Patriotic Ice Cream Freezer * Front Porch Decor

When I think of the 4th of July, many words come to mind....

Freedom

Patriotic

Brave

Independance

And when I think about celebrating our independence, any one of the following might come to mind...

family and friends

red, white, blue

picnics * cookouts

homemade ice cream

fireworks

Post-Christmas Blues Gotcha Down?

I don't know about you, but I get kind of down after Christmas.  I plan and plan for months...shopping for just the right presents, wrapping them all up, put up decorations, planning my Christmas menu...etc...etc..  Then in a blink of the eye, the presents are opened and the food is all eaten.  The Christmas tree looks sad without the presents underneath.  Then comes the dreaded task of taking down the lights, trees, and decorations and boxing them all up for next year.  It is surely enough to get most of us down!

So how do you beat the post-Christmas blues?

Well, I've got a few suggestions....

Positively Perfect Puppy Party

I'm a week late posting but definitely wanted to share my sweet Emmy's puppy party.

Blogging Through the Years...

So....this post is dedicated to my blogging through the years....

I thought I'd share some of my fav FINDS, BLOG PARTIES, VIGNETTES, ETC.

I began my first blog, Our Back Porch in October 2007.  My focus was just what it still is today....decorating and home.  Since I was of a young age, I took a great interest in home decorating.  In high school, that is really what I wanted to be when I "grew up"!  I had a typing teacher in high school whom I adored, and I found out that she use to do just that.  I did a report on home design, and I interviewed her as one of my sources.  I found out quickly that it would be quite hard to enter this career and remain in the small town in which I lived.  I really didn't have a desire to move to a big city, so I put this idea to rest....however, it was a part of me....a BIG....CONSISTENT...PART. 

From the moment I had my very first apartment, I spent so much time decorating and redecorating.  When I married, and we bought our first home, I decorated and redecorated....and I've been decorating ever since!!!

"Country Decorating" was all the rage when I first married.  I bought every decorating magazine as soon as it came out on the stands!  I frequented antique shops, yard sales, flea markets, etc. and soon filled our home with all sorts of goodies from yesteryear!  The decorating mags back then had a pen pal section.  I soon made friends interested in the same décor...some of which are still friends today...and we would pack monthly boxes of goodies for each other!  One of the most exciting times was when my pen pal request was printed in one of the mags!  It was one of the best times in my life! 

Just Like Mayberry....Sort Of...

Thanks for joining me again on my trip through quaint little towns of Tennessee.

Today, I'm going to focus on a little town called Bell Buckle.

It has such qualities of a "Mayberry" type town that you think you'll see Barney Fife running across the road and into the drugstore!  LOL  And...I happen to be blessed by living just a short distance from this small, Middle Tennessee town.

You will be SURPRISED at what this little town has to offer!!!

Let's take a look!!!

Memory Jar and Journal

I've seen these before, but finally decided that I was going to make a Memory Jar.  But since I love to write, and create journals, I took it a step farther and made a Memory Journal.

Let's take a look...

Ring In The New Year

It's a new year...new beginnings...fresh start...clean slate...

Let's Celebrate!

For the first time, I was going to be alone for New Year's Eve.  Not that we ever did anything terribly exciting, but we always had a nice dinner, watched a movie or played games, watched "the ball" drop, and had a celebratory drink at midnight.  So this year, I decided I would not be alone, and  invited my bestie for a girl's night pajama party.  We watched all the Twilight movies (can you believe I had never seen any of them??) and ate!  I decided that I would make party hats for us ahead of time.  So, into my craft supplies I went...and this is what I came up with...

  They were FUN to make and very easy!  So if you want to make your own for New Year's or birthday...here's how to do it...