Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all! Christmas here was good but I'm definitely ready to move on and get all the decorations packed back up. I have the rest of the week off from work and will be taking a little blogging break. See you next week!

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

This is by far one of my all time favorite pieces of writing.

Merry Christmas my friends.

Crafters Must Unite!

Have you heard about this? It has just come to my attention. We cannot allow poorly written legislation to drive our friends out of business.

Christmas Craft Day

My sister and I had a Christmas Craft Day and had a chance to put together some fun last holiday decor. We did these gumdrop trees - this is a super easy and fast project and perfect for kids as well as adults. Just get a Styrofoam cone, several bags of gumdrops (we went through 3.5 for 2 trees), toothpicks, and ribbon. Break the toothpicks in half, stick the broken half into the gumdrop and then place into the cone, working from the bottom up. Attach a bow with a toothpick and you have an easy addition to the holiday decorations.

We also made little Christmas houses atop glittered pedestals.

This is our version of a snow globe. We used votive holders and turned them upside down. Michaels had bags of the mini bottlebrush trees for $1. Whoever came up with the dyeing idea is fabulous!

We put together little holiday notebooks. I didn't put much adornment on mine as I like to keep these in my purse to keep notes, make lists, etc. They get pretty beat up in there!


Lastly we made winter bird ornaments.

Thank you to everyone who has visited and commented recently! I'm making the rounds to all the new (to me) blogs as I work through all of the holiday to do lists. If I don't have a chance to post again before Christmas - warmest Christmas and Holiday wishes to you all!

Hugs,

A Pretty Little Christmas

Next up on the holiday party circuit is Heather and her Pretty Little Christmas soiree. Love this theme!

Welcome to our dining room. Please sit down and make yourself at home. This table was my grandparents. I am so happy that I am able to now have it in our home and enjoy entertaining family and friends.

I found some great vintage ornaments at the local antique mall. I especially love the bell ornaments.

I found this garland at Target several years ago. It is the perfect size for our short banister.


I really have a love/hate relationship with the color of our living room. I would like to paint it again (this would be for the third time - Jeff is not too thrilled by this prospect) but I'm waiting until we buy new living room furniture. That may be a while with a new baby on the way!

The fireplace display was inspired by this though our village pieces are a lot larger so we don't have quite the same effect. We have so many more village pieces up in the attic. I'm hoping to bring a few more down for other areas in the house. Must - get - motivated. If I don't do it right after Thanksgiving its hard for me to do. Mostly because there is so much involved with the Christmas decor (as you all know!). It takes such a long time and there are so many boxes. I hate to pull things out closer to Christmas because then they are out for only a short while before having to get packed back up again.

All of the boxes and storage containers are sitting up in our guest room with all of the other year round decor items that came down to make room for the holidays. Usually we put it up in the attic but since we aren't having overnight guests, I think it will all just stay in the guest room so life is a bit easier when it comes to packing it back up. Maybe I'll be brave enough to post a photo of that mess in the future!

Oh, what do we have here? A chocolate factory? My favorite! We must make a stop.

Well look at that! They must have known we were coming - free samples!

From our home to yours...

Home Sweet Home for the Holidays

First up on the holiday party calendar is Louise's Home Sweet Home. So come on in to my home!

I've prepared some hot cocoa and marshmallows for you. So sticky sweet. Yum!

It was a rainy dreary day yesterday. I took these photos at night as the daylight wasn't any good anyway. Some are a bit grainy but bear with me! Getting home from work in the dark is one of the downsides of this time of year.

Above is the bay window in my kitchen. It could still use some more holiday sprucing but I just don't have the energy this year! I don't know if its the pregnancy or what. We've scaled back. The tree isn't even decorated yet! So unlike me. Its up but it is bare as can be. I'm hoping to get it all trimmed up tonight.


What do we have here? It appears Mrs. Santa may have stopped by to hang her apron. I wonder if she left me any cookies?

Hey! It appears that Santa has made it to the cookies first. Save some for me big guy!

The big tree may not be trimmed but our little cardinal tree is ready for her close-up.

So as I was saying, grainy photos. This is with all the living room lamps on too!

What would Christmas be without Charlie Brown and the gang?

This little guy is one of the very first Christmas things I purchased after Jeff and I got together.


Here Santa hangs out in the mudroom keeping an eye on all the comings and goings and making sure we are being very nice.


Brr! It sure is!

Happy Holidays to you all!

Christmas Wreath

My mom, sister, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and myself usually attend a cute little wreath workshop at one of our local farms. The atmosphere is warm and cozy. This year, however, I just couldn't justify the expense when I knew it would be cheaper to get the wreath and supplies myself. So I tried my best to recreate a cozy warm holiday vibe in my little craft area and my mom and sister came over to create wreathes. After getting the wreath itself at the local farm, a quick trip to Michaels for the embellishments and ribbon was all that was needed. I decided to go for a blue and silver theme this year as the wreath stays on the front door until I take out the Valentine's Day decor. All in all I'm pleased with the way it came out.

Cheers,

Flannel Sheets

Growing up, I used to always have flannel sheets on my bed. They were one of the treats of winter. So warm and cozy - no icy cold sheets when you first climb into bed. When Jeff and I moved in together, we never needed flannel sheets. We had a down comforter and it made the bed so cozy and sometimes hot! I switched out the down comforter over the summer and I'm still liking the same quilt for the winter so I decided to go ahead and get some new flannels. Last night was our first opportunity to try them out and I was in heaven! I didn't want to get up this morning and slept in a bit later than usual. Can't wait to go to bed tonight!

With warmest winter wishes,

Christmas Crafting

I did find some crafting time this morning. I feel like it has been a very long time since I've truly sat down to work on anything. I have several holiday ideas floating around in my head. Who knows if I'll get them all out! My sister requested I hold a Christmas Craft Day with her. That will be coming up in a few weeks and I think we will do a few of these projects so, Shelley - if you want to be surprised - no peeking!

I found plain plastic icicle shaped ornaments at the Dollar Tree. A box of 6 for $1! Some glitter, glue, and embellishment turn them into sparkly Christmas decor.

While I had the glitter out I glittered up an antique skeleton key and added some foof. I love the way the glitter gets a natural tarnish as time passes. The Happy Holidays postcard is by Vanessa Valencia.

Well I'm off to hit the books - a few more weeks left in my class and I'll have two grad courses down!

Happy Thanksgiving

With best wishes for a happy and healthy Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for a great many things but one that stands out - the wonderful blog friendships. Thank you to all of you.

Is Baby Bedding Really This Expensive?

Hubby and I have been on the search for bedding for our baby girl's nursery. I have a definite look and feel in mind and am not inclined to go for Disney Princesses or Winnie the Pooh (not that I don't love both - I just don't want it to be our nursery theme). We cannot find anything that even remotely matches our vision for under $400.00! This seems high to me for a simple four piece bedding set. Am I wrong? Since this is our first baby, we have no clue what reasonable pricing is or what we should expect to pay for nice bedding.

These photos show some of the bedding sets we really love. Most are in the $500.00 range!

We've gone to numerous stores and I've spent considerable time looking for a deal online to really no avail.

I found a few sellers on ebay that were asking more than the retail stores!

Please enlighten me - what is a good price to pay? Do you have any suggestions for quality baby bedding or where to find something that is a little different without being $500.00? Are there any good seamstresses out there? Help!

Isn't this cute?

My friend Judy sent me this adorable bag. I've been trying to be very good and use less plastic bags. Sometimes I forget but all in all I've drastically reduced the amount of disposable bags I use. Having cute canvas bags like this will make it easier!

Goodies

I came home from work the other day to a lovely surprise gift from Natalea! She sent this adorable Moonlight and Roses baby girl wall hanging. Natalea is such a sweetie. This will be perfect in the baby's nursery. Thanks Natalea!

This is the long overdue photo of the cover from Natalea's I Want Candy Swap. It was a collaborative book.

And this is a photo of the items I received from Ele's recent giveaway. Isn't the baby fork fabulous?

I also want to say a Happy Veterans Day to all of our veterans. Your sacrifice has not gone unnoticed.

Have a great day,