Need a Quick and Easy Gift?

Can you hear the clock?   Tick-tock-tick-tock…   It’s the sound of panic as I realize exactly how many days I have left to get my act together.  Yikes!

Tomorrow (the 19th) is the day my project is featured on the Helmar blog for the 12 Days of Christmas feature.   In my endless quest to magically create extra hours to get all my holiday tasks completed, I designed a quick, colorful, touch of personality to a purchased gift.

Here is a sneak peak of the project:

To see the rest of the project, supplies, and  instructions, visit the Helmar USA Design Team blog tomorrow!

Until next time…
C.

Dickens–The other kind.

Not the author, the 2-year-old.

Could be the holiday excitement, could be lack of sleep carried over from our holiday zoo excursion, could be the fact that he’s 2.   Whatever the cause, he’s sorely testing my patience.

Good thing this little dickens is cute!

How do you celebrate?

I’m having a lazy morning.  After all, it is my birthday, plus it’s a rainy morning with the promise of snow by dinnertime.  It’s the perfect morning for laziness.

So I will drink my morning coffee and answer the questions posted on Barb’s blog for your reading enjoyment this morning.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?  A little bit of both.  After a while, I get really tired of wrapping.  Whatever I have left at that point gets shoved in a bag.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial in our house.  My mom got it for us for our wedding shower and it still looks great.  Some of my greatest childhood christmas memories were from going out to the tree farm and digging our own live spruce every year, though.  I feel a secret twinge of guilt every time I assemble ours.

3. When do you put up the tree? Usually ends up being 2-3 weeks before Christmas.  This year the tree went up last weekend, lights and decorations yesterday.  See previous post. 

4. When do you take the tree down? Um…  February-ish?  Only sometimes an exaggeration.

5. Do you like eggnog?   Ugh.  Yuck.  Ptooey.   I’d much rather have some spiked Wassail.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? A 3 ft. long Barbie camper.  The same year my brother got the 6 ft long GI Joe aircraft carrier.  They came with 675,942 decals each and my dad put them all on, swearing a blue streak for hours as he put tiny labels on miniature soup cans.  Hilarity!

7. Hardest person to buy for? My Dad.  This year I’m thrilled with his gift, though.  Can’t wait to give it.

8. Easiest person to buy for? The kids.  Amazon directly to my door.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes.  Received it for the same bridal shower.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail.  Every year I joke they are more like Happy New Year Cards.  They all get out eventually!

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Nothing really heinous, actually.   A few sweaters that weren’t my taste, perhaps a decorative pillow or two.

12. Favorite for Christmas dinner? My mom makes prime rib every year.  Tastes great and it’s a welcome switch from ham.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Never before Thanksgiving!  Each holiday celebrated individually, please.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Round robin exchanges or gag gifts only.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Homemade buckeyes and my grandma’s peanut brittle.

16. Lights on the tree? White, and lots of ‘em.   Our 7 1/2 ft. tree averages 2300-2500 lights each year.   I run a 9 outlet extension cord up the center of the tree, and hide a power strip for the bottom.  It’s a sickness.  I blame my father.  This year, I deliberately scaled down to 1800 for time reasons and it about killed me.  I am a Griswold at heart.

17. Favorite Christmas song? “Silent Night” at the candlelight service.  Although I harbor a secret love of all the spoof songs.  (“The Restroom Door Said Gentlemen” is an old favorite)

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Both, depending on the year

19. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star.

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Morning.  Love the suspense!

So there you have it.  Answers to 20 questions you never knew you wanted to know about me.  May “I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” never get stuck in your head this holiday season!

Until next time…
C.

The potty is in the hallway and the tree is naked.

Tell me I’m going to love my new bathroom.  Really.  Tell me over and over again, so I remember why I’m doing this.

If you remember, we remodled the kitchen right before the last CHA show in July.  Remember how I mentioned the insanity of doing such a thing when things were so crazy?  We finished the kitchen (except for the tile, which we’ll do when I magically find the physical manifestation of the vision I have in my head), but didn’t get to the other things we wanted to upgrade before I got sick in September.

One of those other little projects we wanted to implement was the changing of the main floor powder room.  Out with the 80s builder’s cabinet and fake marble sink, in with the furniture piece and all that jazz.   That project got derailed by the aforementioned sickness and the house upgrades had remained in a state of limbo.

Until this weekend.

I was blissfully unaware that 3 weeks before Christmas is the perfect time to demolish a bathroom.  Who knew?  The wainscoting is gone, leaving the walls peeled to the paperboard, and the potty is now in the front hallway, which my kids find immensely entertaining.   The whole space is covered with layers of drywall dust from the attempted repair of the walls, which if you remember from this post, makes me shudder just thinking about it.

Ho Ho Ho.

The tree is in the corner of the living room, just waiting.  I add around 2,300 lights to it every year, so for my sanity, I need to have all my ducks in a row before I attempt the process.  Currently, the ducks are waddling aimlessly through the drywall dust.  The kids keep asking “Mommy?  Why aren’t there any lights on the tree?  Is it because the potty is in the hallway?

Why yes, kids.  Yes it is.

This would totally be funny if it was happening to someone else.

Until next time, when I regain my sanity…
C.

Some great news!

Helmar Adhesives has officially announced their 2009 Design Team, and guess who’s on the list?

• Tracy Weinzapfel Burgos, Design Team Coordinator
• Jenna Franklin
• Amber Hillman
• Laura Achilles
• Carla Schauer
• Tish Treadaway
• Jennifer Beason
• Marci Knecht
• Beth Root
• Becky Teichmiller

Well, all of these talented ladies are on the list, but see right there in the middle?  Me!  I can’t wait to start!

I do quite a number of different crafty things, and never know where the mojo fairy is going to take me.  Whether I’m covering something with paper, attaching paper to other paper, or sticking several non-paper products together, I always need adhesive.  And Helmar has some great adhesives, so I am truly excited to work with them.   They also have some products I’ve never used before, which means some crafty experimentation happening soon!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend!  We were out of town visiting family.  Though we have seen everyone since Easter, we haven’t been able to travel to our hometown because of various scheduling conflicts, travel, and illness.  There is something about watching your children playing with your old toys (you know, the unsafe ones that can be swallowed) in your old house that is comforting and just plain fun.  I’m so glad we were able to go.

Have a great day!

Until next time…
C