Welcome 2012!

Brandon and I have a New Year's Tradition. We see as many movies as we can in 24 hours in the theater. Last year we made it through 5. We use this as our chance to catch up on everything we've missed before awards season begins. So, since my parent's will be entertaining my kids for New Year's Eve, we decided to have our celebration a day early and in the middle of the day! Plus, Delaney has been practicing her backward countdown skills and was excited to show them off.


I don't know where Delaney saw these or got the idea but she has been talking about clock cookies for New Year's "where the hands point straight up" so we enhanced these store bought black and white cookies for the event. She also wanted some juice that "tickles her tongue" so we drank sparkling grape juice out of "fancy glasses".



We added sparklers to our cupcakes and spent the morning making construction paper confetti. It was the highlight of the party by far.



I didn't want to leave these awesome New Year's Eve earrings out of my post. They are the quintessential party earrings I am thrilled to say that my husband got me for Christmas. I can't wait to wear them out for our marathon movie date!

Happy 2012 to You All!!

More Ornaments...Cookie Cutter Frames

This is our final batch of homemade ornaments this year. We've been collecting Christmas themed cookie cutters when we see them on sale or find them at the dollar store.


First, we added glue to the dull side of the cutter. After testing several kinds of glue, we figured out that fast acting tacky craft glue works best.


Then we glued the cutters to all kinds of paper surfaces. We used scrapbook papers which we loved because many of them were two sided and gave the ornaments a more finished look. We also used old Christmas cards and photos.


After allowing them to dry, we used an Exacto pen to carefully cut around the frame and made a small hole in the top to add string. We made several batches of these for gifts this year, adding family photos to some and colors we know people like to others.

Girl's Christmas Lunch

We took a road trip to Birmingham yesterday to celebrate our annual Girl's Christmas Lunch with Jacqueline. We couldn't leave anyone out even if they had just delivered twins so we brought the party to her. It was a wonderful celebration as this year we have so many things to be thankful for.

I loved these gifts from my mom to all of us.
We each got a very appropriate charm attached to a beautiful ornament.


And Pam gave out earrings attached to Vintage Christmas post cards.
I just love the creativity in presentation and wrapping in our family. And Jenny, being the scarf queen received a record 4 scarves out of 5 gifts.


We dined on great salads and Grandpa's cookies, which we would all agree are our favorite part of any Christmas meal.



I brought the reindeer root beer which I found the idea for on Pinterest.


And yes, Pam and I showed up in the exact same Target lace shirt!


We are all so abundantly blessed to have eachother in our lives and thankful for these 4 generations of women we get to call family.

Feliz Navidad from Delaney and Ford

More Ornaments...Snowflakes!

I found this idea for Snowflake Pasta Ornaments . I thought I'd make them with my kids. Luckily I tried them out first and realized they are too advanced for them but I do love how they turned out. I'll file the idea away for later years. The instructions above are good and have helpful hints like turning the snowflakes frequently while they dry and not spraying the paint too heavily or the pasta will become wet.


I did let the kids help once I got to the glitter stage. Delaney wanted to use purple glitter. Although I prefer the simple white iridescent glitter, I never met sparkles I didn't like.

Bird Ornaments

I found these packages of white bird ornaments at Ikea this year. Four come to a pack for just under $4. It is a simple template if you want to make them yourselves out of cardstock or cardboard without the Ikea version of ready mades.


The kids colored them with permanent markers and we added glitter to the edges of the paper wings.


We are giving them as gifts and saving some for our own tree. I just love them.