Small keepsake project for a special day

Like the headline already says, today is a special day. Not for you but for us. We have been married for 15 years today. Ca-RA-zay! I honestly can't believe it. Saying it out loud makes me feel so old.

We actually have two anniversaries but pretty much only celebrate our legal anniversary. What I mean by that is that we got married by magistrate a year before our church wedding. We wanted to get married in my home town church, so in order for me to be able to leave the country and come back in, we had to get all the legal stuff done first. So by law and name we are married for 15 years today.

There were only 4 people at the magistrate, the two of us, my mother-in-law and the magistrate, of course. And all the pictures my mother-in-law took turned out really blurry...so we have nothing to show for. Strange isn't it? But we have a ton of photos from our church wedding which was pre-digital times (ugh, I'm old).

After we got married we left for a weekend in Baltimore where they were having Baltimore Preakness celebrations. We had some great days!

Look at us two baby faces. It sometimes seems to me as if those two kids are strangers.

This photo was taken at a crab house in Baltimore.

Well anyways. I just wanted to share a small project with you guys today.

As it so happens, I still have the coaster on which my hubby wrote his phone number on in the bar we met. Yup, we met at a bar and I was 21 years old. I knew the minute I walked into the bar that I wanted to meet the guy leaning against the back of the wall. He was quite the looker (and yes he still is)!

I also still have the movie stub from our first date. He took me to see "The English Patient" because his sister was obsessed with it. Since I was born and raised in Germany I can only say that I don't like WWII movies. But I liked him! ;)

I previously had those two crappy looking pieces of paper hanging in our basement bar, since we met in a bar. But for our anniversary I thought I'd give them a little overhaul.

This is so simple and you can do something like this even if you don't have a silhouette cameo.

All I did is spray paint some old frames white and cut out gold vinyl on my cameo to fit the glass. You can also use spray paint or gold leaf if you don't have vinyl. On the one frame I put the gold behind the glass and on the other frame I stuck it to the front of the glass. It was kind of hard to get the air bubbles out but I did it.

On the one frame I added some gold sharpie detail, sorry but couldn't help myself, you know me.

And here are the mementos in their new frames:

You could also cut out a heart shape instead of the circle and square but I didn't want to get too "schmoopy". Love this word, thanks Seinfeld and I miss you!

So we are not "schmoopy" at all...LOL!

Does anybody else here remember that or am I the only one?

So my King Konya ( I do love him) and I will head out for date night tonight. I think we haven't been out to dinner together since last summer, for real. 

And when he asked me what I wanted for our anniversary I told him that I want a handy man to vent the microwave. So romantic, right? haha. But that's what I truly want and I am receiving. It means so much to me that he picked up the phone and called a contractor who is coming today to get it set up. YAY, I told the hubby that this is what makes me truly happy. 

Come back on Friday for another furniture makeover, ok? And I have to tell you that I loooove this one!

Tschüß

(Youleeya)

A little diva Easter egg project

GOOD Friday everyone!

Today I'm just sharing a Pinterest project with you and not because it is something totally new...NO I think everyone that has ventured around the blogosphere and Pinterest has crossed paths with some type of version of the gold leafed eggs. 

I couldn't help myself. I was so itching to try out the gold leafing. Since I had all the supplies already, I thought the kids could give it a try.

For the eggs I used paper mache eggs from the craft store.

At the beginning the kids did great.

Calm, relaxed and cheerful...

Then things started to get ugly.

Unfortunately I don't have photos of the glue spilling, the gold leaf everywhere, including hair...

BUT

BUT

I have a Vine video of my frustrated egg decorator, haha!

click HERE 

(you need to click onto the micro button in the left corner to hear the sound)

Have you noticed that she switched to a gold sharpie in her frustration?

Well, she sees mommy do it, right?

LOL, this video makes me laugh.

She is so easily aggravated.

In the end, I think they turned out beautiful and both kids did a wonderful job.

Don't you think so?

Here are just some photos from our garden.
I can't wait to see all the rest of the plants come up.

Pretty, right?

Enjoy your Easter weekend!

And talk to you on Monday.

(Youleeya)

Giveaway Winner and Easter Eggs

This past weekend I finally added some Easter decor to our house.

I don't do much for Easter, not like Christmas...but I love having a vase with some Spring branches, so I can hang eggs on them.

My husband blows out two eggs and the kids get to each paint or color one. I have one for every year since they started to do crafts and so we wouldn't forget which year they were from I wrote the name and year on them. Well now they can write it themselves. I really like displaying their artwork and scribbles like that.

The vase with the spring twigs is less than desirable this year. I just couldn't find any with flowers on them outdoors. Not even the flower shop had any! I guess the pussy willow branches will have to do for this year's vase.

Here are some of their beautiful eggs.
They used watercolors or Sharpies

And this is the vase with the branches:

I added butterflies, ribbons, glass eggs...

... and regular pastel beaded eggs.

And you can't forget about the Easter bunny 

and our musical box from Germany:

You are probably thinking...shut up...stop rambling about the Easter eggs and tell us already who won the darn giveaway.

Well friends!
The winner of my giveaway is:

Laura Montgomery

Congratulations!


And sorry for everyone that wanted them too, I wish I would have enough free dots for everyone.
I'm thinking about adding them to my Etsy shop though by the end of the week.

I do love my kids' artwork eggs. That's all I need for Easter!

Talk to you on Friday!

(Youleeya)

More Snowflakes

How was your Thanksgiving? I still feel full, haha. Sweatpants galore!

But I did get some things accomplished like you saw in my last post when I showed off our Shutterfly Christmas cards. I also did some Amazon Christmas shopping all from the comfort of our couch.

Another small project that I did were the decorations on our front porch. It was fast and easy.
All I used was two of those large white craft store (foam) snowflakes, command strips and some old ornaments.

I tied the ornaments to the snowflake and stuck them to the flower pot with the command strips. Easy peasy! I likey likey!

And mini-me and I were able to go on a Christmas tree hunt, cut it down and drag it back all by ourselves while the dudes (aka hubby and Noa) were at wrestling.

We were so looking forward to decorating the tree but guess what? Can you guess right?

Yup, the lights failed me once again. One thing I can rely on every year.
So I have to go back to Target today to get more of my favorite pearl Christmas lights. Unfortunately it was too late last night to get them.

What were you guys up to this past Thanksgiving weekend? Did you eat yourself into a coma? Did you decorate or shop? Or all of the mentioned?

I'm off to Ikea now, so talk to you on Wednesday fellow webbers und guten Tag.

Christmas Misfits & Mishaps

So I was picturing sharing these beautiful Christmas photos and projects with you today but it all turned out different, like the title explains. Sigh!

It was a busy weekend again. Saturday we had soccer and afterwards I went to another auction. I'm embarrassed to even share what I wanted to buy but please believe me, I had a vision. That vision was destroyed by somebody outbidding me once again. I never ever thought that anybody even wanted these ugly things. Boy was I wrong! I guess that's what happens when you are venturing into Redneck territory.

But here are the two ugly creatures, haha:

You are cringing right now, aren't you? Ugly huh? Well wild boars are so old-redneck German. So guess how much each went for? No really, guess!

You got your number in your head????

Well......drum roll please...$190! For realz! Can you believe it? Carved wood and the size of my 6 year old's head. $190 for one???? Why?
I just wanted to paint them white and hang them with my white animal collection. Guess not! But I waisted 2.5 hours with 2 extremely bored children on this.

So, then I came home to continue with my Christmas decorations. Every year we cut out white paper snowflakes. The kids do theirs for their windows and I cut mine. It's a fun project.

The right ones are just cut with a craft punch.

I wanted to hang them in my entertainment center window and on the walls. I have used ironing starch before to hang fabric. That's a whole funny story in itself what I used the starched fabric for. My friends know...haha.
I read online that you can use the starch to hang paper on walls as well. So I cut away, made some really nice snowflakes...starched them...stuck them to the walls and moved on to decorating our small living room tree and our fire place mantel.

 
I went to bed content with my decorating achievements and this is what I woke to. Really!
I was so angry. The snowflakes were wrinkled and falling off the walls and the light strand on the fireplace was half lit. It's probably punishment for my early Christmas decorations this year ;)

It looks pretty though minus the light.

Don't those light strands get to you every year? They get on my nerves. I can count on them not working and failing. It was a complete new functioning light, out of a new box. Now I have to take it all down and get a new light and redo the mantel.

I didn't have time on Sunday because wrestling season started. It is all consuming, I mean all day long. And this will go on until March. Kind of drives me nuts but the hubby is obsessed. It is his thing and he cares a great deal about it. It is a really big sport in the area we live in. When we started dating (I newly arrived from Germany) he thought that he'd take me to my first wrestling match and I'd think it's so studly....Well? NOOO! I was completely taken by surprise with their outfits and headgear. Oh, really! It is awkward! I have gotten used to it by now but my family in Germany keeps reminding me here and there that it's not an aesthetically pleasing sport. It is so hard for me to see my little boy out there fighting for himself and I get so anxious and sick! He ended up with a swollen and bruised shoulder and lots of tears. Not at all fun for a mother!

At least my small tree turned out beautiful!

Anyways, this is the story of my weekend. It will be a very busy week. Lets hope I can fix my mishaps and share a finished beautiful project at some point. I have to admit, I'm not to enthusiastic about it.

Well I wish you all a great Thanksgiving week.
Talk to you soon.

Ikea Margareta Christmas

I know that I'm very early with my Christmas decor. I usually start the day after Thanksgiving (I never go shopping on Black Friday) but when I stopped at Ikea on October 22nd, I fell in love with the Ikea Margareta Fabric. My head was spinning, that's how excited I was!

I love the Ikea Margareta Wood too. It would look great in a faux fireplace, wouldn't it?

While my mom was here I started working on a little (yeah right, it's huge) canvas.

This is what you'll need:

• four 2x2x8 furring strips for $6.88 (2 cuts at 50" length, 2 cuts at 72" length)
• 2 yards of Ikea Margareta (pine tree) fabric for $13.98
• 1 pack (8 screws) 2 1/2" wood screws for $1.18
• stapler and staples
• ornament hooks
• ornaments
• If you'd like to add lights to the canvas, you can buy 14" inch grommets (or whatever fits your bulbs), attach them to the fabric where you want the lights and stick the bulbs from a white light garland through the grommet. I opted for no lights since I want my chandelier to be the lighting focal point and another reason is that the grommets were on the pricey side. It sure would look stunning to have the canvas lit!

You could also make an advent calendar! There are so many possibilities!

I predrilled the holes and put the frame together with 2 screws for each connection. 

Then I stapled the fabric really tight to the frame. Make sure to keep it even, so the tree looks straight.

I bent the hook from the right side into the hook that you can see on the left side,
to be able to just push them into the fabric and hang the ornaments.

Lite weight ornaments work best and that's why I used these ornaments from an old Ikea garland.

I just pushed the hooks into the fabric with the ornaments on it.

FINISHED

Do you notice something else? I hope so! Haha!
I changed out the crystals on my cellula chandelier.

Look, I can see myself in the ornament :)

I usually have a small tree in the corner instead of the boxwood topiary. I might put it somewhere else this year. Not sure yet!

What do you think? I have to take some more pictures when it is dark outside because the chandelier looks beautiful. At least that's what I think.

Have a great weekend. I hope I'll be done with another exciting project by Monday.

Happy Friday und guten Tag!