It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas! - 2010

Over the last year I have redecorated most of my house. I decided that the "country" or "country primitive" just wasn't me. I love bright colors and all things Mary Engelbreit make me smile. My only concern was that it would be "too much". I think I have found a happy medium though and am now loving our home. Of course different colors and such in the every day decor meant that Christmas would have to be adapted to incorporate the bright colors as well. This is what I have come up with. The picture above is in the kitchen above my refrigerator.

Our family room is now painted red and the pic above is over the love seat. Lots of touches of ME!
I've collected Eddie Walker figurines and these are a few of my favorites at Christmas (of course with a ME print over the fireplace).


Our hutch has the beginnings of a ME Christmas collection!

The living room has my new favorite wall - both of our girls senior pics (thanks to Through A Lens!) are the highlight in here next to the tree and ME pillows!

Our staircase with the newly made garlands!

I love to decorate with food and since we will be hosting all the college/high school kids from my daughters charity ( www.artwithheartonline.net ) for a Christmas party, I thought why not use Christmas candy for decor (I'm sure it will disappear at the party!).



Our Christmas tree - complete with my ME ornament collection, my husband's Air Force collection, Hannah's Mary Moos & Smores, and Megan's Cherished Teddies. Lots of ME bags and wrapping paper as well. So that's my version of Christmas this year! I'll try to add more pics as things come together! Hope you have a very Merry Christmas with your family!

Not feeling it!

So I sat down today to start a new scrapbook project. I would love to make Halloween scrapbooks for my girls - you know with pics of Halloween's past! Hannah's 19 & Megan's 17 so I have plenty to do. The thing is I haven't scrapbooked in SOOOOOOOOO long, I'm having trouble getting started! I have all the cute Halloween Doodlebug papers, stickers, ribbons, etc., etc., but am feeling so out of my comfort zone. I know this sounds so silly when my girls each have a bookcase full of scrapbooks, but I am just feeling overwhelmed! I bought 8x8 books (and I think that is part of my problem - isn't not a size I usually work with) and have pics, but need motivation! Oh, what to do, what to do???

Playing Catch Up

I've been home for about a week now from my vacation to Ione, WA. I went to spend times with dear friends. My friend, Michelle, recently bought a gorgeous home there and our friend Pam and I flew out to enjoy some time together with her! After our time together, I have decided that "girlfriend" vacations should be mandatory for every mom! We had so much fun together and it was so nice to relax for a few days!



When I got back, I hit the ground running trying to help Hannah get everything ready for the quarterly fundraiser night at McAlister's & Coldstone. We've added "Art With Heart" merchandise now and it seemed to be a big hit with the kids. I am so impressed that after 6 quarterly fundraisers these kids are still so faithful about coming out and volunteering their time! We have some great young adults that bless us every time they are together! They wound up raising $478 for St. Louis Children's Hospital Art Therapy Program and collecting several bags of donations! We are so proud of them!

Cool Blogs!

I have been scanning the internet looking for creative things to make and do! I have found some of the coolest blogs! Thanks to all of you that share your creativity with the rest of us! My favorite right now is eighteen25! LOVE LOVE all the goodies they have to share! Be sure and check them out!

Dreaming of Fall Things...

Went shopping today and couldn't believe all the fall decor is out already! Fall is my favorite season! I love it when the weather cools off, sweaters come out, and leaves turn colors!

Last year I decorated the entire house! We had all the ladies I worked with over for a fall tea. I also decorated the church we were going to for the Harvest Fest in kid-like fall decor and then redid it in grown-up fall decor for Thanksgiving. So much has changed in the last year! I'm currently not working outside of our home and we no longer attend church where we had been going. We've looked and looked for another church, but haven't found the one we feel God wants us to be in yet. I think this fall will be very different for us but hopefully we will make new memories and new traditions and maybe we will find where we belong (on many fronts!)

Went to STL Children's Hospital today - Hannah got a great report from the cardiologist! YEAH! Since we were going over to the hospital, we decided it would be a great chance to take the art therapist (and her daughter) new Art with Heart T-shirts and Bracelets along with the last checks from the McAllister's/Coldstone Fundraiser night in June. It only takes a few minutes of sitting in the lounge area by the front desk to remind us why we do Art with Heart - so many kids coming in and out of that door with so many different medical issues. Reminds us that even on our worst day, we are truly blessed!

Working on Art with Heart

When our oldest daughter came up with Art with Heart 2 years ago, I had no idea how much it would effect the rest of our family! I spend lots of time working on the advertisements and paperwork that it takes to do the quarterly fundraisers at McAllister's Deli & Coldstone Creamery, Hannah hands out all the flyers and recruits the volunteers (which always includes her sister Megan and lots of both of their friends). Since Stephen has been either deployed, remote or TDY when we've had the fundraisers, he's missed out on a lot of them, but when he is home, he also delivers food at McAllister's with the rest of us and is constantly doing proof work for me.

I just spent about 3 hours this morning working on brochures, tote bags, etc. with the new logo (thank you Mark!). We're trying to get AWH to grow and looking for new ways to make it bigger and more effiencent! If anyone has any ideas, please share. We're always up for a new thought!

Hannah will be working on the website artwithheartonline.net over the next few days - loading pics of the last fundraiser and info on the next one. It's not a huge organization, but every time she throws a fundraiser night, I am always impressed at all the kids that show up to volunteer time after time. These college/high school kids take nights off their own jobs to come work for free to give art to little ones in the hospital. They make me so proud - that's one more reason we keep doing it!

Stephen's Birthday

Celebrated my dh's 44th birthday yesterday! We went out to the Pasta House (can't say I would recommend it though) and then came home and had cookie cake with a few friends. I made the cute little banner to celebrate his day! Happy Birthday Stephen!

Mary Engelbreit Inspirations

I've been working my updating/redecorating my home. I've always decorated very country and used dark colors. I could never get it to feel quite like "me" though. I think I'm having a mid-life crisis and to get me thru it, I'm brightening my house up! LOL! I love Mary Engelbreit products - they just make you happy! Here are some pics of a few ME items my mom just sewed together for me! She's amazing and her and my dad help me with projects CONSTANTLY!