Top 5 Tuesday: Advents

If you've been blog hopping lately you've seen all the Advent rage. Advent calendars are everywhere! Every one is making their own individual, unique way of counting down the days until Christmas. I think I've missed the boat on this one, so I'm going to share with you five of my favorite Advent calendars from the blog world.

I love the way Freckled Laundry re-purposed denim pockets for this calendar.

lemon tree creations always delivers a great little craft and this countdown is no exception.

I think most of us could get away with only needing to buy the dollar store buckets to make Infarrantly Creative's advent calendar.

I love the way Just a Girl used very little space and made her advent jar interactive.

My top five list would not be complete without something from Martha Stewart so here is her Baby Sock Advent Calendar. Super cute!

I personally have never started an advent calendar on time let alone made one. So I hope you have enjoyed all this creativity from other places.

Blessings.

A Princesses Night to Remember

Over the last eight weeks I have been helping a handful of members from our church put together A Princesses Night to Remember. A formal dance designed for fatherly figures and their princesses. Last Saturday was the big night. And it was a hit!

I was at the church at 10:30 Saturday morning, helped set up until 2 p.m.. Went home bathed my chicks, dried, curled and straightened hair and helped with princess dresses. Then it was back to the church for a few final touches and to welcome Daddy's and their daughters.

I am so happy with the way the dance turned out I wanted to share it with you. It wasn't fantastic lighting (candles and dimmed lights) and I do not have a fancy camera so please forgive the not so perfect pictures.

We'll start with a few shots from Saturday morning. I enlisted my Tall Man and little chicks to help.

My oldest and her friend wrapping small rocks in tissue paper to keep our balloons from floating away. Brilliant and cheap way to keep your balloons in place!

This one was too busy playing princess to help.

And here is how the room looked when the guests arrived...

White carriage and chandelier centerpieces borrowed from a member of the congregation.

Of course a punch fountain.

We had bouquets of balloons lining the entry way of the church.

We realized after several balloons had been filled we didn't have anything to hold them down. So the children's pastor recommended rocks wrapped in tissue paper.

Brilliant man.

Here are my three little chicks ready for the dance.

Oh and we can't forget MoJo sitting so pretty for the picture.

Daddy brought them each a long stem red rose. Mommy got the rest of the dozen. =o)

A friend and fellow helper took a picture of the family for me. I'm thinking we should have waited to make our Christmas cards.

And of course I had to get one of just me and my Tall Man.

To respect the privacy of all the Daddy's and daughters I won't share the candid photo's I took throughout the night. But here's a blurry glimpse at the packed dance floor.

If you have little girls have they ever been to dance like this with their Daddy? If not, I highly recommend it! It was definitely a night to remember for both Daddy and their princesses.

Blessings.

What Happens When My 4 Year Old Gets the Camera

The other day I was working on my winter branches for our powder room when my youngest little chick decided to use the camera. I had completely forgotten she had this little photo session until I uploaded the memory card from the camera onto my laptop. Here is what she captured.

A not too clean, not too messy shot of the kitchen.

Her cup of hot apple cider.

A piece of orange blueberry bread, thank you dear friend for bringing that to us.

And my favorite... this is the Seahawks dawg. A few years ago my Dad and his girlfriend bought the Tall Man a dancing, singing dog wearing a Seattle Seahawks jersey. It's a favorite in our house during football season.

I thought this was pretty funny. Hope you got a good chuckle as well.

Blessings.

Fall to Winter

If you live in the North West you may have noticed it is not fall anymore. We have had record breaking snow fall for November. So much so they've started referring to it as Snovember. Cute.

We are slowly transitioning from autumn decor to our Christmas and winter decor. One of the first things to change were the leaves on the branches in our powder room. Remember these?

Just like in nature the leaves came off as the weather turned cold. In their place we now have little sparkles of winter. Have you seen bare trees after a super cold night? They sparkle in the sunlight. It's one of my favorite things about winter. As I drive down the snow covered streets and see the sparkling trees I am just in awe of how awesome our Creator is.

Granted my branches aren't quite as stunning as those in nature I am pretty happy with them. I am debating putting a few ornaments on. Maybe I will snap a few pictures and you can tell me which you like best.

To get this sparkle I picked up a package of clear rhinestone stickers from Michael's for about $2 and hot glued them on. Easy and simple. One of my favorite combinations.

Blessings.

Linking to: All Thingz Related, Craft-O-Maniac

Last Years Christmas Wreath

It's officially Christmas crafting time! Woo hoo! I know you are just as excited as I am, I've seen some of the stuff you've been working on.

Today I went to Michael's and Wal-Mart to get everything I needed for our front door Christmas wreath. However I haven't done anything more than bring the bags inside the house. So I thought I'd share with you our Christmas wreath from last year. I had a feeling a year ago that I wanted to start my own blog so I started snapping pictures of my projects.

Here is what I started with.

• Wreath from Michael's
• Glittery red HOPE (dollar bin at Michael's)
• berry sprigs and garland
• red glitter pine cone sprigs

I didn't use any hot glue on my wreath because I wanted the option to take everything off and use the wreath again. So I strategically... okay randomly stuck everything where I thought it looked pretty and hoped it wouldn't fall off. Guess what? Nothing fell off. It stood up very well if I do say so myself.

I didn't take a lot of pictures of the final product but here she is.

Hopefully I'll be back later this week to share this years Christmas wreath. I'm really excited about it!

Blessings!

Linking to: All Thingz Related, Craft-O-Maniac