A Boy, His Dog and a Stick...

I am still running like a madwoman trying to get the house ready for Christmas.  (There is no danger of me appearing to be Superwoman and having everything under control.  I don't.  At all... And I am totally comfortable enough to admit it to the entire world...  I have changed my socks at least five times today as I keep sticking to my floor...mom, don't come over until at least Friday, I know it would drive you nuts!!!)  I am in the process of waxing my family room floor, don't know why I chose this time to do it, but hey, at least it will be one floor I don't stick too!  Enjoy this post about my sweet little guy.  I never got around to posting it earlier.  I'll try and be back when I don't stick to anything.

What is is about a dog and a stick that can keep a little boy occupied for hours?  My Little Fireman and I went walking through the woods the other day.  He found stick after stick after stick.

 I am quite sure this one was a sword.

This one was a fishing pole...

He used the short one to chop down trees. The long one put out fires...

I don't really know what this stick did, and this picture may look like we are by the creek, but we aren't.  That's actually the mud pit we use for four-wheeling and off-road trucking. Very dangerous...

Get the picture now???

 Thank heaven for little boys, their dogs and sticks!

 

It's not Christmas Until...

At our house, it's not Christmas until I decorate the tree.  Then the dang thing tips over and I have to do it all over again...

I had a very lovely tree going on this year.

This afternoon, I happened to mention to my husband, (who is really not into trees in the house, btw...) that the thing seemed to be listing to the right a little.  He leaves for hockey and, boom!  There she goes.

It happens every year.  The first year, my kids ran around yelling and pretty much creating mass hysteria.  I seem to remember a "May-Day, May-Day, tree tipped over in the living room."  And an answering "Roger that...Help is on the way"  from them that year.  Then more running and hysteria as I tried to tip the thing back up...

The next year, they were prepared.  Not quite so much hysteria, but still a tiny bit of running around and yelling.  "Batten the hatches, storm off the starboard deck...  Finished off the Christmas tree..."  (I have very creative kids, you won't believe their reaction when they started a fire in the kitchen...)

This year?  Nothing.  Just a glance, a sigh, and an "I suppose you want me to climb under that thing" from Sweet Bluebird.  Not a question.  Just a statement of fact.

I am resigned to having to wire the tree to a curtain rod every year.  When will I ever learn?  Secretly, I think it's my husband, trying to coax me into purchasing an artificial one.  But no, I don't listen.  Every year, I have to have a real one.

And yes... Every year, it will tip over...

At least I have given up on the Mercury Glass ornaments.

A Snowball Fight!

Yesterday my husband came home from work and asked, "What did you do today, just run around flinging snow everywhere?"  Yep, Honey, that's exactly what I did.

I was on the hunt for more snowball ornaments.  I use them all over my house to turn the inside into a Winter Wonderland.  All my favorite stores didn't have snowball ornaments this year, so I decided  to take matters into my own hands.  Nature Girl and I were making our own...

Here is what we came up with.

We started with a styrofoam ball.

A package of glitter snow from Walmart, one of the only stores where we could still purchase faux snow this year.  The other stores in my area were out and not getting any more Christmas shipments.

We used the iridescent snow.  Makes for gorgeous flakes!

Covered the entire thing with glue...  

Rolled it in the flakes.

(Beware, don't do this if your kitchen is clean and you want to keep it that way...  Thankfully mine was still a jumbled Christmas mess...)

And this is our end result, a bucket of snowballs that won't melt all over the house!  We love them even more than we thought we would.  Now if I can just keep my nephew, Bo, away from them, all will be well!

Well, maybe just one indoor snowball fight is called for.  It is the Christmas season, after all!

An Elf Explanation

Every December, something unusual happens around our house that might interest you.  Every once in a while, in the evening, Santa will send his elves to peer through our windows to see if the kids are behaving so he knows if they belong on the "Naughty" side or the "Nice" side of his list.

Those elves are impish little things.  We find their hats, scarves, and mittens, all around the outside of our house.

One morning, a pair of long johns were caught in our front door.  That night, we got this letter, from Fritz, the elf.

Last night I had Little Fireman write out his Christmas list.  This is what he wants:

1. an elf- to help me with my homework

2. Fire Station Lego's

3. Firetrucks

When I told Little Fireman that I was pretty sure that Santa would not be bringing him an elf, he thought he would make an elf trap.  This is how far he got...

That's Frosty's hat and pipe.  (I made the hat last year using a tutorial from Joli-Paquet, directions can be found here.)  I think the plan is to have an elf run across the pipe and fall into the hat.  I am not quite sure what the hamster wheel has to do with it, but I am confident he will work it in. 

Look around your windows and front door to see if there are any elf tracks left in the snow, you never know what just might be peering through your windows.

Incidentally, if the elves do leave scarves, mittens, hats, or even their long john's.  Replacements can usually be found at Cracker Barrel Restaurants. 

Getting Ready for Christmas

After a very busy week, (one hospital stay, laid hardwood floors in living room, company, one hockey tournament, plus Thanksgiving) I am desperately trying to get ready for Christmas. Yesterday, I took out all our decorations.  They are now lying all around our house.  I think my husband secretly thinks I am trying to finish him off.  The poor guy has been stumbling around nativity scenes, Santas, and snowmen, since last night.  I am hoping to get it straightened up today.  Wish me luck...

This morning I found this on Little Fireman's pillow.  At least some of us are having fun.  I will explain what exactly that is tomorrow.  Today I need to do some serious... something.  Cleaning, putting away, straightening, you name it.

I have enjoyed looking at all your beautifully decorated houses.  I am envious, mine looks like this...

And this...

My fireplace looks like this. 

I don't think Santa is going to want to come down it anytime soon...

I hope you all enjoy a great day in your clean and beautifully decorated houses.  Right now, I don't even know where to start in on mine!

Have you seen Lisa's Altered Art???

 

Just wondering if you all know about Patty from Lisa's Altered Art?  If you don't know about her, then today is your lucky day!  Her site is filled with delicious images, and I guarantee you will love them all!  She has fairies, ephemera, holiday images, crowns, wands, birds and nests, and I could go on and on.

Patty is just like her art, she is one of the sweetest people I have met in blogland.  She spends time with each of her images and I can tell she adores each and every one that she alters.  Patty generously gave us the image above to use. 

The following is a sample of one of her collage sheets.  (I had trouble getting this sheet into blog form, her sheet is put together much more professionally.)

 

 

I have had a ton of fun adding her images to just about everything from cards, packages, and collages.  I have used them for baby showers, wedding showers, teas and more.  An added bonus, her prices are incredible.  You can check her out here.  Every Wednesday, Patty has a different sheet on sale for only $1.00, so check back often!

The Winner is...

Sunday night at 10:00, my sister and I were on the phone with each other drawing our winners.  Your sweet comments and well wishes are so appreciated.  The winner of the necklace and glitter is...

Koralee of Bluebird Notes

I had a great time with this giveaway, thank you so much for all your comments and I look forward to throwing another one soon!  I do so wish that everyone could win...

I happened across an old postcard of Santa and two darling little boys.  I scanned the image for everyone to use as I know there are a lot of crafty girls out there!  (It's not every day that you happen across a Santa with fake eyebrows...)  Please enjoy! 

Vintage Monograms

Would it be wrong to give my husband this for Christmas???

Especially if I used my first initial? I mean, come on,  I would use his last name in it too!!!  He would get something...  One very happy wife!  Now that's worth a lot, isn't it???

Images courtesy of Cathe Holden and her new blog, found right here.  And no, I am not stalking her.  (Okay, maybe just a teensy little bit.  I can't help it, she is so talented!)  Pop on over and order one of her monograms.  Then tell me about it, so I can do some more drooling.

One Lucky Girl!

A day or two ago, I went to get my mail, and guess what the mailman had brought me?  The sweetest package from my Polka Dot Daze swap partner, Karen, of Karen's Playtime.  Oh my, she is the sweetest thing in the world and I love every bit of my package so much.  Let me show you.

She made this Hello Kitty notebook and look at her card!  The details on her work is incredible!

This tote is already holding my library books!  When it is not full of books, I hang it in my pink and silver pantry.  It looks adorable on the silver walls.

This stocking will also hang in my pantry/craft room.  Or will it go in my family room?  Or even my bedroom, perhaps?

And last, but certainly, not least.  Look at this adorable cupcake!  (It's much too pretty to stick pins in.)  Don't you want one?  Well, you too, could have one of your own.  Karen recently opened her own shop.  You can find it here.  Pop on over to give her a warm welcome, and to tell her how beautiful her work is!  Thanks Karen, I love it!  Hope your package arrives safely. 

And lastly, I got this award from Ginger, of the Neff Family. Thanks Ginger, so sweet of you!

You are supposed to share 10 interesting facts, then award it to 7 bloggers.  It was hard, but here goes:

Karen

 Polka Dot Daze
Kim
Theresa
The Nut House
The Mini Baker
The Thrifty Mrs
Go check them out! 
If you are still with me, here are ten facts, I will try and be brief and let you know about my real life!

1.  Even though I am just under 6 feet tall, I always wear heels!

2.  I love my curly hair.  Usually...  I just wash it at night, then however I wake up, is how I go out the door.

3.  We just added a family room onto our house.  I painted it silver, pink, and black!  Sounds totally weird, but it is beautiful.  And the more macho the man, the more they actually like it.

4.  I coached Nature Girl's hockey team for the last six years.  Yep, the only girl coach.  I love it!

5.  I love pink, as if you didn't already know.

6.  I never have a clue where my cell phone is.

7.  My sister had to load my pictures on my blog the first two or three times I posted.  That's how bad at computers I am...  I am surprised I didn't blow the thing up already...

8.  I drive my husband nuts on a regular basis with my re-decorating.

9.  I just plain old drive my husband nuts on a regular basis!  I love you, honey!!!  (Like he would ever read this.  But I do.  Thanks for putting up with me...)

10.  I play professional football for the MN Vixen.  I know, totally weird, but during the season, if you were to punch me in the stomach, I have rock hard abs. (I actually go around telling people to punch me in the stomach.)  It's only in-season.  Post-season, I don't have good ab's at all...  In fact, I go around sucking my stomach in all the time!

Now you know, I am totally weird.  I will admit it, I hear it from my kids on a daily basis anyway!!!  Enjoy your day!

Sweet Bluebird and her News...

 The girl on the far left is my Sweet Bluebird.  She just turned 16.  (let me tell you, A- I am really not old enough to have a 16 year old and B- the whole driving thing is WAY TOO SCARY!  Be prepared...)
Yes, I scanned all 375 of her Facebook pictures and could not find even one pic of her alone.  Or one without her head glued to her friends, so I couldn't even crop.  So, you get to enjoy her friends also.  They are hilarious.  I love them all. 

I love creative kids, and was a little worried that my kiddos would grow out of the dress-up stage.

Guess I didn't have to worry about that one...  Her Facebook page is FILLED with her and her friends wearing pretty much everything but their normal, everyday, clothes.

Need I say more?  Incidentally, that is Mary and Joseph in our annual Christmas Eve re-enactment of the birth of Jesus.  (I think the above is what is called "artistic license.")  All the cousins are required to participate, even the big kids.  I think it's even more fun for them now than it was when they were little.  Those two are the oldest and claimed Mary and Joesph for forever.  They are lucky, they got to skip being the sheep, donkey, or shepherds.  Not that those aren't important to the story, but...

I call her my Sweet Bluebird because I don't think I  have ever met any adult who knows her and when they find out I am her mom, their first words are, "You're HER mom?  She is SOOOO sweet."  I take it as a compliment, rather than the other way, ie- how could YOU have such a sweet thing?  She truly is the sweetest.

This summer Sweet Bluebird went on an awesome missions trip with Reign Ministries.  She was gone for about two months, trekking all through western Europe.  Yes, she did go through 14 different countries, and it was an awesome experience to visit them all, but what we loved most about it was this...

She had a summer filled with worship, service and actively followed Christ.  It was truly an awesome experience. 

When Sweet Bluebird was gone, we wrote tons of letters to her. The standard letter got old really fast.  I think I wrote her two cards before I got bored.  I knew I had a summer of letters ahead of me, so I took a page from Cathe Holden, of Just Something I Made.  (If you have not been to visit her fabulous ideas, images and projects that she so generously shares, run, don't walk over to her blog, found right here.  I am not kidding.)   A long, long, time ago Cathe shared a doodle of a bluebird.  It so fit my daughter, who left our "nest" for the summer, that I created my own adaptation of her bluebird and started writing "Bluebird News."

I cut sheets of card stock length-wise into thirds, covered the front with drawings of whatever we were doing at the moment, then on the back, I wrote newspaper style articles so that she would know what was happening at home.  It was so much fun to be doodling all of a sudden.  I bought tons of colored pencils and went to town figuring out what I could actually draw.  We seemed to spend all summer visiting one old car show or another.  I still can't draw a car, but by now I can draw a really good tire!!!  It's all in the perspective, baby.

 Bluebird News was a huge hit.  She still talks about how she got the best mail, and all the kids would crowd around her at mail time.  The few times that she did call us, I spent the entire time talking to her friends whom I had never even met, and instead of getting news on what the kids were doing, or where they were, I was plied with requests to send even more mail.  The little extra time I spent to make the mail more creative, will always be remembered by Sweet Bluebird and her friends.  I know many of you send lunchbox notes with not only your kids, but your Honey also, next time you write that note, draw a little doodle to let them know how much you love them!

Look What I Found!

I was just at Michael's, and you would not believe what I stumbled upon!  Making Memories fall scrapbook kits for 80% off!  I don't scrapbook, but who in their right mind could resist this?

 Or this?

And I especially love all the ephemera in these.

I really just had to have these.

I am blaming these beauties on you all.  I have seen them popping up on your blogs.  They just hopped in my basket, before I even knew what was happening.

Hope you are able to get in on some of the 80% off at Michael's!  I already sent my sister.  You had better hurry before the two of us buy it all up!