Christmas Cuties

We had fun with a few photo shoots this year.

 I think this one's a keeper!

Unfortunately, the weather was absolutely rotten, so we had to get creative with indoor shots. 

 These guys were good sports, but they weren't quite as enthusiastic as their little cousin, Miss Lexy! She LOVED having her picture taken. I could get used to that! 

 She was full of smiles for Aunt Brittany, and Aunt Brittany just ate it up!

 We tried to sneak Weston into a few shots, but he was quite the wild man, and wasn't having it, so this is all we got... But these 2 are the best of buddies! 

And yep, I stooped to bribery. I told the guys they could build a gingerbread train if they were good for pictures. Boy, did it work like a charm. They posed and smiled and cooperated like sweet little guys. So they got to build their train,  Mommy got her pictures, and everybody was happy, happy, happy :) 

Mom and Dad had to turn their heads as they ate most of the candy and licked the frosting straight out of the bag! ;)

Christmas at the Parsonage

Merry Christmas from the Painted Parsonage!

 Some of you will be quite bored with my photo heavy post, as a lot of our decor is the same as it was last year, and the year before that... but I just can't leave everything the same, I have to change up some things, so maybe you'll see a few new things, too :)

The living room is pretty simple and natural. 

I used an old wash tub instead of a tree skirt this year, and I am HOOKED. Most of the tree mess falls right down into the bucket, and I don't have to wrestle with a skirt getting all wrinkled up. Besides, it's just plain cute!

The centerpiece on the coffee table keeps getting rearranged by a certain 2 year old... I've been finding birds and nests in strange places around the house.

I got inspired to add a romantic touch to our bedroom this year, and put some little trees with lights on our mantle. I've enjoyed the pretty lights in the evenings! Yeah, it's the little things...

Once again, the boys stockings are hung on the staircase, along with some fun and whimsical garland. 

I filled some old mason jars in the hallway with faux snow and some vintage snowmen. I love them!

The front door is all happy and festive, too.

I'm really enjoying the season, and having all my pretties out. I'm not going to be ready to take it all down when Christmas is over :(  

I'll have to share pics of the dining room and kitchen a little later, as the Christmas crafting operation has completely overtaken my dining room table, and Christmas baking and candy making has overtaken my kitchen. Tis the Season!

 I love it!

Christmas Crafting!

I got in the Christmas spirit a lot earlier this year. I've had Christmas music playing for weeks, baked cookies, and I just want to MAKE things! But I'm trying to hold off on getting the tree put up until the day after Thanksgiving. We'll see if I can wait that long. 

I made Weston some appliqued tee shirts. Because it is close to impossible to find cute things for boys without spending an arm and a leg...

These were my first try at putting an applique on a shirt, but it was super easy, and so fun! I got the plain tee shirts at Walmart (3.88) and used fabrics I had in my stash. 

 I also made him a nonseasonal shirt with his initial on it.

 (Doesn't he make the most darling little model??)

 Here's an updated pic of my 3 little men for y'all! It's funny how it doesn't really hit me that they're growing up till I see them in photos - they look so BIG! Weston's just 2 but he truly believes he's just as big as his brothers. 

I have some others Christmas projects in the works - and I'm hoping to get the Etsy shop stocked up in time for Christmas shoppers also. Busy times, but fun times! 

It's Fall, Y'all.

Now that October is nearly history I finally drug out some fall decor. You could say I was having a bit of trouble getting inspired this year... Due partly to the condition of my fall stash. I found a box of white styrofoam balls, and pondered them for a while, wondering what exactly they were, until it dawned on me that they *used* to be my faux pumpkins. It seems squirrels find faux pumpkin skins to be a tasty treat and they stripped them clean. Pesky little rodents... I lucked out and found one bag that had been overlooked, so we at least have a little sprinkling of fall decor on display this year...

 Not much fall stuff in the kitchen, but I wanted to sneak a pic in because I just love my "old" cup rack :) Found it for a steal!

 This is the kitchen fall decor. One scrawny pumpkin. Yep, that's it, folks. 

 My little vintage chair looks nice and festive!

 I jumped on the burlap wreath bandwagon and made one for myself. It was a super easy and fairly quick project - pretty cheap, too! 

 I had a birthday this month, yep - I'm gettin' old. I had seen a frame I wanted in a local shop ($165.00!!!) and hubby seemed to think he could build one. So he did. Because he's just awesome like that. This baby is HUGE. The photo inside is 20x20. I think it's even prettier than the one in that fancy shop. What an awesome Birthday present!

 Mine and Jackson's Birthdays are just 2 days apart - he turned 10. I still can't wrap my mind around that one. In 3 years we'll have a teenager in the house! Oh dear... 

Woops... sorry for the pic-happy post. I guess I really should post more often, huh?!? 

Happy fall, y'all.

Sentimental Treasures and an FOF!

We visited my great aunt this week, and she had this autograph book on her coffee table. It belonged to my great great grandmother back in the 1800's. So neat!! I thoroughly enjoyed flipping through the delicate pages and reading all the messages inside. 

 I was absolutely in awe at the beautiful handwriting! It is definitely a lost art. I just snapped a few random pics with my iPhone, but every single page was written beautifully. I suppose everybody wrote like that back then, even the men. I don't know anybody that writes like that now - what was so common then would seem to be a great talent today.

Another thing I noticed was the messages themselves, they were so much more meaningful than the things we write or text to each other these days. So beautiful!

It seems that our generation has lost much of the depth of our ancestors - we would no doubt seem very shallow to them. It's kinda sad how time marches on and things change so much.  Sure, lots of changes have been good ones, but some are sad. It was pretty neat to get a little glimpse into our history. That book is definitely a treasure! And it's in pretty great shape to be over 140 years old. 

 I haven't done any personal projects lately - I've been spending my "extra" time working on the shop. I did get a new style of tote bag finished. I had some requests for a ruffled denim tote, so this is what I came up with. I just listed it in the shop! 

I'm linking up with Chari's Finished Object Friday.

Instagram Update

So...I'm just sitting here wondering, WHERE DID OUR SUMMER GO??? Hardly seems possible that the little guys are already back in school... 

I guess it was flying by so fast, I forgot to do any blogging - oops! 

I'll do a quickie instagram update of our summer for ya, how's that?!

My littlest man is just growing up so fast - he can be a real booger, but he can also be the sweetest thing, and he knows just how to melt this mama's heart. Every time. He has to give me a big ole hug every 15 minutes or so - but I don't mind a bit. 

 We had a Thomas Birthday party for him on the 4th of July - it was *supposed* to be a backyard party, but wouldn't ya know, it rained bucket loads all. day. long. But it's all good - cake tastes just as good inside as it does outside. (I know you can't tell from the piccy, but Weston really did enjoy his Birthday - he just has a thing against cameras...)

 We also had a great time at camp this summer...

Yes, there was lots of chatting and shopping going on. And eating. And laughing. And then some more chatting and some more shopping... Fun Times!

 It was so nice to visit with friends - and it was so fun to get a quick surprise visit from Heather!

 It has rained SO MUCH this summer that the boys about went crazy - every time the sun would peek out from behind the clouds, they'd make a mad dash for the pool and stay till it started raining again :) 

Weston wasn't satisfied with his little kiddie pool - he enjoyed it for a few minutes, then he was ready to dive in the big pool with the big boys. So we put him in a toddler floatie thing and he was happy happy happy - I think he could have floated around in there for days - he was so content. 

The weekend before school started, we treated the guys to a day at the zoo. Weston absolutely LOVES animals, and is quite talented in making all the animal sounds, I might add  ;) I got a kick out of watching him having such a good time - he was just amazed with every animal, things he's seen in books or videos, but not for real! 

 Carson is still my biggest ham! 

First Day of School!!! 

They were both so excited, they were up, completely dressed, and had eaten their breakfast by 6 am. They didn't get that from me. Or their dad...  But I'm glad they were excited about it, and they're still enjoying it.  I did, however, make a new rule - NOBODY gets up before the alarm goes off. So now they lay there and just wait for it to go off so they can jump out of bed... 

I still don't understand that.

We did manage to get a few "normal" shots - but this one is much more real.

I've been enjoying our daily drive through town to pick them up from school - there are hanging baskets like this on every corner, and they're all absolutely amazing. And they're all different. So pretty!

 My much better half celebrated his 35th Birthday this week. And I must say, 35 looks pretty good on him.

 Now that the guys are back in school, and we're all trying (desperately) to get back into a routine, I've started to restock the etsy shop! I took off for most of the summer, and didn't do very much sewing. I've listed a few new things, and I'm working on some other new ones as well. 

(You may or may not have noticed that I'm totally in love with the new Rhonna Designs Ap! If you haven't tried it, you simply MUST. It takes instagram photos to a whole new level, with fun fonts, quotes, and designs to add to your photos - such a fun and creative ap!)

Now you've officially been updated on life here at the parsonage for the past few months - I hope all of you had a great summer too! Here's to an awesome school year =)