a bunch of new layouts!

It has been months since I've done much scrapbooking. Working on handmade gifts and being extra tired in my first trimester kept me from having extra time and energy for it. I spent some time cleaning and organizing the loft where I scrap this week and that, plus lots of new holiday photos, inspired me to get going. Thanks for looking!

Have a safe and fun New Year's Eve tonight! I think we will be taking it easy at home. Not sure if I can manage staying up until midnight to ring in 2010! Be back tomorrow with some goals/resolutions for the new year!

more pics from Christmas morning

Finally got some more pics uploaded! More pics and some fun videos of Lachlan are on Flickr.

a fun gift

One of the fun gifts I received for Christmas was this baking torch from Thor & Caeli. I can't wait to make these sweet potato cupcakes or these s'mores cupcakes, or or these lemon-lime meringue cupcakes, or maybe just some creme brulee. Yum!

Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning
Originally uploaded by Kirsten W

We had a such a lovely Christmas this year. My family was able to make it to our house on Christmas eve in spite of the yucky weather. We had dinner at our house along with Bill's parents and then went to the candlelight Christmas Eve church service. Lachlan fell asleep in my arms while the congregation was singing Silent Night and holding their candles. It was beautiful. Unfortunately he was running a fever Thursday and Friday, so he wasn't quite himself, but he was a trooper, especially with the help of all his extended family being around for entertainment.

Christmas morning we opened gifts and had a late brunch, then relaxed, played games and had chili for dinner. Lachlan wasn't terribly interested in opening the gifts, but once we helped him get them open, there were lots of favorites: big box of blocks from nana & pop po, a drivable roadster from ma & papa, new playdough & tools, Yo Gabba Gabba figurines, bath toys, and books, a tool box with wooden hammers and screws, and a photo album with photos of family and friends. He's going to be a busy boy with all these new things in the house!

Bill and I got some great gifts, too - Seinfeld Monopoly, the Planet Earth dvds, the new Super Mario Bros. for the Wii, and I got a couple books from my wishlist. We're all spoiled!

The best part of Christmas was having our family with us and being able to celebrate while staying cozy at home. Hope you had a great week, too.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Tabletop trees
Originally uploaded by Kirsten W

We're just getting ready to sit down for Christmas Eve dinner with my family and Bill's parent's. Our first time hosting the Christmas festivities! Then off to church at 7 and looking forward to Santa visiting our house tonight!

(The trees were inspired by this blog and although I gathered all the supplies, Bethany executed all 6 for our dinner tables.)

DIY wreaths

Now that I've given away 7 of these wreaths (I kept one to decorate our home) as gifts, I can share with you! I was quite inspired by all the fun wreaths that I saw on blogs this season, so I decided to buy a few to make as gifts. I ended up buying a few big straw wreaths, and also a few smaller foam wreaths. The foam ones were more expensive, but easier to work with because the straw ones kept shedding. I ended up wrapping those with scrap fabric first to keep the straw in.
I bought lovely Christmas fabric by Alexander Henry and red wool felt at Home Ec Workshop and cut it into lots and lots of little strips, ranging from 1"-3" x 9". Then I wrapped the strips around the wreath, hot glued them in place on the back, and pushed in a straight pin for extra stability. I also added some decorative pins along the outside edges, and tied a bow on top, and a loop of thread on the back for hanging.
Ok, off to finish off some last minute handmade gifts and wrapping before my family arrives! Good luck with your holiday prep work!

yay for Friday!

Well, yesterday afternoon was a little bit annoying. First, I took off Sadie's Invisible Fence collar while she was sitting next to me on the couch because she was scratching at it. Then she proceeded to chew the clasp to bits while I thought she was peacefully chewing on her bone.

Not long after that, Lachlan spotted my little camera memory card sitting next to the laptop and picked it up and pushed it into the laptop's cd drive. Seemed like a good idea, eh? And just as I was getting ready to burn cds of photos for my preschoolers before our holiday break :(

Both things were especially irritating because they were really my fault for leaving things sitting around. Luckily it all got worked out today - Invisible Fence is putting a new collar in the mail that will hopefully arrive tomorrow and I took my laptop to Technology Associates in downtown Iowa City and he quickly retrieved the card and didn't even charge me for his time!
It was certainly a more cheerful day all around. My Preucil secret Santa left me a present this morning and it tempted me all through the school day. It turns out that Jamie was my santa and she got me some super fun vintage fabric (I love the boats and teepees the best) and great colorful mittens.
As is the tradition at Preucil, we baked & decorated gingerbread cookies with the kids, and made one large gingerbread boy. He went into the oven while my class went to music, and escaped from the oven when Tricia put her class' gingerbread boy in to bake! I was a little worried because my class seemed pretty skeptical about the gingerbread boy before they left for music ("he's not strong enough to open the doors and run away") but when they heard the story of the escape and found a trail of crumbs outside on the sidewalk, they were all believers again. :)

Now I have a two week break from teaching and I'm looking forward to spending next week finishing up handmade gifts, wrapping presents, and spending lots of time with friends and family. Hope you all have a great weekend!

15 weeks

15 weeks
Originally uploaded by Kirsten W

Definitely have a little bump making an appearance. Feeling pretty good in the 2nd trimester so far, other than a slight headcold.

Today I was talking to one of the boys in my preschool class and he said something about "she's not very big yet", referring to the baby. I said "Oh, do you think the baby is a girl?" and he said, "yes, don't you?". So there's a 5 year old prediction for you. We scheduled our January ultrasound yesterday, hopefully we will be able to find out in about a month!

Fabric <3

Fabric
Originally uploaded by Kirsten W

Just had to pop in to say how much I love this fabric by Alexander
Henry. I want to use it on everything right now! I bought it at Home Ec Workshop in Iowa City. Back soon to share
Christmas projects.

Sadie and the snow

She's loving the snow and it is fun to watch her play in it! Unfortunately it is not warm enough for me to want to bundle up Lachlan and bring him out in the snow yet.

Well, the blizzard has arrived and I'm feeling grateful that we can snuggle up inside and watch the snow through the window!
We've been playing with Cleo and Sadie, dancing to Christmas music, and having a leisurely breakfast.
Also on the agenda - put dinner in the crock pot, finish making & addressing Christmas cards, mix up some sugar cookie dough for baking later this week, start a few handmade gifts, and wrap a few gifts. I might even try to make a scrapbook page!

Hope you have a safe and cozy day.

decorating

Now that Thanksgiving has passed, I'm ready for Christmas spirit, music, and decorating! We put up our trees over the weekend and Lachlan helped decorate. It was so cute, he loved unpacking the boxes, and even tried to put the bubble wrap and tissue paper on the tree!

Here are some photos of our decorations:
Tree #1 has a black, silver and red theme and also features Lachlan's new ornament for this year - Santa Mickey!

Tree #2 has all the handmade ornaments I've collected, and lots of my childhood ornaments and other family ornaments.

Our little kitchen Nativity scene.
My new baby Christmas cactus.
Some festive star/snowflake lights and the Christmas card box I made a few years ago.
Mr. Moose and a little berry bush.

And finally, our GIANT wreath! I noticed last year that this was buried way back in our basement, left for us (or forgotten?) by the previous owners. So we pulled it out this year, cleaned it up, and I wrapped it with ribbon and tied on a bow. A big nail was already in the stone, so we just had to climb up the ladder and hook it on!

I'm happy to have so much decorating done, but I still have a couple ideas for homemade decorations I'd like to make. First, a garland for above our kitchen windows, and a Christmas wreath to hang in the bathroom.

We'll see - even though I have most of my shopping done, there are still cards to make and send and lots of handmade Christmas gifts to start and finish! Good luck with your holiday projects!