RIP Princess Carrie Fisher

Tarcil is sad to hear that Carrie Fisher passed away.  She will always be a princess in his heart!  

Completed Table Settings!

As promised, here is a sample of my completed DIY table settings!  I made the table runner, centerpieces, silverware holders, coasters, place mats, and napkin rings.  I love them all!  I especially love how amazing they all look together!  Tarcil enjoyed seeing the completed project.  It was a long time in the making, but it feels good to have it done!!  Now on to more projects!!  :)  

Santa

Merry Christmas!  I hope you are all having a wonderful day with your families and friends!  I dressed Tarcil up as Santa!  Isn't he just the cutest??!!?  To be honest, I took these pictures months ago.  Tarcil is over 2 and a half years old and I didn't know if he would make it to Christmas, but I wanted to make sure I had cute pictures to share with you all.  Enjoy!  :)

Pink Blanket

So for those that have been keeping up with my blog for a while, you may recognize this yarn I bought a long time ago.  I got this back in September to be more precise.  You can see that first post about it by going to: http://talesoftarcil.blogspot.com/2016/09/pretty-pink-baby-blanket-yarn.html.  Well, over thanksgiving, I finally was able to sit down with my sister and pick a pattern for me to use for this blanket.  I ended up buying more and more yarn to get it to be the size I wanted, but it is done now, just in time for Christmas!  I really like how it turned out and I am sure that my niece will love it!  :)  Tarcil wanted to keep it so he could snuggle in it all day.  Haha!  :)

Home is Where the Heart Is Plate

So this might get long and sappy, but I just have to share this story.  When my husband and I first got married, we were blessed by some wonderful friends who let us rent their house for a great price.  Seriously, it was such a blessing to have a house when we first got married.  However, we always knew it wasn't ours and that we weren't there to stay.  We did end up living there for 4 years, and yet we only met one of the neighbors once in that whole time.  It just wasn't a very friendly neighborhood.  So when my husband and I bought a house and moved, I was very interested in meeting the new neighbors.  I am really not good at meeting new people because I am pretty shy, but this just felt too important to let my fears get in the way.  Well, I didn't have to wait long at all to start meeting the neighbors as they all were very friendly and quick to say hi.  Not only are they all very nice, but I quickly became comfortable with all of them, and I love whenever I see them!  They are all such a blessing to me in their own ways.  This plate is from our backyard neighbors and was full of yummy treats!  Not only are they some of the sweetest people, but I love that Beren can burn some of his energy by running and playing with their dogs!  :)

Napkins

So I decided I didn't have time to make napkins, especially after I found some that I really like!  Unfortunately, I was only able to get six, but I should be able to get the last 4 soon so that I will have my full table settings for 10.  This has been such a long process from the start when I first had this idea and vision of what I wanted, to end when I finally have all the different pieces made.  I will say that once I actually started making the various pieces, it did go very quickly!  Check back next week to see it all put together!  :)

Nativity Plate

A wonderful friend of mine got me this beautiful plate for Christmas!  I love it!  :)

Bathroom Set

Christmas Break hasn't started yet, but my husband and I are already getting a couple different projects started!  One of the projects we are going to do is some touching up on the downstairs bathroom.  Honestly, it was embarrassingly disgusting.  I finally cleaned it last week for the first time since we moved in.  I decided that I am going to use some leftover paint to do some touching up down there to make it look nicer.  I also bought some rugs and seat cover to make it a little cozier.  It's still kinda gross since the flooring that was in it got ripped out a week after we moved in since we got water in our basement.  We probably aren't going to do much more than that right now because we are hoping we can get it completely remodeled next year.  For now, I am just so excited that we finally have two usable bathrooms!  :)

New Shelves

So, I have really been struggling to figure out how to best utilize the space in our house to best fit our needs.  There is a room in our basement that has been called my craft room, but I hardly actually use it.  Sure, I store all my craft stuff down there, but when I have a project I am working on, I bring it upstairs.  The room holds a lot of stuff that we couldn't find anywhere else to store it so it is difficult to work down there.  The table that is set up to work at is actually a folding table that held a lot of other stuff too.  I realized the solution was to put up shelves.  I didn't like the idea of spending a bunch of money to do this though.  After looking through scrap wood we have leftover from other projects, I spotted the big 3 ft by 3 ft drawers that my husband made for under our bed.  We weren't using the drawers since our new bedroom is literally too small to be able to open them.  The face-plates for the drawers were beautifully stained, and I realized they would make the perfect shelves!!  So we just had to buy some brackets and screws and now I have big, awesome shelves and a cleared off table!  This process also sparked an idea for another DIY in that room.  The plan is to do that one over Christmas break!  I can't wait to share that with you when it gets finished!  I am SOOO excited for it to be done!  

Napkin Rings

I am getting close to finishing a set of 10 napkin rings to go with my DIY table settings!  I love the beads!  They are a great way to brighten everything and add some colors!  Ironically, the only thing I wasn't planning on making was the actual napkins, but I am having trouble finding 10 napkins that will coordinate with my table setting, so I might end up buying fabric and making those too.  Haha!  I wonder if I can finish all of my DIY projects before Christmas!  I probably need to switch my focus to the DIY projects that are gifts for others and quite making all these things for myself.  Haha!  :)

Broccoli

With Christmas and New Years coming up, I can already tell I am not gonna be able to say no to all the yummy treats that get made.  I love baking and I do so year round, but this time of year I make a lot more than the rest of the year.  Tarcil is a good reminder that I still need to eat my veggies and that cookies don't count as a meal.  Hahaha!  :)  Although in my defense, he clearly didn't actually eat that, he just stuffed it in his cheek.  He is a master at making food disappear!  Haha!

Gifts

My husband and I got these books from our Pastor at a Christmas party we had last weekend.  I don't read nearly as much as I would like to, and half the time when I decide to read a book, I end up rereading something I have read many times.  Haha!  But I think these books will be good motivation to spend more time reading everyday.  :)

Devotional Books

I caught an awesome deal on cyber Monday for these devotional books!  I haven't decided if we will use them as materials for when my husband and I teach a Middle School Bible study group or if we will give them as gifts to the students.  Either way, I am glad I found them!

Christmas Tree and Nativity

Every year Tarcil likes exploring the Christmas tree.  He also likes to check out all of the various nativity scenes around our house.  Isn't he just the cutest??!!  I am so glad Tarcil is with us for another Christmas season!!  :)

Pretty Lights

Happy Monday!  Tarcil is cleaning himself up next to the pretty lights.  I really like this strand because it can be set to white, colored (as pictured), or flashing between white and colored.  So cool!  They help my house feel nice and cozy compared to the massive amount of snow that got dumped on us yesterday.  :)

Decorations

Tarcil likes the cute little decorations I put out for Christmas.  He is trying to be as cute as they are.  I think he wins, even if he did stick his tongue out at a me in the last picture.  :)

Doggy Ornaments

I found these adorable ornaments for a $1 each!  I thought they were a nice way to honor the newest member of our family!  I think Tarcil is a little jealous because he doesn't remember getting any ornaments in his honor.  Haha!  Sorry little guy!  :)

Singer Sewing Machine

I bought my own sewing machine!!  I hopefully won't have to borrow one anymore for all my projects!  I got this as a lightning deal on Amazon which made it an awesome price that I couldn't resist!  I had already spent time researching what sewing machine I would need for the majority of the work I do, and this one was the perfect fit!  My plan is that I hopefully will be able to make all my own blankets for photography props instead of spending a lot of money buying them.  :)

Faux Fur Blanket

I am OBSESSED with these faux fur blankets for my newborn photography sessions!  So of course when I saw this one on sale, I grabbed it!  Tarcil couldn't believe there are blankets with as much fur as he has!  Haha!  He snuggled down in it pretty quickly.  :)

Pallet Coasters

These pallet coasters are part of my DIY table settings!  I love them SO much!  They are the perfect touch!  I have completed the burlap table runner and place mats, the centerpieces, and now these coasters!  The next project will be burlap napkin rings with the pretty beads I got last week!  I am not sure when I will get that project completed, but Tarcil and I are enjoying the progress I have made so far!  :)

Trying to Eat Lights

We have Christmas decorations up in our house!  They look so pretty!  I especially love all the lights we have!  This strand is one of my favorites!  Tarcil tried to eat the bulb, but he wasn't able to succeed and he quickly gave up.  Hahaha!