What I Made this Weekend

I love being able to make gifts for the holidays and birthdays instead of purchase them.  For Christmas I asked my twin sister what she wanted and she asked me to make her a pillow for her living room.  She had seen the long pillow I made for my guest room with piping and my first zipper and wanted one in a different fabric for her living room.  Since my life has been crazy with the holidays and planning Carson's birthday I just got around to finishing it this weekend.  The fabric is the Bryn Mawr fabric from Ballard Designs. I piped the pillow with matching trim and installed an invisible zipper.  I am so happy how it turned out! When my sister finishes her living room I will take photos and have her do a tour of it.  It is gorgeous!  Do you love my pillow? Merry (late) Christmas Traci!

I will have post sharing the details of Carson's party and finally a post unveiling his room.  You know why not since he is over a year old now. Also there are some changes happening in the Sweet Survival home and I need your help! Stay turned!

I'm a Emily Henderson Mantel Contest Winner

I am putting together a Christmas recap but I wanted to pop in and say I was so excited to see that Emily Henderson selected my holiday mantel as a winner for her holiday mantel contest.  I am so honored since I love Emily's blog and her show on HGTV - Secrets of a Stylist! You should check out her post and see the other contest winners. 

Kristin from the Hunted Interior won the popular vote and then Emily choose 6 others as winners and mine was one of them.  What a great way to start the year!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas a day late from us to you! We had such a great time yesterday with family celebrating!  I hope all of you had a wonderful time as well.  Now I am in the midst of finishing planning, cooking, and decorating for Carson's first birthday which was actually on Monday but we are celebrating on Saturday!  I will do a recap of the weekend and of Carson's birthday to share with you all.

Wishing everyone a fabulous 2013!

How Do You Like the New Look?

I have been working on a new blog design and layout of a few months and I am happy to say that it is finally complete! Kelly from Fabulous K did the design and it is exactly what was looking for! I was looking for something fresh and happy and she captured me and my expectations perfectly.

A few new things I have a new button so feel free to grab it!

I also updated my domain.  It is now www.thesweetsurvival.com.  You will still get redirected to this page if from the Blogspot domain so no worries!

My younger sister and her family and now in town and we are having lots of fun with all of the cousins all together.  We are having lots of fun celebrating the holidays!  I hope you are all too!

Sweater Gift Pillow

I was inspired by this gift sweater pillow that I saw while browsing the Garnet Hill catalog.

However for a price of $80 for the large one was not what I wanted to pay.  I have seen so many sweater pillows on the internet I wanted to try my own twist.  I had this Old Navy maternity sweater and I decided to turn it into a pillow. 

I turned the sweater inside out and sewed the bottom hem closed.  Then I cut the top off by the arms and sewed the bottom closed.

I had an old 20" pillow form and used this for the pillow. I also bought some red velvet ribbon from an Etsy shop.  I liked the ribbon better than the knit ribbon used on the Garnet Hill pillow.  Once I had the pillow complete I cut two pieces of ribbon and glued them with fabric glue to the pillow.

I decided to make the cross on the pillow on the upper left hand corner instead of in the middle like the Garnet Hill pillow.

I made a ribbon out of leftover fabric and glued that to the cross.  Super simple! Since I owned the sweater and the pillow form I only had to pay $7.00 for the ribbon.  So instead of an $80 pillow I made mine for $7.00.

What do you think?  I added some sparkle by adding a glitter star ornament.  You can't have too much glitter when celebrating the holidays!  How is everyone doing?  Are you done with Christmas shopping?  I am 80% complete and 60% complete with wrapping.  At least I am making progress.

Linking to
DIY Showoff - Holiday Highlights

2012 Christmas Tree

Here is our Christmas tree this year.  When we moved to our new house and I painted our living room blue I decided to go with more neutral colors for the tree.  The color theme is shimmery gold, rustic browns, and icy white.  I love how the tree pops against the blue walls in the room.  

I love to add branches to stick them out of the tree.  It gives the tree a little more dimension and makes it feel a little more rustic and woodsy. We have a great local holiday shop that is open year round called St Nick's that always has a great selection of these and other ornaments.  They have such a great display of decorated trees in themes and colors - it is an amazing place to go to. 

All I need is a tree topper (I have been on the look out for a while and haven't seen one that I like and wrapped presents!  I am so behind. I have most of the kid's presents I just haven't had time to wrap them.  Christmas shopping and planning Carson's first birthday are about to kill me (oh and don't forget work too). I hope you enjoyed our Christmas tree this year! Thanks for stopping by!

Linking to
Honey Were Home - Christmas Tree Link Party
DIY Showoff - Showoff Your Christmas Tree
Thrifty Decor Chick - Holiday Home Party - Christmas Trees

2012 Holiday Mantel

Hi everyone I am super excited to share with you my holiday mantel this year.  It all started when I decided to make my wire tree ornament holder.  I knew exactly what direction I wanted to go in.  I wanted a little more modern touch with rustic browns and greens and gold shimmery accents.  I always try to use as much stuff as I can that I already own. 

After the wire ornament holder and frame were hung I added the beaded garland.  It is ivory and gold beaded garland that I had leftover.  I hung our stockings using Command hooks.  I have had these stockings since last year. I bought them after Christmas from Pottery Barn and had them personalized with names once Carson was born. I love how they are simple and I can embellish them how I like.  This year I grabbed these fun felt snowflakes from Target and pinned them to the stockings. The snow flakes were a $1 each!

I added the mini pine trees to each side. One I got on sale for $13 from PB after Christmas two years ago along with the gold mercury vase and the other is from Ballard Designs in a gold vase from Cost Plus World Market. The antler candle holder is from West Elm and the wooden reindeer  is from Target this year.  The white pine cone candles are also from Target.  I made a sweater sleeve for a pillar candle I had around the house and added some pine cones.

The gold mercury votive holders I have had for years and have no idea where I got them.  I purchased cedar twigs from a local nursery and draped those.  I love the fresh sent!  What do you think of my more modern take on my holiday mantel?

Linking to
The Lettered Cottage - Mantel Link Party
Lil Luna - Lil Luna Link Party
Ginger Snap Crafts - Wow Me Wednesda
The Shabby Creek Cottage - Transformation Thursday
Ten June - Mantel Holiday Link Party
DIY Showoff - DIY Holiday Highlights
Craftberry Bush - Happy Hour
Liz Marie - Link Up with Me Liz Marie
Shabby Nest - Frugal Friday
Tatertots and Jello - Weekend Wrap Up
52 Mantels - Holiday Mantel Party
Maybe Matilda - Dare to Deck the Halls
A Bowl Full of Lemons - Holiday Organizing and Pinning Party