Garrett Allen

Sorry that I haven't updated in a while. I have been a little busy cooking this little guy. His name is Garrett Allen, and he is such a joy. He was born on July 28th at 1:15pm and weighed 8 pounds 5 ounces.

Having an infant and a kindergartner has made my life crazy busy, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love my kiddos, and family!

Hopefully sometime next week I will be able to post more pictures of baby boy, and some pictures of his nursery, and some other little projects that I have been working on.

- Libby

I've Been Featured!

Yay, so excited!

Cross Wall

I love my cross wall. I have been collecting crosses since Greg and I got married in 2004.

Greg's old youth pastor and his wife made that one with the red and blue beads.

Overtime we just started getting more,

and more,

and more!

Some are ceramic ones that I hand-painted myself. Some were bought on sale/clearance. Lots were gifts.

It really is my favorite collection!

This is what it looked like in 2007, in our house in La. It wasn't nearly as big.

Right now I have it in our entryway, and I still have plenty of room to hang more crosses.

Linked to:
Funky Junk Interiors
Under The Table And Dreaming
Cottage Instincts

Ornament Wreath

I told y'all here that I bought all new Christmas ornaments on clearance last year. That means that I was left with all my old ornaments. What is a girl to do with all those ornaments? Well you're in luck because instead of listing everything that I could have done with them I am going to show you what I did.

Yup I made that!

Here's how:

I gathered my supplies. For this project I needed 1 plastic wreath from Hobby Lobby, 2 strands of red garland from Dollar Tree, old ornaments from my garage, and lots of hot glue.

(sorry for the blurry pic)

I took the red garland and I wrapped it around the wreath. I put a few dots of hot glue to start, and then put more on after every 10 wraps or so. It did pretty good staying in place without a ton of glue.

I just kept wrapping until it looked like this:

I loved it just like this, and thought about keeping it as-is, but I didn't.

I started gluing my ornaments on there.

It takes a lot of glue. Seriously, I probably burned through at least 10 sticks., but the finished product made it all worth it.

I love it! It is hanging on my front door looking all pretty!

Linked to:
Todays Creative Blog, Frugal and Fabulous Design, The Shabby Nest, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, Funky Junk Interiors, Under the Table and Dreaming, Cottage Instincts

Barn Star Ornaments

I have always had a red white (silver) and blue themed tree. I love the colors. I have always just used the plastic ball ornaments, but last year I found these cute ornaments for 90% off at Kohls.


The problem with getting Christmas ornaments on clearance is sometimes you can't find enough. I could have just had a scarce tree this year and looked for more ornaments after Christmas, or I could have just pulled out my shiny Christmas balls that I have used before that didn't quite match. Neither one of those options would have really worked because I am too anal, and too much of a perfectionist (not about everything, just some things).

Found these bad boys on one of my million trips to the local Dollar Tree.
I love it! well not the snowman that is on there, he is just okay, but not really the look that I am going for. I love the shape! It is a barn star shaped ornament for only $1. I have seen them at other stores for $3+.

To fix this and make it match I used my new favorite thing in the world, well not really, but it's up there on my list of new favorite things.


Look at how great my barn stars look now, I love it!

These ornaments are a really good size too. Well worth their $1 price tag. Here is what they look like on my tree. I tried several times and could not get a great picture of the tree. I promise it has lights, lots of them, and they were shining bright.
I am still trying to decide if I want to paint the star on top white also. What do y'all think I should do?

(If you are eying that beautiful gingham garland and wondering where I got that from you can find out more about it here.)

Linked to:
Funky Junk Interiors
Saturday Mornings
Under the Table and dreaming
Cottage Instincts

Easy Cloth Garland

This is a great craft for a lazy person like me. It's easy, takes little time, cheap, customizable, and in my humble opinion, very, very pretty.

I went to the fabric store and found some fabric that I liked.


I cut the fabric into strips, I didn't really measure or anything, but I would say they were 1.5 inches by 8-10 inches.


Tied the strips together


Then I just wrapped it around the tree (probably don't have to tell you guys that, anyone who is smart enough to find this blog probably knows how to put garland on a Christmas tree.)


I took the rest of the fabric and laid it at around the bottom of the tree. Much cheaper than a tree skirt, and it matches perfectly.


I used 4 yards. The fake tree skirt could probably use a little more fabric, but I am too lazy to go get it. Actually I will say I am too thrifty to go get it. That sounds better.

The Christmas tree is not quite done yet, but I will have pictures soon to show you the whole thing.

Linked to:
My Romantic Home
Frugal Fabulous Design
Finding Fabulous
Fingerprints on the Fridge
The Shabby Chic Cottage
Paisley Passions
The Shabby Nest
Chic on a Shoestring Decorating
Freckled Laundry
Funky Junk Interiors
Saturday Mornings
Under the Table and Dreaming
Cottage Instincts

Christmas Present Fail

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... and if you are like me that means that it is the time of year that you start planning what you want for Christmas. Well actually most of you are probably a lot less selfish than me so you probably haven't put any thought into it, but I start planning out birthday and Christmas presents several months ahead.

Back in 2004 I was a young bride. Greg and I had only been married 5 months. We were strapped for cash, and didn’t have a lot of extra money that we could spend on Christmas presents for each other. What would a person in my predicament ask for? I don’t know. I can’t tell you what normal people would ask for, because it has already been established that I am not normal.

I asked for (drum roll please) a spice rack.
Have I ever cooked with spices before you ask? No, no I have not. I was young, naïve, and trying to become a better cook. I had received several cookbooks as wedding presents, and they all called for fancy and exotic ingredients like thyme, rosemary, and parsley (stop laughing Peggie). I decided that is the reason why nothing that I made tasted good. I was only using salt and pepper and if I wanted to spice things up I might sometimes use garlic salt or lemon pepper. Yes, I decided that in order to become a good cook I needed a spice rack.

You know how in A Christmas Story Ralphie yearns for the red ryder bb gun. His family, teachers, and even Santa try to talk him out of it, but Ralphie is convinced that this is what he wants. I think that I wanted the spice rack more than that. I had dreams about how the spice rack would change my whole life. Who knows? I might even become such a great cook and so efficient at it that I would even have time to freshen up, throw on some heels and pearls while my freshly spiced dinner was in the oven. My husband, family, and friends were not exactly supportive. Instead of hearing “you’ll shoot you’re eye out” I heard constantly “you’ll never use it.” I was going to prove them all wrong if I got that spice rack. Come December 26th, 2004 they would be eating their words and all of my wonderful culinary creations.

For Christmas that year I got the $50 spice rack that I had wanted so much. It was beautiful. It swiveled for easy access. The spices were all alphabetized, you know so I wouldn’t have to waste cooking time finding a certain spice. The bottles were clear. I thought that would be perfect when I started running low I would know immediately and could rush to the store.

Fast forward and here we are almost 6 years later. I bet at this point you are thinking to yourself: “wow, I am glad that she got that spice rack, I bet it has really come in handy.” Well actually you are probably not thinking that because that wouldn’t make a very good story now would it? Here we are 6 years later and out of the original 20 spices in the rack I have opened 6. One of them being thyme and I only opened it because I wanted to know what Thyme smelled like. I have dusted the spice rack more than I have used it, crazy right? It gets crazier, since we have moved 4 times since 2004 I have actually moved the spice rack more than I have used it.

(the lucky spices that actually got opened)

(poor spices never even got a chance to show how good they were)

Don’t worry, I have learned my lesson. Every year since I have asked for jewelry or handbags and they have gotten a lot more use than the spice rack.

On a side note, does anyone know what the shelf life is for spices? Will 6 year old spices hurt us? Who am I kidding? In order for them to hurt us I would actually have to use them.