Nick took the whole week off from work so we had lots of time to relax as a family, even with all the hustle and bustle. We even snuck in a date night–Jack stayed with Grandma and Grandpa for a few hours while we went to a friend’s wedding in New Orleans. We spent the next few days shuttling back and forth between my family and Nick’s. We’re very lucky that even though we met in Baton Rouge our folks live only about half an hour apart from one another in St. Tammany Parish.

Puppy love. This happens at least once a day.

We were so humbled by the generosity of our families. Jack got more gifts than we know what to do with. Seriously, see below. Those are just the toys and books–he also got lots of cute clothes and useful gear. We even had to leave a few toys at my mom’s because there just wasn’t any more room in the car. I picked out a few toys that I think he’ll be able to play with the easiest right now and put the rest away to bring out a few at a time over the next few months. Friends of mine with older kids emphasize that toy rotation is key to keeping your sanity (and your home from looking like Babies R Us).

Jack wasn’t the only one who got some awesome stuff. Not pictured, because we were out of room in the car, is the new TV my parents got us for our front room. I’ve been really wanting to replace the big, heavy one that I worried might topple over on Jack someday, and since it is one of only two TVs that we actually use we’re excited to upgrade it. I also am now wearing my great-grandmother’s gold wedding band, a gift from my dad’s cousin Judy. I am really loving how understated and classic it is on my right hand.

I am usually not huge on bling so it’s surprising that I received two jewelry gifts this year and love them both. Nick got me these diamond stud earrings. They were smaller than he’d expected when he ordered them and he was really worried I wouldn’t like them, but I actually think they’re perfect. I’ve been lamenting how hard it is to wear jewelry of any sort now that Jack’s so grabby and these are perfect to just leave in my ears day in and day out. Gotta love low-maintenance beauty.

This is one of the most thoughtful gifts I’ve received in a long time. Nick’s mom noticed me admiring a vintage birdcage in this blog post back in November and remembered seeing a similar one at the thrift store where she volunteers, so she snagged it for me! As soon as we walked in their house on Christmas Day I made a beeline for it and said, “Oh, I love this! Did you get it for Christmas?” Then she said, “No, it’s for you!” I was so excited! It’s actually perfectly functional, with a working door and a tray that pulls out for cleaning, but I think I’ll forego getting a pet bird and just let it sit around looking pretty (and maybe getting filled with various seasonal whatnots). I’ve got the perfect spot for it in mind, but I need to move some things around first.

I also got some stainless steel cookware from my PawPaw. Holla! Now we can stop being poisoned by the scratched up nonstick we’ve destroyed with our careless cooking habits. This stuff is supposed to be virtually indestructible–much better suited to our lifestyle!

I got Nick this personalized keychain from Etsy. It says ” DAD EST 6.29.12.” He liked it.

I also got him this shaving gift set, also from Etsy. He is famously hard to shop for and I’m pretty proud of how I did this year.

We’re back home now and working little by little on cleaning up, getting things organized, and enjoying Nick’s last vacation day of the year. I’ve got a project for this weekend that I am soooo excited about. I can’t wait to hopefully post about it next week! I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and that your weekend is just as wonderful!

I totally photoshopped in the cats (you may remember that getting a photo with all of us together was a bit of a challenge). I don’t actually own Photoshop, I just used the basic Windows editing software to layer in photos I took of each of them sitting in those exact spots on the sofa. I’m quite pleased with myself. I also took on the design of the card for the first time ever (as opposed to choosing a pre-designed template from Vistaprint or wherever), making this the first year that our card has been absolutely, positively, 100% free. Can’t beat that with a stick. Plus we’re saving the trees and all that by distributing it via the internet.

We’re spending some time with family this week, but I’ll be posting on Wednesday about my latest Craigslist acquisition–one of my best finds ever, if I do say so myself. I wish you all the very best of holidays. May your Christmas be merry and bright!

I did get my ribbon and other supplies out, just in case I needed them, but ended up sticking almost exclusively to paper and cord. Do you like how I’ve got my ribbon organized? They’re threaded onto skewers poked through the already existing holes of a plastic storage basket. In the larger woven basket I’ve got tissue paper and gift bags that I’ve saved throughout the year, and apparently a scrap of navy ribbon. Also pictured below is a box of merchandise tags from Office Depot that has seen me through several Christmases now, as well as some burlap for cushioning any delicate items.

I got the idea this year to cut the strings off the merchandise tags and thread them directly onto the cotton cord. It’s a much simpler look.

Here they are all wrapped up. I had one item that was not practical to wrap so I cut a long rectangle of fabric, folded it in half, sewed the sides together, and used that navy ribbon to tie it closed at the top. Bam, charming gift bag. It was so easy that I may sew a few more small ones for those last minute gifts that I’m still waiting to arrive.

Notice how I’ve got some gifts stacked in a galvanized tub? I totally stole that idea from a Pottery Barn catalog. We open most of our presents at my parents’ house on Christmas morning and the rest are all scattered between my grandparents’ and Nick’s parents’ houses. To make things easy on myself when it comes time to unload the car I put all the presents that need to come into my mom’s in the tub. That way we can just grab it instead of standing at the back of the car sorting through which box goes where and trying to carry as many as possible in one trip. (I already had the tub and use it for gardening as a planter or water bucket for most of the year, but you can find them for cheap in the paint aisle)

Here’s something else I did this year that seemed to simplify things: I wrapped my gifts in batches. Before starting I wrote out all my gift tags, lined up my purchases, and placed the appropriate tag atop each one. Then I’d take one larger item and cut out the paper for it, use the scraps from that to cut paper for a few smaller gifts, and wrap them all at once. I think I was able to work faster this way than if I’d given my undivided attention to one present at a time from start to finish.

I am so glad to have all that wrapping knocked off my to-do list. Now the only thing I have left to finish is the dang Christmas cards. Everyone else’s cards keep arriving in the mail, taunting me, and I’ve gotten more than one inquiry from folks who apparently look forward to our cards every year (I think they enjoy seeing the pets forced to participate).

I started out by clamping all three to a chair on my front porch and using my teensiest tiniest drill bit to make a small hole. The wood was so thin and light that I really worried about splitting it. The scrap piece of fabric was to keep my nasty, rusty clamp from marring the wood. I marked the spot where I wanted to drill with a pencil.

I went through the same hole with one slightly larger bit after another, gradually working my way up to a 1/8″ bit, at which point I decided that was probably just about right.

Then I took them inside, gave them a gentle sanding, and got ready to paint.

I gave each one a few coats front and back with some metallic gray acrylic paint I had on hand. I just smeared it on with my fingers because my kid is the world’s crappiest napper and it’s easier to wash my hands in a hurry than a paintbrush.

When Jack woke up from his nap I changed him into a onesie that I didn’t mind ruining and plopped him down on a big piece of cardboard. I would have just stripped him down to a diaper but I’d rather mess up a onesie than one of our cloth diapers. We have disposables in the house and I suppose I could have used one of those but I seem to be saving them for some sort of dire emergency.

I took a deep breath and painted Jack’s hand with green paint. Around this time I started wondering whether this was all a terrible idea. It just seems very counterintuitive to paint your baby.

I somehow convinced him to open his hand and quickly pressed the painted wood against it, then repeated with the other two discs. They didn’t turn out as pretty as I’d hoped.

Not to be deterred, I moved on to his foot. It was much, much easier to grab, paint, and press his foot than his hand.

And the footprints we made on the backside of the discs turned out much nicer looking as a result.

I decided to give the handprints another try. I wiped the green paint off as best I could, gave them a quick sanding, then went over it with some gray paint. See, good as new.

Unfortunately, the results were only marginally improved. Turns out it’s just really difficult to get yoir baby to surrender control of his hands long enough to get nice looking handprints.

It was around this time that I realized the paint I was using was definitely not non-toxic or no-VOC. Parenting fail! Into the bath he went, but not before he grabbed a big ‘ol handful of my hair with his paint-covered hand. That was his revenge for exposing him to toxins, I suppose.

Once everything was nice and dry, I used a crochet hook to thread each disk onto some cotton cord.

Then I just tied each one into a little knot, making a perfect loop for hanging.

I hadn’t thought all the way to this step so I kind of impulsively just wrote his name and the year on each side in black sharpie using my nicest, neatest handwriting.

Bam, ornament on the tree.

Now I can be sure I won’t have any regrets about letting his little hands and feet grow to be monstrous without documenting how small they once were. Nick’s feet are giant and I feel sure Jack’s won’t be small for long. And maybe someday when my house is being overrun by giant smelly sneakers I can pull out this ornament and reminisce about a time when he didn’t even wear shoes.

I hope y’all aren’t too stressed out gearing up for Christmas! I am almost done with my shopping but haven’t wrapped a single gift. And the card…I don’t even want to talk about it.

I gathered my supplies outside: pinecones, spray adhesive, glitter, and a plastic gift bag I didn’t care about ruining.

I started by pouring a generous amount of glitter into the gift bag.

Then, I picked up the ugliest pinecone (in case I messed it up), misted it with spray adhesive, then tossed it in the bag and shook.

It ended up with waaaay more glitter than I wanted. Not exactly the subtle look I was hoping for. I brushed it off as best I could and moved on to the next ugliest pinecone.

Hmmm, this one was a little TOO subtle. Next, please.

This one was just right. So pretty! In about five minutes I had five glittery pinecones: three moderately festive and two representing opposite extremes. I added a little more glitter to the barren one, brushed a little more off the discotastic one, and called the whole thing a success.

Here they are back in my living room, looking all festive.

This whole project took less than thirty minutes, including the time I spent washing adhesive and glitter off my hands. The cool thing is that you could use as much or as little adhesive/glitter as you want to suit your own taste. You could make it so sparkly it might blind an  elf or just add a subtle shimmer. You could even skip the spray adhesive if you don’t have it around and just use glue to add some strategic sparkle here and there. The only downside is that next year I’ll have to find new pinecones for fall. So then I’ll have fall pinecones and slightly more festive Christmas pinecones. Good thing they’re all free!

I attempted a DIY project in which I painted a few words of a Christmas hymn onto a piece of fabric that I planned to stretch over a canvas, but as you can see it was pretty much an epic fail.

So then I got out this chalkboard that used to be painted white and sitting on the mantle in Jack’s room, and quickly wiped on some silvery-gray craft paint with my finger. #notimeforpaintbrushes

Then I did my best to write the words on there with chalk in some pretty lettering. I am in no way artsy and have pretty much the most awful handwriting known to mankind, but it’s better than the fabric + paint debacle. Perfect? No. Good enough? Yes.

Here it is on the shelf in my living room, along with some other seasonally appropriate whatnots.

I am really kind of over this whole grouping of furniture. The shelf is higher than I would normally hang something because two taller chairs used to sit under it, and now I feel like it with the lamp and the super low chaise are just not playing nicely together. Maybe I’ll work out some solution in the new year.

I Christmas-ified these oak branches I brought in from my yard a few months ago with some old ornaments and gold/glass votive candle holders–all from the thrift store last year.

I put some trimmings from our tree into a mason jar and stuck it on a shelf. I still feel like this whole arrangement looks kind of sad, though. Perhaps I’ll add something more if inspiration strikes.

The bulk of our festivity is focused in the front room. That’s where we have our tree and stockings.

The paper poinsettias I made look really cute just tucked in here and there.

I made some book page covered ornaments for my shop and they’ve sold really well. I decided to try making one with glitter but it took waaay too long to be worth my time. So the lone glittered ornament gets to stay at our house.

I kept the mantle pretty simple by just switching out the dictionary print that usually lives there for some glittery reindeer. Don’t they look adventurous?

And before you start beating yourself up thinking about how all your decorations are still in boxes, this is what you see when you walk in our door. I got our decorations out over a week ago and still haven’t cleaned up. At this point I might as well leave all this crap out until January.

So that’s what’s going down in the Tryforos household this Christmas. I think we’re skipping outdoor decorations again this year. The neighbors might wonder why we can hang up lights but can’t seem to bring ourselves to pull a single weed in our flower bed, haha. New Years’ resolution: stop being those neighbors with the neglected exterior.

Notice the cat food on the couch? I was trying to appeal to their sense of hedonism.

Here Sheila is being forcibly restrained. Doesn’t exactly convey Christmas cheer!

This is one of the better ones, even though it’s sans Sheila.

And of course Jack is adorable, even though the outfit I was so hoping would fit him is still a little too big.

I reluctantly gave up on the cats and we were able to get this one, which I think is cute. Baby eats dog. Classic Christmas theme.

Something is holding me back from ordering cards with it, though. I guess maybe because Sheila and Pistachio have always been in our pictures and I don’t feel right leaving them out. I may give the whole thing another try this weekend. I’m running out of time to get cards printed and in the mail! I wish we were close enough with our neighbors to ask one of them to just come press the dang shutter button for us so we could concentrate on having everyone look nice. Of course if we get a better picture I’ll share. I hope y’all have a fabulous weekend! Have you finished your holiday shopping yet? I’m planning to knock most of mine out this evening from the comfort of my sofa. Oh, what exciting Friday nights I lead these days!

Would you believe me if I told you that Nick loved his? In fact, when he saw that I was whipping up some new ones for this year he commented several times that he liked the penguin stocking. But since there are three of us now I’d be making a new stocking for Jack anyway, and I figured I might as well make us some more sophisticated stockings while I was at it. I promised him I’d try to find a way to repurpose the penguin. (Update: when he saw me taking pictures of them this morning he called me a horrible person for forsaking our old stockings. I think he was only half joking. I’m really surprised at the depth of his passion for the penguin stocking).

So anyway, here’s what I turned out using stuff I already had on hand: canvas painter’s dropcloth, black felt, and fusible web sheets.

I started by drawing a stocking shape onto my dropcloth with pencil and cutting it out.

Then, I used that stocking-shaped piece of fabric as a template to trace five more stockings onto my dropcloth, then cut them all out. You may have to squint a bit to see the pencil lines, but they’re there.

With all six pieces cut, I gave them a good steamy iron to get the creases out and then paired ‘em up.

I made a quick hem at the top of each piece. If I were feeling ambitious I would have folded the fabric over twice and pressed it before sewing, but since these will only come out for a few weeks a year and probably never hold any actual stocking stuffers (we spend Christmas out of town), I figured no one would ever know my dirty little secret that there are raw edges inside the top of my stockings.

Next, I made sure my two pieces were lined up nicely and then carefully sewed all around the perimeter (leaving the top open, of course). On my first one I went a little fast around the toe and had to rip out my stitches for a do-over, but I figured out how to take the curve pretty smoothly after that.

Then I trimmed the excess fabric from around the curvy areas and turned the whole operation inside out. Bam. Stocking.

Repeat times two and you’ve got yourself a stocking threesome.

Now, for the part where I add our initials. I dug through my stash of scrap felt. It’s times like this that I forgive myself for hoarding so many craft supplies. I had these little 4×4 squares left over from this project a long time ago.

I printed each of our initials in a pretty font (Fontleroy Brown, to be exact, which is also the font used in a lot of my blog graphics), then traced them onto a sheet of fusible web. It’s like iron-on hem tape except a whole sheet of it.

I cut my letters out using the crappiest pair of scissors I own because I have learned the hard way that this stuff will gunk up your shears then peeled off one side of the backing, sticking the letters backwards onto the felt.

Then I used my good scissors to carefully cut out around the paper, giving me my pretty black felt letters.

A steam and a press later, booyah, letters affixed to stockings for all to enjoy.

I hung them each with a little loop of cotton cord sewn into the hem and a white thumbtack.

If you didn’t have fusible web around you could just use paper as a stencil and fabric glue or hot glue to affix the letters, and if you didn’t have any black fabric or felt you could even make a freezer paper stencil and fill the letters in with paint. So many options! The best part about stuff like this is just getting creative and using what you have. If you spend as much money buying supplies for a project as you would to just buy it already made then it kind of defeats the purpose (except for the JOY OF CREATING, but whatevs).

I still haven’t Christmas-ified the mantle. That’s on my to-do list for today so that we can snap a family Christmas photo in front of it in time to actually get a few cards in the mail.

PS I am sharing this post over at my friend Brandi’s blog a A Brandi Sized Blog today. She is doing a holiday post series with lots of cool projects and she is also hilarious, so give it a look-see. She has a super cute little etsy shop, too, and just happens to be my first ever sponsor! See that little ad in the top right for ABS Shop? Yup, that’s her. She’s got some vintage and handmade wares that are a little different from mine because variety is the spice of life. I would love it if you went and checked it out!

Lest you think I dressed my baby wildly inappropriately for the weather, bear in mind that it was about 75 degrees. Gotta love Louisiana. This year we invited our friends Cassie and Nic with us! They just moved into their very first house and were really excited to have a real, live tree. And yes, Cassie is my BFF and we both have husbands named Nic(k).

Bonus: Nic has a truck, which means we were spared the drama of tying a tree to the top of our SUV. Thanks, Nic!

Cassie is just a little in love with Jack. She’s got the baby fever.

Do you see how barren it is in the background? Last year it was full of trees, but apparently they had a lot of damage in Hurricane Isaac this August. They decided that this is the last year they’ll be open. I’m so bummed! I love love love going up to New Roads (you can read a little more about the town in my post from last year). I guess we’ll have to find a new tree farm next year!

There were still lots of nice trees left and the limited selection actually made the decision making process pretty easy. I’d a picked a keeper in no time.

If you know Nick at all, you know how far wielding a saw takes him outside of his comfort zone.

But this is the third year that we’ve chopped our own tree and I dare say he’s getting pretty good at it. He showed that cypress who was boss.

Cassie’s Nic was probably felling trees by the time he could walk. He is into tools and such.

I decided to put the tree in the front room this year. We didn’t have to move any furniture and there’s a mantle that I can decorate. This is the first year that we’ve had this room set up as a living area and Jack and I spend a lot of time in here during the day. I love being able to see and smell the tree while I hang out with him and work on my blog/shop.

We haven’t decorated it yet, but if you follow me on instagram or facebook you may have already seen that I hung up our new stockings. I’m planning to write about how I made them later this week.

Nick is home for the next few days to help me with Jack. I so desperately needed some time off and am really looking forward to relaxing and getting some things done while somebody else deals with naps and diapers and drool. The house is a mess and I know Nick will help me straighten it up a little while he’s here. Thank God for good husbands, am I right? Between this and my sister watching Jack yesterday while Nick and I went to see Twilight I might be cured of the crazy look in my eye as early as Wednesday.

For those of you who are deeply disturbed by the destruction of a book, it might be reassuring to know that even with several book-page crafts under my belt I’ve still barely put a dent in the same 25 cent estate sale book I started with. This is actually a very eco-friendly way of crafting because I can get a lot of paper out of one book that was headed for the landfill anyway. I think of it as giving the book a second life.

So I started by ripping some pages out of said book…

Then I cut the pages to varying sizes and folded in half.

I freehanded petal shapes on the pages. I didn’t stress too much about making them perfectly uniform because imperfection is part of the charm. I drew them so that, when cut, each would unfold out into two petals.

Cut along the lines…

Then open ‘em up and crease down the middle.

Then, I just started layering the petals from largest to smallest, using a dab of hot glue in the center to secure each new layer.

I whipped up three of them in no time at all while Nick was at the grocery store with Jack. They don’t look exactly like real-life poinsettias because I am not a flower expert, and that’s okay. They give off a general poinsettia-ey vibe.

I set them aside for now, but after next weekend I’m thinking I might stick them in the tree, or even just perch them here and there around the house in various cat-proof locations. And since I hate to waste anything of crafty value, I’ve been saving all the scraps from my book page endeavors to use as vase filler and in Christmas gifts in place of tissue paper. I stuffed some in a thrift store vase last night.

Pretty, right? I hope all of you who are returning to work today don’t hate your lives too much. It’s chilly and rainy here and I’m glad I don’t have to leave the house. Remember also that if you’re doing holiday shopping online you can get 15% off in my shop by using the coupon code HEYDONTIKNOWYOU at checkout. This weekend was my busiest ever for sales, so I might be doing some shopping of my own today!