Christmas Break FUN!

Since my girls are in public school I am always SUPER happy when school is out and we get time to be together at home. With Christmas break coming up I knew that I wanted to spend the time with them just having as much fun as possible. So I started a list of things we could do and set aside a little of my paycheck so we would have the funds to do it. 

The true blessing came when through a series of events they BOTH ended up with NO IPODS for the entire Christmas break ... I can't tell you how wonderful it was that they were not staring at those screens all the time! 

The other thing that I was pretty intentional about this Christmas was that they didn't get ANYthing for Christmas that had anything to do with technology ... no video games, no ipods, no phones, no computers, no tablets, nothing! They basically got clothes and creative/crafty items. Now we certainly did a lot of movie watching, most evenings snuggling up together for hours to watch movies ... and they also do sometimes play on the computer {their latest thing is Pinterest} ... but otherwise our break was such a nice, relaxing time of playing and being creative. 

Here are a few things we did:
They have always been wonderful artists thanks to my Father in law who gave them art lessons ... they received some new paints and brushes for Christmas so one day we stopped at Micheal's to get some new canvases and they spent most of that day painting.

One of the days we were blessed to celebrate Christmas with my Mom, her fiance {just engaged on Christmas Day!!}, and my brother Matt and his family ... the girls had fun playing with their cousins and we opened gifts and had lunch together and just enjoyed visiting and catching up. 

{Mom and Wayne}

{Stacy and Matt} 

Jilly also got a MARKER Maker for Christmas, something she had on her list and she was so excited, making markers several different times throughout the break. A couple of the other creative things they got were those LOOM band bracelet things - which they both spent HOURS working on. And Jilly also got a notebook thing where there are stencils and you create outfits and fashion ideas {hard to explain but it's cute}

 One day we needed to make some exchanges so we headed out of the house for a few hours, my hubby was sick that day and although it sounds mean we all wanted to avoid getting his sickness, so off we went. We went to a few stores, stocked up on some crafts at Micheal's, had lunch at Panera and stopped in to drool at Pier One - Haley commented that when she grows up she wants to furnish her whole house from Pier One - sure Haley, don't we all?! 

We also went out to lunch, then bowling with some good friends -- lots of fun with this group!! 

And another day we went Roller Skating with these lovely friends. 

We also went Ice Skating twice, once with family on Christmas Eve and once with friends - those pics will be in a separate post. 

And since the girls had some gift cards we did a little shopping ... after walking around Target for about an hour not knowing how she should spend hers, Jilly finally decided on a scooter! I was so happy she chose it because it was one item I had thought about getting her for Christmas, but just never did. With the cold, nasty weather lately she has been using it to scooter around inside the house for now. =) 

I am so thankful for this Christmas break ... we really had a great time together!! I was sad to see them go when it was time to go back to school. 

Valentine's Day Breakfast & Decor

Usually every year my family and I have a fancy Valentine dinner at home. We decorate the house, dress up fancy, make a yummy dinner and celebrate! This year however our schedules are just crazy, busy this week and we knew it just wasn't going to happen. So when the blizzard hit here on Friday and Saturday and we all ended up home for several days I knew it was the perfect time to have our little celebration. Instead of dinner though we had a yummy breakfast in our jammies together.

 

While my family was busy doing other things I got everything all set up in the dining room ... I have a box of Valentine decor that I keep to use year after year. Everything was pretty cheap too. Did you know you can buy a package of 24 paper doilies for only ONE dollar?! :)

 

 

candles, confetti, hearts ...

 

We had pink milk, strawberries and delicious cinnamon rolls!

I didn't take pics of the family, no one really wanted pictures of themselves in their pajamas.

You'll have to take my word for it that everyone LOVED the breakfast!



 

So while you're here would you like to see the rest of my Valentine decor??

 

This year I was ADDICTED to making these paper heart garlands! I made 3 and kept looking around the house for more places to make more. I made myself stop at 3 but it was hard not making more!! LOL



 

This one was by far my favorite one.

Red yarn, painted/glittered clothespins, paper hearts and paper doilies ....

 

This is my mantle...

 

I made this a few years ago using scrapbook papers/supplies and a large glittered heart I bought in a package from Walmart or Target {I can't remember!}

 

My jars are the same ones I had out for January but I took out the white candles and put in red one, tied some red yarn around them with paper doilies and stuck in some small hearts. So simple!

 

The print was a free one I found on Pinterest!
The candy in the jar was from the dollar store and thankfully is NOT a temptation for me cause I don't like the taste of those candy hearts! And the paper flowers were made from cupcake liners.

 

On this shelf I just added some red tin wall hangings a cute little 'love' sign that I stamped several years ago and a framed photo of my girls when they were little that I absolutely ADORE!!

 

Is this the cutest picture or what?!

 

Another paper heart garland, this is our TV cabinet ... I painted and glittered the clothespins and cut out paper hearts - so easy and fun!

 

Another thing I made with scrapbook papers ...

 

I took down our snowflakes from January and put up paper hearts!

 

In the kitchen we have some fun, festive details. I use this cake stand to hold all my sink essentials - but now I just made sure everything was pink or red! Pink handsoap, red candle, red dish soap and scrubber...

 

And by tying some tulle around hte candle I can clip more cute paper hearts to it!

 

My coffee/tea/cocoa station also got some festive touches ...

 

And lastly this is above the sink in the kitchen.

 

So there ya go ... super simple and cheap, just use things you already have or save them from year to year in a small box.

 

Happy Decorating and Happy Valentine's Day!!

Valentines Day Crafts

Hey friends!

Just wanted to share a couple super simple Valentines Day

crafts that you can use to get in the Valentine spirit!

 

First up, cupcake liner flowers!

You will need: paper cupcake liners, red chenille pipe cleaners and a glue gun.

 

 

Sorry I didn't take any photos of the process, but it's pretty simple.

I used a pencil to 'curl' the top of the pipe cleaner, then...

Poke the pipe cleaner through the cupcake liners, add a couple dabs of hot glue

 and squish it together. I used 3 cupcake liners per flower.

 

 

Don't they look cute?!

I got the idea for these here.

 

I had this cute, white, heart shaped container and didn't know what to fill it with,

now it's filled with a pretty bouquet of paper flowers! 

 

Craft #2: Valentine Quilt Hoop

Quilt hoops are my favorite and I have LOTS of them in my house.

Here are the needed supplies: quilt hoop, fabric, felt, ribbon or string, mini clothespins

and a hot glue gun.

Optional: cute photo of your girlies when they were really little and did a Valentine photo shoot. =)



 

Position your fabric in the hoop and tighten the hoop to be sure you like how it looks.

 

Cut off the excess fabric and lay out your ribbon or string to where you'd like it to lay.

 

Then loosen your hoop so you can get the ribbon attached in the hoop WITH the fabric.

 

Flip over and hot glue the excess fabric down.

 

So it will look like this:

 

Cut small hearts out of felt or paper.

Flip it back over and clip your little treasures on to the ribbons!

 

And hang it up!

This is my gallery wall in the living room - I can't believe how big my girls

are in the pics just below the Valentine hoop!

 

What do you think?!