What to Do with Christmas Cards?

As I've mentioned just a few times, I love getting Christmas cards. I can never bring myself to throw them away, and always have good intentions of doing something with them. But alas, they typically end up in the great photo box of doom, never to be seen again. I vowed this year would be different, and I'm happy to report that thanks to Pinterest, I have 2 fun new ideas for my Christmas cards! So I thought I'd share these with you today before your cards get lost in the post-holiday chaos.

Eighteen25 shared about turning your Christmas cards into a little book, and I thought this was perfect! I like this idea for a couple of reasons. First, there's very little cost involved. All you do is print your cover, then get some book rings to hold them together. I also like this because unlike when you put them in a an actual photo album, you can still see the front and back of the card, as many people are now using double-sided cards. Oh, and also? This idea works well because cards come in SO many different sizes that it's hard finding the right photo album to put them in. So yeah, I think I've made it clear that I think this is a great idea. :) I love that it also took me only about 10 minutes to do this. For the free printable and full tutorial, go here.

The other fun idea I came across via Ashley Ann Photography is to take photos of your Christmas cards with your phone, then assign that picture to that person's contact info. Then when they call, their cute Christmas card photo will be displayed. I've loved doing this just because I don't have photos for most of my contacts, plus these are usually everyone's favorite pictures, so I'm sure they'd love that their pictures are getting used for this! :)

Do you do anything special with your Christmas cards? I'd love to hear about it if so!

Your Design Questions, Answered

First, I want to say I really appreciate everyone who takes the time to read, comment, or email me. I really do love hearing from readers, and getting to know you guys better is so fun. That being said, could I ask a HUGE favor? If you don't have your email account attached to your profile, will you please do so? That way I can respond to you if you leave me a question. If you don't know how to do it, Libby has a great tutorial here.

If you don't want to attach your email address to your profile, be sure to include it in your comment or email me directly instead. I will do my best to respond from my phone right when I get it, and it's not possible to do if your email isn't there with the comment. :)  I've been horrible about keeping up with emails in the past, and I seriously want to change that going forward. So I'm going to try to handle them a little differently...who knows if it will work or not, but I just know I need to try to find some organization somehow...so wish me luck. :)  Now on to what this post was supposed to be about!

I get a lot of questions about how I design stuff, so I wanted to put a post together that will hopefully answer some of the questions people have. If you've been reading my blog for very long, it is probably apparent to you that my design knowledge has changed & grown as time goes on. The main reason for that is because I am self taught, and have no real training in design. So it's kind of a learn-as-you-go approach. I mention that just to encourage those of you who want to learn - it's totally possible if you just take the time to explore and try to figure things out.

Now for some of the most common questions I get:

What program do you design in?
I design in Adobe Photoshop. That hasn't always been the case, but that is all I use now. I have never used Photoshop Elements, but from what I understand, it will work just as well as Photoshop for digital scrapbooking type projects. It is A LOT cheaper than Photoshop, and if I hadn't been given Photoshop, that's what I would've bought. You can download a free 30 day trial of it from Adobe here, and I would recommend doing that before you can buy it. That way you can try it and see if it's something you'll really use. I will warn you that if you've never worked in a program like this before, it will seem overwhelming at first. I had NO clue what I was doing to begin with. BUT with time, that all changes...just make yourself play around in the program, and google google google any questions you have! There are SO many great tutorials out there. If you decide to purchase Photoshop Elements, it is usually cheapest on Amazon. I've seen it as low as $40, but I think it stays around $60 - $100 most of the time.

I want to learn to digital scrapbook or make my own printables. How can I do that?
As I mentioned, I am completely self taught through trial and error and just reading random tutorials, so that's one way. Since then, I have discovered an amazing site with lots of classes that would probably make it much easier to learn - www.jessicasprague.com. She has online classes that I've heard wonderful things about. I've never taken any of her paid classes, but occasionally she will offer a free class and I always jump in on those just for the exposure to new tips. When you first join her site, she offers 2 free basic classes - you can see the info here. I would definitely recommend taking those classes to get started.

Where do you print your designs?
For items such as cupcake toppers, banners, and water bottle labels, I typically print those at home. I don't have a fancy printer; just a normal HP inkjet. I prefer to print on matte presentation paper because it really makes the color vibrant. I usually buy my matte presentation paper at Target or an office supply store like Office Depot.

For invitations and cards, I prefer to have those printed by a professional printer. Vista Print provides good quality products at great prices. Be sure to sign up for their emails - don't ever just pay the price on the site. They send a lot of emails with specials, so that can be annoying, but if need be just sign up before you know you need something. Also, I never choose the fastest shipping option from there. The slowest option says it can take up to 21 days, but I've never had it take anywhere close to that. There is a considerable price difference, so that's why I mention that. I have also heard good things about mpix and WinkFlash, but I have never personally ordered from them.

How do you make matching or custom labels?
Again, these are designed in Photoshop. I just design something the dimensions of the type of label I want to use, and coordinate it to match whatever I am mailing.

Where can I buy digital designs such as clip art, background papers, and elements?
There are a LOT of great digital scrapbooking sites out there. For freebies, Shabby Princess has some great kits. I used these a lot at first when I was trying to decide if digital scrapbooking was something I'd get into. You can also find a lot of freebies if you just google "free digital scrapbooking" or something along those lines. To purchase kits, ScrapMatters and Jessica Sprague are great, as well as etsy. Keep in mind a lot of this stuff is for personal use only, but many designers offer a commercial license if you plan to sell your designs; you'll just need to purchase that separately.

What program do you use for your Project 365 collages?
The template I used in 2011 is a free download from The CoffeeShop Blog, and is a Photoshop file. She has a lot of free templates, and I think the majority of them are compatible with Photoshop Elements. 

Well I think that covers the questions I get asked the most. If there is anything else you'd like to know (or if you have any advice or tips to share),  please leave a comment or send me an email and I'll try to update this post. As I mentioned, I am definitely not a professional but I just wanted to share what little knowledge I have for those who have asked. Hope this is helpful to some of you!

Top Projects of 2011

Today I am linking up with Rhoda to share my Top Projects of 2011. It's always fun to look back at the year and see what I did. I will say most of my top projects are actually parties, but if you've ever thrown a party, you definitely know that's a "project". I compiled this list based on the number of page views each page received. So here they are, in no particular order. Click on the link or picture to be taken to the post for each project.

DIY Baker's Twine

Manny's 1st Birthday Party

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Invitations

DIY Printable Water Bottle Labels

DIY Easy Banner Tutorial

Pretty in Pink Baby Shower

Little Man Baby Shower

Vintage Football Sip & See

Prehistoric but not Extinct {40th Birthday Party}

DIY Gumball Machine Candy Jar

LiveStrong Party

It was fun looking back and seeing what the year held! And was also refreshing to realize I did something this year other than eat. Though that is mostly what I did at these parties. Such is life! :)

Project 365 Options & Week 51

Thanks for all the great feedback on Project 365! I am still deciding on how I want to continue doing it, and will let you know when I come to a decision. In the meantime, I had some requests to share some of the ideas I've seen for doing Project 365.

There are a variety of ways to do it, and so you just need to decide what your purpose/goal is in doing it. I knew I wanted to print mine as a book, so a collage of each week rather than individual pictures seemed to be best. Also, I did this strictly for my own record keeping. I didn't upload to any of the Project 365 forums or link-ups, but I know there are a lot of great ones out there if you want to interact more with other P365ers.

--The template I used this year is a Photoshop template that is a free download from the Coffee Shop Blog, and can be found here. She actually has tons of free Photoshop templates. The one I used was not designed to be a P365 template, but it works perfectly for it.

--One of my favorite digital scrap designers, HayNay, just came out with some fun Project 365 stuff. You can see it here.

--I know not everyone has Photoshop, so another option would be to use Picnik or Picasa to make your collages.

--Sarah at Naptime Momtog is hosting Project 366 Rewind, which includes weekly prompts. You can read more about it here. 

--There are also quite a few Photoshop templates sold at Jessica Sprague.

Now for week 51...WOW! I really can't believe I've made it this far.

December 17 - My parents came to visit for the weekend and we did a little shopping. Manny absolutely loves my dad and always wants him to hold him as soon as he sees him...so sweet! :)
December 18 - Manny has been quite the help with Christmas decorating this year. He likes to randomly put his books or toys in the tree. I was walking by and noticed this book tucked in the branches and it just made me laugh.
December 19 - Patrick & Manny love to wrestle and play when Patrick gets home from work. Patrick got kind of tired after playing for a bit, so was just laying there but Manny wanted him to keep playing. So he started trying to pull him up by the hair...such a tough little guy!!
December 20 - I was doing the dishes when I heard Manny in the hall saying "choo choo!" I walked around the corner to see he'd found where I was keeping his Christmas presents! Guess I need to do a better job of hiding those next year.
December 21 - I was getting ready, and walked in to find Manny climbing to the very top of the toilet. He is SUCH a climber right now!
December 22 - Today was Manny's last day of MDO before Christmas break, and they had a pj party to celebrate. I love him in these pj's!
December 23 - Manny absolutely loved my mother-in-law's village, and wanted to play in it the whole time we were there...even though it definitely was not something good for him to be playing with. :)

Christmas 2011 {Part 1}

We have had a wonderful weekend celebrating Christmas! I thought I'd go ahead and post about the first part of our Christmas as I know there will be lots of pictures to share. I normally use the BlogPress Lite app to blog from my phone, but I can't get it to work. I tried deleting it and re-downloading it, but now I can't find it in the app store. Anyone have a blogging app they recommend? I'd like one where I can insert photos throughout my post rather than all at the end like the Blogger app does.

On Thursday, we headed down to Dallas to spend some time with Patrick's family. My mother-in-law has a huge village she sets up on her hearth for Christmas. It's really pretty, but not exactly a good thing for Manny to be playing with. :) He seemed to think it was his own personal playground though! We kept calling him Godzilla because he was always lurking over the village, and I just knew anytime he was going to blaze through it. He actually did pretty good, considering how tempting it was. Patrick gave him the okay to move some of the village people and animals around, and Manny had a lot of fun lining them up on a different table across the room.

Patrick's parents got Manny this awesome new ride! He looks so cute cruising around on it.

They also gave him tons of neat books and a few toys. Thank you guys so much for your generosity...Manny loves all of his stuff! 

We stayed there through Christmas Eve, then headed up to my parents house. Manny was worn out from all the playing and fell asleep right when we got in the car. I love when he sleeps like this. :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Be back soon with more pictures. :)

Thanksgiving 2011

I wanted to get Thanksgiving posted before Christmas got here and it got lost in the shuffle completely. I'2011/11/gender-reveal-party-baby-martin-20.html">Gender Reveal Party, which we had Thanksgiving Day right before we ate at my parent's house. Manny was a little solemn & pouty after the whole reveal...I think it might have overwhelmed him. :) I love his sweet face here!

We had fun hanging out, and of course Manny got Hayden and Jenny to read him his favorite book. I love that Manny & Zeke are starting to interact more...I know they are going to have so much fun together in the years to come! We also had a joint birthday party for my brother Caleb, sister-in-law Tonya, brother-in-law Matt, niece Ellie, and me! All of our birthdays are in November & December, so we took advantage of having the family together to celebrate our birthdays too. Here we all are blowing out the candles on the cake. :)

Then we went up to the "farm" to check out the animals. One of the horses just had a baby so the kids all wanted to see it. They were having way too much fun and we couldn't stop laughing at who knows what. I tried to take a picture of Gabi making it look like she was jumping over the horse, but I guess it might look more like she's about to kick it. Ha!

I wasn't good about getting pictures the rest of the day, but we had a great time, and from there went to Patrick's aunt's house to celebrate with his family. And actually now that I think of it, I wasn't good about getting pictures this whole week! I have my mom and sister Jenny to thank for taking these - so thanks you two. :) I've really got to get better about getting my camera out. But I digress...back to our weekend!

On Saturday, we set out for "Grandkids Day Out". This is a tradition my parents have started of taking all the grandkids on some kind of outing, and a lot of us "older kids" end up tagging along too. It's always SO fun, and my parents always find something fun & unique to do with the grandkids. This time, my dad took it to a whole new level! He's always buying things at auctions & selling them, and he bought an airport shuttle so all the kids could ride together on the outing! Of course being the Trader Joe he is, he sold it right after the big outing. It definitely served it's purpose for a fun-filled adventure though!

Here is the majority of the crew ready for take-off. My sister Becky, me, and the younger babies rode in our car for a more comfortable ride. :)

We went in to Tulsa to check out the Christmas lights. They were gorgeous and we had lots of fun, even if it was a little chilly. Nothing a little hot chocolate won't take care of!

After the lights, we headed to Ted's for some awesome Mexican food. With such a large group, we had a bit of a wait and Manny kept trying to run into the bar. Awesome. Luckily Laci was really good about chasing him down and keeping him under wraps. We also let Manny have some queso, and he was quite the fan. 

Mom & Dad, we can't thank you enough for a wonderful weekend filled with fun memories! Thank you for being such such amazing parents AND grandparents to our family. We love you bunches!! xo

Project 365 Question & Week 50

Well in case you happened to miss the fact that I have been clogging up your readers/inbox, I am finally caught up on Project 365! I know those were some long, rambling posts, and I hate that I got that far behind BUT I am determined to finish it so I'm glad I took the time to catch up.

Which brings me to my next question. I'm debating on how/if I should do Project 365 next year. I absolutely love being able to look back at our weeks, and seeing how much Manny has changed, so I'm almost positive I'm going to continue doing it. The question is how I want to do it. I could continue using this template, or I've seen a few other fun ones out there so I'm just not sure. If you're a Project 365er, I'd love to hear what you do or are planning to do in 2012.

December 10 - We were getting ready to leave the house to go look at Christmas lights and I was trying to take a picture with Manny. But all he wanted to do was pout...surprise!! :)
December 11 - Ashley posted about some gel clings she got for her daughter to play with, and I thought it was a great idea so I picked some up at Wal-Mart. Best $2 I ever spent! He stood at that door for like 30 minutes playing with them.
December 12 - I finally had Patrick get a few more tubs of Christmas decorations down, and wouldn't you know it, as soon as Manny saw them he had to climb on top of them.
December 13 - Along the same note, turns out Manny can climb up on our table now! He's been trying to climb in the chairs for awhile, but it's a high-top so he's never had much success. Well that's all over with, as I discovered him perched on the table surveying the bowl of ornaments when I walked in the kitchen. As soon as I started walking towards him to get him down, he started throwing the ornaments at a rapid-fire pace. Thank goodness for shatterproof!
December 14 - We had to pick up a few things at Lowe's, and I was so thankful for the cool carts to keep Manny entertained.
December 15 - It was a good mail day today. We got lots of Christmas cards, and Manny's Christmas pj's from SheShe Made arrived...I absolutely love them!!
December 16 - Manny was so grumpy, but refused to take a nap today. I tried a couple of different times with no luck. I knew I needed to get to the grocery store, so after realizing a nap wasn't going to happen we loaded up. Wouldn't you know as soon as I pulled in the parking lot, I looked back to see this. Gotta love it.

The Haircut.

Well, I think I'm finally ready to talk about it. As I mentioned, Manny got his 2nd haircut a couple of weeks ago. I can't remember when exactly...I've tried to block this whole experience out of my memory.

I was nervous to get a haircut at some random place, so I thought the next best thing would be to go to one of those kid salons. Surely you can't go wrong there, right? FALSE.

It all started out wrong, and I should have followed my instincts and ran for the door. To begin with, she wanted to put him in a Bumbo so he'd be high enough. Well guess what - Manny doesn't exactly fit in a Bumbo anymore, and hasn't sat in one in ages. He was less than thrilled when we tried to squeeze his little legs in those slots, but he obliged. However, when she immediately started spraying his hair with a water bottle & it got in his eyes? It was all over, my friends. Anytime she'd touch his head, he'd start batting at her hands. Not good when someone has scissors. 

She kept saying she had never seen a kid throw a fit like this for "just a haircut", so of course I was so nervous and embarrassed. Don't get me wrong - Manny throws plenty of fits - but I felt like we'd set him up for failure here. He is very hard headed and once he's worked up, it takes a bit for him to wind down. I told her to just stop but she said she'd already cut too much, so she had to finish it up. So I asked if I could try to calm him down for a bit before she continued cutting his hair. She was less than thrilled, but agreed to let me do so. I'd barely gotten him relaxed when all the sudden she's swooping in with the clippers buzzing...it scared both of us! She said she wouldn't be able to finish with scissors so had to use the clippers. And let me tell you, when I saw the chunks of hair start dropping, so did my stomach. I reminded her I just wanted it trimmed, but it was too late at that point. She was just ready to finish up and get us out the door. It was traumatic, but we both survived.  

And here he is after the dreaded cut. It's much shorter than you can tell in this picture. The back is especially where it's buzzed. You know, there's a bowl cut, a fade, a flat top...you name it. But Manny? What he got...let's just say I like to call this The Lice Style. You know, that cut they give the kids in grade school when they fail the dreaded pencil test.

Fortunately, Patrick is able to spike his hair up cute. I haven't quite figured out how to do it yet and make it look decent, but we're working on it. This picture was taken the day after his haircut, and as you can tell from the expression on his face, he was less than pleased with the cut too. I think it's safe to say we won't be returning to that "kid-friendly" salon. 

In the meantime, I'll be here washing Manny's hair with Mane 'N Tail in hopes of getting some of his sweet baby locks back. That stuff works, right?

Tuesday Tidbits

 

-- The other day I came across these fun homescreens at Southern Stumble. She has a couple of designs in a variety of fun colors. I love the way it makes my screen look! Go here to download them for free.

Who knew this was the WRONG way to wear a bobby pin?!

--Am I the last person on earth to learn that bobby pins are supposed to go wavy side DOWN? I saw this on Kate's blog the other day and was shocked. Since then, I've been wearing mine like this, and I swear it makes a difference..the hold is much better!

--I made some snowman pretzel sticks to give as part of Manny's teacher's gifts, but they didn't turn out quite as cute as I'd hoped. I left too much space between the eyes and the hat, especially on this one. They're all a little funky, but I suppose they'll work. :)

--I bought one of those recordable books at Hallmark that tells the Christmas story. I had my parents record reading it, and Manny just loves listening to it. It is such a fun keepsake and I love listening to it with him too. Thanks for taking the time to do this mom & dad!

--In case you haven't heard by now, if you Google "let it snow", snowflakes will begin to fall, and your screen will start to fog over. You can use your mouse to write messages or hit the "defrost" button to get your screen to clear up. (Am I the only one who can't hear the word "frost" without thinking of "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" and "Froooost Yourself"?) As you all know, I'm easily amused (and distracted), so I thought this article telling about 5 fun Google tricks was pretty entertaining. And yep, I tried all of them. And was entertained by each. Like I said...easily amused. I am sad they did away with the Chuck Norris joke though...that was funny.

Here's to hoping this Tuesday is a productive one! :)

Santa Visit & a Sleigh Ride

Last weekend, we decided to go check out the Christmas lights at a local park. It's a big drive-thru display, but we chose to go all out and take a carriage ride through the park instead. It was a little cold, but not bad at all since we were dressed for the occasion and also bundled up in blankets. :)

Manny was pretty quiet, but loved it and kept pointing at all the lights. I tried to take a few pictures of the lights, but with the bouncing of the carriage none of them turned out. But it was a great time and a fun memory for sure!

Then last Wednesday, we took Manny to see Santa. I just knew it would be a meltdown, and I was so excited for it. Ha! Does that officially make me a bad mom? All I mean by that is I love the crying pictures...they always make me laugh. Unfortunately Patrick fouled things up and tried really hard to keep Manny calm...and was pretty successful at it. Here is Manny looking at Santa while we were standing in line. You'll notice he was playing with his belly button, which is a major comfort thing for him. You can tell he was a little concerned at this point.

And when it was time to meet Santa, Patrick helped Manny get settled before he walked off. He didn't scream or throw a fit, just kind of whined. And this picture just makes me so sad. You can tell he's trying to be brave...I love it. :) Much different than our Santa pic last year where he wouldn't stop staring at Santa.

And I had to share this picture just because I came across it when looking for last year's Santa pic, and it just makes me laugh. Silly boy. :)

I can't believe Christmas is in less than a week! I need to get in gear and finish my shopping.

Project 365: Weeks 47, 48, & 49

November 19 - Today we took our family pictures. Manny was being so sweet before we left the house!
November 20 - Manny insisted on putting his chair up on the couch. He loved sitting in to read.
November 21 - This was the day we had our gender ultrasound! I was so sure this picture looked like a boy...guess I was wrong. :)
November 22 - Manny was on a ROLL this night. I turned on the bath water, and went into his room to grab some stuff. I came back in the bathroom not even 30 seconds later and he had thrown everything in the tub...towels, the stool, etc. I gave him his bath, which of course he pooped in so I hurried to finish up so I could get him out. But as soon as I got him out, he took off streaking. I chased him into the living room, where he was squatting, and you guessed it - pooping on the floor. This kid is a mess!!
November 23 - Today was the day we took the gender envelope to Miss Sherri so she could wrap up the results for us in a fun way.
November 24 - Thanksgiving Day - the day we found out we would be having a baby girl! :)
November 25 - Our family went out to eat, and Manny was ALL about some chips & queso. Or at least sucking the queso off the chips. Silly boy.

November 26 - Manny loves my dad so much, and convinced him to read him his favorite book a few times. So sweet. :)
November 27 - Should I be concerned with the fact that Manny absolutely loves to see his face on my phone or the iPad? In this picture, he was kissing himself. Ha!
November 28 - This was one evening when things were just getting crazy. You know, that magical time after 5 o'clock rolls around when the day suddenly feels like it has 97 hours in it. Manny was throwing things out of the cabinets and drawers like crazy, and he unsnapped his outfit too. I thought he looked like Elvis.
November 29 - Oh my sweet little baby boy...this face just melts me!!
November 30 - Manny was feeling a little under the weather today....he looked so pathetic.
December 1 - I couldn't find Manny, and eventually discovered him in our bathroom snacking on a box of crackers he had taken out of the pantry.
December 2 - Manny got the cutest little book from Amy in the book exchange. Such a sweet story and he loves to read it!

December 3 - My sweet friend April gave Patrick & I tickets to the OU/OSU game, and we had so much fun, despite the fact that my Sooners broke my heart that day.
December 4 - We went out to eat after church, and Manny stayed entertained by taking self-portraits on my phone (with my help of course).
December 5 - Manny hates brushing his teeth, but loves to brush them in the morning with daddy. :)
December 6 - We met Patrick for some shopping when he got off work, and Manny insisted on wearing his scarf and was quite proud.
December 7 - Manny had his 18 month check-up at Patrick's clinic (not with Patrick, but another dr in his clinic). Since Patrick is still fairly new to the clinic, they have a poster in the waiting room with his ad on it. As soon as we walked in, Manny saw the poster and ran to it shouting "Da-da!!" He was SO excited and it was so stinking cute.
December 8 - I was decorating the tree while Manny played in his room. I went to our bedroom real quick to grab something, and when I came back in the living room little speedy had come out of his room & made his way up the ladder.
December 9 - Today was a sad sad day. Manny had his 2nd haircut, and it was not a good experience. I'll blog about it eventually, but I'm not ready to talk about it yet. Ha!

Christmas Decor 2011

So. This is probably the least I'2010/12/christmas-tour-of-homes-part-2.html">Parade of Homes last year & decorating every.room.in.the.house definitely burned me out. I wanted to do at least the tree and mantle this year, so that's what I did. It was simple, stress-free, and very enjoyable. :)

The storage in the house we're in right now is not the easiest to access, so I just had Patrick get the first few tubs he could easily get to, and that's how I decided what colors I'd use to decorate. :) I ended up with aqua, gold, and some touches of red & green on the tree. I knew I wanted to tie the red & green in so it would match our stockings.

I had a horrible time trying to get pictures, and didn't really have the patience or time to mess with it long...so just imagine that it's much more breathtaking in person. Ha! :)

This is the first time I've had to decorate over the mantle since we always had the TV over it in our old house. I used to hate that come time to decorate for Christmas. But now that I had the freedom to put up anything? I was stumped. I wanted something simple and cheap, so I ended up putting something together that would match my decor.

I bought these 3 trays at Dollar Tree for $1 each, obviously. :) I spray painted them a champagne color, then added a few coats of Martha Stewart glitter paint in antique silver. (Pretty stuff, but doesn't give near the coverage I anticipated.) Then I cut letters out to spell JOY using glitter paper from Hobby Lobby. I decided to use that rather than to glitter my own paper because I didn't want glitter to be flaking everywhere.

And this is the finished product! I love the way it turned out and think it works great in our living room. The mantle was pretty simple to put together - some fresh garland from Lowe's mixed with lights and a gold leaf garland from Michael'2010/12/diy-5-apothecary-jars.html">DIY apothecary jars I made last year.

 

Because of a certain busy little toddler that lives here, I barely put any ornaments on the tree this year. Just lots of mesh, some glitter picks, and a few larger ornaments.

Like I said, I didn't get very good pictures, but here'2011/12/thursday-tidbits.html">Scentsicles I was so excited about? Yeah, don't waste your money. All it did was make our house smell like Vicks for 2 days, and now you can't even smell them. Pretty sad about that. If you tried them, I'd love to hear how they worked for you though!

Well that pretty much wraps up my decorating for the year. Can't wait to check out everyone else's! :) I'm linking up at Kelly's Korner, Blue-Eyed Bride, Thrifty Decor Chick, The Nester & The Christmas Cheer Link Party.