The front door just got a simple fresh wreath (on my deer wreath hanger!) and fresh garland strung up around it. I also wrapped some faux garland and added a bow to the lamp post by the front walkway, but that was it for the exterior.
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
A Belated Merry Christmas
Well it's a little late to be posting about Christmas decorations considering it's NYE, but at least it's still December, right? I went small scale on the decorations this year since we moved in so recently - it seemed a little mixed up to go crazy for Christmas when we don't have more important stuff in the house yet (like a real dining room table, for instance!).
The front door just got a simple fresh wreath (on my deer wreath hanger!) and fresh garland strung up around it. I also wrapped some faux garland and added a bow to the lamp post by the front walkway, but that was it for the exterior.
The front door just got a simple fresh wreath (on my deer wreath hanger!) and fresh garland strung up around it. I also wrapped some faux garland and added a bow to the lamp post by the front walkway, but that was it for the exterior.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Baking frenzy
It's been a baking frenzy around my house the past couple of days. I'm sure many of you do way more baking than this, but two pies and double batches of two kinds of cookies felt like a frenzy to me, especially considering it was on two post-work, post-errand weeknights.
I love to bake, although I don't do it much since I have zero self-control with sweets! Christmas is always my busiest baking time of year, and I tend to go back to my predictable favorites. Chocolate chip and peanut butter kiss cookies have been my two favorites to make & to eat since I was a kid (mmm, dough!), so I usually bake them every year. And then I learned about Toll House Pie from one of my best friends, Jackie, when we were in college, and that's been my go-to pie ever since. It's also one of the very few pies Bryan actually likes (or in this case, loves). Here's what I made...
Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies - Peanut butter + chocolate = my favorite combination of deliciousness.
Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies - Real original, right? But it's a classic, and there's a reason for it. I always make mine soft & chewy. Mmmmm...
Toll House Pie - Ummm, I kind of forgot to take a pic after I baked it. This one was for Bryan's work potluck, so it's already gone. Since I only have one pie plate and obviously I needed to eat some too, I also made a weird rectangular pie for us in a mini cookie sheet - it was ugly, but it's just as tasty! If you haven't tried this before, it's basically a chocolate chip cookie in pie form. Amazing.
What are you baking for the holidays? Do you try out new recipes each year or do you tend to go back to old favorites?
I love to bake, although I don't do it much since I have zero self-control with sweets! Christmas is always my busiest baking time of year, and I tend to go back to my predictable favorites. Chocolate chip and peanut butter kiss cookies have been my two favorites to make & to eat since I was a kid (mmm, dough!), so I usually bake them every year. And then I learned about Toll House Pie from one of my best friends, Jackie, when we were in college, and that's been my go-to pie ever since. It's also one of the very few pies Bryan actually likes (or in this case, loves). Here's what I made...
Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies - Peanut butter + chocolate = my favorite combination of deliciousness.
Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies - Real original, right? But it's a classic, and there's a reason for it. I always make mine soft & chewy. Mmmmm...
What are you baking for the holidays? Do you try out new recipes each year or do you tend to go back to old favorites?
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Ideas for displaying your holiday cards
How do you display your holiday cards? My parents have this wooden reindeer cardholder that I've always loved. He's about 4 ft tall and has slats in his antlers where you can stick the cards. We bought him at a Christmas craft fair when I was 13 - which I specifically remember because I got the 12 & under children's discount from a little old man trying to be nice. I've been 5'8" since I was 11, so no one ever actually mistook me for being younger than I was, but it still made me irritated ("OMG, I'm a teenager, not a child!!"). So that's what I remember from the craft fair - getting the card reindeer, getting the children's discount, and also getting some yummy peppermint hot cocoa. Funny what sticks with you a decade and a half later!
So back to the point...what do you do with your cards? Since we've been living in our condo, I've just been sticking them on the fridge. You can't get much more boring than that. This year on a whim when we got our first two cards in earlier this week, I decided to string them up on the back of the front door with some twine. It's not exactly going to win any awards for creativity, but it took less than 5 minutes, and it's a definite improvement over the fridge. (I may need to update this once we've gotten some more cards in - it's looking a little sad at the moment!)
After I set up our little card contraption, I started looking around at some other ideas... since of course next year, in our new house, I'm going to be a lot more on top of my decorating (at least that's the plan...). Here are some other ideas from around the blogosphere...
What's your favorite way to display your cards?? I'm also curious - do any of you skip displaying them? Maybe you just open the card to find out that Great Aunt Bertha says Merry Christmas, and then immediately chuck it or stick it in the mail pile till the holidays are over?
So back to the point...what do you do with your cards? Since we've been living in our condo, I've just been sticking them on the fridge. You can't get much more boring than that. This year on a whim when we got our first two cards in earlier this week, I decided to string them up on the back of the front door with some twine. It's not exactly going to win any awards for creativity, but it took less than 5 minutes, and it's a definite improvement over the fridge. (I may need to update this once we've gotten some more cards in - it's looking a little sad at the moment!)
After I set up our little card contraption, I started looking around at some other ideas... since of course next year, in our new house, I'm going to be a lot more on top of my decorating (at least that's the plan...). Here are some other ideas from around the blogosphere...
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| Hang your cards on a ladder - A Night Owl |
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| Hang with ribbon and clothespins - The Anderson Crew |
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| Put them on garland around a doorway - Bright Bold & Beautiful |
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| Or on garland down the stairs - Martha Stewart |
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| Create tinsel card garlands - Martha Stewart |
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| Pin them to fabric-covered foam board - Pens and Needles |
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| Make a card tree - Martha Stewart |
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| Hang them on Christmas lights - Swoon! |
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| Make a clothespin wreath - Martha Stewart |
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| Hang them on chains with bells & ornaments - Centsational Girl |
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| Hang ribbons on your doors - Country Living |
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| Or ribbons on your cabinets - Greener Grass |
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| Create Christmas string art - My Poppet |
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| Make a cork strip - Unknown source (please tell me if you know!) |
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Christmas Ball Ornament Wreath
I made a Christmas ball ornament wreath today. This should be a really simple project. But I didn't buy nearly enough balls and had to improvise. I also overpaid for my balls. If you want to make one, aim to get lots & lots of cheap balls!!
Materials:
I started by taking the hanger and turning it into a circle. I folded one end over to make a secure end (or so I thought - one ball slipped off and shattered, oops!! Be careful to make sure your end is actually secure!). Then just keep sliding the ornaments down the hanger until you get a nice, full wreath. I just slipped them on trying to mix up the colors and sizes but didn't stick to any particular pattern.
Once all of your ornaments are on, wrap the two ends of the hanger around each other to close it off. I had a lot of excess hanger - you can cut it off if you prefer, although I used it to hang my wreath by wrapping the excess hanger around the door knocker. Add a bow if you'd like, and hang it up!
My Added Complications
My wreath turned out to be a lot smaller than I was planning initially, but that's one advantage to using the hanger over a preformed wreath - you can adjust the size of the wreath as necessary. Even with my smaller sized wreath, I was still struggling with my puny amount of balls - it wasn't full enough at all. When I held it up, the balls would slide to the bottom, so I had to figure out a solution to avoid having a very bare wreath (since I refused to just go buy more like a normal person would do...). At first I was trying to make a wreath backing out of cardboard - I figured if the wreath was flat on the back and all the balls were pushed to the front, it would help to fill it out more. In theory, I think that would work but I was having trouble successfully executing it, so I scraped that idea. I ended up tying some wire around the top of the hanger, then winding it around some of the ornaments so that they were basically tied to the top of the wreath and wouldn't slip down. I would imagine that you wouldn't need to worry about that if you had enough ornaments to make the wreath as full as it should be, but using wire to tie them in place works well enough if you have to resort to that method. However, it does give you less flexibility with adjusting the balls once you're finished. I'd guess that it would be easier to scoot them around to hide bare spots if they weren't tied. Also in a couple of places my wreath was kind of lumpy/not completely circular looking. I pulled one ball off entirely because it was sticking out, but there are a couple of spots where it still looks kind of weird. Again, I would think that if you had a full wreath and the balls were able to settle naturally, this would be less of a problem.
In addition to not buying enough balls, I'm also annoyed at myself for spending too much on the ones I did buy. I went to Michael's and the ornaments were all 50% off, so I just got them there without thinking much about it. But even with the sale and my puny-balled wreath, I still spent $30 on the ornaments! I would never normally spend that much on a pre-made wreath, so why did I spend that much on materials to make my own?! This evening I went to the grocery store and saw ornaments for $2.50 a box - half the price I paid. They were plastic but would have worked fine (and actually maybe that would be better - having that much glass hanging up makes me nervous!). I bet I could have found them for even less than that had I actually looked around a bit.
Lessons learned - next time I will buy more ornaments and spend less!! And sorry for the text overload and lack of pics to show the process - that's something else to fix in my next go-around!
Materials:
- Wire hanger
- Boatloads of balls - I used 22 large balls & 30 small - not nearly enough!! Depending how big you are making it, I'd guess 80-100 would be ideal
- Ribbon - if you want to add a bow
- Wire or String - if you need it to make/attach the bow, to hang your wreath, or if you didn't buy enough balls (described below)
- Scissors
I started by taking the hanger and turning it into a circle. I folded one end over to make a secure end (or so I thought - one ball slipped off and shattered, oops!! Be careful to make sure your end is actually secure!). Then just keep sliding the ornaments down the hanger until you get a nice, full wreath. I just slipped them on trying to mix up the colors and sizes but didn't stick to any particular pattern.
Once all of your ornaments are on, wrap the two ends of the hanger around each other to close it off. I had a lot of excess hanger - you can cut it off if you prefer, although I used it to hang my wreath by wrapping the excess hanger around the door knocker. Add a bow if you'd like, and hang it up!
My Added Complications
My wreath turned out to be a lot smaller than I was planning initially, but that's one advantage to using the hanger over a preformed wreath - you can adjust the size of the wreath as necessary. Even with my smaller sized wreath, I was still struggling with my puny amount of balls - it wasn't full enough at all. When I held it up, the balls would slide to the bottom, so I had to figure out a solution to avoid having a very bare wreath (since I refused to just go buy more like a normal person would do...). At first I was trying to make a wreath backing out of cardboard - I figured if the wreath was flat on the back and all the balls were pushed to the front, it would help to fill it out more. In theory, I think that would work but I was having trouble successfully executing it, so I scraped that idea. I ended up tying some wire around the top of the hanger, then winding it around some of the ornaments so that they were basically tied to the top of the wreath and wouldn't slip down. I would imagine that you wouldn't need to worry about that if you had enough ornaments to make the wreath as full as it should be, but using wire to tie them in place works well enough if you have to resort to that method. However, it does give you less flexibility with adjusting the balls once you're finished. I'd guess that it would be easier to scoot them around to hide bare spots if they weren't tied. Also in a couple of places my wreath was kind of lumpy/not completely circular looking. I pulled one ball off entirely because it was sticking out, but there are a couple of spots where it still looks kind of weird. Again, I would think that if you had a full wreath and the balls were able to settle naturally, this would be less of a problem.
In addition to not buying enough balls, I'm also annoyed at myself for spending too much on the ones I did buy. I went to Michael's and the ornaments were all 50% off, so I just got them there without thinking much about it. But even with the sale and my puny-balled wreath, I still spent $30 on the ornaments! I would never normally spend that much on a pre-made wreath, so why did I spend that much on materials to make my own?! This evening I went to the grocery store and saw ornaments for $2.50 a box - half the price I paid. They were plastic but would have worked fine (and actually maybe that would be better - having that much glass hanging up makes me nervous!). I bet I could have found them for even less than that had I actually looked around a bit.
Lessons learned - next time I will buy more ornaments and spend less!! And sorry for the text overload and lack of pics to show the process - that's something else to fix in my next go-around!
Saturday, December 8, 2012
All Pets Want for Christmas: Wishlists & Giveaway
Hey there everyone! I'm participating in today's All Pets Want for Christmas blog hop. Since we have both a dog and a cat in our family, I decided to put together a wishlist for each of them with products ranging from simple to luxury to high tech (in other words, they will not be getting everything they want for Christmas, but hey, they can dream!). If anything catches your eye, there are links where you can buy the products listed under each photo.
Once your done looking at Aria & Smokey's lists, hop around to the rest of the blogs participating! And don't forget to enter the giveaway!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Once your done looking at Aria & Smokey's lists, hop around to the rest of the blogs participating! And don't forget to enter the giveaway!
Aria's Kitty Wishlist
- The Willie Tribal Dog/Cat Collar XS Dogs/Puppies Aztec by zeezoes, $25.00
- Kitty Washroom Cabinet, $99.98
- Dog Cat Food and Water Feeder / Bowl Holder by modernmews on Etsy, $68.00
- FroliCat™ DART™ automatic rotating laser light, $39.95
- K&H Thermo-Kitty Cave Heated Cat Bed in Mocha with Leopard Print, $83.49
- Adult Cat Tree House, $699.00 - $1,500.00
- SUSHI CAT TOY catnip sashimi crochet organic by meowadays on Etsy, $20.00
Smokey's Puppy Wishlist
- Christmas Dog Collar 3/4 or 1 LQuick Release by fairytailcollars, $17.00
- Ruff Wear Quinzee Insulated Jacket Granite Gray, $84.95
- Plexidor® Electronic Pet Door with One Touch Programming, $1,149.00
- Dog Tail Leash Holder Paw Paws Personalize It by AplombDesigns, $15.95
- Dog Bed Blanket Simon The Shark PetCosy Silly Pet by rikarika, $45.00
- Tandy Pet Bed, $371.00
- Squishy Travel Pet Water Bowl Chartreuse Garden by dudleyandbea, $24.00
- Tagg Tracker – GPS Pet Tracking, $99.95
- 24” Braided Candy Cane Rawhide, $19.99
- I was rescued Pet ID Tag Mixed Metals by FetchAPassionTags on Etsy, $13.50
- All Natural Peanut Butter Barks by GigglesandBarks, $2.50
Friday, November 30, 2012
Easy upgrade to basic stockings
Our Christmas decorations are mostly from the year we graduated from college and moved in together - we bought an apartment-full of decorations as cheaply as we could. Then we ran out of storage space and I asked my parents to hang on to our decorations - then somehow, every year, we're never able to get them in time for the holidays! I ended up buying a smaller replacement set of decorations, again as cheaply as possible. So now we've got two sets of the most basic stockings you can get, and twice I've ended up making similar upgrades so they weren't quite so plain!
With our first set of stockings, I found some iron-on letters with our initials. This (grainy) pic is from the year I first made them - 2005! Ahh where does the time go?!
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That also happened to be the Christmas that Bryan surprised me with this adorable little fur-baby - Aria was only about 8 weeks old when she became a part of our family on this Christmas!
Fast forward a few years - Once I got the replacement stockings I kept them plain in the beginning. Then this past weekend I finally gave them a little extra sumthin-sumthin. I got a 3-pack of felt star ornaments from Michaels for $1, then glued them to our stockings. Take a look - it's not bad for a $0.33 upgrade, eh?
Maybe one of these days we'll actually get something other than the cheap, furry stockings, but for now I'm happy with these. Whether you use iron-on decals or glue, this is a simple way to make basic stockings look a little more unique!
What kind of stockings do you hang in your house?? During most of my childhood, I had a cartoony looking reindeer that would light up and sing a song when you pressed it. My taste was impeccable. ;)
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Dog {and cat?} paw print ornaments
I saw a dog paw print Christmas ornament on Pinterest a couple of months ago and thought it was such a great idea. But since then I've been seeing them all over the place - there are kits you can buy and everything... so I guess I was a little slow to notice this idea (but I still like it!).
It's a pretty basic process - get/make some clay (I just used a block of Sculpey), press a paw in it, make a hole, bake it, and hang it on a string. I did learn a few tips though...
I found the Sculpey clay to be kind of hard and it was tough to get a deep print. I warmed it up in the microwave for about 20 seconds, and it worked much better. Smokey also like it much better (warm & smushy > room temp & stiff). Even after trying the microwave trick, it took me two tries - you can see the one on the left isn't very well defined.
Other than the clay, my tools included a drinking glass used upside-down to get a nice circle, a kabob stick to write Smokey's name & the date, a butter knife to make a slot, and of course the ribbon.
I planned to make a kitty version too. It could just be me, but from my experience, kitty prints do not work. Aria's print just looked like a tiny, undefined blob. Not exactly tree material. I still wanted an ornament for her though, so I tried out my sculpting skills - elementary school art class style. I may not have a career as a professional sculptor in store, but it turned out better than I expected (plus it was fun to play with the clay!).
And lastly, you can't really tell from the pics, but this is silver clay with tiny sparkles in it. It looks great with the Christmas tree lights. When given the option, always go for sparkles.
It's a pretty basic process - get/make some clay (I just used a block of Sculpey), press a paw in it, make a hole, bake it, and hang it on a string. I did learn a few tips though...
I found the Sculpey clay to be kind of hard and it was tough to get a deep print. I warmed it up in the microwave for about 20 seconds, and it worked much better. Smokey also like it much better (warm & smushy > room temp & stiff). Even after trying the microwave trick, it took me two tries - you can see the one on the left isn't very well defined.
I planned to make a kitty version too. It could just be me, but from my experience, kitty prints do not work. Aria's print just looked like a tiny, undefined blob. Not exactly tree material. I still wanted an ornament for her though, so I tried out my sculpting skills - elementary school art class style. I may not have a career as a professional sculptor in store, but it turned out better than I expected (plus it was fun to play with the clay!).
And lastly, you can't really tell from the pics, but this is silver clay with tiny sparkles in it. It looks great with the Christmas tree lights. When given the option, always go for sparkles.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Free Christmas Poster Printables
Have you decorated for the holidays yet? I like having Thanksgiving so early in the month - I feel like I'm much more ahead of schedule than usual!
Here are links to a number of Christmas printables if you'd like to add some to your frames! Check out each of the links - sometimes there are more options than shown here.
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Nest of Posies - Chalkboard Printables
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| A Night Owl & Just Us Three Designs - Joy to the World |
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| Sweet Rose Studio - Reindeer & Jingle |
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| Tattered and Inked - Reindeer Names |
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| Design Dazzle - Chevron Merry Christmas |
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| Less Cake More Frosting - Believing |
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| Printable Decor - Cheer & Trees |
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| Over the Big Moon - Cold Outside |
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| Antsi-Pants - Christmas subway art |
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| The Jacobs Clan - Variety of Christmas printables |
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| Polkadots on Parade: Tree & Ho Ho Ho |
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| Agape Love - Merry Christmas |
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| Two Twenty One - Chevron |
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| Tattered and Inked - Most Wonderful |
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| Creationz - Ho Ho Ho |
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| Simple as That - Christmas Word Tree |
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| Capital B - O Holy Night |
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| Sugar Tot Designs - 12 Days |
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| aka Design - Joy & Adore |
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| The 36th Avenue - Advent Tree |
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| Today's Creative Blog - Holiday Cheer |
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| Lemon Squeezy - Tree |
Aren't they great?! Do you know of any others I should add??
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