Counting Down to Christmas

We still haven't completely settled in from our move, but that didn't stop me from breaking out my Cricut machine and getting crafty for Christmas. I haven't used it nearly as much as I anticipated when I bought it last year, but given that we moved and have three (soon to be four) kiddos I'm not going to beat myself up too much.

I can't take credit for the design as I copied one I saw online (with a few of my own tweaks here and there), but it was a great addition to the Christmas season and a nice, new tradition for our first holiday season in our new home.

My three year old, Grace, was kind enough to play Vanna White for a picture.

The aftermath...

This project took a lot longer than I expected, which meant that by the time I was finished I was exhausted. Unfortunately, the crafting fairy never arrived to clean up after me. This is just another reason I'm anxious to have a craft room/office set up and organized. Once everything has its own place I'll be able to work in a cleaner fashion... or at least shut the door and not have to look at it.

I'm Meltiiiiiing

These are the cookies I made for my son Daniel's class Christmas party (inspired by, where else, Pinterest). I was pretty happy with how they turned out. I did the white melted snow and detail work in royal icing, which I realized a couple days later wasn't the best choice when I almost chipped a tooth. For the first day or two the royal icing was great, but when it solidifies it doesn't mess around. It's like a confectionary concrete. Now I know why cakes at bridal shows always look so gorgeous.

Board and Batten

I'm excited to share that my days of dreaming about and lusting after board and batten have finally paid off. We have installed some in our new home! The entryway from the garage is somewhat tight. There are two closets and two hallways. One hallway goes straight into the kitchen and the other to the laundry room. We are using one of the closets as a makeshift pantry (one of the few desired features our new home is lacking) and the other for coats and shoe storage.

Given that we have young children, I really wanted a place for hooks so they can hang up their jackets and bags without assistance. A 3M hook sufficed for a little while, but that wasn't really the look I was going for so when pinterest was kind enough to introduce me to the idea of installing board and batten with hooks I had to oblige.

We aren't finished with it yet. We still have to do some additional sanding (it's amazing how some imperfections really pop after a coat of white paint), repaint it a time or two, install the hooks, and decide on a paint color for the wall above, but just seeing board and batten installed in my home, and knowing that we did it ourselves is very exciting. Trust me, I'm the girl who would've paid someone to do this just a couple years ago. We actually got an estimate to have it installed in the dining room of our old house and couldn't believe it when the quote came back for $4,000! Needless to say, our walls stayed bare.

So here they are, the before and almost after pics: