Let me introduce you to my ornaments...

If there's one thing you could say I'm obsessed with, it would be ornaments! Goodness gracious, I love them so!!! Before I even moved away from home, I started collecting them b/c I didn't want my first Christmas tree to be a sad one. Doesn't everyone start ornament collecting in high school?

From the beginning, I've had a soft spot for the old fashioned blown glass ornaments. Over the years, I've collected a few hundred (!!!) of them and I love them all! I've even got some real collectibles in the mix: Christopher Radko, Gorham, Old World Christmas, and Waterford. They are some of my most prized possessions.

As we undecorated the tree last week, I took some snapshots of some of my favorites. This was the collection that was taken off the tree. There is more that didn't make the cut this year! Crazy, I know. I can't help myself.


We've got traditional Santas, Santas in bathtubs, Santas in hot air balloons, Santas with kitties, kitties with utensils.


I've got tin men, an octopus, tons of pigs, birds in cages, Alice, the White Rabbit, the Queen of Hearts, Raggedy Ann and Andy, as well as some vintage family ornaments. The china doll was given to me by the family of my first best friend.

I am currently obsessing over vintage flocked Santas like the ones on the little ladder there. I am waiting for some that I've purchased to arrive from England any day! So excited!


There are angels in every size and shape, snowmen of all sorts, and momentos from our honeymoon. The gold dipped aspen leaf is one of my favorites! I also LOVE my vintage turquoise balls. You can't buy that kind of patina brand new!


Scott's grandma gave me this one soon after we got married. I think it's my absolute fave! It's a simple silk ball turned Santa flying through the air w/ dangling hearts.


Here's our tree topper. It's a silver star that is the same pattern as our sterling silver flatware. Literally. Colonial something-or-other, I think. You know, you get bonus points for coordinating with your silverware during the holidays!


Many of you know I've purchased a white tree for next year and I've found the cutest hot pink feathered vintage angel for the topper! I can hardly stand it!! When it gets here, I'll be sure to show it off. :)

After Christmas, the girls and I hit up the clearance sales and stocked up on some new stuff for next year. I was so excited to find these boxes of Radko Shiny Brites (reproductions of the vintage originals) at the hardware store of all places! I'm in love with the mushrooms and the little squirrel, which I found online at Crate & Barrel (after ogling the ones a flickr contact had!)


Of course, the girls got some just for them and their special trees. I'm hoping to find some cute pink tinsel trees next year to go in their bedrooms.


There you have it! I truly believe your tree/ornaments say a lot about your personality. I guess mine say I'm a crazy, eclectic mess! haha! But I wouldn't have it any other way!

Speaking of ornaments, I made up these cute little felt camera ornaments for some of my photog friends this Christmas. I have a few available in my etsy shop too!


You can never have too many!

Christmas: part 2

Obviously, I'm a little behind on blogging, so hang in there with me!

Originally, our plan was to visit with my husband's family on Christmas eve, go to church, and open presents with all of them. Because of the blizzard that blew through, we weren't able to go until the following Sunday. We went to a service at the family's German Lutheran church and then had a nice lunch with Scott's step-dad's mom and family. :)

Sarah and Phoebe both wore the snowman skirts I made for them, but Ellen insisted on wearing the monkey dress I made for her the night before (which she also insisted on sleeping in.) So much for matching! I'll try to get some better pics of them in their skirts soon.


Afterward, we headed back over to my in-laws' and proceeded to eat more good food and open more presents. Goofy grandpa put wrapping paper on his head and the kiddos found all the candy and goodies that Santa had left there for them.


Lots of grandmas, lots of goodies! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

We enjoyed a nice Christmas at home this year. We've been in the midst of a blizzard, so we couldn't leave the house even if we wanted to. We hung all the stockings and cozied up by the fire all day Christmas eve.



Here's Scott's stocking I made for him several years ago. It's Santa watching football on tv. Perfect, huh? :)


After the kiddos went to bed, Santa paid us a visit. Sarah asked for a sewing machine, Phoebe wanted a swimming baby and a Wonder Pets flyboat, and Ellen wanted a baby with a high chair. They made sure to leave out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.



In addition to their requested items, they got movies, barbies, and new stick ponies. They were all very excited that Santa had come!

During naptime today, Sarah got to try out her new sewing machine. She is doing great with it! Sews a straighter line than I do. I have a feeling we'll be upgrading her pretty quickly.


We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! It's still snowing and blowin' like crazy here as we wait on Christmas dinner to finish making itself. Merry Christmas!

christmas = cookies

Mmmmmm, one of my favorite parts of Christmas is the cookies! I try to keep things fairly simple, but we still make a variety of goodies.

I got pretty flustered with the kids "helping" me, so we nixed pics during a few of the cookie making sessions. I'm planning on some New Years cookies, so I'll be sure to get pics of us making those!

We started out with some of our staple cookies: molasses crinkles, peanut butter blossoms, sugar spritz cookies (cookie presses HATE me, btw), and oreo balls.





(I had a few "limp" kisses b/c I put my kisses on and then stick them back in the oven for a few minutes to get them to set into the cookies.)



Oreo balls are a fairly new item on our cookie list, but they are so easy and SO good! My husband LOVES them! You can also change them up by using mint or peanut butter oreos and white chocolate bark instead of regular chocolate.

You just crush up one package of oreos (we put them in ziplocs and hammer away, then pulse them in the food processor) and combine with one package of cream cheese, then shape into small balls. (I understand some people stick them in the fridge to harden them up a little at this point, but I just keep going.) You dip/roll your balls in one package of melted chocolate candy bark and place on wax paper to dry and harden. So good!

The girls and I also made sugar cookies and gingerbread people. We even tried out a new recipe for Linzor cookie bars w/ ground almonds and raspberry preserves. YUM!

For New Year's, I'm planning to try out a fancy orange/poppy seed sandwich cookie recipe and maybe some meringues. You can never have enough cookies, you know! Why stop at Christmas? :)

the halls are decked!

I feel sooo bad I haven't been blogging this holiday season! I have just been sooo busy and also a little frustrated that my house isn't further along than it is. Despite the mess and boxes, and things being half painted, we decorated just as we normally would. Our new house is a little different from our last house, so we've had to change things up some, but it's been fun. I'm looking forward to next year, when the house will be DONE and beautiful, and we'll have gorgeous handmade decorations for every nook and cranny!

Anyway, I thought I'd share some of our holiday decor. I will take "real" pics tonight, after I find all the pieces to my tripod. lol Our neighborhood also puts out candlelit luminarias on Christmas eve, which I'm very anxious to experience and photograph!

Here is our lovely tree! I promise, I'll get better pics of it tonight, after Santa drops off the presents! It is only about 6 ft tall, so I wasn't able to get *all* my ornaments on it. The other problem with real trees is that the branches don't hold as much. We've also had about half our lights go out on it, so it's a good thing I really pack them on there! I always do white lights and then one string of colored lights, just to keep it fun.


I let the girls have trees in their rooms, and let them decorate them themselves. I sent them to their rooms with a basket of ornaments and they did the rest themselves. I was so impressed with how they did! I think next year we might get some fun pink tinsel trees for them and make coordinating ornaments for their rooms. :)



In the kitchen, I strung snowflakes in the window and lined up our gingerbread houses over the sink. I am hoping to really elaborate on these ideas next year!

Of course, the stockings are hung by the fireplace, waiting for Santa to fill them. (No picture b/c Scott's is missing - it needs fixing and fast!) On the buffet, I have our little village set up. The kids have enjoyed playing with it, after I tell them repeatedly not to, and making a huge mess of the fake snow.


And on the outside of the house, we've hung wreaths on the upstairs windows and lights along the garage. This pic is from a couple weeks ago - we are expecting about 18 more inches of snow over Christmas! Our Christmas tree is in that big window, which is our formal living room.


I have to say, this year has been SOOOOO much better than last Christmas, when we were struggling through our first few months of an 10 month unemployment. I am so thankful that things are better this year and I am very much looking forward to next year. As I was preparing for this Christmas, I came up with tons of ideas for vintage and handmade decorations for next year! I am hoping to hit some after Christmas clearance sales to get supplies. Fun, fun!

Merry Christmas to you all! I am planning to post again with fancier pics! Gotta find the mount for my tripod first! lol :) xoxo

tree hunting

Every few years, we like to go out and get a real tree. This was one of those years!

I always have these grand delusions that it will be a wonderful memory-making experience for the kids, but they just fought over who was in the wagon and who was pulling the wagon the entire time. *sigh*


Despite the grumbling, we enjoyed ourselves and the gorgeous weather we were having (long gone now!) The tree farm we chose was a little different from most I've been to. They give you a long pole to measure with, and when you find your special tree, you turn the pole around so that the colored end is pointing up and a "spotter" will send "cutters" out to you and they do all the hard work for you! It actually was kinda nice. All the fun, none of the work. A hubby's dream!


We were a little late getting a tree, so they seemed sorta picked over, but we managed to find a pretty frasier fir that had a beautiful shape to it. By the time we decided on one, the leopard print princess was getting grumpy about the lack of hot chocolate.


While the "cutters" work on your tree and wrap it up for you, you can take a stroll through the enchanted forest where they have little signs and decorations up everywhere. Here were a few of my faves...(seriously, if you stumble upon the Santa sign, I need one!)



After walking in the forest, we had some cookies and hot chocolate while the fellas tied our tree to the car.


Tree hunting success!

homemade gifts: aprons

This year, my mom and I are giving the girls their very own aprons for Christmas. I was inspired to make the twins' aprons from vintage materials after finding a vintage embroidered dish towel with the letter "E" on it at a local antiques store. I knew right away that it would be adorable as an apron for Ellen.

None of these aprons are perfect, but I love all the charm they have because of the vintage fabrics and embellishments. I have been hanging onto some of these fabrics for almost 15 years! lol

Phoebe's apron is funky with a retro pear pocket.

Since I only used half of the dish towel for E's apron, I decided to make another apron to sell in my etsy shop. It was a good excuse for me to try out this ruffle technique before we attempt to ruffle some towels for the purple bathroom.

And while I was at it, I made another one of the pear aprons to sell. I know there's someone out there that will love these as much as I do!

I will also be restocking my shop with camera strap covers throughout the week. I'm having a sale, so they are only $8 right now! More on that later...

You can always get to my shop by clicking on the etsy widget on the right side of my blog.

"look at mommy and smile!!!!!"

Today was Christmas picture day and I think I said "look at mommy and smile" about 800 times. The kids only heard it about 3. Every year I get so flustered, I promise myself I'm not going to try it again for a whole 'nother year. I've learned over time not to expect much when trying to photograph all 3 together, but I *really* wanted a decent shot this year. Here's the best shot:

Not too shabby! I feel like my colors are a little wonky, but I'm working it out. The headbands are the ones I blogged about last post, and the background is wrapping paper taped to the garage door. I found some Christmas cards on clearance last year that have that same damask print, so everything will be perfectly matched. :)

Since I couldn't get the girls to look at me, I tried a different approach and told them to kiss Sissy and cuddle up to her. Here's how that translated...lol.

I was hoping it would get them all giggling so I could get some great smiles, but this is about as happy looking as they got.

To make it even more "fun" for mommy, there were dogs romping around across the street, so I had some serious competition for their attention. Phoebe thought her eyes needed to be closed to make "cheeeeese!!!" as cheesy as possible, and Ellen lost all control of her facial expressions. 98% of the pics looked like these:


I guarantee you I said "look at mommy and smile" before I snapped every one of these shots!

Here are some of the girls individually. They were just as difficult during these. lol



This afternoon, grandma and grandpa came to visit with cousin {R}, so I stuck her in a headband and took her picture too.


Now I just need to find the time to do the Christmas cards and I'm all set!