Favorite Things Party

Another pin accomplished! Gathered up some friends over the weekend and we exchanged gifts of our favorite things (under $5!). We added guessing who brought what to the game with coordinated brown lunch sack gift wrap. I chose InstaDri nail polish ($3.59 at Target!) as my favorite item to share. It was very entertaining to see what everyone else came up with to stay under the $5 mark.  Gifts were brought packed in brown paper lunch sacks so we could guess who brought what.

We all went home with: Aussie deep conditioner, Big Kahuna wine, Ghiradelli Sea Salt chocolates, nail polish, a head scratcher, daffodil bulbs, colorful socks, a mix CD & fruity lip balm.

The party gave me reason to put some of my thrift finds to good use & playing around with floral arrangments too. Katy put the carnation clusters together, and we sprinkled those all around the house.

DIY'd vase, deer ornaments & drink stirrers (Dollar Store)

Tea trays (thrifted for $0.50 each & completed a set from Cody's grandma)

Mason jars (inherited from my grandma)

Other vases (wedding gifts)

And the lovely ladies who brunch!

Definitey looking forward to testing out all the goodies! Might have to make this shindig a yearly gig!

Gift Wrappin'

Spent an evening wrapping up all of our gifts for Christmas. I've been discovering a lot of tools & supplies that were hoarded packed away during our road trip/house hunt. I found a bunch of gift bags I made a few years back (jazzed up paper bags with scrap-booking paper & stickers). A tag punch, and a pile of pre-punched red tags, alphabet stamps and ink pad. And since I have this need to save the tissue paper from gifts we receive, I had tons of that too. Which means I didn't have to purchase a single thing to wrap gifts this year and it somewhat justified my hoarding. Yeah baby! 

I am so very much enjoying having our Christmas gifts ready. Eleven days to go, plenty of time for visiting & baking!

Souper Easy Soup

Was introduced to a new easy, peasy winter warming soup last night! Boil Chicken stock, add cheese tortellini, boil til cooked. Throw in some fresh spinach, sprinkle (or dump in my case) parmesan cheese. Done. Or should I say "Boom, done!" (Cody's new favorite phrase). So perfect on a chilly night!

Ins & Outs

Well, I can cross a couple of things off my Christmas Bucket List! The break from the rain this weekend was  exactly the motivation I needed. 

Lights are up-and done under the watchful eyes of Tanner & Brandi (who cannot be still for a second). And I discovered the Camilla bush (the one to the left above & blooms in the vase the right below) has bloomed! 

Peppermint bark made, granted these few bags will not last long...

I also mailed out our Christmas cards, well at least round one. I am missing quite a few addresses so hopefully I get to doing a round two with more research! But I finally used the address stamp I purchased last summer. Literally, the day we signed paperwork I ordered this thing. I just couldn't wait, and then I didn't use it for 5 months. Now, I'm completely hooked. I adore it. I know its a silly thing to love, but I guess it's just exciting since its OUR address. Our street name has a tree name, and because I like all things cheesy I ordered a custom stamp with a tree on it. 

(Bear Rubber Stamps via Etsy)

Other than the jar gifts (stuck at a stand-still on what to make), the rest of my list revolves around qualitity visting time, which is totally what we should all be focused on anyways!

Cut down & decorate a Christmas tree

Decorate the house inside & out 

Make Peppermint Bark 

Make something to put into the jam and pasta sauce jars I've hoarded all year (chexmix? sugar scrub?)

Spend time with family

Celebrate my brother Joey's birthday (without Christmas distractions!!)

Send out Christmas cards

Host a holiday event in our home
Go to a Christmas program (either visit our old church or a new local one, both?) and remember the reason for this season!

2013: A Year for Emerald

Pantone announced Emerald as color of the year for 2013. Maybe that will encourage me to appreciate my kitchen floor? Probably not. But I will choose to be grateful that I have a kitchen floor!

I am actually excited to see all the emerald love that going to surface this year. I love the color. Just not on my floor!

Christmas Bucket List

There is so much business and self-mandated have-to's during this season which usually leave me feeling completely frazzled. So I thought I would make a list of what I want to be sure I accomplish and stick to just that. I don't want to be the stressball on Christmas Eve crying over burnt white chocolate and chex-mix. Yes, that has happened. I think it's happened to us all, right??

Cut down & decorate a Christmas tree

Decorate the house inside & out 

Make Peppermint Bark 

Make something to put into the jam and pasta sauce jars I've hoarded all year (chexmix? sugar scrub?)

Spend time with family

Celebrate my brother Joey's birthday (without Christmas distractions!!)

Send out Christmas cards

Host a holiday event in our home
Go to a Christmas program (either visit our old church or a new local one, both?) and remember the reason for this season!

I think this is a manageable plan. Especially with two things already accomplished! Our Christmas cards are in, just need to be addressed and I have a Favorite Things party planned with a few girlfriends. Feels good to accomplish one of my millions of pins on Pinterest as well! I also received a $250 rebate from Comcast when we moved over summer and that went to great use in purchasing Christmas gifts. I have three more people to shop for. The whole handmade thing just didn't happen this year, but I did purchase quite a few things that were handmade or vintage off Ebay and Etsy. That's gotta count for something.

Do you have anything you absolutelymustdo this season?

Christmas is Here!!!

It's now December and officially Christmastime! We have the tradition of decorating for Christmas right after Thanksgiving, but for some reason it still felt early this year. Even though if we hadn't broke out the boxes til this weekend, I would have felt late. This year I found I have a thing for pinecones. They're everywhere. I purchased a huge bag of pinecones with strings for hanging already attached for $1.50 at Happy Dragon. Originally I was going to spray paint them. But for whatever reason (we'll blame the amount of rain this fall) I never got around to it. 

I purchased the garland & wreath from Michael's in mid-November, both were on sale for $1.50! I added in glittery dollar store ornaments, making these easy & cheap projects. My style for sure. I am completely in love with the card holder. I also found that at Happy Dragon for $2.50. Right now its holding non-holiday mail (next year is turning into a wedding frenzy!) but I cannot wait to fill it up with Christmas cards. I might even just pull out some old ones or write some to myself to hang up. I love Christmas.