Santa Baby

Couldn't wait till the 25th to show the cutest little Santa ever.

Unisex

If you have never seen my girls bathroom, this is what it looked like before and as much as I L O V E D it, after having Levi, I knew I couldn't do that to him...I didn't want him to hate me forever.

And here's the after!!! Love love love how it turned out!

Lost Socks

We have A.LOT. of lost socks in this house...pretty sure I need to take apart the washer and dryer because they are somewhere in the mechanical part of those machines...or need to pick apart the girls room piece by piece....it's crazy. Anyway, found a DIY project for a lost sock board on Pinterest the other day so I tweaked it and came up with this. Love it and now I have a whole drawer back! Supplies and all came to a grand total of $5.

The 4th and Final Tree

***Late addition: My mother in law asked me what Levi thought about the tree and I realized that I didn't write anything about that in this post and I wanted to share. Every single night, when it's time for him to go to bed, we turn off all the lights, turn on the tree and get his blankie and rock in the rocking chair while singing Jesus Loves Me, together. After that we just rock for a few minutes and every 20 seconds or so, he pops his head up, turns toward the tree and says "Tee!" He absolutely loves that tree. Then I go lay him in his crib and tell him to tell the tree night night. He says it and then I give him kisses and turn off his tree and usually he says bye bye or night night again to the tree. It is so precious and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to take that tree down after Christmas!
Levi received his very own tree this year too. One of the ladies from church was getting rid of a small prelit tree a few years ago so we stowed it away and finally I got my act together this year to give Levi his own tree. I'm not totally sure why I chose lions for his tree other than the fact that we went to Kohls right after Christmas last year and they had some circus themed ornaments on major discount and I loved the lions and the face that his name and lion both start with an "L." Yes, I know that's a reach for having a reason to do something. Had I thought it out better, I might have done alligators since his first birthday was all about alligators, but I do L O V E how this tree has come together. It has made me have to pull out some mad crafting skills since lions are VERY hard to come by in ornament form. Without further adieu, I present Levi's tree.....

Very proud of the tree skirt. Got online and found an extremely simple (and free!) pattern for making this tree skirt and already had all the different colors of felt on hand. Took about 25 minutes from start to finish including cutting out 18 triangle type shapes. I was very happy with how it came together and I think it is just right on the tree. The tree topper is a tiny strip of "minky" fabric I had left over after making a baby blanket for my sister in law who's having a baby in February.

Made this and loved doing it. A pretty easy craft and VERY cheap to make!
Made this one also and was so excited with how it turned out...see it was worth hoarding all those tiny scraps left over from when I do scrapbook pages!

This is one of the ones I found on sale last year at Kohl's that started the whole thing.

Also from Kohl's

Target this year! Was VERY surprised to see it since lions are kind of a random ornament!

Also Target this year and it's SO cute!

Took a silver ornament frame from Hob Lob and spray painted it gold and took a picture of Levi earlier this year wearing his lion PJ's and put them together!

My mom knew I was doing a lion tree for Levi so while we were down for Thanksgiving, she gave me a pair of these cute little guys that she had croched. I was thrilled and they look so cute on the tree!

Found this guy online a few months ago and loved him. He's not an ornament, but he stands guard at the base of the tree and he's as cute as can be!

50 cent blank ceramic ornament at Hob Lob that I painted from a piece of artwork I found on the internet that I loved.

Tree 3 of 4

The frog tree...it was only a matter of time! We got the girls a tree last year and it really had no theme to it. It was just cute ornaments they had received in the last few years. Then I remembered that I had quite a few frog ornaments from over the years that I wasn't really using on my big tree and bam! a theme for their tree was born. It was kind of a duh moment for me. So we set it up this year and I went and bought a small green tree skirt from Target that is just right for their tree...and for the topper...a hand puppet wash rag that was given to Elle when she was a baby. Just right!

Probably my favorite ornament on that tree :)

Tree 2 of 4

So this is probably my favorite tree ever! About two years ago, a blog I follow, posted pictures from a party she'd gone to where the hostess had decorated her house pretty much like candy land during Christmas. You can see the posts here and here. I pretty much instantly fell in love and began plotting. I knew it was going to be years before I could pull off anything close to what she had, but I now had a goal in site. So, last year, my mom tied a few new ornaments on my presents that were things like ice cream cones and stuff like that. I'm not sure whether she did it on a whim or whether I had told her of my plans. Either was I was thrilled. So the day after Christmas I dragged Shawn to Walmart to get a white pre-lit tree to stow away until the day I had enough stuff to put on it. Then I started hunting everywhere for majorly discounted "candyish" ornaments and decor for the tree. Throughout the year, I'd pick up a small thing here and a little thing there that somehow was still out on the shelves with all the other left over Christmas decor that hadn't ever sold. So, I decided to pull out the tree this year and decorate with whatever I had, even if it looked measly. I was THRILLED to have PLENTY of stuff to decorate with! One of the best parts of the tree is the tree skirt...a literal skirt...well really a tutu. I had made a hot pink and red tutu when Elle had her Fancy Nancy 5th birthday party, wore it during her party and then put it in a closet where it has hung since then....until now. I saw it one night while brainstorming how to make a tree skirt on a budget for my candy tree and the light went on! I would just use the tutu as the tree skirt and it worked perfectly!!! I love how the entire thing has turned out and have found myself on many occasions, sitting in my beautiful $20 Goodwill seat admiring that tree.

Tree 1 of 4

As promised, I took pictures of my trees to post and brag about....that's right...brag! I L O V E my trees this year! So, first I'll show my traditional tree. This is the one that goes in the living room every year. Special things about it: the star is the star that was on my parents tree when I was little...I can't ever remember a different star than this. It's as old as me and still working! The tree skirt was my first sewing project ever and though it's not easy to see in this picture, it has A LOT of intricate details hand sewn on it. I am still VERY proud of that tree skirt and all the work that went into it! The ornaments--well almost every single one is a story or a memory. Most of them were given to me by my mom either from her tree or tied on top of a gift. She knows my taste quite well and picks really cute ornaments! One of my most special, though not the prettiest, is the star I made when I was taking pottery at UT Tyler and it was Shawn and my first married Christmas. It's a very simple ornament but it means a lot to me. Now, every year, the kids get an unpainted star and are allowed to paint anything they want on it. I write their name on the back and the date and then spray it with acrylic clear coat and put it on the tree...pretty sure we'll be doing this year's stars this weekend because they've been begging for about a week now!

Winter Formal

My crafty friend who helped me make the tie shirt that I posted on facebook a while back, also sent me a link to make a Tuxedo T-shirt and I immediately set about preparing to make it! We both made one and I love how it turned out. I love quirky things! We debuted them last night at church and they seemed to be a hit. I wore mine again today and had a 60ish year old man at the grocery store tell me "nice shirt!" as he breezed past me in the frozen food section. :)