Where the Wild Things Are

Looking for a Christmas mantle theme? Our house headed to the wild side and created a woodlands themed Christmas. As you can see the burlap was reused from the fall mantle decorations. I changed out the fabric ties, added some Black Friday finds (note: I've never shopped on Black Friday and especially not on the night of Thanksgiving, but sister in-law and me ventured out. It was intense!). We hope you and the wild ones at your house are into the Christmas spirit!

Camp Will

I along with the other guests not only survived our camping experience last night, we relished in it! Jen and Jason out did themselves yet again. Their backyard was transformed into a kid friendly campsite full of tents, hot dogs, and of course s'mores! Thanks for a delightful evening and that precious baby boy of yours. So can I cross camping off of my bucket list?

A Camping We Will Go

We're going camping this evening. To a camping theme birthday party that is! Did you think I meant real camping? Yeah right! I've never been. I like the idea of it, and that Jarrod has such fond memories of camping, but I just can't visual it. Me that is, camping. One day I'm going to muster up the courage, but until then I will go to camping inspired one year old birthday parties!

All out of gift ideas? Look around the house and see what is your favorite or your child's favorite things. That means someone else probably likes them too! Oh and I hate buying $4 ugly birthday cards. Easy way to personalize your gift, make your own tags!

Candy canes...not yet!

Here's a sneak peek into what Betsy and I've been up to. We made some burlap candy canes to hang on our front doors once the happy, happiest time of year rolls around. The go getter spirit that my dear friend Betsy embodies, lead her to go home and make seven of them! That's right, SEVEN. I think she's drinking the egg nog before Thanksgiving! I'll make sure to take a picture of the cute cane hanging on the front door.

In other news, Godzilla (doesn't he just look like a cute little/big monster there?) has started walking in the last few weeks. My back and knees thank the 30 pounder!


His daddy also insisted on trimming back his Miccosukee Land Co-op shag hair. Now he is just a neater version of his messy self!

Give Thanks Banner

A simple way to show your gratitude.

Start with a roll of packing paper or a brown paper grocery bag.



Cut rectangles, squares, triangles...really any shape you would like. I crumbled my rectangles to add a little texture to the banner. I also didn't cut out identical rectangles, but if you are a closet perfectionist, go right ahead!



Now start gluing on your letters. You could cut your letters out of fall inspired scrapbook paper, or use pre-cut letters. I happened to have multiple alphabets of letters due to a scrapbook store going out of business sale years ago. They have been collecting dust in a closet, and they were the inspiration for making a banner.



If you crumble your brown paper, you will find that the letters don't want to be glued down. So use a weight on each rectangle for a couple of minutes.





I've learned that it is virtually impossible to take nice pictures in our dining room, but here is the idea. The banner is MUCH cuter in person (if I do say so myself). Oh and those curtains were less than $14 a panel at Wal-mart. Yes, I have been to Wal-mart for all you naysayers!