Gingerbread Man Visit

Candace told me to share a funny letter I wrote to her little boy who sent
me his Flat Gingerbread Man (a version of Flat Stanley) right before Christmas break.
I was scrambling at the last moment for this one but I guess he enjoyed it so we hope you will too!

Dear Andrew~

Do you know who’s writing you this letter?  It’s me~you’re favorite Aunt Nicky!  Guess who I found hiding under my door mat the other day….I think you might know him~he’s the gingerbread boy!  He is the cutest little fella’ and has the funniest little giggle I’ve ever heard.  I was hoping that maybe it was you coming to visit me because you make me so happy!  I figured you would want me to take care of your little friend and I needed to think of something to call him, so I named him Gingy!

Gingy had quite the adventure at my house!  I live right up the hill in Boise where all the really tall trees grow.  Gingy was missing his family very much and wandered over to the gingerbread houses to look for them…..but they weren’t there.

Next he wandered into the Christmas villiage~but he scared all the villagers because he was so big!  They thought he was King Kong coming to make banana splits out of them!

So over to the kitchen he came to help me make some yummy cookies for the Christmas party tomorrow at school.  Gingy had to be careful~I almost ate him up when he was hanging out with the other cookies!  Yum!!!!

In the family room Gingy heard a noise!  As he got closer he saw there was a squirrel there.  You see I help rescue baby squirrels that fall out of their nests and raise them till they are old enough to live outside.  This squirrel’s name is Fifi.  She is the nicest sweetest squirrel ever!  Gingy thought she was the perfect size to ride and he’s always wanted to be a cowboy, so he hopped right on Fifi’s back and went for a trot.  All he was missing was a cowboy hat and boots! 

When Gingy was done with Fifi he needed to cool off and headed outside.  Before he knew it he was surrounded by big beautiful ducks.  “Be careful Gingy!” I cried!  Those ducks love to snack on anything especially tomatoes and little gingerbread boys!  These ducks are named Buddy and Jo Jo.  Buddy tried to take a bite out of Gingy and he barely escaped!  Can you see the duck slobber he left behind on Gingy?

 Gingy ran inside and hid inside Dad’s stocking till the coast was clear. 

Phew!  That was a close one!  Now that the coast is clear Gingy is headed back down the hill to you Andrew.  Thanks for letting your friend come visit me and keep me company today.  He is such a sweet cookie just like you are.  Merry Christmas and make sure to come visit me again soon!

Love,

Aunt Nicky

Snowy Red & White Christmas Decorations

Hi there! I thought I would share some the Christmas decorations I have been working on for the last couple of weeks.  Two of my boys had adenoid surgery back to back so I have been distracted from posting.  They are now healing and will be soon be breathing free! This year I was going for the snowy Christmas look with pops of red.  I found the flocked wreath at Craft Warehouse, half off, and added a gingham bow.  My black door tends to hide most of my wreaths, so the snowy wreath is perfect.

I picked up a couple of trees at Home Goods and Michaels and added ribbon.   

Gingerbread, both real and fake, are some of my favorites during the Christmas season. 

For the Christmas tree, I added red birds mixed with silver icicles and glittery snowflakes. My boys are not thrilled with "pretty" trees, so I made sure to use a smaller tree to hang all of our fun ornaments. We love pulling out the homemade school ornaments each year, along with a couple of Star Wars and Sponge Bob ornaments. Yeah, Sponge Bob and the Star Wars M&M guys go on the back of the tree.

I filled different sizes of glass balls with powder snow.  Really messy to fill, but I love the look with a few added berries, pine cones, and greens.

To help fill the globes, my son and I made a paper funnel.  Two sets of hands help make this job go fast!

I have never bought a tree skirt, but I broke down after I saw this cute ruffled burlap skirt at Cost Plus.  I love it!

I added more of the powder snow (found at Craft Warehouse) to a candle display.  White candles, cut greens, and berries make it so pretty!

 Every year I can't resist the live wreaths from Costco. They are fairly inexpensive, and it is always fun to be creative with them.

This year I added small red ornaments in varying sizes. I wired some ornaments and used hot glue on the rest.

I added several cut sprigs of glittery greens found at Michaels and a few mini birds.

And that's pretty much it! Hopefully Nicole and I will finish the projects we started. Where did the last month go? Two weeks until Christmas and so much to do.  See you soon!

Finding Christmas Spirit

I wasn't quite sure what to call this post~it's a hodge podge of emotion and my favorite things
about the true Christmas Spirit that I found this weekend.

First I got out my two cruddy wreaths I picked up from the thrift store 2 years ago that have been sitting in my garage. I had gotten them for $2 each and they had great "guts" on them, I figured I could rip them apart and put them together.  I picked up a pretty fake cedar that was all crystal iced at Michael's~they just knocked everything down to 60% off on Friday!  I wasn't sure if it was going to work so of course I didn't take any before pictures~you're just going to have to imagine tons of those yucky red silky threaded balls and tacky ribbons hanging off, I mean threads all over the place yucky.  She's pretty right?:)  I only spent just under $12 on her too!

I just got home from our Church Choir Concert that~yes I participated in~like I didn't have enough on my overloaded plate, I got crazy and joined the church choir.  Hearing that Christmas music sung by such beautiful voices~O Holy Night gets me in complete tears every time!  Our hope is that amidst all the chaos the season seems to bring that you'll enjoy the little things like the music and making sugar cookies with your kids even though half the sprinkles end up on your floor.:)

First up we wanted to share our Mom's famous sugar recipe.  It's a keeper for sure!  Our Mom became famous with these when they were missionary parents in Korea for 150+ young missionaries, our Mom would make them a plate of pink frosted sugar cookies for each of their birthdays.  Yes, we ate a lot of sugar cookies growing up when they were made that often!

I had to bring 4 dozen of these bad boys to our Church Christmas party Friday night and they disappeared fast!  I have to admit that when I got up to get treats for me I started to freak out because I couldn't see any of mine.  I was so worried that they were left in the kitchen and I would be taking home 4 dozen cookies~not good for a gal on a diet~I raced to the kitchen to only be relieved at the empty boxes I brought them in.  Phewwww!

Granny Annie's Famous Sugar Cookies
3/4 cup butter (part shortening)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla (or lemon or both)
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt

Mix wet ingredients together well-till light and fluffy.  Sift together the dry ingredients and then add to the wet ingredients.  Chill 1 hour, cut 1/4" thick.  Cook 6-8 minutes @ 400 degrees.  Should make about 2 dozen cookies or so.  I always triple the batch...hmmmm....wonder why I'm on a diet!  Here is something I do a little different, I actually use real squeezed lemon juice in my cookies and my frosting along with the vanilla.  It's so yummy!
                                 
 Also I won't cook cookies on anything but a Pampered Chef's stoneware pan.  If you don't have one of those pans then you need to get one.  They make good cookies perfect!

I use Betty Crocker's frosting recipe~
Cream Cheese Frosting
2 3-ounce packages cream cheese
1/2 cup softened margarine or butter
2 tsp. vanilla
4 1/2 to 4 3/4 sifted powdered sugar

Beat together cream cheese, butter and vanilla till light and fluffy.  Gradually beat in powdered sugar, beating well until desired consistency.

December is flying by~Candace has had 2 boys with adenoid surgery in the last couple weeks and has her hands full.  Hopefully we'll get those poor Santa's we've been working on done soon~until then I've got 2 kid parties to do this week plus somehow I'm gonna break out the Gingerbread house mold that came in the mail~Thank you Ebay!  Happy Monday Friends!

School Christmas Parties

Are you scrambling putting together ideas for your School Christmas Party this year?  Us too!
Thank goodness for Pinterest and all the ideas that are so easy to gather into one place.
We thought we would share some of our favorite ideas that we have gathered from Pinterest today
while we are still trying to complete some other projects.

This year for my daughter's class (thanks to some brilliant planning from my co-room mom Megan)
we are doing a "Santa's Workshop" theme party.
We only have a little over an hour to play so we'll be separating them into little groups
that will rotate around to 5 centers.

First we'll sneak in and decorate with lights and Dollar Store Santa hats on each of their chairs.

               images kelle hampton

                                                                                         image kelle hampton
Each kid will make a Reindeer shaped bag from a paper bag and accessories to be able to carry their goodies home with them.

                    
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We'll be having a Reindeer Food Bar.

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I love the idea of using the canning jars but we are on a tight budget~so I picked up some cute cellophane bags from the $1 store that will be perfect!

Who can resist Play Dough~it's even better when it's peppermint scented and they can mix in the glitter for some extra sparkle!

            
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Megan has a little microwave she'll be bringing in so we can melt some chocolate and dip some marshmallows in chocolate and crushed candy cane~don't these look cute!  I'm still trying to decide if we should do Oreo's though.  I did some last year and they were to die for!
                         
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We want to make some sort of ornament but it's got to be easy and quick~I'm thinking these button wreath's are a great fit and adorable too!  There's also these hand print reindeer....I can't decide~what would you do?
                                     
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image all free holiday crafts

Last but not least we are going to have a cookies and milk buffet of little single bite sized cookies and milk.  I saw these cute milk bottle and thought they were perfect to do!

image kelle hampton

As you can see most of our pictures and ideas are from Kelle Hampton~I'm thinking her stuff is some of the most pinned ideas on Pinterest!  Her whole North Pole party idea was wonderful~make sure to head over and check it out!

We want to know what ideas you have~Do tell!

Merry Christmas and Barn Wood Hunting!

Last week we went on our first barn wood hunting trip. 

We were looking for the perfect wood to re-create another manger for Christmas gifts.

There's nothing like crafting with old weathered wood.

My father in- law was nice enough to let us scoop up some spare boards off his farm. 

We had to carefully avoid the spooky cobwebs, mildew, old paint, and large rusty nails while hunting.

Good thing our tetanus shots are up to date (he,he) and we wore a hardy pair of work gloves!

Here is my mother in- law's original manger along with some of her quilted poinsettias?  Aren't the poinsettias neat? She is an incredible quilter!

We love this simple manger because it's the perfect size to perch up on our fireplace, and it helps remind us of what the Christmas season is all about.

Here's a peek of the five finished mangers ready to go as gifts for family members!

Have you ever collected or made anything with barn wood? 

Nicole and I would like to wish all of you a 

 MERRY CHRISTMAS

 filled with peace, happiness, family, and friends!!!

Three Wreaths

Hey everyone!  

I thought I would share what I put on my front door this year for Christmas. 

 I decided to try out three wreaths with red ribbon.  I have to change it up every year!

The only way I could get the wreaths to stay in place was to add three small Command hooks.
 We just had our front door painted and they were the perfect solution for keeping the paint job.
  I ran the main ribbon down the door and poked holes for the hooks, then hung the wreaths.  Pretty simple!  I made my own bows with the same ribbon.  All the "bow maker" training from when I worked at Michaels long, long, ago came in handy!  I remember rolling my eyes...like who really does this!?

We also want to let you know that Wood You Like To Craft? is going on this week.
 Melinda  from Under My Umbrella made the coolest barn door Christmas tree stand.

  Head on over there and take a peek! 

Christmas Lollipop Tree

We had to make another lollipop tree for Christmas!

We made the Christmas tree the same way we made the

 Halloween tree with witch shoes,

 except in honor of Christmas, Nicole created and cut out some fabulous ELF shoes. 

What do you think?  I'm thinking we need to find some more ways to use those cute shoes!

Any ideas?

Today I am decorating the tree for the second time! 

 We made it 5 days, and this morning my 2 year old knocked the tree over.

It happens every year! :)

Wood Christmas Tree with Letters

We finally tackled a Christmas craft to share with you!  We are behind this year thanks to a yucky two week stomach bug that passed through most of my kids. This Thanksgiving, I was very thankful for my washing machine, disinfectant, and a carpet cleaner! :)

We have been eyeing all of the Christmas trees made with words and white chipboard crafts on Pinterest, and thought they would be cute on wood.  Melinda from Under My Umbrella made the best 2x4 Christmas trees last year, so we borrowed her idea and added a few "Thickers" to create the words. .

Thickers are basically sticky chipboard letters.  We ran out of the letter E, so we cut a B, to create an E. We didn't want to buy a second package just for 2 letters.  Good thing it's a whimsical font!  

We added a dab of glue, to keep the letters permanently on.

We used a really thick piece of mdf from my garage, found from our construction site hunting days.

My husband will be so happy to have one less piece of scrap wood hanging around in the garage!

A 2x4, 2x2, or a 1x2 would also work.

We cut each block of wood to fit the word. The bottom is around 9 inches and the top, 4 inches. We cut the wood dove and star out on the scroll saw, and added a small block for the trunk. We used chipboard from the back of a paper pack to cut the heart.  With a bit of sanding, it looks just as good? Then we spray painted the entire tree white.  What a super easy wood craft! The hardest part was putting the stickers on straight!

We will be back soon!

Happy Crafting!