Halloween Decor Season Begins

Honestly? THIS is about how much Halloween decorating I wanted to do this year. I’m feeling sort of overwhelmed this fall, and there are so many things that need to be done in the house, that over the top seasonal decorating seems like a luxury I don’t have time for. But I set a dangerous precedent with our Edgar Allen … Continue reading

Dino-Christmas! Make Ornaments from Plastic Animals

Last year, I spray painted a bunch of plastic dinosaurs to use for our Advent calendar. If there’s one thing that experience taught me, it’s that nothing screams “CHRISTMAS!!!!!” like glittery blue dinosaurs: So this year I knew the dinosaurs needed a place in the Christmas spotlight again, even though they were displaced from their Advent calendaring job by our … Continue reading

Hot Cocoa Station with Upcycled Vintage Santa Tray

Setting up our hot cocoa station has been the first activity on our Advent calendar two years in a row now (which means it won’t be much of a surprise if I do it again next year). The glass jars are Anchor Hocking from Target that I picked up last year. This year I made the (too big! oops!) tags … Continue reading

Sugar-Free Hot Cocoa Mix

Going into the weekend, I wasn’t sure I would be able to get a Dare to Give Handmade post up at all. Every year (you know, all three of them that I’ve been linking up with Dare to DIY), this is the hardest week for me. I guess maybe it says something about my character that I don’t have any … Continue reading

A Very Merry Christmas Home Tour

Whoo hoo! Christmas Tour post day is here! I love Christmas! And, because of this love of Christmas, I’m excited to be joining in on the A Very Merry Christmas Home Tour, hosted by Carrie at Lovely, Etc. More than 30 bloggers have participated, with tours posted throughout the week. If you’ve landed here from one of the other blogs … Continue reading

20 Gift Ideas for the Discerning Teen

    *post contains affiliate links I almost said Gift Ideas for the Difficult teen up there, but I decided that wasn’t really fair. It’s not Ari’s fault he has such good taste that he doesn’t like most things. Last year the only post like this I did was for older babies/young toddlers, but this year I decided to take … Continue reading

Dare to Entertain: This Year’s Woodland Animal Holiday Table

It’s Dare to Entertain week at the Dare to DIY link party, hosted this week by Michelle at Decor and the Dog! Today you get another post that’s mostly pictures and not nearly as many millions of words as I usually throw in, for three reasons: 1. We were really busy daring to entertain my in-laws all last week 2. … Continue reading

Cone Tree Advent Calendar

I don’t usually post on weekends, but I was determined to have this year’s Advent calendar post up before December 1. And it’s a really simple one, so if you just happen to reading this on November 30 and you also happen to be looking for an Advent calendar to make, you could easily knock this one out before tomorrow … Continue reading

Woodland Animals Banner: Dare to DIY

This week’s Dare to DIY theme is Be Thankful, and you know what I’m thankful for? Woodland animals. Because they are adorable. (Really, this week I’m thankful that we appear (knock wood) to be ALL DONE WITH DIAPERS around here. That’s right: my just turned 22 month old is a potty training prodigy. At least compared to his brothers. Nothing … Continue reading

Our 2014 Christmas Card

One afternoon last week, I looked out the window, saw that the light looked decent for picture taking, noted that it was nearly halfway through November, and ran upstairs to grab clean blue shirts for all the kids. Milo and Gus had a friend over, so we left the poor kid inside eating nachos while I herded everyone outside to … Continue reading