Baby Food Jars

Last year I posted this about a childhood Christmas decoration memory. My Dad read the post and we talked about the baby food jar Christmas tree decorations. Turns out he had been collecting baby food jars throughout the year and this was my Christmas present:

It's so fancy I asked "did you make this?" and even after he answered yes I had to say it again; "you really made this?" He just put a lot of time and effort into it, each jar has a little 'ornament' glued to the center of the inside and is filled with sparkly 'grass', they're sitting on a nice wooden base and even the back looks so professional, all of the lids are painted the same green as the base!

Thanks, Dad! I will treasure it always and hopefully my kids will remember always decorating with a baby food jar Christmas tree when they're all grown up!

All I Want For Christmas...

...is water, but I already have that.

I recently learned that 4500 moms worry about whether their children will die today because of contaminated water - because 4500 children WILL die EVERY day because of contaminated water.

More facts:

-Right now almost a billion people on the planet don't have access to safe, clean drinking water. That's one in eight of us.

-Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of all sickness and disease, and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war.

-Just $20 can give one person in a developing nation clean water for 20 YEARS

There is nothing that I need for Christmas, but there is one thing I want. I want everyone to be aware of how little it takes to help save lives. Click on the button below to learn more about how you can help.

Holiday Decoration Blast From the Past

Have you ever seen one of these?

Did you ever decorate with one?

Either my mom, or a grandma, or both had one when I was young. When I was searching for ideas for my Baby's First Christmas theme wreath I'm making for the wreath auction at work (which I'd totally welcome suggestions for), I came upon the tutorial for the Baby Food Jar Christmas Tree.

I almost cried.

I hadn't thought about these in a LONG time and it just brought back the memories of the holidays in my past. Things seemed so simple then, probably just because I was a kid and didn't have a clue what was going on around me.

I wish things were that simple now - I suppose they could be if I adopted an "I don't care" attitude but I guess I'm too nice, or a sucker...I haven't decided which yet.

I'm totally going to make one of these trees this year! I need it, I need the idea of it.

Random

I just saw this and I wanted to share this link to one of the coolest "tablecloths" I have ever seen! It is super cute! I want to make one.

I haven't posted in so long. We haven't really been doing much. I've been gone 2 nights/week at fitness classes that I started at the beginning of this month. We're hosting Thanksgiving dinner for Dana (Travis' dad), Julia (his dad's wife) and Helen (his dad's mom). We just made this decision today (the Thursday before Thanksgiving) so I've got a lot to do. I'm going shopping today once Calvin wakes up from his nap and some of my things are make ahead (though only one I could actually make this far ahead) so that will help. That also means a lot of cleaning to do!

I want to make some of these for Christmas gifts:

Maybe a HOBO BAG or two!

Someone from work suggested vests for some of the men. Not trendy argyle vests, but more of a flannel, wool lined rugged manly type vest. Anyone have a good tutorial/link/pattern for such a thing? I'm still so stuck on most of the men's gifts.

I also want to make some decorations:

Paver Snowmen

A wreath

So much to do, so little time, ambition, money (oh, if only I had unlimited funds to turn all of my want to dos into have dones).

Mixed Media Weekend

Travis went hunting last night after work so the boys and I are hanging out around the house. Actually, we kind of have to hang out around the house because Travis had to come back and get my Explorer because his pickup was having issues and he was worried it wouldn't have made it in all the way to, or out of, their hunting camp. I stayed up until 4 am last night working on various projects. It was nice having some alone time. While I really could have put that time to better use (ex. cleaning my neglected house), it was much more fun doing the things I did. Maybe I can clean tomorrow.

I baked Chocolate Scotcheroos for the first time maybe ever. I've had them several times before, but I can't recall a time when I have actually made them. I ♥ them a lot!

Next I dyed my hair because it had been FOREVER since I've done so.

It's not really a whole lot different.

I took a picture of Hunter and myself since it had been too long since our last one and I decided to make a change.

I finished stamping the message on the inside of all of my Christmas cards so they are ready to be signed, sealed and delivered - but not until it's a bit closer to Christmas.

I started and completed my section of 'Jack Frost' - one of the current blankets being worked on by West Coast Oddball Knitters (my section is the top dark part only).

Today, Hunter and I finished painting some wooden Halloween decorations we had gotten awhile back from the craft store.

I did some more glass etching, in fact I finished the projects I had in mind (and had materials for). I'm trying to think if there are any other gift ideas I could do for anyone on my list. I didn't use the one set of initials I had printed out to somewhat match the first set of glasses I had done...it just wasn't "doing it for me" anymore. I ended up with this instead:

I'm fairly certain the people I'm making these gifts for don't read my blog....if for some reason they do, guess they won't be surprised much on Christmas. Ha! Actually, most of them can be for many different people I know so if you have a 'J' or 'A' for either your first or last initial...it could be you, but maybe not - guess you'll find out in 2 months (can you believe Christmas is only 2 MONTHS away?!)

I was going to stay up awhile again tonight and work on getting my backing for my quilt completed but I'm tired after only sleeping 5 hours last night (though I'm perfectly capable of functioning on that amount) so I think I'm going to call it a night "early" - it's already 11 pm.

Merry Christmas! What?!

I borrowed this idea to make this year's Christmas cards.  I may have mentioned before that I intend for this years' Christmas to be a homemade one.  I haven't had good luck at getting motivated to start making the gifts, so I started with the cards in hopes to get me in the spirit of things!  So far it's working, I'm ready (mentally, but don't have all of my supplies) to start another big, fun project!

1.  When I helped my friend Annie at her yard sale on August 9th, I took my supplies to start making my cards.  With the help of Hunter, Sophia and Annie, we glued tissue paper on a sheet of foil using watered down glue:

(it looks like the foil is showing through in several places, but really that's just light colored tissue paper - the flash kind of washed it out or something)

2.  For awhile, the beautiful sheet of foil just sat on my kitchen table.  Then this past Monday, the stars aligned (Travis and Hunter went shooting and Calvin was napping) and I was able to cut the foil into triangles:

(a few of my triangles laid out)

3.  Today, at Annie's house for "Craft Day" I glued the triangles to cards.  The cards were quarter fold card stock sheets that Annie actually had and didn't need (thanks, Annie!) and I cut them in half so they're just single fold:

4.  I bought a pack of star stickers to put on top of the tree, and I just drew the trunk with brown marker:

The pack of cardstock had 30 sheets so I ended up with 60 cards (remember I cut them each in half).  Amazingly, the amount of trees that I got out of my foil sheet (which I didn't measure, just did a section that looked good at the time) was also 60!!!  How's that for a miracle?  Anyway, I had to throw away 4 cards, because they got stuck together and all tore up so I have 56 Christmas cards and the only thing I had to buy was the star stickers (because the tissue paper was used - of course - I had the foil, brown marker and glue and Annie gave me the paper.  I bought envelopes today (hope they fit right) and I also bought a stamp and ink for the inside message because stamps are just something I haven't gotten into (yet).  If you already have those, then this would be a very inexpensive (and quick - especially if you don't drag it out over a month's time like I did) type of card to make!  

Happy Crafting!

Christmas...in July?!

Hopefully more of those items under "Things I'd Like to Try" move up under the "Things I Do" column!

This weekend I hope to make my Christmas cards.  I have all of the stuff I need, and have even cut up a ton of tissue paper.  My thinking is that making the Christmas cards first will get me into the spirit to start making this year's Christmas gifts.  Did you know I'm going with all homemade gifts this year?  Well, now you do!  I'm trying to get some of the girls to come over and make cards with me, so if you're free and want to come over let me know!  Also, if you have ideas for homemade Christmas gifts, please, PLEASE, please share!  I especially could use some ideas for MEN.  Send me links!

A Christmas to Remember

This will be a Christmas I'll never forget.  It was really hard for me to get into the Christmas spirit this year and I don't know why.  It could have been the lack of money to complete shopping, or the fact that we didn't get a tree until the 19th so my decorating wasn't finished until probably the 20th.  Maybe it was because, subconsciously I knew I wasn't going to get to enjoy it the way it's suppose to be enjoyed.

On Christmas Eve we were going to have my mom's side of the family over for a nice prime rib dinner and I had a lot of cleaning and baking to do to prepare for having guests over.  I took Hunter and Calvin to my mom's to stay with her since trying to do anything is nearly impossible these days.  I brought Adam back with me because he was going to help Travis out to get his stops done in good time.  I put the Josh Groban Christmas CD in the PS2 (our DVD player is broken and I don't have a CD player in the house) and started cleaning house...I was starting to get into the Christmas spirit despite having to clean (I really hate to clean).  I started with tiding up, then moved on to mopping (the thing I hate the most - always have).  Not too long into it, I took a step back.....(not sure the sequence of events)....when I fell on my butt and hands with my right leg up in the air, I saw that my foot was pointing towards the outside.  I was scared to look at my leg because I knew it would make it worse to look at it.  From the floor I did a quick scan of the counter and table in search of my purse and spotted it a little ways away.  I hopped on my butt and hands to where it was, grabbed the strap and pulled it down to the floor with me.  My phone was not in there!  Then I remembered it was in my pocket (thank God).  Not really sure what I would have done if I had left it upstairs or something...guess it would have been a long wait there on the floor until someone came over/home in the evening.  

I called my mom first (Travis was maybe a little annoyed with that, I guess mom just always comes to mind first, especially when he's working) and told her "I think I broke my leg or something."  She screamed "WHAT?!" and then "do you need us to call an ambulance?"  I told her yes and she said she'd be right here.  Then I called Travis next and he said he was on his way.  I lay there on the cold linoleum in front of the back door for what seemed like half an hour at least.  I was saying "someone hurry and get here."  I heard a loud truck pull up outside so I was thinking it was the fire truck or ambulance, then Travis walked in.  He grabbed a pair of scissors and cut my pants up the leg.  Shortly after my mom and Gary (a former EMT) arrived and it was decided, based on looking at my leg (them, not me...I never looked at it), that an ambulance needed to be called.  Travis called 911, explained I had been mopping, etc and the lady asked if I had been standing up...nope, I mop sitting down and broke my leg that way...here's your sign.

The paramedics and firemen did their job, got me stabilized and into the ambulance.  They asked if I just wanted to go up the road to St. Lukes, Meridian but I said I wanted to go to St. Als since my insurance is through there and I have connections.  In the ER I first had some X-RAYS done by Cheri (Travis' Dad's Wife's Daughter - make sense) and the Dr. came back from looking at those telling me I had a very impressive break (both tibia and fibula) so Dr. Hassinger (Orthopedic Surgeon) would be wanting to do surgery to fix it up.  I had eaten a cookie around noon so I'd have to wait until at least 6pm to have surgery for anesthesia purposes.  I was going to be sent to a room to wait until then, but the floor had to call a nurse in that was on call.  We waited a long time to go upstairs, but in the meantime they needed to stabilize my leg better.  That meant getting a splint ready and holding my foot at a 90° angle until the splint cured, all the while I could feel bones moving around in there.  I had a nurse from my department visiting for that and she took great care of me, helping me to breathe through it, holding my hand, getting ice after we were done, and getting the ER nurse to medicate me (wish they'd of done that first).  

A couple views of the "impressive" break

Finally I got to my room and was there for just a short time before going down to the pre-op area.  I was being taken care of by people I know, so I think it really helped calm my fears.  This was the first time I'd ever broken anything and my first surgery.  I went into surgery around 8 (I think) and was out in PACU with my friend Jennifer by 10 or so (I think).  It was really nice waking up with people you know too.  I should mention that Travis was working the whole time all of this was taking place.  Christmas Eve is generally one of his busiest days, and he's such a dedicated worker that he felt obligated to do what he could to get all of his packages off the truck (most of the drivers would have just DNA'd their stops and he was given permission to do so but he has a conscious).  My mom and dad were waiting with me before surgery though and were in my room afterward.  

I'm not really sure what Travis did, but I think he got Hunter in bed after opening some presents and then his mom stayed the night so he came to the hospital sometime after 11 and sat with me a couple of hours.  Christmas Day, things went on without me.  It was very hard not to be home and watch Hunter come down the stairs to see his gift from Santa and open gifts with family.  Everyone came to visit me and brought gifts for me to see Hunter to open, and for me to open for Calvin and myself.

Hunter and I on Christmas Day in my hospital bed

So, for Christmas this year I got to ride in an ambulance, got some good medications, and got some really nice (and surely expensive) bling...though it's in my leg, so I can't show it off.  It definitely wasn't the perfect Christmas I was hoping for, but I'm grateful because things could be worse.  

My new hardware

Now I'm home, on the couch with my leg up on pillows.  I can't put any weight on my leg for 8-10 weeks so I use a walker to get around.  Taking care of an infant and toddler should be challenging, don't you think?  Luckily we have a lot of family in the area that are willing to help out in any way they can.  Moms are staying the night in case Calvin wakes up, or I need help in any way because life still has to go on, and Travis needs sleep for work so he can't be getting up all night.  Friends are bringing food, offering to watch the boys or even just visit to keep me sane.

So far, things are going well, I'm getting good rest, not going stir crazy yet and am being very well taken care of.  Thanks to all of those who are helping us, I don't know what we'd do without you.