Signed with Xs and Os

Love is in the air. Around this place this place I would like to say it never leaves but of course we definitely fight like the best of them. Luckily, the fighting usually isn't about anything super important, mostly just little things.

I would like to share my love for you, my readers, with a DIY tutorial of a Valentine's Day wreath. Very simple and very inexpensive to make.

I got the inspiration for the wreath from from Pinterest, Etsy store Twoinspireyou, from their XO wreath. Mine is a little more inexpensive to make since I used common household items and felt. Total cost of this project was $4.50. All items I either had on had or got at JoAnn Fabrics.

To start you will need:
- 4-6 sheets of felt one color (I used light pink)
- 4-6 sheets of felt a different color (and fuchsia)
- leftover cardboard (I used an old pizza box)
- one roll of ribbon
- scissors
- glue gun
- pen or pencil

1. Cut cardboard to a long, continuous size. I used the pizza box to make sure I had enough length. A large corrugated box would work as well. It would also be quite sturdy for the project.

2. Draw your X and O on the box. Make sure that the two are touching with at least a 1/2" on each side.

3. Cut out the design. Make sure not to cut the design apart.

See how the two are still connected.

4. Cut a slit about an 1" down from the top of the X. The slit just needs to be wide enough to put the ribbon tie through.

5. Cut a ribbon long enough for a hanger. I use about 12" length. Fold it in half so the ends are even.

6. Slide the ends of the ribbon through the slit in the cardboard.

7. Tie a secure knot behind. It has to be large enough the ribbon will not slip through the slit. Double knot if you must.

8. Secure the ribbon with a generous dab of glue from your glue gun.

9. Press and hold to make sure the knot really gets in the glue well.

10. Cut up many small 1 1/2" to 2" circles. Do this with both colors of felt.

11. Take a dab of glue and place it in the center of a felt circle. Pinch the circle together to create the ripple effect. You may need to hold each for about 30 seconds to make sure the glue grabs hold of the felt. Then glue the piece to the cardboard. I used the same method when making felt flowers here.

Here is it is about half done with one color.

12. Repeat the process with the alternating color. The project will look like this when it is completed. Mine took about 3 hours to make, during two nights of evening Netflix time.

Happy Valentine's Day and hope you have fun with this! Enjoy!

All The Small Things

Most of this month has come and gone. Time flies when you're having fun! Little has been done house wise these past few weeks. We've had friends visit from out of town, people over for Packers games and just vegged in our spare time. Not exciting when you want to talk of all the cool things you are doing on your home blog, but awesome in the post holidays sense.

However...

They say its the little things that make a house, a home. Slowly but surely we are hauling those little touches in and doing just that. In no particular order, here is some of our hauls/upgrades...

Steam Cleaning The Carpets


Since we moved in (with the moving, home updates and Turk being sick), we haven't had the carpets cleaned. And it was really starting to get... disgusting. Even though we plan on refinishing the hardwood floors this coming summer, we thought it might be a little nice to have a clean house through winter and spring.

Here's the culprit with his stains.

So we bucked up and rented a Rug Doctor from our local supermarket, Pick 'n Save. The rental cost us approximately $40 for a 24-hour rental and $20 for the cleaning solution. We used the professional line's special "pet solution". 

Check to the left of this pass of the machine. Filthy. I'm barfing right now just thinking about it (not really, but you get the point.)

Here is the cleaned floor looking almost like new. Not too bad if I say so myself.

The Guest Bedroom/Office was even worse. Before we moved in, it was clearly not cleaned and the carpet was just brown. Again, look at the strip to the left of the cleaner. It was that dirty.

Here is the finished product. Turk was a little weirded out by the wet carpet. Silly dog.

TP Saves


Last month we threw a party for both the holidays and sort of our housewarming to show off our new bathrooms. Although, they are not fully finished, they could definitely be displayed. We thought it might be a treat to have some new toilet paper holders so our guests wouldn't have to pull the roll off the back of the toilet. We like to class it up around here.

In the main bathroom, we found this free-standing paper holder on clearance for $17.99 down from $29.99 at Menards. Since our sink has a built in towel bar we decided to forego one, for now.

I love that the chrome finish matches our fixtures perfectly. And she's a beaut if I do say so myself.

In our half bath, since it is so tiny, we really needed something very simple. This very modern slide on model gives our tiny friend a little pizzazz. Even rooms need a little bling.

Pillow Fun


I have been searching for awhile to find a statement piece that really defined our living room. Something to really set the palette. Then I found that in this awesome floral pillow from Pier 1.

PERFECT! The background is a great khaki color, which I want to color match for the wall color. It's got phenomenal brights to use in tiny splashes around the room.

Just when you think this pillow can't get any better...flip it over!  Vertical stripes! Ahh! Anyone who knows me, knows that I love stripes. I tend to wear them a lot. And here I have stripes on stripes. What do you think? The orange pillow is actually the outdoor pillows from our outdoor (now indoor) furniture. I even

Just when you can't get enough of pillow love, I brought home some others home from TJ Maxx. A twofer for $24. I love them because they are just so poofy. Yes, I said poofy. Definitely makes hanging out on the couch more enjoyable.

The design quilted on them is sort of like penny tile.

Max was giving me crap that I'm making it "woman's domain" with all my pillows. OOPS!

Lastly, but certainly not least, I added this guy on a whim. While getting my highly addictive Bath and Body Works soap run on, I found this on their yellow sale. It is an oil warmer, but I just like the look of it. *shrugs... Although I probably won't burn oil in it, it looks nice on a shelf. Whatevs.

Have you ever been accused of making something "woman's domain"?!

Christmas Gift Love

To our families, we made the call and you definitely answered. We asked for tools to take this house, and blog, to the next level. We were delightfully surprised when these were our Christmas presents.

My mom parents answered with so gorgeous decor that we did not expect. My mom being the deal hunter she is, said she found this pair of lamps at her local Goodwill for a steal. On her way to check out, she saw they also were selling brand new lamp shades in a different section. Double score for Mama Shelly!

She also got us this great neutral striped throw blanket from Lands' End (no longer available online, check stores). I love it because no matter how many pillow changes might happen in this living room, this blanket will always match. We received it in khaki and not navy so there is a slight difference from the photo.

Moving on to Max's parents, we received some things to really help with whatever projects we want to handle. As you remember from his birthday, he received some pretty sweet power tools to help us. For Christmas they really helped us out. Max received a new Wet/Dry ShopVac. We have had Mark and Ellen's on extensive loan for the last four months. I'm pretty sure they just wanted their's back.

For myself, they were more than generous. I have been going crazy pinning sewing projects on Pinterest with  two problems. No sewing skills and no sewing machine. They fixed both of those! They gave me a new Singer 3116 Simple sewing machine. Included is a learn how to sew DVD. With 18 different stitch types, I'm sure I will be crafting up a storm very soon.

Last, but certainly not least, I got Max a new GreenWorks Leaf Blower/Vacuum with a mulching attachment. After hours of unsuccessfully racking and missing the last of city's lawn clipping collection date because our trees did not fully shed in time, we were done. When I found this leaf blower though, I knew we had found a winner.

After blowing all the leaves into a pile, instead of racking and bagging them, we can use the vacuum attachment and suck the pile up while mulching the leaves into a smaller bunch. We can either turn 10 bags of large leaves into one or throw them in our compost bin and turn them into mulch. It also is runs on electricity making it completely green and surprisingly light since there are no batteries or gas to haul around. Here is the proof.

Max's first impression of his new leaf blower, "This thing is fricken amazing!" He approves. Funny part about this video, this is January in Wisconsin. It should look like this:

We really can't thank our families enough. They really make this all happen. Hope you all got some tools to make your projects go that much better.

Snow photo from here.

New Year, New Deal

After all our Christmas and New Year's celebrating, we wanted to start off with a deal for you, our readers. Many people loved our holiday cards and asked where we got them which was Cardstore.com. To spread the New Year joy, we're sharing with you!

This deal only goes to Sunday, January 8th, 2012, and they only give away 10,000 free cards a day. If you can't get yours today, check back in the following days. Use promo code CSTHANKS112.

Cardstore.com in no way sponsored us for this. We were just loyal customers who got this in their email and like sharing. Enjoy!