Ornament Roundup

Another post in our First on Friday series where we share a new activity from the week season.

We’re not quite finished decorating the tree, but will we every be? I am starting to think the answer is no. We could always sew more, dehydrate more, craft more.







I look forward to many more years of ornament making. We’ve had such a wonderful time decorating our first full-sized holiday tree. This experience has bought us such joy and peace.

More pictures, instructions and inspiration for our ornaments:
+ Bird ornaments (from Skip to my Lou)
+ Beaded wreath ornaments
+ Felted stars, wooden stars, and felt hearts

+ Dehydrated orange slices (try dehydrating ruby red grapefruit for a beautiful pink color!)

Holiday Card Wreath Update

Remember that beautiful holiday wreath made out of an embroidery hoop and clothespins? I finally made it.

Simple, easy, fun! I used pictures of our Amy Butler designed, non-toxic laminated cotton tablecloth to glue on the clothespins (so we could use the wreath year round to hold pictures and cards).

The toddler helped with the gluing of the paper to the clothespins. I hot glued them on to the hoop. We hung it with a push pin.

The whole thing cost about $3.50 since most of the supplies came from our local craft resale shop (in brand new condition). I’d like to think that you’d never guess that by looking at it. It certainly doesn’t look expensive, but I hope it doesn’t look that cheap either. Besides, it was made with love!

The project couldn’t have been easier and I love the look of it. Thanks to Kathleen for the inspiration and tutorial. Now it’s your turn to try it!

Mamas Night Out

I love hanging with my friends. Now that our kids are getting older, we can finally prioritize spending time away from our families. After the kids are asleep we meet up to craft together, enjoy good food, strong drinks and first-rate conversation. We laugh, we share, we cry (tears of laughter and sorrow), we unwind and relax. It’s precious and I dearly treasure every minute spent with these gals.

Here’s a glimpse from last weeks adventures together.

Making wreaths:





Dressing up a la Sex and the City to watch the movie sequel:



Gotta love girl friends.

Looking Almost as Organized

Time for a pantry update!

This fall I organized our pantry. To refresh your memory, here’s a shot from back in September before I whipped it into shape:

Here’s a view of it immediately after I cleaned and purged the pantry, got rid of the bulk foods baggies by organizing bulk items and spices in to jars, and labeled everything with chalk ink:

Here it is two months later after a big shop (so stuffed to the brim!) and not too disorganized:

There may be fewer items put in jars and neatly labeled, but overall it’s still organized and I find that finding items remains relatively easy. Success!

I had a feeling that since I promised to show you pictures of the pantry every few months the pressure would be on and I could keep it tidy. :)

As a bonus to this post, I thought it would be fun to give you a glimpse into our fridge, which truth be told is actually quite organized these days.

Top shelf: water, apple and grape juice, milk, sourdough bread (for David and Miss Leyba), goat cheese (behind) and leftover (really old) smoothie (whoops!).

Second shelf: eggs, juice boxes, leftover polenta, tofu, milk; cheese (blue, Monterrey jack, and cheddar), garlic, and ginger in the cheese drawer.

Third shelf: more eggs, yogurt, potatoes, yams beer (behind, for David), limes (behind, for squeezing into my water), veggie dogs (for David and the peanut; I haven’t been able to find gluten-free ones for me yet).

Crispers drawers: carrots, cauliflower, cucumber, celery, onions, lemons.

Can you tell I visited Costco this week?! (Hence the multitude of (mostly local) dairy products!) I think we’ll have to make a fritata to get through those eggs and I have plans for a veggie intensive cheddar mac and cheese with all that cauliflower (from an article called healthy comfort foods! Bring it!).

Nom nom.

What are your meal plans for the week? I need help. Easy, quick and vegetarian, please.

Paper Crafts

I love the internet. Each and every time I open my feed reader I feel amazed by (and in awe of!) the multitude of artists who share their work on the internet and inspire the masses. (See my shared items for a small sampling of the joy that awaits me each day.)

Quilters, knitters, designers, scrap-bookers, illustrators, sculptors, chefs, artists, photographers — there are so many talented people sharing themselves and their creative endeavors on their blogs. Isn’t the internet such an amazing place? I love it here.

In the same vein, I feel amazed by the numerous high quality free downloads on the internet. Gift tags, paper dolls, coloring pages. The generosity of talented artists and designers sharing their work with us, giving us such a special gift, makes me smile. Especially at this stage in our lives when I cannot afford to buy and support all the artists I follow online. (Someday!) In the meantime, I have bits and pieces of their works here in my home and it fills my heart with joy.

Some fun paper craft downloads we’re enjoying:

+ Build Your Own Cupcake (from Volume Twenty Five) – shown above!
+ Typographic Gift Tags (from Eat Drink Chic)
+ ‘Keep Calm and Carol On’ Printable (from Craftily Ever After)
+ Birdie Ornaments (via Creature Comforts) – hanging on our tree!
+ West Elm DIY Downloads (via How About Orange)
+ Dace Paper Dolls By Dallas Shaw (via Creature Comforts) – shown below!