:: more christmas decor

Simplicity has been the theme of our Christmas this year.

I pulled out very few of my Christmas decorations,

and instead looked to nature for my inspiration.

Lots of evergreens & pinecones for a simple natural Christmas.

GOD has created the most beautiful decorations to be found,

what better way to honor HIM for this joyous season.

JESUS IS THE REASON

{peace, love & hugs}

Carrie

:: christmas house

 The Santa's are out....

the table is set...

the stockings & wreaths are hung,

and letters to Santa written....

We're getting there....

but I have a little more to share 

so stay tuned for more Christmas decor.

{peace, love & hugs}

Mary {Grams} this post is for you : )

Carrie

:: pet tags

Since finding the idea for Shrinky Dink pet tags on Pinterest,

via Martha {of course } this has been on my list of things to make.

Being the owner of 7 {yes that's right} 7 pets, 3 canines & 4 felines...

buying tags can be quite expensive & we needed new ones.

{it's okay, we've accepted that we have a little animal hoarder problem}

In our defense, we only purchased two of our pets, the rest are rescues : ).

Armed with a 50% off coupon to Michael's 

{gotta love a good coupon}

I went off in search of inkjet printable Shrinky Dink plastic.

Take my word for it and ask someone to take you directly to it,

you'll save yourself lots of time looking, and looking, and looking for it.

Michael's is a madhouse right now with all of the sales & coupons going on.

When I got home I downloaded the free PDF here,

made my changes, printed them, cut them out, and baked them.

Here's how they turned out for me.

They were cute, but I didn't l.o.v.e them. {sorry Martha}

Honestly they were a little big & the numbers too small.

{ the phone numbers are only missing in the images because I don't want the world to have it }

So, back to the drawing board {my computer}.

I went into Adobe Illustrator to create my own tags.

I chose the smallest of the Martha tags as a guideline for size,

and went even smaller, approx. 2.5 inches for my largest pet tag...

then I just scaled the others down according to the size of my pets.

I didn't want them to look like Flava Flav wearing their tags.

Anyhoo, as you can also see, I chose lighter softer colors,

and I had fun picking different fonts for each of the fur babies.

I also added a couple of monogrammed tags for myself & my daughters

in order to take full advantage & not waste any of the plastic sheet.

I got 9 tags on one 8.5 x 11 sheet, compared to the 8 on two sheets per Martha.

Here are the tags side by side, though I'm missing a few in this shot

because they are already on my pets { I couldn't wait to see how they looked }.

So, let's do the math {as much as I hate it....math's hard....lol...my bestie gets this}

That's 9 tags on a sheet of Shrinky Dink paper that cost me about $1 with my coupon.

The average cost of 1 pet tag at the local pet mart would be about $10.00 for the smallest.

For me that would be about $70 plus the extra monogrammed tags I made would be $90.

Hmmm, that's about 11 cents per tag for a savings of 89 buckaroonies....not bad.

So, Thank you, Thank you, Martha { and crew } for always coming up with great ideas.

This material is so much fun to work with, I couldn't help but think of other ways to use it.

 think it will make great luggage tags, gift tags, jewelry....the possibilities are endless.

TIP : using a standard hole punch will not be big enough for a tag, I simply punched around the edges to make my hole larger { the hole shrinks too }

Happy Monday!

Only 6 more days until my KINGS birthday,

and the big man in the red suit visits to spread HIS message of giving.

{peace, love & hugs}

Carrie

:: new curtains

Finally my new curtains arrived and I put them up yesterday morning.

Sorry these pics aren't the greatest but I wanted to share.

You can have a peek at my sidebar to see what it looked like without them.

They definitely add some much needed height & warmth.

What do you think?

I've also been spending some time crocheting and hope to share soon.

We are going to visit our dog Libby at training camp this afternoon,

we are so excited to see her and her progress.

It's been harder than I thought not having her around, and we have 3 more weeks.

I can't wait to have a sweet little dalmatian who listens to us though.

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend too.

I can't believe how close Christmas is now can you?

{peace, love & hugs}

Carrie

:: our bored jar

So here is my version of the BORED JAR,

I found & pinned this idea on pinterest {you can follow my boards}.

The original idea is by Shayna at Shaydes of Life....

here's her version.

I simply found a jar I had lying around,

grabbed some twine and went to my computer to create my tag & ideas.

Below are my ideas for our bored jar.

I'll try to make this a pdf file for downloading soon...

I'm learning how now, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Our bored jar has been dipped into only a handful of times,

but it's really fun to see what the kids pull out....so far it's been only fun things.

This is a really fun tool for Moms & Dads, I'm so glad people like Shayna share these ideas.

You can follow my boards on PINTEREST for more great DIY ideas.

{peace, love & hugs}

Carrie

:: congratulations to.....

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Congratulations to LAURA who has won a beautiful natural Christmas wreath.

Your front door is going to be very pretty donning this little lovely.

Laura, please e-mail me your address so we can get your wreath to you ASAP.

Thank you all so much for participating in my little giveaway.

{peace, love & hugs}

Carrie

:: natural wreath giveaway

Happy Weekend!

I'm so excited to have the opportunity to give one of you 

a beautiful 20-22" natural Fraser Fir Wreath 

from Green Valley Christmas Trees {America's Most Popular Christmas Wreath}.

How fun to win this beautiful natural wreath and decorate it to suit your own decor.

TO ENTER:

1. Become a friend & follower of {the vintage wren}

2. Leave a comment telling me where you would place your lovely natural wreath

3. Share this post on Twitter or Facebook for another chance to win {let me know in comments}

That's it...super simple

I will draw a winner on Tuesday December 12

{peace, love & hugs}

Carrie 

Good Luck : )

:: kitchen typography

Good Morning sweet friends.

As you may notice from the window above,

it's a little wet and drizzly here today.....

but that's okay, because it gives me time to be crafty.

Since painting my kitchen & removing my window treatments

I've been needing to add something to the space above this window.

I decided a while back that I would like to see some type of typography here,

maybe an old vintage sign or some vintage metal letters...you know, something interesting.

How plain does this look?

Well, I'm impatient as you well know by now,

and I wanted something right now and I want it to be very inexpensive.

Sooo, yesterday I went to Hobby Lobby with coupon in hand looking for some letters.

I already had an E on my coffee bar and I thought I might just add an A & T of the same type.

Well, upon looking around, I found these paper mache' letters for really cheap $2.47 each....

and they were 50% off to boot....they were the perfect inexpensive quick fix.

At first I thought I would paint them and do something cool to them.

However, when I got them in the room I really liked the look of the brown paper.

I simply mounted them with some tacky putty as is.

So, what do you think?

{ BEFORE }

{ AFTER }

I also edited down some of the items from the tops of my cabinets 

and countertops to make a more cohesive clean look.

So there you have it, a simple inexpensive $6.00 kitchen update.

I'm very happy with it...I know it's nothing new in the world of decorating,

you can find it all over the web, but this is a look I absolutely adore and now I have it too.

Isn't imitation the sincerest form of flattery anyway?

{peace, love & hugs}

Carrie

:: popcorn & cranberries

Happy Tuesday,

I was just stringing up some popcorn & cranberries,

so I thought I would share the fun with you.

WHAT YOU NEED:

1. day old popcorn {popped with no oils or butter}

2. fresh cranberries

3. needle

4. thread

5. thimble {optional}

DIRECTIONS:

1. Thread a needle with approx. 3 feet of thread & tie a big knot in the end

2. Decide on your popcorn cranberry pattern {or just go willie nillie}

3. Push your popcorn onto your needle & pull to end...repeat with cranberries.

4. Leave about a 3" tail of thread in order to connect the finished sections together

5. Hang your lovely crafty handiwork on your favorite tree.

When the holidays are over you can do a good deed for nature &

hang your popcorn & cranberry garland on your outdoor trees & shrubs

for the birds to snack on through the long cold winter.

Hope your day was Merry & Bright : )

{peace, love & hugs}

:: capture the sunrise

Oh what a beautiful morning.

As I sat here by the fire this morning sipping my coffee,

I realized what a beautiful sight the sun is coming up in this window...

I just had to share it with you...though this picture hardly does it justice.

I've been caught up with all involved in planning and executing holiday festivities

so I've bee unable to make it here for several days, but hopefully I'll be able to 

squeeze in a few visits here and there over the next few weeks.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving,

my family sure did...what a fabulous day.

I do sooo LOVE my family.

Now I'm off to wrap some Christmas gifts...ta ta.

{peace, love & hugs}

Carrie

:: porcelain nature

My porcelain twigs {L O V E}

Many years ago, way before pinterest...

I found an image of these porcelain pinecones & fell in love.

Thinking today of how much I love my twigs 

I began a search of porcelain nature...

here's some of what I found.

a c o r n s

f a u x  b o i s

m u s h r o o m s

and this beautiful & useful porcelain branch pitcher { l...o...v...e }

I also came across an amazing porcelain artist.

{ Kate MacDowall }

One word describes her work AMAZING.

Wouldn't you agree?

If you want to see more of my porcelain finds,

you can check out my pinterest board

p o r c e l a i n

all links to the images can be found there.

Hope you have had a lovely weekend.

{peace, love & hugs}

Carrie