When throwing a party, you must always have that ONE thing that stands out. This being only the second get together at our new house, I tried to think outside the box on what people might like to enjoy. I came up with a DIY photo booth.
What you need:
∴ Wrapping Paper
∴ Scissors
∴ Decorations (I used hanging stars, and ornaments from Christmas)
∴ Photo Booth Props
∴ Last but not least, a camera and a tripod
I literally measured out two sections of my wall and rolled the wrapping paper all the way down. Then I taped it, and rolled the second section all the way down the wall, cut off the excess paper and taped it. I then taped the streamers and ornaments to the paper, and called it a DIY photo booth!
I don’t know what it is about this season, but it just brings so much joy and happiness into my heart. For the first time in our adult life, Shane and I are celebrating our first holiday in our new house! Thanksgiving came and went, and we were really hoping to be in here by then. Well, God blessed us with an even better holiday to be able to celebrate and that’s Christ Himself.
I think we have learned so much about ourselves, and each other in this whole process of buying our first house, putting it on an empty plot of family land, installing electric, sewer, and well, and ALL of the extra things that have come up since. It’s insane how much patience one must have, to endure this process. Shane and I will suggest to anyone right now to already have all of that, so that all one would have to worry about is getting a house and putting it on the land. So.Much. Stress.
The start of this month calls for our first Christmas Tree to be bought and decorated and put up, the Advent Calendar to be printed and taught to Brielle for the first time (which is so good to find ways to teach her about the Lord), pull out her elf on the shelf Lincoln and read the story and meaning behind her again (since this year she will finally be able to understand the true meaning behind her), and truly teach her about how good it feels to give to others, instead of receiving.
So much has changed for us this year that I didn’t think we would be able to see the light again after Rochelle passing. Just remembering that one of us spent Christmas in the hospital with Rochelle last year, while the other spent the day with Brielle and family, is so crazy. We know each and every day that we are here, because of our angels looking over us and being with us each and every day. Holidays are when it hits people the most, when it comes to missing their loved ones, but I know that if you stay close to those you love, and stay close to God, you can get through it.
I am glad that I have two organizations that I am supporting already within this week, and I can’t wait to see what else I can do for the month!
Thanks be to God for blessing us with another season with each other, our family, and our friends.
Hello, December! 🙂
Christmas booksRed RosesHome Decorour first Tree!Brielle’s ornamentFrom her Godmother, AdrianeLove this ornament color!Thank you again, Adriane 🙂Brielle and her elf Lincoln
This crafting project started out with a great garage sale deal $20 for a big dresser with a mirror! I knew right away, that it would be the perfect dresser (with a LOT of work) for Brielle’s new room!
I didn’t know how to get started, or what I was planning on doing with anything. I was looking at ALL of these painting projects on pinterest, and was easily getting WAY too overwhelmed with how much paint/materials/time it took to complete a project, the size of a dresser.
I never get “free time” away from Brielle, when I am at home, so I know I had to do something that could involve her, and was fairly easy!
-Zebra colored fabric for the re-upholstering of the chair (1 yard was on sale at Walmart!)
First, I took everything apart! (Took the mirror off of the back, all of the pull out drawers out, took all of the hardware off).
Then decided to start on the dresser first, and paint everything (with the help of an eager toddler) that I could after I thoroughly cleaned it (it was an old dresser and very dirty). Next off, was the mirror. I painted the outside of the mirror, without having to take the glass off–SCORE).
The next morning after cleaning all of the drawers (when Brielle was distracted doing something inside), I spray-painted the drawers, and all the hardware. It was not as hard I thought, but it took a while to dry outside.
After everything was dry (so we thought!), we took the furniture to the new house, and I focused on reupholstering the chair (which was not fun!), and finished painting it, and I must say, the final product doesn’t look half bad!
Before
For this project, I just used a screwdriver to unscrew the chair, and re-used the nails that were in the bottom of the chair already. Not hard, just time-consuming!At the time, it was missing a hardware piece for the top right drawer, but it now has one! 🙂 Oh and gotta love the paint stain on the new carpet! (I will try REALLY hard today to get it out)
While it definitely is FAR from perfect, I must say with a couple of layers of chalk paint, it definitely made a TREMENDOUS difference in the look of this dresser, and I am so GLAD she now she has in her new room. And she will be able to show off to people how she painted it “with mommy”.
This Halloween definitely brought new adventures! This year was her first year that she was excited to dress up, and even though I bought her dress (Minnie Mouse) from the used clothing store, I knew I had to dress it up and make it look so cute with her hair.
I had prepared her to say “trick or treat” for candy, and that only worked for the first two houses she went to. Well, let’s just say that when she actually SAW the scary costumes (which I totally forgot that she is scared of people in masks), that she was over it and wanted to be held the rest of the night.
We had plans to walk the Yoakum “pumpkin patch” which is literally where all the shops/businesses in downtown Yoakum sit outside of their store and pass out candy to all the trick-or-treaters. That all changed when we decided to go visit our friends that live in the next town over and have some fun decorating cookies. Well, after the cookie fail, we decided to just stay with them and go to a few houses down a popular street in Gonzales (filled with Zombies) to gather some candy!
It was all good, like I said above, until about the second house where they scared the little kids by having a man dressed up as a gorilla, and JUMP out and say “rawwwr”.. let’s just say that a LOT of tears were had after that, and she was SO done and “ready to go home” after that. Needless to say, she didn’t collect that much candy and we only went to a few houses, but we had a fun day/night and hopefully next year she will be less scared of costumes/masks.
Here is some fun pictures from the night! 🙂
Addison and BrielleKrisalynn and her beautiful self!Brielle and JamesKrisalynn, Brielle and AddisonAddison and BrielleAll the kiddos!
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