Holiday Cards

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I absolutely love getting holiday cards in the mail. I anxiously check the mailbox every day starting December 1st. After the holiday season is over I keep them in a box. I've been collecting them for about 10 years now and it's so fun to see families growing and changing. I recently saw a great idea by Jess for keeping cards organized by year. I'm totally going to do this!

p.s. if you read my blog and recognize your card and wonder why your child looks quite alien it's because I blurred out all the faces.

Enjoying this time of year...

 It's been a long time since I've visited my blog. Boo on looking at Halloween pictures. Here are a few of the pictures I took for our Christmas card this year.

 We struggled to find the perfect backdrop for the kids until I remembered the place that I go running has beautiful trees that were perfectly timed to show of their Fall beauty.

I hope everyone enjoys a special holiday season and I'll see you in the new year.

Gift Wrap Idea

I saw this gift wrap idea on Pinterest and figured it was a quick enough project that it may actually get done unlike my gingerbread man garland that I'm "working" on.It took like five minutes. Phew, a sense of accomplishment.

They are currently clipped on our tree awaiting their final destination as gift toppers.

p.s. the tutorial is super simple and I was leery of the glitter actually sticking to the double sided tape, but it really stays nicely in place and I can't wait to use the technique on other things.

p.p.s. I used old wood ornaments (beside the pinecone), just cut off the hanging string.

{holiday crafting and all that cheer}

Those 40% off one item coupons can be fan-f$%@ing-tabulous. I mean if you needed that one item anyway it's like a jackpot. For me not so much. I feel the need to walk into Michaels/JoAnn's/Beverly's/younamethestorethat'sgotmynumber and buy shit. I am not kidding that I have a table full of craft/knitting/sewing projects that have suddenly found their way into my house.

In case you are reading this and live in another country that does not do the crazy coupon frenzy thing like us Americans, let me brief you. Most of the big craft/fabric chain stores issue a 40% off one item coupon (they are issued by the bucket loads with varying dates of eligibility to get us to return multiple times, unfortunately). These stores know that by getting my sorry ass into their doors I will not only buy my one l i t t l e item at 40% off retail price, but I will continue to fill my shopping cart until all savings of said piddly little item are completely forgotten. 

Moral of story. Buy handmade and forget about handmaking. It's cheaper. Trust me. 

The best gifts are free(ish)

Merry Christmas all!

After all the gifts were unwrapped the one item all three kids loved best was something I got for free (kinda). A few weeks ago I had  to fill a prescription at CVS pharmacy and I had a coupon for a free CVS gift card valued at $25 for any new or transferred prescription. Awesome because with that $25 I picked up this color-it-yourself cardboard playhouse. All three kids are bananas for this simple gift. 


The real reason I'm posting this photo is to torture you with what is in the foreground... "It's a pillow. It's a pet. It's a pillow pet!" I just figured since I will have that damn song stuck in my head until New Years, why not have you suffer along with me.

Hallmark Noah's Ark Ornaments - Doh!

I can honestly say I have no idea how my collection of Hallmark Noah's Ark ornaments started. Every year* Hallmark releases a new ark ornament that is dated (like all their ornaments I guess) and sometimes created by an artist of some note. I didn't start collecting them from the beginning so at one point I started buying the years that I was missing from Ebay. I think 1988 was the first year they released an ark. Now here is where the "doh" comes in...

I have been searching high and low for many years for a few gaps in my collection only to recently find this website which kindly let's me know that there was not an ornament produced for the years *1989, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, and 2002. What the Fruit? Cake. So now I'm expanding my collection to be any Noah's Ark ornaments, not just Hallmark's version.

I used to put them on our regular Christmas tree, but this year we downsized our tree quite significantly (I think I used to go overboard on the size). The tree was so crammed full of ornaments you couldn't even see my little collection. So I did something I never thought I'd do. I bought a small fake tree to house my collection. And you know what? I love it.

The kids loved this idea and I even let them decorate the little tree. It turned out very similar to the "big" tree which means there are clumps of ornaments hanging together. Next year I'll make a snazzy mini tree skirt.

I'd also like to buy this Noah's Ark to put on the table beside the tree. It's seriously not my usual taste in decor or anything for that matter but it really goes with the overall look of the Hallmark collection and I totally love it. 

p.s. the idea of a fake tree is kinda growing on me especially since it was 72 degrees all last week and our poor tree, which is parked by a window, is already dropping lots of needles.

Christmas Photo Outtakes

So I finally managed to get a photo that I like of each child. None of the above obviously. Since I couldn't get a great shot of all three together (I didn't even bother trying this year), I decided to have them all sit in the same chair. It was kind of a mess but I got it done. 

I had grand plans of making my own cards. The idea is great (and inexpensive), the execution was never going to happen. In case you have a mind to make your own holiday cards this year here is the idea I had. 

* 4 x 6 Photo collage from Snapfish. I love these for a few reasons. You can pick matte or shiny. I like the matte finish. They are cheap in this size, just .09 each (5x7 is .59). There are different color backgrounds. You can add a title to the top or bottom of the print. The layout can be portrait or landscape. The best feature is when you upload your photos there is a shuffle option that makes it easy to change the layout of the photos. 

 This is last years Christmas card collage done in matte photo paper. I can't remember what else I did with this card. Maybe with card stock or vellum?

* 5 x 7 cardstock to "frame" the collage photo. For a pricier but really great look you can order tons of fabulous cardstock envelopes and enclosures from Envelopments. I've used these for birth announcements and Christmas cards. Center the photo and attach with glue dots, double tape or glue stick. 

 This is Vinny's birth announcement using Envelopments enclosure (color is Tobacco). The printed announcement is by Tiny Prints. The collage is from Snapfish.

* Next I was going to either add a vellum or clear transparency sheet "cover". Either of these can be printed with whatever holiday greeting you would like. I would probably use transparency sheets because they braille nicely. I've used them in the past but have not printed on them. There are some brands that can be printed on at home with an ink jet printer but you can always bring it to Kinko's or other copy place to get copied. Kinko's also cuts paper for $1 to $2 per cut (ie:each side that is cut). This is for the entire stack, not for each sheet!

* I wanted to attach the vellum/transparency sheet by stitching it with my sewing machine and using a great contrasting thread. Just set your machine to a long stitch and use a new needle. Sewing paper is such fun!

So I gave you some samples of cards from my past. This year I just ordered a ready made from one of the big box type card websites. I actually can't even remember where! Hopefully they arrive this week so I can get them addressed and mailed. I'll show you the final pictures once I get the card. It's cute but very boring.

Not all of you do a yearly holiday photo card, but I imagine quite a lot of you do. I just love opening the mailbox in the month of December. About 8 years ago I started keeping all the photo cards that our family received along with our family card for that year in a photobox. I love looking back at the previous years cards to see how families are growing and how the kids are changing. It's also great as inspiration for ideas. Do you see that one "card" up there in the pile that's actually an ornament with a photo in it? Maybe next year I'll do something like that. Just a little note: If you send us a card with no photos I proudly display it along with all the other cards for that year, but as soon as the New Year rings in, it's off to the trash bin!

It's beginning to look a lot like Easter

Unlike my tassel obsession I have a just a few eggs and birds nests in my home. It's great during Easter. I also have this great antique birdcage that sits on a chest inside my front door. The chest mostly gets filled with backpacks and junk from the kids, but when it's cleaned off it looks like this. I will also decorate with some Easter junk this week.

I have an ostrich egg, glass egg, porcelain egg and inside the cage a marble egg. The spotted porcelain egg sits in a cool wrought iron nest and all the others sit in actual nests I've found around our property (abandoned of course). It's really neat to look closely at the nests to see what the birds have used to make their nests. There are twigs and leaves of course but it's pretty cool to see the human hair, flowers and fabric!

Have you ever seen an ostrich egg? They are very beautiful. It's all dimpled and so shiny! My sister visited an ostrich farm and brought this for my collection. They had to drill a hole in the bottom to clean it out.