Christmas Gift Box/House

It's been awhile since I've posted anything, but I'm baaaack!  I had seriously thought about quitting crafting and selling all my scrap supplies, but I am so glad I came to my senses.

Anyway, here's my newest paper crafting gift box.  I bought the kit from SVGcuts.com mainly for this gift box, but there are other cute items that come in the kit and it is so reasonably priced!

All of Mary's designs are well thought out and come with video tutorials.  It really couldn't be any easier.  The top half of this house comes off so you can use it as a gift box, or you can do what I did and use it as part of your Christmas decor.  Since I kept this for myself, I added a string of 20 white lights to the inside (yes, Mary allowed for a hole on the back of the house to poke a string of lights inside).  I absolutely love it!  

Hope you had a great Christmas and New Year's holiday!

For months, we've been trying to find a different nightstand for our bedroom.  We've gone to Goodwill, The Salvation Army, antique shops and looked at yard sales and just weren't having any luck.  We wanted to find something to 'redo.'  Sometimes you just have to be at the right place at the right time, and one day we finally had success!  We were at one of the local Goodwill stores, and stuck back behind some taller furniture my eye caught a cabinet that I needed a closer look at.  I loved the detail on the doors, it was the right height and depth, but when we opened the doors, there was a sewing machine inside.  I was a little disappointed until my husband said he could take the sewing machine out with no problem.  Woohoo!  So we bought this little gem for a measly $15.00, loaded it up and took it home.  This is what it looked like when we bought it...

...it was just an ugly brown cabinet that was about to get a 'makeover.'

This is what the inside looked like with the sewing machine.

My husband, being the handy-man that he is, removed the sewing mahcine from inside the cabinet, made new shelves, sanded, primed and painted this wonderful little cabinet red, and now it looks like a brand new piece!

Looks pretty good, don't you think?

Not sure why my pics look kind of squishy.