Light Speed

It seems like only yesterday we were holding our newborn daughter in our arms and now you have grown into such a beautiful young lady. I can't believe how fast it has flown by!! At 12 you already have a wonderful spirit and fierce independence which make you Uniquely You and we those are just a few things we love about it! We are so happy to have you a Daughter and hope that you have a fantastic 12th year in 2011 :)

Happy Birthday Darling!!

Wound Up?

Do the Christmas Holidays sometimes get you all wound-up? When it's over do you feel as if you have been in a race for weeks on end? Don't get me wrong I totally love Christmas, it is my favorite holiday, but I sometimes feel like I need a week at the Spa when it is all over. Unfortunately that is simply not possible so I have made a list of my Top 5 ways to Unwind. These can be used all 365 days during the year when you feel the need to relax.

1. Take a Bubble Bath: Draw a bubble bath and light some scented candles to enhance the relaxation mood. Make sure you lock the door so that there are not any unwanted interruptions for the duration of your bath.

 

2. Go Online: Take a few minutes to a play a game, read an inspiring story or find a new project. There’s nothing wrong with indulging in pure entertainment, so don’t limit yourself to tasks that are only for practical purposes (like paying bills). You’ll find balance in rewarding these more practical tasks with your favorite forms of entertainment. 

3. Read: Crack open a new book, read the paper or pick up your favorite magazines. No matter the medium, taking a break from your computer and day-to-day tasks can be the calm you need to tackle your cleaning routine or tonight’s dinner. 

 

4. Craft: Visit the craft section of your favorite store to find a new project, then take a few minutes each evening to relax while working on it—no rush required. You can even watch your favorite show, movie or spend time with family while relaxing. 

5. Write: Start a journal, write notes to friends or get creative with stories or poetry. Expressing yourself is always a reliable relaxation technique. To inspire your creativity, surround yourself with your favorite seasonal scents by lighting some candles(can you tell I love candles?)

 

What is something that you like to do to relax? I would love to hear what works for you!

Merry Christmas to ME!

The Setting: It was Christmas Eve 2010 and we were at the in-laws for our Annual Brunch and Gift Exchange. Everyone had eaten their fill of the delicious food and we were all settled in the living room getting ready for the "elves" to hand out the presents. I was busy snapping away with Craig's Sony Cybershot as usual when Dale, my Mother-in-Law, handed me a present and said "You need to go ahead and open this one first." Even though that was highly unusual and even though I was slightly embarrassed at being the center of attention I, of course, went ahead and opened the box.

The Surprise: What was so important that I just had to open before anything else was handed out?? Guess what --- A Camera - for ME!! It was not just any camera -- it was the Sony Alpha DSLR-A550L 14.2MP Camera that I have been ooggling over for the past few months!! I think I was one of the last 35mm people that I know and even though I looved my camera I knew it was time to upgrade so I did what any chick would do........I put it on my Christmas List ;)  Needless to say I am totally in love with this and am now snap happy while I figure out all the bells & whistles.  Love it - Love it - Love it!!

The Gratitude: A huge more-than-I-can-ever-say Thank You goes out to my Fabulous Husband and My Awesome In-Laws and Grand-In-Laws for getting me this camera! I love you guys!!!

  Have you ever received a gift that made you want to cry with happiness? If so what was it?

Crafted with Love

Do you have some people on your gift list that you have a hard time shopping for? If so I have learned that most people love getting ornaments -- I mean who doesn't love adding extra decorations to their Christmas tree each year? I know I for one love love love ornaments and I LOVE making ornaments even more!

If you recall I stumbled across some fabulous silver glass ornaments last week while Thriftiquing and I could not decide what to do with them until I was looking for something totally unrelated in my scrapbooking stuff and found some lovely Christmas rub-ons that I knew would be perfect for the ornaments.

DIY Christmas Ornaments

1. Start with clean GLASS ornaments.
2. Pick out rub-ons in your color choice.
3. Gently(key word as I broke the first one!) apply rub-ons randomly on ornament.
4. Peel off paper and waalaa there you have it -- Simple yet Beautiful! 

1. Hope
2. Peace
3. Joy to the World
4. Word Montage


I enjoyed doing these ornaments and am now on the lookout for more to add to my own tree next year!
What are some things that you enjoy making for others and for yourself as well?

Wordless Wednesday

May your Christmas be Merry and Bright!

Thriftique 12/20/10

My pal Heather from TwentySomething and myself have embarked on a new adventure that we are calling Thriftiquing! Yesterday was the initial voyage and ohhwee did we find some goodies. We both had a few certain items we were on the lookout for and Heather was much better at sticking to her game plan that I was. I found 1 thing on my list but came home with 2 more, however I am pretty sure everything she walked out with was on her list. Maybe I need lessons for the next outing!

Here is what I ended up coming home with: 

1. A unique chair. This beauty was $15! One of the workers at the store asked if it was priced correctly and I even had a lady ogling it while I was carting it around the store. I consider that a great find for sure!

 Consider this a sneak peek for a future post :)

2. Vintage Silver Glass Ornaments - still in the box - all 6 for $1.00 (On list but at an even better price than I had in mind!)

3. A 1970's Avocado Green Leather Footstool $8.00

A few things I saw that I am still thinking about:

1. Hanging Light Fixture - they had 4  but I only need 2 as I am thinking they would look great beside the bed. 

2. Empty Frames - all shaped and sizes. These babies are perfect in every room in the house! 

**Stay tuned for the next outing of Thriftique and to see what we do with our fabulous finds!

The beginning of a new Tradition?

Well it has happened.... hell has officially frozen over in our cabin. We went to town yesterday and came home with an A.R.T.I.F.I.C.I.A.L Christmas Tree and guess what?! I LOVE IT!!

Each year, the past 17 to be exact, we have went out, found the Perfect Tree, chopped it down, decorated and enjoyed it for a few weeks until I had to take it down before New Year's.  It is something we have always enjoyed doing together as a family - I love it, Craig loves it, and the Kids love it. We even have an axe that is only used for chopping down our tree each year -- that's how much we all love it.

Sadly, as previously mentioned, the one we cut down this year met it's untimely demise last week and so we decided to take a different path with only 7 days left until Christmas as we simply could not see chopping down another one. We looked at a few different places and found one at Wal-Mart that looked good -- and it was PRE-Lite -- that in itself was the seller for me(not to mention the good price!) I was so excited to get it home, set it up and decorated. I admit it turned out better than I ever expected and next week I am going to see if I can find a few more on sale.

2010 Christmas Tree  

I think it is a turning point for us and I know that I for one am So Happy, So Happy! No more allergic reactions while decorating, no more sweeping up needles each night, no more making sure there is plenty of water in the bucket while at the same time making sure the dog does not drink out of the bucket. Of course this one doesn't smell all piney and all but I have no problem getting those needles that small like trees to give it that woodsy smell(something to add to my ever-growing Mart list, more on that after Christmas).

Now that the tree is up and looking beautiful, I am ready for the crazy week I have ahead. Just knowing that each night I can come home and snuggle into the recliner beside the wood stove and enjoy the ambiance of the lights on our beautiful tree -- It's the little things that make me Smile.

Something I only miss at Christmas....

I know this sounds crazy but one of the things I miss the most during Christmas is having a mantle to decorate.
At the old house we had this great big mantle and I loved decorating it during the year but at Christmas time, oh my goodness I was in heaven. I could put houses on it, lights, wreaths, nutcrackers, and more. Since we have moved into the cabin we have a glorious wood stove but sadly no mantle.

Today I am having mantle-envy in the worst way. It all started because I have been talking to my pal Heather over at  TwentySomething about some everyday decor for her mantle and while I was looking around for ideas I stumbled across so many beautifully stunning Christmas mantles that I am actually thinking of ways to put a mantle on our rock wall where the wood stove sits -- shhh don't tell the Lumberjack!!

So since I have been drooling looking at oh-so-pretty mantles for the past hour this morning I thought I should share a few of my faves I found.

Love this one from A Soft Place to Land - It is just screams FUN!

 

 This Au Natural mantle I found on Jonathan Klunk is to-die-for

and would look fabulous in our cabin(if we had a mantle that is)

 I am loving these Elfin looking stockings from HGTV Online.

 They have such a chic look to them.

Winter Wonderland is in fine form over at  Vintage Pretty. 

It makes me want to go play in the snow!!

Christmas without a tree....

Well hopefully not -- However, I did have to totally remove everything from our tree due to it's untimely demise this week. We have only had it about 9 days and it always had a full bucket of water but for some reason it simply withered away :(

So for the time being we are treeless at the Boling Abode. This is in part due to the dead tree, the snow and now ice that we have had all week. Hopefully the Sun will shine tomorrow, dry things out a little, and we can go find a new tree. I am missing my late nights sitting by the fire with just the Christmas Lights as company!!
 
Here are some trees I found to ogle at until we get our new one.

This is my fave -- it is Em at Bloomingdale's in Chicago last weekend :)

Homemade Goodies #1

Every Christmas I tell myself that I am going to bake more goodies but then the time flies by and the New Year rolls around without me even getting out my rolling pin. This year I am changing history and I can say that honestly as I have already made 3 batches of this yummy treat!

This was my first ever attempt at making brittle and I am not sure what the "normal" way is but this way is the bomb and I have no problem making some a few times a week. Yep it is THAT Easy!

Cinnamon Pecan Brittle

• 36 Servings
• Prep: 20 min. + cooling

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 teaspoon butter
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon Spice Island® Pure Vanilla Extract

Directions

• Butter a baking sheet; set aside. In a 2-qt. microwave-safe bowl, combine sugar and corn syrup. Microwave, uncovered, on high for 3 minutes; stir. Cook, uncovered, on high 2-1/2 minutes longer. Stir in the pecans, butter and cinnamon.
• Microwave, uncovered, on high for 2 minutes longer or until mixture turns a light amber color (mixture will be very hot).
• Quickly stir in baking soda and vanilla until light and foamy. Immediately pour onto prepared pan; spread with a metal spatula. - It's good to have help with this part as it is HOT!
• Cool; break into pieces. 

 Yield: 3/4 pound.

It's Official

I am the worst blogger ever!
It has been exactly 2 years since I updated this here blog - actually Christmas 2 years ago haha. I am not sure what got into me as I know over the past few years I have thought about it but I guess I simply bombed the blog circuit and now I am back to try again. :)

Let it be known that starting today Tuesday 12/10/2010 I will make more of an effort to blog weekly. In no way can I type daily without laughing so I figure it is best if I start out with weekly for now!

The Hubs and I have been discussing all the ways we want to revamp our cabin recently and I am looking forward to sharing all the ideas and projects we will be working on.

Shout-out to my pal Heather for getting me back in the Blogging mood! Be sure to stop by her place and watch as she settles into a new home and blogging life!

Skittles Nightstand/Side Table

A friend of mine is in the process of decorating a nursery in advance of the new arrival they are expecting next month. The nursery is going to a multi-colored wonderland full of vintage animals and prints so she wanted a side table to go beside her rocking chair that would fit with the look.

She found an unfinished nightstand that was the perfect height plus it has a few drawers which would be good for storage. She did not like the empty spaces so we built her 3 matching drawers then painted each one a different color. She wanted the base of the piece to be a natural look to match the crib and I think the colors look great with the natural backdrop. She asked for color -- well baby there is enough color here to supply a bag of Skittles!

So looking forward to the final pics of the nursery and will share when I am able to run over and snap some :)