Is It Too Early?

I know it isn’t even Thanksgiving yet.  And this year, like most years, I have exceptions to consider, but I’m wondering… is it too early to decorate for Christmas?

Usually if I don’t have my tree up by now, I don’t have much time to enjoy it.  But this year, we’ll have more time to celebrate Christmas.  And I don’t know how much time/energy I’ll have to decorate after baby.  Here is the dilimma.

I have already taken down all of my fall stuff.  As it has snowed already, I don’t think it is inappropriate to put up Christmas stuff outside.  We may never get another opportunity!!

But I’m struggling with indoors.  So many of you have a head start and I get it.  We pretty much dismantle our homes for one season and enjoying it for less than a month doesn’t seem fair!

I think I can manage to hold out until this weekend.  And then it’s on.  This year’s theme, red and white in a hopefully very minimalist kind of way.  Here is a picture from a fellow blogger, Jennifer over at Celebratingeverydaylife.com, of a porch that I am coveting.  Don’t you just LOVE it?!

How about you? Are you decorating already?

For more inspiring holiday decor ideas, follow me on Pinterest- Holly @ Style from the Sticks!

#christmasdecor

Ten Reasons I Need To Shut Up And Stop Complaining

I have been pretty foul lately.  And that’s a word I haven’t used for myself in a long time. FOUL.  I’m sure it has a little something to do with the fact that I’m so close to my due date and miserable.  And I need to remind myself of why I should stop complaining.  Here are my reasons…

10)  I had my hair done the other day and it came out brassy.  Not a good look on a pink undertoned, ashy blonde.  Now I have to have it redone.  I was trying to be efficient and prepared for baby’s arrival.  And now I’m wasting time.  Here’s the reason I should shut up- someday I’ll be a corpse whose hair will not matter- brassy or ashy.

9)  I’m so tired of waking up every two hours to use the bathroom.  Why I should shut up- soon I will be waking up every two hours to feed a newborn.

8)  I am struggling to get any lingering projects finished.  Story of my life, I know.  But it is even worse now.  I get distracted by really important things such as napping and watching True Tori.  Reasons I should shut up- I’m not working ten-hour shifts on my feet every day.

7)  I’m down to the very last of my maternity clothes.  And I simply don’t care if I’m wearing leggings every day and breaking all kinds of fashion rules.  It is survival of the fittest in my wardrobe right now and if my shirt isn’t long enough, well then you probably should just look away.  Why I should shut up- I have at least one maternity winter coat that will cover my belly although I’m normally too hot to wear it.

6)  I’m not sure anyone, ever is really ready for a new little life to appear.  And my attitude has been pretty nonchalant about it.  I’m sure after the baby’s birth, we’ll be making an emergency run to Target for all the things I’ve forgotten to pick up on the way home from the hospital.  But it is my fourth baby and as long as its feed and changed, life will be good.  Why I should shut up- soon I’ll be rocking a sweet-smelling little bambino.

5)  This is also the point of pregnancy that you start to dream about running and doing all sorts of exercises that you can’t possibly imagine your body accomplishing right now. You see an athlete on TV and have jealousy issues.  Why I should shut up- after the baby, running will be the last thing I want to do.

4)  I feel tugged in all directions lately with responsibilities.  There are lots of projects like Christmas programs and craft sales and volunteering at school that I’m normally helping out with or directing that I’m struggling to back away from this December.  Why I should shut up- I’m giving others the opportunity to step up and lead.

3) My computer is on its last legs.  The battery is shot and it restarts itself at least once a day.  Not to mention how slow it runs.  Why I should shut up- it is still working, I haven’t lost all my data yet and Black Friday is the next week!

2) I feel like I’m running a 100 errands to try to prepare for baby knowing that with Christmas coming up, there will still be 100 more to run after baby.  Why I should shut up- I have great friends who will help run a kid to school for me or watch my children should I need them.

1)  Nesting has officially begun.  I was scrubbing our kitchen cabinets the other day, washing out our garbage bins and cleaning light fixtures.  These are not normal items on the checklist for housecleaning for me.  It’s exhausting and overwhelming to look at a dirty house that occupies five bodies.  Why I should shut up- we have a nice warm home every night to keep out the cold and to rest our bodies in.  Oh well if the remote may have too many germs on it and we should be on the Today Show reporting our findings…

Things could be so much worse.  And I know it.  Sometimes I just need a reminder. 🙂

#pregnancy

Broken Clocks

As soon as I get rid of something or throw something away, it seems I’ve stumbled across what I should have done with it.  Perhaps this is why I have the tendencies of a hoarder. So many ideas, so little time!

Case in point, old clocks.  I can’t tell you how many clocks I’ve picked up at yard sales or Goodwill or even brand new from Hobby Lobby that just don’t work.  The hands get bent, I can hear the clock ticking but the hands don’t move, the hands fall off inside, something is always going wrong with these cheap clocks.  And until now, they’ve made their way out of my home broken.

But recently, I’ve seen some really fun uses for broken clocks.  These ideas may seem obvious to most of you, but they are new concepts to me.

Here are some uses for old clocks and at the bottom I will share a project I did-

1)  Use the old face as a table top or take off the face and get a new mechanism for a new flat face clock

2) Old faces as Christmas ornaments

3)  Use a broken clock that will still let you move the hands for one of those walls that says the moment of your baby’s birth

4) Collect a bunch and make a statement wall or put all above a mantel

5) Use large, old hands for a new clock (you’ll have to purchase a new mechanism) that has picture frames instead of numbers hung free form on the wall

6)  Use the shell of the old clock to make a place for tickets or other sentimental storage and display

And that is exactly what I did with this small little alarm clock.  I purchased it new from Hobby Lobby and it promptly broke immediately.  So I dismantled it.

Broken Clock Before

Dismantled Clock

Here is the old face that I’m going to use for a Christmas ornament-

Old Face to Become a Christmas Ornament

And here is the final product.  I added a little sticker to the front that I happened to have in my craft supply.

Now, this could have easily been a picture frame but I thought the back was too pretty to cover up.  So now it is a ticket holder, memory box!  All from a broken alarm clock.

Some other ideas for this capsule could be to store little girl hairbands or even something as simple as earrings!

Memory Box Clock

Tell me, what ideas do you have for broken clocks?

#crafting