And the winner is....

With all the busyness of Christmas, I forgot to post the winner of my "Guess What's On My Treetop" contest. If you look carefully at my open house photos, you will see that I have nothing on my treetop! We tried to put the tree top decoration on, but it looked awful because the tree stem was so long and thick. Not daring to try and trim it back, since we had already decorated the whole thing, we just left it without a treetop decoration. I could just see hubby trying to cut off the top of the tree and the whole thing getting knocked over!

So, the winner of the random drawing is........Theresa! Congratulations to you. I'll be sending you a goodie package in the next couple days. Thanks to all who played. Happy New Year to you all!

Welcome to Our Christmas!

Well, it's the morning before Christmas. I'm sitting here on the sofa, drinking coffee, watching the snow fall and wondering what to post about. There is so much, how do I choose? Maybe I'll have a brownie and think it over...by the way, THANKS for those delicious brownies, Cindi! - I did manage to keep them hidden - (wink).

We have already begun to celebrate Christmas. My husband's parents have all the kids, grandkids, and greatgrandkids over the weekend before Christmas to visit, open gifts and of course, pig out (my favorite part!). It is always so much fun. My Mother-In-Law always hides the pickle ornament and has a special gift for the one who finds it. She makes lots of yummy treats and spoils the grandkids. My Father-In-Law always pretends to be annoyed with all of the commotion of opening gifts and such. I love it. My favorite part of Christmas this year was watching our son's face show true happiness. It isn't often that I capture him with a natural smile. How can you top that?

This year hubby and I made most of our gifts. He is at the shop finishing up his now. I can't wait to see how his turn out!! I made lots of goodies (see earlier posts) too, and it's been fun delivering them to family and friends. I will be late with some, as usual, (sorry, Cindi) but that's just me. I like to spread the Christmas Season out as long as I can. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.

Christmas morning is quiet at our house. We empty stockings and check to see if Santa ate all his cookies. It wasn't always like that. When ds was little, he didn't go for the whole "Santa Thing". I asked him one year "what would you like Santa to bring you for Christmas?" and he said "NOTHING!" So I said, "If Santa doesn't bring the presents, how will you get them?" and he said "Nana will do it." And he pointed his little finger at my mom and said to her "And never mind the red suit, either!" At least now we can just pretend Santa filled the stockings and have fun with it.

As kids, we always got fruit, nuts and candy in our stockings, along with many other treasures. As we opened gifts, we snacked on these treats until breakfast time. Breakfast varied from year to year, but we always HAD to have those Pillsbury Orange Sweet Rolls in the can. My mom always baked Christmas goodies from scratch, but it was a treat to my brother and I to eat these rolls for Christmas morning. We didn't get them the rest of the year, so it was special for Christmas. It has become our tradition. I know, heart attack in a can, but mmmm...they taste so good! It just wouldn't be right for Christmas morning to start any other way.

This is a new tradition started by our son. After breakfast we get dressed in our new Christmas clothes and head out to the movies. Jacob (dear son) LOVES movies. They are an obsession for him. He always chooses the Christmas Day Movie. This year he picked out BEDTIME STORIES. I'll let you know how it turns out!

After the movie, we come home and eat more food, hang out and listen to Christmas music or watch more Christmas movies. We may visit family, or have family and friends over. Since there is already plenty of snow this year, we may take the snowmobiles out for their first spin of the season.

That's about it. We just love Christmas at our house and I'm so pleased to be able to share it will all of you. Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to leave a comment for me. I'll randomly choose a winner from all those who leave a comment and send you a Christmas Present....Is this the start of a new tradition??? Merry Christmas to you all!

Next stop for Christmas Open House Around the World is: Sherri/iloveflipflops in North Carolina!

http://sherri-iloveflipflops.blogspot.com/

Gift making is almost done!

Sorry about not keeping up with my Daily Adventures. It's been kind of nuts. Here is a pic of some of the gifts I have made. Some were craft fair items that didn't sell. I framed several photos taken by my son and myself, I decorated a journal, made cocoa mix, and cookies. The lamp was made from a second hand teapot and a plain shade I decorated using my sizzix die. I'm giving that to Ralph because he didn't want me to sell it. He swears he will finish his gifts tomorrow. I can't wait to see what he does. Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Hot Cocoa

Today's gift making adventure was easy. Well, except for the part where I messed up the recipe...but it still came out yummy! I made up these little bags of hot cocoa mix for all our nieces and nephews. I found the cute bags at a local shop called CAKES BY JAN, filled them with cocoa mix and tied on a candy cane. Too easy!!! Tomorrow I'll bake cookies and each child will get a bag of cookies and a bag of cocoa.

Here is the recipe for Sherri's Famous Hot Cocoa Mix:

16 oz Nestle Quik
16oz Cremora
16 oz bag Confectioner's Sugar 10x
25.6 oz box Powdered Milk

Mix all together. Add 3-4 Tablespoons mix to 8oz boiling water.

Gift Card Holders

Today I have been making these great gift card holders. I got the idea from my craftin' friend, Cindi, who got it from our craftin' friend Christie, who can't remember where she got the idea, but has shared it with all of us at the Stamp Shack. They are very simple to make. I basically used some card stock, envelopes, rubber stamps, ribbons, brads, and paper punches to make these. Oh, and of course, I used Stickles and my CuttleBug. I can't do anything lately without those two things! Inside each will be a a small Christmas card/tag and a few gift certificates to various local restaurants taken from certificate books that hubby had to sell for his Lion's Club. I copped one and divied it up amongst our brothers and sisters, parents and friends. Voila! quick and fabulous gifts for the masses!

Poll Contest

I just decided this morning to add a poll question to my blog, and I thought it might be fun to do it as a contest. I will take guesses as to what tree topper I have on my tree until Christmas Morning. I'll do the "Big Reveal" later that day. I'll randomly choose a winner from all correct guesses. There will be a small prize, just not sure yet what that prize will be. Thanks for playing! Oh, I almost forgot, please leave a comment telling me what your guess is with your Shack name in the comment section of this post, otherwise, I won't know who guessed what!
Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Photo Album

OK, so my adventures in gift making haven't been DAILY. But, I did manage to complete a photo album for my mother in law today. I used a 6x6 album that I already had and some Christmas patterned paper left over from last year. I dug out stickers, ribbons, brads and stamps and spent the afternoon putting it together. Here are a few pics of the pages. I hope she likes it!

I wonder how hubby is doing with his gift making...

A New Challenge

As you all know, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. The snow has begun to fall, it's getting colder outside, we've been drinking more hot chocolate lately, and everyone is out shopping...I hate that part. Being out in the crowds and trying to find gifts that I can afford, and that family members will actually want, is not my idea of a good time. And so, to "lighten my load" and "make things easier for me", this year my dear hubby has given me a challenge: I am to make all gifts being given for Christmas. My response: I will if you will. So, I thought this blog would be a fun place to chronicle my daily adventures in this endeavor. So, I'm off to make my list, check it twice, and budget my time this year, instead of my money. With all the massive amounts of art supplies in my studio, I shouldn't have to spend much money at all! I welcome suggestions and ideas from all of you. I'm always up for a new idea. I'll be back later with my first idea. Until then, Merry Christmas to you all!

Wisdom has built her house

This is a 5x5 canvas I made for a Ladies Bible Retreat that I recently attended. I make cards every year to give to the ladies for encouragement. A couple of years ago my friend, Martha, who organizes this wonderful event, asked me to make some gift items and to show the ladies how they could make them and use them to bless others. I am studying Proverbs in one the Bible classes I attend, and we came upon the Proverb 9:1 and I thought of doing this canvas based on that first part of the verse. We would all do well to build our houses with God's wisdom, rather than just beams and boards. I thought this canvas would be a nice reminder of how even though material blessings are nice and are from God, the real value is simply in the wisdom he gives us.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7

Here are a few of the cards and tags I made.

First FencePost

This is my first fence post on my new blog! How exciting! I am hoping this will inspire me as well as all of you to create more, read more, and be more adventurous in your art. Right now I am really into taking "junk" along with "stuff" I have around the house and making it into something beautiful and purposeful. The first piece I created on this adventure is a small decorative lamp. I used an old candlestick light, and a rustic caserole dish from a local second hand shop. I had (at home) an unused lampshade, some beautiful dried flowers and pinecones (given to me by a very dear friend), some fabric scraps, a little paint, rubberstamping ink, put it all together, and came up with this cute, rustic lamp. I think it's great and my husband really thinks it's great, because I only spent $1.50 on it. LOL! I hope it inspires you to do something similar. Have fun and be creative.

Ye are the light of the world. ~ Matthew 5:14