Crackerbox

Icey Fun

The kids have been praying for snow on Christmas. I don't think it is going to happen, but we did get to have some fun with icicles today.

Gift Tags

These little gift tags are really easy to make.  I scanned in this hanky...

 

Cut and pasted until it covers an 8.5 by 11 page. Essentially making a rough repeat pattern. Perfection isn't necessary on this one. When you punch out the circles you can just avoid any of the not so perfect areas.

 

This is what mine looked like coming down the chute.  This next part I didn't take photos of, because little River was not wanting to go to bed tonight, I was a little distracted. But you just use a circle punch and punch away. I was able to get 12 circles out of my 8.5" x 11" sheet.  I think my punch is a 2" diameter. Then go to town putting a grommet in each one. This step is really optional. Just a punched hole would work. But I am a little grommet happy these days.

The backside of the tags is blank for a personal little message. And that's that.

Nothing to Say

Gifts going outtakes

I have started sending out gifts. Some food gifts for teachers left the house this morning. I made the Aunt April traditional chocolate covered pretzels.

I have been very unimpressed with the ribbon selection out there this year. Last year Target had some terrific ribbons and giftwrap, but the selection this year is wimpy.  So I opted for the tried and true and a little bit country fabric for ribbon substitution. The little tag on the bag I made last year, I scanned in a vintage table cloth and then punched out circles and added a grommet. I moved these tiny little pieces of paper from Florida to Tennessee and still was able to find them. I impressed myself with that one.

And now for the outtakes. My mom has been requesting photos of the kids, so here are outtakes from the Christmas card Photoshoot.

 

 

If you are a Canon Digital Rebel user and you got this far, I have a question for you. I got my Rebel 4 years ago and when I first got it, I loved it. The pictures were amazing. I couldn't help but take good pictures. Everything was crisp and I never had problems with lighting.

Lately, my flash is overpowering. The kids faces disapear all the time, and I am getting a lot of blurry shots.  I am blaming the problem on me, but I keep thinking back to my first photos with my Rebel and how great they were. Do you know of any kind of maintenance I need to do on this camera. I read somewhere that the shutters can have problems after awhile.  Any experience or advice would be great. 

Have a great night.

Santa

This is the first year Juliana wasn't terrified of the jolly man, but it seems she has passed the torch to little River. He wouldn't go anywhere near ol' Santa.

Gifts for me!!

I went and made myself a Christmas gift.

I worked on this scarf during car line this week and also during all those times I was waiting on Leighton to just "run" into Ace Hardware.  I got the pattern from Crochet Today Magazine. It was pretty simple and once it got going was done pretty quickly. The yarn is a little scratchy though, so I am going to give it a wash in some fabric softener and see what happens.

I started this shirt before Thanksgiving. I wanted it to be my Breakfast with Santa shirt. This is definitely going to be in development for a while longer. I wanted a Tunic that I could wear a turquoise long sleeve t-shirt underneath. The problem is it made me look like the broad side of a barn. It looks pretty good cinched with the belt, but I am just not a cinched with a belt type of girl. So I started working on the shoulder pleats and then tried to put in a dart  but I think that would work better on a different fabric.  It is a little too bulky and chunky.  I think in the end, I will probably scrap it, and start over. I have enough of this plaid left to make a skirt. I think I might try to cut it on the bias and do a simple elastic waist skirt. But not until after Christmas.  I think my sewing plate is full until then.

Elf

Is Christmas really just a few weeks away. I don't really feel the stress of it, but I wish there was more time to enjoy the cold weather and the lights and the excitement.

I have been a busy elf making some gifts. Unfortunately I can't share because most of the recipients look in here from time to time. 

Juliana and I made paper snowflakes today. We hung them on the fireplace next to the stockings. Aren't those stockings beautiful. Made by my lovely grandmother. One is mine from when I was little, she made one for Leighton when we got married and each of the kids were given one on their first Christmas'.

Enjoy the magic of the season.

Snow Day

We got a little tiny bit of snow this week, and we are squeaking every ounce of fun out of it that we can. What hasn't been used for snow balls, miniature snow men or been tracked across the floor is settling snuggly into my freezer in every plastic container the children can muster up. Two solid days of fun. You can see from this photo that it wasn't quite an inch, but that didn't really matter much. The only dissappointment was that school wasn't canceled. I hope we have more snow days this year. Have a great night.