~My Christmas table~

Last week I hosted a couple different Christmas brunches.

I love setting a pretty table. 

If it was realistic I would for every meal but

with two little kids we're lucky some days just

to have a meal prepared and on the table at dinner time....

let alone a pretty table setting to accompany it.

The first brunch was with a couple of my girlfriends.

Have a look:

 For the place setting cards I personalized each one

with different pictures of the three of us.

I wrote notes to each of them on the back of the cards.

I got these little bulbs that hold them at Michael's a

couple years ago. They were a dollar for 2 of them. 

The little boxes next to their plates are holding 

the zipper bracelets that I made for them.

 The vases I filled with red bulbs that a good friend gave to me.

I love the look of a vase filled with bulbs like this.

 The set of bulbs she gave me has heart shaped bulbs

too that I use on Valentines Day (you'll see).

 I served mini quiches baked in green peppers.

Not much to look at but they are DEEELISH!

I'm going to be putting a recipe for those up

here next week. I also served sliced and grilled

portobello mushrooms, fruit and danish.

And let us not forget the most important part.....

MIMOSAS! 

I even wrote a little note to myself.

Two days later we had our annual Christmas brunch with

some good friends of ours.

I didn't go as fancy this time because we had

kids involved. 

 For this I mixed and matched with two different 

sets of tableware. My plain white set and my Christmas set.

 I made these little stocking silverware cozies 

years and years ago for our first Christmas brunch with them.

Each of them are different and I have to chuckle when

I think of that first year and how far my 

table settings have come since then.

For the place card settings I used the pine cones again.

Remember them from my Thanksgiving table? 

These have proven to come in very handy.

I'm thinking of dressing the table nice and serving

a nice dinner for New Year's Day with my little family.

I think maybe we'll start a new tradition with it.

It will give us a good opportunity to discuss

the year passed, the year before us and the

resolutions we may or may not have.

Do you make New Year's resolutions?

Don't forget....January is going to be my

"Make momma a priority" month.

Throughout the month I am going to be posting

changes I am making to make my life more

balanced and make myself a priority too. 

You will see:

wardrobe issues and ideas,

recipes,

beauty tips,

deep thoughts,

tutorials

and

maybe even a fun little giveaway :)....

maybe.

hmm-I wonder what it could be.

~girls activity dolly~

I got a set of onesies for my little girl when

she was born that were absolutely adorable.

I LOVED the print and the colors of them together

and I couldn't bear to part with them when 

she outgrew them. I just had to find something

to do with them. A couple days ago I

decided to make her a dolly for Christmas 

with these onesies. 

I will put a full tutorial up here after Christmas

but for now I'm just going to show you the doll.

I have to first say that when I initially cut it

out and laid it out before sewing, it looked like this:

Cute isn't it?

Well-when I sewed it together something happened....

it S-T-R-E-T-C-H-E-D. 

So....it ended up looking like this:

I still think she turned out cute but

I liked the look of it better before it stretched.

I call it an activity doll because she can:

Snap the heart on and off.

Braid her pony's.

Stick the blankie on and off with Velcro.

And tie the belt after she takes off the skirt.

(Look close...dolly has a muffin top like momma :)

Even though it stretched, I am still happy with it.

The only thing I'm not too fond of is the arms.

They stretched all weird. They look like a swan neck

and head. Anyway-I think my little lady will 

enjoy this. Check back next week for a tutorial.

Linking up with Kojo Designs.

~zipper bracelets~

Remember the jewelry I was telling you about the other day?

Want to see it now?

I thought so......

Bracelets out of zippers....how cute is that?
 I saw this idea on Pinterest and knew 

immediately that I would be making a few

for Christmas gifts this year.

Next week I'll put a tutorial up here so you can 

make one of these little lovelies for yourself.

Easy.

Inexpensive.

Cute with a shot of edginess.

Just what I like :)

Linking up with Positively Splendid
and
kojodesigns 

~Daddy~last minute gift idea

Need a last minute gift idea for your husband?

Check this out:

I made this for my husband today.

I saw the saying a couple months ago and 

knew immediately I wanted to do something with it.

I thought about putting it with a cute picture of

him and the kids but couldn't get a picture that

would look good without being completely

obvious. So....I ended up taking his work boots

and lining them up with our kids' little John Deere boots.

I absolutely adore the way it turned out.

I like the boots more so than I would have

a picture of them together. Somehow, to me

the boots make it even more personal than 

a picture of them all together would have.

So-to make this I lined up the boots and took the picture

out on the deck. Once I got the picture I wanted,

I edited it a little in Picasa. I played around with

the color and saturation a little, added the glow

feature to it and inserted the text.

I had it printed up at the 1 hour photo at Walgreen's

and bought a mat at Michael's crafts.

I wanted to put it in a frame in the living room

that was already on the wall with an old pic in

 it. So-I took the old picture out, replaced it with this, 
wrapped it up and hung it back on the wall.

Think he'll notice?

I figure this will be less obvious than an empty

spot on the wall with a nail sticking out.

Linking up with Positively Splendid

~zippidy do-da~

 I have been making jewelry all day.

Well-in the free moments I could steal away

from the kids and the household duties.

I can't show you what I made yet but

I'll give you a peak:

I can't wait to show you.

I can't wait to give them away.

Tutorial coming soon along with pictures of

the real things...

Time now to put away the jewelry making supplies

and dig out the sewing machine. Seriously....

I'm getting down to the wire here.

Tomorrow is going to be a sewing marathon.

(after I go to the post office...ughhh!)

Dependent of course on two little ones and how

much they are willing to cooperate with my plans 

for tomorrow. My little lady is sick :(

Poor baby. I'm just praying this cold doesn't 

turn into anything worse. Tis the season eh?

~elf treats~

Around our house Santa's elf's have been

leaving little surprises all month long.

Next to the cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve,

we will be leaving a treat like this for the elf's:

Elf donuts!

How cute is that?

These were one of the first things I 

 pinned on Pinterest. 

They are actually cheerios.

And how is it that I've never heard of 

this "Elf on the shelf"  stuff before?

I love the idea.

I only wish I would have heard about it

before last week :(

Next year for sure.

For those of you who don't know what it is,

it's a book you get that has a little elf with it.

I guess you let your kid name the elf and the 

elf reports to Santa whether your kids have

been naughty or nice. You move him to

a different spot each night after the kids go

to bed and the kids get to find him each day.

Well-folks....I've got about 3 big projects calling my name.

And I don't have any elf's to assist me.

Gotta dash.....

~speed reading ~

I've been wanting to read these books

for awhile now. I see trailers for the movie

coming out soon and figured that was the

kick in the butt I needed to get started.

I'm starting this tonight. 

I've got to read the book before I see the movie.

Do you prefer to read the books or see

the movies first?

~zipper purse~

My little lady loves purses and she loves zippers.

What better gift for her than a purse 

made solely out of zippers?

I whipped it up the other night.

Literally, in like 20 minutes.

Before I show you the pics let me explain the

colors. YES...I would have preferred to 

do this with a combo of pink, red and orange

zippers BUT I didn't want to spend

much $$$ on this. My husband found

20 zippers on e-bay for a couple bucks-

not the most beautiful colors-but hey...

for that kind of money you can't be too picky right?

 See-I wasn't exaggerating about the colors.

Anywho...this was so simple.

Just lay out your zippers and overlap each one

by about a 1/4".  You'll also want to alternate
the direction of the ends of the zippers when
you lay these out. It makes it a whole lot 
easier to sew together and it's not as bulky.
I have no idea why I didn't think to take pics.
Sorry. Duh.

You can use any size zippers you want, 
depending on however big or small you want
your purse. Just make sure they are all the same size.
You can also use as many as you want.
I used 7 to do this purse. 
I think mine were 9" zippers.


So, after you get them all sewn together, 
just fold them over (right sides together) and
sew up the side. Unzip one of the zippers
to now turn right side out. You're done.
Easy as that.

Perfect size for her little hands.
Have I ever mentioned that my little lady
has freakishly good hand eye coordination?
I have no doubt she can already maneuver 
these zippers at the age of 1.
I think she's gonna love it.

~mason jars....Christmas style~

Remember the mason jars I decorated with

at Thanksgiving....well-I've used them again 

for Christmas. I wasn't lying when I said

I use them all the time. 

I have so many Christmas decorations and

I just didn't have the energy to go all out 

this year. I decided to decorate a few areas in

the house and call it good. This is the shelf

in my living room which the jars are currently 

sitting on....with a whole bunch of other glitzy

garb. Can you tell I like gawdy?

The colors I chose to decorate with this year were

blue/green/silver/white/gold

I threw in pine cones and some twine in an 

attempt to give it that shabby chic look.

A good friend gave me a bunch of beautiful crosses

last year that I also threw into the mix. 

I also decorate with these crosses at Easter.

I have quite a few of them.

My china hutch.

More of the same.

Sofa table behind my couch.

Didn't take picture of the whole thing????

Above my couch I strung a piece of the hemp string

and wrapped gold glitzies around it then hung

silver and gold ornaments from it.

Then we have the tree....

which we had to put in the corner up on 

our trunk so our little lady can't reach it.

This is not blue/green/silver/gold....

it is traditional colors with all of our

sentimental and meaningful ornaments on it.

I didn't even bother putting my fancy ornaments

that are all matching and proper.

Somehow, I have discovered that the ornaments

marking my kids' first Christmas or those

ornaments made for us by them are more

beautiful than any 'ol glass and beaded 

ornament I've ever seen.

Another thing that's traditional flavored...

OUR STOCKINGS.

My Mom has made everyone in the family

a stocking. She's made them one by one over

the years as our family has grown and EVERY

SINGLE person in the family has a

hand made stocking from Mom.

It's one of my favorite things she has ever made me.

The lights are up.

The tree is trimmed.

Stockings are hung.

Looks like I need to get started on those projects huh?

Tomorrow I'll start....for real this time.