Time Can't Keep Us Apart

This Christmas our high school crew was all reunited in one joyous place.  Danny and Joe came home from their missions this summer, Kristin, Katie, and I were home from college and Andy found his way up to Mack town to hang out with us.  Sarah and Daryl are always very inviting about their home and welcome everyone to get together there. It's always been a Blair family tradition to have squishy  couches and teen friendly living rooms so it's fun that Sarah is keeping that going at her house.  Here's some pictures from the night.

Katie looking mighty stoked about the night

Kristin and Me.

Dan and David

Joe gives this shot a thumbs up

I love these kids. Well, grown up kids.

Gifty Giggles

So as I mentioned before we do a lot of silly little presents at Christmas and I thought I'd share the weirdest ones that were in my stocking.

Sadly the alka seltzer cupcakes didn't fizz, but they do make sweet tasting water.

If you are ever craving a bite of turkey, the Thanksgiving gumballs sure don't disappoint. Seriously. They were kind of gross. Ha ha! We did convince Lucindo (he's about 8) to try one though. He had a weird little look on his face, said "tastes kind of like bacon" then just kept chewing! The other flavors in the pack were cranberry and pumpkin pie.

My uncle has started a tradition of finding super cool socks for me and my sisters each year. Last year he got us each a set of Little Miss Matched socks. They come in sets of three! This year was Sock It To Me. He chose me the Chat Noir pair. Love 'em!

And the final little goody that I'm going to share, fix a bad haircut in a box! It's a tiny little box of gum with the directions to chew and strategically hold hair up to cover the poorly cut places. Not so sure that I'll be following the directions, but it does give you fruity fresh breath!

Christmas Conversations

Some bits and pieces of my holiday at home.

Christmas evening and we have the Gables over to visit. Jason walks into the room and asks my grandpa, "Do you smoke meat?" He looks up and says, "No, only pot." Jason laughs and asks again, "but do you smoke any meat?" Grandma tunes in and adds, "I only smoke weed!"

Grandma recieved a lovely assortment of hedgehogs and displayed them all over Grandpa!

Our family does a lot of funny little gag gifts and the slippers were just a placeholder for a pair of mission shoes that my grandparents will get for me.  Some of the others were completely hilarious an ridiculous though. Don't worry. I'll share them soon!

5 Wishes

There really isn't much that I want for Christmas since my present this year is moving home :) But here are a few little things that I love:

1

Flapperdoodle stationary 

2

Tights from we love colors

in navy, maroon, or mint green

3

Easy A on DVD (already a classic in the opinion of Erika and Elle)

4

Cute kids books :)

Pretty books

5

Funny pencils

And a bonus?

Oh baby.

Fuji Instax 

Holiday Cheer

Finally I have come to my last week of work at Porter's.  And it started out kind of sucky.  Register day. Not my favorite. Beep beep beep scan scan money. Next? 

But a young child brought some joy into my day.  Feliz Navidad was playing on our non stop Christmas music station and this little boy started humming along to it. 

He looks up at me and exclaims, 

"We sang the police la-de-da song at my school last week!".  

Christmas is in the Air

So I will admit to a post that never was finished. I had an entire collection of Star Wars themed Halloween ideas and it just never made the final cut of being interesting enough to complete. This however, is far too cool. 

DEATH STAR LEGO ORNAMENT!!!

directions here

Apparently this guy Chris McVeigh posts all kinds of lego tutorials. Who knew there was even a program dedicated just to lego designs and instructions?? James and I used to play legos together on Sunday afternoons while we listened to Weird Al. That is some serious sibling connection time right there! I would build these really cool intricate houses and he would make giant cars and roll over them. Ok, so he would usually ask first but not always. I mean, little brothers are supposed to be destructive right? Like the time that he got a remote controlled car stuck in my hair...

One other super awesome Star Wars decoration for the holidays,

Darth Vader snowflakes! So cool! The directions can be found here for Vader and a Boba Fett and Storm Trooper version. I attempted one last night and I was surprised how simple they are to make!

Back to joy and gladness.

You might not believe me, but most of my presents are already done and one is even wrapped already! With the big move I had to be on top of things this year especially since I decided to do an entirely handmade Christmas. I'm not saying what I made because that would sure spoil the surprise for my family :) What I can say is that I completed and sent my ornament for Strumpet's Ornament Swap!

I based mine off of these stacked fabric trees by The Small Object (tutorial here)

Mine are a little modified (think only 3 layers and I used fusible fleece rather than thin fusible web)

Holiday tunes are one of my favorite parts of the season! Here is a little treat for you readers, the first of at least two parts of Christmas music! Its a short one since I'm bumming off of Shanda's computer again, but they are each little gems!

PART 1

I Am A Procraftinator

I should be working right now. Or sleeping. Or working on my final design project. 

But no. I made this refashioned scarf! 

Well, not this one literally. I haven't taken pictures of it yet but I got the idea from Disney's blog Ruffles and Stuff. It was super super easy and I can't wait to wear it tomorrow! I'll hunt someone down that's good with a camera and get it up as soon as I can. I dare you to make one yourself!

For another moment of procraftination I'm planning on making these Regency Silhouette ornaments from The Magic Bean. They are so adorable and I'm a huge fan of silhouettes.

I haven't decided completely where they will be going after I make the ornaments. Some will be for my family and a few for friends, but I'm also participating in this great craft swap

Ornaments for everyone!!! If you would like to participate the deadline is tomorrow, November 19th.

Well Erika has fallen asleep on my couch watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but she's probably just avoiding the fact that I've been reciting the whole thing! Brent is watching it for the first time and I bet he wants to shove a pillow in my face. "WHAT's HAPPENING TO ME? I'm all toasty inside. And I'm LEAKING!!!"

I'm super proud of the effort that I put in at work today. I'm the designated seamstress for apparel in our fabric department so I reorganized our little girl patterns and made a nice display. I also wrote a little tutorial for making fabric roses but I'll share that in a separate post. I'm really getting into the handmade Christmas spirit so with all of the new projects for work, as well as my top secret project (that will be finished on Saturday) and gifts it's a wonder that I find time to breath! But I'm managing somehow. Five weeks until California!!!

The photo challenge today is a photo from one of your classes and I'm not in any right now (technically I am, but it's independent study) and I'm not using my computer right now. If I find one later I'll add it but I think I'm just going to skip this one. Boring.