it's getting Christmas-y around here

If you follow me on Instagram, you saw that we put up our tree last weekend. Yep, that's right, we're those people. We haven't busted out the ornaments yet, but we did string up the lights and we're all loving the soft glow each night. We also lit up a few trees out front and have hemmed and hawed over how to get some lights up on the roof without having to pay someone hundreds of dollars.

Last night Evie discovered a few packages of bead garlands and went to town. Fantastic job, I say.

Joi just posted this fun DIY Christmas art she made and I think it's so fun! I'm thinking of blowing off work and showering and chores this morning to paint my heart out. Isn't it festive?? I love the gold edge.

Also in the spirit of jumping the Christmas gun, we went to see Santa last night! Evie was alllll over this. She knew just what she wanted to talk to St. Nick about: RUDOLPH. They had quite the convo about where he was, his nose, if she could pet and hug him, et cetera.



I also got my wreaths up! I ended up making mine with faux swags. We're not even sure they're supposed to resemble boxwood, but they were the best I could find. I'm wishing I had made them a little bigger, but they'll do for now! Cross it off the list! I'll try to take some pictures to share soon of them hung.

So have you started decorating for the holidays yet?? Tell me I'm not the only one! :)

Put a wreath on it

I totally have Christmas and holiday decorating on the brain. I can't wait to drag everything out of the attic and deck our halls. If our roof wasn't so steep and unclimb-able, I know hubby would have strung up our lights the day after Halloween.

Anyone with me??

In our living room, we have 4 big windows overlooking the backyard. Which I love. I haven't put up any window treatments yet, and actually I'm not sure when I'll get around to it. I love the unblocked view and all the light that floods in.

So what I would love to do is hang 4 pretty wreaths on those windows, like so:

I would really love to have some gorgeous, preserved boxwood wreaths but they are so stinking expensive! And I no longer have access to any real boxwood clippings. Sad face. So I've been trying to come up with another wreath idea I can DIMyself. I like (and have made) a book page/leaf wreath, which I like. But I feel like the greenery of the boxwoods would bring that natural feel I really want...

So if you have any sources for great, CHEAP preserved boxwood wreaths, help a sister out! I've heard Trader Joe's has some around Christmas, but we don't have those around here. :(

Have you started decorating for Christmas yet??

happy new year!

I can hardly believe that Christmas has come and gone! We spent most of the past few weeks sick as dogs. I'm pretty certain I had a full blown sinus infection over Christmas, but we'll never know for sure. Good times. And now I'm happy to pack up all of the decorations and start getting back to normal.

 

I hope your holidays were great!

Christmas Card 2012 + the sickies.

* After nearly a week of the worst cough and sore throat I've ever had in my life, my girl finally caught my bug and started coughing last night. :( It made for a very long and sad night and subsequently, lots of laying around and more tv watching than I'd like to admit to today. But one good thing about sick babies is the extra cuddles. I love being able to hold her and rock her and squeeze her twice as often as normal. And who can say no to "watch eye-n skines, mommy? watch eye-n skines furst?" coupled with  those pleading, soulful blue eyes she throws at you? Who cares if it's the 53rd stinking Little Einsteins episode you've watched today and you can't get the theme song out of your head. Yes, baby, sure! Of course we can watch eye-n skines!

I'm just thankful I get to hold her at all. My heart is breaking for the parents in CT who long for their babies to hold one last time.  I cannot even imagine.

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I was all on top of our Christmas cards this year. For once! I ended up taking an iphone pic of one of the cards, so that's why it looks so bad here. I'm still trying to figure out our new laptop with it's Windows 8 business. It's driving me nuts!

Christmas Card 2012

Anyway, a few weekends ago, I had a freak out that we wouldn't have any good pictures for our Christmas card, so we hauled my tripod out to the duck pond near our house before dusk. It's in the neighborhood next to ours, so I'm sure they were all thrilled with the crazy lady yelling and counting down and freaking out the ducks, trying to get a good shot. Whatever. 

 

* First portion was written Tuesday night. Which was another doozy. 

naughty or nice? you decide.

The above picture is literally the best expression we got. She was unshakable in her refusal to smile. Stubborn stinker.

And I love this last picture, of dad trying to talk her into talking to Santa at all. She took one look and then had that disgruntled look on her face the rest of the day. :)

{DIY} White Felt Leaf Wreath

Time to get crafty! I feel like I work on a project every single day, but rarely do I share them with you guys. So it's your lucky day!! Are you excited?

I whipped up this simple wreath today. This is my favorite kind of crafting- only a few supplies needed, plus a warm drink, snack of your choice and a sofa to sit on while you watch re-runs of the Real Housewives of Whatever. Totally my kind of afternoon.

Here's what you need. Straw wreath form (leave the plastic on), white felt, scissors and a million push pins.

Start by cutting out a TON of felt leaves. I think in all, I had a little over 100 leaves. Then just start pinning the leaves onto your wreath form. Just overlap your leaves in a pretty way. Easy peasy. I did go back at the end and pin down the leaves in random places, to keep everything from shifting around.

 TA-DA!

Isn't it festive? Or actually- just really simple and a little modern? I can't decide. But I do love it! It's simple and sleek enough that I want to keep it up all year long, not just during Christmas. So I thought for now I should add a few little metallic berries to Christmas it up:

 

So what do you think?? 

Ps, I'm just now noticing that the lights on the top portion of our pre-lit tree have gone out. Lovely.

Linking up!

Project 52:47 {Christmas}

thankful for...

Christmas

I love this holiday.

Like, far and away above the others. I love the music, the decorations, the traditions, the festivities, the gift-giving and the feeling of love and community that seems to permeate this time of year.

I have been so excited to include Evie in more than just opening presents this year. To really talk to her about Christmas and why we celebrate. To read about the birth of Jesus over and over and over. I've already started singing Silent Night and Jingle Bells to her, hoping she'll catch on soon and this weekend we'll be breaking out the Advent Calendar.

I love this holiday. 

I'm so thankful for all the happiness and festiveness that it brings, but more importantly- most importantly- I am thankful to celebrate the birth of Jesus. That a sweet little baby was born on a cold night long ago, in a miraculous way. Sent to walk among men and die so that we might live forever.

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Read more about my Project 52.

Linking my Project 52 with:

styleberry BLOG

 What We're Sayin'

Oh The Places We'll Go 

Englexas 

Wicked Kate

Christmas 2011

A quick rundown of our Christmas festivities this year.. I'm bummed because I hardly took any family or group pictures! Imagine that.

We spread out the cheer this year by heading up to see my family the weekend before Christmas. Christmas on a Sunday really threw a loop in the planning! But it all worked out and my brother and sister-in-law were able to come from California for a full week and saved on flights. We had a blast all holed up at my Dad and Step-mom's new house and Evie loved seeing everyone!

The weather was nice enough on Saturday that we decided to hit up the zoo! Great idea and as you can imagine, it was extremely unbusy!

My camera settings weren't great on a lot of these. Sorry!

Evie showing off her sign language for "more"

Our zoo has a great chimp and monkey habitat. I always remembered it from when I was little and it's even better now. And there were two or three babies to see while we were there, which was fun.

 

Fun Fact: this big guy above was laying on his belly, with his face near the glass when we came in. He then proceeded to THROW UP right in front of everyone and then EAT IT. Seriously. So gross.

 

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Evie wore her Christmas jammies for Sunday Christmas at my parents'.. there's just something about festive holiday pj's to me. I love it. And her, of course. And her faces.

This is her Mad Scientist look. It's all in the hair, baby.

As the only child, and arguably the cutest attendee, it's safe to say Evie got a lot of attention. Here she is sitting in the middle of the room, all eyes on her, opening her gaggle of gifts and basking in the attentive glow.

And this was just my favorite moment of the day:

Nothing like walking into the kitchen to discover your SIL, crouched down, digging around in the liquor cabinet and pouring herself a hot toddy right on the floor. :) I think she's feeling more and more comfortable around our family all the time! HA!

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We spent Christmas Eve with my in-laws and my sister joined us for the craziness. All my pictures were of Evie and pretty reddish, so nothing to show for it here! Gah, must work on that. Add it to my Resolutions List, right??

We did manage to get a family pic of the three of us. :) Our sweet little family.

Hope your Christmas was merry and bright!!

Christmas Day 2011