North Pole Breakfast and Frosty Scooby Doo

We started a new tradition this year. We had our first North Pole Breakfast and elf visit. It was a success. Our theme for the part was winter wonderland ( I thought since we live in the land of winter for about 6 months of the year, why not). I found these cute printables on Etsy.

Lots of cute printable but I decided on this theme all because of the fabric I had purchased.

The elf was busy decorating from the lights. Hmmmm, how did he do that. {one thing this breakfast lacked was pictures of my kids. They were present but I only got one good one of Evan and no good ones of Emma = ( }

That little elf made marshmallow dips. He brought snowballs from the North Pole too. Santa even threw in some Santa mix ( you can kind of see it on the left side.) Strangely my kids didn't like the Santa mix (it is Captain Crunch Christmas mix and I bought 2 boxes.)

The elf was reading the Elf on the Shelf. So we read it too to introduce Mr. Elf. We also had muffins.

Here is a view of the table.

The elf also left a little gift. His shoe had snowman stickers and a giant pencil. We had milk in the jars.

The elf left a note letting the kids know who he is and what they needed to do.

Here is Evan enjoying the morning. He is more into it than Emma but they do look for it every day and they both talk about their elf too.

So yes, his name is officially Frosty Scooby Doo!

A sweet pillow

I just had to post the cute pillow I had made for me for Emma's room. I am collecting "Now I lay me down to sleep" samplers for her room. I found this one on Etsy and just fell in love. It was a huge piece of fabric but we cut it down to fit into a pillow. I found fabric for the back and the cute trim at Hobby Lobby while I was in Texas. Here is the finished product.

Here is a close up of the pillow. The little girl is so sweet and the stitching is so neat to me. I also thought the girl looked like Emma. The fabric behind her is Emma's quilt. I am doing a vintage look in her room.

Here is a close-up of the adorable trim I found. I just love this trim and wish I would have bought the whole bolt. I would love to trim a lamp shade in this too.

More to come on her room once I finish painting her bed and a cabinet and rearranging her room a little. I also may try to some type of craft for her room too. I know, hard to believe, but I really want to craft more. Especially after seeing all the fun things my nieces do.

Back to School party

Well now that school is in session I thought I would finally post my back to school party. (Please excuse the poor quality photos- I cannot find the cord to my nice camera so had to use my other one and I also forgot to put my glasses on. OOPS!)

The first few pics are of the center piece. I found the vintage globe at a garage sale for $3. I thought it was a good deal and it is in really good shape. I thought it worked perfectly for my tablescape. I found the printables off of someone's blog and I cannot remember were now. I need to learn to give credit were credit is due. I also liked how it seemed vintage like too.

In looking at my pictures I realized this is not the complete center piece. I also had a pencil vase with fresh flowers. Please excuse the mess on my hutch in the background. These pics were pre-party.

I really liked how my mantel turned out. I kept it really simple and love the results and will do the same next year. The banner is back to school fabric from etsy. It too has a vintage feel to it. (Sorry for the blurry picture.)

This is a shot of my flowers looking down at them. I added rulers and pencils into the mix of flowers. I thought it turned out cute. I got the idea from the Celebrate Fall magazine by Phyllis Hoffman.

These are the goody bags I did for the kids. I filled them with back to school supplies and age appropriate since I had a mix of ages.

Here is a picture of the table before the kids saw it. Please disregard the boring looking plate in the bottom of the pic. That was my plate and I should have removed it for the picture.(I really should learn photoshop.)

This is what everyone's placemat looked like. I used black scrapbook paper and wrote their names on it. Very simple and I thought it looked cute.

Underneath everyone's plate I wrote a little personalized message. They all loved it.

My attempt at a sandwich made to look like a cake. Very cute but do it for only a few kids not 5! You use a lot of bread and you waste a lot of bread. Kids LOVED it though. So worth the work put into it.

And finally I served cupcakes that looked like apples. The kids loved those too. The stems were tootsie rolls and the leaves were starbursts.

So there you have the back to school party. We also played Back to School bingo which I purchased off of Etsy. The kids enjoyed that too. I will have to do it again next year. It was so fun and worth all the energy that went in to it.

Too much RAIN

NOTE ** this is more of a post for my memory**

While most areas having been dealing with heat and no rain, here in the upper midwest we have had plenty of rain. We have also had lots of humidity due to all the moisture in the air.

A few weeks ago we had yet another storm. This one came in the early morning, around 5 a.m. I was sound asleep and awoke to a noise. I thought to myself, is that the wind?! I rolled over to discover that the power had gone out and came back on. So I thought maybe that was what I heard, you know, all the noise that is there when we have power but don't realize until you have no power. So I went back to bed. Well Evan and I got up around 6:30 did our usual morning routine. I went to open the blinds and the front door and this is what I saw!! A HUGE tree branch had landed on our side walk. Thankfully missing the garage. It doesn't look too large, but trust me it was.

Of course I went out to see the damage and heard chainsaws. My neighbors to the right of me lost 2 giant trees in their front yard. One of which was covering his driveway. Thankfully they had no damage either. They also have 2 cars that are parked in the driveway nightly. Here is there mess.

This is looking from behind my garage to their house. Another tree lost. They also lost a 2 huge trees by the lake. One hitting their dock but not their boat.

When I came back to our house I notice this tree on the side of your house uprooted. I sleep on that side. I am so glad the wind went the way it did. Thankfully we didn't lose any more trees. That tree is large but our precious pines held it up. One received a lot of damage. Another thing, these are crappy trees so we were glad to see it go.

This is just another big branch down in the yard. We had several of these type of branches down in our backyard as well.

The only good thing about all the rain is that our lake has come up a lot this year. We have been is such a low moisture pattern for a long time. IT is definitely very lush and very buggy!! YUCK!

I think it was determined that we had straight line winds but it looks like a tornado to me. There were only 3 houses with major tree damage or loss. Our house and the ones on either side of us.

One thing I learned through all this is that people are really kind and want to help. The hubby was out of town and I was home alone with 2 little ones and trying to clean up a mess. Both neighbors, who lost trees, came to help me clean up. One even cut up the big branch so we could use the sidewalk. Be kind to your neighbors. You never know when you may need them.

Getting Ready!!

I think I am ready to give this blog thing another try. So brace yourselves for more than one post this week. ( of course my computer acts up so if it takes a few days you will know why.)

I thought I would have my first post be about getting ready for "back to school". School doesn't officially start for us until September 8th but I will be a hosting a small back to school party for my some dear friends of ours. It will hopefully turn out good ( I have lots of ideas but until it actually happens, well you know how that goes.) So I have been a crafting fool for the last few days. Here are a few things that I have made.

Pencil vases ( side note, hot glue does not hold the pencils. I will be trying double sided tape. I read this is a magazine and should have tried it right away.) These will be great for the table and for a little present for the Mom. I also thought maybe a great teacher gift for open house night. Still chewing on that.

ABC letters. I have had these letters in my stash for a few years. Finally decided to craft them up a bit. I still might add a little bling to them.

Crayons in a vase. Simple addition for tablescaping. Just add a bow and you are good to go.

Picture in frame. I love the saying and it is my motto for my kids. Just be creative and don't worry about perfection.

Lastly, a no sew table cloth, for the kids table. Thanks for the idea Sue. I just loved the fabric. I bought 1 yard and added some pom pom fringe with hot glue. Instant cuteness!! I will be making more of these.

I am excited to do more for this party. I also bought a banner on Etsy (shown in picture).

I will also be posting some of my trash to treasure items too. Hope they turn out the way I am envisioning.

Linking to Kim for Wow us Wednesdays.

Sometimes a small change goes a long ways

We have done a few changes to our living room and dining room. Because the main level of our house in sooo open it is really hard to create a cohesive space with paint. My living room and dining room ( hallway and entry) used to be a very light yellow, which I loved. It was a bright space when the sun shines and still bright on the gloomiest of days. However, my hubby just wasn't loving it. Yes, he has a say in the decorating. Bummer, I know. So we painted and we also painted our woodwork. The woodwork got painted over the summer. When that happened our window treatments came down and I just was growing very tired of them. ( they had been up for 11 years) Here is the space prior to all the changes.

Another view of the living room. ( these were taken in the fall and when we had our house on the market. Hence, the minimal things around.)

Well, here is the paint, painted trim and our new drapes. It is hard to get good pictures now with the darker paint and the doom and gloom of our winter. ( the drapes are tied and will be for a week or so, so the pleats will hang right.)

A close up of the drapes. It is hard to get a true picture of the color. They aren't this bright in person. This is also the new wall color. My whole main floor is the same color. Not sure if it will remain but for now it will.

Here are the two drapes together. The toile is in my kitchen. ( we have a sliding door here)

So what do you think?

Dreaming...........

Dreaming!!! Yes, that is what I am doing today. It is what you do when you have had 5, yes 5, months of snow. I am really sick of looking at this view EVERY day (and of course the water is completely frozen too). And there is no end in sight. It sounds like we are going to get another significant snowfall early next week. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!! (can you tell the winter blues have set in?) Minnesota can be very pretty but for me after Christmas the snow can go. I want to see green grass and flowers blooming.

So dreaming I do. I would much rather see this view (weeds and all) than snow. I want my kids to play in the sand and run barefoot ( oh wait, I want that too.)

I want to garden and look at all the pretty flowers!

But most of all, I want these beauties to bloom again. It is a sure sign that spring is here and warmer days are ahead.

Oh how I love peonies! I cannot wait to plant more in our spring project. More to come on that when all the snow is gone ( it could be May).
What are you dreaming of?

Christmas Eve

Yes, I know Christmas is long over but I am just getting to some pictures. I am not sure where January is going but it does seem to be flying by. We had a wonderful Christmas season, but I am glad to be done. The decorations are put away and the house feels so clean now. Oh how I love the Christmas decorations though. First up I thought I would share my Christmas Eve table. I was very happy with how it turned out. Every Christmas Eve we spend it with my 3 brothers, all of whom are single. So here is the table set for 5. Emma and Evan sat at one end but I didn't put out the good stuff for them. I am also pretty certain that my brothers wouldn't care it I set a fancy table so I strictly do this for me and Jim. (thank goodness he likes things like this.) On my buffet you can kind of see part of my snow village. For some reason, I cannot find the other half to my village. It looked very pretty in person.

Here is a view from one end of the table. ( I forgot to remove the price from the poinsettia, oops.)

Here is a close-up of the table setting. Nothing to fancy.

A close up. I did birds with candle holders and my crystal pieces that were wedding gifts. I just love the hurricanes. I used part good china and part every day. It seems when my brothers are here something gets broken or spilled. Thankfully nothing broke but Emma pulled the table cloth and one of the votives splashed onto the tablecloth. I hope it will come out. This happened last year but that was done by one of my brothers. Aargh..... Oh well, always a memory.

Here is Scott. He never can give you a normal smile.

Here is Emma with Dad. Not sure what her look is but she just got some ice cream toys and loved them. Funny how all her uncles remembered another niece getting these exact ones a few years ago. I was impressed that they remembered!

I just love this picture. Evan was so into his toys and when he opened this one he got so excited and it made us all laugh. Evan and Todd had a lot of fun together that night.

Another hit was the recordable books from Auntie Sue. Emma especially loves her book. She was just reading it again today and is beginning to memorize the story. I am very proud of her and these books are a hit. I will have to get more of them for her.

Sorry, more Christmas pictures are coming. January isn't a very exciting month for pictures so bear with me.