Sunburst Tree Topper

Oh my I have been busy!  The old blog has been on autopilot.

I thought that I would check in and offer a little tutorial.  I want to show you how I made the sunburst tree topper that I made for my sisters Christmas tree.

So here is what I used:
2 packages of 100ct. bamboo skewers
3" mirror disk
brown spray paint
white school glue
fine brown glitter (I used Martha Stewart brand)
hot glue lots of hot glue
beaded strand
brown grosgrain ribbon

Here is what I did:
I made two tiers for points.  For the shorter tier I started with a 4 inch skewer and then cut two at 3 1/2 inch for either side of the 4 inch one.  I kept trimming skewers in 1/2 increments down to two and a half inches.  I glued down the 4 inch skewers then I glued down 2 1/2 inch skewers and then filled in between.  I found that this helps to keep the skewers spaced well.

Then I started to make the second tier.  I cut the long skewers to 8 inches down to 6 inches in 1/2 increments.  I glued down the 8 inchers behind the 2 1/2 ones, that way the long rays alternate.  Clear as mud right? 

So after the epic hot gluing I was pretty happy!  I then taped off the mirror part and spray painted it brown.  This took several coats.  Then I decided to add some beads around the mirror.  All I had available was a strand of bright red Christmas garland....?  where did those come from?  So I primed and spray painted that too, this didn't go very well.  When I painted it the red kept coming through.  Eventually I just moved on.

So I glued the beads down around the mirror.  They look good right?  Then I thought that it wouldn't be Christmas without glitter right?  So I thinned down some white glue with water and with a paint brush I brushed the glue on.  Then bring on the glitter.  Is there anything more fulfilling than glittering?  Well maybe but it definitely ranks!!

Finally I glued two strips of grosgrain ribbon to the back so that I could tie it to the top of the tree.

Ultimately I am on fire with how it turned out.  My only regret is that I didn't make one for my self, though it is always an option.

So glad that you came by to take a look!  Feel free to leave me a comment, it makes me feel all glittery!

Sunny 

Christmas Makeover

I have an older sister, and she is in a tough season of life right now.  Her husband is battling a rare cancer called Angio Carcinoma.  Which means that he had a huge tumor in his heart.  He had the tumor removed, but the surgeon had to remove 50% of his heart to get the job done.  I didn't even know that that was possible, and I probably wouldn't believe if it hadn't happened to my brother in law.

He owned his own roofing business, and she is a stay at home mom and school bus driver.  Needless to say money is tight, as he cannot work due to the weekly chemo treatments.

She really wanted this Christmas to be special, not knowing what the future holds. So the other day my mom, friend, and I went all commando on her house.  We decked it out in Christmas wonderful and I wanted to share with you some of the things that I made!

The colors that I chose for the makeover were chocolate and chartreuse.  Which should be my sisters signature colors in my opinion.

So I made two wreaths.  One for the front door, and one for between two windows in the sight line from the front door.  No I did not hot glue legs on the wreath, it is hard to get a picture of a glass door without being in the picture! :)

I made two center pieces for her table.  My mother whipped up a tablecloth, and I think that I will work on a table runner.  If only I had more hours in the day!!

I also fancied up a candle holder for her kitchen island.

I also made a couple of other cute things to go around the house.

But the real star of the show was the tree.  I have to assure you that it was stunning!!  The pictures don't do it justice.  I really want a new camera!  I hope Santa is listening!

And Yes!  I did make that tree topper.  Yay! hot glue.

The tutorials for these projects will follow.

If you are new here,  Thanks for looking!!  Feel free to leave me a comment, I love to read them while I wait between coats of spray paint!!

Sunny

Christmas Preparations Have Begun!

I got my husband back on Veterans day, how appropriate is that?! 

We made cute little signs, but of course not everyone can cooperate. 

So the day after he got home I had him on the roof hanging Christmas lights. 

You see I have lived in this house for almost 8 years and I have never gotten Christmas lights hung.  The husband is always gone right before Christmas and he is going to be gone again before x-mas this year, so I had to seize my opportunity!! 

I am not going to turn them on until Thanksgiving, I am just relieved that they are up and I am fully participating this year.

This is him on the tallest part of our house, which he hated but did anyway just for me!!
So I was just wondering if you had started the Christmas decorating or if you are waiting for December?

I have been crafting my booty off around here.  I did an entire surprise Christmas makeover for my sister that I cannot wait to share with you, more on that later.

If this is your first time visiting, Thanks for coming by!!  Feel free to leave me a comment, I will read them after I finish hot glueing some beautiful!

Sunny

Girl Nursery, if I had one!

If you didn't already know I have three sons.  I have three opportunities in my life to dream of how I would decorate my daughters room.  I don't truly know what her room would look like, and sometimes I wonder...

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Would her room have been a neutral dream?

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Or perhaps I would have gone unexpected and done blue? (Probably not, I have had plenty of blue in my life)

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Would I have gone with a glitzy, fabulous look?

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Or maybe mod would be the perfect look for her.

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Now I want to make it clear that I am not making an announcement...but I do still daydream about a more feminine design scheme in my home.

I will probably never know, but it is fun to think about it.  I think that I would go with dark stained wood floors, a big plush area rug, and definitely a fabulous chandelier.  As for color I would probably do a neutral room.  Or maybe all white, that would be so dreamy!! 

Do you ever design spaces in your head that will never happen? 

Thanks for taking a look today!  Feel free to leave me a comment, I am just thinking about chandeliers!

Sunny

Women of Faith Conference

So I survived my weekend of women!  I was a little nervous but I did it, and you know what I had a great time.  In case you don't know what I am talking about, I went with 101 other women from my church to an all women conference called Women of Fath.  I have to tell you that I went by myself.  I mean that I didn't have a sidekick, which was scary for me.  But I felt like this is the thing that I was supposed to do so that is what I did.

I am glad that I did.  I made some new friends.

The one on the left is a fellow blogger named Heather, how cool is that!!!
We also got protested by Fred Phelps and family.  You know those crazy exuberant people from Topeka that protest soldiers funerals and stuff.

This is actually the second time that they have protested an event that I was involved in.  They also protested my graduation ceremony from the University of Kansas.  They also protested my husbands.  Honestly, I just have to pray for them and laugh!!

I also got to visit the Pottery Barn.  Picture me smiling like a little  kid.  The closest one to where I live is several hours drive, and for some reason they will not send me a catalog.  What is a girl to do?

All I got was the catalog.  Picture me frowning like a pouting preschooler.  The only things that I really wanted was all shiny and glass.  Not a great idea while traveling on a charter bus with 101 other women.  I am still pouting a little but I will get over it, there is always the catalog.  Right?

So that pretty much sums it up.  New friends, prayer, laughter, tears, and shopping sounds like a girls weekend to me!

Am I the only one out there that loves all things shiny.  I think that I must have been a raccoon in a past life, I love all things that sparkle and shine.  Tell me that I am not the only one.

If this is your first time here, Thanks so much for coming.  Feel free to leave me a comment,  I won't protest!

Sunny

PS.  So is there any Christmas preparations going on at your house?  Or am I the only one?

On My Way

So I am on my way to the Women of Faith conference in Kansas City that I mentioned before. I am nervous but I hope that it goes good! I will tell you all about it later. Plus here is a super bonus, I get to go to the Pottery Barn store!!! Yay! We don't have one in our neck of the woods. I'll let you know what I find. By the way I just want to say that I am so jealous of those who live close to good shopping!

If this is your first time visiting, thanks for looking. Feel free to leave me a comment I am on a 4 hour bus ride, I have time to read them all!

Sunny

Pinterest Challenge

Okay Sherry from Young House Love has issued a challenge.  It is a Pinterest challenge.  Find a project on Pinterest that you have pinned to accomplish some day but haven't.  The time is now. 

I am trying to carve out a little spot in the house for all of my bloggy, crafty, housey endeavors.  I really wanted to have a pin board, but I didn't know what I wanted it to look like.  Then I saw this idea on Pinterest, and I knew that I wanted that for my space.

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 So I went to Wally World and looked for some clip boards.  I had two choices, clear plastic with the cool clips like in the picture above, or MDF  with lame clips.  I knew that I wanted to paint them so the clear plastic didn't seem like the right choice, so I got the ones with the lame clips.  I will live, or I will redo them.

So I took them out back and laid out newspaper to spray paint on and went to town.  Yeah, that spray paint sucked straight in.  I hate it when projects make you do it the right way.

So out to  the garage, fingers crossed that there will be some primer so that I won't have go back to the Wally.  Yes, we had some!!  Back out I go.  Geez.  The primer had one of those caps that require a screw driver to get the lid off....Gah!!

Sometimes a girl has to do what a girl has to do!!

Out back again.  I spray the second clipboard with primer.  Success!

Once I knew that it would work I layed down the other four clipboards and primed the rest.  When the first one was dry I primed it too.

It was getting dark so I left my project for the next day.  I hate leaving projects half done don't you?

So the next day I got back to my project.  Here is the thing...I live in Kansas (super wind).  Spray painting outside, in Fall, in Kansas wind, not really one of my best ideas!  Lets just say that my project is..um...organic....mkay!

I did like four coats of off white Krylon gloss spray paint.  I didn't tape off the lame clips, I just painted it like the rest.  Probably cause I didn' t like the clips and just wanted them to go away.

Aren't they cute?  I wanted to have 2 rows of 3.  My clipboards had little clips for hanging.  So to figure out the spacing I put 2 clipboards right next to each other and measured the distance between the 2 hanging holes.  Then I added 3 inches the distance that I wanted in between clipboards.  So I pounded in 3 nails level for my top tow.  I pretty much used the same technique for finding the measurement for the bottom row.  I  just lined up two of the clipboards top to bottom and added four inches this time.  Then I used the previous measurements to line up the bottom row.  Clear as mud right?  Trust me it really wasn't rocket science!!  You got this.

What do you think?  Cute right?  I am thinking about adding some sort of words or something.  I just don't know yet.  And to be quite honest, I will probably redo them with clipboards with cool clips...the lame ones just bother me.  Wah wah.

Anyhoo,  Thanks for looking at my Pinterest Challenge project.  Feel free to leave me a comment, I am just surfing Pinterest...I've got time!

Sunny