It's Christmas in a Suitcase.

While on Pinterest today, I saw something and I quickly thought;

"I am totally doing that."  

So I went home and I did it.  

With all my vintage suitcase success at sales this past summer, 

The little gold tree I'd found for .15 cents and had stashed away,

The Merry Christmas banner I'd bought for last year but never used,

I knew I could pull it together.

The greenery is a craft wreath I had. I bent it to fold and fit inside the suitcase.

The church I've had for a few years, just did something new with it this year.

The little key hanging up there? It came w/ the case.  Cute and handy.

The table is in my entryway. 

I grew up with it and my parents gave it to me when I moved to Minnesota.

 I painted it the past summer. 

(Sorry Pop! I couldn't resist. I know you are turning over in your grave.) 

Yes, had all this on hand.  This is why keep my stash of old things.

I whipped it up in about 15 minutes.
Yes, that little gold tree was really .15 cents.

Crazy.

Thanks for the Pinspiration. 

I traced the original pin (now on my Christmas board on Pinterest) 

back here to find a fab virtual Christmas decor tour. Enjoy.

I bought the suitcase over the summer at josiejones,
a wonderful occasional sale and 2 gals with an awesome site.
Sure to inspire.

xo jeanne.

Let's go! I'll drive.

Come with me.

Let’s steal away and shop for cozy soft sweaters.

Warm boots and good ass jeans.

Let’s buy new makeup then eat a great lunch.

Let’s sit it in a coffee shop reading books.

Let’s giggle over nothing and people watch.

Let’s tell each other sad stories then make ourselves feel better.

Let’s talk about people.

Let’s go Christmas shopping and find wonderful little gifts for our friends.

Let’s find just the right thing for our spouses.

We’ll find old chippy things that we didn’t know existed but suddenly desperately need.

We’ll look thin and fabulous in everything we try on. And it will be on sale.

Let’s swear too much and chew great gum.

We’ll annoy the sales people with our quick stylish wit.

The outlook will be bright and sunny but the air crisp, so we know we are alive.

Let’s go. 

xo jeanne.

A Big merry little Christmas.

My Christmas mantle has been the same for the past few years. 
I was itchy to change it up.

So I did. Big. Very Big.

This is not chalk board. This is not chalk.

This is tar paper. The letters are painted with acrylic craft paint.

I did another project with tar paper a few years ago when the blog was new 

 and I wanted to try it again, only this time on grander scale. 

• I found the crown at The Graphics Fairy.
• I designed and added lettering on my computer, printed it out, took it to Kinko's and enlarged it 500%.
• Then transferred it to my measured out tar paper with white transfer paper. 
• (You could also trace it on with an overhead projector if it was pre-hung.)
• Then painted it all. It took about an hour and a half to paint.  Once coat only. I painted it flat on my kitchen table, hung it when dry.

• My mantle space is 78" by 33".  
•  I wanted to fill the whole space and add a punch to the room.
• The tar paper is heavy and is hung with think double sided tape. 
•  I will probably add sticky velco for added security.  I don't want it falling down in the middle of the night.  
• The snowflakes are hung with fishing line.

I have a bit more decorating to do. 

But I'm pretty proud of myself for tackling this early and getting to enjoy it all month.

Oh, and this super fabulous merry little project cost me all of $12. 

The cost of the enlarging. 

Merry!

xo jeanne.

(now if I can just fine the elusive white stockings!!)

From Bruce to Supporting your Hi-Balls.

Whew.  I'm back. Though I really never left and I didn't really go anywhere. 
Well, not nowhere.   There have been a few adventures.

I went on a fabulously wonderfully relaxing scrapbooking weekend. 
I planned on coming right home and showing my pages off.
But then I came back to a house full of children and laundry.  Reality closed in quickly.
My camera and those carefully crafted pages laughed and mocked me: 
"Like you'll have time to blog about us."   They were so rude! 
I decided to ignore them completely.   I'll blog on Monday night, I told myself.   

But then a miracle happened.  Bruce Springsteen was in town.  My heart was pitter pattery.
I looked online, tickets were available. I bought one FOR MYSELF, and went alone.
This is huge.
It was like I burned my bra and fried up my bacon in a pan.  It was awesome.

On Tuesday I continued living in an alternate universe.  I heard a former Navy SEAL speak and posed with a faux assault rifle.  Again, fabulous and extremely badass of me.

Tuesday night quickly morphed into Thursday night and all hope of blogging flew out the window.  Especially when giant blue eyed Monica looked at me and said; 
"Mama, do you want to play cards?"   Yes, of course, bring 'em on.  Blog Schmog.

Over the weekend, I popped into Goodwill.  
I found this interesting little box. Full of tiny little jock straps.  Hmmm, now that's new.

Athletic Coaster Supporters.  

Every good party needs one.

Sadly, Jox #3 is missing. 

That means only you and your two closest friends

 can enjoy keeping your hi-balls well supported.

Or, perhaps if one of my friends has only one Nad.....

I've got the perfect inappropriate gift ready to go.  "Here Joe, #4 just for you."

Cheers! Gross! Eww!!!

They are a perfect cap-off to my busy week.

I promise to get on with the business of showing you the scrapbook pages.  

They are pretty darn fab and worth the wait. I brag.

Let's have a great week!

xo jeanne.

Now THIS is funny. Oh, what I would say to this young girl.

While going over my daughter's senior pictures, I couldn't help thinking of my own.
Wait....Let me correct that:
                       My senior picture - as there was only one to choose from.
                                                                             I'm talking 1984.

There was no location scouting, no props, no wardrobe changes. 
More than likely, I used my mom's make-up. On the sly.
Then I walked the one mile to my high school.  I went into a classroom to meet the same photographer that every other senior in my class used.  I sat on a stool and the photo dude told me to crane my neck into the most unthinkable position possible, then look up, up into my bright and happy future....*snap!*  
That was it.  

 Afterwards, my friend Louise and I walked downtown to hangout someplace. 
Something wild like buy a Coke and go to the park.  Party Animals.
Me and my rad make-up. Courtesy of Estee' Lauder.
The hair was a party all on it's own. Dig those feathers. Thank you Farrah.
I am sure the sweater wasn't mine and I probably never wore it again. 
Thank god.

Here's a few things I'd say to this brown haired, blue eyed girl if I had the chance:

Youth!  How we waste it!! 
I'm done wasting it.

xo jeanne.

(who is older, wiser and much more fabulous in 2012.)

Breezeway Progress: Pt. 2.

The Walls.
On Saturday,  I was able to finish putting up the sheet music. 
Easy, but time consuming.  Relaxing actually. 
I used piano music books I've gotten at book sales and picked up for free at garage sales. 

I used wallpaper paste.  ($20 bottle at Home Depot)
I used an Exacto knife and cut the pages out of the books. 
The room is 10x10 and used 3 books.
I simply brushed the paste on each page and stuck them up, securing and smoothing ask I went along with a large moist sponge.  I didn't worry too much about being level.
The cut of each page edge lined up as I went along. 
I thought about using regular book pages, but i liked the bigger sheets from the piano books. (less pasting and hanging!)

(naughty decorating disclaimer: I did go right on top of the existing wall paper. I just didn't see the point of stripping it all off since I wasn't painting. And, this is basically a mud room with no insulation - we won't be hanging out in the room - so, I opted to just simply paper over the paper.)

The Floor
It was a mess. 
It was Mike the Dog's mudroom.  No matter how hard I scrubbed, it would not come clean.
So I scrubbed it twice more, then sanded it.  Then painted it.
It was not glamorous and it's not done yet.

It's come a long way.  

This is still just the bones.

It's starting to find it's personality.

More to come!

{I think i should get some sort of award for showing a picture of someone

who looks a lot like me scrubbing the floor on hands and knees. 

The other one is of the Cabinet Maker... he had that one comin'.}

xo jeanne.