Category: holidays

holiday minibook plans

Hey friends, hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! We had a full and happy day eating way too much as we had two dinners to fit in. I’m happy that Meredith was in a wonderful mood despite not napping and having lots of treats. :)

Today I’m holing up at home but trying to be super productive! I’m so thankful for my parents who brought our new bedroom dresser over today. It was free from a friend – hooray. Then my mom played with M. while my dad helped install new curtain rods and switched out all the outlets in our bedroom. Slowly but surely we are making progress!

David and I get a date night tonight (yay!!) but before then I’m trying to get some Christmas decorations put up. This weekend I want to knock out a couple of Project Life spreads and do a little bit of shopping – hopefully most of it online though!

I wanted to quickly share with you what I decided to do for a holiday minibook. I had planned on making my own, but then when I considered all of the other stuff on my plate, I realized that if I tried to make my own this year it probably wouldn’t happen. I still really wanted to do it, and a quick Etsy search made up my mind when I found this book by Petaline Prints. I love it so much and it’s almost exactly what I would have made! I didn’t post photos of the inside because you can see it all at that link. Also FYI, she has a really great blog that I am now following.

I’m not sure yet if I’ll be able to keep up with this book during the holiday season and post updates, or if I’ll be putting it together at the end. I also might change up the cover some more, but then again I’m fine with the simplicity of this. We’ll see – I’m trying to keep things as low-stress as possible! Either way, I’m pretty excited about it.

Hope you’re all enjoying the long weekend! See you next week!

November 29, 2013
holiday to-do list

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I’m super excited about it; it’s such a low-pressure, relaxing holiday. I also love that it ushers in the true holiday season and my mind is already there. As Meredith gets older the activities and traditions of it all are becoming more important to me. This year I’m also trying to stay on top of things and not wait until the last minute like I usually do, mostly because of my increasing fatigue and discomfort. So here’s my list of things to do before Christmas:

+ decide on cards (actually I think I might skip cards this year and just send out birth announcements instead)

+ finalize wish list and send to family

+ buy and wrap all gifts (I really want to do most of the buying online this weekend if I can, but I want to get Meredith’s stocking gifts in person.)

+ decorate the house

+ put up lights outside? (We don’t have any outdoor lights right now, so I’ll probably try to buy some on clearance after Christmas and save this for next year. But I really wish we could have lights outside!)

+ Christmas tree farm fun (going this weekend with David’s family. We visit Santa, ride the train, buy an ornament, and help family cut down a tree since ours is fake.)

+ fill advent calendar (I made it last year and one day I’d love to fill it with handmade ornaments for a special tree, but this year I’m thinking chocolate!)

+ finish my niece Karley’s stocking

+ complete holiday minibook (more on this soon!)

+ see the lights in River Oaks (every year I say we’re going to do this and every year we don’t…but this year I think Meredith can actually enjoy it so I really want to make it happen!)

+ shopping with Dad

+ Messiah singalong with Mom

+ make cookies and drink lots of peppermint mochas (I mean…I’m gaining weight anyway, right?)

November 27, 2013
happy valentine’s day : a giveaway

Since it’s a work night David and I aren’t doing much for Valentine’s Day other than exchanging cards and maybe eating takeout for dinner, but it’s still a good excuse to celebrate love in all its forms. Meredith’s class has a party today so we are contributing napkins handing out adorable little cards, and I dressed her in an outfit with hearts all over it. I’m still sad that she will NOT keep a bow or clip in her hair for more than 2 seconds though. I’m really looking forward to the days when she will let me play with her hair a little more, because there are so many cute hair things out there!

My good friend Emily, for example, makes adorable bows for girls and sells them in her Etsy shop LoveShine as well as some local stores. She also makes bow ties for boys, but that does not concern me at the moment. :) She’s been making the bows for awhile but somehow I just found out about them. As soon as I saw how cute they are I asked if I could do a giveaway, and what better day than Valentine’s Day? Because I love you all too. :)

Just leave a comment on this post to let me know you want to be entered, I’ll determine a winner by random number generator in about a week, and if you’re chosen you get to pick one of the three bows shown below! Open to North American residents only.

February 14, 2013
december daily : completed

And this little album is finished! I decided to end it after Christmas because now I am completely focused on the new year and a fresh start in so many areas. But I’m pleased with the tradition and I think it’ll make a nice addition to the holidays, even though as I said before I won’t be doing it on a daily basis in the future.

You should have seen what was going on while I was taking these pictures. I had to keep moving the book around on the floor because the child or dogs would get too close. I was trying not to let Meredith get her grubby little hands on it but unfortunately I wasn’t quick enough once and one of the pictures now has her cookie-stained fingerprints all over it. :)

Now that this is over, once I take down the decorations this weekend I will really feel like the new year has begun. Happy Friday!

The rest of the album can be found here: cover, week one, week two.

January 4, 2013
december daily week two

I’m home today with a surprise fever baby (boo!), but before we head into the holiday weekend I wanted to give you an update on my December daily album. It’s coming along! This is from last week, and I will do one more update after Christmas.

Have a great weekend everyone! I, unfortunately, am so not prepared for Christmas yet. I still have a bunch of cleaning, shopping, and wrapping to do. Good thing I don’t mind the hustle and bustle. :)

December 21, 2012