Family Room Makeover (Part 8)

We had such a wonderful Christmas.  It FLEW by this year, which every year seems to go by faster and faster, but it was such a fabulous Christmas season for my little family.  I enjoyed more then ever, seeing family, spending time together, and really just watching my children enjoy the season.

We got the mantel done just in-time for Christmas!

I was able to clean up the room, roll the carpet back out, clean everything really well, and invite family over to enjoy the new addition to our home.

I want to get right to it so here is the before and after.

If you want to click back to where we started and scroll through the process

click HERE

And here is the same room with the mantel, new window, and opening into the sitting room.

Much brighter and I think the smartest thing we did, was open up the two rooms.  

It now seems like a spacious, open room.

And, to be honest...I LOVE IT!

Now obviously, we still have work to do and I have more in-store for this room.

This next weekend we are going to get working on it again.

Planked walls and Coffered ceiling are in the plans.

Until then, here are some more pictures of our work :)

Side view...I looove that I have a place for our favorite books and blankets.

And on the other side of the mantel is our reading and game nook.

I had a great time decorating my new mantel for Christmas. Bensen had to help and insisted that I put the Santa hat on top of the little fake pine tree that I found at IKEA.

If you like the sweater Christmas stockings I made, click HERE for the tutorial on how I made them.

And I don't want to forget my other favorite part.

I bought a fan kit for our fireplace, and Cory installed it.

Installation wasn't as easy as we thought it was going to be. Only because it was hard to get the 4 fans installed into that squishy, dark place.

But never fear, Cory is here!

That really is how I think, cause he figures out everything!

Look close and you can see the first installed fan.

There is a sensor that sticks to the bottom of the fireplace and once it hits a certain temperature the fans automatically turn on.  Then the hot air gets blown out by the 4 fans.

it's totally rad.

I really do hope your Holiday season was amazing and you made many lasting memories with those who are special to you.

Happy New Year!

Jill

DIY Sweater Christmas Stockings & 12 days of FITNESS!

I just finished the Christmas stockings and jumped right on the computer to post'em up!

This was the easiest project ever, and it was pretty fast from start to finish (once I worked out all the details :)
Here is the step-by-step:

First I went to the DI (our local thrift store) and found 5 sweaters that I liked. The price was 5 or 6 dollars each.
Then I layed the first one out on the table and put my old stocking on top to size it up...

Then I cut around the sock leaving about an inch seam allowance as I cut...

After it was all cut out, I turned the pieces inside out, and then pinned them.  Then I headed up to my sewing room, and sewed around the sock (except for the opening) Don't be jealous of my 1950's sewing machine!! It sews straight and that's about all I need it for :)

Then I turned it inside out and that was it! Except, it was a little bigger then I cared for and boxier (?) too.  So I took it in on both side quite a bit, since I wanted a skinnier sock.  Once I did that it looked like this.

So easy huh!  One of the sweaters I bought had a hood with two strings, so I used that for my hook and sewed it on.  Such an easy project that I decided to keep going.  I made three grey stockings and two white ones.  All the boys have grey and me and my daughter have white.  They turned out great and took me one night to do.  But they were missing some fun Christmas embellishments.  I needed to get our name or something on them.  So I decided to take some of the leftover barnwood that I have from my Bathroom Vanity project and I made some "name tags" and added a little fun to it...

Here is how I did it...

I found a stencil set at Walmart (3 or 4 bucks) and then I had some white acrylic paint and I got a paintbrush and dobbed it in. Dobbed is an interested word I know, but I didn't paint it, I more like dobbed it haha.  I didn't want a solid stroke look...you're with me right?
Here they are waiting for the final touches.

 What do you think?

Easy to do and I really enjoy the comfy feeling of them.


Also today marks the day! 12 days left to Christmas!!
So I thought I would do a 12 days of Fitness series on the blog (since you know one of my true loves is FITNESS)

DAY ONE
So.  My question for you is this:

What can you do in 2012 to make fitness more of a priority in your life?
It may be something such as:

Workout 3 days a week at home
Go to the gym 4 days a week
Try something new, like...Zumba, or running in a 5k race
Or maybe something Nutritionally based, like drink no less then 8 glasses of water a day,  or stop eating sugar for 30 days.

WHAT  WILL YOU COMMIT TO?
WHAT CAN YOU COMMIT TO?

Both are important questions.  And I dare you before you close this page and venture on to the next blog to commit to something. Anything.  And write it down.

Did you do it?  2 minutes is all it takes to commit to something.
Post it up in the comments, I love to read your comments :)

I'll be back tomorrow to post something else fitness, and I am going to share one of my new OBSESSIONS.  Don't miss it :)

Loves,
Jill

Easy DIY ornaments!

I have finished the ornaments, and I am on to making 5 new Christmas stockings! (It's amazing what you can accomplish, when you get released from your church calling :)

But I wanted to post these ornaments before I get any further on my stockings...
These are super easy and look amazing on the tree...
What you need:

Any color glitter glue.  I wanted mine to match my tree, so I went with the silver glitter.  I found mine at JoAnn's in Orem.

Next you need the ornaments:
Again I bought mine at JoAnn's and they were on sale.  I can't remember the exact price but one package was for sure under $5.00

Next: I took the top off, and stuck my finger in the hole.  I grabbed the glitter glue and made little swirls all over the ornament.  I didn't follow any certain pattern. 

Then I placed them upside down to dry.  It took the glitter glue a full day to dry.

Then I replaced the tops, added a hook and hung them on the tree!  So easy and super affordable!

I love the way the glitter sparkles when the lights reflect off of it.  We have a kids tree upstairs that has red ornaments and I'm thinking this would be so fun with red glitter glue...

I'm going to start posting some of my favorite healthy recipes that I feed my family, in a tab up top labeled recipes so look for that to come soon :)

Loves,
Jill