Christmas Countdown Day 9.... Gingerbread Party, and Giveaway

Yesterday was my 2nd annual gingerbread house party :)  There were 9 of us all together...6 friends, my 2 daughters, and myself. Hubby took the boys to the movies. They ended up seeing Frozen, which even my hubby said was a good movie.

On to the pics....

All set up...

And then all decorated!!....

 Now it's your turn to participate!!   Leave a comment with the number of your favorite house and that person with the most votes will get a special gift. And this year.... everyone who votes will be put into a drawing for a surprise giveaway drawing.  So all you have to do to enter is vote(just once) and make sure you have an email in the comment so I have a way to get a hold of you(so many people have bounce back(no email connected to their comments) that I can't reply.

Now for the Gingerbread houses!!
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#1  Front

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#2 Front

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#3 Front

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#4 Front

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#5 Front

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#6 Front

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#7 Front

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#8 Front

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#9 Front

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And the whole village!  It always amazes me how we can all start out with the same thing and they all end up looking so different and wonderful!!

My friends and I.... I hope everyone had a wonderful time! and I look forward to next year.

Vote through Wednesday  December 11th, and I will draw a winner from the comments on Dec. 12th.

Have a sweet day,

Tiff

Christmas Countdown Day 8...

And the table was set....

Pictures of the Gingerbread party tomorrow!

Tiff

Christmas Countdown Day 7....

Getting ready for tomorrow!  Hubby and I did our weekend grocery shopping trip today instead of tomorrow, we are headed to the gym for a quick workout, and then home to clean the house! 

I made this apron last night for my party. It started out as a very dated 80's denim Christmas jumper. I just cut off the back of the dress, added gingham around the neck and border, and ties to the back.  I couldn't have found a more perfect apron :)

Sorry for the blurry photo, that is what happens when a 7 yr old takes a picture with your phone.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Tiff

Christmas Countdown Day 6....

Another gloomy day here with rain, would rather have snow!  

So yesterday's baking was an epic failure. The only positive thing about 4 hours worth of work was that I got an awesome upper ab workout from rolling the dough, my stomach is seriously sore from it. I don't know what happened, maybe my kitchen was too cold or I just can't bake anymore, but around 1 in the afternoon I knew it was time to raise the white flag.  The older I get the faster I realize that it is OK to let go and sometimes go the easier route.  I had two hours before I had to be at the bus stop, so I told Mason to get on his shoes and coat and we headed to the store.  Yes...I'm not too proud to admit that I bought boxed gingerbread houses for my party this year.  Everyone will get one large house and one small house on their platter.  I don't think anyone will mind, afterall it is about friends getting together and having fun, not about whether the gingerbread is homemade or not.  Right?  

And I will still be making the royal icing to decorate with, let's just hope I don't mess that up!

 I've also been getting a few presents wrapped everyday. I think my bunny looks cute by the tree this year...

 And last night I finished up a slouchy beret for myself...it came out pretty good for no pattern.  I also bought this magazine(haven't bought a martha stewart living in ages, but the cover looked fun), but I have yet to sit down to read it, maybe tonight.

Have a marvelous day,

Tiff

Christmas Countdown Day 5....

It's a gloomy cold day here, perfect for baking. And I will be baking a lot today, all my gingerbread houses need to be made:)

I thought I would share what I did with two pretty goodwill frames I had.  I painted them both white and wanted to use them in the family room, but there really was no place that they worked. Then the other day I got and idea to use them in the kitchen. And since I'm out of wall space... they went on the cupboards!

Here is the first frame, jazzed up with ornaments and bows.  My kitchen is decorated Brightly for Christmas :)

 Yes, it's off center, but it adds to the quirkyness of it.

 And here is the other one.  I added a vintage green chalkboard to it and then hung the Christmas countdown board to it. After Christmas I will use this one as our menu board.  Oh, and did you notice the red gingham in the cupboards?  I used it throughout my kitchen this year, brightened everything up and it's fun and festive.

And here it what Mason has been up to... give the boy a pan of flour and add his farm, he will play for hours!  I finally got smart and put a vinyl piece of tablecloth underneath it to contain the mess.  I really need to get one of those giant drip pans for this.

 While he is playing, I will be using my pattern to make my houses....using circle platters this year for the houses.

Have a great day,

Tiff

Christmas Countdown Day 4.... and an Invitation

Happy Wednesday everyone!  I'll start with the invitation part of my post.... a few of the people I invited to my gingerbread party weren't able to make it, so I thought I would put out 2 invitations to my blog readers. If you live near me(southern Maine, Portland area) and would like to come to my gingerbread party this Sunday from 1-5pm, send me an email(on side bar).

Now on to the project I did last night while watching a recorded Hallmark Christmas movie :)

I took a felted cashmere blanket that I found at goodwill ages ago, put it into a giant hoop I had, and then used red yarn to stitch the words.  Totally free project because I already had everything. In fact I actually have two, one is still blank and I will make it tonight.

 I had planned on hanging it over the fireplace, but it was too big for the area, so the other one(which is an oval hoop) will go above the fireplace.  This one looks cute in the kitchen hanging on the basement door.

 Here was my Pinterest inspiration... from The Lillypad Cottage.  She used a lot more stitches for each letter, but I don't think she was going through felted cashmere and her yarn was thinner.  I may try to do the one tonight with thinner yarn to see a different effect.

Have a lovely day,

Tiff

Christmas Countdown Day 3....

                                                  We lit up the dollhouse :)

Have a wonderful day,

Tiff

Christmas Countdown Day 2....

Ok, so I didn't say I was doing a Christmas countdown with yesterday's post, but since we have two posts in a row and it is December 2nd, why not go for 25 days of Christmas!

Remember the bulletin board items that took me hours to draw and paint? , well I put them up this morning and I think it came out pretty darn cute.

 These were all drawn free hand(no projector or tracing involved) and then painted with many many coats of paint.   Eeyore is my favorite :)

 I wasn't planning on doing Pooh, he is hard to get to look right, but when I made tigger, I knew that Pooh had to go with him.  It's not easy drawing on a very large scale, but I think I'm getting better at it.

 The characters are as big as Mason :)

And in case you are wondering... the little dog in the box is kind of the school mascot now. I have been using him since last year and the kids look forward to seeing what he will be up to each month.

Have a fantastic day,

Tiff

Town Tree Lighting....

I really wasn't planning on leaving the house at all today.... hubby and I have head colds, it was snowing out, and I had hours worth of bulletin board work to do. We were even bad and slept in and missed church(we both really needed the sleep though).  

Anyway,  I got up, drew, painted, and stressed over what to do for the December bulletin board that I have to put up TOMORROW at school.  I started several ideas, but none of them panned out... I was in a creative slump.  Then I finally got an idea, which expanded to more things needed to be painted.... making for hours of work.    I drudged on with.  But at 3 oclock my 15 yr old daughter had to be at the town tree lighting because her dance academy  was doing a flash mob there.  We had no intentions of going to the tree lighting... to cold and crowded, and by noon the snow had turned to rain.  Around 1:30 I decided I needed a break from painting and we still had grocery shopping to do. So I told everyone to get dressed and we would drop Becca off at 3 and get the shopping done to be back at the tree lighting by 4 to see her dance.  And we did just that. Hubby and I took the 4 boys to the grocery store(it's usually just him and I who do the shopping and I realize why now!), got it all done in 40 minutes and then went to the park for the parade, flash mob, and tree lighting.

Because of the weather it wasn't too crowded(yay!), it had stopped raining, but it was freezing!  The boys enjoyed free hot coco, popcorn, and donuts while hubby and I chatted with our neighbors.

I forgot my phone and my camera, so pictures our courtesy of my 13yr old's tablet.

My 4 little snowmen....

Mason loved this and kept showing everyone how to pose in it :)

  I don't have pictures of the parade, but it was really nice and they lighted up the fire trucks with thousands of lights, much better than I have seen in the past. The flash mob dance was cute and my daughter did a great job.

It's hard to take pictures of Christmas lights, but my boy tried :)   The park lit up with small trees and the big Christmas tree in the middle.

Oh, and the BEST part,  two of my boys won sleds!!!! How awesome is that??!??!  I think for not wanting to leave the house today, things turned out pretty well.  And I'm almost done with the bulletin board stuff.

Happy 1st day of December!

Tiff

Bubblegum Mice....

I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving. We had a nice quiet one at home. I made homemade cranberry sauce for the first time and it came out fantastic! No more canned stuff here.

My house is almost completely decorated for Christmas, did it in a little over one day before Thanksgiving, a record for me :) Of course there is still some tweaking to do.

My 15 year old daughter is getting very crafty and when she saw a gumball snowglobe on pinterest she just had to make one.... well five!  She was collecting gumball machines for awhile, but for the past year they were just sitting in her closet. So she put them to use, along with some of my craft supplies :)

Aren't they adorable?  The silver one was my favorite.

 Each one had a little velveteen mouse in it.

 The biggest one had button snowflakes hanging...

 And she is a little entrepreneur... she sold them all to two local shops. So if you want one, check them out at The Mustard House in Buxton or Tinsel Bright in Gorham.  She is a very happy camper with a little extra cash in her pocket for Christmas shopping.

And speaking of happy campers... this is more of a full and content camper... Mason after Thanksgiving dinner.... he was stuffed!

Tis the season....

Tiff

Crocheting and Baking...

Our church's Christmas fair is this coming Saturday, so I've been busy helping set things up and making things for it.  You already saw the baby hats I was making and here are 20+ apple cozies I've made.  If you have never used an apple cozy, I highly recommend you get one.  My daughter and my hubby use them in their lunches everyday and they keep their apples safe a bruise free :)

 I've been baking too... things for the fair(pumpkin coffee cakes and apple walnut breakfast cakes)... but these 28 baby apple pies are for my 2nd grade son's Thanksgiving feast in school tomorrow.

And on a funny note... I was in Joann's a couple of weeks ago and saw this fabric in the Christmas section. (ya, I had to take a picture of it!) Who on earth would buy this?  and what would you make with it?  Ok, maybe a joke gift. But come on, I can't believe they actually printed this and that Joann's is carrying it.

Oh, and I finally painted the hutch I moved in the family room, it took a lot of paint!  Now I need to decorate it and then I will show you it.

Have a grand day,

Tiff

Invitations are in the Mail...

The invitations for my Gingerbread House Party went in the mail this morning. I invited 8 friends this time, would have liked to have invited more but I don't have the room.  With keeping with my house diet thing, I decided to totally handmake the invites, the only thing it cost me were the stamps.  Our printer died(and I'm not buying a new one this time of year, too many other expenses) so I had to hand write everything, not the prettiest things, but hey, they get the point across, right?

Here are the fronts...

 The backs had another layer of construction paper where I wrote the details...

 I even made my own envelopes out of construction paper :)

 And the post office had the perfect stamps for the occasion... gingerbread houses!!!

Lots of work to do before the party on December 8th, but I'm looking forward to it!

Tiff

Happy Birthday Gavin!

Today we officially added another teenager to our house.... my 4th baby turned 13.   He is a very sweet, kind hearted, and likable boy who stills likes to talk to his mother ;)  He's not so little any more though, he is taller than my hubby, myself, and even his 20 yr old brother!  We know Gavin has a very bright future ahead of him and can't wait to see what he will become.  Happy Birthday Goobs(nickname)! We love you!!!

And Happy Veteran's Day! Thank you to all who have served and our serving. May God Bless you and your families.

Tiff

Going on a House Diet....

I managed to have enough self discipline and will power to lose most of my extra weight(still 10 lbs to go), now I just need to apply that to shopping and the house.  And so, I have decided to go on a house diet.  I really do not Need anything, it's all just wants. And with a basement busting at the seems(Salvation Army is going to get a call for a large pick up in the next couple weeks), I realized that I need to stop.  All the stuff is just cluttering my house and my mind.  I'm not going modern or minimalistic  with the house, I'm just going to declutter, not shop or thrift store hunt, make do with what I have(and redo things for other purposes),  and most certainly not add to the collection with new things.  Plus, it will save money.  

So with that in mind, here is something I did recently in my mudroom.  After the family room, this is the next room I struggle with the most.  I want it to be neat, organized, and pretty to the eye all while being functional for the kids(backpacks, shoes, coats, winter gear, etc).

I had this wood cubby hole thing that used to sit on top of another piece of furniture(you probably saw it many years ago in my family room holding dvds or toys). Anyway, it had been in the older boys' room and they didn't need it anymore, so it came down stairs.  After sitting in the way in the family room for over a week, I finally figured out what to do with it.

I gave it a new coat of black paint, turned vertical, and added my 4 Target baskets that I got about a year ago(that had been floating around the house without finding the spot that was just right for them, until now).  The baskets were a perfect fit, with just enough room at the top to reach in and out of  without having to pull the whole thing out.  Two now hold mittens and gloves and the other two hold hats and scarves.  A perfect functional and attractive storage solution for our winter gear.

Not sure why I didn't think of it before :)

 And here is the coat, shoe, and gear corner of the mudroom.  Ya, the look of all the coats and such does bother me a bit. But we LIVE here, it's part of life and everything can't look like a magazine all the time.  And most of all, everything has its place and a place for everything.

Will power.... I don't need more junk just like I don't need that cupcake! I can do this :)

Tiff

Oh the Family Room...

For the 2nd time in three days, the family room has been rearranged. If you have been reading here long, you know that is not very shocking.  This room gets rearranged A LOT!!  Why?  you ask. Mainly, because the room is so long and narrow, with a fireplace on one end and windows on the other, plus two doorways... not to mention one very huge sectional sofa.  So this leads to a lot of rearranging to get it just right, where there isn't awkwardness or wasted space. 

And this time of year, you add in one large Christmas tree, the poor family room becomes a moving sea of furniture!!  But don't worry. I think I finally found a good layout for the next couple of months.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, I added a big hutch to the room!...

Ya, it looks really sad at the moment, but over the next few days it will be brought back to life.  I have to fix the trim on the top, fill in some holes, and repaint the whole thing(and the drawers aren't missing, they just aren't in it right now).

  Where did it come from?  I have had it for about 15 years and it is has seen many uses and many coats of paint.  It was originally bought for our dining room and had a matching table. Since then, it has been a tv stand, a lego cupboard, and the top was even turned into a play kitchen(see here). It was actually really cute as a kitchen, but it wasn't being used much anymore and just taking up space in the boys' room. So back it came to be used as a hutch(and one more surface to decorate!).

I cleared out this corner by the fireplace for the Christmas tree. I know the emptiness will bother me until the tree goes up, but I will get over it.

  I'm still working on the room and will take some pictures when it's done and before the Christmas decor goes up.

One last picture of the banner I hand painted this past week.  It's for a fundraising event.

Have a lovely day,

Tiff

And It All Came Down...

I don't have a crochet project to share with you because I haven't been working on anything this week. I've been busy making a huge banner for a neighbor(for a local event) and rearranging the family room(again).

After I finished up the banner this morning(yay!), I decided it was time for the Fall stuff to come down.  With Thanksgiving being so late this year and since we aren't having anyone over anyway, I thought it was better to get the house cleaned and ready for the Christmas decor.... and my 2nd annual Gingerbread house party that will be on December 8th.  I want to make Christmas curtains for the kitchen and some little fun things for my party.... so sorry to Fall but you have to go!

  And yes, this is how I do it.... take it all down and pile it on the kitchen table and then box it all up to reside in the basement until next year.

I'm now heading outside to clean up the pumpkins and the porch.

Have a great day,

Tiff