min-myinnersoul

For the past 3 years, my children have received a special email message from Santa. It's a personalized video that directly addresses your child. If you follow the link below the picture, you will be taken to the site where you can personalize your message. Portable North Pole . The message is the same for everyone, so I let each of my children watch it by themselves, so as not to spoil "the good news" for the other. My kids absolutely love it, and they don't really remember seeing it from the year before. They do change things up from year to year, though. If you are into this sort of thing, definitely try it out. You will be amazed at how your child's face will light up.

I hope that you all are having a great day. I have finally gotten around to taking pictures of my Christmas decorations. About time, right?:o) I have added a few new things, but most of the decorations are the same as last year.  Here is our mantle.   The headboard above our mantle and the sheet music wreath are two of my favorite items in the whole house. Me loves them!;o) The "Merry" pennant banner was made from painters  canvas, twine, stencils & black fabric paint. I have two more hanging in the house as well. I added a few more paper wreath ornaments to the tree this year. They were left over from my craft booth. I was actually kind of glad I had so many left over. I love how they look on my tree. I finally got our family pictures in some frames. I still have 6 more that need to be framed..ahh! This picture is awful, but there is no natural light in this area during the winter months. Anyway, you get the general idea:o) I got E a new tree this year...

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We(mostly the hubs) have been busy out in the yard moving dirt, bushes and mulch. It is looking so good in our backyard. I can't wait to show you how it looks:o) I found a really cute hand towel a few weeks ago made by  Mud Pie . The price was really good, but I knew it was something that I could make. I couldn't find their version online, but mine is pretty similar.  The towel was made from an old shower curtain I found at a thrift store back during the summer. I also had the ribbon on hand. I didn't have enough to alternate the colors evenly, but I think it still turned out pretty cute:o)  I just cut 28 strips of ribbon at 3" long. (I think the width of the ribbon is 3/4".) I started at the bottom row with seven strips of ribbon folded in half and stitched them to the towel..the next row 6..and so on.  Just a little side note...if you plan to make this towel, make sure you put your ribbon on at an angle to make the tree fo...

One more day until December! Then the festivities will begin in this household! I am having a girls night in tomorrow night where we will be doing two different crafts and just hanging out. I can't wait! I have been trying to put a few finishing touches on the house before tomorrow. I thought I would put a houndstooth hat on top of the hub's tree in the office, but being the cheap-o that I am, I decided to make a topper.The hubs suggested I make a Santa hat. Such a smarty he is:o) So that's what I did. Here is a quick tutorial on how to make your own Santa hat. Start out with your choice of fabric for the body, fuzzy fabric for the pouf at the end and for the trim around the rim of the hat, and a Styrofoam ball.  I had to add these pics in here...Scosche was spazzing while I was cutting the fabric...do you think he got weirded out over the fuzzy fabric:o)  Isn't he such a sweetie?  Back to business:o) I folded the fabric in half and cut at an angle. The base of my hat i...