Merry Christmas!

See you next year!

A Snowman Sock Craft - Too Cute!

When I was teaching, there was a kindergarten teacher who made these adorable sock snowmen every year for Christmas.  This year, I thought that would be our special Christmas craft too.  After a quick internet search, I came across this wonderful tutorial here.  Amy's snowmen were the cutest out of all the ones I saw, and her tutorial is awesome.  Very easy to follow!

So... I dug around the house and found several old tube socks that we were going to donate.  Amy was right, Target carries a ton of cute ankle socks in all sorts of patterns for just $1.  I used my little girls' hair elastic which worked great and we just needed a few buttons, googly eyes, beans/rice and we were good to go!

Here are the inspiration snowmen from here:

Here are our snowmen!

10 little snowmen in all!

We had a great time and I just can't help but smile when I look at these lil' guys.  Seriously, super easy, fast, affordable and you get a great finished product.  They make wonderful gifts!  Click here for the how-to.

Here are a few more pictures of our day:

Our supplies.  Socks, elastic ties and rice/beans. 

Of course, working over a rimmed baking sheet helps to keep all the rice and beans contained!

 Everyone was so proud of their little creations!

TGIF - A Great Deal from Mink Cards!

Hello everyone!

TGIF!  If you're like me, your weekends from now until Christmas are probably packed!  I hope you find some time to stop and enjoy the season and not be running around like a crazy person.  :p

Well, if you haven't finished up your Christmas card for this year, you're in luck!  I'm happy to extend a special discount to you from minkcards.com.  Last Sunday, I wrote about how I found mink through etsy and am so happy with our cards this year. 

If you go to their website, minkcards.com and use the couponcode MERRY15, you will receie 15% off your order PLUS FREE fedex overnight shipping!  Can't beat that!  Minkcards.com is a full service, design and print website.  Their customer service is superb and turn around time is fast!  Melody, the owner and designer, is great with follow-up.  In fact, most of the time, I got my proofs before the promised 2 business days.  You'll definitely get your cards done before Christmas.

**  Offer good until Dec. 15th!  **

(image via minkcards.com)

Have a great weekend!

Recycle Those Lights!

This is a purely practical post people.  Well... it's taken a couple of weeks, but our Christmas tree is *almost* done.  I don't know about you, but for us, the Christmas decorating process is never a one day deal.  I wish!  It generally takes at least a week for the boxes to come down, the decorations to go up, the clutter to be put away and for the boxes to return back out of sight. 

This year, I found several strings of lights that didn't work.  They've been sitting in a big bin, right next to our tree.  I haven't wanted to just throw them in the garbage, so I did a little bit of googling today and found an answer!

Did you know that Whole Foods actually recycles broken Christmas lights?  YES!  I called my local Whole Foods and yup, they've been doing it for several years and just set up a bin for collecting lights. 

WOOHOO!  I'm bringing my lights down asap!

OK... Happy Decorating (and Recycling) Everyone!  :)

Our Christmas Cards

One of my all time favorite Christmas Songs is Merry Christmas, Darling by the Carpenters.  The first line goes... "Greeting cards have all been sent... the Christmas rush is through...."

Well for me... my greeting cards have not been sent out, but they've been sent to the printers!  :)  I'm excited, this is way ahead of schedule for me.  This year, I tried something new.  We've done Tiny Prints cards in the past and have loved them, but I wanted to try something different this year and maybe save some pennies.  So I did some browsing around on etsy and of course, they have a ton of options!  I wanted something simple this year and found minkcards!

Here are some of their great designs:



(all images via minkcards.om)

 
I love that you can customize it and pay only for the jpeg and then can get them printed anywhere you like.  Plus, always love supporting a small business!  The turn around was great and Melody was fun to work with.

So, if you're still looking for inspiration for your Christmas cards, check out etsy and minkcards.  I'm sure you'll find something you like!

(all images via minkcards.com)