January

We had a New Year's Eve Party at our house with the family. I didn't think of having everyone over until that day. I had a bunch of cute décor ideas centered around the theme of Chinese New Year. I LOVE Better Homes and Gardens and they had a whole spread on the year of horse that was so cute I was going to copy it. But all that I actually got to was red table cloths and Chinese food. Oh well next year.

Jesse, Meagan and Ryan.

My Dad, Heath, Amberlee

Trevin and my Mom

Kenny and the tray of New Years cookies he made for the party.

Me and Dustin with a letter from Jessie we were excited to read.

Laura and Libby. Libby had a bad lip-licking problem thus the red around her mouth.

Mckay, Emily and Curtis

Kenny found this cool idea for flaming Ice Cream. It looked so cool but tasted burnt and Libby lost all of her eyelashes after getting too close. We probably won't be trying this again.

 

Later in the month we got serious about keeping in touch with Jessie on her mission.

We also had arts and crafts day with all of the cute projects my mom gave the kids for Christmas.

Trev designed, built, and painted this castle (watch out Carter's Trev will give you some serious competition).

Libby liked to go one piece at a time.

Mckay and I were happy just to watch.

Also in January Trevin lost his first top tooth. This loss started off a trend. He lost three more teeth that month.

I finished three projects in January.

First was this table Dustin and I made out of a $5 lamp from DI and a $4 table top from Home Depot. We screwed them together and primed and painted it gold and Wa-La, a new table. I got the idea after watching an episode of Flee Market Flip, and some googling.

Next I finished up this blanket I started before Mckay was born. My mom found this furry white fabric when she was cleaning out my Grandma June's house years ago. She was going to throw it out but I thought it would be perfect for a crib blanket. I added some batting and chevron fabric and then attempted my first binding project and bound it with some heavy duty blue fabric I had left over from the piping on the yellow chair (slightly in the picture). I have a new respect for quilters! Binding is not easy!

 

The biggest project in January actually took the least amount of time but made the biggest impact.

I made a stencil with directions from All Things Thrifty (because there was no way I was paying $50 to buy piece of plastic with holes cut out if it).  Then I followed directions from a different web site (sorry I don't remember which one it was) to paint the stencil pattern on the wall behind our bed. While I completed this project Dustin was the new Jessie. He ran the house and occupied the kids all while keeping me company, listening to recorded T.V. shows with me, and telling me it was looking awesome and I was doing a good job. Dustin misses Jessie too.

I did eventually fill in the gaps on the top row with half a stencil.

I LOVE how it turned out. It was subtle enough that it didn't shock you but it still gave the room a good dose of character. I would highly recommend stenciling to anyone looking to add a little something to a room. I initially wanted to wallpaper this wall but Dustin vetoed that, I guess he grew up in a house with too much wallpaper and had to witness the painstaking removal.