Whew! It’s Christmastime! It’s been pretty busy around here with Christmas prep and activities. I took a little online break because I think it’s nice to unplug often. Anytime is a good time for unplugging really, but especially during the holidays. Everywhere I look people are on their phones and then the kid’s are on their parent’s phones. I have to admit it makes me feel a little bit like the Grinch. I want to run down the mountain with a big bag and scoop up everyone’s phones for at LEAST the holidays. Maybe I’m the only one that it rubs the wrong way but I’m just so tired of it. If there is a valentine’s version of angry birds, I really might lose it.
Anyway (exit soapbox and the phone Grinch character), there’s been so much going on with us besides Christmas (and a few hitch-hiking colds from recent visitors). We’ve been in the process of doing foster care for a few months which has been so exciting but also a lot of work. I just keep thinking of snuggling those little kids with love which gets me through the harder patches of paperwork during the holidays. We have had a couple of trainings (a 1 day and a 3 hr), our 1st interview, hours and hours of paperwork, fun moments of digging through our past and telling the story of our family and who we are, more paperwork, appointments being made for health check-ups and drug screenings, and various magnetic locks and toolboxes being purchased for our different containment requirements.
With all of this foster care business and talk of our life and past, I’ve been checking out some of our old pictures. Actually, I do this a lot with no reason required but I thought it was a good time to go back and peruse the Nikon archives. I saw this really cute idea on Pinterest involving a display of Christmas cards surrounding an embroidery hoop. I thought I would do something similar but use my Christmas picture archives to surround the hoop. I just took a large embroidery hoop and glued small clothespins around it, alternating which direction they faced (out then in). Then, I selected my pictures (SO HARD TO CHOOSE!) and printed mine with a snazzy vintage action. Accessorize with a bow of your style and hang in the best corner suited for nostalgia.
One of my very favorite pictures of my firstborn and my third-born. They love each other so.
Our almost 8-year-old pug, Leonard, on his very first Christmas. sniff sniff
I love family picture where kids are grabbing at other kids (top). They are so true to the moment. My husband attempting to burn our house and the neighbor’s house down by burning out Christmas tree limb by limb in the fireplace (3rd down). Sweet memories. One of my favorite Family Christmas cookie decorating experiences (towards the bottom).
I’m so thankful to have so many pictures to choose from because I was as crazy-obsessed with photography 10 years ago as I am now. Thank you, Nikon, for some great years in film and now in digital.
I saw this idea and immediately pinned it. I thought it was crazy awesome and that’s all there is to it. I added my own twist by printing the pictures onto sticker paper (found here) and just sticking them right on the gifts. I really like the way they turned out once I convinced my printer to print something from Photoshop. I think it’s great for kids who can’t read tags but want to help pass the presents out.
Now…to finish the rest.
I’ve had a long-time plan for this drawer. Besides being a spool/thread holder in the off-season, this big guy provides a variety of options for year-round display.
I finally pinned the pictures I’ve seen over the years on blogs to my Pinterest to a very creatively named board called “printer’s trays“. I like this one for advent which I’d love to do next year, this one for Lego which has long been on the list, one here for jewelry, and one here as an art display. All quite lovely and I’m excited to keep changing it up.
In the meantime, I threw a few of my vintage treasure up on mine in the form of my Grandma’s ornaments and scrabble tiles. Next year I hope to swap the tiles for a piece of paper representing each day of December before Christmas. I like the idea of marking every single day with some sort of action as a family, hopefully selfless actions.
I also like the idea of reminding ourselves all through-out the day of what Christmas is truly about.
So…
…I put ours in a place we walk by every day so we will always remember why it’s called
CHRISTmas
Caramel is one of my very favorite things. Even more than plain caramels I love salted caramels and goat’s milk caramels. I love the creamy vanilla flavor with the bite of the goat’s milk. Yummy. I don’t know why I don’t make them very often, but I’m glad I did this Christmas. I saw this pin and knew I wanted to make the salted caramel variety.
Double.Yummy.
Maybe I love caramel because I’m not really a fudge person. I think I started making fudge so young that it’s become a little too “been there done that” and unexciting. No offense, fudge people…not my thing. I don’t crave it.
 
I am not posting the recipe because I didn’t alter it since it is candy. I didn’t make the recipe my own and wouldn’t support making something with corn syrup on even a semi-regular basis anyway. But, who are we kidding? Caramel is sugar so it’s not really good for you either way.
I am however providing a visual of what the colors look like at various stages. I love kitchen science. I feel like Harold McGee would be proud of the science in these pictures, I think.
It’s hard to wait, but it does happen
“Firm Ball”=perfect caramels.
 You could choose any salt, I suppose, however the lighter and more flaky it is, the more likely it will melt in your mouth with the caramel.
I wrapped mine in parchment to make them extra-adorable and also to limit myself on servings. Actually, I just gave them all away and that very much limited my servings. I would have eaten all of them. You can find these cute take-out containers for $.99 at the always awesome, Container Store.
Make anything fun…post it here…
Have you noticed lately, that the word old is being replaced with the word “found”? I noticed it first in a Pottery Barn catalog a few years ago when they were starting to bring the salvage look back because it was coming to new life again. They started selling items called “found” items which were actual vintage pieces they had “collected” on their own. My first thought was, “Hmmm”. My second thought was, “Who charges that much money for things you buy at garage sales?”. I know that salvage is popular with people who had never been actual purchasers before but I’ve already gone off on the subject before. I still find it interesting that people pay Pottery Barn money to do something for them that is actually really fun and will sometimes just cost you a few smackers instead of 80.
Over the last few years, I’ve been having my kids find (literally…not just a cool sounding Pottery Barn word) pine-cones so we can save them for Christmas and I can make something cool. Last year the time past and it never happened. When it hits the 2 week mark before Christmas, I tend to switch gears from decorating to gift-making. I’ll make tags, last-minute add-on gifts (you can never give too many handmade gifts), “can” something to gift, make cookies for the neighbors, or make cards for special people in our lives.
That list may sound like a lot (or maybe it doesn’t to you), but I do it WITH the people I love, too. This project I got to do with my friend, Leah. It’s so nice when you get to hang out with a friend and talk about everything you can think of but also make something to you can take away from the day to remember the laughs but also the pains in our thumbs from screwing the hooks in the pine-cones. Mine are still a little sore, but it was worth it for the company. Plus, my friend often travels with muffins. Super-bonus.
The garland looks cute next to the reindeer foot “portraits” my babysitter did with the kiddos. Great idea, Brandi :)
We made the garland based on this pin. That pin was way too complicated for my interest at the moment. We decided on something simpler like another garland we saw where the pine-cones had hooks screwed into the tops and then they were strung on a ribbon. The search box is apparently gone from Pinterest so I can’t find it at the moment. I only had picture frame hooks, but they seemed to do the job with a little elbow grease and sore fingers. I couldn’t help but add a jungle bell. It just felt right.
I’m hoping to give it to my mother-in-law so she can decorate her coach that is visiting us here in San Diego. She is always away from home on Christmas, so since her traveling home will be here, I though we could give it a little festive flare!
Are you making anything handmade for your Christmas gifts this year?
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