Let me just eat my words

Remember a few post back how I said that snow in Alabama doesn't happen.  If it does, it doesn't stick or it is all melted by oh so noon.



:::nom nom nom:::

This was what we woke up to Christmas morning.  And a full 24 hours later, it is still snowing.  It's supposed to move out tonight.  We got a rare white Christmas.


How was your Christmas??

I'll have another Christmas post soon.

Squee!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so freakin excited about this!!  Remember my Christmas wish list?????  Well, I got an early Christmas surprise!!  Eric Smith and the people at Quirk Books asked me if I would be interested in getting a copy of the Creepy Cute Crochet book that I had asked for on my wish list!  Of course!!!

 

SQUEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


So I eagerly awaited the arrival of this book only to be surprised one more time by Eric!!!  He not only sent me Creepy Cute Crochet but one of their newest publications called Witch Craft which is nothing but, you guessed it, HALLOWEEN CRAFTS!!!

DOUBLE SQUEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited for this opportunity!

I've flipped through the pages, picked out which ones I'm going to make and showcase and I'm warming up my hook.


My mom, who adores Halloween, is excited for me to do some of the crafts in the Witch Craft book.


So stay tuned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas miracle please

I just got done reading the story of one of my former sorority sisters little girl, Ella.  Over the course of the past 6-8 months she has wound up with a new home at Children's Hospital in Birmingham.  Please click here and read Ella, Kellie and Dustin's story and say a little pray, send some mojo or whatever you do.  She's only 9 months old and she has already fought a long fight and still has a long way to go.

Tomorrow, Winter begins

So I'm sitting here enjoying my computer, quiet time since the wee ones are napping and the hubs had to work over and I look out my window and the sun is starting to set.  It's beautiful.  It is no longer the orange-ish sky that fades to black.  It's more shades of purple that fade to blue.  The true sign of winter.  Knowing that it wouldn't last long, I hopped up at got my camera and freshly charged battery and being lazy, took a picture through my window.  But it couldn't have been any more perfect.

Just within the mere moments that I've typed this, the purple is gone and blue is here.  Meaning darkness is near and another day is almost gone.

O' Tannenbaum

I figured that since I posted all of these cute DIY ornaments that I couldn't let you guys not see some of what I have on my tree.  A lot of the ornaments that I have came from when I was little.  So we're talking ornaments from the 80's and early 90's.  Each time I hang them on the tree, I can remember hanging them  on the family tree growing up and how daddy, whose and engineer mind you, would meticulously line lights on each side of the drive and created and way to stick them in PVC pipe to do aide in the process.  He would also take black insulation tubing and cut a slit in it and stick the lights to frame the windows.

One tradition that started growing up and has now moved onto my own family is the collection of Mount Vernon and White House ornaments.  My aunt lives in Alexandria.  To be exact, she actually lives about 20 minutes from Mount Vernon and the same from DC.  So each year she gets my sister and myself the ornaments that they put out.  I always eagerly wait for the package of ornaments.  Maybe I'll post more about those ornaments at another time...who knows.

But for right now, here are some of the ornaments that you can find on my tree.

First off...my tree!!

This ornament is one of the few that have survived.  Yes, I have a few real, glass ornaments on my tree.  This is one of the ones from my childhood.

This Santa ornament was from Gatlinburg and is dated 1987.

This glittery, red pine cone is another from my childhood.

One of my many White House Ornaments.  Each ornament has a specific President and story to go along with it.

My pickle!  Yes, I <3 pickles SO MUCH!  I could live off of them.  So an ornament seemed fitting.

One of my Mount Vernon ornaments, dated 2007.  As with the White House ornaments, each Mount Vernon ornament has a specific reason why it is designed the way it is.

Did you know that Santa is a Bama fan?  I didn't either until I married one.  I went to the University of Tennessee and really do need some orange on my tree. 

This is another Mount Vernon one and one of my most favorite ones.  This one is date from 2009.

I'm lucky to have my green and red glittery balls on the tree.  I bought them at Wal-Mart this year for like a buck for 5 and Aslynn immediately took them over.  I think I have most of the green ones on the tree but only 2 of the red.  Silly girl.

So those are a few of the many ornaments that I have on my tree.  They all have special meanings to me and I hope that I'm able to share them all with my children one day.

Friday Funnies

found here

Swagbucks

Oh how I heart thee!  That banner right up there is one step closer to winning free goodies!  I was skeptical after doing so many other "money and goody" schemes but I signed up and couldn't be happier!  All you have to do is search.  That's right.  Search the internet.  In between Facebooking, blogging, tweeting...its simple.  They have tons of things that you can redeem "Swagbucks"-what you earn by searching and doing other things, for.  My favorite is the $5 Amazon gift card.  Its 450 swagbucks and I got my first one on the first night that I started swagging.  Yes!

You also get other random codes for extra bucks and 50 SB for your birthday!  Yes!  You also get them from referrals.

You should really try it out!  I haven't been a member for very long and I've gotten plenty of gift cards that have been saved into my Amazon account!

Go ahead...click it! You know you want to!!!  You will become hooked!

Because my kids are napping and I'm not doing laundry

I'm going to show you all of the handmade ornaments that I want to make but probably won't this year due to too much other crap going on in my life :)

First up is this freaking adorable cupcake ornament...I <3 cupcakes and so does Aslynn..its a favorite word of hers.  Trust me.  This little bad boy was made by Bake it Pretty and swoon!!

Okay, so I probably will end up at least making these because I have other food hanging on my tree.  

Okay, so I had no intention of the next one being another food BUT again I'm a stickler and bacon calls to me.  Yes.  BACON.  This adorable little bacon ornie was made by Serena...he'll end up on the tree next year!  Fo' sho'!

I'll admit this ornament made over at Cheeky magpie was one of the first that I looked at and bookmarked.  Just as bacon calls to me, so do things that sparkle.  Ask the Hubs.  He'll say I suffer from OSS, Oooo Shiny Syndrome.  It's simple yet elegant and not over the top.

Becoming a mom has sparked a new love of felt in my life and thus why these bad boys are on the list!  BHG produced these cute little felt trees among many others that you should check out!

And for the crocheter in me....this tree ornament over at Craft Passion.  Mostly you see knitted ornaments so finding crocheted ornaments is awesome!  My lack of knitting skills is for another post...trust me. But isn't it cute??

I'm going to go thaw out just a little.  For some reason sitting next to the window is C.O.L.D.  Maybe it has something to do with the below freezing temps and sleet...nah.

Crazy weather and such

Okay, first of all, I live in Alabama. Off the top of my head, I can recall the last "snow storm" we had. 1994. 16 years ago. Snow isn't a big thing around here. I always joke that I'm going to get snow on my birthday. December 2nd. The last time that it snowed ON my birthday I was in middle school, so cira 2001. Nine years ago. Don't get me wrong, we have flurries and sometimes they stick. Keyword. Sometimes. Winter 2009-2010 brought more flurries than normal and most of those resulted in actually sticking and creating some white fluff.

So quick review...

Snow in good ol' Bama not so much a common thing.

So that leads me to this past December. Ever since the 12th, it has either snowed and stuck, flurried all day long or sleeted. Temps haven't risen above freezing and well, it's just plain cold for us "southerners".

Currently schools let out at 11 and most of the city has closed down due to the threat of freezing rain. Any time that that four letter word snow is mentioned, EVERYONE and their mothers flock to the grocery store to buy milk, bread and eggs. Seriously. French toast anyone??

So, I'm pretty sure that either Justin Bieber or this wonky weather means the end of the world is near. Besides, I have a friend who lives in Colorado and one day they had weather with temps in the 60s and we're getting snow with temps below freezing...yeah.


I'll leave you with this...a picture of the hubs frozen flat bottom boat. I don't think he'll be fishing any time soon....

Wordless Wednesday

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus - Must See!

My Christmas Wishlist

A Cricut

I've gone back and forth about wanting one.  And now, I know that I forever want one!  My friend Jamie has shown me all of the cute cards she makes with hers and I have seen so many more cute things come from Cricut pieces.

Cupcake tins

I even want the muffin top tin! Oh! And the mini tin!

Creepy Cute Crochet: Zombies, Ninjas, Robots, and More! by Christen Haden

Too cute!!!!!  The crocheter in me dies at the cuteness of these!

and

A shopping trip to Hobby Lobby!!

Friday Funnies

A comic by Mike Bannon

Wordless Wednesday

Fa la la la la lala la la

So this afternoon,  I thought I would finally take a stab at wrapping what gifts we had for the children.  There I sat, in the middle of my living room floor, presents scattered to and fro, a pile of paper and the ever disappearing scissors and tape.  I meticulously folded every corner, taped them up and made them looked fabulous.  I was proud of my endeavor once I was done.  I carefully placed them under the tree and looked at DH and said " how long before you think the kids will notice".

Famous last words.

Ha

Ha

I have a 3.5 year old and a 2.5 year old.  They noticed.  Aslynn noticed first but obeyed when she was told to put it back.  Then DH and I had to do the dishes.

That was the perfect time for them to launch their attack.

DH goes to check on them and I'm still scrubbing away(one day gosh darn it, I will have a dishwasher!) when all of a sudden I hear cries of punishment coming from their room.  I dash with the grace of a hippo over the baby gate to discover that they had celebrated Christmas a little early.  And they were in serious trouble.

The only thing I said to them was that they had hurt mommy's feelings and that was enough to make Aslynn start crying again.

So needless to say the presents are put up until Christmas eve.  I can't even reach them if that says anything.  Oh the joys of having married an ogre.

I'll wrap them again another time.

Friday Funnies

I couln't resist posting this once I found it on another blog that I read.  Hehe...