Todays Mama Giveaway

So the other day, while I was attempting to catch up on my blog reading I found this fun post over on Alison's blog which led me to this GREAT giveaway at Today's Mama.
Can you believe all the amazing stuff they are giving away?
I HAD to enter!!

Look at all those amazing goodies!

OK, so here is my entry - a full on Christmas post, with all the trimmings!
Wish me luck (oh, and go enter yourself! You have time!)

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?

this movie

this cd

this book

anything from this store

and a housekeeper in a pear tree

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?
This is hard because my whole family has been doing "handmade Christmas" for years. I honestly don't know if I could choose.

3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?
I have always wanted to make candles in vintage tea cups.

4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
I think it was the year we got a VCR and my dad had spent months recording movies for us in secret off of the TV. That year I got the movies Anne of Green Gables and White Christmas on VHS and both changed my life forever.

5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?
Miles wants a store that he can set out in the front yard and sell his wares. Wonder where he got that instinct from? He also wants all kinds of craft supplies, including lots of tape. Gotta love that kid. Wylie wants Beatles Rock Band which is probably not going to happen...At least not this year. He also wants an old fashioned wooden toy musket since Luci chewed up his other one. That one might be doable.

6. What is your favorite holiday food?
Cookies dough, hands down. Though I also do love pie. Lots of and lots of pie.

7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?

Well I can't tell you because then you would know what you are getting. But I did find an amazing deal on Metal Cookie Cutters at Hobby Lobby. 25 cookie cutters for 4.99 and then they were 40% off of that! So this year everyone will be getting one of these Martha inspired ornaments on their gifts. That much I can reveal.

8. What is your favorite holiday movie?

The Family Stone.

But I also love White Christmas, Mixed Nuts, The Family Man, Love Actually, Elf, The Christmas Story, Miracle on 34th Street (both versions) It's a Wonderful Life, Little Women, Charlie Browns Christmas and The Bishops Wife.
I am a bit of a Christmas-aholic.

9. Favorite holiday song?

Oh this changes every year based on my mood... This year I am obsessed with a song called Winter Snow off of the Chris Tomlin Christmas Worship Album.
Oh Holy Night is one of my favorite Carols.

10. Favorite holiday pastime?
Um, all of it??
I am one of those people who likes it all, really I do. I love the crafting, the decorating, the parties, the baking, the gift wrapping, the shopping, the singing, the whole deal.
But my absolute favorite time of the Holidays is the week between Christmas and New Years. I love how calm that week seems to be. How new and fresh everything is. I love to just sit under my tree, drink hot chocolate (which stays up until Epiphany) and just take it all in - the whole past year, the coming year. All of it.

OK, so I answered all the questions now it is your turn!

today was a good day and I am now full

colorful weekend

This past weekend, my little church was full of life and celebration!
On Saturday we hosted a Craft Fair all day (some proceeds went to good causes)
and then Sunday after church we had our second annual "Advent Event" which is where we make things like Advent Garlands & Advent Wreaths (among other fun projects) to get ready for the season of Advent (which starts next Sunday!) and do work projects around the building, getting ready for the holiday season.

These are just a few snapshots from those activities...

a little craft fair

Storia HOME will be in the craft way tomorrow morning.
This is a wee craft fair at my little church & I will not be "fully" stocked up, but I will have some fun holiday treats to peddle.
Also there will be free cookies and coffee, so if you are near stop by

R Street Community Church from 9-5

pie-off

The time is coming to make some pies for Thanksgiving and Martha's 1st Annual Pie Off (I swear I will get off my Martha kick after this post - at least until the end of November!) I am extremely inspired. I made my first pie last Thanksgiving (using Martha's pie crust recipe - easy peasy!)


I think this year I want to make some sort of chocolate-pecan pie and maybe an apple pie? Or some other fruit perhaps?


Do you have a favorite pie recipe I should try? Do you make pies for Thanksgiving?

things I have learned about myself

as I have gotten older...

if I have to clean my house, it helps me to have cute tools.

Thanks to my pal Sara I now don't mind doing the pots and pans.
I never realized how much I HATED greasy dirty dishwater until these pink ladies came along.
Now I do the dishes without any fear or hesitation and now
thanks to Marfa (@ Macy's) I can now dust in style.

tabletop trees

This is my new (hand-me-down!) bench that now sits in front of the living room window.
I am totally in-love with this bench and am already thinking of all the things I can stack and display on it (besides people's behinds when we have a full house!)

The one thing I am positive about, is that this year we will have a live "table tree" in a metal bucket sitting on it for sure.
I have always loved table tree's and can't wait to play with this idea in a few weeks!

Here are a few of my favorite table trees:

Martha is the QUEEN of table trees. This is cover of one of her Christmas books.


This is one inside it's pages...


This is one from Country Living's Christmas book.
(great book by the way!)

And of course, from Martha's website.
This is more the size I think ours will be, but I hope to display the presents all around like pictures 2 & 3, on and below the bench.

Oh, I can't wait!

good enough fairy tales and such

Sometimes "good enough" is really good enough.

Sometimes it really is just about showing up, being present and doing what you can in the moment....

Yesterday was just one of those days.

When we arrived at school Friday, I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to pay for Wylie's field trip and had no idea what time they were leaving and that I had forgotten to remind Nathan who was chaperoning!
After handling that minor crisis in the office (God bless those ladies!!,) I started to head upstairs to the Middle School floor, but before I got very far, here came Miles around the corner with big 'ole tears in his eyes. See, I had also forgotten it was "Fairytale Character Day" in Kindergarten.
After some careful (yet speedy) discussion we decided that he could be a King and I would run into the teachers lounge and whip him up a Crown and a Sword, while he went and finished his breakfast.
So using what I could find (paper for crown, wooden ruler and paper for sword) and swathing him in my blue scarf as his "sash" I quickly created a costume fit for a King. Or at least one that was good enough. Miles was pleased as punch and happily trotted off to class, slaying dragons as his went. When we got home at the end of the day (having shed the cumbersome sash by then) he found an old cellophane Halloween treat bag, cut it up and made a cape all by himself. He then added a gold belt, and Voila! King Miles II was born.
I once heard about a study that said that mothers were the determining factor in whether their children turn into primarily optimistic or pessimistic adults.

I am going to take Miles adaptability regarding the potential fairy take costume debacle as a sign I am doing my job well.
Or at least that I did it well on Friday.

On the home front, my Thanksgiving decorating is also falling under the "good enough" category. This bowl of little pumpkins and a banner are about as far as I have gotten.
But you know what? It really is good enough!