Organized Holiday Season

It is approaching fast...it sneaks up on us every year and before you know it the holiday season is in full swing and I am usually the one trying to play catch up. But I am vowing ( ok just really trying) not to have that happen this year. I already have been asking my children about halloween costumes and I will (as soon as I am done blogging) put going to pick pumpkins on the calendar ( the fancy google calendar my husband is trying so hard to get us all to use together so updates go to everyone).

That being said I am proud to say I just finished my Holiday Planner. I saw one on another blog which was nice and got me thinking...so i headed to the local office supply store and raided my paper stash and came up with this one....

 I titled it "Have yourself a merry little christmas" but really it contains calendars and to do lists for November 1st through December 24th

Here is what you will need:

1 Binder- I used an Avery mini durable view binder. It holds the 5 1/2"x 8 1/2" pages.

1 Package of  lined 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" paper

1 Package of the same size sheet protectors ( I only used 5 out of the 15 pack so you could split them with a friend or two)

3 sheets 12x12 patterned paper - heavyweight works the best

6 sheets solid 12x12 colored cardstock

3 sheets 81/2" x11" white cardstock

Label maker- or you can print your own labels for the tabs

Fiskars lg. flower punch for the tabs

Adhesive-  i used a wet glue because I thought it would hold up better with all the use this book will get

Brown in to ink the edges of the pages if you like that look

I made 7 sections for my planner and added a tab and a cute saying to each section page

#1 Tab- Calendar            Page title- Merry days & silent nights

This section includes full month calendar for Nov & Dec

#2 Tab-  To Do                  Page Title- Jingle all the Day

includes a sheet of lined paper labeled for each of the days Nov 1st through Dec 24th to use as to do lists each day. (note I use a paperclip to keep track of which day I am on in the book) 

    

#3  Tab-  Gifts                    Page Title- No Peeking

self expanitory- all those gift lists using the line paper

#4   Tab-Card Lists            Page Title- Joy to the World

also self explanitory

#5    Tab- Food/baking       Page Title- Home for the Holiday's

I will use one of the sheet protectors to hold all those recipes i need or want to try for the holiday's and paper for shopping lists

#6   Tab- Parties                   Page Title- Celebrate the Magic

more lined paper

#7  Tab- Misc                      Page Title- Be Jolly By Golly

I have added a couple more of the sheet protectors in the back one for coupons, one for receipts and one for returns.

These are all the things that will hopefully help keep me organized and able to ENJOY the holiday's this year.

It's a BIG day around here!!

Emily had her first day of her SENIOR YEAR! I have mixed emotions I am both exicted for her and Sad for me. It is amazing how we get to where we are and the adventures life takes us on. I am so grateful for the wonderful amzaing talented girl she has become.
This year she will be performing with dance ensemble, writing for the school newspaper, and will maybe throw in some photography classes as well....doesn't that all sound fun? Of course there will be a little english (her favorite) Economics, history, oh and the nast thing called math :{ As well as some ACT studying, college applying and driving herself to and from school (my FAVORITE part) a few football games and some hanging out with good friends.
So here we go a new adventure!!

A Girly Gift

Sarah had to go to a party recently and I wanted to come up with something different for her friend so I came up with the following wood hanging to hold jewelry

It is an 8"x12" wood sign painted black

then I added the vinyl words put some sparkle in your day

next I added some cue glass looking knobs I found at Home Depot.

we then picked out some cute neclaces at Forever 21 and packaged them up

Voila...a cute jewelry hanger every girl would love!

Matching Dresses!

Matching Dresses...That's all I have to say!  No just kidding :) So my two girls participated in the talent show at curch a couple of weeks ago. They both LOVE to dance! So I let them do their thing and choreograph a dance pick music etc. Then came the day of  the acutal Talent show ( Yes I did say the DAY OF) Here is how it went

Mom: So what are you going to wear for costumes
Girls: Umm we don't know yet...we will figure something out
Mom: are you kidding?
Girls: No why?
Mom: because you can't just throw something on ( ok I may be a little oc about how they look at an event as such)
Mom: again..ok let's go to TJ max and see if we can find something CHEAP ( I am a bargain hunter after all)

We arrived at the store picked out several choices for each that would go well together and to my extreme DELIGHT they chose these adorable MATCHING dresses.

Now for most this would not mean anything but you have to understand I am the kind of mom who forced her girls to wear matching dresses for holidays until emily was probably 11 or 12 and then I CRIED when the firs holiday came that I relented and let them have their own dresses.

So I was so embarrassingly giddy at the store when they chose these adorable matching dresses they both loved and could wear again...although they will probably never be worn at the same time again..that would be horrifying to a teenager.

But alas I will relish in one more moment of my two little ( ok not so little anymore) girls and their matching dresses.

P.S. They did awesome and the talent show too!

Enjoy a Card

I am super motivated lately to create some new cards and tags. I am thinking small mini cards and tags to attach to gifts. I think I will refill my tag jar so I am not always trying to whip one up the last 2 minutes before I need to be somewhere. So in the meantime I have attached a card a made for a card swap Christmas party last Christmas. I layered various patterns of paper that was scalloped at the bottom with scissors. I used ribbon with sparkly edges to create the flower and used pins to hold it together and create the center of the flower. I added the sparkly leaves from a christmas floral pick from the craft store. I love use items that were not originally made for paper projects.
Check back soon I hope to have lots of cards and tags to show you soon!

I Love Cupcakes

On sunday the girls and I made delcious cupcakes....Ok really I made cupcakes and frosting and got it all ready and they slid in for the decorating part..just like them :) In the process I found the best chocolate fudge frosting recipe and thought I would share here is the link to it  Chocolate Frosting Recipe scroll through the recipes to find the chocolate fudge one. ENJOY!

Speaking of Cupcakes ...Check this Out
Last Fall for and event for our church Young Women we decided to serve cupcakes for the event. I soon roped my nice hubby into building this great cupcake tower for me. The best part is I can use it over and over and it comes apart and stack inside itself for storing. Unfortunately in the picture I mixed up the top and bottom center rods so the top one is taller. We are also going to have shorter ones so you can have adjustable sizes. I love it! It can be covered in paper, fabric, ribbon and more to customize it for each event.

Our annual Valentine's dinner born out of the fact that for this time in our lives having a couples romantic valentine's day does not usually work with three kids. So about 4 or 5 years ago we started a new tradition where Sean and I make a very fancy dinner for the kids we deck out the table and give them small gifts to let them know we love them. I LOVE this tradition !! I hope that one day they will look back and no matter where they are on Valentine's day they will always know that mom and dad love them!


This years menu:
Filet Mingnon with crusted blue cheese (yummy- we have Filet every year)
Yummy gooey Potatoes with cream and Gruyere cheese
Parisian salad (yes this was the kind you get in a bag at Costco)
Big fat fluffy rolls ( they are the ones I put in the middle of the table on the cupcake stand)

 Mom's Gift to the kids:
This year I bought each of them their own copy of the book "I'll Love You Forever" I loved reading this book to the kids and so I wanted each of them to have their own with a message I wrote inside to each kid.


Dad's gift to the kids:
Ok he usually gets the award for being the most creative since he does not have much time and waits till the last minute- honestly I did not think he would pull it off this year since work was crazy and he was sooo busy but he came through with these  "license plate" gifts and the kids LOVED them see if you can guess what each of us got?

And of course you can't end the evening with out a fabulous dessert! 

Why do little boys have to grow up?

My oldest daughter Emily is currently taking a photography class at school.  She often has projects that need certain perspectives so one saturday as we  ( me and the children I was forcing ) were cleaning the backyard I noticed all of Adam's tractors lined up behind the sandbox rusty with weeds growing up through them. I thought how sad it was, he used to spend hours playing with those tractors in the sandbox and now they needed to be gotten rid of. But before we moved them I made the comment that they looked like they were in a tractor graveyard so Em grabbed the camera and shot these great pictures of the Adam's tractor graveyard and I mourned just a little bit for the little boy who played with them.

Super Superbowl Decorating

It's that time of year again so I thought I would re-post my superbowl spread from last year. This was seriously the easiest decorating with the biggest punch!
click here to see the original post.

Here's what's on the menu for SuperBowl around here
Chips and homemade Guacamole-Of course!
Slow cooked fall apart Baby Back Ribs- My Favorite!
Spinich Dip and Crusty on the outside, Soft on the inside bread-YUM!
Chocolate Chip cookie Bars- for a sweet treat :)

Hope you have a great day and that your team wins :)

So it's been a while...

Thought I would join the blogging world once again (new years resolution thing). So i thought I would share these Ribbon Smoothies I made for our card swap Christmas get together over the holidays. I saw a smaller version of these at a scrapbook show and kept the idea tucked away in my brain waiting for the perfect time.
It took 2 trips to in & out to get the drink holders and the rest of the supplies I purchased at our local Smart and Final store that sells restaurant supplies. I ordered the ribbon from this amazing (cheap) site I found called Always Underpay. These could have been made way cuter if I had not been in the middle of my big craft show for December but they are still worthy of a post.

Glad to be back
Hope to see here again soon...I have more to share already :)