Project Round-Up [December Edition]

Products Used: 12 Days of Christmas Collection by Heidi Swapp + Jessica Sprague

I think it's been about 6 years since I last made one of these treat pouches. I think the only reason is because I didn't have a paper crimper and I think the crimped ends are the icing on the cake - so to speak. No sense doing it if you can't do it right... and it just so happens that, sadly, our local craft store is going out of business and things are getting cleared out. 10% at a time. Goes down a little more every week. Paper crimper, welcome to the family. Robert's, I'm really going to miss you.

Products Used: Kitschy Digitals Calico Dream Kit

Hello little house. You're just what I didn't know I was looking for. Since I haven't posted for a while, I probably haven't mentioned the fact that the universe is trying to tell me something. It has a bit to do with heart. It started with the Tin Man at Halloween and has been gaining steam ever since. I'm sure I'll get it figured out soon. I've got a whole year to work on it...

On another note, this little house ornament has been one of my favorite projects of the year. I found it at Michele Made Me via Pinterest. I've been spending my crafting time trying to get past the learning curve of the handy dandy cutter. I think I'm starting to get it and thankfully so. It is making projects like this one a breeze. So nice.

Products Used: Kitschy Digitals Chalkboard Paper

This beauty is my new desktop wallpaper. I'm always grabbing images because they're pretty + I like looking at them + I think I might like to try it someday + etc. = my desktop is a mess. I am determined to keep it cleaned up. I think this might be the answer. I love it.

Products Used: Kitschy Digitals Woodland Diecuts Kit

The boys around here are obsessed with snow globes. I am obsessed with trying out new things on the handy dandy cutter. This project involved printing images onto label paper at staples and cutting them on the silhouette. I did a happy dance as I told *B* how cool I am... I made stickers! And then we decorated circles and stitched plastic page protector pieces over the circles [leaving an opening]. And then we added glitter and stitched the opening up. I drew a little base and put it all together. So incredibly cool. The boys turned out so much more whimsically than mine. I'll have to see if I can't round them up for a photo. I'll even try to keep in mind a true tutorial. It could happen.

Cranberries + Apples

make yummy juice. I even made muffins with the castoffs using this recipe. They were good. Missing something. There wasn't a distinctive flavor. They mostly just tasted like muffin. Next time I'll try adding a bit of cranberry juice + some orange zest. And... just so you know: it isn't the fault of the recipe. I've used this same recipe for carrot muffins + I've made pumpkin muffins by actually following the recipe [well, almost]. It's a delicious recipe. I do add cinnamon + nutmeg + a splash of lemon juice [though vinegar works too] to activate the soda. To all of the above. On a different note: Christmas is coming. It's coming fast. I'm still thinking about advent. Here's a link with ideas for those of you that also do advent. I'll let you know when I have mine planned out. I'm trying to remember to take more photos. Take more photos! Enjoy the journey!

2.for.Tuesday

craziness!

one: 365 project. Yes. Again. One of these years I wll actually accomplish this. Does anyone want to call me daily and ask if I took a photo today? The project is not news, but I have a link to a list for you: 365 Days/365 Ideas for Photos from Creating Keepsakes. A big thank you to them!

two: A super cute button wreath ornament from the 12 Days of Christmas Memories by Jeannette Herdman. I don't have a picture to share, but I can forward the e-mail with picture and instructions if you'd like them. Just drop me a comment. Sorry! I really wanted to share a picture, but that would mean that I've made one... hmm.

Enjoy the Journey!

If this is it until Christmas have a happy one!

I never sent any Christmas cards out. Costco cropped them wrong (even after I adjusted the cropping pre-ordering) I'm bummed about them. *B* says we still need to get them sent and he's right. I've lost my fire about it. So maybe you'll get them, maybe I'll sneak them into the trash in a few months. Whatever. Here's what you'd get if I sent them:

Merry Christmas! (the overlay is a slightly altered one from Ali Edwards for Designer Digitals).

1. I want to sing like this: Dream 2. I want to be injected with follow through drugs. 3. I want to be consistant.

2.for.Tuesday

Wow! I say this every week, I know, but honestly... I can't believe it's Tuesday again already! For you viewing enjoyment today I have one incredibly cute yet obnoxiously involved project and one really easy made-from-found-sticks project. Enjoy!

one: A Paper Holiday Village. Claudine Hellmuth caught my eye a couple of years ago when I first saw her collages. I think they're quirky and fun (my sister thinks they're creepy). These houses are super cute. In all honesty, I will probably never make them. I will just hold on to the link and think that someday I will.

two: This one is from Molly Irwin. I love stars and I love stick stars even more. Today you can take a walk with your kids and gather sticks to make these stars. They're fun and easy and then you can hang them on your tree. Easy peasy. F.Y.I: I have made these. It is easy... I just liked Molly's photo better. Her stars are bigger!

Hope your all having fun reveling in the Christmas spirit!

Speaking of Christmas spirit. We had an angel drop by our house last night... A phone call + a message to look out on the porch + a mini tree dressed up with money = a huge blessing for us. We've had a lot of little (well some are not so little) things taking a huge toll on our financials this year and, well... whoever did this for us... Wow!

Spread the joy in whatever way you can.

Enjoy the Journey!

Snow Is Falling All Around...

Our true first snowfall was Saturday night but the boys didn't get to see it so it doesn't count. besides, a few snowflakes isn't much to sing about. Today... well that's another story entirely. It has been snowing all day and some of it is even hanging around. It's really is begining to look a lot like Christmas.

Here are some of the photos I've taken of our 12 Days project. It's been a lot of fun and they are so excited to write in their journals. Well... *I* is. The other little man just wants to color pictures of random things that he somehow always manages to tie into Christmas. i.e. he was coloring monsters and calling them snow monsters. He wants a gingerbread man for Christmas. I'm not sure where that came from or what it's all about, but I can do that. I can definitely do that.

So, tonight we're going to hit Target and let the boys shop for each other for FHE. *B* and I could really use some good guidance to get the shopping done for Santa and we're not really sure what the boys are asking for. Letting them shop for each other is great for Santa's helpers since mostly they want to get each other what they really want themselves.

Hot chocolate on the menu again tonight. What do you think of those candy cane "straws"? I love them! They're Bob's Sweet Stripes they have them at Wal-Mart this year. Wahoo! Try them. Try them. Try them!

Enjoy the Journey!

Twelve Days of Christmas Memories

I signed up to get e-mails from Jeannette Herdman (of SIStv) for making and preserving Christmas memories. Today the boys started their Christmas journals. I bought them a few of my favorite things: new composition notebooks (the cool kind with kindergarten style lines and space on top to draw/ color pictures), a fresh box of crayons, glitter glue, and a brand new pencil. They were so excited. *I* said, "Mom, this is the greatest surprise ever!" They wanted to fill the entire book up tonight, but I had to explain to them that these are their Christmas journals. They get to write/color something in them everyday. They can only work in them with me. They can only fill them with Christmas/December type stuff. When Christmas is over they will be packed away until next year when hopefully they will think they are fun and new again and in 10+ years we can all laugh and enjoy what they have written + drawn. Today they did, "What I really want for Christmas". Tomorrow I'm hoping to start on my own. I've been tempted for the past few years to join Ali in her December Daily project but still haven't given in. Maybe this will be good enough. I'm counting on not being able to remember anything when I get older since I can't remember anything now. I need to do something to keep these times alive. I took pictures. I'll come back and post them... Enjoy the journey!

2.for.Tuesday

I've been setting aside things to share on Tuesdays and I actually did something today so I wanted to share it before the day was over! Here you go: one: Have you seen the photo overlays that Ali Edwards sells on Designer Digitals website? I love them and I've actually used them a few times (that's what I used for the thank you postcards I sent out for The Girl). Today I made our Christmas cards. I'm not sure if I want to show the project or not though. I'd rather you be surprised... hmm. Tell you what, e-mail me (or leave me an extra comment that I won't send through to post... make sure it's extra. I want to post your comments but not publicize your address). I'll send you a Christmas card if you send me your address. Then you can see the project of the day! Deal. two: It's cookie week at Martha's. I know... Martha, Martha, Martha. But, you have to admit they still comes up with some really great stuff over there. Anyway, back to the sharing. It's a quiz. What kind of cookie are you? You'll never know unless you go find out! This is me: "You are undoubtedly Molasses-Gingerbread Cookies. You're warm, spicy, and multifaceted." Ha ha! I love gingerbread cookies! So, now you know what I am. What are you? Enjoy the Journey! P.S. I just made *B* take the quiz: "You are undoubtedly Sugar Cookie. You are simple and sweet, but can be jazzed up with some extra attention." Yep, I would say that's him in a nutshell. P.S.S. He whole-heartedly agreed with the spicy part of mine.

Day Twenty-Five... Christmas

So, Christmas was great. I'm really slow getting this up and going again. We had a lot of fun with B's family. The boys had a great time too and Santa brought them both just what they wanted (with a few modifications for cost purposes). I've always kind of had this tradition of making a goal on Christmas. Something I can give to Jesus. This year I'm going with a scripture that always gets stuck in my head. I think it's when Nephi & Lehi (Helaman's sons) are in prison nevermind... I'll look it up! It's Helaman 5:30, "And it came to pass when they heard this voice, and beheld that it was not a voice of thunder, neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold, it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul-" I keep thinking that if I could just use a still voice of perfect mildness that maybe my boys would actually listen! I default to the voice of thunder way more than I should. So that's the gift this year. I'm really going to work on that one... Hope your holidays were all you wanted and more! Enjoy the Journey!

Day Twenty-Four... Nativity

Tonight we acted out the Nativity. A&J's family played Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus. Little C had a hard time deciding what he wanted to be. In the end he had a shepherd's jacket and a wiseman's crown and he spent the entire story with his family. He was really cute! We also continued our family tradition of opening up a gift (a new Christmas book) and reading it before bed. This year it was Mr. Finnegan's Giving Chest. We listened to Dick Van Dyke read it. He is such a great reader. I'm glad we got the CD with it! After we got the little men to bed we did the last of the wrapping and finally made it to bed praying that they wouldn't be up too early! Enjoy the Journey!

Day Twenty-Three... More Family

We will be spending the next few days in Cedar. Today our activity will have to be listening to R & P's ward choir Christmas program. It was nice. I was sad to miss ours though. We also had an early Christmas dinner with K&M's family. I'm sure glad that we were able to see them and that our kids were able to play while they did. Enjoy!

Day Twenty-Two... Mick's Family Party

Really, this was a lot of fun! A&R were in charge and they did a super great job. We played a few really fun games... We had a gift wrapping race/contest but the twist was that we partnered up and each partner put a hand around the others back and we were tied together (i.e. three-legged race only minus the middle "leg"). Then we had to wrap the gift. Thankfully I was the right handed one and B had to use his left... I think we had an unfair advantage because his hands are so stinking big they covered the entire gift! We weren't quite the fastest, but we were the fastest pretty one. Next we had to hold a piece of paper above our heads and draw a Christmas picture as it was told to us... Draw a floor, now draw a Christmas tree on the floor, now draw a fireplace with a mantle, now put a fire in the fireplace, now draw a star on the tree... etc. Then we got points for things like, does your tree touch the floor? 2 points. Is the fire in the fireplace? 2 points. 1 bonus point for each decoration (besides the star) that you put on your tree... etc. Lastly, we divided up into two teams (boys against girls) and we had to line up in order tallest to shortest as fast as we could. Blindfolded. This was hilarious! It was so funny watching the guys all try to muscle everyone else around because they had a plan... they each had their own plan. There was no talking allowed. Boys against girls was smart since it would have been very uncomfortable for one of the guys to grope one of the girls! So, that + good food + cute kids + great family = fun times! Mom passed out the family yearbood that we all contributed to. It turned out awesome! Enjoying the Journey!

Day Twenty-One... A Little Wrapping

And I do mean a little... The little guys wrapped their gifts to each other and I wrapped the gifts to the Grandpas and Grandmas. It was a short and sweet project. Just getting ready for the bigger/fuller days ahead. Enjoy the Journey

Day Twenty... Bah Humbug

Today the plan is to pick up my "neighbor" gifts. I am anti neighbor gifts so when I say neighbor I don't really mean it. Today I plan to pick up a bunch of suckers at Pebbles... they are my favorites and they only have them at Christmas time. The flavor? HUMBUG. That is how I feel about neighbor gifts... so, lucky ladies... you just might get a humbug sucker, if you've been really nice and if you remind me when I see you! I think I'm done with Christmas. I've been there for a while. All this fun stuff to get me in the spirit... it's not working. I think next year I'll take my "need a little Christmas" box and do it myself as needed. That would be more in the spirit of doing less, not more. Enjoy the Journey!

Day Nineteen... Do Nothing

Tonight I fell asleep on the couch at 7:00 p.m. The boys wanted to watch Frosty the Snowman again... but the TV broke. At 7:30 p.m. Daddy came home from helping with tithing settlement and Mom went to bed. Yep, that's right... Mom went to bed at 7:30 p.m. and we did nothing Christmas related. Bummer! Enjoy the Journey!

Day Eighteen... Christmas Orange

Tonight we watched the story "The Christmas Orange". The boys really enjoyed it and of course it made me teary-eyed. Does that to me every time.

Day Seventeen... "Gingerbread" Houses

Tonight we got together with some friends and made "gingerbread" houses. We actually used graham crackers, not gingerbread, but the kids all loved it anyway. We hot glued the houses together because if you use frosting to "glue" them you have to start a few days ahead (honestly, who thinks that far in advance?). While I was looking for a recipe for royal icing at allrecipes I came across a comment that said you can melt sugar in a pan and it will act just like hot glue... so if any of you'd like to try it just click on this allrecipes link and it will take you to a recipe and the instructions (it's the first comment) for melting the sugar... or you can just hot glue them. As for the icing, I used a different recipe because our friend is pregnant so I skipped the recipe with raw egg whites and found one with meringue powder. Something important about the icing... I'm not sure if the five minutes of whipping is long enough. It should be until peaks form. Then the icing will be thick enough to hold the candy until it dries. When I made ours it took about 10 mins. of whipping at low speed. Also, I just noticed that the first recipe doesn't say anything about keeping the icing moist. It's important to keep a damp towel over your bowl so it doesn't dry out... especially if you make it ahead of time. Enough of the explainations... here are some pictures. I think it's fun how much the dads enjoyed the project too! Enjoy the Journey!

Day Sixteen... Santa Jar

Today we visited Norm and Lill. I had talked to Lill after choir practice... the boys had asked, "can we go visit Norm and Lill? We haven't seen them for a long time!" I laughed and said, "except for when you went over there yesterday, and the day before that, and all the days before that to beg for cookies!" So I talked to Lill and we went to visit. She had a Santa cookie jar filled with wafers to give to the boys. Jar and all. So, lucky me... today we had Santa come to visit and I didn't have to do a thing! Enjoy the Journey!

Day Fifteen... Nativity

Tonight we had our Ward Christmas party. The Primary did the Nativity story and the little men dressed up as Wisemen. They loved their costumes and I will try to get a picture of them to post later. I didn't take my camera since I was leading the music for the program... Little man #2 was funny. He just couldn't get it that he wasn't in the program, he was just dressed for fun. He sat down in front of the stage with me, "Mom, is it my turn yet?" approx. 1,000 times (only a slight exaggeration). I tried to tell him that he was just going to stay with me, but when the other three wisemen came on stage he said, "Mom, it's my turn!" and went up the stairs to join them. Cute little man! Oh well, I hope everyone else thought he was cute too. They also got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him they want Bumblebee and The Flash for Christmas. Hopefully he'll get that right! It was a good party. Yummy food, great company, and the program went well too. Can't complain about that! Enjoying the Journey!

Day Fourteen... Wow!

Seriously, a busy Christmas day, but the little men probably don't even know that we had a Christmas activity... I spent the day sewing a Wise Man costume for the ward Christmas party tomorrow night. LM#1 was originally assigned to be a shepherd (which would have been much easier... we have towels!) but then they changed him to a Wiseman. (we don't have little robes). So I decided to make life hard and "do more" (as opposed to the "do less" that I am supposed to be doing this year) I am making a costume that can be used by future generations! The trial run with muslin took approx. 30 minutes. I thought that was acceptable and started making one with a Chinese looking brocade cloth (shiny like a king should be). It didn't go as smoothly and ended up taking 2+ hours. Way too long. But, now I'm done and it's very cute. I don't know if I'd say worth it, but definitely cute. Later, *B* and I had his work Christmas party. It was fun. They played 1 vs. 20 (last year it was Deal or No Deal). We had to bring a bag of canned goods for Dixie Care and Share to be able to participate in the game. **Did you know that the food banks always need peanut butter? That is what they announced in our ward when they did a food drive. There is never enough peanut butter. Just in case you have a food drive coming up! So *B* and I both spent time as contestants in the Mob... I stayed through 3 different contestants (because I'm so smart and knew all the answers... and the lady who put the game together was behind us and kept helping), but no money for the mob. One time the person got the question wrong but there wasn't any money in the pot yet. That was too bad! It was fun though. The highest paid contestant went home with almost $375.00... I wish I had been a contestant! Enjoying the Journey!