Christmas Break

Well,I'm back. Sorry that's it's been a while, but I've spent the last several days hanging out with my family and exploring my new iPod touch. (Yes,I actually got one for Christmas!) Anyway, it's been a fun week of games, movies, and family. I've enjoyed experiencing the Christmas spirit. It's so magical and fun. It's my favorite time of the year. Luckily, it isn't quite ever yet. We still have New Years to celebrate. Another fun weekend to spend with family and friends..

 Here are my favorite boots! I've been looking for several years for some boots that I absolutely love and this year I finally found them. They were kind of pricey, but it was definitely worth it.

 We went to this really cool hotel downtown. They have a fun little scavenger hunt. When you find all of the items you go to the toy store to get a sticker. You then take the sticker to the bakery to get a sugar cookie. It was fun. They toy store was really cool. It had all of these fun original toys. They also had huge tubes of gum balls. It looked so cool I couldn't resist taking a picture.

 This is a phone in the calling room in the hotel. I hurried and popped in to get this picture. I like the vintage look.

 This is just a score sheet from a fun game I played with my family. I was playing around with the photo affects on my iPod touch.

Anyway, I hope you had a great Christmas and a fabulous New Year!



Christmas Eve (and no sign of snow)

I decided to make a little heart garland. I wanted to use some paper with something typed on it. I decided to use some pages out of an old book. I found this book with a cool cover. I made sure that I wouldn't regret cutting it up later. It looked pretty boring, so I started ripping the pages out and cutting out some hearts. I sewed them all together after I had enough. It was kind of hard, because the needle ripped the paper a lot. I had to throw away a lot of hearts. Anyway, I really liked how they turned out. I think it would be cool to hang them in a tree and use it for a photo shoot. You could have someone further back and have the heart garland up close. I think it would be cool. I didn't have any willing participants to get their picture taken, so I just took pictures of the garland in the tree.

This is the pattern on the cover of the book I used. Isn't it cool? I have it on display on my bookcase even though I've never read it.

 Here are the hearts before I sewed them together. I cut out about 50-70 of them.

 Here's my photo shoot. I used the tree in our front yard. Anyway, I love the shadows it cast on the tree.

 It was kind of windy, so they got tangled. It took like 5 minutes to get one of them tangled. It was crazy. Luckily, the wind died down before I gave up on it. Whew.

Today's Christmas Eve, yet there isn't a sign of snow. The sun is out and the skies are blue. And I'm really mad. This is the second Christmas in a row that we haven't had any snow. We usually have a foot or two. Oh well, I get to spend the next few days with my family. We have our tree up and we have Christmas music playing. We have so many blessings. There are people out there who won't get anything for Christmas. Some of them won't get anything to eat. There are soldiers that don't get to spend Christmas with their families. We are extrememly blessed. Merry Christmas!

A few pictures (Christmas)

 Here are a few pictures of our house during the Christmas season.

 I put some gum balls, mint taffy and candy canes in a jar. It adds a festive and fun look to the kitchen. It's also pretty tempting to each something each time you walk by. We have a rule that you can't eat anything until Christmas is over.

 Here are our skiers. We put them up on our chair rail. They're fun and original. The only problem is that they get knocked down all the time. They're kind of old, but they add a fun little twist.

I just can't get over my Christmas tree. I thought I could never have a cute one, but I did this year. I love the vintage ornaments and strung popcorn.

I love the Christmas season! It's so much fun and there's so much to be inspired by. It's a wonderful time to spend with family and grow closer. I love it, I wish it would last all year!

Christmas (gift tags)

Every year, I make a whole bunch of Christmas gift tags. They're really handy to throw on a gift at a minutes notice. I make a lot, and if I have any extra I just save them for the next year. They usually follow the same general design, just to make it easy. Sometimes, I get creative and do something a little different. Anyway, they're easy to make and really nice to have around.

Christmas (our tree)

So, I was looking back and I noticed that I talked about our tree, but I never posted any pictures. I love our tree so much this year. Usually, it's just a whole bunch of mismatched ornaments, but this years we actually had a theme and everything. I'm so proud of myself.

I decided to go vintage on our tree. I wasn't exactly sure how to do that, but I think it turned out great. We strung popcorn. It took forever! The kernals kept breaking. I just popped in a movie, popped some popcorn and started stringing. We also have gingerbread men and hearts. They're just made out of regular gingerbread that we let dry. (To see gingerbread recipe, click here)

Baking (Belly Buttons)

We have a tradition of making Belly Buttons each year. They're made out of pretzels, m&m's and Hershey Kisses. Yum! It's the perfect combination of salty and sweet. We make them for our neighbors and friends. This year we got cute little take out boxes to put them in.

If you want to make some, just lay some square preztels on a cookie sheet. Put a Hershey Kiss on top of each one. Pop them in the oven at 200 degrees for about 6-7 minutes. You want the kisses to be soft so you can push the m&m in on the top. When you get them out, you have to quickly put the m&m's on before the kisses cool down and dry. Let them dry for a day or two before packaging them and handing them out. Enjoy!

White Christmas (and crafts)

The other night I watched White Christmas. It is one of my favorite Christmas movies. It's probably because it's old and I love old movies. Anyway, while I was watching it I decided to make a pennant. I've noticed they're getting more popular and I didn't want to miss out. I just grabbed some coordinating paper and cut them into triangles. When I finished cutting I sewed them all together with zigzag stitching. I hung it infront of a big map on my wall. (I'll tell you more about the map later. That's a whole other story.)

I liked how it turned out. I'm really excited about it.

Baking (gingerbread men)

We have a tradition of making gingerbread men every Christmas. We decided to do it yesterday. It was a lot of work, but it was also a ton of fun! I think it's hard to find a good gingerbread recipe, so I'll give you mine.

Ingredients:
1 cup molasses
1 cup of shortening
1 egg
1 cup sugar
1 t. vanilla
1 t. baking soda (dissolved in 1/2 cup warm water)
6 cups of sifted flour
1 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. cloves
1/2 t. ginger

Bring the molasses and the shortening to a boil and simmer 2 minutes. Let it cool. Cream egg, sugar, and vanilla. Add soda and water. Add all of the dry ingredients. Mix it well. Let it cool before you roll it. After it's cool roll it until it's 1/4 inch thick. Cut out the ginger bread men (I used cookie cutters) and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for eight minutes. After you take them out of the oven, quickly take them off the pan and place on a cooling rack. If you don't they will dry to the pan and be really hard to off. I usually double the recipe.

I decorate my gingerbread men with m&m's. You can also use chocolate chips.

We got creative and made some with sweaters, belts and jeans. We even made Santa with a beard. :)


I hope you enjoy them. They're delicious!

Month in Review (November)

Sorry guys, I've been amazingly busy this past week. I'm finally getting around to a month in review for November. I'm sorry that it's a little late. Anyway, let's get started.

Craftiest Toolbox:
My Crafters Toolbox! All of the crafting supplies I couldn't live without.

Most Thankful:
This award goes to my thankful tree. It helps us realize everything we are so blessed to have.

Best Craft Made On Thanksgiving:
It's also the only craft I made on Thanksgiving. These awesome para cord bracelets.

 What a Girl Can Never Have too Many of:
Journals. Click here and here to see some of my journals and some of my ideas.

Anyway, that's about it. This has been a crazy month, I can't imagine what December's going to be like.

Ornaments (Vintage)

I wanted to do something new for our Christmas tree this year. I decided to go vintage. I got out our vintage ornaments from my grandma. I also strung some popcorn to hang up on the tree. I really liked how it turned out, but I want to fing something to put on the top. Right now I have an angel, but I'm not too happy with it.

Anyway, on Thursday there was a huge wind storm. A lot of trees fell down, including one on my neighbors house. A huge pine tree across the street fell down too. Luckily, it didn't cause any damage. It caused the power to go out for 24 hours. That was why I couldn't post.

Have you had any huge wind storms? Any major destruction? I sure hope not.