Hand Made Valentine, Roses & Dinner for 2

Tomorrow is Valentines day, but we are cheating and making a Valentines Weekend. Today is our day together, mushy stuff and all. Tomorrow we are heading out, about an hour away to a place called Kernville with some friends to celebrate "Wiskey Flats Days". Its always a lot of fun, wild west style. I might even bust out my cowboy boots. 

I decided to go the handmade route this V-day for Ryan. My friend Melissa sent me this cute idea (click to check it out). I'm lazy though, and decided I would improvise and make it a little easier on myself. But I kinda stole the general idea, just tweaked it A LOT. So when you are thinking... that doesn't resemble yours at all.... well I know- sorry for the build up.  

I bought a bunch of Valentines day scrapbooking paper, red glitter, and some red ribbon at JoAnnas Fabric and Craft store. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do with it all, but I knew I'd figure it out by the time I got home. I just started with cutting out a bunch of hearts, gluing them together, on top of each other, and adding lots of glitter.  The first heart says "I Love..." And then every other heart can finish that sentence.... like "how you buy me wine when I'm grumpy." Or "how you take out the trash without ever being asked." I didn't have a hole punch so I stuck a screw driver through the paper (ghetto version of a hole punch), strung the ribbon through, knotted it, then made a bow.  It was a lot of fun to make, I found myself thinking of him the whole time.

 

  

  

My favorite part was giving it to him. He LOVED it, and his smile got bigger and bigger with each heart he read. He wanted to hang it up in the house (like it was decoration). That made my heart flutter. =) He put it up on our china hutch for all to see how much I love him. He is wonderful.

And for me Flowers. A man can never go wrong with flowers I tell ya. This morning I received a delivery of white, red, and pink roses... they smell so good. 

 

There was baby's breath in them too, but I took that out because I love baby's breath all by itself. It doesn't do too much for me as a filler, but on its own its lovely. 

 So really, its like I got 2 bouquets in one! 

Plus the other night I also got this gorgeous bulb when he came home from the grocery store. I guess it was a pre-valentines day flower. Or maybe because I was just in a bad mood and he wanted me not to be. Either way, it worked.

 

For the rest of the day we are just going to lounge around with each other. I'm finishing re-doing my coffee table while he is Wii Boxing.

 Our plans for tonight are making a delicious dinner together out of my Williams Sonoma cookbook that his sitster got me for Christmas. 

Maybe Salmon...?  

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend filled with LOVE. 

Its here, its here!

Merry Christmas to you and yours...

My Christmas day is lookin' a little something like this...

Wake up snuggling some puppies (okay, they are grown dogs- but they'll always be "my puppies")
Make some hot coco in my PJ's with Ryan... throwin' some Baileys in there
Ryan's family is coming over at 10am to have breakfast and open stockings
Relax a little, eat a little, play with my nephew...
Then shower, get ready and head to my uncles to spend the day with my family
Eat a late lunch, Mmmm- I still need to get a pie for that -eeek.
Around 5 we head over to my in-laws to eat dinner with Ryan's extended family- and that's a lot of people!
Once we are nice and full, and tired out... we're going to head home to snuggle on the couch and watch a movie until we fall asleep. I can't wait!

A Christmas Prayer

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Loving Father,
Help us remember the birth of Jesus,
that we may share in the song of the angels,
the gladness of the shepherds,
and worship of the wise men.

Close the door of hate
and open the door of love all over the world.
Let kindness come with every gift
and good desires with every greeting.
Deliver us from evil by the blessing
which Christ brings,
and teach us to be merry with clear hearts.

May the Christmas morning
make us happy to be thy children,
and Christmas evening bring us to our beds
with grateful thoughts,
forgiving and forgiven,
for Jesus' sake.

Amen.

Just add Egg Nog

The Christmas decorating has come to an end, and I have nothing left to do except to look around and enjoy it all. I'll share with you some of my favorite holiday decor around here. I loved putting ornament all over the place, not just on the tree. They are cheap and add lots of color quickly. I found most of mine from Goodwill over the last few months.

Here are some hanging from my chandelier, with some pearl garland.

Hangin' out in my China Hutch...

 

Hanging FROM my China hutch...

 

On a mini tree in the kitchen...

And from some photos on the wall...

 Another thing I did for Christmas was make a Christmas card holder. Last year I had them sitting all over the place, and they never had a good home. This year I decided to make a card holder with some ribbon that I bought from Michaels. I picked up this "Christmas Blessings" sign from Ross for $4.99. I thought that would be a perfect fit for our friends and families cards, since that is just what they are - Christmas Blessings. Cheesey? Ohhh Yes, and I love it.

I just hot glued the ribbon to the back, and glued some clothes pins to the front of the ribbon...

 

 Cheap and easy... just how I like it. Don't take that the wrong way you dirty little mind. ;)

 

 

 

One last Christmas project that I did also involved ribbon and my hot glue gun. Oh how I love hot glue guns.  I cut my ribbon so it would hang down from the top of my bookcase. I cut the ends in a banner cut. Then I used antique gold spray paint on some little wooden letters that I got for $1 each at Michaels. I hot glued them to the ribbon and wa-la... a little custom banner to frame my shelf. ...just in case I forget which day Christmas falls on. (insert sarcasm)

Yeah, kinda pointless I know, but it was fun to make. ;)

 

And that wraps up my little tour 'O Christmas decor. That's all folks!

I hope you enjoy your Christmas Eve's Eve tomorrow and stay warm.

Put it to use... its about time

Remember when I (ok, my mom) found this at a yard sale for $1. I didn't know what I was going to do with it. It just sat around for a while until I decided to put it on my coffee table with a little bit of Christmas cheer in it. Yes, that is chessey isn't it?

I like it because I can put all the stuff I want to - out on the table without it being all over the place. Its like a little drawer organizer for the table.

 

DIY Wreath Project

I've had this wreath for a while that I got on clearance from TJ Maxx. I decided to give it a bit of some sprucing up for this season.

I put a buncha extra Christmas decor all out on the kitchen table to decide what I would add to the wreath.  I busted out my handy dandy hot glue gun and used some mini ornaments that I bought at goodwill.

 

I tied some ribbon in a bow... that I already had (from Michaels), and glued it to the top. Its now hanging from my front door to welcome me every time I come home.

 

 

 
 

Deck the Halls...

The day after Thanksgiving I woke up with an extra pep in my step. Maybe it was all the good food and slept I got, but I think it was because I knew it was the day. The day we were going to pick out the "perfect" Christmas tree (under $30 that is). Okay, maybe that was a tad dramatic, but I was very excited to get our first full size Christmas tree. Last Christmas was our first Christmas being married and we were saving for our first house. We decided to opt again buying a Christmas tree. Ryan's mom surprised us with a mini tree. I was happy to have a tree in our 500 sq foot apartment. It was a great Christmas. But this year we decided we wanted to large tree to go in front of the big window in our living/dining room. We didn't want to spend much though. First thing Black Friday morning, for us that was 10:00 am - yeah we slept way in. We headed down to a local tree lot where the trees were "fresh from the farm". MAN! Trees are expensive. We wanted a 6 ft Noble Fir, but we were looking at about $50-60 bucks. Ohhh heck no thank you. I remembered seeing some signs at Lowes, so we headed there instead. It was a nice surprise. We got what we wanted and for only $29! I'm tellin' ya.... head to Lowes. They didn't have a HUGE selection, but they had good prices and good trees.

It was fun watching Ryan fit the tree into truck (with back seats folded in) of a Honda Accord. Once we got it home, we had the hardest time trying to get our old stand to make it stand up right. We had many laughs looking at a crooked tree. And then after a gigantic water spill all over the hardwood floors, we finally got it in place. I think its still a little crooked but we don't care at this point.

I put a beach towel under the tree stand in case I over water it again. Then I pulled out my box'o'ornaments including the Hallmark series collection I've had starting in 1991. I was in kindergarten and my mom took me to Hallmark and let me pick out a series that was starting that year. I chose Puppy Love. I always loved dogs, and I was secretly hoping if I chose Puppy Love - I would get a puppy for Christmas. =)

 

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

I've been feeling the Christmas cheer here at our house. I'm sure my husband is already sick of Christmas music. I usually don't have much red in my house, so its a nice change. We got a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. It was so exciting! My first full size Christmas tree. I felt very grown up. =) I wish Christmas happened twice a year.

 

 

 

 

I found these little birdies at the Dollar store...

I put one on my China Hutch and one my Santa sign in the kitchen.