Christmas in July Party.....

Well, we didn't get as much finished as we wanted but we did make a mess!!

We started much later than the other years. I had a company picnic I had to go to first. When I finally made it to the house at 3:00, we left right away to check out Hobby Lobby. They have most of their Christmas stuff out already. We thought we may need to cruise the aisles for some inspiration first. By the time we finally got started, it was 6:00.

The Wild One decided what she wanted to do but didn't have the supplies she needed so she worked on her Halloween cross-stitch.

The Married One started her Christmas notebook. She definitely has her momma's organizational skills !


Because we felt like we had just started (the Married One finally left at 11:00), we decided to do this next month, too. But next time we will do some pre-planning planning so we can get more work done. But we had a good time anyway. I really enjoyed having time with just us girls. I'm so glad they have some crafty bones in their bodies!

Visions of Christmas Past.....

I am still working hard with Christmas in July, just not ready to post things yet. I am still trying to come up with a project for the CIJ party this Friday. The problem is that both DDs and I have VERY different tastes. That's why the altered clipboards worked so well last year. We could make them our own. I thought about the altered Advent calender on cookie sheets but it is still a countdown like the clipboards last year. I am sure I will come up with something at the last minute. I do my best work under pressure!!


Here is a picture I found this past weekend from Christmas 1963. I'm the cutie with the really bad haircut. This was before sibling 4 and 5 were even born!




And here is just 6 years later. My how we had changed. Remember the fishnet stockings? The Christmas stockings were made by my mom and me. She sewed the red blanks and I cut and glued all the appliques. Sibling 5, sitting on Dad's lap, was born after we made them so he got a store-bought stocking embellished by me. I guess with five kids, Mom didn't have time to sew another blank!




More soon on what I have been doing Christmasy around the house but haven't quite finished it.

Christmas in July Party.....

I've had a Christmas in July party for the last two years. I was hoping this year (since it was on a Saturday) to have it on July 25th. Everyone that I spoke to either can't make it or looked at me like I had grown two heads. What???...thinking of Christmas now? Are you nuts? It's 90 degrees outside.

So I will go back to my tried and true two daughters that think I am perfectly sane. Last year the altered clipboards were all the rage. We had a great time making ours.

This year we will have our traditional breakfast casserole, fresh fruit and coffee (they are both BIG coffee drinkers) after we make a trip to Hobby Lobby. We just need a little inspiration first. Then pop in a good Christmas movie (I think last year we watched 4!)and work on some craft project that I come up with. I just want to make someting that takes about an hour or two. More on the craft project I pick on a later post. After that we will work on whatever we want of our own. DD#2 made Christmas cards two years ago and I think she will make new ones again this year.

Too bad more of my MHH friends don't live closer!

So many goals, so little time.....

I have been trying to figure out how to make the most of CIJ (Christmas in July) and haven't really come up with a solution. The month is almost 25% over and I feel like I haven't really started!

Really the first step is making a list of goals. Perfect! I'm a great list maker! Not a great list do-er but a great list maker. But I have to start somewhere so here goes......

I HAVE to catch up with my notebook. I have a really nice notebook that I started last year. I kept up with it until the week before Christmas then......who knows. It's not in bad shape but just not very current. I caught up with the Christmas card list but not the gift lists. I hope I remember what I gave to each of the kids. How embarrassing to have to ask them what I gave them last year! They know I'm the queen of detail (compared to them). They will get a good chuckle out of it.


I HAVE to come up with some definite craft ideas that I want to make. Lord knows I don't NEED more decorations but I really like doing them. So I have to make me stop oogling over the books and patterns and start something already. There, I sufficiently yelled at myself.


This is one of the many things I came up with last year, inspired by a picture I saw on the internet. Apparently this picture inspired others by the emails I received about it.


Next, I HAVE to come up with a plan for the Twelve Days of Christmas. Last year's was such a hit that I want to do it again. But to keep their interest, I need to come up with another way. And this one HAS to be started early to give enough time to have 60 items to give out. It's not that hard.....just takes a little planning.


That's all I am going to put for now. Three little goals. I just have to keep repeating to myself.....baby steps, baby steps.


If I just spend 30 minutes in the evening working on these things AND I finish them, I can add to the list next week. Like I said.....so many goals, so little time!

Santa visits the Antique Road Show.....

Last weekend, my DD #2 had tickets to the Antique Road Show being held in Raleigh. When she asked what she could take, I didn't hesitate........the family Santa.

This fella has been in our family for as long as I can remember. Dad told me it had been around the house he grew up in as long as he could remember and he was born in 1926.

As you can see, he is made of wicker with marbles for eyeballs. He even has a wicker tongue.

See his ears? Such detail....

Unfortunately, the dude that DD #2 spoke with had absolutely no clue about him. When she pulled it out of the bag at the "sorting" table, everyone gasped. No one had ever seen one before. Not even the staff....and neither did the appraiser dude. He guessed it was from the 50's or 60's which would put Dad's story way off. But Dad probably didn't pay attention to what his mother decorated the house with at Christmas.

Does anyone else have a clue? I'm thinking of sending the picture in to Country Living or something like that.....but any help from blogging world would be much appreciated.

On the First Day of Christmas.....

This past Christmas I tried out a new tradition with my family. I had blogged about it on my other blog but didn't mention it on this one. Silly me!

I wanted to do something that would extend the holidays a little longer. All of my children are adults now (at least chronologically-speaking) so sometimes doing cutesy things doesn't work so well with them.

So I decided the Twelve Days of Christmas would be perfect. Every day from December 26 until January 6th, I gave each of the 4 quasi-adults and Dear Hubby a gift. If you do the math, that is 60 gifts! Good thing I started collecting gifts back last July. Some were only a $1 at the Dollar spot section of Target.....some were as much as $5.00 ($5.00 DVDs at Wal-Mart are great).

Each gift was put in a white lunch sack with a note stapled to the front about a different meaning for each day. Something I got off the internet. Each bag was stamped with their initial and a star(s) for whatever numbers of days it was (bad english, I know....can't help it).

I had a lot of fun collecting the goodies. Suprisingly, everyone really enjoyed it. Even the boys! Dear Son #1 went back to his home with all 12 bags in tow and told me he did not cheat by opening all of them at once.

And the best surprise was.....after Dear Hubby learned what I was doing, he went out and quickly bought 12 little gifts for me so I would have something to open, too. Isn't he just the sweetest guy? He didn't exactly go by the rules. Most of his gifts couldn't fit in the white lunch bags.

This year I hope to do the same thing but I'm going to really put my thinking cap on to come up with a different way to present them. Gotta mix it up!