For Auld Lang Syne

It's been awhile.  I know, I know.  Holidays tend to be a bit busy at my house.  So this should be a good and looooong post here on this chilly and overcast New Year's Eve...

Our Christmas decor is a good place to start.  I don't have the most gorgeous or fantastic decorations but I think I successfully filled our apartment homey, holiday spirit

.

Our tree fit perfectly next to the fish tank.

The patio door lights and garlands...

All lit up!

The fish tank got some garlands and lights too.

And the doorway to the dining room as well.

Our stockings hung on the wall by the tree.

I got all of this up on Sunday the 1st when Sky was at her dad's.  A couple days later we decorated the tree together:

Mommy's little helper!

Our pretty tree

We decided this year that instead of getting presents for every single person in our ever growing family that the seven adults (sans my parents) would draw names for presents.  Once for the seven adults and once for the seven children (though we drew names before Jax was even born).  I ended up drawing Matt and Ella.  I made Matt a knight hat much like this one:

I didn't feel right not giving anything at all to everybody else, so I came up with a plan.  I made some coconut and chocolate candies for my parents (and some for me too, cuz apparently we're the only ones who like coconut).  I made simple jars of oreo peanut butter, one for each family.  And then I made some cinnamon and peppermint gummy candies for each of the kids (except Jax cuz he's too little).

My gummies in their crystallization period.

The recipes I used for my delicious gifts were:
Quick and Easy Coconut Candies
Oreo Peanut Butter
Sparkly Gummy Candies
All were found on pinterest.

I decided last year when I found a little gingerbread girl photo ornament on clearance at JoAnns after Christmas that I had to start a tradition of having a special gingerbread girl ornament for Skylar every Christmas.  Early in the season this year I searched all through the decor section at Michaels and other places I shopped through trying to find a cute ginger girl for my cute ginger girl.  Well, since nothing I found could compare to something I could make and because, as usual, money is tight, I decided to make this year's ornament from scratch.  I've seen little salt dough imprints of the kid's hand or foot as the basis for other things so I thought Sky's chubby lil hand would be the perfect shape for the dress of a gingerbread girl.  This will be the only year that we can do this type of ornament since it did get quite large (8" tall).  I used the old tried and true recipe for salt dough, imprinted her hand, then freehand cut out the girl's shape.  After baking it, I painted her with several coats of craft paint.  I used ribbon and fabric paint to embellish and voila:

Skylar's gingerbread girl ornament, Christmas 2013

 

 

Well, it's taken me a good chunk of the day (off and on, of course) to get all this up here so before we rush off to our New Year's Eve celebrations I wanted to share a couple of my Christmas faves:

Our tree on Christmas morning

Z tells Sky how it is.

Sky and Sammie making pretty pictures for great grandma and grandpa

 

 

Grandma and Grandpa's tree almost got lost in all the presents!

Later, I'll post some pics of Skylar interacting with her favorite new gifts.  Also, she got an Advent calendar from my mom before December started and I have a plethora of pictures of her enjoying it that I want to make into a sweet "Story" on photobucket.  For now we're going to head out for some fun!  Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year everybody!!!

Three of 3 Warm Accessory Organizers

The last features plastic canvas, hooks and a magnet strip:

Artists Against Hunger 9

Well, Artists Against Hunger has come and gone again.  I was only able to be there Friday evening because of work.  It was a fair turnout despite the extremely cold temperatures.  I unfortunately did not make any sales but that just means that all the cool things I made for my "Functional Facelifts" project are available for purchase at my website.

Little Foot

Recently I decided to take my Mother's Day gift from earlier this year (the awesome one I made for myself) and my gift from my own mom and combine them into a sweet little shadowbox.

The item I made is a little salt dough impression of Skylar's foot.  It says "Skylar Helen, May 12, 2013, 13 mo."  I painted it with nail polish because I've always liked how it shines despite never using it on my fingers and rarely on my toes.  I also embellished with a ribbon and beads.  In the base of the box are 6 yellow dried roses that I received from my mom on the holiday which shares the weekend annually with the Avera Race Against Breast Cancer.

The completed project now resides on the family wall of my living room:

I also made a salt dough impression with my grandmother's hand, my mother's hand, my hand and Skylar's hand.  I baked it but I haven't decide how I'd like to paint it so it's sitting on the back burner with a handful of other projects.

Check and Check

I finished a couple items from the to-do list.

The first, Aaron's tattoo design:

I think he's going to take it down to his favorite artist sometime very soon to get it done.


The second, my family picture wall:

It's a good start I'd say.  I got the mirror shelf from my parents the other day and the wall shelf from DJ's today.  I have a few frames I'd like to get pictures for so there's a few holes for now.  I'm glad I've got what I've got up for now.



Another little guy:

I got another little shelf from my folks that works perfectly for temporary spice storage until I get a proper rack.  I love having this counter free now that the microwave is on a stand.


I spent most of Saturday working on 2 projects.  The first: the milk crate bench seat.  I spray primed the crates and have been waiting for them to cure properly to connect them (with zip ties).  I still need to finish the cushion.

Second: hand-stitching my necktie rug, a project that's been in progress for years.  I'm not sure why I decided to bust it out this weekend but I've made some progress and will eventually post pictures.

I spent most of Sunday at my parents house working on my buckets for the yarn revamp.  I need to get hardware tomorrow, drill the buckets and attach everything together.

I've also been working intermittently on my pink project.


Update complete.

Small Table Facelift

I just finished up a sort of little, sort of time consuming project that weaseled it's way onto the to-do list for my extended weekend.  My mom and dad's neighbors had this table on rummage but wouldn't take a penny from them, just told them to give it to me.  So I made this drab little table with tons of potential a sweet facelift.

Before:

And After!!!