Welcome...come on in!

Many of you know that I was participating in a DIY Challenge to make as many Christmas gifts as possible under $50, which I'll share the final projects next week. While working on those, we had some home projects going on at the same time.

I'm very excited to tell you that our home projects have been completed (but I still have several sewing projects to finish up) and that we have Christmas tree standing in our family room. Also, I'm happy to tell you I found my Christmas spirit!! My kids were a huge part of how I found it. Decorating the tree with them last night helped me to rediscover that joy. I wasn't sure if Colin was at a good age or not, but we started out talking about their own ornaments they get at Christmas and I showed them how to carefully open, unpack and take care of their ornaments. Mine have lasted a long time and I hope theirs do too. Colin jumped right in to helping and it was such a joy to decorate with them!

So, with no further ado, come on inside, warm up from the cold, and let me show you around. Included in this tour will be some before photos as well, so you don't have to try to remember what my house look liked! ;-)

Please, come in! It's cold outside and the rain...yuck!

Here's some cocoa to warm you up!

And a cookie! (Ok, so they aren't fresh baked out of my oven, and I found this picture on my computer taken in July of '07 - but hey, that's the beauty of a virtual tour!)

You may remember I lost something in here?

Yes, it was my Christmas spirit.

We're still working at getting the room straightened up. But it is much better. In this room, we have Quintin's nativity he crafted in co-op last year, on display. Just look - don't touch - he's pretty particular about his handiwork. And what artist, isn't?

The photo below, was taken a few weeks ago. This is how our playroom looked. We needed to move EVERYTHING out of it which is why the living room looked ridiculously a little bit cluttered.

Let me take you into our playroom. We are still working on organizing what will work best for homeschooling. I almost feel a little overwhelmed with the space - but give me time!!

Aaaaahhhh - storage!! Let's zoom in on those top shelves, shall we?

Can you spot Charlie? Our elf from the North Pole!?!?

Just a few Christmas decorations to make the playroom more festive! After taking the above pictures, the kids and I decided to add their nativity to the shelves in the playroom. This advent nativity is a highlight for the kids! This year, instead of hiding Baby Jesus for the children to find Christmas morning, I'm going to wrap him up and give it to them to open after we sing Happy Birthday Jesus. Because I want them to know that He is the best present we all receive this Christmas!

And, let's leave the playroom and head into the family room. I LOVE these two rooms being side-by-side and just a few short steps from the kitchen. The playroom, family room and kitchen are along the entire back of our house! I LOVE it! Kudos to whoever thunk that up...HA! (Hey, after 2 weeks of chaos I deserve a little pat on the back, right?)

Sorry to throw this picture at you. I couldn't find my before pictures of my family room. This is the only picture I could find, but, if you look past the bunny and over the soldier's shoulder, you'll see vinyl flooring along the wall and a black cabinet. We treated that area of our family room as a hallway. The room was smaller and had brown carpet as seen in yesterday's post. (I'll spare you having to scroll down)

While the "grands" were here for Elle's birthday, we suckered them into moving our furniture - no cake unless you agree to help work! HA!

Ok, sorry for all the history there on our room. I tend to babble, just stop me if it gets to be too much. Don't worry about being nice, I can take it. My husband has hung up on me because I .... oh, goodness, excuse me, there I go again.

Remember the hallway with the vinyl? We removed the vinyl and re-carpeted the entire room after our cabinets were installed.

From the left, the two santa stockings were made by T's mom. I made the third one for T about 10 years ago. I started working on an angel stocking for myself at the same time...and well, yeah, it's one of the many UFOs in my house (un-finished objects). T's mom made the angel stocking for Elle. She liked my idea so much. She's made them for all the grandchildren in the family. Have I mentioned there are 17 grandchildren? Before making them for my children, she asked if I would prefer to make them...um, let's see. I made one in 10 years and you've made 14 in a matter of a few months...yeah, why don't you go ahead and make some for my kids! LOL!!! They are beautiful, and one day, there will be another angel alongside Elle's.

This is our first artificial tree. It's 9 feet tall. It only can fit in this room - hence the reason I had to wait so long to put it up. I did purchase it at 50% off after Christmas last year! And I think it is the most beautiful tree ever...and that isn't just because I didn't have to string it with lights!

Please step a little closer so you can see all the things on my shelves. Just be careful, the paint was touched-up yesterday.

My favorite piece to put out this year is this:

T bought the basic nativity part of it for me for Christmas last year. To my surprise, one of the stores in our quaint little town had the rest of the pieces at 50% off the day after Christmas! Score!! I love it!!

Here, you may leave through the kitchen door. Next time you stop by, please use this door instead of the formal front door. I know, you didn't know, but now you do! You are a friend, and like the sign at my mother in law's says, "Backdoor friends are best!"

Thanks for stopping by. I'm going to grab a pepsi and crash on the couch with the kids now! :-)

Praising God this Christmas for all that He has done and for sending us the greatest Gift,

His one and only Son!

Birthday Celebration, 2nd edition

Tuesday evening we celebrated Elle's 4th birthday with my parents and T's parents. After goofing on Colin's cake and trying to add his name to a generic store decorated cake, I decided to spend a little more to get a nicer cake (maybe you noticed there were no pictures of Colin's decorated cake...that was why). I can sew clothing for the kids, but I'll leave the cake decorating to the professionals!! Besides, how could I possibly make icing that pink! When I picked it up at the store my first thought was it was a little bright and my second thought was it didn't matter, my birthday girl would love it!

My favorite part of the evening (well, second to the yummy cake) was a moment shared between Quintin and Elle. He had told me earlier that he wanted to make cards for his grandparents that were coming out and I suggested he make a card for Elle (sorry grandparents, I know how much you love his cards!) As I was busy with dishes and getting ready for company, Quintin made and wrapped a present for her. I knew this was going to be something I needed to capture.

Yep! Two paper airplanes! And one is pink - PERFECT!!! (Our son does not typically wear a belt with sweatpants, but he was playing a ninja, pirate, storm trooper or detective that evening!!)

It was a wonderful evening of cake and coffee pepsi followed by watching Char*lie Brown...on the floor.

More on that later....

We love you Noelle!!!

A day to celebrate!

The You Can Make This "Thrifty Under $50" Challenge ended last evening at midnight. Those 4 weeks went by so quickly. I will be taking pictures of my latest projects and adding up how much I spent. But that will wait until a little later.

Because, we have another birthday to celebrate today.

This sweet little face is turning 4 today!

age 1

age 2

age 3 1/2

Happy Birthday Noelle!!!!

Your assistance is needed...

I seem to have lost my Christmas spirit, can you help me find it?

Ugh!

One more week...

And we can move these things back into the playroom and put up our Christmas tree.

It's good it is not two more weeks or I'll be blogging in a room with padded walls.

My kids love to make messes - so why, when their toys look like above,

can they not find something to play with?

Ugh!

A few more presents to present...

This project took me the longest amount of time. LOL!! I made cross-stitched this back in 1999 for my mom and gave it to her for Christmas. With it, I gave here an idea of what I'd do with it if I had a sewing machine. I had found the cute wire hanger and gave it with the cross-stitch. I told her the idea in my head was to frame the picture with fabric and then have straps on the top to place it on the hanger.

Two weekends ago I was in my mom's sewing room and found the piece and the hanger...exactly as I had given them to her 9 years ago. I took them and said she'd be seeing it again this Christmas - because now I could finish them!! I found the adorable Christmas paisley fabric and a match was made. I finished it up very quickly, despite its 9 year hibernation. I think it turned out great. I even top stitched around the picture and just inside the outer edge to give it a more finished look. I'm so pleased with it and I just had to show her when she stopped out yesterday. I also let her know that if she didn't think she had any place for it, that I wouldn't be hurt if she gave it back to me! ;-)

I acquired an adorable tie pattern from my Thrifty Under $50 team captain and wanted to create a fun coordinating set for my kids for Christmas without it screaming "Red and Green."

Quintin's tie is a little long in the picture, but I was doing them myself...while watching a how-to video on you*tube!! T will have to tie these on a Sunday morning. Speaking of T, he was not real impressed with my idea of ties for the boys - but after seeing Quintin's HUGE smile at his new tie, he softened up a bit. I don't know if it was just more of a bother to think of having to tie them for the boys! HA!

The last project I finished yesterday is for Elle. She is getting some doll clothes for her bit.ty baby and I wanted her to have a little "diaper bag" to carry around. My mom and I made a pattern from the diaper on the bi.tty baby and she is sewing some for her too. I did let Elle pick the fabrics without her knowing what it is for - can you tell she loves pink!?!? I took the pattern of a bag I love, and printed it out at 75% to get a smaller version for her!

I have a few more projects to finish up before the challenge ends on Monday! Stay tuned for more...

(not quite) Wordless Wednesday

This was another runner up for Christmas cards - I think it's adorable. T didn't like it as much as one of them all smiling and looking at the camera, and I agree. Oh the pains of getting a good picture for cards.

We spent a good 20 minutes outside that cold morning taking pictures. Colin didn't like keeping his gloves on and his hands were getting so cold. The final picture I took, at which point I knew we needed to come inside, was the one I posted last week, here.

Birthday Celebration Part I

It was our baby's birthday yesterday. I don't know how long I can get away with calling him that, but he's 2 now, and he will forever be my baby.

Here's the birthday boy now.

Check out his new cement mixer shirt and truck book. These brought a big thumbs up from Daddy!! Note: Daddy just finished a HUGE project at work this summer - an addition to the concrete plant at the quarry - so anything cement mixer related is a big hit in this house!!

Oh, that precious face! Colin, you just make me smile ALL. THE. TIME. It is hard to correct you when you've been naughty, boy oh boy!

And yes, that would be my sweeper on the floor behind him. We are in the midst of some very slight remodeling and my brother in law was up this weekend to do some electrical work for us. He brought his 3 year old son along and we had our first "party" when he was up. (My house is a bit of a mess right now...don't even ask me about the Christmas tree!! JM, don't even think about it!!)

Colin, we love you so much and I stand amazed at how much you have grown in the past year. You are just less than 2 years younger than your sister, but I know you will soon be passing her in height. You speak so clearly already, which just blows me away. You are usually more into pestering your brother and sister than you are interested in playing with toys, but we are hoping the train set will change that. LOL!

I remember someone jokingly telling me that if they knew how their third child would be, they would have stopped at two. I have felt that once or twice with your strong will and stubbornness - but only for a fleeting moment. You bring so much more joy than frustration...but I'm starting to wonder if it is a "third child" thing - ahem, not that I would know being a third child myself...ahem. (Hi Mom and Dad!!!)

Birthday Part II will commence in 8 days...oh the joy of 2 birthdays in December!

More completed projects for the Challenge

I've also been updating my team's blog for the Thrifty Under $50 challenge this week - you can check out our team's progress here. And you can see what the 4 other teams have made by going here.

Let me start out by saying that I am really, really enjoying this challenge. I am the typical 'wait until the last minute to start a project' type person - but with the upcoming challenge deadline - I've moving right along with these gifts. I love that we will have the last 2 weeks before Christmas to just enjoy and not have the rush of making gifts driving us all insane!

This week I finished 2 aprons. One for my sister and one for her son.

I used this same denim (purchased last year on the clearance rack at joann's) to make a hot pad - putting to work those rug braiding skills from January.

Right now, my project is making 40 felt ice skate ornaments. I have several more projects before our December 15 deadline.

Oh, did I mention two of my kids have December birthdays? I'd like to make them each one thing for their birthday too - Did I bite off more than I can chew? We shall see!!

Wordless Wednesday

Too cute - but not going to put it on my Christmas card. I'll post it here instead!! :-D

I'm not hiding - I'm just buried

With only 2 weeks left in the "You Can Make This DIY" Thrifty Under $50 Challenge - I'm working to get my projects finished. Unfortunately for me, my work space is in our un-heated basement ... brrr!

A peek at some in-progress gifts:

Two finished gifts:

(an apron for my 7 year old niece)

(a pocket handbag for my mother in law)

So, now you know were I've been! I'll be popping in and out for the next 2 weeks as I work to finish everything up! :-D

So, how is your Christmas gift buying going? Are you finished, half-way, or not even started?? Are you buried or just hiding? ;-D