New Years Eve Day and the rest of my family is enjoying the zombie apocolypse on television (“Walking Dead” marathon – ick!!) so I decided this was the time to paint up my 2012 weekly planner that I use at work. I had brought it home a couple weeks ago and sprayed the black surface with a soft green base color, and had to practice up a little on my “one-stroke” roses. I am terrible about laying out any kind balanced pattern/design, but I think it turned out okay. Here are a few pictures…

Plain green cover, with paints ready to double-load the brush.

Started with the leaves, which fall into the background.

Added roses and “filler flowers,” and an attempt at numerals signifying the year in the upper corner. Waiting for the clear coat to dry.

Finished roses!

I’m linking this post to “Show And Tell Friday” over at My Romantic Home, and the Creative Bloggers Party & Hop at the Homemaker on a Dime blog. Please click through for hundreds (!) of great ideas and projects!

More soon!

Sure hope you had a lovely Christmas – we were blessed this year to have my husband home from the hospital (18 days, for an appendectomy and many resulting complications!) so we kept things simple; I even felt like I was able to slow down and actually enjoy things rather than rushing around at the last minute to make things impossibly perfect. And you know what happened? It was perfect all on its own!

One of my favorite parts of our little family Christmas is making our lunch on Christmas Day. This year I decided I was going to dress up the table a little bit (highly unusual in this neck of the woods), but I didn’t think things through soon enough to purchase a centerpiece. So I decided to just make one from materials I had on hand. Here’s what I came up with, after picking a stray piece of left-over garland from the craft box and a few ornaments off the tree, plus my lavender candlesticks and tapers, all on-hand:

I’m linking this little project to Frugal Friday over at The Shabby Nest. Please click through to see all the wonderful projects and ideas on Wendy’s wonderful blog!

More soon!