Christmas Spirit!

I have started putting out the Christmas decorations. The house is sparkling, and so am I. No matter what day I have glitter in my hair or on my sweater. The weather is finally cooling, and lots of snow possibilities have crept into the forecast. Yipee!
Despite all these wonderful things, I have been very negative and irritable, and I'm having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit. To keep the griping short (because I despise complaining), my back hurts, my feet hurt, my fibromyalgia is bothering me more than normal, and my basic responsibilities are too much. The kids are also in an extremely demanding stage, and I can barely muster the energy to give them their basic necessities.
I can honestly say I have never had trouble getting into the holiday groove before. Never. Not even close. I love the holidays... I love the music, the sparkle, and I hope my funk goes away in time for me to appreciate the glow around me.
I was particularly cranky one afternoon and decided to set the dining room table. I felt a little better right away.

Hunter learns anatomy.

See this pretty lady? My son sure does.

So, my husband loves to watch CMT music videos in the background of working from home. A few weeks ago Carrie Underwood's new song, "Cowboy Cassanova," came on. Hunter was quietly hypnotized, and near the end of the video he calmly, seriously, told daddy, "She pretty lady, dad."

Flash forward to my driving the kids to school last week. The radio is on, and "Cowboy Cassanova" is playing. Hunter says, "Mah, I like this song, turn it up!" I do. He rocks out in the back seat, and as Carrie's song winds down, he giggles. "Mah, on the TV her booooobies were stickin' out."

OMG.

I laughed so hard I almost had to pull over.

Wow, Hunter. Okay.

Thought that was bad enough? Seconds later he marched down the church steps to his classroom door and spit out, in a loud cackle, "Boobies!"

I blushed. Which, if you know me, I don't really do. I looked his teacher in the eye and stupidly added, "He's learning about anatomy." She added, with a smirk, and slight giggle, "Oh, is that what he said?"

I should have kept my mouth shut.

It only occurs to me as I'm walking up the stairs to leave that she now thinks I taught my son to call women's breasts, "boobies." Great.

A little redemption for those terrible pics of me from thanksgiving.

Like my new haircut?

can't hardly contain the inspiration

Elle's Studio makes me want to run strips of glitter around my house and pour glitter on them. Now. Check out their blog, too. Yummy.

And the feast was good.

Our premature Thanksgiving feast at home was lovely. I intended to cook the whole thing, but by the time I was done blogging, facebooking, and scrubbing my ass in the shower my husband had most of the meal prepped and done.
I did make the pie. Katie Brown's Turtle Pumpkin Pie.

Couldn't resist a shot of these steaming mashed potatos.


Ben and Hunter helped me roll the crescent rolls. They loved this!

Hunter looks soooo old here!

Ben made this craft for Thanksgiving one afternoon. I love it! They look like Southpark characters.

Ben says, "mom take a picture with me." I looks healf dead. I slept all day and wow, had some serious' bad hair going on. Oh well.

In case you couldn't tell how bad I looked in the first one. I had to take my own picture for the scrapbook atleast, so you know I was there. I need to put some serious make up on.

I'v e already started to take down the Thanksgiving decor. I was poarticularly proud of these. I found fall picks on clearance for 20 cents!!!! at Hobby Lobby, and I twisted them into these candle rings. Cute!

Meal's all set.

How cute are the boy's saying grace?

Theo in my glasses. With his beer. He included in the grace prayer, "Thanks for Milwaukee's Best Light," and Hunter was repeating every word he said... it was absolutly priceless to hear Hunter say that. We giggled pretty hard.

Happy turkey week y'all.

Stuck between two holidays, and other things we're up to.

We have made a tradition of going to my aunt and uncle's house in Chicago for Thanksgiving every year. Nothing lures you like Grandma's stuffing and Auntie's stuffed mushrooms. Yum. But, we always try and make a bird at home a couple days later, juts for the turkey. I love turkey; it is by far my favorite meat in the world. (i also make Grandma's stuffing, and Auntie's mushrooms, b/c they rock!)
This year we may be going from my aunt's to Theo's mom's house to help her move. Weather or not she can get into a new place by the weekend is still up in the air. Either way, we've moved our home meal up to this weekend. Today. Not that I mind, I love spending time with Theo's half of the family, and I love having Turkey anytime.
So, the table is set. The stuffing is already in the making.

I also spend the rest of Thanksgiving weekend decorating for the most wonderful time of the year! I could not resist getting a head start if we are not going to be home. I tried to keep the dining room Thanksgiving-y, and worked instead on the kitchen tree, front yard decor, and the boy's room. Here is the kitchen tree in all it's Gingerbready goodness. :

I have also been delightfully busy, occupied with Christmas crafts and decorating. Theo gave me the whole afternoon and evening kid-free so I could lock myself in my craft room to get work done. I brough the kids portable DVD player in the room so I could watch Elf.

Loving this banner's glittery madness.

I stuck pins in the window frame to hold up all the finished ornaments.

Some paper ornaments I started yesterday:

Yesterday I made this vintage button tree with pearl-head stick pins and a styrofoam cone.

More cones...

I pinned this lovelt lady below up on the wall to keep me inspired. I need to make myself one of these skirts. If anyone seeing plus-sized candy cane striped stockings in the stores, let me know. lol.

In the evenings I have been working hard on this baby blanket and hat for my aunt's family.

I've been hauling this picture (from Wondertime magazine last Christmas) from room to room with me. I'm dying to break free of the Christmas crafts and make some hats for the kiddies.

Oh, and Hunter is taking his talks with Grandma very seriously lately. He talked for like 10 minutes the other day on the sofa.

Happy Thanksgiving, and happy crafting, too.

Creative Inspiration

I've set out to have an all-handmade-holiday on an extremely tight budget. I've been a crafting machine lately, knitting, glueing, covered in glitter. I carry a small notepad in my purse and use my pen to sketch ideas I see in stores. Sometimes I roam stores just to find ideas. I also take pictures with my camera phone.

I made these snowflake ornaments after seeing a similar idea in a Better Home and Gardens Holiday Craft magazine. I start by using the cheap glitter snowflakes you can find just about anywhere this time of year. Mine are from Target and the Dollar Store. I bought the ribbon 50% off at Hobby Lobby and Micheals, and 80-90% off last year at the after holiday clearance sales. I love getting nice things for 20 cents! The glitter is the awesome Martha Stewart, found on clearance last year after Christmas. The pipe cleaners are from dollar bins at JoAnns. The rhinestones are from 99 cent-packs at Micheals. I use my frequent 40-50% off coupons to stop in at Micheals and Hobby Lobby a couple times a week to get $3-4 dollar embellishment sets at a discount. A lot of the craft store coupons I use are "limit one coupon to a customer a day," so if you print up a few, and go back a few different times, you get a discount every time. I never pay full price for anything. Ever.

Here are some websites I frequent for inspirational craft ideas:

Two Peas in a Bucket

Posie Gets Cozy

Flea Market Studio

A Beautiful Mess

Heather Bailey

Jenni Bowlin

Just me, my soldier, and my two little chicks

Retrospection

Shimelle

Rebecca Sower

Etsy

Country Living Crafts

Somerset Crafts

Happy crafting!

A few pretty things to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving is sneaking up on us fast! I barely had time to make this little banner:
let alone spend time pondering that which I have to be thankful for. Here are just a few things I'm thankful for.
My rowdy, wild, fun-loving, close-knit family.

This adorable tired boy.

This gorgeous cat, born this spring on Mother's Day, my Schmoopy Poopy Princess.

My annual zoo pass my mom bought us this summer, and a beautiful fall day there.

Ornamental Grass

This Sunday School turkey craft the boys made this morning.

The crafts I've been making in anticipation of my most favorite time of year, the Christmas holiday season.

And so much less, and so much more.

Apple Farm Goodness.

Earlier this Fall the kids took a field trip to local apple farm. I tagged along, and enjoyed the whole morning so much. Here are the boys listening to the orchard owner. Hunter looks so silly listening so hard.

The kids got to pick their own apples, and eat them on the tractor ride back down out of the orchard. They also learned about all the things it takes to get the apples into bags and sold.

I'm so blessed to have the kids in such an awesome preschool. I love the region of our country that we live in! Happy Thankful Autumn everyone!