Gooo Biiiig Reeed! GO BIG RED!

Yes! It's almost time for another Husker weekend! If you didn't know before, I live in Nebraska...born and bred. And most likely, if you're from Nebraska, you're a big Husker fan...which I am! I think my very first game was when I was 12 years old and I think we played Colorado. Mom? Do you remember who we played or how old I was? Anyways, we thought it was going to be cold out and it turned out super hot and we all got sun burnt!

Through the years I've been to a few more games and even one very tiring College Game Day in Lincoln.  Oh and I can't forget all the fun times watching games on TV with friends!

 My college roommate & I at a Husker party. 

 Chad & I tailgating at the 300th sellout game. (2009)

Me, Chad, Travis & Brenda (l. to r.) at the 300th sellout game!
(this is by far the best game I've been too...the crowd was so pumped and to know that we had the biggest crowd to date in Memorial Stadium was awesome! 2009)

 The infamous balloon release at the 1st touchdown! (2010)

 I got this great picture at half time...#90 Alex Henry! LOVE!!! (2010)

And then there are these two awesome people! ;)
Tomorrow morning (early) we're hitting the road with Chad's boss and his wife to go to the Huskers' first Big Ten conference game at Wisconsin!!! The Stocks are really fun and generous people and we can't wait to experience our first ever away game!

The Husker fans are supposed to wear all black for a "Blackout" because
Wisconsin's team is also red. Since I still love my Husker red though,
I'm going to wear one of my new headbands! 

If you want a headband (or necklace) so you can fashionably support your favorite team on game day, go check out my Etsy shop! If I don't have a color that you want, convo me and I'll see what I can do for you!

I hope the Huskers can pull off a win this weekend!!! GO BIG RED!!!

Recent Layouts

A few recent layouts that I haven't share yet. The Halloween layout used the new Spooked kit from Polka Dot Pixels. You can get it at 2Peas today! (click on image for credits)

The "Belle" of the Halloween Ball

Hello and happy Friday everyone! It's officially Fall and we are going to have some amazing fall weather this weekend! It will be perfect for finishing up a few outside projects on the to-do list. Today however, I want to share with you a customer appreciation photo. This is Belle! Her mommy bought her one of these cute Halloween headbands and took these adorable pictures! Her big sister will be getting one soon too. How about those big eyes and cute cheeks (try not to pinch your screen ladies)! I think she's going to look so cute all dressed up for Halloween with her cute new headband!

If you like Belle's headband, just check out This Country Love on Etsy!
I'm also on Facebook now!

I wish you all a Happy Fall and hope that you have a great weekend!

2Peas Tuesday

Hi everyone! It's so great to finally have some cooler fall weather and some of our leaves are even starting to change around here! I know that harvest if right around the corner so I'm trying to enjoy the season's change before we get busy in the field. 

How better to enjoy fall than jumping in a giant pile of leaves?! Last year, my cousins were visiting my  parents right when my brother had rake up a big pile of leaves. They had so much fun, running and jumping in and then poking out their cute little heads! 

For this layout, I used Emily at Polka Dot Pixel's new Autumn Leaves kit. You can find it at 2Peas in a Bucket today! It has some great fall colors and embellishments!

I hope that you are enjoying the change of seasons!

A Great Weekend!

I just want to say thank you to all of you who are followers or became followers this weekend! I really appreciate all of your comments! There have been new editions to my shop throughout the weekend and there will be new colors and items coming again soon!
Now, on to the winner of the Halloween headband!

Congratulations Hodge!!! 

Please email me your address at christy.carlson@hotmail.com!!!

Also, Amy won the Charcoal Rolled Flower headband!
You can also email me your address and I'll get these right out to you girls!

Thanks again everybody for a great weekend and sharing in my grand opening!

Bright and Funky!!!

I just added a new item to the shop! Come check out this bright and funky
Aqua Chicken Wire Frame!

We finally got some beautiful weather and I was able to finish painting a few of these.

I'll also be listing a yellow one soon! I hope you all like what I've show you so far!

You still have an hour to enter the giveaway for the Halloween headband!

Good luck!

Handmade Flower Necklace

Hey everybody! Thanks to everyone who has stopped by the blog or checked out my new Etsy shop so far this weekend! I just wanted to stop by and share another new item with you...
The Rolled Flower Necklace!

 Remember that you still have time to enter the giveaway below!
I'll draw a winner tomorrow night at 8.


This Country Love can now be found on Facebook!

Who Says Dressing Up is Just for Kids?!

It's time for another giveaway to kick off the opening of This Country Love on Etsy!!!

This time I have a Halloween headband for adults because really, dressing up isn't just for the kids and it's fun! This headband has a little something special with the spray of black tulle and I hope you love it as much as I do!

The rules to win are the same as yesterday.
- become a follower of This Country Love 

- leave me a comment on this post(this time, tell me your favorite Halloween costume!)

I'm getting excited because the store opens in an hour!
I'll choose a winner for the adult Halloween headband
tomorrow night (Sept 18) around 8pm.

Good luck!

Winner

Stopping in really quick to announce the winner of the Charcoal Flower Headband... 

Congratulations Amy! Email me at christy.carlson@hotmail.com with your address
and I'll get your headband sent out to you!

Check back in a little while for some pictures of the new items
going into my shop today and for another giveaway! 

Giveaway!!!

A winner has been posted above...this giveaway is closed.

This is your first sneak peek of an item that will be available in my Etsy shop! This is the Charcoal Raw Edge Rolled Flower Headband. I'm giving it away to one lucky reader this weekend to help kick off the opening of my store tomorrow at noon! 

Here are the details :

- you have to be a follower

(this is super easy! just click on the follow button on the right side of the screen and if
you don't already have an account, you can just sign in with your email address)

- then leave me a comment on this post
(tell me what colors/color combos you would like to see or just share
something you love about the fall season!)

That's it! I'll announce a winner tomorrow morning!

There's also another chance to win something tomorrow morning before
the store officially opens! Make sure you check back!

Coming Soon!

I've been wanting to do this for a while now. I've been finding new creative ways to fill my time and I've had a few friends that are interested in what I've been doing. These friends have been encouraging me to take this next step. So what is it that I'm doing?

I'm opening an Etsy shop! So, coming soon...This Country Love on Etsy!!! I've been working on few creative projects and I'm loving what I've got so far, as I hope you will as well! 

This is a preview of what I was up to last night! I can't give any big details yet but if you check out my shop on Saturday at noon (central time), everything should be up and running! Come back on Friday and Saturday for a sneak peak and for some giveaways to kick off the grand opening of  This Country Love on Etsy!

To the Window, To the Wall

I promise that I will not continue to sing this song! Yikes! But this post really does have something to do with a window and a wall. 

Back at the beginning of August, I posted here about which wall I should hang an old window on. I've been having a bit of a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do with this old window anyways. I thought about putting mirrors in it, hiring someone to paint an old barn scene in the background and not even using it. For a refresher, here at the two images that I made up in Photoshop as ideas for what I wanted. 

 I sanded the old window and cleaned up the glass. Then, because I didn't like the stark white of the frame, I rubbed some dark stain over the whole thing and wiped most of it off. The frame seemed to fit better over the couch so I drilled some new holes, used a few anchors and screws and hung the old window. 

I still need to fill the old holes in the wall but I love it so far! I am going to add a wreath but I'm still sifting through ideas right now and will have to play with a few of them before I decide. I think it's pretty cool that we can use an old piece of our house to decorate our home now. It's just another small reminder of all the hard work that we did to get here today! See those brown pillows??? There will be a post coming soon about those!

Are You Ready?

...for some FOOTBALL!!! Isn't fall great? The weather has cooled down a little, the leaves are starting to turn and all the comfort food recipes are coming out of the cupboards. Oh, and football is starting! It's the second Saturday of college football season and around my house that means that anytime the man is in the house, the TV has at least one game on. Since it's such a big deal for us, I decided to make a little football art.
I had this frame from a wedding present and bought the little key hook plaque from Target for just $7.99. It was wood grain but I unscrewed all the hooks and then painted the plaque black to match my frame. The football print was found here and then I edited it so that it would be red for our favorite team....GO HUSKERS!!! 

I do plan to switch out the print with the seasons and I have an everyday print too. Have you made any football decor for the season? If you have, I'd love to see it because I still need to decorate our entry way shelf too! Have a great weekend!

Recent Layouts

I haven't done a lot of scraping lately but here's a few pages I've managed to create. The New Years page is done using Baers Garten Designs' new Days of School kit that is available at the LilyPad. Click the photos for full credits.

A Shelf Made With Love

 First, let me apologize for not being around lately. Over Labor Day weekend we headed out west to a friend of my sister in law's and we had one last summer weekend. It was only about 75 degrees out but it was sunny so we went tubing for a few hours down the Niobrara river. We had a lot of fun but my allergies really hit me again by the time we got home. I've been struggling but with all my time in the house, I've actually finished up a few projects that I want to share with you.
 The first project, my new/old shelf. This shelf has had many, many lives. It used to be my mom's and it was a dark stained wood with little spindles that hung down from the front and the two sides. It hung on our wall by the back door and held lots of little farm knick knacks. I fondly remember dusting it during weekend chores. Then in college, I took out all the little spindles on the front and spray painted it black. Funny how a lot of my decor in college got spray painted black. Anyways, I had been attempting to build a shelf for above the piano but the whole MDF thing wasn't working for me. I uncovered the beloved old black shelf in my box of decor stuff and knew that I could make it work.

 Again, I need to apologize to you. I am terrible at taking before pictures. I got so excited that I just starting painting before I realized that I'd forgotten. So back to the shelf. I pulled out the last 2 spindles that were on the corbels and started spray painting. This time I used Rustoleum semi-gloss in Ivory Bisque. I wanted to add hooks but at the time the shelf just had the two little corbels and the actual top part of the shelf. I bought a 1x4 which after measuring, I knew would fit perfect and spray painted that too. After it was dry, I sanded through to the black to give it a country rustic feel and attached my 1x4 under the shelf. I bought 3 inexpensive hooks and Menard's and screwed those on to my 1x4. And ta-da, my new/old shelf! 

I love my new shelf and can't wait to decorate it with fall and Christmas decor this year! It looks great on the wall above the piano and I'm so glad that wall isn't empty anymore. The house is finally getting some finishing touches and I'm getting it decorated the way I want.
I have more to show you so make sure to stop back this weekend/next week!

Last Days of Summer

There's a new kit out from Baers Garten Designs over at the Lilypad today! With its fun colors, it's a perfect kit for those end of summer layouts! However, I did something a little different with it...a Christmas party page! Chad's work always has a fun Christmas party with a ventriloquist or a comedian and these are some pictures I had from the 2009 party. Here's a preview of the kit I used and my page. Click on the pictures to go to the Lilypad and check out the "Last Days of Summer"! 

The Sweet Life

Yes, life is sweet! And, so is the new kit from Karen Funk! Just look at the gorgeous oranges and blues and patterns. It's such a pretty kit and I know that I'll be making more pages using this one! You can grab Karen's new kit by clicking on the preview below and today it's 30% off!

My layout this week includes a bunch of really fun pictures of my cousin and I goofing around when we were out the bars one night. I love how playful the colors of this kit are and yet how the flowers and solid papers are distressed around the edges. It's just perfect!

Thanks for stopping by!