My new BFF

Isn't she beautiful?!?! She's called a Silhouette, and Santa delivered her to my door last week. I'll wrap her back up on Christmas Eve and be super-excited on Christmas morning, and even pretend to be shocked and surprised. But until then, I am going to play. :) This is the very first thing I made with her. It took maybe 3 minutes. I changed out the plates on the plate rack in my kitchen with red ones (they were less than $2 each) and printed out JOY and stuck on the vinyl...it was real hard, haha! I love how it turned out, and once Christmas is over, I'm going to put EAT on plates to match my kitchen for the rest of the year. I'm thinking I could do BOO or EEK for Halloween...so many ideas spinning in my head... This pic totally reminds me of how tired I am of my mustard-colored walls, though. They will be changing REAL soon.

Project #2...I cut out snowflakes from white vinyl and stuck them on the glass panes of the office French doors. Again, so easy and so fast. It would have been even easier if I had make one huge snowflake for each door, though. Next year...

This picture is a craft I did before I had a new BFF. It's just an idea I saw online and decided to try. It's a coffee filter wreath, and cost me about $4. I still can't decide where I want to put it, so for now it's on the inside of the front door, but I think it will move to the entryway once I get it repainted...soon!

Project #3 with the Silhouette...new Christmas throw pillows. I only used my machine to cut out the template for my Heat and Bond, but that helped a lot! It was more work than I thought it would be, since I had to sew around each snowflake once I ironed them on to make sure they'll last, but I'm so happy with the results, it was worth it. Especially since I can reuse them year after year.

Here are two pillows on one of the couches. I made 4 total, and I love them. And yet more walls that need painting...I can't believe I was this boring when we built our house...

I have so many more ideas spinning in my head to make with my new BFF, but I also still have wrapping, baking, and last-minute Christmas stuff to do, so I don't know that I'll get to have any more fun with her til after Christmas.

And whoever says happiness doesn't come from a store, they're right...the UPS man brings it to you! Just kidding! Well...mostly, anyway. :)

For Carolyn...

My sister Carolyn asked me to post about this like months ago...better late than never, I always say. :)

This is what my master bathroom used to look like. I can't believe I lived in it for 7 years... When we built this house, I was scared to paint different rooms different colors, because, "What if I get tired of it...?" Well, I'm definitely tired of beige... Sure, I changed the color of the towels or rugs once or twice, but I never tackled the wall color...

until a couple of months ago, that is.
Oh, and this beauty was a gift from my MIL years ago. I was sure I could find some way to make it less awful...I finally decided to spray-paint it to match my new bathroom decor.

{Dear spray paint inventor, I love you.}


Ahhhhh, MUCH better!

I went w/ white towels and sewed on blue and brown ribbon to match the room as a detail at the bottom. Pretty happy w/ the results!

Here it is all done--or at least as done as it's going to be, for now. It could still use a few accessories, but for now, it's a big enough improvement to make me happy.