How to Disguise a Heating Pad.

Sparing you details, I've been dealing with a sore back. Subsequently, I've been using my heading pad a lot. So much so that it pretty much has a permanent spot on my couch. However, it has an ugly cheap polyester cover.

Even lovelier, it comes with a danger notice.

I had some leftover upholstery fabric from when I made pillows for my lanai furniture and I thought I could make a sweet little cover for the heating pad. So here is my lovely heating pad with a facelift. Hopefully now it blends into the couch a bit more.

 

Old cover, new cover & naked heating pad.

OOO, getting toasty. 

First time I used the button hole feature on my sewing machine! I only have to tear the stitches out once!

It took me 20 minutes to find a button! I have no idea what happened to the ones to accumulate! 

My Little Navy Tree.

I have this fabulous little white goose feather Christmas tree. Which, yes, a "goose feather" tree sounds a little off, but its precious. I got it from a fantastic little store years ago, One Swanky Shop. Ok ok, so it was my Mother's store, but it was a pretty awesome place. Around Christmas she would close down the store to put up decorations and merchandise and people would literally line up around the block to be there for the Christmas opening. I wish I had some images to show you. It was like a vintage wonderland.

Anyways, back to the tree. When I moved to Hawaii I brought the little tree with me, but not the ornaments we put on it at my parent's house. It use to be a pickle tree. Covered with new, old, large and small pickles to bring good luck. Do you have a pickle on your Christmas tree? It emanated from an old German tradition:

“A very old Christmas eve tradition in Germany was to hide a pickle [ornament] deep in the branches of the family Christmas Tree. The parents hung the pickle last after all the other ornaments were in place. In the morning they knew the most observant child would receive an extra gift from St. Nicholas. The first adult who finds the pickle traditionally gets good luck for the whole year."

source 

So without the pickles, I needed a new theme. I thought how perfect would it be to have a Navy tree. So I began to decorate my tree with vintage blue and gold ornaments, founded by my mom. I still put pickles on my main tree for luck. I thought I would sneak a little baby pickle on to my Navy tree. I'm hoping it will lead to a victory for the Mids this Saturday at the Navy/Army game.

 

Please excuse the mess, I am home sick!

 

Can you spot my reflection? Opps!

The Hubs' Weekend Project.

When we first moved to the island, 2 years ago, the hubs and I searched high and low for a patio set. We finally found something that we liked, but the table was from the scratch and ding section. It had some sun damage, but hey it was discounted. Well after some time in the elements we discovered the table and chairs were not sealed. So the hubs took on the challenge of refurbishing our lanai set.

I forgot to take before pictures, but I found an old shot from a previous outdoor project. 

 

Old sun damaged furniture.

 

Beautifully stained and sealed "new" furniture!

 

Now, just add a splash of holiday cheer!!!

I think he did a fabulous job and our furniture looks so much nicer! I hope the Hawaii sun is kind to it for the remainder of our stay in Hawaii!