Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

I just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Enjoy your time with family and friends and be grateful for all the blessings you have in life :)

Christmas Ready

Is everyone ready for Christmas!? I know I am! Just have a few more presents to wrap tonight and I'm done :) I can honestly say, this has been one of the most relaxing and fun Christmas times. This Christmas we aren't going home, so we haven't had the whole chaotic last minute packing or traveling. Although we will miss our families so much, we decided to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas just the 3 of us. Today, I thought I would share some of my favorite pictures from this month :)

 Ethan loves the Christmas Tree this year :)

 Christmas Kisses? My fav!

 Having fun outside with decorations

 Winter time

 Playing with snow

 On a mission to get some snow :)

 "Cheese!" Our 1st gingerbread house (& our new family tradition)

 December would not be complete with out a Santa picture!

What are your Christmas plans? Christmas Eve we plan on having a Toy Story marathon, baking cookies for Santa, and opening a few presents. Ethan's all time favorite movies are all 3 Toy Story. Since he has become a bit obsessive with them, we got him all the Toy Story characters and any toy to do with Toy Story for Christmas. I even caved in and got him the Toy Story bedding (soon will come his toddler room transformation. so bittersweet). He will be the most excited and happy little boy! Christmas day I will be cooking turkey dinner with all the fixings, yum yum! The whole day will be devoted to family bonding time :) I can't wait to just have some low key time with my boys! The day after Christmas we are expecting my husbands parents and we have a friends dinner to go to, so overall it will be the perfect Christmas :) 

I hope everyone enjoys their Holidays!! 

Had to post some of my last year favorites :) Can't believe how fast time goes by!

My Cookie Monster

I have devoted the next two days to baking cookies. I have so many to make before Christmas, so this morning little man and I started to bake. I love baking with Ethan! He is my little cookie monster, and he loves to help (and eat). Here's what we whipped up this morning.

These Hershey kisses peanut better cookies have been my favorite cookies to make ever since I was pregnant with Ethan, when all I craved were sweets :) I saw the reindeer cookies in parents magazine and had to try them out. They are so cute & very tasty!

Now I'm off to the gym to burn off the five pounds I've gained from eating so much cookies! And get ready for some more baking fun tonight. Have a good day! :)

Christmas Frame

I've seen these frames on many different blogs and websites, they looked simple and cute so I decided to create a couple as gifts. I love these homemade frames! They allow you to be creative, pick your own colors and own design. I plan on making some for around my house in the future, but for now here is my first homemade picture frame. 

I made this Christmas one as a trial frame. In case you've never seen them, here's a short tutorial. 

Pick a color that goes along with your design. I used a Christmas scrapping paper from Hobby Lobby, to go with it I picked a burgundy color and mixed with with white to make it lighter. Paint the back, inside, and outside edges.

Trace your frame onto the scrapping paper and cut.

Coat both the frame and the paper with mod podge and stick onto frame. Press down and move outward to make sure to get rid of any bubbles. Let dry 20 mins. If there is any overlapping paper on the edges, use a piece of sandpaper to sand down the edges and get rid of any excess. See how simple it is! The other one I made was for a family member for Christmas, so I wont spoil the surprise :)

Picture frame: $3.99 @ Hobby Lobby

Scrapbooking paper: $.59 @ Hobby Lobby

Paint: Free (already had it) but usually around $1 @ Walmart

Mod Podge: free (already had on hand) but about $4.50 @ Hobby Lobby

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Here's to New Beginnings!

After thinking about it for a couple weeks, I have finally decided to rename my blog. I wanted something that seemed more like me and reflected what my blog is about. Without further ado, welcome to the new Momma's {me} time. I feel like this title is something that is important to all mothers, having a little "me" time can really make a difference in our day. Whether it be a little relaxing time, drinking a cup of coffee, watching a guilty pleasure, or even blogging :) My momma's me time is crafting, fitness, and photography. These are my 3 favorite things to do that help me get through the week. Starting 2011, I've decided to add a new fitness section to my blog. This section will be completed with fitness tips, tricks, and helpers to staying healthy and fabulous. I am really excited about this section and about the new name. So here is to new beginnings and hopefully building a better blog <3


BTW I am also working on a new header and blog design. This one is just temporary. I couldn't wait to start the new name, so I quick created this one. So please follow me and check back for updates!

Girly Christmas Trees

I've been working on these Christmas trees the past couple days, and I am really excited to share them! They are so fun and girly. Made out of rose petals and silver pearls.  Perfect for a girly girl :)

I saw this tree on Pier 1, and I loved it! So I wanted to make something similar, but more girly.

To make this tree I use red rose petals I found at the dollar store. 

I used a hot glue gun to glue them on. Here's what it looked like half way through.

When I got all the way to the top I wanted it to resemble a flower so I added some beads for the middle and hot glued them on. I also added some glitter to the petals for some extra bling :)

I then glued some silver pearls around the body of the tree. For the bottom of the tree I hot glued on an extra candle holder I had. I thought it would be fun to add some beads to the bottom as well. 

This was super easy and so fun! Christmas isn't usually girly, so I love how they turned out!

For the second tree, I cut the petals smaller and made a little flower, glued on a silver bead, and hot glued it on the tree. This tree was way less time consuming!

Last picture of the final product! What do you think?

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Polly Want a Crafter 

DIY Joy Sign

With school being over and tons of extra time on my hands, I've decided to devote myself to crafting! Since I had some extra wood signs laying around the house I decided to make a glitter joy sign. I wanted something to go along with my kitchen with a little distress look. Here is the final product:

To do this all you need is a small piece of wood. I had this oval one laying around so I thought joy would look perfect on it. First I painted the wood with two different shades of red, bright red for the first coat and a dark burgundy for the second.

Here are the two different colors.

Then for the final coat I mixed the two colors together to achieve this. Here it is all dried and ready for the letters. See how the different coats make the sign look more distressed, kinda a vintage feel :)

In between coats, I created the letters. For the letters I just used the bottom of a gift box. The cardboard was thin, so it was easy to do and when I glue them on the sign it will make them pop a little.  I wrote the letters out by hand, cut them, and painted them white.

Then when everything was dry, I modge podge the letters on. I also modge podge the top of the letters and added white glitter. 

See how the letters pop? I ended up doing 3 coats of glitter.

Here's a close up. Because I didn't feel the sign looked complete, I added some "snowflakes" with white paint, sprayed over the top with a little white spray paint, and sanded it down a little to give the distress look and show the different colors of red. 

Here is the final product! Hope you like it :)

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The Shabby Nest

Snowfall

I was so excited this morning when I woke up and saw snow on the ground! (could this girl be missing WI a little? maybe a tiny bit :) I was more excited because I couldn't wait to take Ethan out to play. It was the first snowfall of winter, well technically it was the second but does it count if it melts before noon!? well back on subject, when Ethan woke up and I told him it snowed he lit right up and said "sno, sno!" So after breakfast we bundled up and went out to play. Of course I took my camera along! Here's a sneak peek :)