covered make sure the new fabric is dense enough that it won't let the current pillow fabric show through.

 

Fabric for your pillow. Buy enough to extend 3 inches past the pillow on all sides. My square pillow was a 12 inch pillow and a 5/8  yard was perfect to work with. I wouldn't have even needed quite that much but wanted to make sure I had enough.

 

Small ribbon to coordinate with your fabric 

 

Pinking shears to keep the fabric from fraying

 

Ruler 

 Of course I don't take a single picture of me making the square pillow but this will still give you the same idea of how to make the cover no matter if your pillow is square or rectangular in shape.  See this cute fall colored pillow?  It just doesn't work with my Valentine's Day wreath and banner does it?

 Step 1:  Lay your fabric out flat.  I bought 5/8 yard and folded it in half.  I then placed the pillow form on the fabric and measure 3 inches all the way around the pillow and that was where I cut.  Make sure you use pinking shears or the fabric will fray.  I found that a 3 inch excess of fabric was the right amount but you may want yours to be a bit different so just play with it.

Step 2:  Cut the fabric at the designated spots with your pinking shears.

Step 3:  Place the pillow in the center on the wrong side of one panel of fabric.  Place the other panel right side up over the pillow being sure it's centered.

Step 4:  Take your corners and wrap your ribbon around the corners and pull good and tight and knot the ribbon to hold the pillow cover in place.  I know this isn't a very good photo of the ribbon but really it's very simple--cut ribbon and knot each of the corners.  I used really tiny ribbon but you can certainly use what you like.  I wouldn't go too wide with the ribbon because it won't work as well. Tie all 4 corners and fluff the pillow and fabric and you are done!

 Check that out!  Easy peasy and now you can change your pillows for the occasion you are celebrating.

 This is the 12 inch square pillow I mentioned above.  As you can see the idea is the exact same whether you use square or rectangle shaped pillows.

 The black and white polka dot pillow is one that always stays on the porch bench so it's sewn but I like being able to add accent pillows now with this easy idea for no sew pillows.

Love is in the air now!

Simple!  What is your favorite no sew project?  I would love to hear your ideas.

 

If you liked this idea then you will love this No Sew Bench Cushion Cover!  

 

I like being able to quickly change my porch as the season changes and buying vinyl tablecloths and recovering my bench cushion is both easy and cheap!

. . . Roy as Cousin Eddie . . .

In our house one of our absolutely favorite movies is National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation!  We always watch it Thanksgiving weekend and then several more times throughout the holiday season.  My husband says it's a great movie but you can't beat watching it with my dad because he howls with laughter every time he watches it.  When we were looking to add some Snow Villages pieces to our collection we about died when we saw that they now have the Christmas Vacation series as part of the Snow Village set.  I knew it was something we had to have at our house.  So when Roy showed up with our first piece in our collection we were all so excited but it couldn't top Roy dressed up as Cousin Eddie!  This is one of our favorite scenes in the movie so it was really funny to all of us so please don't be offended by Roy's sign. 

 Roy came dressed up as Cousin Eddie and Peppermint was even dressed up as Snots the dog.

 Cousin Eddie and his RV really will make our Snow Village Collection complete!

 I love that Roy has the beer can and cigar as well as the hat and robe that Eddie wears in the movie!

 Oh Roy, you crack us up!

 Snots the dog

"That there is an RV.  Don't go getting attached to it when we leave here next month."  

I could probably recite the whole movie...

Happy Holidays!

. . . Vote for Roy . . .

Roy, our elf, is nominated in an Elf on the Shelf contest and he needs your votes!  Please vote for our Wrapping Elf at http://www.joelmckinnon.com/about/2014-elf-shelf-voting/

Our son is so excited that he is part of the contest and is really hoping he wins so we could use your help.  Thank you for your votes!  

REMEMBER ROY IS THE WRAPPING ELF

 you want to vote for!

 

. . . More Elf on the Shelf Fun with Roy . . .

I am SO behind.  With this being my busiest season for my Stationery business I just get really backed up on blog posts and I feel terrible about that.  Especially when we have so much fun with Roy at our house!  He has been up to no good as usual and here are a few photos of his antics lately.

 Uh Oh...Roy is lit up like a Christmas tree!  He even has a star on his head.  

 Such a rotten look on his face!

 He is flying high today!  

 We love that he even has the bomber jacket and flight goggles.  My husband works in aviation so this one really got a laugh out of all of us.

 Roy always does something nice for Marcus's birthday and this year was no different!  He brought Krispy Kreme and left lots of confetti around!

 Yum!  My dad saw this set up and said he was sure he needed an elf of his own.

 My mom made Roy pajamas and after a sleepover at our house he was cuddled up in them.  He even has a sleep mask on!  Obviously he doesn't want to be disturbed.  I want to stay in my pajamas all day too!

 Oh boy!  Tis the season to be spending lots of money.  I guess Santa and his Elves are no exception because Roy was balancing his checkbook.

 I love that Santa sends checks to Roy so he can go do some shopping.  He even banks at the Bank of North Pole. 

 Looks like Roy and Santa have been spending lots of money!

 Oh Roy!  How did this happen?  You must have snuck into Charley's crate and got trapped.  

 This is one of my favorites!  I just love those huge googly eyes.  We had been talking about the Sons of Anarchy finale and Roy must have been as upset about it as we were.

 Wow--Santa and his Elves watch Sons too!  I wouldn't have thought so but I guess it is true.

 How cute!  Roy loved watching us with our new puppy Charley and our dog Maggie so he went and found a puppy too!  Peppermint will be making regular appearances with Roy I guess.

 Roy was up to no good today!  He covered our trees with Candy Canes.  I guess he thought he was really funny.

 Not great photos but they were in the trees and our son thought this one was hilarious.  He didn't want them taken down but after a day they came down.

 He was busy getting all these candy canes in the bushes and trees.

 Uh Oh!  Roy brought coal today as a reminder to keep being good or Santa would be bringing lots more Christmas Morning.

 I hope this coal is a good reminder to Marcus to keep being good!

 The last week of school before Christmas Break started off with a real healthy breakfast!  Marcus read the note and looked at me and said "I don't really have to eat that do I?".  

 I guess it is true that sprinkles are great but not sure how yummy sprinkle toast would be.

 At least it was colorful but no one ate it at our house.

 Another funny day with Roy.  He covered the sink with shaving cream!  I guess he needs to keep his baby face smooth by shaving everyday.

 He even left Marcus a little message on the mirror!

 I love that Peppermint came along too!

 

Oh Boy!  Roy got into my gift wrapping stuff and made a big mess!  

 I guess he has to get Peppermint's gift wrapped and decided to help himself to my gift wrap.

Well, that is pretty funny that he thinks he is such a neat gift wrapper.  If this isn't a mess I'd hate to see what he thinks of as a mess!  Maybe if he takes over wrapping all the gifts that I need to wrap this weekend I will forgive him for creating such a disaster. 

What has your elf been up to?  I love hearing about the antics so let me know.

Happy Holidays!

. . . More Elf on the Shelf Antics . . .

Our little elf visits us from the North Pole every December and I think the only reason he comes is to create havoc at our house.  He is always up to no good it seems like.  Bringing sugary sweets and getting in my way and making lots of messes I have to clean up...but I LOVE IT!  We have so much fun this time of year because we spend lots of time laughing at what Roy is up to. 

I hope you will come back often this month to see what our little elf is up to.

 Roy brought our son the LARGEST box of Mike and Ike's I have ever seen!  It's over a pound of those little fruit chews.  I can see I'm going to have to really ration these out.  I love that Roy is holding one in his hand and has his own little stash on top of the box.  Sorry, for the cell phone photo instead of a camera photo but my mom was having surgery on this day and I was rushing out the door and forgot to take a real picture.

 Oh Roy!  You cute little elf.  He must know I love these soft frosted cookies...oh wait, he didn't bring them for me did he?  He also stole some egg nog our of the fridge to wash his cookies down with.

 He really was making a piglet of himself with these cookies (I don't blame him since they are hard to stop at just one).  I'm not sure any of the frosting made it in his mouth because most of it's on his face!

 Messy little Roy!

 Today is my favorite thing Roy has done in a long time.  Our son is at the age where he suddenly knows more than we do and he lets us know how stupid we are on a regular basis.  I guess Roy got tired of listening to him being smart with us because he brought his tools to "Repair" Marcus's attitude.  I love it!

Seeing the look on my son's face after reading this note was really quite priceless.  He thought the tools were there to help install a microwave we had purchased so when he read the note his mouth dropped open and he just stared at me in awe.  It was great.  I hope that having Roy "watching" him he will straighten up a little bit.

Don't forget to click on the Elf on the Shelf image at the top right of the blog to see more elf silliness.