Christmas Tour of Homes 2011

Welcome to our home! This year my plan was to keep it simple. I even weeded out a bunch of Christmas decor over the past 2 years and honestly, I like it better with a little bit less around here!


Here is our tree, it's a real tree and I just love it. It smells so yummy and piney! The door to my bedroom is right behind the tree and I love to step out of my room every morning and smell that pine smell!
Here is one of our large bookshelves, I took half of the books and put them away for the month so I would have room for my snowmen. I like having lights on the shelves too so you can see the stuff even at night.

Our Elf on the Shelf, "Jingle" just loooved this sign!

I call this next set of photos 'I've got the JOY JOY JOY JOY down in my heart!'

The only new decoration I made this year was this - I added strips of Christmas-y fabric to a strand of white Christmas lights. I LOVE the way it turned out and it's so simple and pretty draped over our fireplace. {thanks to Pinterest for the idea, love that place!}

I have several very pretty Nativities that have been given to me as gifts over the years. Here are two of my faves, along with my hurricane jar from Blessings Unlimited... {this is the left side of the mantel}

And this is the right side of the mantel...

Here is a closer look at my snowmen ... I used to have about DOUBLE this amount, but have scaled back to only my favorites now.

{can you spot Jingle?}

Thanks for visiting! Have a Merry CHRISTmas!

To see LOTS of other homes please check out The Christmas Tour of Homes at The Inspired Room.

Christmas Baking

There is just something about Christmas time that makes me want to bake! I used to make ALL sorts of things, but in recent years have learned that it's better to just narrow things down to just a few simple favorites.



The first step of course is to have all the proper ingredients on hand. So I pulled out the recipes I knew I'd want to make, made up a big grocery list of items needed, and headed off to Walmart. Yep, I figure it's only once per year that Christmas comes around so I'm gonna go with price over quality. =)



And all of this .... is what we came home with!






Don't these peppermint crunch baking chips look amazing? I can't wait to have them!

And THIS is what you get suckered into buying when your daughters shop with you ...

Here are the things I'm planning to make this season:

Cutout Sugar cookies - already made some for Bible study, but I know we'll make more.

Scotch Shortbread - just made a small batch last night cause I've been craving a little something sweet to have with my tea each evening.

Devil's Food Chocolate Cookies with Peppermint baking chips

Red Velvet Cookies with White Choc chips {never tried before but thought they sounded good!}

And that's it! Yeah, just got the oats and walnuts and such to have on hand just in case I decide to make something that needs them. {Otherwise they make a healthy breakfast too!}

And while I'm here, I might as well share the recipes, right? Cause I know you'll want to know them!

Scotch Shortbread

2 sticks of butter {don't EVEN try to sub something else, only REAL butter will do!}

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 cups flour

Mix all together, press down into a square 9x9 pan, then either poke some holes in the top or sprinkle with some festive colored sugars. Bake for about 20-30 min in a 300 degree oven. When mostly cooled cut into squares. This is soooo yummy and buttery and rich tasting. I can only eat small squares at a time!

Sugar Cookie Cutouts

Cream with a mixer:

3 eggs

2 sticks of butter

1 cup of sugar

Add:

1 & 1/2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Slowly mix in:

3 & 1/2 cups of flour {I may have even added more like 4 cups cause my dough seemed too sticky}

Chill dough in the fridge for an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Working on a floured surface, roll out your dough to desired thickness {my trick is to keep it fairly thick - you get MUCH nicer cookies!}

Cut with floured cookies cutters {I let the kids do this, they love it!}

Bake for 10-12 min until the dough looks dry but NOT brown. You may need to keep an eye on the first batch to figure out what the best amount of time is. Every oven and pan cook a bit differently.

{My other trick for cookies is using a Baking stone, like the kind from Pampered Chef, you get great cookies every time without burning the bottoms.}

Once they have cooled you can decorate with icing and sprinkles. The girls LOVE that part!

Devil's Food Cookies with Choc. Chips

One box of Devil's food cake mix

Mix with 1/2 cup of oil and

2 eggs.

Add 1 cup of {any kind} choc chips.

Form into balls and bake for 10-11 min at 350 degrees.

This can be edited with any kind of choc chips - I am going to use the peppermint chips with this cake mix.

I am also going to try using the Red Velvet cake mix with White Choc chips by using the same recipe but just changing the flavors - we'll see how they turn out!

And that's all, very simple but delicious recipes.

And the winner is ...

LORA who said 'It seems like this time of the year always gets so hectic, even if I try otherwise. However, giving myself the flexibility to change plans at the last minute, etc., does help with the stress level:)'


Congratulations Lora! I will get the book in the mail to you ASAP!
Thanks for entering the giveaway friends!

Slowing Down this Holiday Season

Everywhere you go during the month of December you're bombarded by the busy rush of preparing for Christmas. Everywhere you look things are being promoted to you. Gifts to buy, decorations that you just gotta have, food you have to make, etc. It's all enough to make us feel a little crazy, isn't it?

For us, it is somewhat inevitable that we WILL be busy at this time of year. This is the month where we attend a lot of parties and gatherings with friends and family plus we still have all our regular stuff going on like Awana and sports for the girls. But we also have a choice to make in just how crazy we make ourselves, yes?

Today I want to share a few blog posts that have truly inspired me lately as well as a couple quick tips that I have found helpful over the years.

One thing I am slowly learning year by year is to let go of those feelings of what a 'perfect' Christmas needs to look like. I shamefully admit I've spent too many times stressing out because we didn't get that perfect photo or my house didn't look magazine worthy or plans just simply didn't pan out as I had hoped they would. Some times even our best laid plans can fall through. One year I was so excited to attend our annual Christmas brunch for our MOMS group at church and that morning I woke up with the stomach bug. What a disappointment to have to miss such a wonderful morning! We also had a Christmas Eve and Christmas day a few years back when half of our family had the stomach bug. My poor daughter could hardly enjoy opening her gifts because she felt so icky. So yes, plans can change, life gets in the way, things don't always turn out the way we want.

This week my friend Jessica had a great post about this idea of perfectionism. I hope you'll go here to check it out.

Another post that has inspired me today was from Emily at Chatting at the Sky. She shares the idea that a gift doesn't have to be something you buy in a store, click here to read the 10 gifts you can give that won't cost you a cent, but will have lasting worth. {Bonus, her post today is also a giveaway of her book, which I have and am LOVING!}

This post, from my friend Sarah, is where she says what she's NOT doing this year. It's OK to say to yourself 'I don't have to do it all, every year.' It's OK. Let me repeat ... It's okaaaayyy! Choose a couple favorite traditions and let the rest go. It's more about enjoying what you ARE doing, then trying to cram in so much that no one's enjoying it anymore.

My personal goal this year is to slow down. Enjoy the moments. Disconnect from electronic things and just be.all.there. A friend Mindy talks about this here.

And lastly, here is something I started doing a bunch of years ago and it works well for me. I know this won't be everyone's ideal way to spend the season, but for me, it helps me immensely. You ready? Here it is - my big, Christmas time 'secret' .... I try to have all the busy things done by the 2nd week in December. This means I start in early November and over the course of several weeks I get most of the things done. So by the 2nd week in December I hope to have:
*all gifts bought
*all cards bought, addressed and mailed out
*parties and such penciled in on the calendar
*decor up, tree up, etc

Does it always happen as I had planned? Nope. Of course not. But this is my goal each year. Why? Because then I can spend those last 2 weeks before Christmas simply enjoying ... reading with my girls, baking together, driving around looking at lights, wrapping gifts in the evening while the girls are in bed, watching fun Christmas movies all snuggled together, dancing and singing to Christmas carols together. Just soaking in the season. And that is my goal.

I also adopt a more relaxed school schedule in December too. It's nice to give ourselves a little leeway so we can use the extra time to bake or work on making gifts for people or just more reading and snuggle time. I know there will be lots of cold January days when we'll have plenty of time to do school work, but Christmas comes only once a year and the book work will always be there after the season.

I know myself enough to know that I cannot be a last minute person, I get easily stressed out when I try to do things last minute. I know several people who THRIVE in that situation, but I get cranky and crazy when I leave things until the last minute. So for me to truly enjoy the season, this needs to be my goal.

I hope that each of you will find a way to slow down and enjoy this Christmas season. If you haven't already, you should check out my previous post which is a giveaway, and take a few minutes to read through the comments on how other people find rest and peace at this time of year.

Giveaway Time!

How about a little JOY for your Monday morning??

I have a great little giveaway today but it's gonna be a quick one, so DON'T delay in leaving a comment!

I've been learning a lot lately about how this time of year needs to be one of rest and peace and slowing down. Sounds ridiculous to expect those things to happen at CHRISTMASTIME, right? But it IS possible! I will have MUCH more to say on this very soon, but for today, please share one thing you do that helps you to slow down, rest and/or create peace through the holiday season.

I will draw a random winner from the entries and ship your gift out this week. You only have until TUESDAY at MIDNIGHT to enter so don't delay!

Now, what will you win ...

A copy of the book 'Playful Learning' !!!

So get busy and leave a comment ... and have a great Monday friends!

Favorite Things ~ December 2011

Remember those Oprah episodes where she'd give everyone in her audience all her favorite things from the year? Well today, just for fun, I'm Linking up with the Nester to share about My Favorite Things. Same idea ... just some of these things couldn't really be given as gifts. But anyhow ...

The Biggest Loser - one of my fave, fave, fave shows. So inspirational to see the way people change their lives!

My Canon camera - LOVE! If I could afford to, I would TOTALLY give one of these to each of my besties!

Dayspring Cards. It's no secret that I sell Blessings Unlimited stuff, but I gotta tell ya - their greeting cards, which are made by Dayspring, are absolutely gorgeous and SO full of wonderful messages. I hope to be MUCH better about sending out cards this coming year.

Dancing with the Stars - another FAVE show ... I love the dances, the costumes, the humor, the judges, the glitz and glamour and it's all just absolutely fabulous!

Fabric ... so, so addicted to buying pretty fabrics!

Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka ... mmmmmmm, so good on a hot summer day!

Essie Nail polish in Mink Muffs - LOVING this color right now!

My faux leather journal/notebook. I use it to write prayer requests and praises, journal on occasion, write verses, etc. It's almost full, I need to find a new one!

Pandora radio .... what a great invention! Some days I listed to 'How Great is our God' radio, some days 'Taylor Swift' radio ... maybe even 'Jimmy Buffet' radio ... the choices are endless and I adore it.

My fave creamer. EVER. I only like Coffee Mate brand and I like a lot of flavors, but this is my number one fave.

And of course you have to have it with a little of this!! MMMMMM, just like a fancy {expensive} Starbucks drink!

Ruffly shirts ... any kind, any color, I'm addicted to ruffles lately!

Scrapbooking supplies ... not that I've had *any* time to scrap lately ... but the supplies sure are pretty!

My fave tea ... any time I feel the slightest sore throat or cold coming on I immediately start drinking this stuff and I swear by it, it makes the cold shorter and less severe! I FINALLY read this book this year and LOVED it ... can't wait for my friend to read it so that all my girlfriends and I can rent the movie and watch it together!

My Under Armor hot pink running shirt ... it actually makes it {sort of} enjoyable to run!

So there ya have it ... if I could buy one of everything for each of my best girlfriends, I totally would .... What are YOUR favorite things from this year??

WHAT??!!

It's December?! Say what? Please tell me I'm not the only one saying this ....

Oh well, might as well get used to it ... new December background and banner is up! ;)

Pillow Cover Tutorial

OK friends, today I am giving you picture overload! I wanted to share a super easy way to recover your throw pillows for each season. If you have a sewing machine and know how to sew in a straight line - I promise you can DO this! =)



First, here are my pillows, I covered them last winter and made the mistake of making the coverings permanent. After the fact, and after they got sorta grungy sorta fast, I wished I had made removable covers so they could be changed or washed at will.
So this fall I finally got smart and made removable pillow covers in this gorgeous deep orange color, sort of a plush suede fabric. Anyway, I put those away with my fall decor and was back to the light blue pillows.

Which could only mean one thing, a trip to my local discount fabric store was in order! They sell everything, EVERYthing, for $2.99 a yard - even the BIG bolts of home dec fabrics! So I picked out 2 co-ordinating fabrics, one in an olive green and one in a deep red. I was totally guessing that they would match well with my couches and I was right! The green is almost identical to my couch color!


Next, decide if you plan to wash your covers or not. For these, I knew I wouldn't. They'll only be out for about a month and they are dark colors anyway, so I'll take a chance that they hopefully won't get spilled on. And even if they did, the fabric was cheap enough I would be OK with it. If you DO want to wash them, make sure you buy fabric that is washable, and bring it home and wash it FIRST before you do anything else. Then, measure your pillows and determine about how long and wide you need your fabric to be.


Here's what I do ... These pillows were approximately 20-22 inches square. So my WIDTH measurement is going to be 22 + 2-3 extra inches for leeway. {You can always cut the excess off, but if you cut it too small, you might not be able to fix it later. Then, for the LENGTH, make it DOUBLE that 22x2 = 44 + some overage for the flaps and stitching. I did mine at about 52 inches length and it was probably a bit too much, but again, I like to be certain that it's enough. An easy way to figure it out is to take the length of fabric and wrap the pillow and overlap the edges a bit. There is a saying that goes 'always measure twice, cut once' ... in other words, you can't redo it once it's cut, so be sure to measure carefully a couple times before cutting your fabric.

So to recap - my piece of fabric is now 24 inches x 52 inches. Next, I sewed the edges of each end - NOT the long sides, only the 2 short sides. Just fold up the edges a bit and sew straight down the side. It should look like this ...

Then, I lay the GOOD side down, and flap the two ends over each other like this ...

See how the left side overlaps the right side a bit? You want that.

Next I want to measure to make sure that my final product will be the proper size to fit the pillows. As I said above, I want the final product to be 22 inches square, so I take my ruler and measure across to be sure it's 22 inches, if it's too short or too long, I can adjust how far it's overlapping until I'm sure that it's 22 inches across ...

Then, I pin all along both sides so that it will STAY 22 inches and won't shift when I start sewing. I pin a little further in so that I can sew without having to remove the pins as I go.

Hard to see in this pic, but here it is with both sides pinned.

Then I want to measure the opposite direction, so that I know where I should sew and again, so I make sure it will end up being 22 inches across. I use my ruler and a dark black pen and I mark where I want my stitch line to go on both sides ...

See how I'll be left with about an inch or so excess on each side? That is fine ... like I said above, better to be left with some excess than to have it turn out too short. The excess can either be cut off {later, after you have sewed!} OR, you can just leave it cause it will be on the inside of the pillow and no one will notice it anyway. {You can guess what I do.}

Now you're ready to sew!! Make a straight stitch all the way down both sides, following the dark black line you made for yourself.

And here it is all sewn - I know you can hardly see the thread except right at the end, but trust me it's there. Now you can remove your pins. Don't trim your excess YET! Wait until you make sure that the cover fits the pillow properly before trimming anything!

Next you're going to flip the pillow cover inside out so that the pretty side of the fabric will show ...

And this is how it will look once it's flipped.

See how the two ends overlap each other?

And now the fun part ... wrestling that pillow into the cover ... it can be something like wrestling an ornery two year old into a snowsuit, but it's worth it in the end!

At this point it's halfway in and you're thinking ... there is no way it will all fit! The second half is a bit trickier cause you have to get it smushed all up to get it under that bottom flap. Just keep squishing and smushing and it WILL fit! Then you need to do a little fluffing and adjusting after you've gotten it squished in there.

And voila! It's in!

And my oh my ... don't they look nice?!

I made two green and two red ... {sad thing is they look nicer than the beat up couches they're sitting on!}

And one last look ...

Now, I know this has been a very WORDY post, and you're probably overwhelmed, but TRUST me, it took me longer to type it all out and explain it than it did to actually make the pillows! This project should take between 30-60 minutes {for all 4!}.

Hope you enjoyed. If you decide to cover your pillows come back and let me know so I can check out your pics!

Oh yeah ... thought I'd include these little cuties too ... Christmas flower pins! Wouldn't they be so cute to wear on a black coat this Christmas season? I'm doing a craft fair on Saturday and hope to sell some of these along with LOTS of other homemade stuff I make. =)