Christmas at Our House

Wow - this month has FLOWN by!  I have missed so many good blogging opportunities.  I can't believe how busy I've been!

I just want to preserve some of the images of Christmas around our house - so that's what this post is, a bunch of pictures of some Christmas decor in our home.  Thank you for looking!

Entry Way:

Looking into the office at my tree:

Dining Room:

 Family Room:

These are just a few of the images I have captured this Christmas season at our home.  I know I am no professional decorator, but I hope that I've made some sweet memories for my family by sprucing up our house for the holidays.  I know my kids won't remember how the garland on the staircase was totally skimpy and tacky, or how I wish I'd had more mesh for our family room tree, or the fact that I could never quite figure out what I wanted to put in the middle of our kitchen table - they'll just remember that their mom wanted to make Christmas a little more fun and magical for them.  I hope they always know how much I love making them happy.

A Tree for ME!

Every year since I've been married, we've only had one tree.  It's our family tree, and it's full of sentimental ornaments.  There is no theme or real color scheme, which has always been fine with me.  I love all the ornaments made with little hands for me, as well as the special ornaments for each child that I've collected over the years.  However, I've always longed for a tree that was just for me, with pretty colors and matching ornaments.

Last year, after Christmas, I was rummaging around Target and it was about the time all of their Christmas items were being marked down to 90% off.  I was so surprised at how much they had left!  There were a bunch of ornaments left in some gorgeous colors - pink, aqua, lime green, red, and orange.  They all looked very vintage-y to me, and I just had to have them as a plan was brewing in my mind.  I went to several Targets over the following weeks, and got all kinds of cute things for MY tree!  I even got a tree skirt for around $5 - score!

Fast forward to this year - as I was opening my boxes, it was like an early Christmas present for me!  I had forgotten what all I had bought last year - it was so much fun digging into those boxes!!!

So now,  I present - a tree for ME!  I have to say that I love it and it makes me smile every time I see it.  It is in our newly painted office (more on that later!) and it's so sparkly and shiny!

Why yes, that is an empty frame ornament, smack dab in the middle of the tree, for you detail-oriented people out there =)  Oops!

A few details...

This ornament is so special to me - it was on my grandfather's tree when he was a little boy.  I love it so much.

Red, aqua, and pink - my faves!

This is an ornament from my childhood tree.

Aqua + polkadots = love

Another sentimental one - this Santa was on my mom's tree when she was a little girl.  I love old ornaments, especially when they belonged to someone in my family.

And here's another shot, from the dining room across the entrance hall.



I hate to take "my" tree down - I wonder if my neighbors will think I'm crazy if I leave it up for a few more weeks months???

Thanks for letting me share!

Elf Party

I know many of you have heard of the Christmas tradition of having elves come to your house, such as The Elf on the Shelf, or the Magic Elves.  Around our house, we have accumulated a whole menagerie of elves over the years.  Our family just LOVES elves, and I think Santa knows that, which is why he has sent us so many!  We decided this year to invite a couple of friends over for an elf party.  This is the fastest party I've ever put together, as we decided to have it the morning of the party!  Here are a few pics to share.

Emily made the sign to welcome our friends and their elves =)

Our elves, waiting for the party to start!

Quick tablescape, thrown together with stuff we already had.

Elves are VERY mischevious!  You have to watch them every second (kind of like 21 month old boys - ha!).

This candy cane holder is very sentimental to me - my sweet grandmother Nanny made it for me.  I think of her every year when I take it out for Christmas.

These ADORABLE little elf pant favor bags were purchased last year from a catalog - I can't remember which one =(

Cute little elf craft "we" made (my BFF and I pretty much made them for the kids - they were SO hard and required hot glue).

A group shot - the girls and their elves!

Someone having his first taste of M&Ms - yum!

My three little elves!  They fill my life with so much joy!

Christmas Cards...Old and New!

Once again, I've waited until the last minute to do our Christmas cards this year.  November and December have been SO busy!!!  With five kids, our Christmas card photo shoots are always interesting.  Here's the cast of characters, and how it normally plays out when I try to get a group shot:  Will and Zach (my teenage stepsons) are not thrilled (at ALL) with getting their picture taken, especially when I get props involved (see below - the "NOEL" year was particularly bad for them - haha!!!).  I can normally get a small smile out of them, but it is NOT easy!!!

Our Very First Christmas Card Picture Together - circa 2001

Next, Lindsey and Emily - who normally have some sort of disagreement over who is sitting where, or who gets to hold the prop, etc.  In the past, there were usually tears from one or both of the girls during our shoot.  Once there was even behind the back pinching going on during the picture.  Lord help me.

This was the only one we could get where Emily would sit down!  This year was pretty stressful, too.  Circa 2004.

Alot of complaining this year.  Will and Zach did not like holding the letters!  Emily wanted to hold the "E" for Emily, but I had already taken Lindsey's picture holding it.  She wasn't thrilled.

One of the rare ones where Rodney and I are included.  So easy to snap a beach picture and be done with it!  No complaining this year!  Circa 2006.  We thought our family was complete!  Little did we know...

2008's card - this was the first year we signed the card from ALL the kids - little Carter was three months away from being born!



Finally, add in little Carter, who will only sit still for approximately 2.2 seconds, and I can pretty much FORGET about a smile from him!  He's way too busy to bother with all of that.  So, you can imagine why I've been putting this off this year!!!

I eventually got wised up, and realized that I should do a collage-style card, with individual pictures.  My go-to place for cards has always been Shutterfly.  Most, if not all, of the cards we have sent out have come from Shutterfly over the years. They always have the best card designs to choose from, super fast delivery, and great photo quality.  Gone are the days of the boring cards with the words at the bottom and only like ten cards to choose from!  Shutterfly has TONS of options.  Click here to see the amazing selection of Christmas cards.  Here are a few I have my eye on for this year:

All I have to do is find cute pictures of each of my kids, and drop them in the template!  Easy!  And no more stressful photo shoots (although I do still make them pose in front of the tree, wear Santa hats, etc. for other Christmas pictures - can't let them get off THAT easy!!!).

Shutterfly doesn't just have photo cards - check out these cute calendars, perfect for grandparents or for dad's office!

I can't believe I didn't realize that Shuttefly also has some ADORABLE birthday invitations - and you can't beat their prices!!!!  Click here to see birthday invitations.

I was so excited to find out that I could earn 50 free cards this year, just by talking about Shutterfly, a company that I already use and LOVE!  You can do the same - click here for details.

Now, just wish me luck in finding cute pictures for this year's card!!!!

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas!

At least on my kitchen counter, it is!  I have been working on an order for a local boutique, and just got all of these goodies packed up to take over there today.  I love seeing all the Christmas colors!

There were snowmen...

Gingerbread girls...

And many more yummy Christmas sweets and treats...

As Christmas approaches, I depend on the little bit of extra money from my hair bows to help pay for all of the extra expenses that happen this time of year.  It isn't easy finding time to work on my bows while I have a toddler underfoot and girls in competitive dance with homework and all sorts of running around to do.  It normally makes for some very late nights for me, but I LOVE what I do.  I love knowing that something I made will be worn by a sweet little girl somewhere, and that makes me happy.  I have so many fond memories of dressing my girls up and their beautiful hair bows, and I am glad that I am able to make something pretty for another little girl to wear.

I have officially opened my Etsy store, but there's nothing in it yet!  I have one more custom order to take care of and I will be stocking my Etsy store up with some goodies similar to the ones you see above.  I'll add a link when there is actually something to look at in my store =)

Thanks for letting me share!