Holiday Rewind

What a crazy unexpected Christmas this was.

As I mentioned, we were planning on heading up to the Great White North but decided to stay put because of snow....

so we had Skype-mas with my parents and sister
no, they are not in the witness protection program but since I've never discussed with them putting their mug up on the world wide interwebs... meet my family, the blurs.

so we visited some family only an hour or so away
and then we ended up getting snow anyways...
Charlie loved it by the way. He ran so much with his dog-cousins that he slept for 2 days straight afterward.We are all very big dorks. I told the family that this should be our Christmas card. Classic - 6 cell phones and a bottle of gin. Our 3 new ipads are not pictured.
Eric and his brother rocked out on their paper guitars.
and then we celebrated this handsome guy's 28th birthday on the 27th.

PHEW... I am tired.

Merry Merry Christmas!

We woke up to 3 inches this morning. It's the first white Christmas since 1947!

cracked crack

Remember the one about the Peppermint Crack?

Here is what it looks like cracked.
I packaged it all up for our co-workers, mailman and sweet friends.
and batch #2, to be made on Christmas Eve will be enjoyed by friends on Christmas Day.
This crack is so not whack.

Skype-Mas

I was walking through our living room aka the "front room", not to be confused with the "den" where we live... (confused yet?), and I just had to stop and pause to look at our Christmas tree.
See, we are not traveling to visit my side of the family in the Great White North as anticipated (thankyouverymuch Mr. Blizzard) so I'm a little nostalgic today. That little pause-and-admire the tree pulled at my heart-strings even more. I do wish I could open presents with my sister and parents on Christmas Eve. Instead we are going to have a Skype-mas on Christmas Eve - we'll open each others presents virtually.

Our little mantle is decked out too.
Hopefully Santa won't be looking for us in the Great White North...

I'm on top!

Make sure you don't have to pee before watching this.



New York's hottest holiday club is Blitzen.

Peppermint Crack

My inner fat kid cries out for this stuff at Christmas. Its like crack, dark and white chocolate crack. Crushed candy cane crack.
This is currently in my fridge. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it's not for me.

You can make some of this crack too.

one down.

lots to go.

it's the 13th of what?

Someone forgot to tell me that Christmas is, uh, in 12 days.
So much to do, I haven't even finished decorating or even starting wrapping. Still need to plan for family visits, put away the Halloween decorations and finish up a couple of custom crafty orders.

I am behind the 8 ball..er...ornament.

Holiday Giving: MSL Family Tree

Tis the season for giving! This Christmas I'm gifting a very memorable gift to our families - a thoughtful, handmade Family Tree.

(MOM & DAD IF YOU ARE READING THIS - LOOK AWAY NOW!)

The idea comes from Martha Stewart (who else?). This is the inspiration photo - Martha even shares the free printable graphic here. You can print the artwork and the blank tags to hand write the names of family members.
I took the graphics (PDF on zip drive) to my local FedEx office and had them print it out poster size on roll paper - the stuff they use to print blue prints. This option is for B&W printing only but that's perfect for this project because the graphic itself is a beautiful soft grey.

So once you get the big graphic printed on roll paper and the tags printed on card stock, bring everything home and get to work.
Hop on ancestry.com and start researching (they have a two week free trial going on right now - plenty of time to compile your research). Once you have your family tree down you can fill in the tags. Assuming you start with your parents, the inspiration photo (at the top) goes back to great-great grandparents but, with a little rearranging you really could go back further.
I wrote all the family names with a black fountain pen in print but here's where you can get creative - go modern with block letters or add some color by using red or green ink. This is my favorite tag - can you believe I have a relative named Tirzah?
Next, cut out your cards with an x-acto knife or scissors (if you're like me) and outline the cards with gold. You can use a gold (or silver) sharpie or run it over a gold metallic ink pad.
Then after the pieces have thoroughly dried, start laying everything out. Use memory mount or other archival (non wrinkling glue) to attach the cards in the place you want them. I used the inspiration photo from the magazine to layout the cards in a pleasing place - and I used a yard stick to line everything up.
Here is the finished result: (minus the top couple of rows of grandparents)
I plan on using the Ribba frame from Ikea in black.

This is a really rewarding project and a perfect gift for the upcoming holidays. From start to finish (excluding the ancestry research time) took about an hour and should cost less than $50. Let me know if you make one!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Best part about Black Friday (other than our new camera!) is decorating!! Does everyone else decorate on Friday after Thanksgiving and take down New Year's Eve or around there (but never carry it into the new year)??
** please excuse the messy living room - Eric and I are halfway through our operation "Organize & Purge 2010". More on that later...