My first Crocheted Blanket

I crocheted my first blanket ever this past month. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I got the pattern out of a book at WalMart and went to work on it, hoping I could pull it off so I could give it to our nephew (well, technically he's just Cameron's nephew as it's Cameron's brother's kid...but you get the idea). I finished it and got it boxed up and sent off and then realized I never got a picture of it. Luckily Cameron's brother and his wife posted a picture that has the blanket in it that I'm borrowing. So down in the left corner, you can see the blanket. I'm excited to start another one sometime.

Decorating Gift Wrap

Cameron and I started a "tradition" last year of wrapping our presents in brown paper and decorating it ourselves. This year all my gifts to him were from each of Santa's reindeer. I wrapped some of his small little stocking stuffers just to have enough presents to be able to represent each reindeer, but it made it extra fun. I drew up Rudolph before I realized I had a pattern to go off of, so Rudolph doesn't look like the rest, but that's ok. I used Aunt Martha's Hot Iron Transfer: Reindeer Games as my model, using Crayola markers to freehand the reindeer on the paper. 

I had to clarify for Cameron, and I'm sure his brothers will respond the same...he is riding on the star/comet...because he's Comet. Boys never grow up, but that's one thing I love about them. 

Boot Christmas Stockings

I finished these this morning. Talk about last minute! I got the pattern and the fabric from Aunt Judy's Attic (Judy helped me pick some of the fabric when I was at a loss...I'd never done anything like this before). I love how they turned out. The pictures are a little fuzzyish...we were steaming our house (it helps warm it up fast) and the camera lens kept fogging up. The stockings are 2-sided, both have a Christmas tree, then one has a cardinal and one has a santa.  

Monogram Christmas Tree Ornaments

My mother, sisters and I started the tradition last year of doing a Christmas Tree Ornament exchange. It's fun to see what everyone does and to scheme up what you want to do. This year I decided to make monogram ornaments for each of us. I found the supplies at Hobby Lobby and went to work. Each is made from a cardboard letter (bought already cut in shape), scrapbooking paper, buttons, the star wire, and other little add-ons. Each one is slightly different from the other, but they all had the same basic idea.

Makeshift Christmas Tree Stand

Where we live you can go to the Forest Service office and pick up a free permit to go cut down a Pinon tree for Christmas. We were all over that for a few reasons:

1. The word "FREE!"

2. Real Christmas trees are just better.

3. We've never had a real Christmas tree since getting married.

4. It gave us the chance to have an adventure.

So we got our permit, Cameron's trusty hand saw, and we took off in our awesome Geo to find the perfect tree. The road was muddy and icy and full of people in trucks getting their tree, but we knew if we kept going further up the mountain we'd get out of the crowd and find a better tree anyway. It was fun to float right by all the guys in their big trucks...our Geo is a trooper. Anyway, we found the perfect tree (8'4"), cut it down and tied it to the top of our car. On the way home we got some awesome looks from dudes in their trucks...they were just jealous that our little car could do just as good as their big truck. ;) 

 On the way home we realized we had forgotten to get a Christmas tree stand and we weren't really able to go buy one that day (it was Sunday and we try not to buy things on Sundays, and the closest store was 1/2 an hour away and we didn't want to drive an hour round trip just for a tree stand anyway), so we decided to get creative and see what we could come up with at home. We tried a few things that didn't work, but then as I was standing on our porch I saw the wood planters (which nothing grew in...frustration in the spring, but perfect now when we need it to not have plants in it). I grabbed one wood pot, a No. 10 tin can (from canning food), a bunch of bricks from our fire ring, and a bowl of gravel from our driveway. I put the tin can in the wood put and filled the space between with bricks. We then put a brick in the tin can and put the tree in. It still was too wobbly, so while I held the tree straight, Cameron filled the tin can with gravel. Then we topped it all with more bricks to hide the can and the gravel. To put the last touch on it I tied a red ribbon around the pot. And Voila! We love how it looks!

Pig Kitchen Utensils

Okay, I didn't make these, but I was so excited to find an addition to my Pig Kitchen at Pretty Sweet Emporium. 

Aren't those awesome! 

Christmas Cards

Cameron and I wanted to send out Christmas cards this year, but when we went online to order them we found they were much more pricey than we really wanted to do, so we decided to make our own. I looked online for ideas on craft sites, card sites, and Pinterest and finally came across these cards:

Source: nicholeheady.typepad.com via Marquette on Pinterest

I thought they were adorable and decided to base my design of the card. I bought two $5 packs of scrapbook paper at WalMart (because that's what I could afford) and went to work. I already had the gold marker, the rafia, and the buttons to put everything together. With all supplies used (newly purchased or already in my possession), all in all I think that each card came out to $0.65 max (with the photo being $0.28 of it). That was a deal cheaper than what we were originally looking at.

Here's what I came up with (this was my preliminary...I forgot to take a picture of the really good finished product before I sealed them all up in addressed envelopes). 

I made 32 cards (until I ran out of green paper), and have most of those mailed off (still gathering the last few addresses), but there were more people I wanted to send them to, so I put together a digital copy of the card on GIMP (I love that program) that I can e-mail out. Christmas cars, done!

 The pictures we put on our cards were taken by Jacie Ames from Jacie Ames Photography. 

Hot Cocoa Stirring Spoons

Last night I decided to work off of one of my "Pinspirations" (an idea or inspiration from a pin on Pinterest) and I made Hot Cocoa Stirring Spoons. They were really fun and easy to make! Just get some almond bark or candy coating, melt it, pour it in the spoon and decorate! To decorate the chocolate I used sprinkles, sugar pearls, peanut butter chips, caramel bits and a smashed candy cane. Here's my picture, followed by the one I worked off of on Pinterest:

You can find the original idea at http://pizzazzerie.com/diy/diy-chocolate-stirring-spoons/

Source: pizzazzerie.com via Marquette on Pinterest