Random November

This month has been crazy. Filled with a date night at our place, helping with a baby shower, White Coat/Alex's mom visiting, overnight trip to Virginia, and Thanksgiving. All were fun and exciting and made November fly by. I didn't take nearly enough pictures of everything we've been doing. Shoot. haha. Here are a few that I did get:

Date night. So cute. The kids loved Alex and his treats and spent most of the night here:

Baby shower. Didn't get pictures of the actual shower, but here are the mini cupcakes I made. Yum. Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting, and White cake with butter cream frosting (with a hint of coconut flavoring...I couldn't resist). Wrapped in scrapbook paper rings.

White Coat/Lori's visit...have their own posts

Virginia...oops. Didn't pull the camera out once. But my friend Lo's sister is a photographer and took some of us. I'll post those when I get my hands on them. They are amazing.

Haha this picture. I was supposed to cut Alex's hair the night before White Coat. This was the before picture. But after taking them, both Alex and I didn't want to cut it. He's cute.

Thanksgiving. At our house. And we SUCCESSFULLY made the turkey. Well, Alex did. It was juicy and delicious and we had it with some really cool people.

Who would have thought the day would go so well when it started out like this...

Snow. Yuck.

Our Table....

I was so excited about and caught up in all my Christmas decorating that I didn't think about having Thanksgiving decor at our Thanksgiving dinner. So that morning I fashioned leftover pinecones, leaves from the ground outside, and orange paper into those table turkeys. Not bad huh?

Later that night I was giving Dean his bath quickly while Alex and our guests chatted in the front. Little Brooklyn helped bathe "Baby Dean" and even Toby, our friend's dog, joined in the fun.

Last but not least, my favorite part of this Thanksgiving weekend...

Dean's Angry Talk is back!!!! Remember this post? Well it's back! And I got even better footage..

Farewell November. It's been fun.

It's beginning to look alot like...

Christmas

Yep. You guessed it. I am all decorated and ready for Christmas...

Truth is...Decorations and music started making their appearances the week after Halloween. I took these down...


and started putting these up the same day...
In fact...you might recognize a lot of things from this halloween post. Another in fact...here are some of the before and afters...

Remember this tree? Remember how I said I was going to keep it year round?I wasn't joking.
Remember these hot-glue spider webs..?

Ha. No I didn't keep them up...


But I used the same technique (plus some white glitter) to make these icicles for the winter

These are the frames I keep covering with scrapbook paper. And for this season, I added in some paper grocery bag behind the scrapbook paper.

And those are my Christmas trees. Also handmade and free.
Here's how...
or just scroll down to the next post...


My Nativities
When we were engaged, Alex had the idea of collecting Nativities from places we travel. I love it. My grandparents did the same thing and ended up with a unique and beautiful collection.

Mexico

Russia.
Ok ok WE didn't actually go, but my brother served his mission there and brought these back for us.

Peru
Ok ok only Alex went. That still counts.
Hawaii
We couldn't find a Nativity ANYWHERE so we snagged a Santa. Could the hut be manger-ish?
And tree globe from Lori :)

This one we got when we were married. Beautiful.
And that is what the back lighting looks like on the rest of the Nativities when the camera flash doesn't mess it up.

Yeah? You like the lighting? Here's how it happened...
Christmas lights scotch-taped to the back of the shelves and people propped on boxes and cans of food.

Halloween version:

Winter version:

The coasters were replaced by cream felt and a penguin. I found the idea and template in an old Better Homes Christmas magazine
(quick tutorial...printed image on printer paper, sprayed with spray adhesive, stuck it to fabric remnants, THEN cut it out. Keeps fabric stiff and in place)

Quick-made winter pillow cover
Also, thanks Grandma Lori for the early Christmas present..squeak-free rocker :)

Remember this spooky snazzy duck?

Well..
Merry Christmas and a quacky New Year

Remember my thrifty spendage on Halloween decor?
I did it again!

Price breakdown...
$14 fabric
(various red/black/white plaids, white and red felt that I will hopefully use (in addition to the other plaid remnants) for an advent calendar.
$4 bag of pinecones
which I will also use for my Card Club this month, and used to make turkeys for Thanksgiving table
Equals $18
Everything else that I used I already had in my craft closet.


Happy Holiday decorating...

Oh christmas trees...

I've seen some tutorials for the newsprint (or sheetmusic) trees that call for the Styrofoam cones as a base. Psshh. Don't waste your money. I just roll up plain cardstock then unscientifically cut the bottom until it sits flat.

For the Twine One...
Pretty self-explanatory. Oh but here's a tip (pun not intended)... I cut a hole in the tip of the tree, thread the end of the twine through it, tape it to the inside, and proceed to glue and wrap

For the curly trees..
I made one cone out of black cardstock, but the other was tan so I covered it with newspaper before adding the curly strips so holes in the "branches" wouldn't be as obvious.

To make the curly branches I cut strips of newspaper columns lenthwise. The width of the strips would depend on the size of the tree. Mine were small enough so I could cut one column in half and get two separate strips. Does this make sense?

Then I cut slits for the "branches" about halfway into the strip.
I also cut smaller slits into the top (the part that was going to be glued to the cone) just so it would lay flat as I glued it in place. It's the same idea as clipping or notching a seam when sewing curves.

To curl them, I just rolled the new branches with my fingers, starting at the edges and rolling them in.

For the Twine/Newpaper tree...

Easy.
Make a cone.
Cover it in newspaper (for me it was easiest if the newspaper was cut into triangles).
Wrap it in twine as described above, but leaving space between rows of twine.

If you want to make these and none of this makes sense, email me and I'll try to explain it better.

White Coat Ceremony

November 12 Alex received his white coat. Wikipedia (gotta love it) explains it as "mark[ing] the student's transition from the study of preclinical to clinical health sciences. At some schools [like Alex's], where students begin meeting patients early in their education, the white coat ceremony is held before the first year begins" (or in the first semester, like Alex's).

It was pretty cool. I remember when I was pregnant there were little milestones that made the pregnancy seem more and more real. Like the first ultrasound and seeing the baby move, made it more real. Then finding out it was a boy, more real. White coat did the same thing for me as med school; you know, living across country while Alex goes to school all day to become a DOCTOR. What the?? How'd we get here so fast?? Sometimes can't believe we're actually doing this. Awesome.

We were lucky enough to have Alex's mom come out for the occasion. Here are the pictures from white coat.

Just a med student

(Look how short the guy is that is about to put on Alex's coat. They had some laughs about it)

Now a med student with a white jacket.

A few of the med friends

Gary, Mark, Matt, Dagny

So proud of my future doctor, allowed to see patients, med student

Ok...I've got something funny for you...
See in the picture above, there's a mysterious figure Mark in the window...


He was taking his own picture...

Keep up the hard work handsome. I love you Alex.

White Coat Weekend

With Alex's mom in town, we got to go out into the world and explore the City again. The photo opps might look familiar...we did pretty much the same things as we did with my friend Nicole in October. It's always fun to take people to see the places you love.

Here are a few shots from our weekend with Grandma Lori.

This picture is for Joel...
One of Dean's many eyebrow expressions

Dean love love loved all the attention from Grandma

I don't think I've shown you our church building yet... Lori snapped a shot. Yep, that's a Burger King next door.

She also got some beautiful scenic shots of our Philadelphia

In October I tried taking Nicole to this spot. It's part of Fairmount Park with a sweet skyline view of the city. Unfortunately in October they were having a Breast Cancer Awareness walk and this park was closed. Fortunately, we got to take Lori there.
Beautiful eh?

I love how Dean looks at Alex



I love this next shot Lori took. It's an old couple just hanging out, enjoying the weather and each other. I want Alex and I to be like them when we grow up.

Walking in Valley Green

Can't wait till your next visit!