Happy New Year! 200th Post!!

I just realized that this post will be my 200th since I started blogging! I am one chatty Cathy!

I haven’t been very productive in the “making” department lately. Between Christmas, and two trips to the doctor for sinus, bronchial infections and an asthma attack, well I’ve been a bit lazy! But I did make a couple of New Year’s decorations just to have something festive. No tutorial…just a pic:

I made a cone shaped party hat using a template I found online and trimmed it with some pom pom fringe using double sided tape. Downloaded a New Year’s printable collection and cut out and adhered to bamboo skewers that I stuck down through the top of the hat and using a clock graphic from The Graphics Fairy, added the year to it and stuck it on front!

I haven’t framed this yet but I wanted to have something special for 2011 that I could keep up all year. We have a few major milestones this year. Our son turns 18 ( my baby!) and will graduate from High School, and we’ll celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. So I made this “Family Milestone Subway Art”:

Happy 2011 everyone. But as we wrap up 2010, thanks for a warm welcome into the blogging world, the many new friendships made, laughs shared, generosity shown, and inspiration provided. Here’s to more of all of that in the New Year!

Testing…Windows Live Writer

So I was reading my blog reader earlier today and saw that Haley at The Autocrat had tried out Windows Live Writer and decided to play with it myself. It is another way to write your blog posts and the coolest thing to me is that it uses any of the fonts already installed on your computer so you don’t have to add additional fonts to Blogger.

I haven’t even begun to explore all the how to’s but embedding pictures  and videos is supposed to be easy and I love the more enhanced editing so far.

Hmmm…for some reason Haley’s post about this is not there anymore but she learned about it from Jamielyn at I Heart Naptime With Chocolate Sundaes ( of course you KNOW I follow that blog) and you can read more about it here: I Heart Naptime With Chocolate Sundaes.

Eeek! New Year's

We don't do a big New Year's Eve thing. For one thing, it's past my bedtime and there are too many intoxicated people on the road. So we tend to hunker down at home and have been known to celebrate at midnight Eastern time just in case we accidentally fall asleep at midnight our time! Still, it's fun to have some decorations to ring in the New Year.

I found this wonderful collection via Living Locurto ( which if you're unfamiliar with Amy's site, get familiar NOW):

 

It's everything you could possibly need and it's from a site called: Love The Day . Not only is this fabulous, but it's in support of a fantastic organization called "Operation Shower" that provides baby showers for deployed military families.  If you can't find something to use in this collection...

I also found this cute (and FREE!) Subway Art inspired printable via a web search at Custom Printables :

More awesomeness at Tip Junkie.

So, what will you do to celebrate New Year's? Big party, small gathering, flip the calendar in the morning?

Santa's Not Done Yet! Silhouette Giveaway At Brown Paper Packages

 

Woo hoo!!! If you didn't get one of these under your tree there's another chance to get one! Kierste over at Brown Paper Packages has a Silhouette giveaway going on right now!!!

This giveaway includes:

The Silhouette SD machine
Software for Windows XP/Vista or Mac
Power cable and USB cable
2 cutting mats (1 for thick media and one for thin media)
1 cutting blade
1 $10 gift certificate to the Silhouette download store

So head on over to Brown Paper Packages and find out how you can enter to win!

Wishing You All A Very Merry Christmas

I've been busy enjoying time w/ my mom, making a few last minute secret presents , wrapping, and tomorrow is full on baking day all day! Before time slips further away, I want to wish you all :

May you gather with those you love to celebrate the love this season represents, and may your stockings be filled with lots and lots of chocolate!

December Open House Wrap Up and Features

The only thing I hate about hosting a link party is trying to choose things to feature because everyone always links up such wonderful things! This month is no exception, so while I love everything ( and this month saw the most linkups since I started doing this!!) here are some "featured features" because I consider everything linked up a feature:

I absolutely love this idea for a teacher gift from Attempting Aloha and if its too late to make for Christmas, it would make a perfect year end gift:

Who doesn't need an extra gift box this time of year? Kim Castillon shows us  how to whip one up and make it look as good as the gift inside!

I love this DIY picture holder from Meg at A Little Knick Knack, perfect for your family Christmas photo or even to display a favorite card, or to whip up as a last minute gift. Meg tells you how to make it!

And how cute is this from Dream Home DIY:

Make your own Sleigh Bells from a package of jungle bells and a repurposed belt!

Thanks for making this such a fun party and please come back again next year which is just next month, for January's Open House on  January 21!

Big Kids Need Treats Too

I love that one of my son's HS teachers recognizes that kids in general and especially at his super competitive HS are under a lot of stress these days. Heavy course loads, college applications, pressure on grades etc are world's away from what I remember. So she ensures that they get to be "kids" from time to time and has a regular snack day so that they can think back to when things were less stressful. Friday was my son's turn to bring snack and since it was their last day before break I wanted to make it special.

One batch of cookies and creme bark ( melted white chocolate and broken up sandwich cookies...easy peasy)

Ginger crinkles dipped in powdered sugar

Chocolate chip cookies that I've made for something in every grade of his school career. I put all of these in treat bags that also included a hot chocolate packet, candy cane and mini marshmallows:

I started off trying to be simple and ended up being simple minded. Brown paper lunch bags. Oh but they were plain. So cut 26 tree borders on my Cricut and stuck them to the bags. But they were plain. So dotted some of the trees with gold paint pen but the others were lonely. Punched out gold paper stars to stick to them. Then each bag was finished with an icicle ( iridescent chenille stem) and a snowman (tag). Ta da....Winter Break survival kit.

Snowman tag from Cricut Doodlecharms cartridge, silver Stickles on the nose , black on the eyes, and clear self adhesive rhinestone buttons

Then I figured since I was doing these for my son's class, I could do something for my husband's team at work. They got a batch of Grandma Utahna's toffee and "Hot Cocoa Kits":

Cello bag, Christmas paper scrap, medallion cut on Cricut, sticker. The bag toppers I made from leftover card stock, folded in half , punched and tied w/ a ribbon.