My Birthday Boy

I can't believe this little guy is 2 already.  Such a blessing, this kid is.  He's almost always this happy.  Even when he's mad (and he does have quite a temper), he's so ridiculously funny.  I just know he's going to be that kid in school that everyone likes.  Even though Charlotte and Gavin beat up on him a little, there's a whole lot of hugs and kisses in there as well.  They think he's pretty neat, too.

His party is on Sunday, but we still wanted to celebrate with some birthday cake!

Last week, on my hunt for stocking stuffers, I found these in 5 Below:

I didn't know what I was going to use them for, but I bought them anyway because I thought they were so cute!  And then the stars aligned, and I read this post from Serena, and I knew exactly what to do with them! (Okay, so her cake was WAY cuter....whatever!)

I started with a yellow cake from a box.  Short on time, you know?

Here's the yummy buttercream icing recipe I used, except I halved it:

Buttercream Icing (yields 5-6 cups)
1 cup butter
1 cup shortening
1/2 cup milk
2 tsps. vanilla
8 cups confectioners sugar

Cream the butter and shortening together until smooth.  (I had my mixer going for about 10  minutes).  Gradually add sugar, milk, and vanilla.  Mix until smooth.

Then I added all of the chocolate cones and mushrooms for the winter-wonderland vibe.

Okay, it's not nearly as pretty as Serena's.  But Nathan liked it! And that's what counts!

New Year's Goals

I hate New Year's Eve.  I always have.  Everyone in the world views December 31st as a new, fresh, beginning....but I see it as an ending.  I don't know why.  I have tried and tried to change that mentality with no success.

Two years ago at this time, this little guy was born:

We spent the first moments of 2009 alone, getting to know each other in a hospital room.  And I decided that I finally had a reason to like New Year's Eve, at least a little, since I can celebrate his birthday.

I've also never been one to make sincere resolutions for the New Year, particularly because I'm always making goals and resolutions for myself year-round.  But there are definitely a few things I'd like to accomplish in 2011.  Hopefully you'll keep up with me on this blog to see my progress and keep me in check!

1.  PLAY MORE
Whenever I have a spare moment at home, I find ways to fill it:  laundry, dishes, wiping countertops.  The moments are few that I actually get down on the floor and play "princesses" with Charlotte, or Batman with Gavin, or cars with Nathan.  I need to do more of that.  It became very apparent the other day when I said to Charlotte, "What toy do you want to play with?" and she said, "I want to play with you, Mommy!"  Melted my heart.

2.  STOP USING AUTO MODE ON MY SLR CAMERA
I take crappy pictures, and I love and appreciate beautiful ones.  I want to take more of the beautiful ones.  I have a Nikon D60 -- a birthday gift from Michael right before Nathan was born.  I was under the impression that with a good camera, I would take better photos.  I was wrong.  I'm learning, but it's s-l-o-w going.  I practice a lot.  Hopefully you'll see improvement in 2011!  Here's a practice shot from just this morning.

3.   DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS CLOSET

I'm not kidding, we have NO other closets in our entire house other than this one and the bedroom closets.  No linen or storage closets at all.  How we didn't notice that before we bought the house, I'll never know.  Clearly something needs to change here.

Do I even need to go into all the other resolutions?  Eat healthier, exercise more, lose 10 pounds, blah, blah, blah.  We all have to start somewhere.

And what about you, readers? Any resolutions you're willing to share?

Merry Christmas!

On Christmas morning every year, we start the day at my parent's house.  Now that the five of us are married, Christmas day often takes us in different directions. But we always start the day here, often in our PJs.  And it's my favorite part of the day.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

DIY: Salt Dough Ornaments

I apologize for my lack of post lately!  Thanks for hanging in there with me.  I *finally* presented my thesis and officially earned my Masters in Reading, so my agenda has opened up again, at last.  I look forward to many new creative projects in the new year!  On to the post....

I adore homemade gifts.  I love making them, and I love receiving them.  This year, a colleague made me lemon sugar shower scrub, and it is my absolute favorite gift.  I'm tucking that idea away for the kids' teachers for next year...

This year, I decided to make salt dough ornaments for the teachers.  It's easy enough.

Salt Dough Recipe:

1/2 cup table salt
1/2 cup water
1 cup flour

Mix ingredients together in a blender until a sticky dough forms.  Then, knead the dough for about 10 minutes.  Roll it out to about 1/4" thick, and use your favorite cookie cutters to cut shapes, as you would sugar cookies.  Use a skewer to punch a hole in the ornament so you can thread some string through to hang them.

Eating a cheese and chocolate chip cannoli from Termini Bros. while you're making salt dough ornaments is helpful, but optional.

I have a love-hate relationship with any kind of dough.  Okay, it's mostly a hate-hate relationship.  I can't seem to get dough smooth (it's always crumbly), and I really stink at rolling it out.  It always shrinks back up on me.  But salt dough is really forgiving.  I got eight ornaments out of this batch of dough, but I bet a skilled dough-roller would be able to get more.

I baked the ornaments on a baking sheet at 200 overnight.  I mean it, they were in the oven from 10 pm until 6 am.  They don't burn.  All of the moisture leaves the dough, and they get really hard, which is what you want.

You can decorate salt dough ornaments with anything...marker, pencil, glitter-glue, whatever!  I had the kids color the snowmen with small Sharpie markers.  I neglected to take photos of our finished product, however, because Charlotte proceeded to scribble on the table, and Nathan decided to decorate the floor.  *sigh*  But here's a photo of one of our "rejects":

And here's an example of some really beautiful salt dough ornaments decorated with a red pen. These ornaments were made by Katy Elliot.  You can find her blog and tutorial here. 

What about you?  Did you make or receive anything homemade this year?

Christmas Bedroom Vignette

It's that time of year again, my friends!

Life for me has been a whirlwind of activity with very little downtime lately.  I've neglected holiday decorating, holiday baking, and I've been somewhat of a Scrooge.  (I also haven't tended to my garden for about four years, but that's a story I'll save for Spring....)

This year, my kids are *slightly* older, my feet are *kind of* back on the ground, I'm *sort of* getting more sleep, and I HANDED IN THE FINAL COPY OF MY THESIS TONIGHT!!!  I feel like I have all the free time in the world!!!

And that means I actually had a minute to create a holiday vignette for Rhoda's Vignette Party.  When I noticed that several of my favorite bloggers were mentioning this vignette party, my first thought was: what the hell is a vignette? (As it turns out, a vignette is nothing more than a little display.) And then I thought: I have time for that this year!

So, I threw some stuff on my bedside table, and voila! It's a vignette! :)  Usually the bedside table is also piled with a stack of diapers, some Aquaphor, tissues, and books, but I cleared them off for this occasion.  In fact, if I had panned out the photo a little wider, you would see them on the bed.

Here's my favorite little twist pedestal and my new glass cloche.  Michael teases me about the cloche a lot, since I like to "put everything under glass."  The fake snow and the pinecones are from Michael's, and the little bird is from the Dollar Tree.  I love that he's all silvery and fancy.

The dish on the pedestal was a gift.  My mom and my aunt Cheryl bought me a set of these vintage dishes, berry bowls, plates, and teacups.  I LOVE them, but for the life of me I cannot remember what they are called.  They are so delicate that I rarely use them, but this seemed safe enough.  Look at the pattern on this rim.  Isn't is gorgeous?  Love.

I used a dish from the same collection to hold my mercury glass ornaments.  These are from the same collection I have on my mantel....the ones that were originally my Mom's.  Did you know that it is impossible to take a photo of mercury glass ornaments without getting yourself in the reflection?  It's true.  Can you tell I'm in my pajamas? :)

I can't wait to show you this next photo, because I am so proud of it.  Check out the sun flare.  I did that on purpose!  I love it!

This is a reproduction Christmas card that I picked up at Home Goods a few years ago.  They came in a pack of 12, but I never sent any, because I couldn't decide which 12 people to send one to.  So now I just use them for decoration!  Aren't they cute?  Here's a photo without the sun flare.

I picked up the little red and white "ribbon candy" ornaments at the Dollar Tree.

And my Valentine's Day gift from last year, my Pottery Barn Charleston Vintage Clock, sits atop a couple of children's Christmas books.

So, that's my holiday vignette!  I give it a few hours before it's covered with diapers and tissues again.

 I'm linking up to Rhoda's Vignette Party and Very Merry Vintage Style.  Check out their sites for some beautiful holiday vignettes!