The presents are wrapped…

Well most of them are! Actually just Danny’s presents are wrapped. And the sub for Santa presents we got are also wrapped but just because we had to drop them off tonight! But I made these stinkin’ cute tags for the presents. Actually, I didn’t make them, I can’t take credit for that. I got them from kevinandamanda.com, one of my many blogs I love to read :).

You can just use photoshop (I use GIMP which is the free version of photoshop) and add pictures and letters, then print 2 on a 4X6 page at Sams Club for just $.13 a page! It’s so great! I can just order them online then pick them up on my way home from work. (Sometimes I do stuff besides work at work…don’t be mad).

Here are a bunch of the cute tags I made! It’s really fun and cute, and it’s especially fun for little kids who can’t read yet!

 

And the stockings were hung…

Well since we’ve moved in and finally gotten settled, I have been decorating like mad and collecting cute Christmas stuff for cheap (dollar stores are amazing!). Anyway, I’ve also become obsessed with all the great crafts out there, and I have about a meeeelion ideas of things I want to do…but this was a top priority and I’m so so happy about how it turned out!

I saw an idea similar to this on a blog somewhere and since we don’t have a fireplace, I loved the idea for a stocking holder. It was pretty dang cheap and easy. I got a board for about 5 bucks and had them cut it at Home Depot. I had the vinyl letters made in the cute font for about $3. I bought the snowflake stickers for a buck and the spray paint the day after Thanksgiving for $2. I was going to use wooden pegs, but then I saw these cool iron fleur de lis hangers at Hobby Lobby! They were $2 each (50% off).

It took 3 coats of spray paint, and I only sanded the edges. After I put on the vinyl letters and snowflakes, I covered the entire thing with a thin layer of mod podge to seal it. Then we drilled in the hangers and I painted the silver screws black.

I bought little metal hooks for the back so I could hang it. They were $1.50 at Michaels (without my coupon dangit!).

Total price: about $16. I absolutely LOVE the finished product and I’m so happy we have such a cute way to display our stockings this year! I cant wait for my next craft! YAY!

Christmas & Housewarming Party!

Dan and I had a Christmas/Housewarming party for our families on Saturday and it was a blast! I was so stinkin’ excited to have people over to our house and to make treats and everything! So almost everyone was able to come (except Dan’s sister and her family, my sister, and Dan’s brother and fam in Idah0). We had about 19 people there so it was a pretty good turn out!

My digital invitation. Made it in photoshop by copying one I found online for a different party last year. I just covered up their words with my own! Saweeet.

Dan of course checking out the game scores before everyone came over. He is so great to help me so much and I have OCD and he totally puts up with it and doesn’t even act like I’m crazy (which I kind of am). He just does things and makes me laugh along the way!

The house before people came over. We had some extra chairs Dan had gotten from work for a good deal and he also got a cute little kid table (under the bay window) which worked out great for the grandkids!

I love to bake and I had to restrain myself or I would have made a lot more! I made yummy 7 layer dip, chocolate chip cookies, Christmas tree cookies, buckeyes and Fresca/Limeade. The Christmas cookies were an idea from Thrifty Decor Chick,

and the Buckeyes were from Beneath My Heart.

I love the awesome blogs I read and their great ideas!

I made the super cute JOY candlesticks which I saw on Shanty2Chic!

Jon, Joe, Julie and Wellyn in the family room and cutie pie Wellyn just chillin’ on the couch.

The cute girlies enjoying their cookies. I think Sarah ate about twice her body weight in cookies. No joke.

Wellyn loves to sit and watch the picture slideshow on the laptop! He’s so funny when he recognizes someone or something.

The girls playing with Dan and my parents enjoying the food!

Grandpa and Ryan (above) and Dave and Amanda (below).

Joe, Debbie and Grandpa Goates.

Jon and Mike.

Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree!

So I have finished getting most of our Christmas decorations up and I’m LOVING it! I absolutely love our home and it just feels so cozy and we love being there. I get so sad when it’s time for bed and I know I won’t be able to be home again until the next night! I have been crazily working on crafts and decorating so I just feel like I don’t have enough time! I wish I didn’t have to work and I could just enjoy my house and decorate it and have enough money to buy all the things I want for it!!! Ahahahahhhaaaaa! We can all dream right?

So here are some pictures of the holiday decor I have been putting up around the house! I still have a few projects in the works but for the most part it’s done and we can enjoy it!

I saw this on another blog but I hung glittery NOEL ornaments on our lamps on our end tables. The wreath on the right I made! That’s right, I made it myself! I am so proud and I just got a cheap garlandy wreath on Black Friday for $2 and a bunch of poinsettas, berries, pinecones and other stuff and I stuck it all in and it looks great! It’s hanging on our door to the backyard.

Here is our family room with the tree and entertainment center and my pretty nativity that I got last year! The red wall looks a lot brighter than it actually is. I like it with the Christmas stuff, but it’s really not that bright red I promise! And I have a sweet picture I got on sale that matches all the colors really well. I forgot to take a pic :).

The tree is on a box and I covered the box with burlap, sparkly red and gold fabric and a garland (to hide the stem).

The Christmas tree has been a work in progress. It is just a cheap little guy we got last year, but I think I was able to dress it up. I looked everywhere but couldn’t find about half of my ornaments after we moved! It drove me nuts, but I ended up doing some other things that I liked better. Then I found the ornaments at my parents house and added some of them and now it looks perfect! I love the classic red and gold. I want to get more trees and do different themes in the future!

With and without the flash on :)

My willow tree nativity from my mom last year!

These are some more crafts I’ve done. The JOY is just hanging on our front door for now but I made it out of pizza boxes mod podged in Christmas paper! Pretty cute and basically free!

These ornament wreaths are all over the crafty blogs I read and I made them and LOVE them! You just have to get a lot of shatterproof ornaments (hobby lobby, dollar stores, walmart) and hot glue the tops of the ornaments on. Then string them around a coat hanger! Read Eddie Ross’s tutorial for more info. These are hanging on our french doors to the living room.

Here is our staircase in the entry way. The paint looks awesome by the way! We have a darker wall on the left entry way and one wall upstairs and one wall in the family room. It’s hard to explain but I love it and love Brighton for helping me do it! I had to hang some mistletoe from the staircase and I think it’s so cute! I have garland with gold ribbon and red bows on the staircase.

And finally my cutie cute cute nieces on Sunday for Sunday dinner. They just love to cuddle with me and talk to me and I can’t get enough of it! I hope I love my own kids as much as I love these sweethearts! They make my day every time I see them!

Happenings

Well I finally got some pictures from the past few weeks. We've just been getting the house ready to move into and we got moved in and now we're finishing unpacking, then the fun can begin! I will start decorating! Woo hoo! Mike was at the top of a super tall ladder painting the tip top of our super tall walls in the entry way!

Everyone helped out and we got the entire main floor and upstairs hallway painted!

Me cleaning the laundry room and the spanking clean microwave! It was pretty sick before.

Dan cleaning out the garage! We LOVE our garage!

After another long night getting the house ready.

Painting is my nemesis! I suck at getting edges and I'm so impatient! I have started going around all my edges and corners where different colors touch with a really tiny brush to try to make them look good! It's a never ending battle!

Here are the mouse pictures I promised....brace yourself haha. We found out we have a mouse problem but I think we've figured it out! We caught about 8 or so mice in just a few days! The first one dan killed while we were cleaning the house and the rest have been caught in the good old fashioned traps. Dan sealed up a bunch of holes outside the house and under cabinets and behind the stove. We think that's where they were coming from and we haven't had any for the past few days so cross your fingers!

Yucka. I just had to take a pic and post it! :) On a totally different note, I made my first official craft. I've become completely obsessed with all these great thrifty and crafty blogs! There are so many cool ideas and I can't wait to start working on things! Before we moved, I started small and I just made this! I think it's really cute and I have a few other ideas for something similar for Christmas. It's just a fleur de lis cut out (really carefully) on scrapbook paper, modge podged to a painted canvas and hung with a ribbon! Cuties!

Dan finally cut his hair! It was really out of control and even though I absolutely loved his curls, he was way overdue for a trim! So his mom chopped it all up and cleaned him up beautifully. He now looks like the man I married, what a hunk. See the pic of Dan and the mouse above for the after shots.

Painting, painting, and more painting....

Isn't he cute? Hahahahahaha I love that afro.