Christmas.

I didn't get to do all the stuff I was planning for Christmas. Why? I got sick! I hate getting sick around the holidays. So putting up extra decorations on the 23rd didn't happen. And neither did the extra baking that I had planned to do. And the blog also fell by the wayside. But when all is said and done I still had a great Christmas. The most important thing was that I spent it with my family.

Jeremy and I just look so awake

Extra Decorations

To help revamp the house for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I've been making some extra decorations. Paper chains and snowflakes mostly but i have been making two other things to add some interest and dimension. I will be putting all this up after my sister goes to bed on the 23rd. I will have pictures up as soon as its done.

First is the Snowflake Ballerinas. These were so easy I couldn't believe it. I used card stock for the bodies and a plain computer paper for the snowflake skirts. This is the link for the templates and directions http://krokotak.com/2012/11/snowflake-ballerinas-for-crafty-moms/

Second is the Cotton Ball Snowflake Curtain. This one takes a little more time but well worth the effort.
http://www.thevintagewife.com/2011/12/15/cotton-ball-snow-wall/

Rebuild the Christmas Anticipation.

If your like my family we put up our decorations out the week after Thanksgiving. And if you are like me you start to notice the excitement in the kids eyes dwindle just a little bit over the weeks. So I compiling a list of ways to bring that spark back.

• Don't keep the presents under the tree. This is how my family has always done it. Now I'm not saying that our traditions are better but as a kid not knowing how many gifts you were getting, what size, or shape would put me in a frenzy of wonderment I almost couldn't take it anymore. Christmas Eve there would be nothing there. Then Christmas morning all the presents would be there. 
• Bake cookies for Santa together. Let your kids mix, bake, and decorate Santa's tasty treat. Then have them set it out Christmas Eve. They will be more excited that they made it themselves.

• Christmas Eve get on the NORAD Santa Tracker. You can look at it online or get the app on your phone. My little sister begs us to look at it the whole day and she rushes off to bed when it shows that he's even close to the U.S.A.

• While your kids are not around cut out snowflakes, paper chains, thread cotton balls, and make these beautiful snowflake ballerinas I found on pintrest. After your kids go to bed on the 23rd Use these to decorate a room or two. When they wake up Christmas Eve a whole new wave of excitement will come rushing in. If you have and Elf on the Self you can blame it on him.

• Christmas morning my dad would practically touchier us. We weren't allowed to wake him till 5am. Then he would take forever to get moving. He would go get coffee, shift the presents around, sometimes he would take a shower. We would sit there for what felt like 20 minutes.

If you give these things a try you may be able to rebuild the excitement.

Sunday Funny

With all the hustle and bustle this time of year you need to stop and laugh. Hope these pictures bring a smile to your day.

DIY Peppermint Kissing Ball

I'm going to admit something that my little sister would say to be to much information. I love to kiss my boyfriend! And we love to find excuses to kiss. But with mistletoe being in such short supply in my area I had to come up with an alternative. So here it is the fabulous and easy Do It Yourself Peppermint Kissing Ball!

Tools and Materials

• 5in Styrofoam ball
• Lots of Starlight Peppermints
• Ribbon (your choice)
• Glue Gun and Glue Sticks
• Pins
• Scissors

How-To

Glue Peppermints

• Plug in your glue gun and let it heat up.
• Unwrap the peppermints. Or if they are in the wrappers with the twisted ends you could leave them wrapped for a different look.
• Take a peppermint and hot glue the back. Then immediately attach to the ball. Repeat this while having the peppermints fit as closely together as possible.
• When the ball is covered cut a length of ribbon. (This all depends on how high or low you would like the ball to hang.
• Hot glue one end of the ribbon to the ball. Then loop the other end to the same place on the ball and hot glue again. Use pins to secure it in place.
• Cut another piece of ribbon and make a bow. Tie it to the loop on the ball and secure with hot glue.



Sticking In Pins

• Finlay let everything dry and hang wherever you would like.

Whether you kiss under it or just use it as a fun decoration is up to you.


One this about the kissing ball. After I had made this post and had hung it outside it rained. And even though it was under my covered porch it melted. Probably from the humidity. So don't put it outside!!

Muppets for Christmas!

I love what the Muppets do around Christmas. Makes me laugh.

I do not own the Muppets or any of these videos

Gingerbread Recipe

My mother has this great recipe for gingerbread. It's firm enough for houses, yet soft enough to eat without breaking your teeth.

Melanie's Gingerbread Recipe

Ingredients

• 6 1/2 cups of flower
• 1 tablespoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 12oz jar of Grandmas Molasses
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• Royal Icing
• Candies, frosting (either store-bought or homemade), fondant for decorating.

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Mix flour, ginger, and baking soda in a large bowl. Set aside.
• Cream shortening and sugar in mixer with paddle attachment. Add molasses and lightly beaten eggs. Blend well. Switch to dough hook. Gradually add dry ingredients. Knead in remaining flour, if necessary. Chill dough 1 hour for best rolling results.
• Line sheet pans with parchment paper. Roll out dough to 1/8-inch thick directly onto cookie sheets. Cut patterns, removing excess dough. Chill 10 minutes in freezer before baking. Bake for 8-12 minutes. Start checking at 8 min. The small pieces naturally cook faster then larger pieces.
• Re-cut pieces after baking for even edges while they are still hot. Let cookies cool on sheet pan.
• Next decorate your cookies or assemble your house however you would like.

Tips

• Put like sizes on the same cookies. This helps with even cooking.
• If it spreads too much you're batter is too moist.

Fountain Inn Carriage Rides

Fountain Inn, SC has been doing carriage rides for the Spirit of Christmas Past Festival for several years now. For me the carriages and Christmas go hand in hand! Jeremy was nice enough to take me this year. And its only $7.00 per person!

That's Kevin! The awesome draft horse that pulled us along.

Some of the lights were out on the top making this look more like a lit-up bush. Still very pretty.

There are many other things going on in Fountain Inn for Christmas. Like the train exhibit or ice skating. We would have done those but the largest skate size they had was a 12 and Jeremy is a 14-15 and the trains had closed for the night by the time we had got there. So we went down to In The Oven. Great bakery. Best hot coco I've had in a long time.

The whole Fountain Inn Christmas experience is wonderful and is great to take the kids or a date. It goes on till the 16th for 5-9pm. Have fun!

Twigs

I enjoy going to certain stores every Christmas for ideas and inspiration on decorating. Twigs is one of these stores. The rest of the year it's a florist/ greenhouse but come October / November it's a full on Christmas store! I took some pictures. Hope some of these inspire you. If you live in the Greenville area you should stop in.

The plans are here!

Every year the City of Fountain Inn, SC where I live they have a contest for outdoor Christmas decorations. Of course there is first, second, and third, but then there is the Sugar Plum Award! Its the award for the house that is most appealing to children! And I've wanted this for years. Well I didn't get it this year. I believe it was for lack of characters, inflatables, and not having as many lights as some others. But my parents and I are working on what we are adding next year. Going with Fountain Inn Spirit of Christmas Past festival I tried to find something retro that would put a twinkle in the eye of kids young and old. After much research I found website talking about plans for outdoor cutouts from a magazine called popular mechanics from back in the 60's. Near Christmas the magazine would have articles with plans of different cutouts that you would enlarge, cutout and paint yourself.

I thought that this would be perfect! Its funny, its nostalgia for older generations, and playful for the younger ones. So I went on a quest to find these plans and there was only one seller on eBay. I quickly ordered them and they just got here yesterday! I didn't realize they would be the actual pages but I'm happier that they were. I can't wait till next year!

Gingerbread Houses

So every year I think about entering the gingerbread house competition at The Grove Park Inn and every year I see who wins and think I'm not ready yet.

 Yeah definitely not ready. But that does not stop me from doing my own creations at home. Right?
My mother does a bible study with my sister and three other little girls and for their Christmas party and I was to teach them how to build and decorate ginger bread houses. It took me an hour and a half to put the house I did beforehand to show them. It took them three. So if you are going to make gingerbread houses with your kids don't think its a quick project. Even if your making it from a kit set aside at least three to four hours.

This one is mine. I added a wood pile to the side using left over gingerbread 

So after all the work with the girls and dealing with sides that were too heavy because of the overloaded decorations, I think they turned out pretty cute.

We baked the gingerbread from scratch and I will do a tutorial of how I did the first house with recipes later. Right now I'm a little gingerbreaded out!

Christmas is Whats Geting This Blog Started!

My name is Olivia and I love to decorate, craft, and bake. And I love doing these things for Holidays and Parties. Valentines day, Easter, Halloween, Christmas, ect. You name it I've probably got some project going on for it. But Christmas is what I love the most. I go all out... Actually more like go over the top. If my Mother allowed me to decorate the bathroom I probably would. My boyfriend Jeremy says I make Santa say Holy Crap! My thoughts are that it is celebrating the birth of my savior and I can't just under-do it!

Now I don't claim to be some kind of expert. But after I did the new decorations for the outside and people started asking me how I did them. I figured hey I guess I have a knack for something and others might want the get some ideas and some tutorials. So it might be fun to start a blog and share. 

I'm going to deck the halls, trim the tree, and wrap the presents! Are you ready for me!

My house decorations this year.