Oh the fun we've had...mostly

December held many things for us at the year end. Kinda sums up our year too.


The SICKIES... Most everyone got a mild stomach 'thing'. Kalla seemed to feel the worst at one point.

Z man got his fever for Christmas. Here he's resting/sleeping in a box. lol
(This giant tv box was being thrown out by the neighbors and I took it for the kids to play in).


The SILLIES...
Grandma even got in on the fun.

Our 2 dogs... I mean boys.

Not real sure why she did this every time I was taking a picture at this time. We were amused though!

More serious Dr Maressa on duty now. Kalla thought it quite funny when I called her Ms. Magoo.


The MUSIC...
Inspired by all the Peanuts specials on this time of year, Matt found the Linus and Lucy sheet music online and was determined to master this difficult song. We heard it alot. :)


The GOODS...
It was a Disney Cars Christmas for one little boy.

There were Build a Bear accessories.

And slippers.

And pjs.




The FAMILY TOGETHERNESS...


And the ATTEMPTED PHOTOS...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

See you guys on the other side! Hope everyone has a PEACEful and JOYous holiday!

I'll be back in 2009 with more crafty goodness, party ideas/stuff and will be seriously into decorating! :)

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care

I have been working on these red sweater stockings the past couple of weeks. They are super easy and quick, but been doing other things in between. Besides, technically everyone already has a stocking. The whimsical fleece ones I did in the years past. But I really wanted cozy red sweater ones to hang on the mantel. So the 'real' stockings are already stuffed and hidden in a box in my room. Maybe these will be their fruit stocking. When I was growing up we had 2. One for the 'good stuff'...small toys, jewelry, etc and ALWAYS a coloring book (even when we were teens...it was tradition!), chapstick (still to this day the black chapstick smell reminds me of happy Christmas memories) and Hershey Kisses. Then we had handmade patchwork stockings that held oranges, bananas and apples. Not sure if I ever ate any of it, but I was always happy they were there...part of the whole tradition and all.

So anyway, here's the low down on making a inexpensive, quick stocking.

I went to Goodwill and found 6 sweaters new with tags (they were Target XSs..our Goodwill buys all of Targets stuff they can't sell). Three were turtleneck and 2 vneck and another random red sweater. All a few bucks a piece. Then I laid them down on my cutting board.

Placed a stocking down as a template. I put the opening of the stocking over the tneck as I wanted to include that in the stocking. Then I cut around it.

This is what I had. I turned it right sides facing. Stitched it around the edges with my machine. Then turned right side out again. Used a pinch of red rickrack for the hook. Voila! :)

Other things....here's what we did for the kid's piano teachers. The apple and a stamped note paper cube.

Also, isn't this the cutest?? Micah, my 3 year old gave this to me for Christmas. His preschool class did it. The snowmen are his cute little feet. I'm sharing it, because it would make a super cute Grandma gift.

That's it for today...I'm off to cut lots of fabric...more gifts to make! :)

5 Ways to use Martha's holiday paper~last min decorating

I got this glorious pack of scrap paper at Walmart. It's the Martha Stewart brand. So since I don't scrap, I found lots of other things to do with it! First off is my holiday card holders. I took these 4x6 white dollar frames and framed my favorite pictures from the paper like the sweet little village scenes and gingerbread chain. Then I attached red ribbon to the back of the frames and hung them on the wall.
To hold the cards on, I used mini clothes pins and glued paper circles to the ends. Now when I receive new cards I just pin them on the ribbons. Simple simple.

Secondly I made this fun garland. SO (sew) easy to do! Just take your round hole punch and make a bunch of circles. Run them one by one in your sewing machine so that they touch end to end. Make as long as you need and I used a little bit of invisible tape to hang it up. Looks real cute with my felt trees and red sweater stockings (more on those in a bit).

We also used this popular paper to make our teacher gifts. On the magnets and for the wrapper.

And I glued the paper to the tops of my sugar scrub jars. Just used the metal top to trace and then glued down.

So there ya go, 5 things to do with scrapbooking papers this holiday! :)

Making soap is SO easy!

I made this peppermint scrub soap for my recent party. I thought I'd share how easy it is to make...you don't even have to be super crafty!Here's what ya need: soap mold, glycerin soap, crushed apricot seed, peppermint essential oil and coloring tints...I got it all at Hobby Lobby. All my supplies I've had for years and have just had to buy more glycerin. This year I got the shea butter kind.

For the peppermint soaps I melted 4 squares in a microwave safe glass measuring cup for 45 seconds. Then I added 3 drops of peppermint oil, coloring and some apricot seed scrub. I did this for plain white, another with one drop of red and another with a drop of yellow and blue to make green.

First I poured the white melted soap into the 4 molds, then the pinky/red and then the light green til filled. Then I carefully swirled the soap around in the mold to get a marbled/swirly colored effect. Placed each bar in a small cellophane bag and tied it up. Then I gave them out as party favors. :)

These would make great gifts for friends and teachers paired up with the sugar scrub.

As an aside, if you are wondering what I'm posting multiple times of the day this week is I have a few more things I'd like to share and it's crunch time so no sense sharing when you won't have time to use the idea. Plus I plan on going on a little blogging break starting next Mon or Tues and hopefully be done with all my crafting. I want to then just spend the next week and a half playing games on the floor with my kids, snuggled on the couch with my kids (maybe hubby too ;) and sipping hot chocolate with my kids! And remove 'not now, Mommy is busy' from my vocabulary!!!!!

Holly Jolly Party

Had my Cookie Exchange party last night. We had lots of fun visiting, eating and crafting...oh and took home TONS of cookies! I put 2 bags in the freezer before I went to bed last night!

So the party details and some quick easy ideas for festiveness! For my table cloth I got 2 yards of red and white dot fabric for the table cloth. The cute little appetizer trays/plates came from Target. It felt good to not have a lot of garbage and they can be used year and after year and my kids love having their snacks on them. I used red and white cocktail napkins instead of holiday printed so the leftovers can be easily saved for upcoming parties.

LOTS of food. Including the mini cherry tarts, Oreo truffles and Cran Crunch bars.
For beverages I got the holiday glass bottle Cokes from Target, some holiday Jones Sodas, eggnog (non spiked) and hot chocolate bar with mini marshmallows and chocolate dipped candy cane sticks.

Above my food table I hung my newly acquired Black Apple print and made a candy cane garland.

Party favors were jars of sugar scrub, bars of peppermint scrub soap and felt recipe card holders.

To make the card holders I simply bought red squares of felt and stamped silver stars on in with silver acrylic paint.
To make the stamps, I simply cut stars out of corrugated cardboard.
Then I slipped in recipe cards I printed on cardstock from my computer of recipes of things I served at my party and the sugar scrub. When others brought recipes to go with their cookies I slipped those in too.

For the crafting portion of my party, I had holiday scrapbooking papers, 1" hole punch, glue, glass stones/marbles and magnets on my kitchen table for those who wanted to make some marble magnets. I also got little candy boxes from a local candy/baking shop for them to put them in.

More baking and holiday fun

We made up these plates to take to our neighbors today. It's now been a 3 year tradition for our family. The kids help make the cookies and they enjoy ringing the doorbells and saying Merry Christmas!

Here's my little helper. All the kids helped with the sprinkles though.

And of course tasting is the best part!

Here's what we made, starting top left: Martha's gingerbread cookies and my sugar cookies (recipes in this post). Bottom row: Minty chocolate dominoes and oreo truffles (how-tos to follow)

MINTY DOMINOES

Pkg chocolate graham crackers

Pkg Andes Mint chips

White bark

Take choc graham crackers and split into small rectangle crackers. Dip in melted Andes Mint chips and then use white choc to pipe the dots and lines.

OREO TRUFFLES

1 pkg Oreos

8 oz cream cheese

white choc bark

Blend Oreos and cream cheese in food processor. Form into balls. Put in freezer to harden up. Dip frozen balls into melted bark choc. Place on wax paper. Place in fridge til firm.

Also this weekend we went to Santa's Village.

They turn a historic museum in our town to Santa's village during this time of year. Though my kids are in the 'know' about Santa (we don't do gifts from him in our family...don't boo me though ;), they still enjoy all the myth surrounding him. So at the village is live reindeer, cookie making station, snow making machine, Mrs Clause reading stories and whatnot. This was our second year going the the kids really enjoyed it. They especially love the snow. Here in the south, it's not real often one can stand in a snow shower.