Clapping my hands in excitement!

Ok. Everyone who knows me knows that I love Christmas. LOVE IT! Love to shop for it. Love to bake for it. Love to hang out with the family. Love to decorate for it! In anticipation for that great day of decorating, who everyone knows IS really as soon as the turkey is off the table, I may even let the family finish eating it. I've been working on a few little things to decorate the house with this holiday season and I thought that I would share a few with you to get you in the holiday mood too!
This is soo easy! I already had the candles and the ribbon was 50% off at Michaels so it wasn't much at all. Look how cute the candles are now with just a little ribbon to jazz them up with. This is going to be a present for my daughters teacher. Mrs. Baillie if your looking, keep your eyes closed for this part!

This one is supposed to be finished but hubby's promise of the wood scrap I need to put the "days til Christmas" on is still missing. I'll bug him again today to get on that! I'd just do it myself but if you've seen his mans land, it's just not pretty.

THESE! Soooo stinking simple I'm kicking myself for not doing these before now. Someone said you could pick up the glass stones at the Dollar Store but I couldn't find any clear enough at mine so I got mine at Joanns. They were around 3 dollar for like 25 stones. I got a pack of 50 magnets at Walmart for 3 dollars too and of course had the scrapbook paper. Not bad if I do say so myself. Look how pretty they are. They will make someone fridge very elegant!

I picked up this sled at a flea market back in May, with the thought of turning it into, of course, a Christmas decoration . I'm not sure I like the bow though. I may change that. I just shopped around in my Christmas stuff till I found some things that worked.

Dollar asle at Walmart! Had the Christmas ribbon. I'm going to fill it up with some goodies for friends. It's so easy your kids can make this.

These books are where I've been finding some really great recipes. YUM!

So aren't you all excited for Christmas now? We'll be taking next week off for Thanksgiving but we'll be back on the 30th and we'll be having lot's of fun ideas and tips for the Christmas season!

Believe

I guess you probably noticed that there was no post yesterday. Oops! It was me. I'm sorry. I really have no excuse other than, well...I don't have one! I've just been busy with finishing up our remodel, basketball, scouts, YW and all the other fun things that come with having a family. I also took on this craft project with my mil that we are doing at church, that has kept me sanding and sanding, and sanding till I felt like my arms were going to fall off.

I've confessed before that I am a blog stalker. I admit it. I am! I can't help it though. There are so many great ideas and talented ladies out there. That is how I found my latest project. I found this while surfing Tip Junkie If you've never looked at her site you should! Lot's of awesome tips and ideas.

Isn't this a terrific project? And it would make a great gift for someone too. You can find the originally idea here. I love the idea of using the candle for the letter L. It gives the project that little extra something special don't you think? I used the word Welcome for my daughters teacher's Christmas gift and put the word home on the candle. Like I said, the ideas can be unlimited. It's also fairly simple. We just cut a 2x4 into the size blocks we wanted. We cut 7 1/2 6 1/2 and 5 1/2 sized blocks but, you can make them any size that you want. We'll paint them (any color I think would look great too but, we picked black. It goes with everything!) and add the letters and your done. No more than an hour for sure!

Don't forget to check back wednesday for Alycia's terrific post and on friday we have another guest poster who is going to share some awesome tips on how to get the most out of your money this holiday season.

We also have some really fun give aways starting after Thanksgiving so be ready!

Keeping Kids Entertained

How does your Thanksgiving dinner go? Do you have a separate dinner table where all the kiddos sit or do you all sit together? How about this year doing something different. Put the kids all at one table but instead of a table cloth down, try using some butcher paper so the kids can color on it and it'll keep them entertained! I found this awesome idea from this website: http://www.parents.com/holiday/thanksgiving/crafts/simple-thanksgiving-day-crafts/?page=2
They have a little more for the kids to do but you can make it as simple or as complicated as you would like. I think its important for us adults to have a nice Thanksgiving meal and enjoy the company of our family and friends and its a fun way for the kids to be creative and be entertained while we do so.

Thanksgiving place cards

So I'm sure I mentioned that I was hosting Thanksgiving this year. I have so, so, so much to be thankful for. My family is all healthy and happy. I still have my grandma around. I think it's just awesome that my kids can visit with their great grandparents. Hubby has a grandpa and a grandma still alive. They tell the best stories and my kids are always asking questions.
Anyway, like I said, I'm hosting Thanksgiving at my house. It's really just my parents coming over so nothing too stressful, but I want things to look fun and festive. Now my big holiday to go all out for is Christmas and I don't have too many fallish things to use and I wanted the table to look really pretty. Yes! Another thing to be thankful for is that we can actually use our table again! It's been tucked away in the corner of our family room for almost a year while we remodeled our house. It was more of a pain to use so most of the time it was eating on the TV trays. I was looking about the house wondering what I could use to spice things up and then I spied these babies. They had these at Walmart for 1 cent. Yes. You read that right. ONE penny! Can you believe it? I couldn't. I had to ask someone and they assured me I didn't need glasses. I already had a few already but I bought a few more. About 5.

Now, I'm no Martha Stewart but I thought this idea would work and it was pretty easy too, once I decided on what colors to use. I know I've seen this many times in a ton of variations and this is how I did mine.

First, grab your scrapbook stash. Here is just a small, small, small bit of mine. :) I am a messy person when I am doing some project as you can tell.
I started with some card stock. I felt that it would hold up the best. I added a name and then some background paper and a little bow, some ribbon and a button.

Then I took my knife and slit into the stem of the little pumpkin. Be careful and don't slip...um, just in case.... I'm just saying. Then you place your little card into the slit and look! You have a cute little place card to put in front of your place setting.

So there you have it. A quick, easy, and cute way to dress up your table for Thanksgiving. Don't forget to check back soon. We are going to have some great tips coming up on how to travel with kids and some great ways to save during the holidays.