Christmas through my son's eyes

Keep linking to the party here ladies! What fun this is! I am loving seeing what you all are loving right now! I've already found about ten things I HAVE TO HAVE and quite a few projects I'm going to try out too. (Sorry about the mess with Mr. Linky. He's on my crap list right now.)

So as I was thinking of more of my favorites right now, my son came to mind. This season has shown me example one million and one of how my son has changed my life for the better...he sees magic in everything right now. Snowmen are awesome. Snow is magical. And Santa is the BOMB. (Da bomb.)

And for that reason, some of my favorites right now are mine only because they are his...I mentioned the 12 foot Santa for the front yard? No I haven't purchased one (yet.) but I am just itchin' to, just because every time we walk into Lowe's, he is. in. heaven. But I have purchased plenty of other items I never would have before. And I LOVE them! This has translated to me spending WAY too much on cute, fun, magical little things that I know he will love for years.

Like a Santa cookie jar. I've never owned a cookie jar in my life. And now, I just had to have it!:

Cute snowmen towels from Target:

Silicone cupcake molds for a DOLLAR each from Target:

We already tried them out tonight for Hubby's birthday. They came out PERFECT! (Love you Lovey!!)

Stuffed Santa: (consignment shop find, brand new, $7 people.) He doesn't put him down:

My countdowns. (Which I will be finishing up tonight...GAH!)

Of course we needed a The Night Before Christmas book, it's beautiful. And I wanted to get him the Rudolph movie and of COURSE they had a set of the old Christmas movies for $40 and I just had to get it. Help me. My husband begs of you.

And the gingerbread house from Hallmark that lights up and plays music (click play button!):

HA! I just had to do it! Seriously though, our son must play this thing 15 times a day. He tries to carry it everywhere with him...while I follow him around freaking out because I'm thrifty and that thing was $20!!


I can't wait to see more of your favorites! I'll be back this week with more of mine!

Tell us a few of your favorite things!!

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**Edited to add that I've extended this for the giveaway till Saturday at noon. So keep linking till then! And you are still welcome to keep posting after that just for fun!

It's here! It's here! I don't know about you, but this time of year just makes everything more fun. I guess I find I'm more thankful for the little things right now too. I don't know what it is, but weeks ago, while shopping, I thought of this idea after I must have said "OH, how CUTE!" about fifty trillion times while eyeing all the Christmas stuff.

And that's how this fun post came about. So all you have to do is either create a post and link to it here, or link to a past post. It can be ANYTHING!! How about your favorite TV show right now? (Kath and Kim.) Or your favorite food? (Cinnamon Bagelfuls.) Your favorite song? (Darius Rucker, "It won't be like this for long." Dare you not to cry.) Favorite holiday decor? (Magnolias.) Toiletry? (Oil of Olay warming scrub. Ohhhh, love. it.) Home decor? (New flannel sheets from Target. Only $20 for a king size!) Anything! Have fun with it! If it's an item you buy, tell us where you get it. If you made it, tell us how. If you cook it, give us the recipe.

And if you don't have a blog or Web site, don't fret! Just leave a comment (everyone else please comment too!) and let me know by leaving your name or e-mail or something I can identify you with.

And for all this...you'll be entered for my fantabulous giveaway! Well, not fantabulous, just kind of fabulous, or a little fantastic, either way. I've just been grabbing fun stuff for weeks as I've been shopping around. Some is Christmasy, some isn't. All my favorites right now, all fun:

Hot chocolate

Bath salts

Christmas kitchen towels

Pine scented BBW home spray

Christmas scrapbook paper

Holiday scrapbook items

Popcorn (you knew that was coming!)

Dollar bin stuff from Target

Santa matches (Precious!)

Pine cones you can glitter to your heart's content

Santa sign

Fun and easy recipes for entertaining

Reindeer food for the kiddies to sprinkle on the lawn

I'll draw the winner this Friday. So until then, Linky, Linky ladies! (Taken down for the time being because of Explorer issues!)

P.S. The reindeer food and the pine spray aren't in the picture because my frazzled brain can't remember where I put them. I'm thinking of about 32 projects I want to work on right now. It will come to me tonight when I am just about to drift off to sleep...then I'll have to get up and run to get them so I don't forget again. Bear with me.

Got a front door?

Then you can do this:

And make the outside of your house as pretty as the inside.

You'll need:

A door. (I'm funny.)
Numerous garlands ($3 or less each)
Numerous light strands
Large or small cup hooks
Step ladder
Measuring tape

Measure the height and width of your front door. Take your garland and figure how many feet you'll need. Most come in nine foot sections. (By the way, you can easily cut these to size with pliers or wire cutters.) Then, depending on how much you have and how full you want it -- twist numerous strands together. Then wrap the strands of lights around the whole thing.

Take your cup hooks, and start putting them around your door. I like to put them opposite ways, so the garland kind of weaves around them:

At the top, put one right in the middle. Then find the middle of your garland:

Keep a hold of that point in the garland, then hang that part on the middle cup hook. Then drape the rest down the sides of the doorway, tucking the garland in the cup hooks as you go. (Make sure the plug for the lights is closest to the outlet!)

If you don't have an outlet, just use a bunch of garland and make a full one to put around the door. Stick ornaments, ribbon, whatever in it! I have a very small porch, so I put up two sets -- one around the door and one around the overhang. I also do this around the garage in the same way.

The cup hooks will leave a very small hole in the trimwork. If you are worried about the hole, use the smaller cup hooks.

The great part is, you'll know exactly where they go every year -- the hole is already there! Greenery makes for a very traditional, sophisticated exterior and I LOVE IT. If you have the 12-foot, blow up Santa, I'm sure it will still work with that. (OH, do you know how close I am to getting one this year?? More about that later.)

To do this:

That's a lighted wreath, hanging in the window, in case you can't tell because you are blinded by the lights because my stupid bleeping expensive camera won't take pictures worth a crap in the dark no matter what setting I use... Breathe.

Anyhoo, take a small wreath (I got mine for about $3 each at Joann's years ago.) Wrap it with a strand of lights. Take fishing wire, floral wire, string, anything, and wrap it through the top. Open your window, pull out the screen, lay the wreath on the screen, figure out where you want it, then pulling the wire and end of the lights through the top, shove the screen back in, cuss a few times, call your husband to help, cuss again cause he's taking too long, slam the screen back in, then close the window.

You may have to push a little harder for the window to lock this time. :) I'm sure it's some kind of minor fire hazard to smash a strand of lights through a window, but I've done it for years and we're OK. (Knock on wood.) Here's a better pic:

Wow, that little guy needs to be fluffed. Garland is like a wet cat, you need to fluff it up to get it looking it's best.

Really, none of this is hard. It just takes time. The first time you do it will be the longest. After that, it takes me well under an hour, start to finish, to hang everything.

More crappy pictures to show you the beauty (I'm really selling this well, aren't I??):

Notice the coach light that's burnt out. Only the best for you folks, I tell ya.

P.S. The posts will probably come fast and furious this month! If I see something, I'm going to post it...like that puuuurdy Christmas tree. Kelly, NO THAT IS NOT IN MY HOUSE!! :)

P.P.S. We're getting our tree tomorrow -- EARLY this year. Yippee kie yay!!!

Purdiest Christmas tree EVER.

Would you BELIEVE this is made out of these?:

OH, I am ROLLING!!! Not because it's made of Mountain Dew cans, but because I actually think it's kind of pretty!! My favorite part is the "star" on top. Have I lost my mind? Just another testimonial to the magic of Christmas lights -- they can make anything pretty!

Anyone up for a soda can tree? And talk about thrifty -- just save up your pop cans and wire hangers for a year and a FREE TREE!

P.S. Click on the tree cookie and watch my pet reindeer. Ca-uuute!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We slept in till 9, are watching the parade, and are about to start the pancakes. Does it get any better? I don't think so!

Couldn't let the day go by without saying Happy Thanksgiving to you all. Enjoy, stuff yourself, enjoy your families, and try to relax at some point. I am very thankful for all of you. (Sniff.)

Oh, and give my "pet" turkey a pet. :)

Are you in?

Phew...my annual Christmas card photo is officially over, hurried along by the early snowfall that I desperately wanted to take advantage of for its photographic possibilities. It is not an event I particularly look forward to, however, I so enjoy the end result. I have tortured myself this way for as many years as I can remember, and love looking back on the photos of Christmases past. Many have been taken as the children sat under our Christmas tree, and others in front of the mantel, whenever we had one. For some reason, I have upped the pressure on myself to be creative and photograph them in a different way each year. Perhaps it is the ever-honest voice of my husband's brother that I hear as he proclaims that "...last year's was better" or "...you can never beat the one of the boys on the front step" (when they were five and three years old),

but regardless I plan that photo with the same intensity that the "old man" in A Christmas Story bargained for a deal on a Christmas tree. Who doesn't need a little more holiday pressure??!!

The common theme (besides well wishes to friends and family) has been to show off my children...and I make no apologies for that. They represent our family best; and their father and I have yet to join them in a Christmas card photo - partly because of the logistics behind it, and partly because I want to look at the photo with sheer contentment, instead of picking apart my flaws and second guessing what to wear. I think I am like many women, who shy away from the camera, wrong or right. I also think we are misguided, and may regret our opting out of these pictorial keepsakes.

I have, on one occasion, posed for professional photos with my boys, albeit completely unintentionally. The following photos were taken when my boys were two and one yrs old. Despite our best efforts, my baby would not let me put him down, nor would he relinquish the train the photographer had given him, to coax him from my arms. Try as we did, there was no way he would pose for her, thus she suggested that I be in the photos. Despite my protests (I was not dressed for a photo session), and my shyness in front of the camera, I knew it was a losing battle: either pose, or go home empty-handed (photo-wise, of course...).

Apprehension aside, I laughed my way through the shoot as both boys "kept it real" and alternately toddled away, pulled hair (see below), acted silly or squirmed in my arms. Either way, I ended up with photos that are priceless to me, and instead of scrutinizing myself, I simply saw an adoring mother of two hopelessly cute boys. On this occasion, I was in...!!

Are you?

Magic. Take Two.

You so know me by now and were probably expecting this...but I had to make a change. The tree candles on the mantel were so...oh I don't know, 2006. I adore them, but they just didn't do the GORG magnolia garland justice. Sooooo...

I took floral foam, stuck a ton of garland in there, wrapped 100 lights in it (Good LORD!) and more flowers. Ummmm...love it. But is it too much? Even if it is, I luuurve it and it's stayin'.

**Edited to add -- I kept the crystal candlesticks (honestly, just because I am totally lazy and didn't want to take a trip to the basement to get the others. Added some green sparkly candles and done! I also moved the NOEL stocking holders to another spot.




Is it sacrilegious to not hang your stockings on the mantel when you have a mantel?? :)

I hope you all have a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving. Enjoy your family and friends and just relax and have fun with it all. We will do very little other than cook, eat, lounge, watch TV, lounge, eat, cook, eat, eat. Sleep. Sounds like perfection to me. We are ready:





Also stocked up on Christmas cookies, cinnamon rolls and wine. We've got all we need. :)

Finally, I told you my house pukes up garland...(this is about a tenth of it):

This weekend I'll show you how easy it is to hang this and transform the outside of your home.

P.S. Don't forget to be thinking of some of your favorite things for December 1st!! Mr. Linky is coming and I want to see your favorite things you love right now -- it can be ANYTHING -- craft stuff, decorating stuff, holiday decor, jewelry, cleaning supplies, food, blogs, whatever! I find the greatest things when people share their favorites. I have the giveaway almost completed. :)

HAPPY TURKEY DAY!!

Gobble.

Gobble.

Please Santa...and a winner!

photo source: Country Home magazine, styled by Matthew Mead

How many of you fine adults still pounce on the Sears Wish book and flip to the toy section? Well, I do, even though I show enough restraint to allow my kids first dibs. I remember being a young girl and finally getting my hands on it and stealing away to a quiet corner to look at all the loveliness. I'd greedily put a star beside each gift I coveted, especially if it involved Barbie or Sindy. I certainly didn't get everything I asked for, but that was hardly the point. By laying claim to a particular toy, it opened up the possibility that it might find its way under our tree. Between Mum and Santa, such magic could surely unfold?

photo source: BHG.com

After my daughter had a good look through this year's edition, I curiously looked at what she had "starred". Instead of writing her name next to the toys or drawing a check mark or star, she had simply written the words: Please Santa?

~Sigh~

How can I resist such a sweet request? I jotted down the numbers of a couple of the toys that I knew she was really hoping for and from Santa they will be! My boys have moved on from such wish lists, and instead I have to pull teeth to get them to reveal a few things I can pick up for them. Santa is over for them now, at least in the truest sense. Me? I'm a believer. Like one little friend of my son's said a few years ago: "How could there be no Santa? My parents certainly couldn't afford all that stuff!!" Indeed...

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Now on to the winner of the Fairy Door: courtesy of the random number generator, PippaJo of Cottage at Wit's End is the lucky winner! Thanks to all who entered!!

Magic.

First off, you need to know I can't get enough of certain things. All year round, you know by now, it's molding of any kind. In the spring and summer, it's landscaping bricks outside. At Christmas-time, it's greenery. My house looks like a pine tree threw up all over it (but in a pretty way) by the time I'm done every season. And every year, I add more. My style is very traditional, and there's nothing that screams traditional more this time of year, then greenery wrapped around EVERYTHING.

So this year, I was quite obsessed with adding white magnolias to our mantel greenery. I don't know why -- I saw it somewhere months ago and fell. in. love. I looked at Joann's, nothing. Hobby Lobby, nada. The Web, zilch. Starting to hyper ventilate that my dream would not come true...I realized I hadn't stopped by Micheal's. The clouds opened up and I found EXACTLY what I wanted there last week, half off. Whooty WHO!

So this is what I created. First of all, you need a few strands of basic greenery. (The more the better!) I usually get mine from Joann's for less than $3 each. For this project, I found greenery at Micheal's for $2 each. Got three, wrapped them together. Then piled on the goodies...

I wrapped the whole thing with two strands of lights, then stuck a lot of this in (also half off):

A little of this (I already had):

And a TON of these...glorious!!:

It turned out exactly the way I wanted. You know when you see something in your mind and it turns out JUST how you imagined? Yep, this was one of those.

Now I need your help -- I usually use my basic candlesticks on the mantel, but found a couple glass candle holders in the basement I thought might work too. What do you think? This? (I'll add green or white sparkly candles):

Or this?:

What do you think? I need advice!

In my humble opinion, there is nothing quite so magical and beautiful then Christmas lights in the dark. The glow transforms the room and my state of mind. I just have to sit back, smile, and relax.

P.S. I don't where to put the stockings now...but we'll deal. Santa will find them anywhere, right? :) Nah, I'll put them up in a couple weeks...for now I enjoy.

P.P.S. I've been teaching my almost two-year-old son for weeks now to say "Ho Ho Ho" when we ask about Santa. Well, it took. All weekend...every time he sees a Santa, he says it. So basically, because I bought him the cauuutest stuffed Santa to tote around...it's all we've heard. For days. The best part is, this boy, the cutest boy in the WORLD, doesn't just say it...he purses his lips and says a very deep and meaningful "Ho Ho Ho!" out of the corner of his mouth. I. could. just. die.

The Impact of Fall Colors in Interior Decorating

I would never recommend you paint interior walls just to decorate for a season, but so many of our favorite colors come in fall anyway. You can safely paint almost any room in warm tones and it works all year round. Paint a single wall in orange or another bright fall color and leave the rest white for strong contrast.

Bold is Beautiful - Go for Orange & White!

Orange is a bold color, but look at the contrast you get when you paint just a single wall in a room in a very bold primary color and leave the rest of the room white? It is striking and, again, will work well all year. Other ‘bold’ fall colors that work well as wall paint colors include cinnamon, cranberry and burgundy.

Think contrast!

Blend or contrast colors, generally using no more than two or three colors in a room, a cranberry wall with white chair rail looks great but four cranberry walls and no trim will seem too stark.

Though, you can get away with a little color addition to greatly affect the overall look of a room. So, you can add red, yellow or orange to a room that otherwise has none of these colors, creating a central point in one area or splashing the accent color in several places throughout the room.

Countdowns for the kiddies!

Woooeeee, I am modge-podged OUT! I started one project tonight I just couldn't wait to show you and finished one I couldn't wait to show you. :) First, the finished...

I got this vinyl design at Uppercase Living (you saw it here) -- and I got it FREE! I hosted a party, sold quite a bit and got three items for only $14. I was eyeing this one for weeks beforehand, so I had plenty of time to figure out what I was going to do. In the catalog, they put it on a pizza pan. Umm, OK. Cute, but not for me. Instead I got a table top from Lowe's, painted it with my leftover magnetic paint, then spray painted it white.

The magnet is a little itty bitty tree from Hob Lob that I got for about 30 cents. Painted it, put a magnet on the back, there you go.

Added fun ribbon from Micheals and it finished it off perfectly! I even spray painted an easel I already had to make it work better. So really, this whole project cost me less than $13 -- for the table top, ribbon and the tree.

I really, really LOVE this thing. I think it is just plain PRECIOUS. I swear, I should get commission from Uppercase Living for this stuff.

So the modge podge overload (now I have modge podge hand instead of spray paint finger - argh!) came from this project. I cannot remember where I saw it -- tell me if it was YOU or if you've seen it somewhere. Where ever I saw it, she did it for Halloween. I thought I would have to start on Halloween to get this started by December 1, but it is going much faster than I thought it would. **Edited to add that I saw this at Just a Girl -- thanks for reminding me ladies!

I started with a trillion 24 cardboard boxes, painted the sides of the lids, then glued the tops to my scrapbook paper. I was trying to be all thrifty and used wrapping paper at first, which did NOT go well. It is way too thin.

I cut around the lids with an x-acto knife, then on some, added more paper around the container, some I painted. (I heart the painted ones. EASY.) I modge-podged like mad, then added some cute foam stickers and numbers to the top. (You should be able to enlarge this one.)

The other 12 of these will be in green. I'll show you the finished product soon! By the way, your craft kitchen table will look like this:

Pepsi? Check. Remote? Check. Phone? Check. Happy Chick.

Sorry, gotta say it...caauuuuuute!!! But the numbers are a thorn in my side. Has anyone ever tried to find nine chipboard 1's? Impossible. (Well, without buying nine packages...not happening.) So I'm just cutting the letters out with the x-acto knife and that is about to put. me. over. the. edge. Help.

Anyway, I think they are both adorable. When I saw the little containers in blogland, she put magnets on them, but I'm not sure if I will do that yet. I thought it might be fun just to hide them somewhere for every morning for the Bub to find. Ideas? Maybe the elves leave them? Is that a recipe for him freaking out about elves sneaking into the house at night?? Tell me these things, I'm only two years into the Christmas tradition thing. :)

I'm whooped. Off to dream about modge podge scrapbook paper Christmas traditions!

The Snowball Effect...

You know how one thing leads to another? Well, so it was today. We awoke to a glorious pile of snow, and the holiday feel just snowballed from there (I know, I know...). Like I've said before, there are certain things that just have to happen to jump-start the holidays. Like when our great Canadian coffee franchise comes out with their holiday cup (a large black, one sugar please):

Speaking of hot drinks, Sophie ordered up her favourite: hot chocolate with a candy cane. Note, my snowflake mug that I brought up from one of the many bins I rifled through on Friday as I prepare myself to decorate next week. This week was all about cleaning...

Speaking of cleaning, today was good for a little more pre-holiday-decorating cleaning...in this case, it was Sophie's Barbie house that was in question. Apparently, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree: she suggested that we give Barbie a Christmas Tree! You know I was all over that!!

Speaking of Sophie, we decorated her bedroom and tree last evening. She had a great time, but still loads the tree three ornaments to a branch! She keeps me real...

And speaking of tree ornaments, I re-sized my silhouettes to fit in these ornament frames from Walmart. I made them as gifts for my mother-in-law for Christmas. I am making a set for myself, but I will glitter the frames to snazz them up!

And speaking of gifts, I gave the gift of my time and energy today: while dropping off my eldest son so he could watch a basketball game, I was blocked in by a man whose car wheels were spinning in the messy snow of the parking lot. I stopped, and he got out of his car and asked me if I "wanted a push?" Of course, I heard "Do you wanna push?" Admittedly a teensy bit taken aback, I shrugged sure... He walked closer to my car (to push) as I got out and leaned into the job of pushing his car! Puzzled, he asked, "Are you sure...?" and I told him I'd give it a try. He graciously offered to have me steer the car as he pushed, but when I realized it was a standard, I deferred. My last effort at driving a manual transmission involved repeatedly stalling and my eldest brother yelling at me...so, no thanks! Back in my position of power, I suggested (to this rather good-looking man), "Maybe we should try getting the car rockin'" Oyyy...and we just met!! To make a long story less long, I succeeded in getting the car unstuck! Who knew I had it in me? As the car wheels spun to freedom, the man unceremoniously yelled out the door, "Thanks!" and he was off. I may have been a hero, but I don't mind saying I didn't feel all that feminine doing it. I know, I know, girl power...let's just say I got back in touch with my femininity with a little therapeutic shopping!!

So that's it, in a nutshell. It started with some snow, and ended with it, too. I arrived home from my rescue mission to this:

There's nothing like a big, fat snowman to make things Christmasy!

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Don't forget to enter my Fairy Door give-away (see post below)!!