Saturday, December 24, 2011

Have Yourselves

a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!!!









{just a few pictures taken from my friends home}

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For Your Enjoyment

just a little holly jolly reality to keep it real...
the night {and day} before masyn's cookie party


holy disaster!!!

and with not a second too spare...

it all got cleaned up.
just in time for the children to arrive and make it a mess again :)
{clean, party, clean, party, clean...}

gotta LOVE the holidays!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE, EVERYONE!!!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Just in Time...

i have a couple cute ideas, just in time for your holiday entertaining!

i got this idea from my VERY talented friend carrie. {we all WiSH she blogged!}
{liquid snowflakes} were a BiG hit with the kids! Reaaalllly CoLD water!

and a creative way to hold your plastics...


yummy cupcake toppers...


YuMMy starbucks hot cocoa that i found at vons. i bought peppermint and salted nut caramel {my niece's favorite!} stuffed into an old teapot and held by something from the yard...


and i don't have a picture, but family fun has a DELICIOUS recipe for hot caramel apple cider!
it's to die for and i don't even like apple cider!
{just a note...i did not make the "caramel" for the cider, i took a note from carrie and used caramel syrup instead. top it with whip cream and YuM!}

i found these candy cane garlands at tj maxx for $8. super cute!

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My Holiday Home...

getting back to {decking the HaLLs}
here's some shots of the dining room




















i've done some more decorating in the kitchen and have some cute ideas for your holiday entertaining that i'll share. are we ever really done decorating?

hope you all are enjoying the merriest of a merry Christmas.
YikES...Santa comes tomorrow!!!


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Gingerbread House Cookie Kit

this is the CuTEsT thing EVER!
a friend of mine calls me last week and say's "you gotta go to eighteen 25 and see the cutest thing. you should do it for masyn's cookie party!" ok. so she knew i was probably the only crazy one who would attempt it days before the party and she was right.
but seriously! how cute are these!!!
they are sugar cookie houses iced in brown and decorated like gingerbread houses! so stinkin cute AnD you can download the cute card here at bee in our bonnet.


so...shawn and i set to work to make enough for the masyn & nolan's party guests.

{these are pics of our version, you can go over to the other sites to see the original}



and yes, i did say shawn and i. we had a baking date. he was making his famous chocolate dessert for a work party and when he was done, he decided he'd {help} me.

the first thing he did was make me a cookie cutter so that i didn't have to cut out houses with my homemade template. LoVE him!

then, after attempting to flood the cookies with a bottle and a toothpick, he disappeared yet again and came back with his {the icer 3000}

see what i mean...masyn comes by it honestly!

he's not happy with the {LoOK} but come on...
it worked great! lots and lots of perfectly iced {gingerbread} houses!
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Just a Couple Quick {Funnies}

i left you all hanging with the holiday home tour...
sorry...i'm going to catch everybody up on what's been going on around here
{LOTS & LotS} of Christmas parties, cookies, cleaning, cookies, and, did i mention, cleaning!

& speaking of cleaning...
i asked nolan to clean up the kitchen table. several minutes went by and an enthusiastic little guy hollers "mom, i'm done. it's all cleaned up!"
i glanced over to see a very clean table and i was shocked.
until i noticed that every last item that was on the kitchen table had now been put on the railing behind the table! i laughed. i couldn't help it.
but nolan, being nolan, say's (as i'm taking the picture) "but i cleaned the table".
yep. you sure did buddy!


ok. now onto the other funny thing.

as i was making the beds i noticed a very lovely roll of toilet paper strung from the lights on the kids schoolhouse. i thought how funny, shawn must have strung the toilet paper for masyn who has been suffering from a runny nose. i was sure it was shawn because it was really hung well. as well as a toilet paper roll can be, i guess. it was securely fastened and not going anywhere.

when he came home, i was starting to harass him about it and it's very classy look, when he told me he hadn't done it. masyn did. she heard me and piped in..."i did it mom, sorry...but my nose was really runny."

she's just like her dad!
very clever!
(and speaking of clever wait to you see shawn's icing flooder 3000)

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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

My Holiday Home...

here's the family room
i only took these two photos, not sure why.
the quilt on the right is an unfinished version of cheri's crimson and clover.
the crow weathervane was made by my dear friend margi {hi margi, love ya!}



the kitchen is the hardest for me to decorate.
i love all the kitchens with candy themes, i think i'm going to have to do that next year.



my good friend patti made me that stinkin cute jar with the wool wrap. {LOvE} it & her! needless to say the cookies were gone in no time and i need to make more!


the rest are pictures from here and there in the kitchen and on my desk area where i keep my featherweight.








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