Celebrating Mom & A Giveaway!

I would like to do something a little bit different in this post. I want to take this time to honor my mother.  Many of you know that she has had her first book published and I am incredibly proud of her. I remember when she first told me she was taking up writing and little did I know how serious she was about that. That was nearly 10 years ago. It has been a long journey for her with life taking many strange turns along the way. However, over that time I have seen her "hobby" become her passion. Even though she may not be aware, she has also taught me many things through her journey.

What I have learned through her is:

• Even in the face of disappointment to keep pushing if it is what God has called you to do
• That everything will happen in Gods time, just let go and let God
• It is never to late to follow your dreams
• It is OK to aim high
• It's OK to have imaginary friends

Well, her book is now on the shelves of bookstores and her editor is already hounding her for her next manuscript! Talking with mom I can tell how surreal everything still is for her. As a homemaker and mother of 5 she is not used to being in the limelight. She has always been my biggest cheerleader and no matter what ever my dream is for the moment, she has always been there to support me. Well Mom now its your turn. We are all here to cheer you on. Thank you for everything you have taught me, thank you for always being there and thank you for standing by me through many, many trials. I love you and I am so very thankful to have such an incredible woman as my mother. I can't wait to read your next book!

In honor of my mothers accomplishments I would like to celebrate with a giveaway! So if you would like to win a copy of her debut novel you will have 3 chances to do so,  just follow the instructions below.

1. Leave a comment
2. Like Fantastically Frilly on Facebook and come back here to post a comment stating that you have done so.
3. Like my moms Facebook page here and come back here to post a comment stating that you have done so.

I will randomly select a winner from the comments and will announce the winner next Tuesday!

Best of luck!

Scrap Wood & Dollar Store Flowers

I decided this last weekend that I wanted to make something. I didn't quite know what, but something. So I went down to the shed to do some "shopping" where I found some scrap wood that we had. I decided I was just going to make a box. What for? I had absolutely no idea. I quickly got to work!

I cut the piece of wood in half and cut off 5 inch blocks on both pieces (for the ends of the box). And I began staining the wood. I used stain that I already had on hand, which was a dark walnut. As you can see I brushed the stain on then would wipe off.

 

 

Once I was done staining I put the lid back on, however when I went to "hammer" it down there was some stain in the reservoir around the outside which immediately splattered all over me! The pic below is after washing several times. So, unless you are looking for a really splotchy tan look I would suggest checking for this before putting the lid on.

Once I was finished staining and let it dry (about an hour). I nailed the pieces together.

After I had everything nailed together. I realized I had nothing for a bottom. Oh well. I figured I could do that later. So I went to put it on my buffet (which was where I decided to display it while building) and realized that it was too big! Crap! So I did the only thing I could do. I cleared off the top of my piano to see if it would look good there. Nope. Onto the mantle! Well, it actually looked good on the mantle, but I had no idea what to put in it. Which is when I realized I could line it with flowers. So off to the dollar store I went. Now I would not normally purchase silk flowers from the dollar store, because, well, they usually look super cheap. But I wanted to see a finished product. Looking through the store I found the flowers and they had white hydrangea looking stems. So I purchased 7! After filling the box, I decided I was incredibly happy with everything! Because my mantle is not a normal style I had really struggled with figuring out how to decorate it. But thanks to my boredom and the dollar store, I now have a great looking mantle!

BTW the fact that this box does not have a bottom is perfect! I have 2 outlets on top of my mantle and this box fit perfectly over them and even hid the cords for the lamps! I TOTALLY LOVE IT!

The Painted Porch

I received an e-mail last week from a very dear friend of mine requesting that my next blog post be on my porch. She is currently in the process of building a new home and they are going to have a beautiful front porch and since I have a large porch she told me that she is looking for inspiration. I immediately had a pit in the bottom of stomach. You see, my porch has been seriously neglected this summer and currently has no decorations except a couple of potted plants (that I am struggling to keep alive). Not to mention the only thing growing in my flower bed right now are weeds. I don't even have a wreath on my door! However over the course of the last couple of years we have made some improvements. One being we painted the porch... well, that wasn't exactly planned, but it was needed all thanks to me and my brilliant ideas!

Last Halloween the church was having a Trunk-or-Treat and the church members were encouraged to decorate the trunks of their cars. So after much deliberation we decided we were going to do a Star Trek theme. I had a friend that embroidered the symbol on our shirts and everything. So in an effort to win Mom of the Year I gathered together, cardboard, paint, glitter, poster board,  and did I mention paint? We then cut the cardboard into the necessary shape needed to fit into the back of van and then we started to spray paint it. Well that was taking forever! At which point I remembered I had a gallon of plain white flat paint and a paint roller! I was going to have that thing painted solid white in no time and I did! By the time I finished painting the kids were throwing some sort of fit over being hungry. So in an effort to satisfy them for at least 5 minutes I made dinner. Then I gave the baby a bath and put him to bed. At which point I called my husband, who was out of town at the time, to tell him how brilliant I was by painting the cardboard with house paint. After I was done bragging and hung up I attempted to move the cardboard. That's when it happened. I heard 'Clunk!'. And I just knew. I knew in a hurry to get inside to fix dinner I did not put the lid on all the way and that can was sitting on the corner of the cardboard so when I moved it I knocked almost a full gallon of pure white paint all over my porch! In a panic I yelled at my oldest child to bring me the hose and turn on the water. I tried to spray the paint through a drain hole on the side of the porch. Well, that wasn't working, so I holler at my other child to bring me the push broom! He did and my thought process was to "push" the paint to the drain hole and it seemed to be working. That is until I looked down and realized all I had done was turned my broom into a giant paint brush and had painted 1/3 of the porch and it looked awful! At this point I realized I was defeated and probably just ruined our good broom. So I took a picture and sent it to my husband! Thankfully, he found it my HUGE mishap quite funny. Well needless to say after a couple of weeks when he returned home we repainted the whole porch and it looked awesome. Unfortunately I did not take a pic after we painted and as I mentioned earlier my porch is a mess and not picture worthy at the moment. However, I do have the pic I sent to my husband.

 

Our "Trunk" turned out great by the way!

 

 

 

Don't worry Debbie, I have not forgotten about you. Scroll down and  will find plenty of inspiration!

My Love Of Furniture

Of all the hobbies I have attempted by far my favorite is refinishing/re- purposing furniture. I love taking something that has long been forgotten and giving it new life. Plus it is far cheaper than buying something new. This week I will show you a piece of furniture that I have admired for quite some time.

I can remember this coffee table for just about ever. It was my mothers. Aside from the fact that is square and not the traditional rectangular shape it is also is glass top with a drawer to show off whatever treasures you might have. I can remember at Christmas mom would always fill it with all the ornaments and memories we created from past Christmases. I always loved looking at all the things she kept from us as we were growing up. So when she offered me the table a couple of years ago I jumped at the opportunity to do the same. However it was a little out of date. So I decided to give it my own style.

After viewing many blogs I found I absolutely loved the way pieces of furniture had been refinished with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, however the price for the stuff is crazy outrageous. So (knowing there are plenty of people who would agree with me) I Googled how to create a knock off. I found a great tutorial here which required only 2 ingredients unsanded grout (you can get enough to last a lifetime at any Lowes for around $10) and regular old flat latex paint (around $10 for the cheap stuff). So with information in hand I was ready to get to work. I was so excited to get started that, to my husbands dismay, I did this right in the living room and yes those are hardwood floors that desperately need to be refinished, but that is another blog post.

(in the excitement I totally forgot a before picture)I mixed my paint and painted the legs and sides of the table.

I then sanded the top down to the grain and stained it with a dark walnut.

Once it was totally dry I distressed it with sand paper and used dark wax to accentuate where I had sanded and put a coat of clear wax all over. I then put on the knew knobs, laid down a tea cloth I had and filled it with treasures of our own!

This is one of my favorite pieces of furniture and I am glad I was able to share it with you!

I'm Back!

Wow! I can't believe how fast time has gone by! But I am back and I can't wait to show you all that I have been up to. So many things have happened in the past couple of years and the little ones are not so little any more. Baby boy is in full blown not-so-terrible twos and my middle child is about to be taller than me! But I sure have been busy diy-ing, so here are a couple of sneak peeks of what I have been working on!

Check back next week and I will have an awesome diy project ready to share! 

Gone With The Wind

I know it's been a while since my last post, but I really wanted my next one to be something that I made that looked awesome that anyone could do.  Well I finally did it.  This is a book wreath that I have been drooling over for some months now, and last weekend I finally decided to make my own.

I used an old copy of Gone With The Wind that I had. It had that old look that I was looking for. However you can use any book and paint the edges a brown and it would look great also. You can find the tutorial I used here.

So before I began I set out to purchase a wreath form, however this task seemed futile.  I live in a small town and soon found out that I would have to venture to the big town 30 minutes away in order to find one.  Well I was not about to do that, so I remembered something I saw on Pinterest, use pipe insulation.  So for $2.97 I purchased a pack of 4 Styrofoam pipe insulation tubes and duct taped the ends of one together.  Mine looks a little bent, however this is a very forgiving wreath.

I then started to roll the pages and glue them to the form with a hot glue gun. The only thing is that the glue seemed to get hot enough to melt the Styrofoam, so watch the heat. I then proceeded to glue pages for the next 3 days... until I was done.  I think it was well worth the wait! I love it.  It looks a little different than the original one I saw, but am still very pleased with myself.  I saw similar ones on Etsy selling for $75 while mine cost a mere .75 cents!  Now I just need to find the perfect place for it.

10 Years

It seems like a lifetime ago... that heart wrenching day in our countries history.  A day that seemed to stand still.  How can something like this happen... in America?  I, like most, remember exactly where I was.  I was at work, when co-worker came in saying that a plane hit the World Trade Center.  I had no idea what he was talking about.  But I followed him into the conference room where he turned on TV and I sat at the table, with others who had just arrived to work.  We sat in disbelief, then came the 2nd plane.  I could not believe what I was seeing.  My initial thought was how could this be an accident twice in a row.  At 18 it didn't occur to me that America was under attack. Then, as if in slow motion, the first tower fell.  Filled with shock and fear, we cried over those who were inside those buildings.  I remember I sat most the day in that room, until my stepdad came to pick me up.  It was an incredibly eerie ride home.  The normally busy streets in Dallas were all but deserted.  It was almost as if one of the largest cities in America was a ghost town.  I remember the weeks following and how, for a brief time, it seemed as if the entire country was crying out to God.  Now 10 years later, we remember and continue to pray for the lives lost in this tragedy and their loved ones.  I also continue to pray for this great country and that the people of this nation will once again fix their eyes on Jesus! 

You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word. Psalm 119:114

Confessions of a Busy Mom



This has been an incredibly hectic past couple of weeks!  I started back to work in the office, which of course meant that my baby boy started daycare.  Aside from the obvious apprehension of leaving my newborn child with complete (state certified) strangers, I knew this too meant early mornings and hectic evenings.  The most challenging part has been settling into a new sleep pattern... for me. 

I love to stay up late, especially when everyone has gone to sleep, including my husband, and I have the house to myself.  It is a time that I cherish.  The only problem is the baby is asleep too, and believe me I know what a blessing it is that he sleeps through the night, however he is an early riser and is usually wanting to eat about 30 minutes before my alarm goes off.  Sometimes an extra 30 minutes goes a long way!  So I go ahead and prepare for the day, longing for the weekend when I can take a much needed nap, or at least that is what the plan is. However with a family of six the focus is usually on... dirty clothes, dirty dishes and dirty bathrooms! 

Now, I know the old adage "be thankful you have loved ones to do laundry for" and I totally understand the sentiment, but any way you slice it laundry STINKS - seriously, with four boys and a husband that has a physically demanding job, laundry literally stinks!  I should really have stock in Glade, because I'm telling you boys have an oder like none other.  I am thankful my older boys are able to do a lot, and are willing to help around the house in order to earn a little extra money.  Another thing about boys is they are "huuuungarrrry" all the time!  And trust me they don't like waiting.  I believe that Easy Mac was the best idea Kraft ever came up with.  It is the perfect snack to tie them over to dinner. 

Ugh dinner.  My nemesis. Because things are usually pretty busy around here I am all for cheap and easy, which eventually turns into hamburger helper and tacos, and while I enjoy both entrees, they usually leave little to be desired. So a while back I set out to find easy, tasty and filling meals and I must say I was successful! These meals have all been a hit with my family:

BAKED PASTA
aka Sloppy Lasagna

1lb of ground beef browned

1 16oz box of penne pasta cooked al dente

1 jar of spaghetti sauce

1 package of Philadelphia's Italian herb cooking cream

1 small tub of cottage cheese

1 package of sliced mushrooms

Mozzarella Cheese

 Heat oven to 450, combine browned ground beef with spaghetti sauce, add sauce, 1/2 the cooking cream, cottage cheese and mushrooms to pasta, stir and poor into a casserole dish.  Spread the remaining cooking cream on top. Top off with cheese and bake until cheese is melted and bubbly. - feel free to add onions and peppers if you like, I don't really care for them, so I don't.

I usally add a salad to make this a complete meal!

SIMPLE PARMESAN CRUSTED CHICKEN

1 package of chicken breasts, sliced in half.

2 eggs

1/2 cup of milk

1 cup grated Parmesan

1 cup Italian herb bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350. Cut chicken to desired sizes.  Mix together the Parmesan and bread crumbs.  whisk together eggs and milk till frothy. Dredge chicken in egg mixture and the coat in cheese and bread crumb mixture. Place on a pan and bake 20-30 minutes, till done.

*tip: spray with pam to get a nice crust

I usually serve with a salad and bag of frozen corn that can be heated in the microwave.

CHICKEN AND DUMPLING CHEAT

1 rotisserie chicken from grocer's deli

1-2 cans of biscuits (depending on how many dumplings you like, I usually just use 1 can)

4-5 cans of chicken broth (enough to fill the pot that you plan to use)

Place chicken broth in pot. Debone the chicken (remove meat) and place in chicken broth. Heat till boiling. Cut biscuits down to desired size (remember they will get bigger when cooked) and place in pot.
Continue to cook for about 15 minutes.

*tip: add some poultry seasoning for deeper flavor

TATER TOT CASSEROLE

Not exactly on the dieters menu, but the kids LOVE it!

1.5 lb ground beef

1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 bag of frozen tater tots

Sour Cream

Cheddar Cheese

Brown ground beef and drain.  Stir in cream of mushroom soup. Pour into casserole dish, then layer on tater tots, spread sour cream over tater tots, then top with cheese and bake for 20-30 minutes at 350.

How about you, do you have any favorite recipes that get you through a quick fix? Any tips that get you through a hectic day? Please share, I would love to know all the tips and tricks that you have found to work.

I apologize for any grammatical errors, this post has been done with a sleeping infant in the lap. As a busy mom, you understand that to try to move one such child may be disastrous.

Simply Cute Tutu How To:

This tutu is soooo easy and cheap! I made this one is anticipation of our little ones arrival - until we found out he was a boy. I still absolutely love the look of these and it would make any little girl feel like a princess!

All you need is a roll of tulle of a color of your choosing and a crochet headband, both of these supplies can be purchased at hobby lobby for less than $5.00 total!

Next cut off a piece of tulle twice the length that you want it to be, I cut off 12 inches since mine was being made for an infant. Then fold in half down the center.

Then thread through a hole in the crochet head band creating a hole in tulle to pull through the rest of the tulle to create a knot as shown below.

Simply continue until done!

See it is so simple!

My oldest child decided it would be more useful as an Indian headdress! Such a ham!



Fall Frills!

I don't know about you, but I am sooooooooo ready for fall! The rich reds, browns and yellows, carmel apples, carving pumpkins, and of course COOLER temperatures! This summer has been brutal, so here are some future projects I hope to get started on to put you in a cooler state of mind.

Pumpkin Topiary

 

Indian Corn Wreath

Apple Candles

 

Pumpkin Flowers

Pumpkin Poo Bear

(Isn't He Cute!!)

If your like me and love fall decorating, then you should definitley get your hands on a copy of Matthew Meads "Autumn With Matthew Mead"

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Order Your Copy Today!

Weekend Giveaways!

Look at these give aways going on in the blog world!

Miss Mustard Seed

She is giving you an opportunity to win 2 cans of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and a $75 Gift Card to Williams-Sonoma!

 

Living With Lindsay

Does your sofa need a revamp? Visit Linday's blog to win a free slipcover for your sofa from uglysofa.com!




Centsational Girl

Kate is giving away $75 worth of  really cute personalized stationary from Felix Doolittle!

The Hand Made Home



Heres your chance for $25 in WUSLU money! WUSLU is a great finds kind of site with 1 home decor deal daily at 10 am EST. And their prices are out of this world, at up to 85% off retail. Their unique site carries one of a kind finds and great deals, that sell out fast!

 

Southern Hospitality

Formerly with Country Living, Matthew Mead is a popular style expert, lifestyle editor, writer, author, and photographer.  Matthew’s Autumn with Matthew Mead magazine is coming again soon, just in time to inspire you for the Fall season and you can order your own copy, to be sent directly to your mailbox, right here. Or visit Southern Hospitality for a chance to win a copy!

Have A Great Weekend!