Friday, December 28, 2012

Holiday Party

Since I'm room mom this year, I am in charge of the class parties.

I decided on a reindeer party this year.  With N's recent obsession with reindeer it was only appropriate.

I searched Pinterest of course and came up with some really simple ideas.

First, the Pin the Nose on Rudolph game.

I saw a very simple one on Pinterest and decided to make it better.  I tried the Silhouette store first but they were having issues (LOTS of issues) so I turned to Kerri Bradford.  She had a great set for $10.

I loaded into the Silhouette software and did the trace and cut thing to get this.  That lovely woodgrain is from the Studio Calico holiday line.  I love it so much I bought 12 sheets of it.  After cutting it out, I took the necessary pieces for the game and adhered them to a white piece of paper.  Then I took that to work, scanned it in high res and printed it out at 300%.  Rudolphs head was now 24 inches long.  I love working where I do because I have so many great resources available.

 After cutting him out, he looks like this.  I used the fabulous chevron ribbon from the store and a jingle bell we found in our decorations.  I glued the magnetic strips to the back of his 'beak' area.

 I found these large pom pom's at Michaels and adhered magnetic strips to the back.  These will now 'stick' to the beak area.

 You can see the before and after size.

I found a 18x28 foam core board at work and covered it with the wrapping paper.  Glued Rudolph to that and the game was ready.  I was so busy setting up today that I forgot to get a picture of the finished product WITH the noses.  Trust me, it looked awesome. 
 As for the rest of the party, it was a hit!  Reindeer everything.  Plates, cups, water bottles, sandwiches......
 See?  CUTE!


 I even found these blinking noses at Michaels on clearance.  Each kid got one.
 And one for the school director.  She said I was the only parent she would do this for.  :0
 One of the other moms makes natural cookies.  She has recipes for gluten free and sugar free cookies.  She also makes her own 'sugar' sprinkles.  She grinds up dried fruit really fine.  The kids think its sugar sprinkles but its really ground up strawberries, blueberries, mango etc.  We don't feel as guilty letting the kids go to town on something like this and adding a few m&m's when the rest of it isn't so bad.  Plus the kids love decorating their own cookies.  She made girl cookies for the girls and boy cookies for the boys.
 I just love this face!!!
Hope you get some ideas out of this for your next party!

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Satisfying

That is how that little blogging break felt.  I love sharing and documenting here but I needed the break. I needed to know that there was one less thing that needed my attention for just a bit.  I needed to enjoy December before it passed me by.

And I did.  I enjoyed planning for the holidays and spending time with the men in my life.  My camera card is almost FULL with the pictures I've taken this month.  Thats awesome but I have a lot of sorting to do.

There has been minimal crafting but thats about to change.  I've made a resolution for 2013 already.  I realize now that I do not and will not have the time or energy to scrapbook as much as I have in the past.  I started to feel the pressure to use everything I bought and then it ends up sitting.  I have so much stuff.  Its ridiculous how much I have and that prompted a small purge of the room.  Mostly paper and a few embellishments.  I'll be listing flat rate boxes again for anyone interested.  I will also be participating in Project Life again this year.  I did 19 weeks last year before I bowed out gracefully because it was too much work.

Not this year.  I'm renewed and I have a new plan.  I'm also not going to try and 'get caught up' with older pictures.  I've got baby pictures of N that I feel I will never get around to scrapping.  I told my husband the only thing I wanted for Christmas was:



They were under the tree for me this Christmas and I felt a HUGE weight lifted off my shoulders.  Photos of  my son make up 80% of the photos I've taken since 2007.  I added in some of the WRMK albums from Michaels to document.  I'm not worried about getting this done as I've been good about keeping the photos in folders by year, month and event.  Most of them have been printed out so now its just a matter of adding them to the divided pages.  Its one of those projects that I can take anywhere and work on.  No packing up my entire room to work on something.

It also seems like I'll be spending more time at the rink in 2013 and this will be perfect for those days.  Give me something to do other than be 'that' Hockey Mom.  ;)

My other resolution for 2013 is to document more here.  

I've got plans for posts through New Years so check back.  I've got a lot more to share!



Thursday, December 13, 2012

A few more elf

shenanigans.



We've been trying to enjoy the little family time we have together these days.  The other night we went out looking at Christmas lights.  There is a local house that goes all out.  The outside is completely covered in lights and the inside is a maze of tiny villages.

 This house has the lights timed to a radio station.  Its pretty cool.
 Inside the big house with villages.
 Their upside down tree.
 The Disneyland village.

 All of the rippled stuff is styrofoam.  She carves it  to look like snow and then sprays it with glitter.  It looks really cool in person.

 The Whoville/Grinch village.
 Of course, he was fascinated by the train in this village.
A parting shot of the Grinch.
 Junior tried out for the Junior Kings last week.  He's the tiny guy in the white jersey.  He did really well and will be part of the program starting in January.  VERY excited about this.
 Rascal's holiday attire.
 Checking to see if he's right or left handed.  Daddy wants to get him some golf clubs for Christmas.
He rode his bike in the local holiday parade with the school.  He was pretty excited to decorate his bike and ride it through town.

Not much crafting going on this month.  Between work and the holidays, I've lost all desire to touch anything in my craft room.  I am keeping up with picture printing for the December Daily.  I've got a few days finished that I need to share.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Crazy Elf

I'm not sure who gets in more trouble in this house - Ziggy or Nick.

 See that face?  He's plotting.
 We found him playing daddy's guitar one morning.  Thats a big no-no in this house.
 On December 1st, he brought us an Advent Calendar.
 He even ate the chocolate out of Day 1!
 He made popcorn and watched the movie Elf.
 Snuck into Nicks underwear drawer and hung them from the sock hooks over the fireplace.
 Made a candy cane rope and rappelled down the tree.

 All of Ziggys adventures are being recorded and will be part of the December Daily book.  It will mostly be Ziggy's adventure with a little bit of our family traditions mixed in as the month goes.
 Its a Simple Stories Sn@p album.  I'm using the Studio Calico DD kit as well as bits and pieces I've pulled from all over.  You can see most of them in this post.
I love that year flair on the cover.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

He's back!

*** Don't forget to leave a comment on the previous post for a chance to win one of three prizes.***

Ziggy.  Our Elf, is back.

 He showed up the day after Thanksgiving with a new train.  The Thomas Holiday train.  Nick is convinced Santa and Ziggy listen because he has been asking for this train ALL year.
 Saturday, Ziggy brought back two new ornaments for the tree.  A Thomas one and a Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates.
Sadly, someone was so excited he touched Ziggy.  Our poor Elf lost his magic and it took him a couple of days to recover but he's back to his old elf self.

I snuck in a little scrapbooking over the busy holiday weekend.

But mostly we were decorating.