silly christmas tradition

Before I get to our silly Christmas tradition, I promised a post with some detail of the tree decor, so here ya go...

I always thought I wanted a themed tree until I noticed how much Noah loved looking at all the different ornaments on Grandma and Grandpa Carlsruh's tree.  So I changed it up and now every ornament is different.

I have to say, I love this tree the most so far and it's so fun to collect neat little ornaments throughout the year.

Here's a few of my favorites:

It's hard to pick out favorites when the whole tree is full of them!

 

And now for our silly tradition!

I love the look of lots of presents under the tree and I can still do a theme with my wrapping paper.

You can see last year's theme HERE.

And for 2010 I used newspaper.  I know it sounds weird, but I LOVED the way it turned out!

Here it is:

It turned out to be somewhat of a challenge trying to avoid gruesome headlines and crazy pictures.  And... I still ended up with a few cooky headlines, but I loved how they looked with the bright red ribbon and the tree tags!

the silly part

So, in the last post I mentioned that we are minimalists when it comes to presents at Christmas so it must seem strange to have so many packages under the tree.

Well, Christmas 2009 I decided to have a plethora of packages because: a) I LOVE wrapping presents, b) it's fun to have a wrapping paper theme and c) it's so cute to have a pile of gifts under the tree!   So instead of shopping us into debt, I thought I'd just wrap some empty boxes.  As I was gathering the boxes, I had the funny idea to just put random silly things inside so we could have a few laughs Christmas morning.  Abe had no idea, so that's what happened.  Christmas morning, we laughed as Abe opened all the silly presents and found things like toilet paper, old Halloween candy, light bulbs, etc.  Turned out that Abe loved it and suggested we make it a tradition.  And so we did it again this year, only I gave half the boxes to Abe to fill so I could be surprised too.

So this year I got some things like soap, some quarters, old candy, a picture of a barn (that we dream of having one day) and other silly things.

Abe got some yarn, a can of tuna, some preggie pops, this lovely portrait of me that my mom painted years ago and more funny stuff.

It really is such a fun tradition for us and hopefully we'll get more and more creative as the years go by.  It's our own little white elephant gift exchange every Christmas!  Good times.

matchbook notebook tutorial

I'm no good at tutorials, but maybe I should practice.  I made a bunch of little notebooks that were so fun and so easy to make.  They turned out so darn cute, I though maybe YOU would want to try!

So here's a little tutorial:

the matchbook notebook

supplies you will need:

cute cardstock, scratch paper, ruler, exacto knife or scissors, bone folder, stapler, pen

Use scratch paper to decide size and play around with the folding.  Be sure to leave room for the flap to tuck into the bottom fold after it's stapled.   When you get the size you like and the folds right, mark them with a pen as this will be your guide.

Now lay your cute cardstock on top of your guide paper, lined up like so.  Then use the ruler and bone folder to score the folds into the cardstock.

Now fold on your score lines and cut some insert paper (I use scrap paper or printer paper).  Cut the insert paper just smaller than the middle folded section of your cardstock.  Also, don't try to pile too much paper in as you will need to get the stapler through it all. 

Now tuck your insert paper in that small fold and staple close to the fold, but make sure you are still getting all the paper in there.

Now just tuck the top fold under the flap and..

VOILA!! 

A cute little matchbook notebook!

I've made lots of these and they are super fun for gifts or party favors or a fun craft for kids.

If you don't feel like making one yourself, I've got some for sale in the Pantry shop!

Yay for fun crafts!

MORE new stuff

I have been BUSY!  But it's been so fun!  I'm on a bit of a painting break, but not an actual break.  I found these amazing books at a local thrift store, Deseret Industries (or D.I. as us locals call it).  Love this place!  You can find awesome stuff!  I found these beautiful old books with the most wonderful pictures in them!

And then... I did the unthinkable.  I cut them up!  I cut the beautiful pages out of them!  I know, I know!  No hate comments please.  But look what I made:

They're envelopes!

They are so pretty!  I'm almost hoping they don't sell because I love them so much. 

This is just a small smattering.  I have LOTS!  Some are available now in my OTHER shop, Pickled Pantry and I'll be posting new ones each day for a while.  That'll be my "paper-love" shop.  

I love paper goods.  Love them.  LOVE them. 

And just because I'm talking about love...

I could just kiss this kid's face off!

He was so proud of himself for putting his pants on...

that he wore them backwards and around his thighs for about 25 minutes.  Just cruised around in them like nothing was silly about it.  He's such a fun kid.  Love him.  LOVE him.

More Christmas Crafting....

I found this little red felt reindeer that my sister, Brandy, gave to me a few years ago with a few other felties.  I had forgotten about him, but came across him again and thought he was just so adorable that I would have to frame him!

Cute!!

Crafting for Christmas!!

I'm the type of person that goes shopping for decor, not to buy, but to get ideas.  I don't know if it's because I'm too cheap to spend money on something I think I can make or because I truly want to make it.  So I found some white, glittered pinecones that were ridiculously expensive so.... I made some myself.

Here is after I spray-painted and was glittering.  I didn't glitter them too much because I was SO DONE WITH THE PINECONES!  I was covered in white spraypaint, that doesn't come off very easily, and my trigger finger hurt super bad!  Plus it was cold outside!  And I'm certainly not going to spraypaint inside.  Not to mention I was coated in a layer of glitter.  Anyway, it was a lot more work than I ever thought it would be, but we have this giant glass snifter that I needed to fill.... so white pinecones it is!

And the mis-match stockings:

I think it's fun to add random socks to the fireplace as your family grows!

How lovely the colors of Fall....

Fall is absolutely my favorite time of year! Here's my adorable front porch. I love our home so much! I'm so lucky to have a husband who is able and willing to fix up a 100 year old farmhouse and... who loves it as much as I do. But note the cute wreathe....

I got the idea from the October Martha Stewart Living mag. But she had it as a garland to look like witch's brooms. So I just jimmied it to be a fall wreathe. I love it. Thanks Martha!!

Also, the cornstalks... from our backyard. Yes, we pretend to be farmers, but really it's my hubby's (Abe's) grandpa. His grandparents live right next door and are who we bought the house from. But one day, we'll have a garden of our very own.