Birthday Wish List

This year I'm turning the big 33. While I'm not too excited about the age, I am excited to celebrate my birthday! I always have my mom and boo asking for ideas of things they can get me for my birthday so here's a few things that I would love to call mine.

1. Toms.

I have a pair of canvas shoes that I recently pulled back out and I realized how much I love wearing those kinds of shoes. I recently saw a pair of Toms that would go with a lot of things that I wear and would be great for summer! Their in the color Ash.

2. Village Pieces.

On my recent trip to Tennessee, I was able to get several pieces for great prices. I want to keep adding to it and since all the pieces are so cute, it's hard not to! I got a great Marilyn who stands outside a theater, now I just need the theater! I love this Victory Theater! I also want the Griswold House because I have several pieces from the National Lampoon Series. I would also like to get Boss Shirley's house because I feel it's not as popular and they will discontinue it quickly.

3. Beauty & The Beast Mystery Mini.

I had no memory of ever seeing the original Beauty and the Beast animated movie. I think as a kid, I was just way more into 80s movies so I hardly remember watching any of the "classic" Disney movies. When the new movie came out, we went to see it and I really liked it! Funko came out with these Mystery Mini's of all the characters. Unfortunately, you don't know which one you are getting until you open the box and they made several of them available only at certain stores. I have got the entire set except one... Cogsworth the clock! I keep these little figures on my dresser and look at them every morning when I get up so I'd like to finish my set!

4. Books and Movies.

 

I love reading and I love movies. I'm still trying to get these movies (I've wanted them for quite some time) and I love books! I've been reading a lot this year! I need several of my favorite author- Stuart Woods.

Of course, I would just be happy to spend time with my boo and my mom! I wish we could spend my birthday together but this year Skype will have to do!

The Travelling Christmas Tree

Two years ago, I started our Travel Christmas Tree.

I had seen a purple tree and fallen in love with the fun color. I got a four foot tree that was only 20 dollars and was determined to turn it into something special. When my husband and I first began dating we went out of the country to Puerto Rico. While we were there we bought two Christmas tree ornaments. We were there in March but he knew my love of Christmas and we said that this could be our travel thing. Some people buy magnets or key chains or pencils.... we buy a Christmas ornament.

This is one of the two ornaments we bought in Puerto Rico. I use it as our tree topper since it's in the shape of a star.

The hummingbird was also from P.R. My mom and I have long history with hummingbirds so when I saw this, I knew I had to get it. 

The tree on the right hand side is from a local spot called Apple Hill. Set in foothills leading over to Lake Tahoe is a place where in the fall you can pick pumpkins, drink cider and eat fudge. Then in the winter you can cut down your own Christmas tree. We went a few years ago for the fall and had a fun time. This was a handmade ornament from a vendor there and it was perfect for our tree.  Then you'll see the two bears at the Palm Springs Aerial Tram. We were just there in November so this is a recent addition. Then of course there's an ornament from our Seattle Trip and a visit to Muir Woods...

 

We visiting Coronado and San Diego in July and found this hand painted ornament of the island.

We have our ornament from Dollywood, the Smokey Mountains and of course our favorite winery in Napa- Castillo De Amirosa also known as the Castle Winery.

I haven't been able to find a tree skirt that I love for this tree so this year I got a little crafty and bought some felt and made my own until I find one that I love. This one is all felt and I cut out the United States, California and West Virginia.

There's memento's from San Francisco, Great America, Las Vegas, Hawaii, Kings games and the Jelly Belly Factory tour.

The recent fires in Gatlinburg had me very upset. I've been going there since I was two years old so in June when I was able to take my husband there for the first time it was just perfect. We rode the famous chair lift to the top of the mountain and bought this ornament. Now they've had a fire and are currently out of operation.

While in Pigeon Forge we visited the Titanic museum. If you know my husband then you know he has a deep love of the Titanic.

So that's just a little bit of our travel tree. Next year I'm hoping to have the perfect skirt and even more ornaments to add to it! Maybe something from New York and overseas.

Our Wedding Tree

If you know me at all then you know that I am a huge fan of Christmas. It's by far my favorite holiday and I plan all year on the things that I want to when it comes to our decorations. So last year when we were planning our wedding, I wanted to incorporate as much Christmas as I could without it becoming too much Christmas and not enough wedding. One of the things that we did was instead of having a guest book we had guests sign ornaments.

Our videographer took this photo of our instructions to guests

 



We had multiple colors of ornaments and different color sharpies, set the baskets out and waited for the guests to fill them up. Our venue packed them after the wedding and they were boxed until this year. This year when we got them out of the box it was our first opportunity to see the ornaments. I thought this would be a fun thing to have instead of a guestbook that I honestly would probably only look at about once every 10 years. This way having the ornaments signed, we can take them out every year and look at them as we decorate the tree.

Our tree topper was actually our cake topper. I had it custom made on etsy and it worked perfectly as our tree topper. The ribbon was from a very large present we received.

Throughout the tree we have little wooden nutcrackers. These nutcrackers were a part of our wedding favors. We had these miniature nutcrackers on miniature champagne bottles. I kept a full set of the 8 different designs that we gave out.

I also included a copy of our program and our wedding invitation. Then I included ornaments that people gave us as presents. Everyone knows how much I love Christmas so you wouldn't believe the amount of ornaments that people gave us featuring our wedding date and names. I loved every one of them and I loved taking them out of the boxes. I'm sure I will for years to come.

I love how our tree turned out and I hope to put these ornaments on the tree for years to come. I'm trying to decide what to do for the tree skirt. I wish I had scraps from when they altered my wedding dress but the designer made it to my size and no extra material was available. I can't decide what to do for it. Hmm... any ideas?

Wordless Wednesday

These are just a few of the ornaments that I've created. I am having such a great time crafting these unique ornaments. It doesn't feel like work at all!

You can see all of my creations here or here

It's A Fabric Christmas

You guys... I am SO excited to share this news with you! If you've been reading this blog for awhile then you already know that I am a huge lover of all things Christmas. Well I've taken my love of Christmas one step further. I've started making unique fabric ornaments! Yes that's right! I'm making Christmas ornaments in April! Technically I started making them in March but I wanted to get several under my belt before I shared them with all of you.

Fabric Christmas

Each ornament takes hours to make. Depending on the elaborateness of the design and fabric choices it can take awhile to complete each one. It has be perfect to hang on any tree. Making each ornament is a labor of love and I know that I'm creating something that people will hang on their trees and use as decorations for years to come. I can remember hanging ornaments on my moms Christmas tree when I was a kid that we still hang on the tree decades later. These ornaments become memories and fun items to see year after year when you open the boxes and see them again after having them put away for months.

These ornaments are hand made and no two are exactly alike. Since there's so many fabrics out there the possibilities are endless. Even when using the same fabric the way they are made by hand doesn't necessarily mean they'll look exactly the same. So if you see an ornament that you love don't wait because it could be gone forever!

Now here's the fun part! You can see the ornaments as I create them by following the link that I have above! Here's also a few of my ornaments that I've recently created...

These are just some of the designs that I've been working on. I've got new designs coming each week and I have so many fabrics to cut that I just can't work fast enough! I am just so excited to share these with all of you! I really love making these ornaments and I hope that you love them just as much as I do!

Oh Christmas Tree!

One of my favorite traditions at Christmas is going out and getting my mom's live Christmas tree. Luckily this year I was able to continue the tradition of helping her with the tree. First thing first is getting the tree into the stand and making sure it's straight! Then you've got to pick the best side to show off all Christmas season.

 

Once we get the tree into the stand it's time to add the lights. This year it took us three light sets and then we used to strands of special lights that we got when I was a kid. They are actual M&M guys on strands of lights. Over the years the lights have given out and we've replaced the lights with new ones. There is one set that still has the original lights in it. I guess they'll keep going until the one year they don't and we will replace them.

Right after the lights go on it's time for the garland. I always feel garland is the hardest part on a real tree. It took us four strands of garland this year to fit around the tree.

The last thing that we do before getting all the ornaments on the tree is put the angel on top.

Once the Angel is firmly on the tree we can get started adding all of the decorations. We have ornaments that we've collected for years. There is ornaments that I made as a kid that we put on the tree and of course Hallmark ornaments that we collected like the first Barbie ornament.

A few years ago we had an incident where the tree wasn't cut evenly and wasn't sitting in our stand completely flat. This caused the tree to fall over in the night. We completely freaked out! We woke up, came downstairs and saw our beautifully decorated tree laying on the ground with ornaments everywhere and several of them broken. We got it back up and super glued the ornaments the best we could. The rest of that Christmas we watched the tree like a hawk. We would ask each other, "Does it look like it's leaning?" almost every day just in case.

Once we've got all the decorations on the tree we take a photo of us together. We also start working on the rest of the decorations around the house including the village on the mantle. The village is difficult to put together so every year I take on that task. Next year I'm also going to be putting up my own village and that will be a job!

What traditions do you have when you put up your Christmas tree? Do you get a real one?