Last Minute Wrappers

Thankfully I did my wrapping yesterday, but I did something a bit different this year and thought I’d share.

I’m not one for embellishments on the packages, but when I was wrapping some items in shirt boxes (can’t say what I was wrapping since a certain husband reads this…) I decided to take a cue from shops.

I wrapped items in tissue paper, then secured with some envelope seals that I had leftover from years past.

A small detail, but I think it’ll help build the suspense about what’s wrapped inside!

I hope you all have a very merry Christmas!

Snow Storm Update

As of 730am…

Weekend Plans: Snow Storm Edition

It began snowing here around 4pm. This picture is our deck at about 630pm. Here in Virginia, people freak out when it snows. Which is why when I went to the grocery store at 930am, it was packed as if it was Saturday and they were totally sold out of ground beef.

Anyhow, this snowstorm is putting a major crink in our party plans! We’ll be playing it by ear and I’ve got 10lbs of mashed potatoes in my fridge. So if we do get snowed in, we will have plenty of mashed potatoes to eat.

I’m mostly set for the party tomorrow, just a few more things:
-put all the unwrapped presents in a closet
-iron the tablecloths
-wipe down kitchen counters
-febreeze the house, light some candles
-remember to run the dishwasher before bed
- dust downstairs

Thankfully, Elf is on right now so that will help motivate me to get everything done so I can just veg!

Happy weekend, everybody!

Whirlwind Week

Phew! This week has really been something else.

I’ve tried weekly cleaning schedules before but have never stuck with them. But due to my hangover last Saturday and my inability to clean the house all at once, I’ve been forced to clean bit by bit all week.

And you know what, it’s not half bad.

Most of the tasks have taken no more than 30 minutes a day. The worse was probably cleaning the bathrooms, but I’m not a big fan of that regardless. And my hand smelled like Tilex for 24 hours after cleaning, so that was no fun.

I’m pretty amazed at how easy this “do a little cleaning each day” thing is. I really hope I can keep it up after the holidays, but we’ll see.

But now the house is mostly clean and we got the tables all situated for the party on Saturday. Tonight I’ll be vacuuming downstairs, windexing anything in the house that needs it, and wrapping presents. And watching the Colts game. Tomorrow I’ll be grocery shopping for the party, making 25lbs of mashed potatoes, and doing any other prep work that I can.

Also, today is my last day of work for the year! I’m so excited for vacation and I’m looking forward to getting lots of things done. Like sleeping. Eating cookies and Chex Mix. It should be a good time.

But I promise that I’ll have pictures of the house up soon- especially since it’s all clean now!

Hope y’all are having a great week!

Weekend Recap

Let’s just say I did not have the weekend that I planned on Friday afternoon.

Friday

• I’m taking this afternoon off (woohoo!)
• Getting a haircut
• Taking the dog on a long walk because tonight is
• Our company Christmas Party! We’re staying at a hotel so we don’t have to worry about driving, so Zeus needs an extra-long walk since he’ll be in the house all night.

Saturday

• Overcome hangover
• Deep clean of house – this way I can just keep it clean and touch up during the week, since we all know I fail at cleaning during the week.
• Grocery shopping
• Hopefully a run to the mall on the other side of town to finish up my Christmas shopping
• Finalize headcount for the party
• Buy any remaining supplies – mainly tablecloths

Sunday

• Baking with my sister – I think we’re doing Cheese Straws and Pecan Sandies.
• I’m also going to try to make some Chex Mix at some point
• Work on some Christmas gifts- hopefully I managed to buy my supplies on Saturday

My Saturday hangover was far worse than I dreamed and I was down for the count the entire day. Thankfully I was functional on Sunday, so I did my grocery shopping super early. My sister and I made two batches of Pecan Sandies. We didn’t attempt the Cheese Straws, and that was a good idea. After she left, I did make some Sugar Cookies to appease my husband. Thank you, Betty Crocker. I also made a double batch of Chex Mix. I’m hoping that some will last until the party on Saturday. But that might be tough, given my undying love of homemade Chex Mix.

Since I didn’t do anything on Saturday, including cleaning my house, I made a list of tasks for each day this week in prep for the party. Sunday was laundry and picking up the downstairs- putting items in their place and general de-cluttering. I think today I have to tackle my arch-nemesis, the Bathrooms.

Now that my house is semi-put together, I’m also hoping to post tonight my Christmas decorations for Kim’s Dare to DIY party.

Phew! I hope y’all had a more productive weekend than I did!

Making My List…

… and checking it twice! I’ve got a LOT planned for this weekend! It’s the last weekend before my family’s Christmas party on the 19th, so I’m in full out planning mode.

Here’s what I’m hoping my weekend shapes up to be:

Friday

• I’m taking this afternoon off (woohoo!)
• Getting a haircut
• Taking the dog on a long walk because tonight is
• Our company Christmas Party! We’re staying at a hotel so we don’t have to worry about driving, so Zeus needs an extra-long walk since he’ll be in the house all night.

Saturday

• Overcome hangover
• Deep clean of house – this way I can just keep it clean and touch up during the week, since we all know I fail at cleaning during the week.
• Grocery shopping
• Hopefully a run to the mall on the other side of town to finish up my Christmas shopping
• Finalize headcount for the party
• Buy any remaining supplies – mainly tablecloths

Sunday

• Baking with my sister – I think we’re doing Cheese Straws and Pecan Sandies.
• I’m also going to try to make some Chex Mix at some point
• Work on some Christmas gifts- hopefully I managed to buy my supplies on Saturday

This should set me up for a pretty easy week in terms of party planning. The big question mark we have  is seating. I think we’ll have 25 people total, and we just do not have that many chairs! We’re planning on using our deck chairs– should be interesting!

Hope y’all have a great weekend!

One of Those days…

I’m pretty sure my outfit doesn’t match today. From afar, I think I’m okay though, so it’s unlikely that anybody will notice. I’m wearing a hot pink vneck sweater, khakis, and black shoes. The khakis were likely not the best pant choice. But I really messed up on my socks.

I’m wearing black and red socks.

Let’s just hope nobody is looking at my feet today.

Devil Dog

Don’t let his cuteness fool you. This is one devilish dog.

Zeus decided to eat some carpet fibers off of the doormat at the back door last night. This is not a huge deal as this doormat was in pretty bad shape. But apparently Ikea doormats are not enough to squash the hunger within.

Zeus ate some carpet fibers from our Pottery Barn Bridget rug in our family room.
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Yes. That. Just. Happened.(last night).

He’s in the dog house- quite literally. Zeus hasn’t been crated since Matt first got him back in summer of ‘04. But now we’re sending the Z Man behind bars. I bough a crate for him at lunch today and we will be crating him while we’re away at work and at night (since most of his mischievous ways occur over night).

We know that part of the problem is that he doesn’t get a walk every day like he needs, so we’re going try to to start doing that. Hopefully it will help, but until we can trust him to not destroy rugs, it’s the big crate for Mr. Zeus.

Christmas 2008 Recap

Did you all check out the awesome ideas at Kim’s DIY Blog Party? I got some ideas for sure and also realized how retarded I am for not realizing that painting foam forms before covering them with stuff was the smart thing to do. I have 2 more foam forms that I plan on using this holiday season and now they’re due for a coat of paint before I start hot gluing.

So next week at the blog party is all about Christmas decorations, so I’m going to keep those from you until Monday. But I wanted to recap what we did last year for our Christmas decorations.

The outside of our house:

(This is largely the same this year with a small handful of additions. Also, I got a timer for the outside lights so they’ll automagically turn on and off. No more stepping outside at 10:30 in my PJs to unplug everything. Score!)

Our tree, complete with cat:

The mantle:

We still need a stocking for Savannah, but Target only has lame little stockings this year. I might end up getting a plain red stocking from Michael’s.

I think I need to move some of decorations around into some of the other rooms in the house so they can get a good dose of holiday cheer. I kinda hate to move stuff into rooms we hardly use, so I might just move stuff right before our party on the 19th.

What can I say, I like to keep the decorations where I can see them the most– in the family room!

Dare to DIY- Week 4

I’m back for Week 4 of Kim’s Dare to DIY. This week, we’re daring to give homemade gifts.

This isn’t my first time around the homemade gifts block. Last year I made a clutch for my cousin for our secret-Santa exchange.

I can’t remember where I got the pattern, I *think* it’s from Amy Butler’s In Stitches. Or it could be from Amy Karol’s Bend the Rules Sewing. One of the two. I have another homemade gift on tap for this year’s secret-Santa exchange, but haven’t actually made it yet.

But I also made a gift for myself this weekend. An ornament wreath.

It’s a foam wreath form wrapped with some holiday ribbon:

Then plastic ornaments hot glued on:

Can you believe I didn’t have a hot glue gun before this weekend? I don’t know how I lived without! Anyhow, an ornament wreath would be a great gift for a host/hostess, neighbor, or family member.

Visit Kim at NewlyWoodwards to check out the other great gift ideas!