Christmas Decorations

I've got most of my Christmas decorations up for the season and I thought I would share. I'm still working on a couple of items to complete the trees and the mantle but the majority is complete.
Here's a few pictures.

This is right as you enter the living room from the entry way. I told my husband earlier today that I think this is my favorite area of Christmas decorations this year. This is the first year I've done it this way. I really like it. I need to smooth out the hanging. Its a little wrinkled from being in storage.


Here's our Nativity scene. I really like this one. I got it at Kirkland's last year. I have a couple but this is my favorite.


This is on one of my end tables. Just a few little trees.


This is a 4' tree I have in the dining/kitchen area. I want to get kitchen/food related ornaments to put on the kitchen tree but I'm waiting until the after Christmas sale at Hobby Lobby for new ornaments. These are the decorations I have used on the big tree for the past couple of years. It kind of candy cane theme in color. I have a ton of red decorations. This year we decided to change the big tree up a little .


This is one side of the mantle. Got everything from Hobby Lobby at 50%. I never pay full price at Hobby Lobby.



Stockings and stocking holders. Love them. I've used these for the past couple of years.


Full picture of the mantle. We have a skinny tree that I love just with the lights. I thought about putting ornaments on it but I really like it plain. This is the first year we've put it next to the fireplace. I really like it here. I'm working on a wreath to go above the mantle. It's not quite finished yet but it's going to pretty simple too. I really like things that are not too overdone.



And finally the big tree. I want a new one and will probably try to pick one up when they go on sale after Christmas. We went with blue and white this year. I really like how it turned out. I'm working on a ribbon topper for it. I don't like a ton of ornaments on the trees. I know some people will think its to bare but I like it.

Semi-Homemade Christmas Gift

I thought I would participate in Maman Tattoo's McLinky today.


She's sharing gift projects made for under $15. Check out her website for the rest of the awesome ideas.

I'm trying to do as many homemade gifts as possible this year. I always try to get something small for my aunts and this year I decided to make them recipe cards and pair it up with a set of wooden spoons.

Here's the recipe cards.

This is super simple to do. I just created a text box using Microsoft office. The fonts were downloaded from kevinandamanda.com. This is an awesome website. They have some great free downloads and great tutorials. So far this project has cost a whopping nothing. What's better than that.

I found a set of three wooden spoons at Gordman's for less than $2. I am planning on printing at Kinko's just because of the paper choices and they will cut them. I am signed up as a preferred customer and I don't expect it to cost more than $10. I plan on punching holes in the cards and tying them together with ribbon I already have (purchased at Hobby Lobby during 50% clearance. I think I paid $1.50 for the roll.) And that's that. Super easy and I think its kind of fun. Now they have personalized cards to write down all their favorite recipes. I considered putting my favorite recipes on the cards but I thought that blank cards would be better for my aunts.

Cost Breakdown:
card design-free
printing- less than $10
ribbon- $1.50
wooden spoons (3 pack)- $2.00

I pretty excited about these. I received something similar to these during a bridal shower. I thought the idea was excellent. Hope you all enjoy it.

Catching up with friends and my crazy husband

These are two of my very best friends. They were two of my sorotity sisters, two of my bridesmaids and they were my college roommates for two of the best years of my college experience. Most of my favorite college memories includes these two ladies. There's no telling what we were discussing in the above picture.

I'm so excited because tonight we finally did a 3-way phone call. Why we hadn't thought of this before is beyond me. It was great getting to visit with them together. I've missed them so much. After college we all went our separate ways. We try to keep in touch the best we can. I know I could be much better at it. I've missed them dearly. We are separated by several thousands of miles and I wish that we were closer so we could see one another more often. I think its amazing how even though we don't speak as often as we would like and we don't see each other as often as we would like, when we finally get the chance to pick up the phone and call one another it's like we were right there in our college apartment again. I guess that just how a great friendship is supposed to work. Here's a few photos of us together.








They are truly amazing women and I know that I'm a better person for having friends like these ladies.

I can't mention these two without mentioning my other two bridesmaids. I love these ladies just the same and miss them as well.



In addition to sharing about catching up with great friends I wanted to post about my crazy husband. Rather than do two posts tonight I decided to lump them together. I'm calling this secion the Many Faces of My Crazy Husband. He's so cute and silly.

This is him. Isn't he a cutie. I don't know why he was smiling like this but it kind of makes him look like a chipmunk. I was bored when we were sitting at home and the camera was just sitting there so I decided to take a few pictures of him.

Of course he started making funny faces immediately. This one is a tad bit out of focus because I was laughing.





He's crazy, I know.



I'm pretty fond of him though. Sillyness and all.

Product Review

I was working on cleaning the house and thought I would take a few minutes to recommend a product. If you're like me, I hate having to scrub the bathtub. I try to keep ahead of the soap scum but as we all know that doesn't always work out. I've been using this product for a while now and I love it.I've tried several different products but none of them have given me the results that this one has. I probably use more of it than I need to in the bathtub but I've found that if I spray it all over and let it sit for a couple minutes ( usually tackle the toilet while its sitting) it takes very little elbow grease to clean the tub. It's amazing. So I definitely recommend trying this product if you can't seem to get rid of that soap scum. Check out the official website for a list of products and surfaces that they can be used on.

Tanyard Creek

If you live in the NW Arkansas area you've noticed that we haven't seen much of the sun lately. Today, however, it finally decided to show itself. I've been waiting for a little sunshine so I could go out and take some photos at Tanyard Creek. Tanyard Creek is a area in Bella Vista that is absolutely beautiful. There is a nature trail that leads you around the creek and the water falls. It's amazing.

I finally made it out there and thought I would share the photos I took today. Here they are...

Show Us Your Fall Decorations

I'm participating in the Show Us Your Fall Decorations party hosted by Kelly's Korner today. I've posted about this in the past but thought I would put it all together again today. I love these parties. Its great to see everyone's decorating ideas.

I love this time of year. Fall is hands down my favorite season. I love everything about it. I also love the Christmas season but my favorite decorations are during fall. Like I've said before I'm definitely one of those people who decorates around the seasons. Most of my decor items change with the seasons.

This is how I decorate the ledge in my entry way for fall. This is one of my favorite place to change for the seasons. I put up my fall decorations after labor day (if I can wait that long). October 1st is when the Halloween decorations go up. I use a lot of the same decorations for fall and Halloween.


This is a tree we put up for Halloween. It's made from black poster board. I really like how it turned out this year.



Here's my mantle for Halloween. I made the spider web from black vinyl you can buy for the Cricut machine. I replaced my normal garland with a black feather boa. The pictures are made from scrapbook paper and I found the images on clipart.

We have a tradition of carving pumpkins with the family a couple of weeks prior to Halloween. We got together last week to carve pumpkins and had so much fun. I will hopefully get some pictures to post soon. I didn't carve this year. Instead, I painted my pumpkins. I'm really happy with how they turned out. So check back for those.

I hope you all enjoyed seeing my Halloween decorations. Happy Fall!!!

Have You Ever...?

Have you ever gotten home from the grocery store and couldn't find something you knew had purchased? Happened to me today. I went to pick up a few groceries. I even had a list (I try to make it a habit to go with one.)

I got everything I needed ( or at least I thought I did) and checked out, loaded up the car and drove home. When I got home I started putting everything away and noticed that I didn't have an item I was sure I put in the cart.

My immediate thought was that I left a bag at the store. They have these spinning bag carousals things and I always try to make sure that I double check it before I leave the check station. I checked the receipt to see if indeed I did pay for the item. It was no where on the receipt. I could have sworn that I picked up the item and put it in the cart. The cart was empty when I checked out. I have no idea what happened to it. It was a little disorientating. And disappointing. I needed it for the dinner I was planning for tonight.



I hate having to make two trips to the store in one day. Heck, I hate making the first trip but its gotta be done.

Oh well.

Anyway, I was planning on making these

Source: Kraftfoods.com

They are Pizza Fingers with dipping sauce. The recipe can be found at Kraftfoods.com. I love this website. They have such great recipes and if you sign up you can receive a free magazine every season with lots of great recipes.

I especially like their 1 bag/ 5 meals feature. Gives you recipes for the week that use a lot of the same ingredients so its easy on the budget at the market. Great stuff. Check it out.