party time

In honor of Kimba's Holiday Open House, I'm posting some pictures of my new craft table/gift wrapping station. It was such an easy project (easy because Gregg did all the work)! I had seen many versions around the internet and took some of the best parts from each.

All it took was a some peg board, left over paint, dowel rods and peg board accessories. The original plan was to frame it out, but in the cutting process the extra trim we had snapped. We haven't gone out to buy more. I'm debating on whether I should still frame it or not. It's simple to swap out wrapping paper rolls. Once Christmas is over, the birthday wrap goes up. I'm really loving this, I just wish there was a tv in the craft room!


And now since it is a Holiday Open House, here is our tree. I really need to learn how to photograph a tree with lights. I also need a better camera, but you get the idea, right?


Happy Holidays!

Now go over to Kimba's blog to see what great pictures everyone else is posting.

dear santa

I am enjoying Jackson's enthusiasm for Christmas so much. Everyday he tells us how much he loves the Christmas Tree and how sad he'll be if we take it down. We have two advent calendars going, he's a big fan of countdowns! The other night we decided it was time to write our first letter to Santa. We sat down and with heads together came up with this letter to Santa.




In case you can't read my chicken scratch, the letter says (please excuse the spelling errors I was tired and it's supposed to be from a kid right?!):

Dear Santa,

Thank you for the truck you brought us last year, my little brother and I love it! We've been very good this year and would love it if you would bring me a new Chick Hicks car (I lost mine and miss it). I would also like a piggy bank so I can save money for Disney World. My brother Nate would like a tiny big wheel so he can learn how to pedal.

Thank you Santa, we love you!

Your friend Jackson XXXXX.

After writing the note, Jackson wanted to draw a picture for Santa. Below is the picture he drew. I had to label the drawing so no one would think... well... let's just say the placement of the reindeer is a little questionable!

The letter was sealed in an envelope with a promise to mail. Now here's my dilemma. Do I send it, or save it so one day he can read it and all the other letters to come in the years ahead? Gregg says to save them, so I guess I need to find a lock box for these so one day as they snoop through my closet they don't accidentally find them.

a merry wreath makeover

Christmas is going to be great this year! Our 4 year old is soooo excited about it and kept begging us to get our tree up. I gave in about 3 days before Thanksgiving.

As I started going through our boxes, bins and bags of decorations, I found some items I just didn't love anymore. One of them was this wreath. Very simple, with an old bow attahced. Yeah I can admit it, it was U.G.L.Y. Time for a wreath makeover. With trying to save money this year, and a mental promise to myself to not buy more decorations, the trick was only using things I already had. Here is the ugly duckling:



After scavenging in my bins, I came across this sign I got on clearance last year after Christmas.


The colors were fun and added to my more whimsical decorating look I had started last year. Now I took the hanging wire off and attached the sign to my wreath using twist ties. Then I scavenged some more and found little glass ornaments that were the same fun colors as the sign. I attached these to the wreath and viola, the ugly duckling is a swan, or at least not ugly anymore!

It needed some fluffing, and could probably use some more ornaments, but I'm happy with it so I called it done, hung it on my door and moved on.

Gotta love a free wreath makeover!

gift wrap lesson learned

As I was flipping through one of my Christmas issue magazines for decorating or gift ideas, I saw a gift wrap idea that’s an oldie but a goodie. Now for the life of me I can’t remember what magazine it was in. Luckily the same idea can be found on Martha’s site (Christmas-Tree Silhouette). I always referred to this in my head as the peek-a-boo wrapping technique.

photo credit: www.marthastewart.com

I was surprised to see this idea in the magazine because this is something I did about 10 years ago. I was a single girl living in the city, with no husband and no kids of my own to spoil, I prided myself on buying the best gifts for my nephews. One year I even got one of my nephews a kitten (with my sister’s blessing). What a cool Aunt I was.

Anyways, one year I couldn’t stop at just buying the cool gifts, they had to be wrapped cool too. After seeking the peek-a-boo technique somewhere, I knew this was going to be my statement for the year. I imagined how impressed everyone would be with my nicely wrapped gifts. I was gonna be so cool.

Here’s what I did. I wrapped the gift as normal. Then I took a sheet of colored tissue paper. I folded it in half lengthwise and drew the silhouette of a tree (just like on Martha’s site). I then used an exacto knife to cut just one side of the tree’s outline. I then wrapped the present again with the tissue paper making sure the tree was on the front side of the package. Once wrapped I simply folded the cut side over to reveal the pattern of the other paper underneath. I think I even added glitter ornaments to the tree. I spent so much time on these beautifully packages. I was so proud.

Here my friends is the fatal flaw in my plan. I failed to think about who would be receiving these beautiful works of art. Yep that’s right my 5, 7, 9 and 10 year old nephews couldn’t care less about my special wrapping technique. They simply tore into the gifts just like everyone else’s simply, but smartly wrapped gifts. All that time I spent wrapping was never even noticed by those snot nosed boys (ok, they weren’t snot nosed, they were just kids). After that I just stuck to buying cool gifts and forgot about the wrapping.

Now fast forward 10 years and I see this idea again. It’s not a bad idea; in fact it’s still a great idea. Plus it’s really easy to do, give it a try, just always remember to keep your recipient in mind!