Christmas Whirlwind Part 1

Well I’m little late with the Christmas post…. but the holiday season was CRAZY!  And I know there are loved-ones who would like to see the pictures anyway

I spent a lovely day/afternoon with my Mother helping her drag out the Christmas decorations and decorate her tree.  Mom & Dad used to be Christmas tree “purists” having a REAL tree (noble fir) for as long as my memory can take me back into my childhood.  But after years and years of climbing through the woods to find that “perfect” tree or spending BOATLOADS of money on a tree at a tree farm they finally opted for a fake tree.  Luckily Mom found one that looks really nice and is still big enough to hold all those ornaments she’s been collecting over the years.

Helping Mom decorate her tree brings back so many Christmas memories for me.  She still has MANY of the ornaments I remember from my childhood

Along with some new ones that get added every year.

We made quite a mess of the living room in the process of unpacking everything.  But Mom was very grateful to have help with this project

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care

Here is Mama standing next to the tree, I think we were pretty much done at this point.

Mom and I with no makeup, wearing our sweatshirts and a smile after a long hard days work of dragging out boxes, climbing up ladders and hanging the decorations

Love you Mom!!

xoxo

‘Tis the Season…..

Well it’s that time of year, for decorating, crafts, baking and shopping!

I’ve decided to go through some of my Christmas decorations this year and get rid of some stuff so I can decorate more “simply”.  I’ve had a bunch of “mish-mash” decorations for years and years now.  A lot of hand-me-downs that are tattered, broken etc.  I decided this year to simplify my decorations by going with a plain wreath with green LED lights and two wire/ivy trees with white LED lights on top of the piano.  I decided to go with LED this year.  While they cost more upfront they use a fraction of the electricity as regular lights do.  I’m kind-of a Christmas light freak so I figured I would save where I could.

I put this decoration together the other night after buying these two little trees at Fred Meyer for $9.99 a piece.  The planter is a Pottery Barn planter that I’ve had sitting outside since this past summer with nothing in it.  It was a gift from a family friend.  The silver ornaments are leftover from a few years ago as is the ribbon.  I’ve decided on a green and silver theme with a hint of red.  I have a couple of other “projects” up my sleeve that I will be blogging about later (once I buy the supplies to create them).

I am almost done with my Christmas shopping this year and it’s only December 1st!  I decided to get a jump start and I did a LOT of my shopping online this year.  I’ve been really happy with the results.  I’ve gone out to Christmas shop only once and it was NOT on Black Friday (NO WAY!).  I only have one more person to buy for (whom I am waiting for to give me some IDEAS).  Other than that I have a couple of silly stocking stuffer things to get.  I am really happy that I will be able to enjoy December baking and doing crafts instead of running back and forth from the mall and shopping center

Speaking of CRAFTS!!!  This is a little project I started last week.  I’ve had this pad of Holiday scrapbooking paper for a couple of years now.  I’ve used a few pieces here and there for cards and whatnot, but I’m not really into scrapbooking so I’ve been trying to figure out ways to use this beautiful paper (either that or give it away!).  I decided to cut up the 12×12 sheets into little strips to fold and make gift tags.  But I couldn’t stop there!  I cut little white squares of paper and used my Holiday rubber stamp collection to stamp images onto the paper.  After that I used an old paint brush, some craft glue and my Martha Stewart glitter to jazz them up a bit.  I may have gotten a little carried away…..but I was having so much FUN with this!  Aren’t they cute?!?!

I think the snowflakes are my favorites!  Some of them I drew myself, like this one.  I just drew the shape lightly with a pencil and painted the glue on before sprinkling the glitter.  The photo doesn’t show how sparkly and glittery they are.  They’re really cute!

This snowman turned out pretty cute too!  This one is from one of my rubber stamps.  Unfortunately I had to stop using the stamps because my stamp pads were all nasty from being in storage.  The foam was starting to disintegrate and make the stamping process pretty sloppy.

This was a great project for my ADD personality.  It gave me something fun to do for several hours a couple nights in a row and now I have a nice little collection of hand-made gift tags!

Happy crafting everyone!  Have a wonderful Holiday Season!

XOXOX

Kim

An Excursion to IKEA

I don’t go to Ikea often… because it is always a zoo.  There are hordes of people there with strollers who like to run over my feet, bang into my ankles or just stand in the middle of the walkway while they try to decide what to look at next.

Because of my work schedule I can usually only go on the weekend too, which means there are even MORE strollers out to get me!

But I did go this past Saturday and I enjoyed myself quite a bit.  I don’t know if it was because of the Halloween holiday, but there didn’t seem to be as many people there for a Saturday.

Every time I go to Ikea it makes me wish I had a home of my own that I could tear apart and redecorate from the floor up.  Their room setups are always beautiful and the storage in each space is wonderful.  I always come home swimming with ideas of things I could do around my apartment to help me organize and make cozy.

I mean I just love IKEA!!!  I was thinking about getting a buffet table for my dining room, but honestly now I just want to build a floor to ceiling cabinet space with a serving area!  Their built-in kitchen systems are kind of expensive…. but SOMEDAY I will have the kitchen of my dreams   and Ikea may help!!

Anyway… for now I think I will have to stick with upgrading furniture and decorations for my apartment.  I will probably look into some of their storage solutions for getting this organized around here