A Thanksgiving Day

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving Day.

I'm off work today!  I can hardly believe it.

I'm really grateful for that.

Today, Terry and I are going to make a [simple] life-sized stable.

First we will use it for a Church Christmas dinner, 

then it will probably go to my daughters for her HUGE front yard for a holiday outside display.
(I will share it with you later)

We are also making a cute little manger...

all to remind us what Christmas is all about.

The BIRTH of our Savior Jesus Christ.

We will go and eat and celebrate later today with my daughter and friends.

YAY

I wanted to share with you a cute project that I made last year.

Remember I said that I LOVE colors and themes.

NO...same color/style throughout my house?

I meant it.  There are just too many things I LOVE.

Our bedroom is all about the BEACH.

Terry and I both lived on the coasts when we were growing up.

He, on the Oregon Coast, me on the California Coast!

So we just have it in our blood.

My daughter, Kari, and I actually made this last year for HER room.

Alas she never used it, as her room was too 'pretty and clean' for something this rustic.

So it eventually went back to me, for our room!

We had SO MUCH FUN making this TOGETHER.

First, again, this project was FREE.  All it takes is a little creativity!
Terry does alot of 'clean-up' type jobs, and he often ends up with odds & ends of WOOD.
This  is his PILE out back!
Kari and I went through it to find our 'perfectly aged pieces'.

After finding our boards, and cutting them to the right size,
we placed them in 'order' and put cross boards on the back to hold them in place.
(Sorry, I don't know very many 'technical' words, I'm just trying to describe it the best I can!)

HA... you can see how 'technical' we are!  
We don't neccessarily have the correct tools to do everything, so we compromise.

Next, we enlisted Terry's help to put it together.
I'm a 'lazy wimp' when it comes to doing THIS PART, 
as I have a hubs that LOVES to do it for me!

Then we gotta look through Terry's RUSTY NAIL collection
to find the 'perfect' rusty nails to add to the front!

After we found our 'perfect' rusty nails...
we nailed the boards on the front to make it LOOK like they were nailed on.
(But, in fact, we screwed 'em on with [new] screws on the back)

Then came a really fun part.
The beachy 'sayings'.
Kari and I came up with them ourselves... just thinking together.
I have a bunch of [old] scrapbooking foam letters that I love, and hang onto.
We used those and some acrylic paint,
and began 'stamping' our words.

I have such fond memories of doing this project.
It was such a great and fun collaboration between my daughter and I!

Here it is, finished... to go to Kari's.
(Except, it never went up in her room ... so it eventually came back to my house)

Here it is in my house in our BEACH bedroom!

The wall above the bedl...
That's Billy Bob on the bed, in his SPOT!
I think kitties make such CUTE personalities in pictures!

... and the whole wall!
Terry built the shelf above the bed soon after we moved into this house,
'cause I needed it for all the beach JUNK we have!
He surfed when he was young, thus the beloved surfboard that we can't part with.
(The surfboard isn't really HIS from then. His 'real' one got blown off his car when he was moving years ago.  SO SAD  But this one was given to him by a friend, so it is his substitute)
The hanging lamps are from IKEA.
I've seen lamps hung so many times on pictures from PINTEREST,
and hunted around my house 'til I found MY perfect solution!
The long white pillow I found at Salvation Army for a mere $4!
I walked by it, it caught my eye, I looked and snatched it.
What a steal.

thank you, my friends,
for visiting me today.
I hope and pray you all have a wonderful 
Thanksgiving Day!

danella