Skipped the Crowds and Decked the Halls

My last post was about Thanksgiving decorations.  It's only the Sunday after Thanksgiving, but it already feels like ages ago.  We spent our Turkey Day with Jim's Aunt Michelle and her family.  We also got to visit with some of Jim's other relatives.  It was a laid back day surrounded by yummy food and fun people.  My kind of day.  I made this.  Exquisite.  I mean, it was on Martha Stewart's website, so of course it would be perfection!  I mean, I'm not a chocolate person, but I LOVE French Silk Pie -- go figure.  Literally.  My figure goes just thinking about the scrumptious deliciousness of this pie.  On the way over to Jim's Aunt's house I whined, "I don't want to share this pie.  I want it all for me."  I said this whilst imagining my French-Silk-Pie-covered-face sitting on my kitchen floor, fork in mouth, empty pie pan on my lap, and a look of satisfaction smothered over my face.  Jim gave me a, "You're weird" glance, and I was reminded that it was Thanksgiving.  A day we're supposed to share our blessings with others.  So, once we arrived at Michelle's, I decided not to leave the pie in the car only to take it home later and snarf its silky, rich, satiny, chocolate, decadence all by myself, and share my bounty with others. Now the pie is gone, and I'm a little sad.

To get over my love affair with The Pie, I spent the Friday after Thanksgiving NOT fighting the deal-thirsty mobs (not a fan of crowds) and instead I stayed home with the littles tearing down our Fall decor and adorning our house for Christmas.  While we hung the ornaments with care, Nat King Cole (I could listen to his smooth voice croon Christmas Carols ALL.  DAY.  LONG) among others filled our house with Christmasy spirit.  I even completed a new craft I had been thinking of.  It was SO easy and I think it turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself.  Looky here:

I call them, Antiqued Mason Jar Lanterns  

Materials Needed:  

Mason jars (or any glass--think recycled sauce--jars)

Metallic spray paint (I used silver), 

Sand paper

Brown and/or black acrylic paint (those little .50 to .89 bottles is more than enough)

A few drops of water

Medium paint brush or small sponge brush

Vinyl letters that spell holiday-ish verbage (I cut mine using my Silhouette, but before I had this handy machine I would go to a craft store and get stickers to use for this kind of project or cut paper by hand an Modge Podge it on)

A finishing/sealing agent (I used glossy Modge Podge).

How To:  

1.  Spray paint jars.  I spray painted the jars with a silver metallic paint, then let them dry

2.  Sand Jars.  Scuff up the spray paint using sandpaper.  Just do this to your liking. Wipe down jars.

3.  Antique Glaze Jars.  Add a bit of brown/black acrylic paint to a container and water it down a bit to create a glaze.  You might have to play around with the consistency.  Paint glaze on jars to give an antiqued effect.  Use paper towel to rub off the acrylic paint if it's a little too thick in some areas.  Continue to glaze to your personal preference.  I did a few coats.  Wait for it to dry.  

4.  Place letters on.  I cut some vinyl letters using my Silhouette (you could also use stickers or modge podge paper letters/designs on).  

5.  Seal Jars.  I finished the project by painting a coat of Glossy Modge Podge over the entire surface of the jars.

6.  Decorate with jars!  I added some fun Christmas lights and, Ta-da!!, Antiqued Mason Jar Lanterns!

Here are some more of our decorations:

I took an old thrift store frame, spray painted it green, modged podged some paper onto it, and added the vinyl sleigh and letters.  I coated it with some Modge Podge (love that stuff!)

Some trees I made and some dollar store decor (love the dollar store!)

Earlier in the day the kids and I decorated our mini tree.  It's the centerpiece on our often cluttered dinning room table.

More decor.  I made the advent calendar.  Some other items are things I made mixed with dollar store finds.  The Irish Santa was a hand-me-down from Jim' mom.  We like anything Irish around here!

We decorated the Christmas Tree as a family Friday night.  I actually did send Jim out into the masses to buy us a good deal on a fake tree.  Yes, we've decided to go fake this year.  I'm still finding pine needles from last year's tree.  I was done with the mess.  I will miss the smell of a real needled tree, but I'm hoping a pine-scented candle will make up for the loss.  Also, Hunter's new favorite hiding place is under our twinkly tree.  Here are some pics from decorating:

These are the only pictures I got.  I was too busy decorating with the family to get any more.

As I was putting the finishing touches on said tree, I wondered what happened to my help, then looked over at the couch, and saw this:

Do you like Hunter's pink pull-up diaper?  It's a leftover from Tralee's days in diaperhood.  Just so you know, a real boy can pull off a pink diaper!

Melt my heart with my lovies cute selves!  The only thing that could have made our Friday better would have been a slice of French Silk Pie (I really can't get that thing out of my mind, and I refuse to make another one because I know I'll gluttonously eat all of it too much of it).  Since The Pie was gone, I had to do the next best thing.  I tucked the munchkins into their beds, snuggled up to the hubster on the couch, put on a re-run of How I Met Your Mother (love that show), and basked in the festive decor around me.

We had a great Friday after Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is (almost) Here!

I don't have much in the name of Thanksgiving decor, so I made a few things to festive the place up.

I spray painted an old thrift store frame, modged poded some fun paper to the white mat that came with the frame, and added some cute pics of the munchkins.  I cut the vinyl "blessings" word out to place above the frame.  I also printed out another printable found here, and added it to a $1Ikea frame (when o' when will Ikea come closer to me?).  Jim also cut some blocks for me, which I painted, and added the vinyl letters that spell, "give thanks."  The pumpkins were leftover from my Halloween decor, and the "Homemade Pies -- 35 cents" printable is one that I made.  I copied a sign I found online, except I think the sign online had an apple pie, and I wanted a pumpkin pie.  So, I just made my own sign with a pumpkin pie, printed it out, and popped it in an old frame. 

Happy Thanksgiving banner.

Thanksgiving printable.  Found here.

I had to throw this one in the mix.   Isn't he cute?

Snow

We had some snowy weather for a good hour yesterday.  So, of course we had to go play in it before it all disappeared.  As usual Tralee was out frolicking the longest.  Hunter and I had some good snowy fun for 10 minutes or so, while Tralee was out there for three times that.  Afterwards we all came inside, changed out of our wet clothes, and got snugly in our jammies.  

Tralee's grassy snow angels.

Interesting Turkey Craft

We had pre-school at our house yesterday.  The theme was Thanksgiving, so of course we had to do some kind of Turkey craft.  Most of the kids' turkeys turned out like this:

And then there was Hunty's.  His turned out like this:

Should I be worried?  Or is this a sign that Hunter is a creative genius who thinks outside the box?  Jim said Hunter's turkey looks like a turd on a plate covered in eyeballs (hope you weren't eating something when you read that last line).

Lovely.

I was thinking we should have made the picture of Hunter's turd-eyeball-turkey into a holiday card that said something like, "Eye hope your Thanksgiving isn't crappy!"  There just wasn't enough time to pull it off.  Oh well.  Hopefully you're not too upset you didn't get that kind of card in your mailbox this year.  Sorry if you're disappointed.  Maybe next year our little Picasso will pull off something equally fantastic.

Remind You of Anyone?

Jim and I were looking at old photos a while back and came across this one of yours truly:


Right after we saw it Jim goes, "take off most of the hair, and that's Hunter."  So, I did just that (really quickly using my limited photoshoping skills) to see if he was right:

What do you think?  Does the face above resemble the cute little (albeit messy) mug below?

I kind of think it does.  When Jim and I were discussing it later I asked, "So what do you think happened when our little man was created?  Did my genes just take over and bully your genes into making sure Hunter looked more like me?"  Jim answered, "To be honest, my genes were probably just so happy to be involved they didn't care how Hunty turned out."  Haha!  Silly Jim.  It doesn't really matter what happened in the creation process, we're just so happy to have Hunter as a part of our family.  I don't know how the little munchkin does it, but he gets cuter everyday.

Every Once in a While

Every now and again I catch a glimpse of my first born baby.  Tralee will make a facial expression and in my head I'll see this:

 or this:

Where or where has my baby gone?  She's getting so big, so mature (as mature as a four-year-old can get), and it breaks my heart a little bit.  It's so cliche to say, but it really does go by so fast!  I wonder if I'll look at Tralee as I send her off to college, or if she'll smile at me on her wedding day, and I'll still see a glimpse of the baby I brought into the world.  I think so.  I'm so proud of the sweet, sensitive, little girl  I have and I'm excited for what's to come for her, but in my heart, she'll always be my baby. 

Painted Nails

Tralee had been asking me if she could paint our finger and toe nails for a while.  So, yesterday I let her have at it.  She even painted Hunter's fingernails.  I'm not sure what the protocol is on little boys' nails.  I know there was some big hoopla about the J Crew editor and chief painting her son's nails pink a while back.  It didn't bother me.  I also wasn't too worried when Hunty stuck his hand in front of Tralee to get painted after he watched her paint all twenty of her nails, and ten of mine.  He's around two females (three if you count our dog) all day.  He's bound to participate in some girly things every now and again.  Also, two minutes after Hunter got in touch with his feminine side, he was all about throwing a ball around with me, leaping off the furniture better than a superhero, and promptly pealing off whatever paint actually made it onto his nails.  Tralee's mani and pedi, however; are still as gorge as they were yesterday, as is my pedicure!  You'd be jealous about how awesome my toes look right now. In fact, if you were here looking at my piggies I'm sure you'd ask, "Where did you get THAT done?"  If anyone is interested, I'm sure Tralee would LOVE to give you the full treatment.  Pop over anytime and you'll leave with your toes looking like this:

Tralee's toes

Hunter getting his nails done.  Love the tongue sticking out.

Mommy's turn!

The finished product.

We're all about appearances around here (HA!), so it's a good thing we whipped out the nail polish yesterday!  We wouldn't want to be seen with naked nails!  Oh the shame!!!  Thanks Tralee, for keeping us hip!

Christmas Printables

I've been having a lot of fun making printables lately.  Can you tell?  I guess it's just an easy and inexpensive way to decorate, so why not?  Jim's Aunt asked me to make her a few Christmas printables to give out as gifts.  What a great idea!!  Seriously, print one of these bad boys out (or any fun ones you come across online), put it in an inexpensive frame (hello dollar store), and walla!  Instant cute affordable presents!!  I made these to fit an 8x10 frame, but you can also crop them down to fit smaller frames.  I think 5x7 will work well.  I'm not sure about other sizes.

I couldn't decide between snowflakes or no snowflakes for the two printables below.  I'm still not sure.

Just one more:

For more free Christmas printables click here.

Friday. . .a day late.

Friday's weather was perfect for staying inside, sipping hot cocoa, and snuggling under a blanket while watching Disney cartoons with the littles.  That's exactly what we did.  We skipped our library and park plans, stayed bundled in our pajamas, and enjoyed each other's company.  We also peeked outside every now and again excited that snow was falling.  At some point those little snowflakes got the better of us, and we slipped on whatever boots and jacket we could find, ran outside, and tried to catch snowflakes on our tongues.  Tralee stayed out the longest while Hunter and I probably lasted in the cold about 34 seconds or so.  Tralee was probably out lallygagging for about an hour.  I guess it's just proof, once again, that Tralee really is a winter baby.  Friday was fun.  Friday was relaxing.  Friday gave us a bit of cabin fever.  So, when we woke up on Saturday with little sunbeams patting our faces awake, we decided to hit up the library and park a day late.  We were ready to get out and about.  Tralee insisted on bringing her favorite (as of right now) stuffed animal; it's an orange cat she named Blue.  So, Tralee, Hunter, Blue, and I got ready for the day, and off we went to play.

I tried a cute little bun in Tralee's hair.  I added a flower clip she and I made on our Friday indoors.

Tralee and Blue ready to go.

Without a doubt, my children's favorite park activity is swinging.

Blue even likes a good swing.

See what I mean?

Tralee wanted Blue to enjoy his day at the park as much as she did.  So, he went on everything Tralee did.

Towards the end, Hunter got cold and tired and just wanted to be held.  He also gave me a few kisses.  

Have you kissed this boy?  It's a lot of fun!

More kisses!!!  I'll take all I can get!  I have a goal to kiss him so many times no other girl will ever be able to catch up. Is that weird?  I don't care.

I like his mischievous little face here.  He was giving me so many kisses, we were both laughing pretty hard.

Love that boy!

One more for the road.

'Til next time. . .