under the tree

All of our presents are wrapped and under the tree. 

This year I stuck with the $ store kraft paper. I added a few paper doilies, and whatever other yarn and scraps I found around the house. 

The next step tomorrow is to pack up all the gifts and head North. 

Sorry for the short post, but I am off to bed. I am up way too late. I guess it's because I know that I don't have to wake up to my alarm tomorrow morning. 

Oh yeah, have I mentioned that I am now officially on Christmas vacation? 

Well I am & I am pretty excited about it. 

Even though I am up late, I am hoping to get up early tomorrow and do a little thrifting. I am on the lookout for a rocker/glider and jenny lind crib. Wish me luck and lots of cheap treasures.

going the chapel & girl christmas - and lots of crafts

Wow friends it has been one amazing weekend ... full of surprises and a lot of quality time with friends. 

For the past 72 hours, we've entertained house guests, ate a lot of food, celebrated engagements, celebrated birthdays, celebrated work Christmas parties, and celebrated girl Christmas.

Not to mention that we stayed up until like 3:00 am like we're still in college. 

No pregnant lady should still be awake at 3:00 am - but it was so worth it.

The weekend started out with a little surprise! 

Our friend Andy popped the question ... and she said yes! 

We celebrated with a late night surprise engagement party!

Here we are huddled around her lovely rock :)

A couple other photos from the night

(Holly was telling little baby how much she loved him) 

Congrats Shannon and Andy :)

E and I are so excited that we were able to share in this amazing weekend with you. Marriage is an AMAZING blessing. I can't wait for you to experience it.

Shannon- 

I can't wait to help you plan your wedding! I can't wait to see you walk down the aisle ... you're going to be one lovely little bride! I might even cry a little. 

I can't believe that I'll have a little baby at your wedding! I really can't believe it. 

So many good things to come :)

 Now onto the crafts...

Last year I shared about our annual girl Christmas here. Since our Junior year of high school a few of my favorite ladies in the whole wide world have got together to exchange gifts. 

The group has changed a little over the years, and we've added a few, but four of us have been celebrating together for over 8 years. 

I love these ladies. They are amazing women. 

(Cory is so so pretty)

"Girl Christmas" is probably my favorite gift exchange of the entire year. I love it so much because for the past three years we've added a little stipulation - all the gifts have to be handmade. 

For the past two years we've committed to making one small craft for everyone - so I make 5 of the same small crafts. When you really get creative, it's amazing the creative and super useful things that you can make for $20 - $30.

Here are a few of this years creations ...

Little baby boy (who will have a name someday soon) also received a little handmade goodness

So much joy in one weekend.

Now it's going to be really hard to go back to work tomorrow!

I'll be back soon with this week's preggo update...

wrapping

Last night, I was mindlessly searching everything baby for an embarrassing amount of time! 

While browsing The Land of Nod (let me just say that I REALLY WISH we had this store close). Land of Nod - please come to Lexington, and if that is too much to ask, maybe Cincinnati.

Anyways, I came upon this really fun monogrammed gift wrapping ...

 Now I am way too cheap to pay almost $2.00 for each letter ... so I am just going to print my own letters on large card sock. So simple. I love it. I already have the baker's twine, and I'll pick the kraft paper up at our Dollar Tree. 

Now I just need to finish up with my Christmas shopping. I'm getting here. 

If you don't want to put the time into making your own letters, then you can buy them here.

for the travel tree

If you've been reading for awhile, or been in my house around Christmas time ... 

you'll know that E and  I have what we call a travel tree. I got the idea from my parents who have been doing this for years. Every time E and I take a trip somewhere we pick up an ornament as a souvenir. Then, we put all the ornaments on a "special" tree in our family room. It is so much fun pulling out the different ornaments and remembering the many places we've been blessed to be able to travel to. 

This year we added quite a few ornaments to our tree. But ... one place that we forgot to get an ornament was Paris. Paris is quite possibly my favorite place that I have ever been ... I really don't know how we forgot, but we did. 

Since I knew we wouldn't be back anytime too soon, I started searching online. Buying an ornament online isn't as cool, but I figured that I'd at least have one to put up and remember our amazing trip. 

Then, I found these lovelies. Are they not the most adorable things you have ever seen?? I ordered them right away and cannot wait to put them up on our tree. 

I'd say that they sum up the trip pretty well...

Now if only I could find an ornament in the shape of a fondue pot or a block of cheese.

Ohh I could go back in a heartbeat!  
Maybe someday :) 

first homemade christmas decoration

 I did it! I finally made a yarn wreath. My first homemade Christmas decoration of the year. Hopefully there will be a few more to come.  I've been eyeing these wreaths on etsy for months now, but  I am way too cheap to shell out $40.00 for one.

 So I followed this little tutorial and made one myself. I didn't take any step-by-step instructions because the diy tutorial that I followed was very detailed and had a lot of great pictures. I was a little surprised by how it turned out. The part that I thought would be easy was more difficult and the part that I thought would be hard was super easy. By that I mean, I thought that wrapping the wreath in yarn would be easy, but it was actually tedious and annoying. I wouldn't say that it was hard, but it was very time consuming. Then, I was intimidated about making the roses, but they were super easy.

 If you follow this tutorial, you can't go wrong. 

PS - the wreath will not always hang awkwardly like it is in the picture. That's just the first place I found to hang it and snap a few pictures. 

Alright bloggers, I am off to do some paperwork for work (boo). I'll be back tomorrow with a preggo update.

making a list

#1 on my Christmas list 

what's on yours?

getting back to the normal

Tomorrow is my first day back after about a two week va-cay. I am feeling super depressed. I know I should be thankful that I have a job, but for some reason I cannot pull myself out of my self-pity pit. I really need to snap out of it. Today has been one of those days where I feel like I can't do anything right. Ever had one of them?

Oh well ... there will be days like these right? I couldn't even bring myself to take down the Christmas decorations. I think it was half laziness and half sadness. I will muster up the motivation ... I promise I will not be that person with their lights up in May.

For now, I am off to snuggle in my bed with my heated mattress pad {one of the greatest luxuries in the entire world} ... and read a little Twlight {Eclipse to be exact}. I will be back tomorrow with a new lovely giveaway.

goodbye 2009

Last week, I took this picture of my aunt's Christmas tree. When I was looking through the pictures today, I was struck by how the clock ornament reminded me of the end of the year.

I set several resolutions last year, but unfortunately I lost the paper I wrote them down on! I do remember that a couple things I stuck with was ... plant a garden ... run a half marathon ... and finish graduate school.

A couple of things that I think were on there ... that I did not stick with ... go to bed earlier (definitely didn't happen) ... read all of the chronicles of narnia ... travel to Tanzania.

I am really bummed that the last one end up working out. A couple of E's friends were living in Tanzania this time last year. They've been back in the states for the last couple of months, and tomorrow they leave for France. This year, I am bound and determined to make it to Europe in the Fall. This also means that I need to set myself up on a budget savings plan ... umm now.

...................................................................

What about you? 

What are some of your resolutions for the new year? 

What are a few of your highlights from the previous?

a couple days late

Merry Christmas to you and yours (a couple of days late).

I hope that you enjoyed celebrating the birth of the savior of the world.