Fabulous Friday...

So the kids are in school and I took the day off - after running around this mornign with dropping off Bagels for the Afterschool educators and hitting the Dr. office...a quick trip to Target and since they are predicting snow - a trip to the grocery store as well...

after all that it was time for me...

Well time for me to craft...

Yesterday the girls and I stopped into Old Navy looking for some PJ bottoms...didn't find ones that fit them right but we did find stockings...FOR $1 (instead of the $9.50 price tag) - I had been planning on making the girls new stockings this year but that was something that got pushed back...and back again...and back some more...


But for $1...heck can't beat that...

But of course how will we know whose is whose...enter my Silhouette and Rhinestone templates...and BAM




Then I since I had my machine out I decided my blank wall needed something

and came up with this - once again using my trusty white contact paper with a little of the faux stainless thrown in...I think I will be on the look out for large jingle bells when I do my After Holiday shopping - so for next year I hope to have actual jingle bells...

Crafting - Chaos Style

So yesterday I showed off the Chocolately Goodness that were my Cocoa Cones...

A cone is great to give as a quick gift - to a neighbor, a co-worker, etc..., but what if you want something more...

Then I give you the Hot Chocolate for Two...

Quite a long time ago I came into possession of a few blank kraft cardboard drink holders - half were for holding two drinks and half were for four. They have been sitting in a box...staring at me...tauting me...saying USE ME USE ME

and use them I did...

I took the one that had room for 2 cups and decorated the outside with fun festive Designer Scrapbook paper (from Stampin' Up) and some stitched felt ribbon I found in the dollar bin at the big M's...and added a nice Holiday greeting and some jingle bells.

Then I added in two cute red and white mugs with a snowflake design I picked up at the Dollar Store.

Add in a Cocoa Cone in one side and a small bag of Holiday Chocolate topped with a sparkly chipboard snowflake in the other and VIOLA....

I made up four of these before I did my craft fairs - I brought them to the fairs thinking if they sell they sell - if not my teacher gifts are done...they all sold...YEAH...so I had to scramble a bit for what to give to teachers this year - luckly for me one of the class mom was taking donations to buy the teacher a new Kuerig machine...here you go here is my $10 - done easy peasy...

Here are a few more things that have been swirling around in the house of Chaos...

Fleece Tie Blankets...

There are 101 different types of directions to do these blankets - I read a few different versions and just winged it - in retrospect I should have cut the ties longer - but the girls love thier blankets

Fabric Wreath

I used the directions found at Moda Bake Shop - for my wreath I used Figgy Pudding by Basic Grey for Moda fabric

Decorated Bags

I found about a dozen small zippered cosmetic bags at my parents house over Thanksgiving...they orginally held Neutrogena samples - but now they were empty and once again I heard the tauting - USE ME USE ME... One side was mesh and the other side a clear plastic. I had a bought a bunch of smaller fun items for ny neices for thier Christmas present - Bubble bath, lipgloss, nailpolish, little bottle of perfume, a bracelet and a big bath puff...

What better than a personalized little bag to hold everything

I used my wonderful new Silhouette machine and some Bubblegum Oracle Vinyl

In the works

MELLY and ME Reindeer

I have the pieces of 6 Melly and Me Reindeer sewn- they still have to be stuffed, sewn shut, legs attached and have nose and eyes added...they are calling for snow all day on Saturday...what better time to stuff half dozen reindeer right?

BONUS KID CONVERSATIONS

Tuesday at school was crazy Hair Day - PWG choose to have 2 pigtails sticking straight up - upon getting home she took them out - but as us women know sometimes your hair just keeps sticking up...so she shouted "OMG daddy - look at my hair"

ME: What does OMG stand for (I know I just wondered what they thought
PWG & TW (in unison) : Oh My Gosh
ME: - oh Ok
TW: But sometimes it means Oh My That word you say alot (while pointing her little finger up towards the sky)

ummm yeah...maybe I need to make sure one of my New Years Resolution is saying Gosh more then That Other Word....

Wed. was "Twin Day" at my girls school - so on Tuesday while driving home from afterschool care I asked PWG what she needed to wear and was told "Jeans" so she could be twins with J - ummm PWG only wears dresses, leggings, skirts and skorts...the last time she wore a pair of jeans was when she was 2, because she had absolutely no say...whereas TW wears Jeans 99.89% of the time time - so while we were driving this occured

ME: You really are going to wear Jeans??
PWG: J doesn't have any leggings - all she has is Jeans
ME: I am soo getting a picture of you in Jeans
PWG: NOOOOOO - I will run away
ME: Then I will get a picture of you running away - in Jeans
PWG: FINE - but it better not show up on Facebook

Oye - raising kids in the 21st century....

Chocolately Goodness

So last year I saw the cute Cocoa in a bag gifts...at about $4 a pop...ummm cute but no thank you.



It was one of the things I kept in the back of my mind to make for this Holiday season...



and make I did

Don't they look yummy and they are oh so easy to make...



What do you need:


Cocoa Mix - you can either buy a big tub of Swiss Miss or Herseys or you can attempt to make your own using Sugar, Cocoa Powder and Dry Milk - there are tons of different recipies out there to make your own - in order to stufle the craziness I just used a big tub of Swiss Miss from the local warehouse store


Milk Chocolate Morsels - make sure you get milk chocolate, not semi sweet - you can also use other chocolatly goodness items - such as white chocolate, chopped up Andes Mints, etc...


Mini Marshmallows - I managed to score a HUGE bag at the local warehouse store for under $3 - I made 50 of these bags and still have a ton of mini marshmallows


Cone Bags - I bought my bags through Clearbags - they are a food grade bag - BUT you can also use the cone bags that you can buy at any craft store that are used for frosting - the main difference is the frosting bags are made of a thicker plastic material


Small Clear Elastic bands - you can buy these in the beauty section at your local CVS, Walgreens, etc...


Assorted Ribbon and Tags


So now that you have all your items it is time to assemble


Take one Cone bag and fill with enough Cocoa mix for TWO cups of Cocoa - I found the best way to do this was to pull out about 5-6 of my tall glass drinking glasses - insert the cone bag and fold the top over the rim of the glass and fill with cocoa powder.


Tie off the bag using a Clear Elastic Band and cut down the top so it is about 1/2 inch above the elastic band.


Insert the Cocoa filled cone into another cone bag - Once again I used the tall glasses to have the cones stand sort of upright.


Put a hearty scoop of chocolate morsals and then a hearty scoop of marshmallows on top and close with another Clear Elastic Band.


Decorate with an embellished tag and some festive ribbon.


My cost for this project of 50 of them came to about .75 cent a piece...much better than $4 a pop.

Super Sassy

So have I told ya'll how much I adore my new Silhouette machine?

I know, I know...

But seriously I love this thing - I have had the orginal Cricut for over 2 years and I have used the Silhouette more in the past 2 weeks then I have used the Cricut in the past 2 years.

One of the main reasons is I am able to have the machine set up right beside my computer - I get an urge to do something I just bring up the software - load the machine and cut...LOVE it...much better than hauling out my cricut - trying to find a cartridge with a font I like or an image I need - I have everything practically at my fingertips...

Add in the fact that I have a ton of shapes, words, sayings available to me to download at the push of a button with more added every single week- I signed up for a years worth of unlimited downloads at the Silhouette Online Store.

THEN, to make it even better they have come out with a new Rhinestone kit and of course I HAD to have it...it arrived last week...

In the store there are a ton of different templates - I perused them with TW and we found one that really "spoke" to TW...and then I was off...super easy to feed the template material into the machine...and then adhere on the backing board...getting the Rhinestones in the proper place took a little bit of time - BUT it was my first one and I figure the more I do the faster and easier it will become...

We used a plain black Old Navy shirt that was in her drawer and the final result...

Looks pretty good - IRL it is quite blingy...I have even already run it through a wash cycle and all those rhinestones are still stuck quite well - one of my fears was doing all this and then having them fall off once washed...but that was unfounded.

As I said the store adds new images every week - last week they added some wonderful designs by Loni Stevens. She designed words to fit on an adorable ornament box she also designed...well I loved all of them and immediately downloaded a bunch...

But...I didn't make ornaments (yet...) I took one of the designs and decided to add some Peace to my house this holiday season...It involved taking the orginal design and making it larger - I used my good old standby this holiday season - white contact paper - this is over the entry way into my family room...

of course now that I look at it I see my fancy swirls on each end aren't exactly perfect - one is higher than the other...oh well...such is life

A Sunday Quickie...

One of the problems with perusing so many blogs is you forget where you saw a terrific idea...

I happened upon a blog one day where the person recreated Pottery Barn initial etched vases using vinyl stencils and Glass Frost spray. (if this was featured on your blog - let me know so I can link it)

So I set out to do just that for our neighbors this holiday season - only using real glass etch cream - so simple to so do - took me about 30 minutes from beginning to end...

Get one glass vase

I managed to pick this one up at a local craft store - I stopped by one day and they had a table full of glassware all for 99 cents each - I grabbed a couple larger vases - not knowing what I was going to do with them...but for 99 cents how do you pass them up.

Cut a stencil in some form of adhesive vinyl - I used Contact Brand contact paper and my wonderful Silhouette machine to cut out my stencil - but this can be easily done by free hand cutting out a letter.

Make sure your glass is nice a clean without any fingerprints , as the oils in fingerprint residue can affect the etching process.

Apply your stencil over the glass and make sure all the edges are stuck to the glass without any bubbles - once the stencil is really down clean the exposed glass again to remove any fingerprints.

Apply glass etch cream to the exposed glass - be very careful as if it gets on your skin it can burn - you are encouraged to wear gloves (but shhh I don't) - I apply the cream with a small sponge brush

Let sit for 15-20 minutes and then wash the cream off under warm running water.

Remove stencil and admire your work...

Fill with goodies (3 different kinds of cookies) and give to good neighbors...(ok the last part is all me...)

It's the little things

I am by nature a naturally frugal person (well except when it comes to $85 face cream from Philosophy)


So in decorating my home for the holidays I tend to go pretty low key – no over the top decorations – just little things here and there and my style tends to be a more “comfy casual” then traditional…and our family is soooo a colored lights family…no offense to those who only bask in the glow of white lights…sure they are pretty…but colored lights are like sprinkles on a cake…sure the cake tastes good and is beautiful…but sprinkles make it fun and festive.

A few years ago I picked up a canister of brightly colored Christmas balls from Target in one of the after holiday sales. They were full of some pretty “non-tradtional” colors – purple, pink, lime green, turquoise – I loved them and had to have them…

But what to do with them…

The next year when I got out my garland to wrap around my banister I figured it needed a little punching up and out came the balls…

Some hot glue and some string to tie it to my banister and it looks pretty darn good – don’t you think…

I still had over half the bucket left and it sat with all the holiday stuff for the past few Holidays – I didn’t need anymore Garland…I toyed with the idea of making a very large wreath…but didn’t follow through…

This year I decided I need to display them – to give a pop of color somewhere - to coordinate with my banister…

So I loaded them up in a glass vase – a glass vase I managed to score for a whopping .99 cents. So I put them in and while they looked pretty it needed something else…

So away I went to my fabulous Silhouette machine and used some of that wonderful faux stainless steel contact paper and made the vase a bit more festive…

I love this – but I especially love the fact that after the holidays are over I can just peel the words away and have a nice blank slate….I am thinking it may need to be decorated for each holiday…lets see – a nice Valentines saying with it filled with cut out paper hearts…maybe a picture of the Easter bunny while filled with decorated eggs….

Now what would the holidays be without the trimming of the tree…

The first year TC and I were together – living in a small cheap apartment we bought this HUGE tree from Wallyworld – I cost us all of $16 – which to us was a HUGE sum of money as we struggled each month to pay the bills – but it was Christmas and we HAD to have a tree – we bought a box of colored lights and a box of glass plain colored bulbs…we decided right then and there we would start a tradition – every year we would buy each other an ornament and only those would go on the tree…now over the years we have had to modify what goes on the tree – as we have received ornaments as gifts – they go on the tree and of course having small children we have numerous ornament designed by them now hanging. But, the thing is each and every one of them has a special meaning to us – there is a story behind each one…when we hang the ones we have given each other over the years there is a story to go with each of them…when we hang the ones given lovingly give to us by others we think of them…when we hang the ones our children have made us I get teary over how fast they are growing from little girls into big girls.

This year TC got me this



Yes it is a piece of pumpkin pie…I have an obsession with Pumpkin Pie…I only really eat it one time a year at Thanksgiving…but it is my Moms Pumpkin Pie – piled high with homemade vanilla whipped cream – ohhh so yummy – in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving I talk somewhat obsessively about having pumpkin pie…good choice TC

This is what I got TC


It is a lady T-Rex…there is a running joke in my family – I being the shortest one – also have the shortest arms – so it isn’t as easy for me to reach certain things in high cabinets…or say reach across the table to collect all the Apples to Apples cards…One day it was blurted out I was built like a T-Rex with tiny arms…and that has been a running joke in my family – a few days before I bought the ornament I was trying to get something down and TC said to me “Here let me help you T-rex” – so when I saw the ornament I knew I had to give it to him…as a holiday reminder of me…

And at the top of our tree goes our star


Looks a little sad doesn’t it…but it contains the best story – one we told our girls this year…see back at that first Christmas we bought lights and bulbs and there were two ornaments but no topper…we just couldn’t afford to spend any more…so I took a piece of cardboard and some tin foil and fashioned us a star…That was 14 years ago and every year it sits proudly on top of our tree – it reminds my husband and I how far we have come together and how lucky we are to have a nice roof over our head, how blessed we are to have two happy healthy kids and the resources to surround the tree with gifts to each other.

So does your family have any holiday traditions??? I would love to hear some, cause you know it is NEVER to late to start a new tradition :)

a break in the Holiday overload

Thanks to all these crafty chicks who have blogs my mind is in Holiday Overload…

I have been storing ideas away – some I am running out of time to throw the project together in a exacting fashion…others I so totally want to do them NOW!!!!

But time…time is the enemy – I have to work (to pay for all the craftiness) – then when I get home I deal with 8 year old little girls with homework and Religious Ed class and Gymnastics and Brownies – oh yeah and one of them, PWG, received an early Christmas present from her aunt…her very own simple sewing machine…

So now I have to hover over to make sure she doesn’t sew her fingers together…

I set it up last night and after some curse muttering I finally got it threaded right and dug out some scraps for her to practice on…

The big smile – the look of pure unadulterated joy was worth every moment…

What could be better than that…

Well I left the room for about 10 minutes and came back to find both my girls sitting in the chair together with PWG “schooling” TW in the finer points of sewing a straight line – no fighting, no screams of “This is MINE”…and TW had that same big smile – the same look of joy…

You did good Aunt K…you did good

Blessings...so many ways to count

Last week I talked about how every week this December we were choosing a different charity that means something to our family to make a donation to. I will say I picked each charity back at Thanksgiving time...

The one I picked for this week is the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. My good friend C has CF. We spent many of our formative childhood years together, as our mothers are best friends. Throughout my childhood I watched as C spent time being "thumped" to loosen the mucous in his lungs...I visited him during his many hospitilizations...I partcipated in Swim-a-thons, Bowl-a-thons, You name it- a-thons to raise much needed funds for the CF Foundation for research and development...

Six years ago I attended a 30th birthday party for C. It was poignant because at one point there were questions if C would ever see his 20th birthday...

When I picked the CF Foundation a few weeks ago I choose this week to give to honor C - as his 36th birthday is tommorrow...the past few months there have been some speedbumps - he has been in and out of the hospital and at one point it was very touch and go - but he is a fighter and pulled through..

Last week...he received a wonderful gift...a new set of lungs.

He has a long stuggle in front of him - but he is a fighter...

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

~Winston Churchill

On a Contact High...

So the other day I showed you how I used Contact paper and my new Silhouette to decorate a window at my workplace...

oh so much more...

So here is the orginal window with more snowflakes

then I had to decorate up the door to my section - BE is I think Brittanic Bold?? and Merry is Two Peas Arizona font - I was able to weld the words so the "erry" cut as one piece

and our display case...I used an Ornament shape downloaded from Silhouette and flipped one before cutting. The "Joy to the World" is also a download.

and finally what I absolutely adore - our Ornament window - complete with all my co-workers names...I found faux stainless steal contact paper (made by Duck I found it at Lowes) - {swoon} - I used a Silhouette plain ornament shape to cut the ornaments out of the faux stainless steel and then used some Deliha Red and Olive Oracle vinyl to cut out the names in different fonts...

I simply ran ribbon (Micheals $1 bin) down the window at various lengths and put the ornament on - I then created corresponding bows and used my beloved Craft glue Dots (if you do not own Craft glue dots in the red box...you must get some - these can make anything stick) to adhere them to the top of the ornaments - here is a closeup of my ornament...

I used the "Mele Kalikimaka" download from the Silhouette digital store - mainly to try to be PC...around here gosh forbid you say "Merry Christmas"... and our orginal idea of "Happy/Merry Whatever" might have gotten us in a bit of trouble...so we used a roundabout way to say "Merry Christmas"

The snowmen on the bottom is also a digital download - I placed four on one page and flipped every other one so the ends would match up (one is slightly higher then the other) as I was putting it along the bottom of the window...I also had a few trees cut out from an earlier project - so those got added as well...

I adore, adore, adore, adore my new Silhouette....

Oh, before I forget you are probably wondering what became of the all the things in the sneak peek I gave you yesterday...

Well that turned into this..

Isn't it lovely...I used a simple Styrofoam Cone shape - some T-pins and a few bags of candy...along the way I did a very bad thing and introduced my daughters to Lindor truffles...now they are clamoring for Lindor...

This was very quick and easy to put together - the girls put the pins through the top of each piece of candy and I pinned them on. The star on top - I simply cut some nesting star shapes from my Silhouette (did I happen to mention I adore my new toy??) - used a toothpick and a Craft Glue Dot (did I mention I adore these as well??) to put them back to back and then sunk the toothpick on top.

This makes a wonderful gift - in fact this one is going to a neighbor this weekend - she holds an open house before the annual parade for our town (lucky us the parade goes right through our neighborhood - prime seats only a block away) - I figure this would make a nice little hostess gift that everyone at the Open House can enjoy...This would be great to place on a neighbors doorstep - just ring the bell and run...a much better treat than flaming dog poo, dontcha' think?

Channeling her inner Soprano

So with the start of December in our house the Santa Elf appears…

See isn’t he cute…

He was sent by Santa to keep an eye on PWG and TW and report back to Santa if they are being Naughty or Nice…

He is also in charge of our Advent Calendar – which hangs and has small mittens for each day leading up to Christmas – just big enough to slip 2 small pieces of candy in…

So if the girls behave they are awoken to the joy of being able to have a piece of candy first thing in the morning…

The other day PWG told me it doesn’t matter if she is good or not because there will be candy everyday…I called her bluff and said it was all up to the Elf – to which she informed me she had a contract with the Elf and showed me this…


Ummm yeah…more like an extortion letter than a contract…and see those numbers – when I asked what they were I was told “The Elf gave me his digits” . I told her that the Elf's handwritting looked alot like hers...her response "Prove it" - I asked why she signed it "ME" instead of her name...her response "The Elf knows who he is signing a contract with - no names needed"

Question is - if one day there aren’t any pieces of candy will the Elf find himself in the woods digging his own shallow grave?

And I leave you with a little taste

What to take a guess as to what I used these for????

You will just have to wait until tomorrow…

Oh So Easy...

So what did this become....

It became this

Simply Fabulous don'tcha think??

And so super simple and easy to do...

One day I was perusing the web and came across a great blog - We Are That Family - one of the things I love is the Do It Yourself Projects - simply divine and most of the items used come from the Dollar Store...so easy on the wallet as well...I came across THIS post (go down to about the 5th picture) - well...I HAD to do that so...

My wreath uses

1 white wreath shape - $1 @ Dollar Tree

1/2 roll of wire edged ribbon - $1 @ Dollar Tree

1 20 yard Snow Garland - $2.99 @ Target

I would have used Garland from the Dollar Tree but sadly this year it was a little lacking and quite frankly a bit too gaudy for me - and for me to say something is too gaudy - the woman who bought a holiday flying pig for her front yard - it must have been bad...


The 20 yards was just perfect for this wreath - I used a dab of hot glue to attach the garland to the wreath and then simply wrapped it all around and used another dab of hot glue to glue the end down. - tied 1/2 of the roll of ribbon in a loop and strung it through the wreath.


Simply beautiful and for $4.50 - a steal - would have been even cheaper had my Dollar Tree had some better Garland...but oh well...the Snow Garland is beautiful - hard to see in the picture but the Garland is mainly white with some sprinkles of silver and shimmer throughout...