'Tis (Officially) the Season

Thanksgiving is done, Black Friday is over (thankfully!), and there is snow on the ground.

It is officially the holiday season!

This year, like so many other families, we're doing a (mostly) Handmade Holiday- not only because it's a much more frugal way to celebrate, but also because now, more than ever (since Regan is getting bigger), we want to be mindful and intentional in raising our child(ren) to be grateful, giving, humble, un-materialistic, and not to feel "entitled".

We want the excitement of the season to come from the fun we have making & doing things for others, as well as from getting to spend time being with and celebrating with our family and friends, not from making pages-long wish lists of gifts for themselves, and not from expecting to receive a BUNCH of presents!

We want our kids to expect to get a few special, quality handmade gifts from us and for anything beyond that, especially from extended family or friends, to be just a nice "bonus".  Less is more.

So, the mad flurry of activity and work (because I, of course, couldn't possibly get an early start on these things!) to get gifts made is in full swing!

So, too, is the decorating of the house for the winter season.  This year the budget with which to do this is basically non-existent, so I'm doing my best to use what we already have and to borrow "extras" from family or friends (thank goodness for sister-in-laws who got married this year and for mother-in-laws who have hung onto the decorations!).

It's causing me to get creative, which- although sometimes frustrating and more labor-intensive- I maintain is good for my brain!

So far, I've come up with this (pardon the horrible cell phone pics- I'm pressed for time with gift-preparing!):

A combo of what we already had- glass hurricane, unscented pillar candle, river rocks & twig rounds, Christmas ribbon, and a placemat.

Same story here, only with a few pinecones added as well.

Red wreath from years past.

And Cinnamon Ornaments (currently drying), which I hope to hang with twine or ribbon by three's in each window.  

(I had completely forgotten about these since making them in elementary school.  And, they're so easy too- just mix plain applesauce and ground cinnamon until you have a stiff enough dough to roll out and cut cookie cutter shapes out of.  Let them air dry until they're nice and hard, then hang 'em up!  Pretty, and they make the house smell so good.)

I'm also hoping to borrow a bunch of greenery (or go to a nearby farm and cut my own) and white Christmas lights from my lovely mother-in-law to get creative with- possibly by hanging a garland and light "border" around my living and dining room, and trying my hand at re-creating these ideas: 

 Lights strung in and around pretty glass bottles (or candles).

 Lights strung around windows.

 Twine accent trees.

 Framed seasonal art made from scrapbooking papers.

Vases, jars, and "cloches" filled with pretties.

 

 Glittery string ornaments on glittery-

 or painted- branches.

 Candles decorated with glitter or...

 greenery- and placed in arrangements.

And simple, understated, indoor wreaths.

I'm also thinking about making some snowflakes from white tissue paper to decorate our windows with.

I've seen some really pretty gingerbread houses too- which would be cheap since I have all the ingredients to make them- but the really classy looking ones would be really time-consuming (at least for me!) to make, so that's one I'm definitely skipping this year.

I still need to figure out a wreath for the back door and get the table runner out and actually on the table, but I'm beginning to feel like our home is starting to become a little more season-ready!

Now, back to the gift-making.  I'm fairly certain I've, yet again, bitten off a little more than I can chew- and that I'm most likely not going to learn not to be quite so overly ambitious in setting my handmade gift goals in the future!  Oh well.  :)

Yay For Valentine's Day!

Well, folks, the Valentine's Day I wasn't looking forward to turned into the best one yet!

I was sad about Valentine's Day this year, because the hubby was supposed to be out of town for it.

We didn't have a lot planned, but it was going to be the perfect "day off".

We were originally going to g0 out to eat somewhere Friday night, then sleep in Saturday to our little hearts content (Ah...I love sleep so.), then have a movie marathon and Chinese take-out (my FAVORITE!!!). Add in a little chocolate and the Valentine's Day cards and, voila! The perfect day!

Until Pete's work decided to send him 12 hours away for a week. Bleck.

So, there I was wondering what to do with myself for Valentine's Day.

Well, at 3:00 in the morning I got a phone call- "Hi honey, it's me. I need you not to freak out about what I'm going to tell you."
I'm immediately thinking, "Oh no! He's dying! Something happened! Aaaacckk!"
But no, he says-"I'm home and I'm coming in the back door. So don't freak out, ok?"

Sigh of relief! But I was very happy to have my hubby back!

I woke up to a sweet card and a dozen red roses. :)

Then (at a much more reasonable hour) he took me to my knitting class, and while I was there he went and did all of our grocery shopping for the week for me!

What a sweet heart. :)

After my class we had a late lunch at Red Lobster (one of my other favorites- I love their Rainbow Trout), and when we came home he "found" a package addressed to me on our door step.

He had apparently arranged ahead of time to have one of those "Pajama Grams" mailed to me, since he was supposed to have been gone for Valentine's Day.

He picked some really comfy ones, and even got the right size! :)
And, it didn't hurt that he sent me chocolate with them too.

So, my day was great after all.

I hope yours was too. :)

I'm Bummed

Hubby just called and said he's going to be leaving town for work on Monday- for nearly two weeks.

He'll miss Valentine's Day.

We weren't going to do anything fancy- just get some cheap take-out, and watch movies in cozy p.j.s, but I was really excited about it.

Man, this stinks.

Happy New Year!

I'm back!

Well, technically- I still feel like I'm in the "between holidays fog",
but I am posting, so that's a start.

Hopefully you have a fun New Year's Eve planned- it's sounding like we're going to be ringing in 2009 in a very laid back and quiet style 'round these parts.

But, that's okay too.

Have you made your New Year's Resolutions yet?

We have!
That's become a tradition that I like- even if half the time at least half the items on the list never make it to completion.

In the last couple of years I've tried just picking one or two things
to work on for the year. I think doing that helps me
actually meet my own resolutions better.

Here's what a couple of our main goals are for 2009:

1.) Finish last year's goal of getting the entire house organized.
This got a good start in 2008, and we're hoping to finish up in 2009.
The biggest accomplishment we saw towards this goal in 2008
was that we really pared down our "stuff." I have to admit, I was
the worst culprit when it came to having too much stuff- most of
it was piled in our basement (to the point we couldn't even walk
through it all!), and most of it was preschool/daycare related.
I hadn't used any of it in the five years we'd been married, so
I "bit the bullet" so to speak and did my best to just let it go.
Half of it was thrown out, and the other half was put on the
annual daycare garage sale. A lot of what went on
the sale was bought, so this summer I'll try
getting rid of the rest of it-
if it doesn't go it's getting thrown out.
Anyway, to complete this goal has turned into more work
than we expected. We thought we realized, when we
bought our house, that it didn't offer much for storage.
While working towards this goal in 2008 we realized
that the no storage problem is much worse than we
originally thought. So, in order to finish this one up, we're
going to have to find ways to creatively come up with
better storage from what we already have, or buy/build
better storage solutions. In order to have an organized home
every item needs a place to be kept. We don't have many "places"
at this point. Because of this, our organizational goal
leads into a kind of "sub-goal": finishing the remodeling
that we've started. Our kitchen, for example, has been
unfinished since 2004. And we've been waiting to build
medicine cabinets since, hmm, 2006? I don't know exactly-
it's just been too long.
Ideally this organizational goal will be met by the
time we finally have our first child.

And,

2.) Create a much healthier family diet.
Both Pete and I have slowly gained a bit of weight over the
last five years. Well, first I lost a lot, then gained some back, so
I'd like to get back to that weight that I felt the best at. We
found a site that calculates your BMI, and discovered we're
not as bad off as we'd feared- but we are still setting
goal weights. I'll admit, I'll probably end up doing most
of the work on this one- smaller portion sizes, smaller
serving plates, healthier meals will end up being up to
me as the family "cook" for the most part. But we've also
decided to find a way to commit to exercising (anything from
running to walking to an actual work out that will get our
heart rates up) 30- 60 min. a day, five days a week.
We both got miserably sick the day after Christmas and
were couch bound for three days, so what did we do?
Watched "Super Size Me". We made this resolution
immediately after. Need I say more?

Obviously, one of the most important goals we have
(but don't have a lot of control over) is:

3.) To have our first child.

Wish us luck this year. :)

Here's wishing you and yours a wonderful year in 2009.

Happy New Year!

Holiday Daycare Highlights 2008

Since I'm aiming at a much more handmade holiday this year, I decided to make my main presents for my two daycare kids too.

I made my sweet girl a rainbow colored scarf...

And my cute boy two felted balls from wool yarn.

So far we have decorated cookies every year. This year was no exception- except that I made the cookies in advance to give us more time for a new holiday activity
(which you'll see in a minute).

While I made supper the kids watched "Jack Frost"- a classic (since 1979) holiday movie that I hadn't heard of until this year.

For supper we cut cookie cutter shapes out of bread and made french toast! (Thanks for that great idea, mom!) It was fun and so good too. We had french toast, turkey bacon (crispy, thankyouverymuch!), blueberries and blackberries, and milk for supper.

Then we opened our gifts. Always the best part, right? :D

After that was the new activity- one I'd heard of but had never done before.



We made cranberry/popcorn garlands and dried orange slice ornaments to decorate our little outdoor tree for the birds! It was so fun that I'm hoping to make it a holiday tradition.

After the decorating was done, we warmed ourselves up with some homemade hot chocolate. Yum! We each had a left over sugar cookie, and a Christmas decorated doughnut.

Then we kicked back and read stories on the couch till their daddies came to pick them up.

Such a fun night with two of my favorite kids of all time! :D

All Wrapped Up

A few simple things for my two special daycare kids.

We're having our Christmas Party tonight, and we've got a lot of fun stuff planned.
Can't wait to post pictures later of all the fun we had!

Ho ho ho!

Knitting Fever

Nikki and I had our very first knitting class on Saturday, and I have to say, I think I'm hooked!

We're starting off with a "Booga Bag".

(heehee, "Booga, Booga!"- I love saying that.)

I chose red yarn and a gray yarn with multi colored flecks, lots of them a matching red, in it.

We bought our needles and yarn- yikes! I thought when the lady said "$10.00" that meant per class, for a total of $30.00 for the entire class and project.

But, I was mistaken. The needles, metal circular ones that are really nice for beginners, apparently, and are great at holding the yarn in place, were around $22.00, the yarn (4 skeins) was around $30.00, and the class itself was $10.00. For a grand total of $62.00.

Ouch.

But, now our supplies have been purchased, so I'm guessing it will only be $10.00 each time for our next two classes. Still, it would have been nice if that had been mentioned somewhere on the website. Oh well!

It was a lot of fun, and I'm picking up on it a lot faster than I expected!
(Yay, me!)

Here's my class project as of now (sorry for the poor picture quality, the flash was just not agreeing with the yarn- waaay too glary), still on the needles because I don't know how to "cast off" yet. This will be the bottom of my Booga Bag.
(hehe, "Booga, Booga!!!")

Saturday, my first day of knitting EVER!, I made plenty of mistakes.

It's hard to see, but holding up the section I knit you can see several holes on the bottom portion. Oops. :D

I went just a little too far (put in a couple rows too many I think), so I'll need Susan (the Yarn Lady) to show me how to fix that. Since I have to wait until Saturday again to learn more, I decided to practice what I already know, just so I don't lose it all. I might be knitting just a bit too much though, because I find myself playing the stitch over and over in my mind. It's like mental knitting! :D



Here's what I'm working on as a practice piece. Can you guess what it is? :D

My stitches are looking much better now. Yay!

Plus, a sneek peak at something for the holidays! Shhh! Don't tell! :D

And, since I got to see my bestest buddy this weekend for a wedding, she gave me some new reading material. "The Friday Night Knitting Club"- she thought it was fitting, as I've just discovered a new passion. I haven't cracked it open yet (too busy knitting, you know), but it looks like it'll be a good one!

Happy Monday!

Greeting the Season

I would love to be the type of woman who's home, both inside and out, looks picture perfect and lovely and decorated for each season. You know, like a page out of a magazine. I, indeed, know a few women who somehow manage to pull this off and are even still lovely people that you would enjoy spending time with! (wink, wink)

But, hey, reality check!, this is ME we're talking about here, so that will never happen!

(Not only because I don't have the budget for it, but also because, in general, as a person, I am an unorganized mess!)

ANYWAY, I did get into the season a bit more this year- and I'm finding that I like it! Plus, I think it will be good for me to keep some "pretty" going on 'round here- otherwise I have a tendency to get SAD. So, now we are ready to meet the Season of Snow head on (well, kind of, I mean, this is winter we're talking about- how prepared can you get for cold, ice, and blizzards?).

Here's what you would see if you came over to my house.
(Although, if you ARE coming over to my house, please call first- you see, the great thing about photography is that you can crop out what you don't want seen- namely, the horrible mess that my house typically is!)

(And, yes, that orange blobby thing in the top left corner of this photo IS my pumpkin "display", left over from Halloween. What! I told you I was unorganized! I'm going to get rid of them soon- today I think. It's just that it's COLD outside...)

So, Season's Greetings! :D

A Very Doggy Thanksgiving

I'm back!

Hope everyone had a very happy Thanksgiving.

We had LOTS to do in order to get ready for our Thanksgiving travels this year-
getting the ingredients together for the making of various dishes for the big feast,
driving hurriedly to Sioux City to pick up last minute items,
thanking kind police officers on the way home from Sioux City for giving warnings instead of tickets, (driving the rest of the way home from Sioux City at a calmer pace),
packing the overnight bags,
getting all dog related items together,
and....

GIVING TWO DOGS A BATH.

(Ceiba attempting to escape the tub- I was laughing so hard at the time of the picture that she actually DID manage the first escape attempt.)

(Ceiba making it clear that she IS NOT a fan of bath time. NOT A FAN. DID YOU HEAR ME? NOT A FAN, MOM.)

(A very happy little fluff ball- the tail was wagging uncontrollably due the fact that she was now OUT of the tub.)

(Koa, being told to "sit" after her bath. Apparently MY drying job was just not enough. Every time I said, "Sit." she would literally throw herself back down onto the towel and wallow around like a crazed pig in mud. I wish I had video. Seriously.)

(Finishing off the bribe treats. I have only ever given Koa a bath in the actual tub once or twice before in her life. Why, you may ask? Because it is literally like full body wrestling! Koa actually did pretty well this time- it was Ceiba that I had to be wary of. That little furball was a handful. I needed about two more arms in order to 1- keep her in the tub, 2- actually wash her, and 3- keep her in the tub. This is a full contact sport. I was drenched.)

(Prim and proper in her new "Bling Bling" collar for family pictures. "Who me? I was a handful just minutes ago in the tub?! No, you surely must be speaking of a different little fuzzy brown puppy...")

(Lookin' spiffy! Got the nice jingle bell collar on for family pictures, and a big 'ol doggy smile because she knows we're about to go for a RIDE!)

(Peek-a-b00. Still a bit nervous traveling in the car.)

(Koa, on the other hand, would gladly drive if Pete would let her. She's so sly too- she crawls another inch forward every 15 minutes for the entire trip to see if she can eventually make it all the way into his lap- while he drives.)

(Awwww. Zonked out.)

(Awwww. Looking as cute as possible so daddy will take pity on her and let her sit in the front. Might I add that, in the car, Koa has absolutely no interest in me, whatsoever. I call her to come up front and, every time, she does- right onto Pete's lap. Not even a glance MY way. Humf.)

(Papa got his little grand-doggies a gift. Yummy chewie bones!)

(Mmmmm, shlurp, shlurp! Good stuff. Thanks Papa!)