Party Time!

Happy New Year's Eve to you all! 

I've been featuring New Year's Eve party ideas for the past couple Party Time posts, and well let's face Valentines Day is just around the corner and it is time to start planning that party already!  Seriously where is the time going?!  So to start off this New Year let's talk LOVE!

I Heart Valentines Day Party

 

Valentines Day Kid's Table

New Years Eve {Last Minute Outfit Ideas}

I thought I would play dress up in a way, and put together some New Years Eve outfit ideas for those of you who are actually lucky enough to go out and celebrate in style!  Me...not so much!  And if you have caught on to my style at ALL while reading through the blog, you've come to realize I'm a simple girl that loves to be comfortable.  I LOVE clothes with a passion, but my daily routine doesn't normally allow a whole lot outside of jeans & a tee!  These would be my dream New Years Eve party clothes.  I hope you find an idea and have wonderful New Years Eve!

First up is a casual look.  Still very glam though. 

Check out those amazing royal blue shoes with the gold skulls. 

And the super cool knuckle clutch!  Love it!



Next I chose to stick with some basics by going with the

silver & black.  And just throwing in a touch of purple here and there.  It's almost a little biker chic.

Let's face it...we have to have one "Little Black Dress" outfit.

I love the color combo's of gold & black together. 

It's so classic and so elegant.

I hope you saw something you liked!  Happy New Years!

Felt Flower Ring

So I wanted to create something last night.  I've been so lazy and wanting to do absolutely nothing since Christmas!  I felt like I've been going and going for the past couple months.  Yet I wanted to give you guys an idea for a quick, inexpensive, and super fun craft project.  So I made this felt flower blinged ring.  I love it.  If you have any birthdays coming up, make a few of these lovelies in several different colors for them. 

Want to make them?  Here's how...

You will need the following:

*  Felt

* Scissors

*  Glue gun

*  Adjustable ring base

*  E6000

*  Buttons or Rhinestones

I used rhinestone buttons for the center of my ring.  I also recycled a ring I previously made for the ring base.  You can find plain flat ring bases at Michaels, Joanns, or Hobby Lobby.

Start by cutting a strip of felt slightly less than 1" wide by 11" long. 

 Now just hot glue down the very edge of the felt and start pressing the ends together. 

Do not glue the fold part.  You will be cutting there so no glue!

 Now cut along the entire strip once it's glued.  I cut mine sort of close so the fringe

was closer together.

Now starting at the end start gluing and rolling your strip until you have something that looks like this flower.  I left my center part just a tiny bit open for the rhinestone to fit into.  You can do it however you like.

 Now I took my hot glue and placed some glue in the center of the flower and put my rhinestone button in the middle.

 Take your adjustable ring base and your E6000 now and glue your flower to your ring base with a good amount of E6000.  You can try just hot gluing it, but sometimes hot glue doesn't hold well to metal.  If you use E6000 you will need to let it sit overnight to dry. 

 And you end up with this really cute ring!  You could do this on a pendent, belt, shoe accessories, purse accessories, whatever!!!  This would also be a great gift for those pre-teen girls.



My Top 3 Posts of 2011

Since I've only been blogging since August I don't have a full year of posts to look back on.  So I thought I would share my Top 3 Post's of 2011 from August until now. 

Let's start with the #1 spot!

It was my felt flower post.  You can find it HERE.

It has 405 page views to date. 



And in the #2 spot

My DIY Ruffled Tree Skirt from Christmas!  I had no idea people would love it so much.

I'm so glad they did.  You can find it HERE.

It came in second with 223 page views to date. 

In spot #3

It was my free Christmas printables.  You can find them HERE.

It had 74 page views to date.  Not too bad.

All I can say is a huge Thank You!  It's so nice to know that things I have a hand in creating are of an interest to others.  I sincerely hope that in 2012 I can create many many more things that inspire others to create! 

Merry Christmas

I wanted to take a second and wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

I hope each and every one of you is with someone you love today celebrating as a family.  Creating new memories, celebrating old traditions, and just enjoying the company of those we love.  As wonderful and awesome as today is with all the amazing presents and delicious food...I hope you all stop for one second today and give thanks for the many blessings we all have.  Take a moment to thank God for his saving grace and the gift of his son.  After all without that miraculous birth there wouldn't be a Christmas!  So thank you God for the gift of your son Jesus Christ.  Thank you for being so selfless and sending him to earth so that he could give us all eternal life!

Now....Let the present unwrapping BEGIN!!!!

I hope you all a Fantastic Day!

Merry Christmas

A Christmas Movie Marathon

I love Christmas movies!  And when I say LOVE, I mean I watch them everyday during the holidays!  There are so many great Christmas movies!  I love everything that ABC Family shows and look forward to the newest Christmas movie (some of them a little corny).  I love some classic Christmas movies, and some that are from when I was a kid and I remember watching every year.  I thought I would put together a list of all my favorite Christmas movies for you.  So grab your popcorn and treats and snuggle up for the next couple nights with the family and have a little movie marathon!

::: }}}}}}}}}}}}}} ::: {{{{{{{{{{{{{{ :::

My all time favorite Christmas movie is White Christmas!  Uh, the costumes and clothes are elegant and classic, the music is so lovely, and who doesn't love Bing Crosby singing Christmas songs!  My mom and I watched this a lot at Christmas time growing up.

Next on my list is ELF!  This movie cracks me up every single time!  And oddly every time I see him eat spaghetti with syrup I end up craving spaghetti (no syrup!) 



And I'm sorry but who doesn't love this next movie?! 

National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.

{Make It Monday} - Picture Frame Pin Cushion

Do you need a last minute handmade gift idea for someone?

If you have someone who loves to sew this is a really easy project that they will love!

Picture Frame Pin Cushions

Party Time!

This week I am featuring some great New Year's Eve party ideas. 

Since it's only two weeks away!  Wow 2011 went so fast! 

No I am not a New Year's Eve kind of girl, mostly because the hubby is usually working and all my friends have kids too and it's just not a huge party night anymore for us now.  (not that it was ever a huge party night for me before!)  Although I know a lot of people love to celebrate the New Year with a bang, so these parties have some wonderful ideas to help you get in the mood.

To start it off, check out this really great kid friendly party with fun bright colors!

Kid Friendly New Year's Eve

Silver & Gold New Year's Eve

Sparkly "midnight" Dinner Party

Shabby Apple Giveaway - WINNER Announced!

CONGRATULATIONS

to

Rhi from

Raw Canvas Photography!

Shabby Apple will be sending you this amazing necklace! 
Congratulations again, and I hope you really enjoy it.

And thank you to all of you who entered the giveaway.  I hope you all visit Shabby Apple frequently and share your love with them and all the beautiful products they have!

A little laugh to get your day started! Some incredibly awkward family photos!

Okay so since we are all receiving Christmas cards in the mail this week and displaying them so proudly in our homes in a lovely fashion...I figured we should all have a good laugh to start our Friday Fun Day and be incredibly GRATEFUL these people did not send us a Christmas Card!  I have found some hilarious awkward family photos to share with all of you.  There were so many good ones, although I chose to not show any of the disturbing naked family portraits I found (didn't think it was appropriate to feature young children semi-nude) although some were funny and made you think, why would that even come to your mind as a family picture pose?! 

So sit back laugh a ton, and be glad we have incredible photographers now a days who would never let us look like such dorks!  Ha Ha.

This one totally looks like a SNL skit right?



Creepy dummy, and I am not talking about the Dad!

{Christmas Traditions}

I thought I would share some of our families Christmas traditions today.  We don't have many, but the ones we do have we look forward to every Christmas. 

Every year on Christmas Eve our boys receive a special package from the North Pole!  They receive a new pair of Christmas pj's from Santa.  And Santa always brings the exact ones they asked for!  Which amazes them!  Gonzalo usually is the one who runs to front door while "taking out the trash" to ring the bell and runs back super fast to come inside to open the front door to see who's there.  Although now that Corbyn is getting older it's getting harder to do this, so we may have to recruit the neighbor teen to do it this year.  The boys sleep in those pj's on Christmas Eve and can wear them through the year until they don't fit, then I pack them away.  When the boys get married, I plan on making them a quilt with all their Christmas pj's.  I'm hoping there wife loves the idea of it!  She might not, so I have to make it super cool.  Ha! 

These are this years requested pj's:

{monkey is for Kaison, football for Corbyn incase you were wondering!}

 Another thing we do on Christmas Eve is to get in the car and drive the boys around to look at Christmas lights while drinking hot cocoa.  My mom did this with us when we were kids, and every year that we do it with our kids I remember driving around with my mom and I cherish that memory.  When we get home we "feed" the reindeer with the special oats & glitter mix we get from Santa every year.  This year we might make a carrot ice wreath for them too! 

{no this is not our house, I wish it was...it's way newer!}

25 Days of Christmas - Day 25

Day 25

First of all I just want to say thank you if you have been following my 25 days of Christmas series.  I will however say that I'm glad it's come to an end, I learned that there is way to much stuff going on to do 25 days!  What was I thinking!  I'm crazy like that.  Next year maybe just a two week series!  Ha. Ha. 

Now onto the final project.  If your the person who loves to fit a newsletter in with your Christmas card each year (like me), you know first of all it's incredibly time consuming to write a small paragraph about each family member.  Besides the fact that most people probably don't even read it and throw it away...I hope they really don't...but I have a feeling they do!  Sorry!  But I love this idea of a simple note card with just the major events from the year!  It's a great idea to share what has happened in your lives, and keeps it short and sweet!



Happy 93rd Birthday Grandma!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Today I want to wish my Grandma (Winnie) a Huge Happy Birthday! 

She turned 93 today, and to me that's a huge accomplishment all on it's own! 

To her it's no biggy!

(Kaison's 3rd birthday this past September)

I had to take her to run an errand today, so I saw her early this morning...I made her some coconut cupcakes last night as a birthday treat!  She LOVES coconut, and SUGAR so it's a win win!  Last year at this time she was recovering from breast cancer.  So this year it's such a blessing to have her here with us!  Just like it is every year.  She loves hot tea (she was born in England), and sweets.  She spoils us rotten, and loves our boys like crazy.  I'm so blessed that they have gotten to have her in their lives, and that they will always remember her...I know there will be a day when she isn't here at her earthly home anymore and all we will have is her memory.  So for now I like celebrating her, even if she thinks birthdays are pointless at this age!  Ha ha.

(and even though you probably won't read this since you don't know how to use the computer!  I still wanted to celebrate you!)

(Corbyn's kindergarten graduation)

25 Days of Christmas - Day 24



Day 24

Does your family make Gingerbread Houses every year?  We don't usually, although last year I let the boys make the graham cracker kind.  That was not the easiest of ideas.  Crackers break...A LOT!  This year I was thinking of decorating one with them, but the regular kind.  I think we might do that this weekend.  I need to find a kit I really like though, I'm so picky!  And I kind of want it to match our decor, too picky?...yeah maybe!  We'll see how it turns out if we actually get to it.  For now, look at these adorable Gingerbread Houses for some inspiration on making yours.

25 Days of Christmas - Day 23

Day 23



Head over to The 36th Avenue and check out these adorable clay ornaments her kiddo's made.  This is a great project to do this week as gifts for family members (like Grandma's) they love stuff like this!  Or neighbors.  It looks so easy peasy!