a little bit of me.

{a little bit of christmas...}

out of 5 gazillion pics... this is a fave:

 

we spent Christmas at my parents house in south florida & had such a great time.

evan loved christmas, (although he doesn't really get the concept of unwrapping gifts just yet!), and has quite the stash of new toys to carry him well WELL into the new year...

evan also LOVED running around with cousin paige...  they both really really enjoyed each other.  the 2 of them opened gifts in front of the tree on christmas eve, and also "taste-tested" santa's cookies...  ;)

they are adorable together and such a treat to watch.  BUT the combination of the two DOES make you exhausted.  :)

and.......  i must have been GOOD this year bc santa brought me an iphone that i'm already very much addicted too(!!)  :)

 

eric got a whole array of goodies, but was so THRILLED with these soaps >> his one little spa-like indulgence...

 

and so now we are back in PVB for the new year.

yay for home.  :)

{christmas eve}

i can not believe that this was a only year ago...

 

(feels like so much longer!)

Merry Christmas everyone...

:)

{real quick...}

i don't really have anything super-exciting to blog about today, BUT i did want to post about the tree skirt for those of you who asked...

the pattern that i used on the tree skirt is from:

McCall's Crafts - M5547 - its a set of holiday aprons, stockings, tree skirt etc. that i bought at Joanns - & i modified the pattern by leaving off the pointy deco-edge (if you go to get the pattern this will make sense!) and adding my own pom pom trim.  HTH anyone who is getting an early start on next years holiday projects ;)

PS - it's a balmy almost-70 degrees here and hotter in south florida where we're headed.  (so NOT christmas-sy....) - i've packed lots of shorts and tees for us.  And, i'm not going to lie - i'm a bit jealous of friends having a white christmas.  or even a slightly chilly christmas.  ;)

{12.22}

this is what we discovered this evening...

apparently evan thinks that the toilet is a GREAT place to throw his cookie when he's finished eating it...  :)

 

and as a sidenote, i discovered that cookies are flushable. ;)

{night 1}

happy happy hanukkah to those who celebrate...

 

we had a fun little hanukkah party tonite (just the 3 of us)...  were going to have another celebration with eric's fam next weekned.  AND i finally found a menorah that we liked!

evan's night one gift was a play grocery shopping cart, and he loves it:

 

:)

{Beach Santa}

so.  we made evan's first visit to santa today.  last year it just escaped us.  but we did find time for the easter bunny so maybe that kind of made up for it?

anyways.  today = beach santa day.  beach santa is what i refer to as the "santa" that comes to a boutique strip mall in ponte vedra beach.  there is really nothing fancy about him - he is just sitting in a parking lot next to a christmas tree.  But people here (on the beach) seem the HATE the thought of having to cross the bridge over the intercoastal for anything at all, and thus the need for a beach santa since there is no mall on the beach.  (ps we drive across the bridge all the time, i havent adopted that school of thought just yet.)  :)

and so we went.  and i had the camera ready.  and was so NOT surprised by his typical little toddler reaction.  ;)

 

cracks me up.  beach santa's look in this one kills me too:

 

haha.

so i tried to jump in and see if we could just pose behind beach santa.  no way jose.  evan was like: WHO ARE YOU CRAZY MAN, & PLEASE DO NOT THINK WE ARE FRIENDS!????

and so, this i think is the best i got.  it will have to be the '08 official santa photo:

 

and that is the story of beach santa today.

the end.

:)

{the gold tree}

ETA: the much asked about 2008 frame ornament(!) is from crate and barrel

here is a link: click here!  it looks like its on clearance for $4.87 while it lasts!

***

make that 'champagne'.  its not so much garish gold as it is classy champagne.

;)

i've been promising to share it...

...and here it is.  evan seems to like it.

 

here's the story on the tree in case you need a little 'catch-up'.  our regular montrosity of a fake tree is in storage.  WITH ALL THE DECOR.  so...... i bought all new stuff!.  and decided that a champagne(!) tree would be fun for a change.  went with a vintage-glamour decor scheme.  there are lots of different birds (which you cant really tell from the pics), and fun little plastic crystals too.  all of the ornaments are new too - from target, crate n barrel, and a few random local stores.  i think the tree needs more green ornaments, but whatever.  :)

 

please note the pile of cheerios on the tree skirt.  i was trying to lure my son in for photo ops ;)

AND - also note the skirt itself.  i made it.  :)  its a brown satiny damask fabric pieced together with a pattern i found.  the green pom pom trim was machine stitched on after the skirt base was finished.

 

i try to find a photo frame ornament each year and put a current pic in it.  this years pic was one that i love that i also used on our cards.  i hope that when i'm old and gray, i have a tree FILLED with years of photo frames that tell the story of my life.

 

and THAT is this years champagne tree.  there is a bow at the top that you cant really see.  im going to try to take another full-body-tree pic to post this week!

{12.18}

i left evan in his bedroom for 2 seconds yesterday morning.

he must have wandered into the bathroom.

this is what i came back to:

 

he was having SO MUCH FUN, that i didn't feel like making him stop.

so what if we now have to use toilet paper off of the floor?

 

:)

{more of the cruise}

i somehow managed to get 5 gifts wrapped today...

buy another two...

search - uselessly bc i couldnt find one that i liked - for a menorah (ours is in storage!)...

AND - go through some more cruise photos:

i'm going to go out on a limb and vote it as a productive day.  ;)

some of you have asked and emailed about the powerboot......

well.......

((drumroll please!))  hehe.

the dr x-rayed my foot again the day before we left for the vacay, and he said it looked good enough to forego the boot and move into a "supportive shoe".  so now ive been sporting an oldie but goodie pair of well worn sneakers, but... im not going to lie, i did manage to sneak on a few pairs of sandals and flips while on the boat.  :)

i did, however, let the powerboot come out and play in cozumel.  :)

 

(not that you can really tell this is mexico!).

:)

{a little bit of craftiness...}

oops - almost forgot to blog today, but i'm sneaking this in at 11:55pm :)

wanted to share a sewing project that i put together as a downloadable "Class" for the Fiskars Crafts website...

it's a soft quilted baby-book filled with lots of bright colors and pics of evan's (or your baby's!) family.

this little book uses photo transfer paper (my fave!), basic sewing/quilting supplies, some alphabet stamps, and allows you to use-up tons of leftover fabric scraps when putting together each page.

and.  i have to say that evan absolutely LOVES looking at his book:

 

...if you want to see the detailed downloadable PDF class instructions - you can view them HERE.

:)