Better Late than Never

I have been MIA from blogging.  It has been on my to do list for a while now and I have just been so lazy that I never got around to it.  Well I better blog now about stuff that I can remember that happened almost three months ago before I forget.

Back in the beginning of December my grandmother and brother came out for a visit.  Doug was just starting a new rotation and actually had the time off when they came and I happened be off work so they got really lucky and didn’t have to spend too much time at our house watching TV without us!

Doug picked them up from the airport and brought them to my office so  I could clean my brother’s teeth.  (Sorry family….but if I can clean your teeth when you are here it is most likely going to happen.) 

Friday Doug and Justin went duck hunting and shoot a few.  We are currently waiting to pick them up from the taxidermist.

While the guys were hunting my Nanny and I went to lunch at this cute little Victorian tea house in this cute little town.  We had a great time sitting a chatting.  It was great having my grandmother all to myself!  We walked through some shops in the town and headed back home. 

I can’t remember what we did on Saturday but I am sure it was fun..ha.  On Sunday we drove over the pass to Leavenworth, a little barbarian town.  Going to Leavenworth at Christmas time was on our to do list so it was great to take company with us.

The town was beautiful all lit up with Christmas lights!

Since my nanny is such a trooper and the coolest grandmother ever she agreed to pose for a old timey picture.

On Monday Doug went back to work and we went to explore Seattle.  We rode the ducks, walked around Pike’s Place Market, and ate at the Crab pot.

We left Seattle and had a little time to spare before I took them to the airport so we went to the movies.  We had a great time being together and I was sad to see them go.  Maybe they can come back again before we move.

Blending the Old with the New

My new decoration colors that I added this year to our Christmas decorations are gold and silver.  Since I didn’t want to do a total overhaul on Christmas decorations I added some of the mantel décor from the past three years back to the mantel to add in the blue and brown that is on the tree.  I can’t wait to get super cute stockings in the future!

     

You can check out how I made the wreath in this post.

These little trees are new to the fireplace as well.  I am not super happy with their decorations, but they will do for this year.

I found these great urns at Michele’s and while I was there I saw the topiary.  In the future I would like to make these with white poinsettias in the gold urns. 

And that is the mantel for this year….

Now head on over to Ten June and see some other great mantel decorations.

Signed, Sealed, and Ready To Be Delivered!

I just love designing and sending out Christmas Cards.  New people get added to the list every year and I just get so excited to send them a card.  For the past three years I have used Tiny Pints for our cards.  They are a great company to use and their customer service is awesome.  Last year about 20 of our cards where creased in the wrong place.  All I did was chat with someone on their website and replacement cards were sent out to me ASAP.  When I went to order my Christmas cards this year I noticed a $25 credit on my account.  They gave me this for my inconvenience for last year….AMAZING!  I love when something goes wrong, someone goes above and beyond to fix it!

I have had my cards ready to send out for a few days now, but I always wait to get my first Christmas card in the mail before I send ours out.

Today my first card came from my Uncle Jim and Aunt Lynda.

And I am proud to say that our Christmas cards will be in the mail tomorrow!!!

Crafty Christmas

I have been spending hours on pinterest lately and all the beautiful Christmas decorations have me wanting to redo our tree with a new color scheme.  I am so trying to resist the urge and I just keep telling myself that we only have two more Christmases here and it would be a waste of money.  I will just wait till we move and then do a total make over of our Christmas décor.  Right now our color scheme is gold, silver, blue and brown (to match our living room) and Doug has requested that the next tree have red decorations.

So instead of totally redoing everything I decided to add a few cheap things that can go with any color scheme. 

On pinterest I found this blog that gave instructions on making a wreath with ornaments.  It was super easy to make.

I bought a few packages of shatterproof ornaments from Wal-mart and took all of the plastic hangers off of them. 

Starting with the largest of the ornaments I began hot gluing them to the Styrofoam wreath that I picked up at  Joann’s.

Then I glued the medium size ornaments on.

And finished with the smallest ornaments to fill in the holes and gaps.

I plan on hanging it on this mirror with fishing line using something else I saw on pinterest…an upside down command hooked to the back of the mirror.

I made these floral arrangements to add to our mantel with the wreath.  I am very impressed with how they turned out!

Here is a little sneak peek at the mantel coming together.

Another new addition to the Christmas décor came from a Pottery Barn catalog.  Pottery Barn has this Noel sign that I am in love with, but not so in love with the price.  It is currently sold out, but I think it was about $300!

So here is my way cheaper version.  (This is the best picture I have of it right now)

I took 4 12x12 canvases and painted them off white.  I then traced letters that I made with my cricut onto them and painted them with brown paint.  I tried to give them a Christmas look by spray painting them with glitter paint.  I love how they turned out!

The lights are on the house and the inside is fully decked out.  I will post pictures of all of our decorations tomorrow!

Photo Coasters

Last weekend Heather and I got a little creative.  After seeing Amey’s post over on her blog  Sugar and Spice, I knew just the project that we could do.  We followed Amey’s steps and made the cutest little coasters.

We ran to Home Depot for the 16 cent tiles and then to Joann’s for the felt, mod podge, and acrylic spray paint sealer. 

We cut out our pictures to fit the tiles…

After that we glue the pics to the tiles with the mod podge.  We applied several more layers of  mod podge until we had a nice thick coat.  With a hot glue gun we glued the felt to the bottom of the tiles and then took them out to the garage to spray paint them with acrylic sealer.  I love how they turned out and you can never have enough coasters.  (Heather and I both made 8.)

Baby Claire

Remember this sign?…

Beautiful Baby Claire arrived November 3rd.

I love holding little newborns!  She is so perfect!

Congrats Doug and Mary!

Made by Special Request

Doug and I have another nephew on the way that is due at the end of November.  When Ellen was here visiting she told me that Henry wanted t-shirts that said “Thing 1”, “Thing 2”, and “Thing 3” from the Dr. Seuss book.  I thought that sounded like a pretty easy request.  After bugging Valerie to tell me the name of “Thing 3”, she finally told me the name that they decided on.  I picked up some red t-shirts from Wal-mart, grabbed some print and iron on paper from Joann’s, and spent a little time perfecting my design on the computer and here is the finished product…

Not sure how long the iron on will last, but I got the sweetest thank you phone call on Monday.

*Little side note – I mailed these shirts on Saturday and they got them on Monday!  I love flat rate shipping boxes!

Halloween–Simpsons Style

Doug and I decided to be Marge and Homer Simpson this Halloween!  I wasn’t too excited about a store bought costume until I started looking on line.  I found some great ideas to spice Marge up!  I painted myself yellow, found some great shoes at Value Village that I spray painted orange, and I made bug eyes out of ping pong balls.  The eyes were a little freaky…but hey it was for Halloween!

Our friends had some great costumes too!

A Bee and her Beekeeper…

Fred and Wilma…

All the Girls….

Heather was a Barbie Doll Styling head and I laughed out loud every time I looked at her!

Group shot…

We had a great time at our Halloween party and recovered all day on Sunday by being lazy on the couch.  We had enough tricker treaters come by on Monday night that  I unloaded all my candy on them.  Diet starts on Tuesday…HAHAHA!