Can't believe it.....

to my Little Keeper!

SURPRISE Sundae!

I asked him how he felt about being 5 this morning and he said

"Old!"

Gotta love the mind of a kiddo!

Creative Gifitng....

This year I really tried

to make use of items I already had

and a bit of my creative talents

for Christmas gifts.

 

This little item is one 

that I made especially for my sister

and her husband...

 

I had seen a similar one on

Pinterest as a Wedding Cake topper.

The grooms Tux on Pinterest had a Chicago Bears jersey

so I customized it for them with the CUBS since they are huge fans...

 As you can see here in one of their

engagement photos...

I wasn't able to finish it in time for her wedding

so 

instead I made it so she could leave it out year round 

or

 as a Christmas Ornament...

Did you make any of your gifts this year?

I'd love to hear about it!

Hope you are relaxing now that all the excitement is

coming to an end.

Happy Wednesday all!

 

 

Merry Christmas to all....

Some of our favorite Christmas decorations...

We purchased this handmade nativity on a little island off the coast of Mexico

on our Honeymoon....

 Lots of my odds and ends for decorating this year...

some passed through my family...

a lot of Vintage I have collected.

 Part of my Putz collection...

It has been growing by a piece or so every year...

I have a few modern mixed in with all the Vintage...

The house on the right

I purchased on Etsy last year.

I have only seen one other like it.

I have sort of become obsessed with finding more.

I just love the bright colors and details they used.

 I have moved the display around almost every year

because it keeps growing.

Excuse the age on the mirror...

The marks are actually on the back of the glass

but that is the crackly aged goodness I love!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

 

Friday Funny Christmas style....

Friday Dec. 21st

and

the world

didn't end today....

So now what?

How about some funny?

 Love Anne Taintor

she has some great Christmas cards

this year...

Check out the shop HERE 

for more fun...

Hope you have a great weekend now that

the whole

end of the world thing is out of the way!

Happy Friday everyone!

Fun at the Field Museum Chicago

When we visited Chicago

my sister tried to really make

sure we were able to go to some of

the more kid friendly sights 

since it was Little Keepers first big trip....

He and his best buddy Ayden LOVE dinosaurs

they could tell us all these complicated names like 

Brachiosaurus

when they were 2 years old....

so the Field Museum was on the top of the list 

Sue the famous T-Rex skeleton is showcased there....

 

Roar! like a Dinosaur....

Three stories...

The place is gigantic!

We spent most of the time with the Dinosaurs...

 standing in a footprint....

 They have an interactive board like this in his

classroom so he knew how to use it instantly...

We were all impressed...

and he pretty much put the whole skeleton together with little help from us!

 Sitting on a femur with Uncle J.....

Ice Age Mammoth....

My sis' married name is McDonald so we thought this was funny...

There was so much to take in...

we spent from about 2 p.m. until almost 5 p.m. there

and it was pretty much perfect timing for a 4 year old...

There were so many other exhibits 

from Mummies to an underground bugs exhibit

to life size Narwhals.

Who can resist seeing a Narwhal right?!

  Of course all exhibits seem to end in some sort of

pretty much overpriced gift shop

to which you have to drag your child out of

so they don't end up pleading for the $20 dinosaur you could

get at home in the dollar store....

The cool thing was when we went to the lower level to get a drink and take

a break ,

I noticed these four "Mould-A-Rama" machines...

I think this was one of the coolest souvenirs ever 

and 

look at the price

$2.00!

The machine makes the dino you choose right in front of you....

 then it pops it out and drops it into the basket for you

to catch....

The side of each one had "The Field Museum" stamped into it.

We let him get two and he was thrilled with them!

Loved watching them being made..

I just thought they were Kitschy Cool...

I think this is a hidden gem in the basement!

The parking garage for the complex is underneath

Soldier Field...

What an amazing looking stadium.

I'm not much of a football fan but I was pretty impressed with the design of this.

My suggestion if you ever get to the Field Museum

is to go with a BASIC pass if you have little ones.

There are other levels that include more special exhibits and cost almost $20 more.

The BASIC pass had so much to cover with a set of little feet

and the special exhibits all had lines that your little one would have to be 

patient enough to wait in.

 I think our combined ticket price of $25 was well worth it.

Definitely give the little feet and your own a break

and head to the lowest level for a snack

and some cheap, unique, and fun souvenirs!

Hope you enjoyed a bit of our little adventure.

A Crafty Christmas

This year I have pretty much

stuck to my vow

of either crafting our Christmas gifts

or having shopped for them during the year

so that I could save money and not have to spend much in December.

I must say it has been quite nice not having 

to go out into the crowds!

I have also been trying to use things I already have

for the crafted gifts...

I thought I would share with you 

the ornaments that I made for the Christmas Swap over at

Button Floozies 

 

I used the cardboard boxes that jewelry comes in.

I painted them blue and then sealed them with ModPodge...

The snow is the liner form the box...

 Santa is a vintage cupcake topper!

I keep my eye out for these at yardsales and thrift stores all the time!

Of course I added glitter galore!

The trees were plain and I gussied them up a bit...

The tinsel and paper were from Michaels Arts and crafts.

All the button accents are vintage

especially since this was a Button Floozies swap!

head on over there with the link at the top

to see some of the other ornaments

that were exchanged.

It was really satisfying to make use of 

items I already had for a change!

Hope you enjoyed a peek at these.

Happy Tuesday all!

                 

Innocent Souls....

Such Innocence 

lost....

 

Friday Funny .... TREAT YO' SELF

I know I have missed a few days

due to the Blogger issues...

but Friday Funny is back!

I have to get this out of my system...

I have had this stuck in my head for well over a week now.

December has sort of become Treat Yo'Self month

here.

If you have never seen Parks and Rec

take a peek..

this always cracks me up...

So many people forget to take time for themselves...

I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing something 

for YOU!

I may not be buying 

"fine leather goods"

this year...

but Treating myself to a little Starbucks,

a quiet afternoon,

some sparkly nailpolish,

and

using the gift certificate for a massage I saved !

So

I challenge you to go out 

and 

TREAT YO' SELF!

Happy Friday ALL!

Wedding Bells.....

I can finally

share with you all

some of the photos of my sisters wedding!

I would definitely not want to photograph weddings!

Takes a certain skill

to capture ALL those moments and do it

BEAUTIFULLY!

 

Little Keeper being a ham w/ his too short tie!

I really like the perspective I ended up
getting with this shot!

 Little Keeper is VERY impatient!

He ended up falling down and scuffing his pants up 

while running around waiting for his turn with the photos.

Then he was so upset he wouldn't let us take his picture!

When I finally got him to agree to do it

THIS is the look he gave the photographer!

Oh, well.

At least we have a ridiculous story to tell!

 Dee-Lish!

The cupcake on the bottom right

was carrot cake with brown butter icing...

Definitely my favorite!

 Dive in!

 I also have to say she did a lot of online

browsing for color schemes and flower choices...

the group board we set up on Pinterest is extremely popular

and still gets repins from it daily!

My parents

 Teenie Weenie Manly Milkshakes.....

  Loved the idea of taking the pic of the cake AFTER the first slice was taken!

 Believe me I took a lot of pics

but 

I decided to just share a sampling.

It was a very lovely wedding

and

my sister says it could

not have gone more perfectly for her!

We had such a great time!

I will share more about our trip this week!

 Happy Thursday all!

Hmm.....Elfin magic and photos are back!

SO now all of the sudden I can post photos again....

I guess we shall see?

Thought I'd share one of our Elf on the Shelf pics from the past week...

Little Keeper is really loving 

looking for "Red" every morning.

It is so adorable to see him look for him

and when he does he is so amazed at how he got there!

Hope your holiday prep is going well!

Happy Wednesday to all!

What have you been up to lately?

Hi Everyone!

I still haven't given in to paying for my images yet.

Blogger is touted as being free right?

SO 2 something years later here all of the sudden I have hit 

my image storage allowance with Picasa

and need to start paying?

Hmphhh...

If there is only one thing I am going to be Grinchy about 

this December it is this.

For now anyway

I thought I would show you what I have been up to

the past few days.

HERE 

is a link to an idea

I found on Pinterest for an advent calendar.

Growing up we always used to get the calendars with

chocolate hidden inside each window.

This year Little Keeper knows what Christmas is...

but 

he has no concept that it is quite a few weeks away.

So I decided the advent project would be perfect...

this way he would know when we were finally getting close...

He started asking as soon as we put up our Christmas tree

when were we going to open presents?

I'll post a picture of them soon...

as soon as I give in to Google ;(

Hope you had a great weekend!

 

 

Back Home!

Back 

home from

our 

Big Adventure

in the city!

I'll be adding photos soon!

Unfortunately I have all of the sudden

hit my limit for images with Blogger?!

So now I have to pay...

UGH!

Just when I don't need to spend money!

Hope you all

had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I personally decided to skip 

Black Friday

a few years ago

and have

never done it since!

Definitely supporting my 

small local business friends

and making quite a few gifts this year...

I'll be back soon as I decide what to do 

about this photo dilemma!

Where in the world?

On a little trip....
to Chicago...

to see ....

this happen....

Will be home soon 

with lots of fun photos

and 

stories to share...

until then

Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thriftshare!

Loving

that the thrift stores are 

extra full

of Christmas items right now!

 found these great Glitterfied ornaments

at Goodwill

the violins were 2 for .75 cents

and I think I got 6

The church was .75 cents as well

The pink tinsel garland is sort of shiny with a matte finish on it

it is so lovely and never used!

$1.25

This kitschy tree star is for 

Little Keepers tinsel tree...

$1.25 was still in the box!

The mice I know are from the 70's/80's 

we had lots of these flocked type ornaments when I was a kid.

.55 cents for the unopened package of four.

Found a bag FULL of these bridal shower decorations

for .13 cents!

That's right!

Our Boys and Girls club was giving 1/2 off items

with green tags and this bag was .25 cents originally!

 This was a cottage cheese container!

It was empty and clean.

I'm guessing whoever purchased it years ago loved the

little Easter chickies and just had to keep it!

I was so surprised because I never find stuff like this!

Same price of .13 cents!

Have you had any luck with Christmas items

lately?

 Head on over to Apron Thrift Girl for more
thrifting goodness!