A Party Hat For Your Pet

A word of warning.  I am not a crafty person, I have more flops and failures than successes so I don't make attempts often.  

We are headed out to greet 2014 at a friend's house tonight and Baby was invited to join us.  I wanted to make her a festive hat to wear because, really, how often is your dog invited to a party.  She is such a tolerant dog.

 I started with some pretty scrapbook paper, ribbon, and some gift pom poms in coordinating colors.  I used an oval piece of wood to help make my shape but you could use any oval tray to trace.  It should look like a triangle with a rounded bottom like the picture on the right.

 Make a cone shape and hot glue the sides together. I attached the ribbon using hot glue as well.

To attach the pom pom I cut corners off the adhesive strip so it is more of a round shape and then I molded it with my hand until it formed a little dome.  Then I put a generous amount of hot glue in the center of the dome and shaped it again over the top of the cone until the glue set.  The entire project took about 10 minutes and cost just under $3.  Don't forget to admire your work on the furry head of your choice.

Christmas 2013

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas!  We certainly did in our household and it has been a busy week.  R and I spent Christmas Eve in our traditional way by spending time together and cooking a great holiday meal.  I was even able to use my new wedding china.  R made some delicious pink red cocktails just to be extra festive.

I set the table for a yummy (and quick!) eve dinner.  We split a Greek salad, purchased pre-made from the grocery deli.  R steamed 12 oysters for an appetizer and we made carbonara with she crab.  The whole meal took about 20 minutes to prep and cook.

 Dinner was too good for words, I'm hoping we can have this same meal on other non-holiday occasions.

 Oh and Santa came while we were eating.

I got a pink Swingline stapler.  I told R back in the Spring that I wanted a pink stapler...and I love Office Space so Swingline is really the only brand it could be.  I'm so surprised that he remembered.  He also bought my favorite tea, a rare treat for me.  And we are wearing Christmas pajamas!  No fancy attire for us, we were comfy the whole day.

R did an excellent job on my gifts, I received a beautiful sweater, my favorite lotion, movies, and I have something special that still hasn't arrived.  R got lots of great goodies as well, including a new coat.

On Christmas morning we woke up early, made some coffee, and traveled East to see R's family. His mom had prepared breakfast appetizers and we took a break to open gifts.  There were 11 people over and her dining room was completely overwhelmed by stockings and gifts.  There were gifts all over the house actually.  She gave each couple a monogrammed, red Santa bag to help us gather our gifts to take home.

 Also to mark my official entry into the family I had my own embroidered stocking.  It's so pretty!

 And gifts happened...

 I received a place setting of china and new duck boots along with numerous other goodies.  R received lots of hunting gear and a new drill among many other presents.

 We ate lunch with R's family - steak, loaded potato casserole, and salad.  It was delicious!  We left soon after the meal to travel to my mom's house.  And our newest family member napped in my Aunt's arms the whole time dinner was being prepared.  This is my youngest nephew, Levi.

 I didn't take pictures of the meal but imagine endless amounts of Southern food.  We took home a lot of leftovers.  We opened gifts with the family and when they left R and I had some quality time with just my mom.  For the second time in the day we opened gifts from Santa - who basically cleaned off the remaining items from our wedding registry.  I have so much china now.  I also got a beautiful new clutch and jewelry.

 Baby loves getting gifts too.  She made out like a bandit with a variety of snacks to start off the new year.

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Christmas is also Baby's birthday!  She is officially 13 years old and after a day of traveling she was ready, willing, and waiting for her birthday cake.

 This one is carob and peanut butter chip. And she became impatient while we sang Happy Birthday.

I hope you enjoyed the scenes from our holiday.  We went shopping the day after Christmas and shockingly I didn't purchase much at all.  We have a lot of decorations so I just picked up some gift bags, tissue, bows, and wrapping paper.  I also bought a cocoa pot on sale along with some cocoa for those chilly January nights.  We will probably take our decorations down this upcoming weekend and start the annual clean out and organizing madness.  I'm actually looking forward to it!

Joy to the World, the Lord has come!

Merry Christmas

oxo

April, Russell, Baby, and Lilly Mae

This Christmas, we celebrate Christmas Eve, just the two of us...

It's been a festive eve over at the Johnson home.

We woke up and make the most delicious brunch quiche complete with mimosas.

R made some amazing beer bread for lunch.  I'm hoping he will share the recipe on the blog soon.  And I wanted to show off my new snowglobe, an early present from hubs.

And I took more tree pictures. A rare moment in history to get a picture of each pet in the same day.

Christmas baking will commence shortly followed by supper for two.  I wish everyone a good night and I hope Santa is very good to all of you!

This Christmas, we hosted a party...

Happy Christmas Eve Eve!  I wanted to share a few photos that R took a couple of weekends ago when we hosted our first Christmas party.  It poured rain that night so not everyone wanted to make the drive into town, which was a major let down, but everyone who came seemed to have a great time.

 I hadn't shared the wedding portrait that we purchased a couple of months ago, I'm in love with it and it helps break up the space of a huge wall we have in the living room. My cat's scratching disk made it into this post, just to keep it real.

 Upstairs shot of the tree and the Santa table that I borrowed from my mom.

 We asked guests to bring a bottle of wine to share.  This was taken before anyone arrived so we set out a few bottles to get the party started.  I loved the invitation so much that I framed a copy on the right, they were purchased from TinyPrints. 

 R snapped this picture before everyone arrived.  I love this sweater dress that I bought on black Friday from The Limited.

 Our spread.

 Baby was dressed for the event.  We used her snowflake collar as a skirt and she wore her party pearls - much quieter than the clinking of her usual dog tags.

Happy Christmas all!  I will probably pop by tomorrow early in the day and post a quick one just for fun.  I'm so excited to have a few days off work.  We have a fabulous brunch and dinner planned for tomorrow and I'm so excited to have a quiet night in with the hubs before the madness of Christmas day travel.

This Christmas, we love cards from friends and family...

I wanted a new card display this year and decided that I took inspiration from several different pins to create my version of a ribbon card holder.  I used a wide plaid ribbon and a much thinner red ribbon down the center.  I stitched them together at the top and looped a piece of twine at the top so I could hang it.

 This ribbon is about 4 foot long and holds about 8 cards.  I used the mini clothespins I purchased for our wedding seating display to attach the cards to the ribbon.

 Twine bow and a better look at the two ribbons stitched together.

Many of our decorations this year featured a red plaid print so this card holder matched perfectly.  Several of these cards were received this week so I was finally able to fill it up. We get between 8 and 12 cards a year so we didn't need a huge display but I didn't want to post it until it was full.  I didn't follow the instructions of any of the pinned inspiration completely but there are some beautiful examples that others have crafted. Mine was definitely more simple ... it took about 15 minutes and I have more ribbon if we get more cards next year to display.

This Christmas, we got "a little" tacky...

A local brewery hosted an ugly Christmas sweater party this weekend and we were so excited about going.  That was before I contracted the terrible chest cold of 2013...seriously I couldn't breath without breaking into coughing fits.  It was also before we discovered that a "sweater" party was on easily the warmest night of the last 3 months.  It's been t-shirt and shorts weather here for the past two days!  We still wanted to go and with no sweaters to wear we had to find a solution fast...fast with no DIY necessary.  Target to our rescue.

Baby was also invited.

 I wish I had felt well enough to "plan" this one out better.  We went to Petsmart hoping for a pre-made sweater and found this adorable reindeer one.  Not tacky at all but it was the only sweater in her size.  She looked so cute in it and received a lot of treats and rubs from fellow party goers.

We took a picture early in the night...these shirts were our last minute festive finds at Target.  R found his t-shirt that has a hideous bell print on it for $1.50 on the clearance rack.  I'm wearing a long sleeve shirt with a cat wearing a beanie surrounded by snowflakes which cost a whopping $12. We were cool at least...because it was 75* and humid.

There were prizes for the best dressed dog (Baby came in third) and for the tackiest man and woman at the party.  Next year I'm hoping we can plan early and go all out.  It was a blast though and we drank delicious beer, played cornhole, and made new friends.

Five On Friday: Movie Nights

In years past I've shared my favorite Christmas movies...ones that make the season more festive.  Pajama clad evenings on the cough with glass of wine in hand and a bowl of popcorn (or a handful of BFF's butter cookies).  However there are other movies...funny ones...that I don't like missing out on either. This is certainly not an extensive list but here is my top five as has become Friday tradition.

Bad Santa (credit Columbia Pictures)

Truthfully I'd watch this one anytime of year.  Billy Bob is hilarious and it's a nice change from the sugar sweet movies commonly found on a certain "female friendly network".    Of course it has a heartwarming ending but a rather naughty storyline.

 Love Actually (credit Universal Pictures)

Another year round favorite.  Bill Nighy is pretty much the best thing ever in this move but watching Hugh Grant's solo dance routine is fairly spectacular as well.  It's one of my favorite movies and almost always my Christmas Eve pick.

 Scrooged (credit Paramount Pictures)

Bill Murray is a comedy king of my childhood.  This is a movie I had forgotten about for many years and now I adore.  Especially the ending, oh I wish I had seen this one in a theater.

 The Holiday (credit Columbia Pictures)

I watched this during the Christmas in July special on television.  Yep, so good I'm willing to watch it with steamy 101* temps going on outside.  I love every scene in this movie - especially the ones of the beautiful stone cottage in Surrey.  The very last scene is the best though - New Years with a few friends dancing and toasting the night away.  My best friend just invited hubs and I to spend NYE at her home and even our pup was invited.  I'm picturing a party very similar to this one except the reality will probably be more sloppy with off-pitch singing and barefoot dancing. 

 Home Alone (credit 20th Century Fox)

Will the kids of the 90's please stand up?  Wasn't this the greatest thing ever when it was released?  I saw it in the theaters and thought how fun it would be to be by myself in a huge house for a few days...maybe without the threat of robbers and not during Christmas because that would be kind of sad.

Oh I wish I could pick more than 5...Christmas with the Kranks anyone?  Christmas Vacation?  Four Christmases?  Fred Claus?  This list could go on and on and on!

Love this weekly party...

The Boys Behind the Blog #7

Linking up with Mallory again for another edition of Boys Behind the Blog where I get to share a little more about my # 1.

Here are the questions this month:

1. What is your favorite cereal? Honey Nut Cherrios

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2. Pancakes or Waffles? Pancakes, definitely.

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3.  What is your favorite holiday tradition? Trimming the tree and going to the lights at Meadow with my wife.

4. Finish the sentence:  All I want for Christmas is...my two front teeth.  It's all I can think of.



5.  What was your best moment of 2013?  Getting married to my beautiful wife. Aw!

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This Christmas, we pin one, we pin all...

Still under the weather, tonight's post will be another simple one...my favorite holiday pins this year.  I've saved a few of them to try in the future and some I hope to get to before next week.  Happy pinning!

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