Ready or Not...

I think this is the first time I am actually writing down goals and plans I have for the new year. The past week I have really been thinking of what I can work on in 2012.  All my goals are do-able and most are things I genuinely WANT to do. 

Here is my list so far, hold me to them friends :)

• Paint a room or two.
• Catch up on photo albums and keep up.. EVERY month.
• Hang things up on my walls (pictures in hallway, mirrors and art in rooms, pretty plates in kitchen ect.)
•  Take a blog course online and try to blog 3-4 times per week.
• Go through the stacks and stacks of magazines I have piled up in the basement.  I can do this nightly in bed right before I doze off. Rip out ideas I like, trash the rest!
• Make things I see on Pinterest and pin them.
• Learn to say "no" sometimes (business related!)
• Cook more for me and my boys.
• Start a new collection.
• Make a scrap afghan for myself. Maybe a yoyo quilt too!
• Keep better notes in my kids baby books.
• Decorate one room every few months (boys room, my room, studio and kitchen)
• Share one DIY tutorial per month on my blog.
• Play with makeup more (like the blue eyeshadow in the above photos!)
• Go to sleep at a decent time.
• Take a photo class online.

There they are! Whew.  I will keep you updated :)

Good luck to you in 2012!  It is going to be a fabulous year!!

A little somethin somethin for ME

Did any of you hit up the after Christmas clearance sales? 

I went with my mom and sister to Walmart and Target and got WAY too much stuff!!  I am excited though, I collected a bunch of stuff to have an outdoor tree next year.  It is going to be so cute.  I also got all the stocking stuffers I will need for the boys for next year.   That being said I will probably forget I got all the crap I did get and end up buying more stuff come November :)

Check out my sweet wrapping paper supply.  The three on the right are extra pretty and sparkly.  My gifts are going to rock next year dolled up in these!

 Here are a couple more pretty things that found their way into my lucky lil' hands!

My bestie got me this darling ring for Christmas.  She knows my color is seafoam green... I go nuts over it.  She is sooo sweet and thoughtful.

I snagged this for myself right before Christmas =)  I think it is my signature scent now ha!  I love it.  When I bought it they threw in a free robe too! SCORE!  Wish you could scratch and sniff the picture.

This is the scarf I was looking at buying from Ruche RIGHT before I headed out to the clearance sales.  I didn't get it unfortunately... spent WAY to much and was feeling extra guilty when I got home :( Maybe a birthday present for myself in a couple months??  So cute right!?  I would love to own something from Ruche!
 

Psst... Don't click on the link.. that place is dangerous!

Nativity Book Photos

These are the photos that went into a "Nativity" book for my Mom and Dad.  They went with THIS framed photo we gave to them for Christmas.  The book was a hit.  We all have a copy :)  If you use Shutterfly you can create a completely custom book.  It took a lot of time and in the end it came out wonderful! Some of these photos got chopped off while I was making this post but you get the idea ;)

We went to a park to take the photos.  It took 5 adults to round up the kids and keep them focused.  My sister in law and I made all the costumes for the kids to wear.  I also used actions from Florabella to spice the photos up. I love the results of our hard work :)

Don't you love my niece's "no room in the inn" look... priceless!  That girl has got the scowl down!

Project PJ Pants

 I did it!! I managed to make 3 pairs of Christmas pj pants for me and the boys this Christmas.  I have always wanted to have a holiday pj tradition and I am so glad I squeezed these in with the craziness of Christmas. 

There is nothing too creative about them.  I used basic pj bottom patterns and clearance fleece.  I think adding tops would have been a pain in the butt so I kept it simple :)  I even managed to use the leftovers to piece together some for me... look at my legs in the above photo, you can totally see me hack job HA!  I love working with fleece though, it was like sewing into butter.

This is quite possibly my favorite Christmas photo ever =) I am extremely pleased with my self timer skills! We all look so happy... happy until those dang wall tracks kicked my butt in the photo below!

 Off the subject here but, did anyone get those wall tracks??? OMG worst decision ever.  I swear I read the directions and I STILL didn't leave enough room on the left side to fit in one of the tracks.  I was SO mad.  I ended up crying.  The boys didn't really care that I just wasted 7 wall strips. SEVEN wall strips that don't come cheap and that I would have to get more of before the track could work right. Grrrrrr!

Long story short, I hit up after Christmas sales the next day and picked some new strips up.  Today I tackled the tracks again and won :) Thank goodness. 

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a VERY MERRY Christmas!

I couldn't wait another day to show this sweet picture. My sister in law is the light bulb behind this photo.. we had the perfect amount of grand kids to make it happen this year :) My Mom and Dad finally got to see it today and they LOVED it!  We had it framed and it looked amazing.  I don't know how we will top it next year.  We even made a nativity story book.  I will have to share a few pictures from that another time. 

Hugs!!

Pretty Presents

Eeeek so excited for Christmas to be here!  I am crossing things off my "to do" list like crazy.

Wrapping is DONE!! I can't believe I wont be spending the wee hours of Christmas Eve wrapping. Ahh, feeling so accomplished :)



I did extra pretty packaging for my family presents. I didn't want to spend too much time making them fancy but I did want to make them special.  I used whimsical wrapping paper from Joanns and the rest of the supplies were from thrifting trips.  I even let my 5 year old practice his writing on the name tags.  He did such a good job.  I love his cute letters, you can't buy a font like that :)

Sorry if the sun in the pictures is blinding you.  I am having fun playing with light in photos these days.

Headband Curls

I wanted to quickly share this fast, easy, darling hairdo.  These photos are from today... I was really excited to show you! 

My sister introduced me to the "headband" curl last week.  Since then I have done it twice.  It is a no heat, overnight kind of curl.  There are probably a lot of tutorials floating around out there but THIS is the one I found. I didn't really watch the video or read anything.  I just looked at the pictures :) Very EASY people!

If you are bored with everyday do you should definitely give it a try. 

Have fun! Back to work for me =)

Sweet Scrap Tutu

THIS was one of my first "pins" via Pinterest.

It wasn't a tutorial, just a photo of a DARLING little girls scrap fabric tutu.  I fell in love!  Had to make one!  Since I have no little girls of my own I jump on opportunities to make gifts for girls.  This year I get to exchange Christmas presents with my brothers family.  They have 3 girls and another on the way.. WOOT!! You know what that means... it is a scrap tutu factory over here! 

I am making 3 different skirts with 3 matching skirts for the Disney Princess dolls the girls are getting from Santa.  They are going to be SO cute.  I am using lots of vintage sheets and pillowcase fabrics that I already have on hand.  One of the best parts to making these was picking out all the fun fabric I FINALLY get to use!  These sheets have been sitting in my closet forever, it felt so nice for my scissors to meet them. 

I can't wait to see them wearing them.  I already made both my boys try them on so I could see how they looked... that didn't go over so well =)

Oreos+Chocolate+Pepperrmint= SERIOUSLY CUTE COOKIES

Anyone been to Zupas and had chocolate covered Oreo with crushed peppermint?  I did and yeah I totally copied them!  They were so cute and yummy.  They were easy to make and perfect to bring to a party.

My mom helped me put them all together. She lives super close to me and doesn't mind if I come clean out her pantry :) At least I don't think she does.

You can make them simpler by not adding the stick.  Just dip half the cookie into some chocolate and sprinkle with the candy cane pieces.  DONE!

 

YUM!!

Busy Bee

I am SO stinkin proud of myself this week.  I got so so much done.  I shipped of a load of hats EARLY... that is pretty unheard of. I made 5 out of the 10 new items I want to have in the store for this January, February and March.  Found and ordered supplies for the others!  Seriously so happy.

Since I finally had a little down time I managed to bust out some fun stuff.  I rarely ever find time to craft for myself anymore, there is always to many other things to get done.  I am sure you all know how that game goes. Anyways, I had a dinner party to go to and I really wanted to wear a pair of grey sweater leggings with my high boots.  Do you ever plan your outfit around one thing like that?  I always do!  I thought this dress (shirt??) went cute with it but it was so plain.  I had to spice it up.  Soooo, I plugged in my glue gun and gathered a bunch of cream colored scraps and pieced together this belt---

Eeek! I love it so much.  I miss wearing my own creations :) Oh yuck and please don't look too hard at the first photo... my boys are disastrous when they brush their teeth! 

My Playdate with baby E!

If I can find the time I am always up for taking photos of my friends cute babies.  This little lady just turned 3 months old and she was a tough one.  She wouldn't smile for me or keep her tiny fingers out of her mouth.  She didn't like being on her tummy one bit.  She kept searching for her mommy and daddy.  She had zero interest in the silly camera staring at her.  Still, she is a super cute baby and I am so happy I got to play with her :)

Can you tell my lens seriously sucks!?  My good one was dropped about a year ago and I still haven't went shopping for a new one.  Adding that to my Christmas list :)

Happy Friday friends!

Trimmed the Tree!

I set up our tree peeps! 

I absolutely love having a Christmas tree up and shinning all month long.  It really is the best.  I was a little scared at first.  Last year I had a real tree.  This year I went down to good ole' Walmart and purchased this baby for $88.  I am very impressed too.  At first I thought it might be too big but it is just perfect now that I have it all set up.  It is nice a bushy too =) 

I trick myself into thinking it's real by having a tree like scent melting in my Scentsy. 

Mmmmm 

      

Ok, so not much has changed with my tree look since last year.  I did manage to add the snowflakes. Love them, they "flow".  I am also thinking about adding some ribbon?!?  Hmm thinking out loud here.  Not sure how to do the whole ribbon deal. 

Eeek, I better get some work done... two hours before my bedtime and too much to do!

Elves on Our Shelf!

Whoa has it really been since Halloween!?!  Whoops.

I feel like I have been trapped under a pile of hats and laundry :)  The holidays are killing me in the time department! 

Do you do "elf on the shelf"?  I saw this list on Pinterest of fun ideas and decided I had to get some elves!  Luckily, my mom had 2 perfect elves for the job.  I remember them from when I was little, I use to play with them in the tree.  Our elves arrived yesterday straight from the North Pole!

The note from Santa basically said "You two better be good for your Mama or else..." and "my elves see EVERYTHING".  Ha, we will see how good this works and I will let you know.  Ryker was way excited to see a package from Santa in the mail but was a little confused when it was just two old elves.  He keeps telling me they are just plastic!! Little stinker! I think when they start being silly around the house he will get into it a bit more.

Today they are going for a ride on our deer.  Tonight I am thinking they are going to get caught sneaking candy :)

 Happy FRIDAY friends!

Our Mario Bros Gang

Can you tell I like "matchy matchy" costumes :)

This is what me and the boys are dressing up as this year. 

MARIO, LUIGI and PRINCESS PEACH!

The outfits were super easy to put together thanks to the Savers thrift store :) 

All the little details were made using felt and fleece then hot glued on. Can't get better than that right!?

I am excited to blog hop and see what everyone else is wearing this year!  Maybe get an idea for next Halloween.