Christmas Scrabble

So this year John asked if we could decorate the large white entrance hallway this year for Christmas. Shocked I came up with a few ideas and he had the final vote of doing a Christmas Scrabble idea. I didn't see anything like it, but thought that having red tiles and white letters would be fun. I started with a bunch of Christmas words and decided to focus them all on Christ. It took several attempts but I found some letter layout that I liked. So off to work.

My amazing friend Wendy let me borrow her Cricket and I cut out letters and the numbers in vinyl. 

Saturday when we were all sick and exhausted we went to Home Depot and cut the boards.

Today when John had to work all day, I thought it would be a good time to finish.

Spray painting in the freezing cold.

Sticking the lettering on as I watched The Holiday which is my favorite holiday romance. 

Putting it on the wall.

Discovering I forgot to do a "T" and and 1 for the "S" because I made a 4 on an extra "H" I did.

Either way, it is almost done and I love how it turned out! Hopefully Carter doesn't pull down the "Y" and the "H".

Christmas Pillows

Christmas time is around the corner, can you believe it? 

Time just keeps spinning, and slowing when Carter has a bad day,

We don't have very many Christmas decorations so I thought an easy way to spruce up the living room for the holiday's was pillow covers. 

My pillow cover experience was pretty much zippo, but it looked fairly simple. All I had to do was fold fabric in half, sew up two sides and make the fourth side an envelope pocket.

Yesterday my aunt came over because she was kind enough to let me use her machine. When she got here she asked about pipping and I was like "Oh that would be cute.". Long story short, my pillows turned from an hour job to a six hour job. Although it was a lot of work. I love the turn out! I can't wait to put them on my pillows after Thanksgiving.

Thanks great aunt Shannon ;) your the best!

Carter helping to clean up for the impending mess. I don't know what I was thinking.

The fabric I choose, cute huh?

Putting the cording I got into the fabric and Shannon on the machine!

Shannon working on the back of one.

The front of the final product.

The back of the final.

Love them!

Christmas Traditions

I know it is a little early for Christmas, but the malls already are having breakfast with Santa and I'm not singing Christmas songs yet so I think it is okay.

This year my family is coming for Christmas and John's family lives here so it will be nearly perfect. If only my sister could take a break from her mission. One night I even dreamt that she could spend the day with us and did missionary work at night, funny huh? Any way's now that we have Carter we wanted to start some traditions of our own while incorporating some of our family's.

My favorite's are making Christmas cookies, nut roll Christmas morning, and decorating the Christmas tree.

So what are some of your family's Christmas traditions? Maybe we'll steal some of those.

Mummified!

Since I haven't blogged for a while I thought I would amaze you all with my DIY craft, yes I crafted. It is hard for me to believe too, but I loved it! Having the time to do this type of stuff is one of the great parts of being a stay home mom, and thank for my amazing husband John for financing! :)

With Halloween coming, and having never created a wreath, it was destiny for the two to come together. I called up my friend Vanessa since she seemed to me to be the wreath expert, and we set out to find one to do. I looked on Pinterest and finally decided that this would be my inspiration.

Cute huh? I didn't want anything too spooky, but I didn't want something that just had bows and ribbons. So after a trip to Hobby Lobby and Joann's we had all of our equipment and set to it! 

We both liked the oval so we got that instead of the circle, hoping for the best.

For the top tie and the bow tie we got these two fabrics which Vanessa found, and I thought was perfect.

I thought it would take me a couple times to wrap the wreath in the mesh stuff, but I liked my first go so I stuck with it. Vanessa did hers twice, sometimes it's nice not being a perfectionist.

Thank goodness for Vanessa who did my bow for me, I just didn't have the skills :)

Add some eyes, spooky spiders, glue everything down and we wallah!

I love it don't you? Vanessa and I decided it was even better than our inspiration! I have Halloween lights for around the door which will make it look even better!

I hope all the trick or treaters love thee mummy looking at them when they come!

I think Carter approves! 

Vanessa, me and Carter, don't you love how Carter smiled too? Well kind of...

I'm not sure what my next project will be, but hopefully it turns out just as cute! Love it! Thanks Vanessa!

Oooohhh Awww Doors!

Our little Carter has a recent fascination with doors. In case you didn't know, there are several things to do with a door. Carter will demonstrate for you.

 

close a door...

 

...open a door...

 

...close a door..

...smile while using a door...

...smash fingers in a door...

...open a door..

...close a door...

...crawl around to the other side and open a door...

...Carter forgot what to do for a moment...

...why open of course!

I love that his favorite things are climbing the stairs, playing with doors, splashing in water, and eating fruit!

Purse Purge

On Tuesday afternoon my family and I went to Welfare Square to go on a tour. While all the service does for by church, and their delicious chocolate milk was impressive, once we got back to our car I discovered that my purse was gone. We checked inside, but I knew it had been stolen. As we drove home I started to think about all of the things that were in my purse and my wallet.

Now, we have it almost all sorted out, but it made me realize how dependent we all are on such little cards and phones. I couldn't drive, fill up my car, go grocery shopping, let's face it, buy anything, contact anyone (included John to let him know what happened) and so forth. It was a surreal feeling to be so cut off from everything. Crazy how we have become so accustomed to things that didn't even exist twenty years ago. Thank goodness my family was there to drive me around and watch Carter while I called everyone to cancel cards, file police report and on and on and on.

The good news, I got to go purse shopping with my mom. We literally spent over an hour and a half at one store looking at all the wallets and purses to find the perfect match. Also, my purse only has a wallet with a temporary debit card, a paper driver's license, and that is it. Consider it a purse cleansing. Although, I wouldn't recommend this type of purge to anyone.

Summer Time

Why do I feel like summer is already over? I simply can't go back to that horrible wintery weather yet. These are some of the things I've been enjoying this summer so far.

Splash Pads, or anything with water really

Gardening, even though I've only gotten a few strawberries :(

                                    

Warm sunshine!!

Watching bikers, walkers, and roller blade's on the trail behind our house.

                                      

Watching my little guy grow up!

The best part has been spending time with family and seeing friends. 

So far the worst part has been all the weeding I've done. This place was full of weeds!!! Sadly, so much more to do!

 Still at least another month of summer. Which means, seeing my family, a wedding, a week in park city with the Bainbridge family, and a week with the newlyweds! So many things to still look forward to!