Grace at Home No. 272

Happy Thursday! Y'all, today is the last Thursday in October. Can you believe it?

I'm so grateful you're here for the Grace at Home party, where we celebrate the ways we make our homes places of grace. Here are some links from last week's party that caught my eye:

Many of you have decorated your homes for Halloween, but starting next week you may want to transition to a Fall/Thanksgiving theme instead. Lindsey from Repurpose and Upcycle shows how you can decorate your home for Fall in just a few minutes.

Amanda from Sincerely Marie recently re-did a laundry room/powder room into this beauty, and would you believe that floor is not made of real bricks? Check out her post to see how she got this look for a fraction of the cost of a real brick floor.

Joy from Artful Homemaking shares some great tips for how to keep your home without losing your mind in her post 7 Habits of Highly Effective Homemakers.

I don't know about you, but the cooler temperatures of Fall make me want comfort food. . . yet the busy days of Fall make me want easy recipes. So I was glad to see that Jas from All That's Jas rounded up 25 casserole recipes.

Tiffiney from Welcome Home Ministry offered some much-needed words of wisdom for moms who struggle with the fact that they're not perfect. Love this post!

A big thank you to everyone who joined last week's party!  I'm so grateful for each person who links up each week. If you've been featured, feel free to grab the "I was featured" button.  I'd be so proud if you displayed it!

Now for this week's party!  Grace at Home is a place for you to share anything related to making your home a place of grace. I invite you to link posts about

• DIY projects
• decorating
• recipes
• hospitality
• homemaking tips
• parenting
• marriage
• faith
• self-care
• soul care

Whatever you do to make your home a place of grace, I'd like to hear about it.  Here's what I ask of you.  Please include the permalink to your post, not your blog's home page.  Please let people know that you've linked up.  No more than three posts per person, please.  Note that if you link a post here, you are giving me permission to share your post, including a photo.  And visit at least one of the other party participants--that's what really makes it a party!

Grace at Home No. 271

Welcome! I'm glad you're here for this week's Grace at Home party.

Here are some links from last week's party that caught my eye.

Lindsey from Repurpose and Upcycle gave us some great tips for decorating a mantel for any season.

Leslie at From Playdates to Parties gathered some adorable Halloween costumes for little kids. Makes me wish I still had little kids!

Kimberly from LouLou Girls shared a recipe for a sheet pan dinner featuring steak. Doesn't this look delicious?

Karmen at Chairs from the Curb made me laugh out loud with her post, "One More Robot." Apparently Karmen's husband is a techie and she is not. . . oh, you'll just have to read it!

As for me, I did something unusual this week—I got a jump on Christmas preparations! I'd love for you to take a look at the sentimental Christmas ornament I created from one of my mother's old recipe cards.

A big thank you to everyone who joined last week's party!  I'm so grateful for each person who links up each week. If you've been featured, feel free to grab the "I was featured" button.  I'd be so proud if you displayed it!

Now for this week's party!  Grace at Home is a place for you to share anything related to making your home a place of grace. I invite you to link posts about

• DIY projects
• decorating
• recipes
• hospitality
• homemaking tips
• parenting
• marriage
• faith
• self-care
• soul care

Whatever you do to make your home a place of grace, I'd like to hear about it.  Here's what I ask of you.  Please include the permalink to your post, not your blog's home page.  Please let people know that you've linked up.  No more than three posts per person, please.  Note that if you link a post here, you are giving me permission to share your post, including a photo.  And visit at least one of the other party participants--that's what really makes it a party!

How to capture a memory in a Christmas ornament

I know it's only the middle of October, but I've been doing a little bit of Christmas crafting, and I'm excited to share an idea for a homemade ornament with you.

I've had a good reason for my early crafting--I was delighted to be asked to join a group of bloggers who are creating handmade ornaments all month long!

Now, I'll have to give you some backstory for my ornament. I know it's not the most beautiful ornament you've ever seen. To be honest, my Christmas decorating follows more along sentimental lines than showy ones; you can take a look at my home decorated for last Christmas here to see what I mean.

But even more than that, Christmas is a time when I think of my mom. How she loved Christmas! From the time I was very small, when our family had very little money, all the way through more prosperous times, my mother made Christmas at our house a time to remember. She taught me to do the same in my own home. (Click here to read a very special Christmas memory of her!) She died back in 1999, and I miss her most at Christmastime.

Ever since my mom died, I've especially valued anything handwritten by her. I wish now that I'd saved every card and letter she ever sent me. It's not that her handwriting was special; it's just that it was a very particular part of her. I'd recognize her handwriting anywhere!

You can imagine how much I prize her handwritten recipe cards, like this one:

Her friend Bonnie gave my mom this recipe for Date Nut Balls, and my mother made them only at Christmastime. Can you see how the recipe card is yellowed? That's partly from age, of course, but it's mostly from having been used a lot!

I decided to make an ornament that would capture this wonderful Christmas memory.

First, I made a photocopy of the recipe; the original is in my recipe box, safe and sound. Then I found a simple piece of craft wood that was about the size of my recipe card. Nothing special here; any piece of wood would do. Since I made this I've found these pretty little wood plaques;I think they would work better. A piece of barn wood would be great, too.

The process for making the ornament couldn't be simpler. I just decoupaged the photocopy of the recipe to the piece of wood using Mod Podge.Since my recipe card was close to the color of the wood, I left the wood untreated; you could also paint the wood, especially if you had a piece a little larger than your card all around.

I added a Santa hat sticker in the corner for a bit of color and to commemorate the fact that my mother had a huge collection of Santas. The Santa hat I used was just a scrapbook sticker like this.To create a hanger, I hot-glued a piece of twine to the back of the card. That's it!

You can see in this photo that I used glossy Mod Podge, because that's what I had on hand. If I were starting over, I'd use the matte finish Mod Podge;I think that would look better.

As I said, it won't be the most beautiful ornament on the tree, but it will be full of the most beautiful memories!

You could do the same thing with a special note, a card, or any other precious memento. You could make it as simple as what I've shown here, or you could really make it fancy. Or to be even easier, you could just glue a ribbon to the back of the card and hang it on the tree! The important thing is the memory and the way it will warm your heart each time you see it.

Looking for lots of great Christmas ornament tutorials? You can follow the Handmade Christmas Ornaments Pinterest page so you don't miss a thing, or check out all the links here:

Here are all 31 Bloggers in order of their appearance:

Day 1 - Pet Scribbles | Day 2 - Yesterday on Tuesday
Day 3 - Cupcakes and Crinoline | Day 4 - An Extraordinary Day
Day 5 - Celebrating Everyday Life | Day 6 - Hunt and Host
Day 7 - Love of Home | Day 8 - Celebrate Creativity
Day 9 - Petticoat Junktion | Day 10 - What Meegan Makes
Day 11 - Atta Girl Says | Day 12 - Sweet Pea
Day 13 - Exquisitely Unremarkable | Day 14 - Imparting Grace
Day 15 - In My Own Style | Day 16 - 504 Main by Holly Lefevre
Day 17 - Inspiration for Moms | Day 18 - The Chelsea Project
Day 19 - I Should Be Mopping the Floor
Day 20 - My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia | Day 21 - Hearth and Vine
Day 22 - Shabby Art Boutique | Day 23 - Remodelando la Casa
Day 24 - Domestically Speaking | Day 25 - Swoodson Says
Day 26 - Stone Gable | Day 27 - My Creative Days
Day 28 - The Crafting Nook | Day 29 - Knick of Time
Day 30 - Lovely Etc. | Day 31 - Live Laugh Rowe

An InLinkz Link-up

Now, tell me: do you have a Christmas memory you'd like to capture in an ornament? I'd love to hear!

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