Homemade gifts 5 and 6 (and sorta 7).

I gave my mom these two things with a tag that said "to the woman who taught me to love sewing and art". A pear watercolor that I painted and is now living in their dining room and a hot mat that I "quilted" for her.

I also made her, uncle J and dad B a calendar of pictures that I took in the last year which I am always very proud of - both the time it takes to design the calendar and the photos that I choose for each. This is the first year I have done one for J and B but 3rd or 4th year for mom. Hers was all pictures of things we did together - I think- and that was fun too. Hiking trips, hot air balloons, etc. Sorry - no pics of those.

Handmade gifts 3.

I followed a super simple Pinterest recipe from here and made my mom and sister hand scrub. I used the instructions found here to make them some lotion/body cream. Each was suepr easy though I probably wouldn't do the lotion again because the ingredients were a little pricey (and I didn't exactly meausre ingredients so I personally think it is a bit oily). The hand scrub is just Dawn hand renewal soap and sugar - easy, inexpensive, and feels amazing on hands. Smells great too!

Sorry for the phone pic...it is all I had at the time. Left my camera over Christmas. Silly photographer girl.  

Homemade gifts 4.

One of the semi-major craft projects - only because it is time intensive - was making my mom cards. She is a staunch supporter of the U.S. Postal Service and snail mails lots of things daily. I made her cards a couple of years ago and I figured it was time for some new ones. K and I spent some time a couple of weeks ago working on these, spread out all over her kitchen counters. I tried to make a variety of types - birthday, thinking of you, holiday - so she could send them throughout the year. I think I ended up giving her around 40 cards and it was super fun to come up with all the different designs and ideas - some new, some borrowed from Pinterest.

Homemade gifts 2.

This is another thing I saw on my sister's Etsy list that I was sure I could make. As you saw in a previous post, I made some for myself which actually took place after I made hers and realized how easy it was to do. Time-consuming, but easy. I would totally take orders for parties, showers, etc. :) her bunting is fun, bright colors and it appears it has already been hung with love in her house.

Homemade gifts 1.

I failed again at taking pictures of handmade gifts so I will post them as their recipients will send me pictures. I did get a picture of this one though before I wrapped. My sister has this neat ombre knot thing on her Etsy list and I was convinced that I could make it...and I did! I googled videos on how to make french knots - a fancy sort of 3D embroidery knot - and made this! It only took a few hours and was way cheaper than the one on Etsy. I am pretty proud of it.

Fail. Oops.

Well, I wrapped almost all my Christmas presents on Saturday as an attempt to cure my "I have a cold at Christmas-time" blues. You'd think that was a good thing, right? Well, it is and it isn't. My tree looks so much happier that pretty little gifts under it. But, I forgot to take pictures off all my secret craft projects. So, family, bear with me. As soon as you open your gifts, I will be whisking them away for a quick photo session. You are welcome - only because weird is genetic.

A Christmas Craft = 3 blogs in a day.

This is my 3rd blog today. You are welcome.

I made these for a little Christmas decor where there was lacking in the house...it is across from the tree so this side of the room looked so sad!

Don't be jealous.

Again, sorry for the blown out flash picture. It gets dark way too early for nice daylight pictures these days!

December Birchbox!

My December Birchbox came early this month (meaning earlier than it usually comes) which is awesome! I guess they are making up for being late last month due to Hurricane Sandy and I really appreciate it!

 So, this is what it looks like when you open it up. I love that there is always a fun little wrapped bit on the inside....like a double present!

Sorry about the lame/fuzzy pictures this month...light was low and I was lazy/too excited to wait.

This is the Number 4 brand clarifying shampoo. It says it is a low lather which should be interesting to try! Definately NOT a cheap shampoo so I probably won't be buying it but it will be a fun try...

theBalm cosmetics blush - just enough to try! It is a beautiful peachy shade which I hope will look like a nice flush. It has a little shimmer too so that should be nice.

Mox Botanicals lip butter in Pomegranate and Fig flavor. It is an exclusive scent to Birchbox so that should be nice. It does smell delicious and is made with avocado oil and shea butter which is great for skin!

Tweezerman is my go-to brand for great tweezers so their nail files can't be bad right??

Juicy Couture brand's signature fragrance. It says it sweet and floral - smells nice - I think I have gotten a perfume in every Birchbox so I have a good collection of choices now!

This is what it looks like when it is all together!

Pretty good box this month!

(p.s. also got a $50 off coupon for "Rent the Runway" dress rental. Pretty cool but I can bet that I won't ever be using it. Anyone interested?)

Master Bathroom Renovation - Day 1

If I haven't mentioned it before, we are beginning the process of renovating our master bathroom. Not sure why it is called a master because it is super teenie - same size as our hall bathroom - but it is the only one in a bedroom so I guess that makes it the master. We will eventually renovate both bathrooms and the kitchen because the people who "flipped" our house (a realtor and her brother) did an absolutely terrible job on most things. Mainly, they made cosmetic fixes instead of actually fixing the problem leaving us with a leaking roof (who's stains they painted over), and 3 layers of tile on the bathroom walls, among other things. I guess it means that we get to a bathroom that we love so it will eventually be OK. We've saved for this for a while so we are attempting to do it with no debt and then we will save again for the next bathroom and kitchen, etc.

Anyway, today was Day #1. I am not sure why we decided it was a good idea to demo a bathroom after inviting my entire family up for Christmas but it's fine. In all honesty, the "dirty work" will hopefully be done the end of this weekend (meaning most of the demo in the shower area). We won't be finished by the time they come up because it is going to probably take us a couple of months of weekends to finish our weekend warrior project. Today we tore down 2 layers of tile with drywall between each layer. I guess I can't blame the cruddy job on the flippers because someone before them obviously did the same thing. Either way, the bottom layer is a plastic tile, very thin, so it will just come off with the last layer of drywall. The walls have been patched so many times that we are just going to take it down to the studs on 3 walls. The 4th wall is the outside wall of the house and has a window so we should just be able to sand and make that one look nice. 8 bags of trash later and we are on our way. I've taken before and during pictures so far so one day I will show you the ewwwww that is the inside of the wall. :)

Things to do.

Because of Chad's new work schedule, he isn't going to be able to travel on Christmas like we have the past 4 married Christmases together. Traditionally, we have spent Thanksgiving with his family and Christmas with mine since they live farther away and we got more days off for the Christmas holiday. This year, we will be moving my family's Christmas to Chattanooga; I won;t be waking up at my parents house on Christmas for the first time in 28 years. I am both incredibly excited and a little sad; I am not usually a girl who likes change so this is an adjustment but it will be so nice to wake up in our own house - the one we lovingly take care of and call home - with the rest of my sweet family nearby. So, hurray for new traditions and honoring old ones too!

In the spirit of inviting my family into my home, I have started my to-do list prior to their arrival. With the hopes that I will actually get some of it all of it done, I am going to share it publically and let you in on my progress. Some of it I know I can't do until the day before (vaccuuming anyone?) but some I can do before and some are unfinished Christmas projects:

- clean off and set dining room table (after adding leaf to the middle to accomodate more sweet family!)
- finish mom's christmas project
- wrap Christmas presents (this isn't a chore...I LOVE this part!) (Edited to add: I do plan on taking pictures of all the cool stuff I made and sharing after Christmas. The suspense is killing me.)
- purchase/make 3 more presents (including a Dec. 26th birthday present for a bestie)
- clean up kitchen
- plan for and buy groceries for lots of fun family meals
- replace strand of lights on front porch decorations (thanks Dad B for making them work again!)
- sweep and vaccum floors
- clean bathrooms
- change sheets on all 3 guest beds (we will need them all! woohoo!)
- make one last Christmas decor project
- wash and return couch cover (this is a day before project...we should have taught the dog to just not get on the couch but well...eh...we like her too much)
- clean up craft room (this will obviously have to wait since I will be trashing it to finish projects)
- make giant batch of cinnamon rolls for all the neighbors (we are christening my friend K's new kitchen for this project! yippee for new double ovens...!)
- wash and put away clothes prior to company arriving
- figure out where another chair can go in the living room since we remove one for the Christmas tree and need the space for rears now that family is coming!
- acquire Wooby and Gwen's Christmas presents - a new long leash for Gwen so she can roam the backyard without chasing the neighborhood dogs and probably some cat grass for the Woobster. Gwen broke her leash and long leashes are cheaper than fences (which is on our "someday" house to-do list)


Surely this list will grow and shrink as the time goes on...I'll refer back and keep you updated (like you are really interested!)