Merry CHRISTmas!

I wanted to take a moment out of our busy travels to wish my friends and family a very Merry CHRISTmas. May your heart find gladness this Season! If you need a laugh, check our a version of our Christmas card!

I also wanted to show you our Christmas tree this year. I decorated it all in Shiny Brite ornaments that I collected along the way. It all started with this one:

From Drop Box

(Oops, you see me a bit there...sort of hard to take pictures of shiny stuff!)

It's the Christmas of 1951 Ornament!

For the rest of these, I am not going to say much...enjoy!

From Drop Box

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I saw some great trees decorated this year with double strands of beads. Simply beautiful!! I purchased some beads this year but I didn't get them up... I still really love this tree, even without shiny beads.

Hello pretty little princess that began my obsession!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

Oh my goodness...this is just beautiful!!

Oh my, God is good. What a birthday present for his precious son!

Oops. There are my cake balls that I set outside to 'cool' last night. :)

SIDE NOTE: I took these from inside my house. JJ shoveled our drive and our neighbor lady's. He mysteriously asked if I needed anything from the store... I think he's off to purchase a sled. I have a vintage metal rung sled but this snow is very wet so we need a different type. I love sledding!!!!!!!

Treasure!

My good, good friend Leslie and I took a little vacation down to Branson, MO to see the Christmas lights, go to Silver Dollar City and a show and of course, do some junking along the way! Today, I am going to show you Leslie's treasures. Later, I will show you mine and show you the lights in Silver Dollar City and an aerial view too.

Ok, on to the treasures!

A great box from Bear Market in Camdenton, MO. I think it was $19. We decided it would be perfect for under the end table in the living room to hold stuff...

When we saw this table, we were wishing one of us needed a kitchen table; they had a TON for pretty good prices! Most were older so they were well made and had some character!!

A girl has to do some dreaming! Here's a Daisy butter churn that Leslie would love to own. This one was at Sweetheart's just south of that main intersection also in Camdenton, MO (it took us quite some time to get very far from home...but we loved every-single-minute).

She likes green handled kitchen gadgets. Not really a surprise coming from the girl who owns nearly every piece Tupperware has EVER made! (We didn't buy these...just laughed when we saw them.)

Here's all her loot...spread out on a table in our dinky (but cheap thereby perfect) hotel room.

Now, let me show you a little more detail on the loot!!!

Check out those Eastlands baby! Only 5 smackers and they've barely been worn! Meet Leslie's new work shoes. :) And no trip is complete without some vintage Tupperware for the Tupperware Queen. We did see some ketchup and mustard pump containers shaped like the TW salt & pepper shakers. Not only did Leslie not own them, she hadn't even seen them! (Gasp) The hat we thought was a cool color and would be perfect for Saturday morning errands pre-shower (Stacey and Clinton (from What not to Wear) would disagree but this IS the Midwest peeps).

I told you Leslie likes vantage kitchen utensils right? And look at the pregnant Cherished Teddies; She's been looking for that since she got pregnant with Cooper. We forgot she bought the sifter on the left when we found the one on the right. Oh well, they are both cool right?

Look at that squirrel on the nut. And the pink Pyrex... stinking cute!! The green thing underneath is an insulated thing with handles to tote around your crock pot.

Yikes! We had a blast!!!

Christmas Ball Wreath

From Drop Box

Would you just look at that!?! Pauke! I love it!! (Not the stocking... the wreath.)

I am sure that others have made this wreath but I saw this wreath idea first from Sarah over at Thrifty Decor Chick. If you have never hung out with this wacky chick, head on over and visit...just don't forget to come back!!

Anyway, TDC, Sarah tells you exactly how to make these... and she did a very good job so I won't go off telling you again. I must stress... bust out the gluegun and glue those tops ON!

First-

I started with tubes of plastic ornaments from Dollar Tree:

From Drop Box

And I glued all the tops on with my baby glue gun that was a Christmas present last year from my MIL... LOVE IT!!

From Drop Box

I used dinner plates to hold all the Christmas balls from rolling off the table... I thought it would be easier to get glitter off plates (ahh, the miracles of dishwashers) than off the carpet!

Bending the coat hanger was kind of a pain but it did end up well worth it to use a non-flimsy hanger.... More on this later.

So, sit back and see my pretty wreath!!!

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

(Check out that pine cone and other random hard things wreath... I love it. Mom has since added some pretty sparkly ribbon to it... snazzy!)

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

I gifted this beauty to my friend Lora. I likely won't live on this block next year at Christmas but I want to always remember the fun we have had here in our Above the Creek Mafia. Next year, I will make another wreath for our new home and I will use it to always remember our great friends Above the Creek!

Merry Christmas from my Circus to yours!!

Here's our Christmas card from the cutting room floor:

I just think it's hilarious! I am sure some won't but... whatever, it makes me laugh. I love how goofy and happy we are in this picture. It's a self portrait I took during JJ's birthday weekend; we were having so much fun with friends!

I will show you our actual Christmas card later. Funny that I don't make our Christmas cards I guess. I generally make lots of Christmas cards for Grandma and for gifts and such. Plus, this year we will be sending about 175 Christmas cards...giant family... so no way do I want to sign on to make all those!

Happy Birthday Grandma!!

My Grandma's birthday was last week... She was born on Pearl Harbor Day before it was Pearl Harbor Day (I figure if I don't tell the truth about my real age, I shouldn't let hers out of the bag either!).

Anyway, this is my crafty Grandma and the one for which I make the Bazaar stuff.

She wasn't having must to do with me taking pictures; I think she just wanted to dig in her loot!! Yet another thing I get from my Grandma...feeling like a kid in a candy store anytime I am opening a gift.

I cut all these out using my Cricut and one of the Christmas Solution carts from 2009 (I am too tired to walk downstairs and look right now... I will check later and let you know.)

I sprayed the white on Rudolph with Glimmer mist and I added Stickles to the left edges of the Christmas tree...like the snow was really blowing! I also added Stickles to the white on the top of the stocking. I think my favorite is the red background snowflake with the tinsel top! My sister sent me the tinsel

Birthday Happy Mail!!

I got some really pretty handmade birthday cards from my lovely friends. I just thought I would show them off to you guys!! (The creator is listed under the picture with a link to her blog...if I know the blog.)

This is from Terrie.

From Drop Box

From the lovely Jane.

From Drop Box

Seongsook Duncan (She makes sooo many cards for OWH... I am truly impressed!!)

From Drop Box

Karen Walsh

From Drop Box

From my lovely friend Lora! I am just loving that Forever Young Cartridge. And somehow she just knew that I love red! ;)

I am sure that more cards from my CarkMaker group have arrived but I haven't been home to get my mail since Monday . I guess you could say that I am extending my birthday a few more days! :)

Happy Birthday To Me!!

Today is my birthday. Happy Birthday to me!! I think I know what I am getting from JJ for my birthday but the best present of all will be having my husband back home... if only for the weekend.

Dollar Tree!!

So today at lunch I just ran into Dollar Tree... and an entire shopping bag later... I dashed out. Because I hadn't eaten yet...didn't even have food and I needed to be back at work in 15 minutes.

Anyway, I am about to die I love my new stuff so much! And I think I spent around $10... Can't remember (Yikes, that's bad)! Anyway, there are some linky parties going on and I want to get my stuff made/put together so I can play along. I'll be back to show you what I came up with!

Edited to include a link to this pretty thing.

Happy THANKSgiving

Let us not forget to thank our Lord for the good and the not so good of our year. It's my prayer that I have learned from my mistakes; may you as well.

(Photo from Photobucket.)

Have a wonderful day with loved ones and here's to insane shopping tomorrow!

Gift Card Holder

How can you take something boring like this:

And come up with this?

Well, I learned from the TP Queen herself, Terrie. I am always amazed at her creations. I thought I would try my hand. Terrie, you are right: It's easy and I must add Stinking Cute!! I used distress ink on the edges and pretty much all over! Love that stuff!!! The gorg. tinsel came from my silly sister. Here is one of Terries creations; click here.

The card just tucks into the end like so:

I entered in the following challenges:

Card maker: Make a card with red, green, white. Use a punch and a stamp.

Catch the Bug: Anything but a card. You can only win the big pot if you use a Bugaboo stamp but since I am on my new computer... and haven't transfered everything from my old one...this is the best I can do.

Crafty Makers: Spotlight on Containers and Fancy Envelopes

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge: A time for giving

A Spoon Full of Sugar: Anything goes

Happy Happy Birthday Baby

Anyone remember that song? I love the opening lines of this song! (Don't listen too close... he's singing to a lost love but I do love that opening part.) Oh sing it Ronnie!!

Today is my sweet, ornery, handsome, stubborn, incredibly cute (I may be biased, I doubt it), thoughtful, funny husband's birthday.

I love you bunches Monster and Happy Happy Birthday!

How can I not just laugh at this goofy guy!?!

Not a dive, a back flip!?!

A big hit with my girls on our wedding day.

Other Card Group Card

Here's the other card I made in fall card group.

I love that we made a pumpkin with depth from ovals. Who knew?? Great idea Lora!! And I even have that punch. Woohoo!!

Card Group

Here's the card from our fall card group. I have a secret obsession with Lovely As A Tree set! Oh my, I do love it so!

Here, we did the stamp off technique to get the different shades of trees.

Leslie and I found a treasure last weekend on our vacation that appears to be Lovely as a Tree's vintage twin sister. As soon as I get my picture software loaded on my new computer, I will show you. Be excited, be very excited!!