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My last Christmas Post (I hope)

I hope if you are reading this you had a wonderful holiday – whatever you may celebrate in your home.

I get a little crazy over Christmas myself, so I’m going to try and wrap up all of my Christmas posts into one long one. One of my goals this year was to make as many homemade presents as I could. I wanted to make more than I did, but I did make more than I ever have in my life! I posted previously about a pillow and a cushion I was making for my aunt and uncle in-laws, I made my mom a pillow as well with the same fabric that I used for that pillow. I made this pillow for my mother-in-law:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This bib for my husband’s coworker:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this pillow for a friend of the family:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also made new tree skirts out of blankets for our Christmas Trees. Tree Skirts cost too much, and ours really needed replacing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, this about sums up my post right now. I think Santa dropped off the Grinch because my kids are at each other’s throats and making me crazy. I am going to say the “Serenity Prayer” (or at least the tiny bit I know of it) over and over in my head right now.

I sincerely hope both your holiday and winter break are going much better than mine!

 

 

 

 

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Kids are annoying…

Ever have one of those days where you are getting everything done for everyone but you? I had one of those days yesterday.

I printed out over 150 pictures at Walgreens to go through and send to my Mother in law, picked up the high schooler, made gingerbread houses with the second grader at school, got all of the girls beautified and took them to get their pictures taken with Santa, bought them all smoothies, found the perfect ornaments for teacher gifts to go along with the gift cards I had purchased, picked up pjs for Christmas Eve from Wal-Mart, honestly the list could go on and on.

I was doing all of these things for everyone else and then my kids started fighting with each other and acting like jerks!

Why? Why do they do that? It’s so annoying. I know it’s just because they are kids, but the whiny kid in me wants to say, “Hello? Don’t you see everything I’m doing for you and your dad and your teachers right now? Can’t you be nice if only for this reason???” Thankfully, my whiny kid can keep her mouth shut and use her parenting voice and just put the kids in time out when we got home. It is nice to vent though. Later on, when I was finishing up the rest of my presents for the in laws, my husband made sure to say thank you and that he appreciated my hard work. That is always nice to hear.

Presents for the in-laws are wrapped and sent, so I’m done with everyone besides immediate family!

How is your holiday prep coming? Kids making you crazy?

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ICE! at Gaylord Palms

We just went to ICE! at Gaylord Palms and saw the Christmas Around the World 2017 display. It was beautiful! I have wanted to go for years and we finally made it. ICE! is basically a room with sculptures made entirely of ice set to a theme and the room is kept at 9 degrees to keep everything from melting. It is a really “cool” experience, especially when you live in FL. The Gaylord Palms is a beautiful hotel as well. I had never been there before but the hotel itself is an experience – there is an atrium and there was a Christmas Tree display. It was just really cool. I am so excited we finally got to go!

Here are some pics from ICE!

Pictured above is a really fun ice slide that you can go down.

At the end there is this amazing nativity scene and angel: 

Random Pictures throughout the Gaylord Palms and their Christmas tree village:

If you ever have an opportunity to visit, I highly recommend it. My family and I had a great time. It really is a beautiful place.

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Preparing for Guests

Edit: I’d like to do a quick update to see how much of my list I actually got done. The following week and a half has been ridiculously insane and hectic in my house so I am just now sitting down at my computer! I actually did better than I thought.

I’m not sure how other people are when they prepare for guests, but I go a little insane. Some may even say a lot insane, but I don’t really know what normal is.

I’ve already got the guest bedroom ready with fresh sheets, so it looks as nice as it can. Their bathroom is clean too. They are coming to stay and watch my children while I am gone for the weekend, so I am extra appreciative and trying to make up for the fact that I won’t be around to host them.

So, here are my To-Dos for today:

  • Make Dining Room Table
  • Make Kitchen Table
  • Clean up Office
  • Vacuum Daughter #1 Room
  • Clean out Car/Vacuum
  • Get Oil Change
  • Make Tree Skirts
  • Wrap Presents
  • Wrap Pictures
  • Make Christmas Crack
  • Pack
  • Shower
  • Decorate Outside Tree
  • Finish Outside Lights
  • Clean my bathroom – did not get to finish this
  • Wash my Sheets
  • Wash Daughter 1 Sheets
  • Make Banana Bread
  • Clean out fridge
  • Give dog a bath
  • Work on Website
  • Straighten Daughter #2 and #3 Drawers
  • Run to store
  • Pick up kids from school

As I write this post, I’m waiting for my car to finish the oil change, so at least I’m wrapping that up. I almost never get one of these lists completed, but I do try my best.

What does your guest prep list look like? Also, what am I forgetting to do???

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Zippers are the Bane of my Existence

I mentioned previously I’m trying to make more homemade gifts for Christmas this year. What a mistake that is turning out to be! The Jacksonville Jaguars stadium cushion has been a little difficult. I’m going to list my mistakes/frustrations:

1. Only buying a yard of fabric – this means I have to be very diligent on measurements. No mistakes, and if I make a mistake, I’m hosed. I tend to make a lot of mistakes…

2. Enlisting my mom for help! My mom has been off from work and she came over to help me organize my sewing area and to give me some tips because I’m still very new to sewing. I’m very appreciative, thanks Mom! However, I said, “Mom, I need you to help me figure out these boxed corners because I’ve struggled with them before.” She proceeds to send me in a totally different, possibly more difficult direction with the cushion! Is it harder? I don’t know yet! I still don’t know how to do a correct boxed corner and my eyes were glazing over doing it her way…

3. Now to the zipper. I’ve tried installing approximately 8,098,567,456,432 zippers since I began sewing. No really, it’s been that many! Maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but I’ve tried many different ways, watched many different videos, read tons of tutorials, tried invisible and regular zippers, etc. I have yet to get it completely right. My mom has not ever tried a zipper. So I explained to her the basic process. Together, we figure it out! Finally, hallelujah! But guess what?!? We forgot to account for the seam for the zipper when we cut our fabric, so I have to rip out the zipper and will have to do it again! I rip the zipper out of the too small fabric and call it a night.

4. Now, I’m on to Day Two of the cushion. I’ve learned finally how to do a zipper, and I’m actually excited. I’m going to show the darn thing who’s boss. I cut my fabric, allowing for tons of room, and go in for the kill. Guess what? My bobbin runs out of thread! I didn’t realize it until it was time to pivot, so I thought I was halfway done. I was pretty devasted.

5. So after reloading my bobbin, in my frustration and hurry to tackle the zipper, I loaded my thread wrong twice in a row!!! My machine started making that dreaded sound and I haven’t been so aggravated in a while. I actually let out a very loud yell of a very bad word that I will not repeat here.

I did manage to finish the zipper and sew a couple of pieces together before I had to leave for an appointment. I hope the rest of the piece goes a lot more smoothly than that did!

Anyone else have something that they just can’t seem to figure out?

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Elf on the Shelf “Car”

I mentioned that in my journey to “find myself,” I want to be a better overall person. For me, this includes (now) that on Saturday morning, while your husband is out golfing, when your seven year old wants to make your Elf on a Shelf a Car – that you will help and I mean really help. Not just point her to the hand me down Barbie car that we already own! I’m still learning how to craft, so it’s not the best, but all things considered, I think we did an ok job. The most important part is we had a good time doing it.

Here are our supplies:

Our spray painted pieces:

The finished product:

Rosy the Elf using the car! She seemed to like it at least, and it was nice bonding time with my seven year old.

Have you made anything cool for your elf?

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Homemade Christmas Presents

So, one of the many things I’m trying to do in my quest to find myself is to try new things. I have never been one to make anything myself and have always opted to buy things or give gift cards. I’m all about the easy way out over here. Or at least I was!

Once I started sewing, it kind of opened my eyes to this whole new crafting world that I had always shunned and dismissed. I just started really looking at Pinterest about six weeks ago! Anyway, I can ramble on forever if I don’t get to the point – homemade Christmas presents are a goal of mine and I just finished my first one.

My aunt and uncle in-laws are coming to town next weekend and my goal is to sew each of them a gift for Christmas. I always struggle with what to give them besides pictures of the kids anyway – so I’m hoping this will be more heartfelt. I just finished making her a Christmas themed throw pillow and I’m going to make him his favorite NFL team covered stadium cushion.

Here’s a pic of the throw pillow:

It’s got a zipper at the bottom, so my goal is to make her other pillow cases for other holidays so that she can reuse the pillow and just switch out the pillow case.

Do you have any homemade gift ideas?