Countdown 2 Xmas, Day 14 Recap

Wow! Going strong for two weeks now! Hard to believe we are 11 days away from Christmas day! If you are still looking for gifts two of the bloggers for today have some great ones for you! Make sure you pop on over and check them out!

Shere y Paul, Shere and Paul bring us a great post on gifts for travelers! I can assure you there are some wonderful ideas!

Love Life Simplified

This is a fantastic post on gifting experience vs. things. This is a debate that is always near and dear to my heart. Go read it, I am loving the envelop idea and may have to whip up some envelopes and ideas last minute for my kiddo!

Odds and Evans brings us these adorable Christmas vases! These make a cute last minute decoration and could be done with any glass or vase I'd think!













These are some great projects, make sure you go and check them all out!

DIY Beach Ornament

Good Afternoon! 

Today I have a great little craft project. I am talking ornaments today. I know, ornaments?! What the heck?! Well, these are actually ornaments that you could display all year long. They make a great keepsake and the supplies can be gathered while you are on vacation!

This is what you will be making:

Supplies:

• Sand (can be gathered when on vacation)
• Glitter (optional)
• Small Shells (can be gathered when on vacation)
• Small picture
• Tweezers
• Scissors
• Small funnel
• Glass ornament bulb
• Hanger for your ornament

Process:

First, choose the picture you want in your ornament. Have it printed, then shrink it-a lot! I shrunk mine by 50% on to regular printer paper. I wound up being 2" by 2". Seems small, but those bulbs are tiny.

I chose this picture of my daughter with my niece and my nephew on the beach at my parent's beach house in Florida. It's so wonderful the way they were standing holding hands with the oldest in the middle. The picture just makes me smile and lets me remember the fun times we had that summer. Not only does this photo hold great memories, but it is simple. There isn't a ton to look at. The children are the focus and it clearly shows where we are.

Next, take the bulb and remove the top. 

Then, putting the small funnel in the top pour in the desired amount of sand. One very, very, very important thing to remember here is sand is very heavy. So this will add quite a bit of weight to the ornaments, so add it sparingly. I then added a tiny bit of glitter to give the sand some color. Once you have that in there place your finger over the top of the ornament and shake a bit to mix it up.

Now, this part coming up was the most difficult for me, personally.

Take the picture and trim it to desired size. Then, roll it up and put it in the ornament. If you are a perfectionist this is where I apologize to you. Using the tweezers manipulate the photo so it is in the position you would like. At some point you will have to accept that the photo looks good enough positioned a certain way, remember it looks better than you think it does most likely. Once you have it to that point of this looks awesome, using the tweezers gently push the picture into the sand to stabilize it.

Toss in a few tiny shells for some ornamentation.

On the front or back write the year using a sharpie. I sent the final product to a couple of friends (who all live in different places and I sent the messages separately so as not to "taint" the answers) and they unanimously agreed the year actually looked best written across the front...you can see it below.

 You can also add a tag at the top marking the place along with a nice ribbon to hang it from!

This makes a great keepsake for a beach vacation or to give as a gift at-don't kill me for saying it-Christmas!

Easter Review!!!

So, I haven't been feeling terribly well the last few days, but am finally up & at 'em again! A healthy diet, good workouts, and lots of rest got me through! My awesome hubby made sure I didn't overdo it and that I got all the rest I needed! So, I am here to tell y'all a bit about our Easter weekend (a week late lol) & talk about the Easter baskets my daughter & I put together. I know it is a bit late but hopefully there will be some ideas to put on your list for next year!!!

So, our Easter weekend Started our early as hubby had Friday off so we just got errands done and relaxed  as a family. Hubs did "research" for work & played a video game all day while the kiddo & I did all the grocery shopping. She was a champ at Costco but felt "cheated" because there weren't many sample stations out. :( Honestly I felt cheated too lol Then Saturday it was a gorgeous day here in Vancouver so we headed out to our favorite local place & sat on their patio for a few hours, then headed to dessert at our favorite waffle bar. Sunday we cooked a largeish dinner, did baskets, delivered baskets, and just relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful Vancouver weather!!!

On to the good stuff though! So, my daughter follows a young lady on YouTube called Macbarbie07. I've watched several of her video's & think she is super cute & is one of the few people I don't mind my daughter following because I think her video's and fashion advice are very appropriate for girls their age. Well, there was a video on Easter gift ideas. My daughter followed many of the ideas on here & put together baskets for her closest friends. First she thought about the things her friends like & what sort of DIY stuff she could put in there. She decided first on the blown out message eggs included in the video tutorial. That was fun!!! (Tip: if you get blue food coloring on your rented walls/tile floor use peroxide to get it out!). She did find though when you are blowing out the egg it is much easier to blow it out when you cut the straw down & make a short straw. Also, cutting the straw in to many pieces & just using a new piece each time was the easiest thing to do. Also, we found making a couple extra helped because some broke when putting the message inside. ;)

Top left: Peeps, paper bag scrapbook, snow globe, diy hair bow, a candy filled egg, and message egg

Top right: Chocolate bunny, snow globe, painting kit, and message egg

Bottom left: diy hair bow, message egg, candy egg, diy makeup remover (half olive oil/half filtered water)

Bottom right: Chocolate bar, lip gloss, nail polish, message egg, candy filled egg

Most tutorials can be found on the MacBarbie07 YouTube channel as linked above. Here is how to make the paper bag scrapbook.

Paper bag Scrapbook

One paperbag

Photos

Cardstock

Fold the paper bag in half. Fold the card stock long ways & cut in half. Fold over the fold of the paper bag and glue down. Choose a picture for the front & crop to fit. Add title if you wish. Then, choose which pictures you'd like in the scrapbook. Crop them & you can mount on card stock if you wish & write captions on the back. My daughter however chose to write on the pictures themselves with archival quality markers. Then stick them in the open part of the paper bag! Super simple & super cute!

Now here are the baskets I made hubby & the teen: 

For the teen I did a cute jar centre piece with peeps & robin eggs, a chocolate bunny, another little centre piece with peeps (I thought hubby liked them but he didn't so I gave the teen double lol she wasn't complaining). The eggs were filled with money for Starbucks deliciousness, then a couple of bright notepads for school & list making. Then, hubby got a basketball basket (since it is his favorite time of year afterall), with some goodies to keep him awake all  night for his "research" (aka video game playing, must be nice to be a designer & have your excuse to play video games be work related), then those are our gorgeous eggs!!!

I hope everyone had a great holiday last weekend & that your April has started off with wonderful showers to bring those May flowers!!! :)

Cheers!