Pinterest Challenge #1

As I've said, we had a mini Christmas with my brother and his wife while they were here for Thanksgiving.  My sister in law is one of the people I know that loves homemade gifts (not every does!), and so I always go a little bit crazy with making things for her because I love making gifts!  And even better when you know someone appreciates them.  :)

I mentioned the Pinterest Challenge floating around blogs - finding things on Pinterest and making them!  I found several ideas for my presents I made on Pinterest.  Here's what I whipped up...

Homemade Dog Treats

(Jer & Shannon just got a puppy about a month ago)

Original:

Source: comeonilene.com via Kayla on Pinterest

Mine:

I didn't have a dog bone shape, so I just used one of the smallest ones I had!  

This batch was so easy and made a ton, so I bagged some up for my sister's dog too!

iPhone App Magnets

(For my brother, the techie)

 Original:

Source: infarrantlycreative.net via Kayla on Pinterest

Mine:

I turned this cheap gift card box into this "iPhone":

Just a little paint, internet picture and mod podge. :)

Map Picture

Original:

Source: minimozblog.blogspot.com via Kayla on Pinterest

I took this idea and changed it a bit to make it work for Jeremy and Shannon.

Mine:

The three cities they've lived in together.

I printed the states out on photo paper, carefully cut them out and cut out little hearts from red glitter paper that I had.

Lace/Doily Monogram

(I can't find the original one I saw - I guess I didn't pin it!  But, this one is similar:)

Original:

Source: cookiemondays.com via Clara on Pinterest

Mine: FAIL! (I apparently didn't take after pics of mine!! But I changed it up a bit and covered the M completely with lace (Shannon likes lace just as much as I do!).)

Marble Magnets

(These ones are actually fabric, but I had left over paper that was used in Shannon's wedding, so I thought that'd be more meaningful than some random fabric!)

Original:

Source: marthataylorphillips.blogspot.com via Kayla on Pinterest

Mine:

And lastly, my favorite...

Index Card Calendar

(I thought this was so cool, I made one for myself too!)

Original:

Source: designspongeonline.com via Kayla on Pinterest

Mine:

I had picked up four of these very old berry boxes for a buck a long while ago, and I like my sister in law so much, I parted with one of them just for her. :)  I'm in l.o.v.e with them.

I cut pictures out of a book of vintage prints that I picked up at a thrift store, laminated them, and used them as monthly separators.  

I can't wait to start using mine and seeing how it looks 5 years from now with all the fun dates on them. :)

I am looking forward to making a few more presents for my family (and some for myself!) for Christmas.  Bring it on, Pinterest.  Bring it on. :)

Love, K

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Merry Thanksgiving Celebration

We just said goodbye to my brother and his wife, as they headed back up to Portland for a couple days until they fly home to Texas.  It was a wonderful time visiting with them and I'm so thankful that they were able to be here for Thanksgiving!  Next year, they'll stay in Texas for Thanksgiving and come out here for Christmas.  (And hopefully we'll get to see them once in between now and then!)

Thanksgiving was spent relaxing and eating very well.  (And of course, looking at Black Friday ad's).  The day before Thanksgiving, I busily prepared our home for 11 family member's sitting around our table.  Oh, and this happened, too:

"Oh no she di'nt! ... Oh yes, yes she di'id!"

That's right.  We got our Christmas tree the day before Thanksgiving.  Since Jeremy and Shannon couldn't be here for Christmas, we decided to do our gift exchange with them at Thanksgiving - because I'd rather give a gift a month early and give it in person, than just mail it!  So, we thought it needed to be a lil' Thanksgiving and a lil' Christmas up in here for our 'Merry Thanksgiving' Celebration. :)

Pay no attention to my frumpy jeans... :)

Christmas Tree 2011

Wait a minute...this looks familiar...

Christmas Tree 2010

Christmas Tree 2009

Hmm.  Weird.  :)

Back to this year...

Since this was my first year hosting, I had a little fun getting the table set all pretty for the feast!  The week before, I was in my favorite thrift store - the OSU Thrift Store in Corvallis - and had found this awesome little bag of clothespins for 50 cents:

I had never seen little end pieces like that.  Immediately, name card holders came to mind and there was exactly 10 clothespins in the bag that had those end pieces (which is how many I needed to sit at our table.  Ezekiel made 11 people, but obviously I wasn't making his high chair a place setting!).

Call me Grandma, but I'm a sucker for lace and doilies.  I just am.  So I set the table with gold chargers and doilies for everyone.  To keep in theme, I made name cards with shipping tags with doilies cut and glued on.

I tied the napkins with some crochet (? I think?) thread I also found at the OSU Thrift Store for cheap.  It came on the cutest spools.  I know it's a common way for it to come, but I just thought they were adorable (there were 2 shades of red) and I couldn't help but pick them up as well.

I found myself searching my linen closet for a long enough table cloth for having all three leaves added to extend my table...and to no avail.  I didn't own such a long tablecloth.  So what to do?  Grab the nearest light-weight bed cover!  Enter: new and beautiful tablecloth. :)

I just covered it with one of my favorite yellow lacy tablecloths and no one (except mom, who bought me the bed cover) knew that it wasn't a tablecloth! :)

That, and this, was how I decorated for Thanksgiving. :)  Now, back to the actual celebration!

Once the tree was lit, Zeek sat there, 5 feet away from the tree, just staring at it for a good 10-15 minutes before he s.l.o.w.l.y crept towards it to check it out a little better.  He's been really good with it so far!  Not too interested in playing with it - just gently touches some of the branches here and there.  

Staring at the tree - trying to figure it out.

Gathered courage to get a lil' closer.

Family around a table.  Love.

Gift Exchange!

Cool Melissa & Doug Musical Set from Uncle Jer & Aunt Shannon

My first pecan pie!  YUM!

Big Boy hanging out with Grandma

 Cousin Kaiden marching up and down and up and down the hallway (for like a half hour) and Zeek continually on his trail, only stopping to giggle periodically.  :)

 We had such a lovely Thanksgiving with family.   Looking forward to next year with the Anderson side. :)

Hope yours was just as wonderful!
Do you have any special traditions you do for Thanksgiving?

Love, K

Vegas

It's been more than 2 week since we got home from Vegas, and I'm just now pulling the photos off of my camera.  Most vacations, I am completely camera happy and just snapping pictures of absolutely everything.  My dear husband hates it.  He just hates pictures.  So much so, he didn't think I needed to take any pictures of the Florida portion of our honeymoon, because "we both had already been there before"... so, obviously there's no need for new pictures or pictures of the two of us there together, right?  So many of the first half of my honeymoon pictures ended up like this:

or this:

Mid-whining, "more pictures?  Really?

So, this trip, I relaxed and enjoyed our time there without my camera.  We walked the strip about 3 times, but I only took the camera one of the times and didn't take too many pictures, even then.  I figure most people have seen Vegas (or at least pictures) since everyone and their mom (well, ok, except my mom) has been there before.    It was so nice and relaxing to really just be in the moment enjoying our time there and together, instead of always just being behind the camera!

That said, I did take some at least.  Here are the "some". :)

 The flight there - SO cool.  You could see the sunset from above the clouds!  This picture doesn't do it justice.  It was just glowing red.  I wish I could've seen it from the ground!

Flying in over the strip

Inside the Venetian.  I always thought this was outside!

 Watching the volcano erupt outside the Mirage

 Inside the Forum Shops

 Cute silhouette of my boys watching the Bellagio fountain show!  

I think we watched like 4 of the shows!

 Inside the Bellagio!

 The only (and short) time that Zeek fell asleep while strolling the strip.  Too many lights to look at. :)

I didn't even get any pictures of the whole reason we were in Vegas: Skyler playing in the NPPL World Championship Paintball tournament...but, that's probably because I was video taping each game instead.  Skyler's orders.  The first game, I was "fair" and video taped all his teammates a little.  After that, I was scolded "always keep the camera on me!  I need to see how I am playing!" :)  So, with orders like that, there was no way I could put the video camera down to snap a few still shots. :)  

Anyway, we had a great time in Vegas on our mini-family vacation.  Lookin' forward to next year's event. 

Love, K