I went to a quick class this summer where they taught us how to make these cute flower rings:

 I decided to make a few of them for gifts this year. They are really fun to wear and super cute! Especially a great idea for little girl a top a gift, in a stocking, or as a clip in her hair for a festive look. Here’s how to make them:

                                               Cut out various designs and colors with a flower punch

                                                              the more crinkled the better

                                                                          put a brad in the hole

                                                    tack a pin back…

               Aren’t Alyssa’s new hair clips adorable? I think I’ll make a head band for Amy and a pin for me 😉                                            
                                                       Can’t wait to see what you come up with!!
                                               

                                          (yesterday’s craft)

I got the idea from a friend’s blog to make aprons as gifts. I didn’t have a pattern that I liked so I made up my own. 

Also, I made a couple pies for Book Group refreshments since I was hosting last night.

I didn’t get a shot of the before, but I reallyliked the way the Apple Pie turned out, I’de always wanted to do this weeve design, but hadn’t really gotten the opportunity. It was really fun to do with the kiddos (even though they ate more than helped 😉

This is the best homemade pie crust I’ve ever found (sitting in the dr’s office waiting for my blood draw-isn’t that always the way?!)
For the recipe click here!

Show me what you’ve been doing!

     XoXo,

I decided I wanted to make more of my gifts for giving this year since I tend to get lazy and just buy everything. I’m hoping this will keep me: a) within the budget my husband & I set for gift giving  b) accomplishing things that have been needing to be accomplished for quite some time c) make gift giving this year a little more meaningful to me, since it typically means more to both the giver and reciever when you put yourself into what you give. AND d) allowing me to enjoy this season that much more through the fun of doing these things. For the listed reasons, my “24 days of Christmas Crafts” came to be.

My hope in sharing this, is that what I’m doing will inspire and get you excited about this season as well as your giving me ideas of your own!

*Note: Some of these crafts/gifts will have tutorials (or at least a link to one) some of them won’t. None of these things are meant to be stressful and frenzied.

Even though I am posting the first one a day late, I did do it Dec. 1st. It was just way late by the time I decided to go to bed and I just didn’t feel like I had the stamina to do a post that late.  So here’s my 24 days till Christmas craft
                                                                      Flower Pin
 

                                                Sorry about the lighting…it was late and I’m having trouble with the lighting on my camera, but here is a tutorial. I always wondered how to make these myself:

                                         overlap flowers so that they make a swirl affect and pin into position

Ideas for gift giving:

Here I am with my 4th week of “What I Wore Wednesday” I’m linking up to the Pleated Poppy. If you have never tried this, it’s fun! Check out what other women are doing. It isn’t that I love taking pictures of myself, it just helps me to remember to get dressed into something I wouldn’t mind people seeing me in during the day! I used to do this on my family blog, then switched once my boutique opened up. Catch my “what they say Wednesdays” (the reason I switched) over on my Mommybug blog if you are interested. Have a fun day!!!

Oh…I was SO excited ALL DAY for this. It was a good thing that I had a little one in training today, because it kept me focused on something else or I would have otherwise gone completely silly. (Those who know me well, know that’s true.) So we paused our movie “A Christmas Carol” by Disney (which I HIGHLY recommend) starring James Carrey (who was incredible using his talent the way he should) to do the drawing—-blah blah blah blah blah!!!  Get on with it! Right?

Let me get my assistants. (too nervous to do it myself, plus if I’m not behind the camera, who can I blame for the poor quality of the pictures?!)

And the winner is….

DRUMROLL PLEASE!……………………………….. 

None other than the Lovely:

I’m also thinkin’ it’s hard to believe how quickly Thanksgiving week went! Did it actually happen? It seems the older we get and the more children we have, the faster time flies and the more important what we do with that time matters.

Oregon hasn’t yet jumped on the bandwagon of a complete week off for Thanksgiving break, so we are still not able to go visit family for the Holiday and are getting more creative every year on what we do and who we invite to our feast. This year we had 25 people at our house and it was WONDERFUL! We started off the day with the younger part of the family supporting me at the Turkey Stuffer (my first 5K run ever!)while the older boys tore up the field at the annual Turkey Bowl. Nothing like Thanksgiving morning exercise before a big feast to make you think you can eat more than you really should.

Here I am today  for my GRAND OPENING GIVEAWAY and linking to The Pleated Poppy for “what i wore wednesday”!

T