Window Craftiness

Justin and I found salvaged windows at the Big Peach Antique Mall in Byron, Georgia for only $10 each! They were in good shape so we loaded them up.

The first one is huge! I printed nine full size 8 1/2” x 11” sheets with our family photos and you can still see around them just a bit! I just taped them to the back side of the glass with Scotch tape after I cleaned them well with Windex and let them dry. These should be easy to switch out this way. We have a gorgeous way to display our family photos from this fall and the whole project cost me about $15 including tape and printing.

 

The second window was smaller but we decided we wanted to replace the glass panes with mirrors for the dresser in the hallway where I get ready in the morning. Justin popped the old glass out and I took it to Batts Glass in Tifton and got them to cut me six panes. All together they were $18. Justin reglazed the mirror panes and we got it up and already in use. The only thing I recommend: make sure you take each pane to be measured individually. Justin had to trim and sand some of the sides for the mirrors to fit. Again, only $30 for this project and we got an interesting piece that is functional and so very “us.”

December Starting Out

December has gotten off to a good start! We are busy but having a ton of fun at the same time.

Christmas cards (about 95!) went out on December 1. I am happy to see some coming in from friends and family!

We went and watched Cordele’s annual Christmas parade. These boys are two of a kind! They have so much fun together!

Sami is now 24! We had a birthday celebration for her at Mama and Daddy’s a few days early and ate chili and cake and ice cream.

I did this cute little five minute craft project. Justin cut me a small piece of barn wood (when he was working on my secret coffee table/factory cart) and I used a nail, an office binder clip, and this cute Chicfetti printable calendar to dress up the counter in the kitchen.

I had a fun field trip for work to learn all about social media for agritourism operators at Watermelon Creek Vineyard. The muscadine vines had died back for the winter, but they have the most beautiful decorations. I love these old window frames with grapevines and evergreens wrapped in them!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Every year, Justin insists we don’t get our Christmas tree until at least December 1. Christmas creep is real and some folks were putting their trees up the second week of November. Not the Cooks. We usually stick firm to the December 1 date, although last year we did budge a day early and got ours on November 30. We went out to the Brumby and White Christmas Tree Farm in Chula and picked out a beautiful Fraser Fir. I am all about Georgia Grown products, but I prefer these delicious smelling North Carolina trees every time. The climate in Georgia isn’t quite right for them to grow here.

Wyatt even got to pick out his own little tree for his room. His favorite part is riding in the back of the truck as Justin drives back to the tree shaker and wrapper.

  

 

We decorated Wyatt’s little tree first. He got a lot of airplane ornaments from his grandma so it made sense to add a Dusty Crophopper to the top to serve as a topper.

Wyatt has very strong opinions about what he wants to wear and I usually am okay with that. He refused to put his pants on so we got some very memorable photos of him with his tighty whities, black socks, and antler headband on!

  

Our tree was much bigger and fuller than we were expecting! We blocked off a hallway door to the living room (since we can just go through the man cave) and almost blocked the entry to the front foyer too! We tried something a little different this year. We put the tree stand into a galvanized bucket instead of using a tree skirt. It’s more of our style and makes watering the tree a lot easier—I don’t have to worry about dripping water all over the gifts when I water the tree.

We are suckers for all white lights and 30+ years of homemade and store bought ornaments too. I love this time of year!

Factory Cart Coffee Table

Back in August I posted about Justin and I buying a very neglected factory cart. I was so excited to get it but we got wrapped up in working in the garden, then a ton of work activities and eventually I forgot it was even stored in the shed or garage somewhere.

Justin has been secretly working at his daddy’s on “my Christmas present” for a week now and the factory cart didn’t even cross my mind. I was expecting a bench from a salvaged headboard I bought a month ago or some picture frames for my still un-hung gallery wall. Imagine my surprise when I walked into our living room and found this beauty!

Justin lovingly restored this beat up cart and turned it into the centerpiece of the heart of our home: our living room. I am beyond excited and am so grateful I have such an amazing husband. I tell folks that he gives me more blog material with his awesome projects and that I’m just the documentarian.

This time, though, since it was a surprise I wasn’t around to snap pictures of the process. Lucky for me, Justin did that for me too! It is so neat to see the process and the improvement after all of his hard work.

Hardware pulled off the old cart and sand blasted.

All of the pieces hung to be primed.

  

 

This wood is very special. The two end pieces are the original oak boards that came from the cart. The top pieces are planed boards from an old barn we were able to tear down last summer. Justin stained all of the wood to match and coated it with a semi-gloss polyurethane.

 

He had to dry fit the hardware to be sure the holes were all in the right places. This is why you see only the primed hardware and the unstained boards below.

  

I love that he kept some of the old wood pieces in tact. The bottom brace is original.

 

Finally, one small touch that he didn’t photograph that I really think is amazing is that he used his branding iron to brand his initials into the underside. Hopefully this will be a family piece that we can pass down to our kids but if for some reason it gets sold, it’s really neat to know that Justin has left his mark on his handiwork.

  

 

Wrapping up November

Thanksgiving was a lot of running around and TONS of eating as usual this year. Wyatt liked helping cook I think.

I made this yummy pecan pie with local folks’ pecans and Justin walked out Thanksgiving morning and picked greens right out of the garden to cook up for that afternoon. I think we’re going to do an entire made-by-us Thanksgiving as soon as we can get our chicken and turkey pen set up. I think it would be really cool to have grown or raised our entire meal. Except cranberry sauce; I’ve never seen cranberries in Georgia but I won’t budge on that one!

Justin pulled the gas insert out of our fireplace and we discovered the hearth is HUGE! The chimney sweep came out and inspected it and gave us the go ahead to use it to burn wood in and we had our first fire of the season. It’s so cozy!

Sami and I took Wyatt to the Macon Centreplex to ice skate. That was a disaster. I don’t think the rental skates are very nice so it was hard to lace them up tightly so after one lap around our feet were killing us! Wyatt said he didn’t like it and so we just gave up. It certainly wasn’t as easier as it was in high school and trying to keep Wyatt from falling was tough!

On our way back from Macon, we checked out a few antique stores. I got this perfect Georgia souvenir plate for my gallery wall. The gallery wall that isn’t even up yet. Amanda, Sami, and I are going to work on that soon.

I repurposed our old broken mailbox we stored in the garage (just in case we might need it…) into a Santa mailbox. I just gave it a fresh coat of oil rubbed bronze paint and wrote on it with a chalk marker. I have intentions of sitting down with Wyatt and writing out his letter to Santa soon.

Wyatt has not one but TWO rugs with roads on them made specifically for this purpose but he prefers the giant piece of cardboard I drew on to push his tractors and cars around on.

This one is a game-changer. I am sick and tired of chasing down random canning rings that we reuse from our canned foods. I might have seen it on Pinterest or it might have come to me out of the blue (I honestly can’t remember seeing it on Pinterest but others have). Repurposing an old paper towel roll holder is a great idea!

2014 Harvest Celebration

Justin and I attended our 3rd Harvest Celebration last weekend. This is a great event to raise money for the Georgia Agribusiness Council and we always have a great time.

We didn’t win any of the silent auction items but they had a lot of great stuff offered.

The highlight of our night was seeing Diamond Rio perform. I had forgotten that they were so popular in the 90s and early 2000s. I knew all of their songs! They did a relaxed set with great music. I was very impressed with the guys that night.

Justin and I were excited to have a backstage experience! The guys were so cordial and even gave us a signed program.

Randoms

This month has been a bunch of bits and pieces. It seems like we have been going non-stop the whole time. I did have the time to take on a little fun crafty project recently. My nephew Ben has been saving turkey feathers for me when their birds molted and I was finally able to put together this feather wreath. I think I might go back and fill in the gaps with more feathers but it’s pretty cool if I do say so myself!

We had a cold snap last week and the cabbage in the garden was so pretty covered in frost. We had so much rain this week, but I think it might warm up soon.

Wyatt spent the night with Suzi, David, Liam, and Pax last weekend and these two boys are a hoot together! Poor Suzi and David had all three boys!

The next day we went to the Mistletoe Market in Perry. It was chock full of wonderful gifts but Wyatt was way past nap time and Suzi was getting sick so we cut our time short. Suzi ended up stopping at the quick clinic on the way home and found out she had strep throat. Thankfully she wasn’t contagious and the boys are in the clear.

 

Sunday, we celebrated Liam’s 5th birthday. He was just 2 years old when he came into our lives and I’m so thankful to have him around! He and Wyatt are buddies for life.

Now this last one is a big deal for me. I hate, hate, HATE frogs and we were outside one night when Justin tried to get Wy to catch one. It turns out that Wyatt doesn’t like them either and Justin tried to get him to hold it and get over his fear. I touched it reluctantly which gave Wy the confidence he needed to hold it. Gross! I would be okay if I never had to do it again, but as a boy mama I am sure that isn’t my last experience with frogs!

 

AWC Scavenger Hunt

Last weekend Justin, Wyatt, and I participated in the Ashburn Women’s Club scavenger hunt. It was so fun! We got double points for posting our pictures to Facebook so the AWC could share the pictures, but I think some of my out-of-town friends might have thought I was nuts! We raised money to feed four families for Thanksgiving and some of the items we had to find were food items to be added to the baskets. I love that we can have fun as a family and help others out at the same time.

Pic of two team members with same birthday month

Pic of two team members in same shirt at an exit sign

 

Pic with a Waffle House server

Pic with a police officer

Pic of team member with grandparent

 

Pic of team with dessert complete with lit birthday candle

Pic of team spelling out AWC

Pic of team with cow (That’s the big cow statue at Dairy Queen at Exit 84 on I-75!)

 

This one was my favorite! The street where we turned in our items is not very traveled so we let Wy ride his bike in the middle of the road. I forgot his helmet so we couldn’t let him ride; I have an irrational (or completely rational?) fear of head injuries.