Wordless Wednesday

What I Learned This Weekend - 4th Edition

I can't believe we are officially at T-minus 5 days until Christmas!!!  Here's how my weekend went down

1. Emma has a one track brain.
2. This drives me batty when she's focusing on something and I'm trying to tell and/or ask her to do or not to do something.
3. I love trying new recipes, cheese potato bake & choc chip dip were a hit!
4. It's annoying when I bring scooby snack graham crackers for a dip and everyone has to make a comment along the lines "Eww...dog treats, what do you think we are".
5. I promise you, those crackers are so yummy and the perfect size for dips!
6. We had 2 family Christmas celebrations this weekend, one Saturday & Sunday.
7. I love seeing our extended families, catching up, and watching the girls' get some special time with their 2nd cousins.
8. Holiday games get very competitive and extremely loud!
9. It's something you can always expect.
10. My girls' got one of the Hallmark recordable books from my Gramma.
11. This makes me so incredibly happy, as my Gramma is fighting cancer and each holiday is a blessing and am so glad that my girls' & I will always have this little treasure to share.
12. Shellac polish doesn't care for my nails.  Supposed to be no chipping for 2 weeks, I didn't even last 1 day!
13. We finally caught the mouse in our pantry tonight.
14. For the past couple weeks, couple nights a week we'd hear something rattling stuff in our pantry *can we say creepy* and the Hubs kept resetting the traps.  Tonight we finally got it!
15. There's nothing more exciting then coming home late Saturday night to see a package on our front steps.  Our 2nd attempt *as the 1st one, wasn't what was pictured = it not working and having to return it* at buying a new heating element for our oven was a success!
16.  I never realized how much I relied on my oven for somethings until I couldn't use it at all.
17. This makes me beyond happy as now Christmas morning breakfast can go off without a hitch!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend - I'm off to crash into bed.

Wordless Wednesday

Petal Pushers & Zipper Rosettes

I have seen tons of these all over bloggy-land and over the summer I bought some zippers from a couple of suppliers from Etsy * I love that place so much!!!*.  And I experimented with the fabric ones first with a wool blanket I had cut up for another project and then went out and got some felt and fleece - love slipping one of them into the side of my messy bun, amazing how something so small can glam up an outfit some!

I'll be sharing a tutorial on the petal pushers in the next couple weeks. 

I'm linking to these fabulous parties - specifically, Today's Creative Blog, Skip to my Lou, Mad in Crafts.

Decked out for the Holidays

And so begins the tour of my home.  When we bought our home there was this random box, that actually has some pipes in it, so is used to disguise them.  The Hubs, the handy man he is built me these shelves for on top.  Honestly, the completely stump me every season/holiday.  Just went simple this year without overloading them and I'm in love with the girls' monogrammed stockings I got this year at Target. .  On the door is a raffia and button wreath, actually have two of them, on opposites sides of the room, my mom and aunt made them.  On top of our linen cabinet is a ball tree my mom made and a small jingle bell wreath.  

Here's another shot of our tree and a very old Santa made by my mom with a clorox bottle - which has been around since I was a little kid! 

Small shelving unit on the other side of the tree.  This is Avalynn proof - at least the bottom 2 shelves anyways.  The girls' new little people nativity set that they both love to play with!  Top shelf has some yo-yo trees my mom made and in the glass jars are some modge-podged glittered and tissue papered balls that my sister-in-law made for me.

Here's the top of the shelving unit.  I made these JOY plaques last year.  The copper button tree was made by my aunt.  

Just a simple stuffed stocking pillow in my "Mom" corner - they are so soft and comfy! 

This poor reindeer was saved this year.  I confiscated it from my parents who picked it up for a couple bucks over the summer and it was this hideous peeling silver color.  She looks SO MUCH better with a couple coats of glossy black paint.  Next year she'll look even better with a beautiful poinsettia.

Close-up of some other handmade items that are on the shelving in the living room. 

Now we're entering the dining room - love this little corner, ladder done by mom one year and the little reindeer was made by my mother-in-law.  

Built-in corner cabinet in the dining room.  Some hand painted items from my Nanny and a few things that Emma has made over the last couple of years. 

This nativity set was made by my father-in-law.  For 3 years we got 3 pieces to the set and 6 of them are holding glass candlesticks and globes that you can pour some oil in and light them.  We haven't lit them ever - perhaps some day.  Don't let the size of them deceive you in this picture, they are well over 12 inches tall. 

Simple set-up on the buffet, still trying to figure decorating this area.  The ornament tree is filled with hand painted balls from the Hubs Gramma that we get every year, it's so exciting what she decides to paint each year.  In the middle is a cloche I made from a cheese dome and candle base.  On the end is a piece from PartyLite I got several years ago.  Everything got a coat of glossy black paint - love it! 

Closer look of the ornament tree and a close up of a couple of the balls. 

Close-up of the cloche, filled with glittery garland that I tore apart. 

On our table is a pair of mercury glass and a cream ceramic candle base with some red pillars.  It's simple and easy to clear off for meals.  

Thanks for looking through my home.  I'm joining The Nester in her Christmas Tour of Home 2010.   You should hop on over and check out some of the other lovely homes that are linked up!

Garland & More Garlands

I have to be honest, I never truly appreciated a nicely done garland until I entered bloggy-land and started seeing everything everyone does!  I have 2 ragamuffin garlands that I made for our one archway and our porch door.  For more on the ragamuffin garland go to this post.  And the banister garland is all stuff that I had bought after christmas on clearance 2 years ago and put it together last year.  Plan on going out to the craft stores this year to pick up some more goodies to make it more full for next year.  

Our Christmas Tree

Here is the final product of our tree this year, and I honestly couldn't be more pleased!  I must confess - I did the tree twice this year.  We had it decorated and done, then last week it was really bugging me so I completely undecorated it.  I know I'm nuts sometimes.  It's pre lit with white christmas lights, so I headed to Michael's and picked up a few strands of colored lights to add for some variety.  And 3 spools of green ribbon to wrap around the tree and add some froofiness under the star of the tree.  And then I re-hung every last ornament, making sure to keep all of the breakables on the upper half of the tree, away from tiny little baby hands that are curious and love to pull things off and in their mouth.  End result = more in love with our tree!!! 

Love our personalized family of 4 ornament that was added to our collection this year! 

I've come to realize after looking at many trees throughout blogland that our tree is jammed packed.  I try to squeeze on as many as possible, majority of them are homemade ornaments from our families, childhood ones from the Hubs and I, handpainted balls from the Hubs Gramma, and all of Emma's creations (what proud Mama wouldn't hang them all?!), and very few store bought ones.

What do you like to have on your tree?  Do you decorate with a theme in mind or enjoy the mish mash of ornaments?  Tinsel or a no-no?

I'm joining in over at Thrifty Decor Chick's Tree Party, come join the fun!!!

Wordless Wednesday

DIY - Tshirt Quilt

Over the summer my cousin gave me a small brown bag full of tshirts and wanted a tshirt quilt made.  I rigged our name drawing for Christmas this year to make sure the Hubs or I got her name so we could give this to her.  The Hubs took charge of this project and did probably about 75% of it.  He figured out the measurements, and cut 15 1/2" by 15 1/2" squares using a rotary cutter and his framing square.  Then we laid out a pattern on the floor and took a photo so we would have something to reference.

We took turns, as the thread on our machine kept breaking - so it'd become frustrating, sewing each row together and then I let him handle piecing all of the rows together.  Picked up a wool blanket at Wally for $10 and cut that down to size to fit the dimensions of our blanket.  The Hubs sewed all 3 pieces together.  And then we used a yarn needle and some dark green yarn and did a tie in the corners of the shirts to hold the middle piece together with the outer pieces.

Overall, for our first attempt at a blanket like this, I'm rather impressed.  I hope she loves it as it was definitely made with love.

The front of the blanket.

The back of the blanket - which actually I messed up piecing together the 2nd row which in turn made the Hubs mess up when piecing the rows as a whole.  We say it gives it more character! 

Close up of the yarn tie.

I am linking to these fabulous parties!  Specifically Blue Cricket Design, Someday Crafts, My Backyard Eden, Creations by Kara, House of Hepworths, somewhat simple, The Shabby Chic Cottage, Paisley Passions.

Decorating Chaos

A few years ago, I would go nuts trying to do all of the decorating in 1 day.  Yes - nuts I tell ya! Then I learned to take my time over a few days and the past two years I work on it the week of Thanksgiving.  The Hubs runs the basement stairs, sliding the bins on the small landing for me to push out of the way.  

First I went around and grabbed all of my fall decor & everyday decor off the shelves, lamps, and tables and piled everything on the dining room table.  Then I started opening up my bins to see what goodies were in stores, seriously amazing all of the stuff I forget I have.  

So, instead of just posting all of the pretty decoration pictures, figured I'd show what it really looks like during the madness of getting it all to look nice.  Love that Avalynn is chomping on some of her non-breakable Target $1 Spot ornaments...

What I Learned This Weekend - 3rd Edition

Crazy how fast this past week has gone and for once this weekend was extremely lowkey, our only one for the whole month of December!!!

1. I have been exclusively nursing Avalynn for the past 10+ months, I've been having supply issues for a couple weeks and finally decided to supplement two feedings with formula.
2. This is ok!  I'm still happy as I'm still nursing her 3x's a day.
3. Avalynn is much happier to have a fuller tummy again!!!
4. I love the advent calendar I whipped up Saturday.
5. Emma was so excited to open our 1st one tonight (better late than never!).
6. Love making homemade Christmas presents.
7. I have a secret - my husband sews 60% of the big projects I do!
8. I love him for all of his skillz and am so glad he's there working on things with me!
9. Completed a t-shirt quilt for my cousin and a washer necklace for one of our sisters.
10. Realized am so glad my holiday shopping is done - I can't stand going out to the stores in December, people drive me nuts!
11. Thankful for my MIL taking Emma to the Shrine Christmas Kids' event this afternoon.
12. Snuggling under quilts, watching movies, while being hit with a cold is the best way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
13. Organizing makes me happy.
14. Am trying a new approach towards Emma.
15. It seems to make the days a little bit better and me much happier as I'm not so frustrated all the time.
16. Halls Harvest Peach Natural cough drops are so yummy, the honey inside feels good on my throat.
17.  I love hearing the excitement from Emma when we are driving around at night at all of the lights.

DIY - Easy Advent Calendar

Middle of this week I saw a link floating around FB-land for a FREE Printable Christmas Advent Calendar.    For the past couple of years I've been wanting to make my own version, but before I know it there's just never enough time.  I decided oh well if we miss a couple days I wanted to try this out.  Will definitely be figuring out a more permanent option for next year - but am VERY pleased with how this turned out!  Emma is so excited to open the first one tomorrow - love her excitement over it! 

I glittered the numbers with red and green stickles.  Also, the Hubs came up with the idea of tabs to close them and then we centered the numbers on the flaps from that.

I've seen several people's lists of ideas and combined some from each, here's what's on the agenda for us.

5. Pick out a board game and have a family game night.
6. Cut out paper snowflakes.
7. Read a Christmas Book.
8. Have a picnic lunch in a fort.
9. Special Dessert: Hot Chocolate & Marshmallows
10. Make christmas cookies.
11. Make a pine cone bird feeder.
12. Decorate a gingerbread house.
13. Have breakfast for dinner.
14. Make salt dough ornaments.
15. Learn a Christmas song.
16. Make chex mix.
17. Make treats for all of our doggie family members.
18. Special Treat:
19. Drive around a look at Christmas lights.
20. Read a Christmas book.
21. Special Treat: Candy Cane
22. Make popcorn and watch a Christmas movie.
23. Do a puzzle.
24. Read Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Wordless Wednesday