Pink Heart Love.

For about a week now, I have had the overwhelming desire to decorate the house for Valentine's Day (obviously not this minute, but soon). Why? No clue. This has never happened before. In fact, I've barely nodded in the direction of said holiday even after getting married. I can't decide if my urge to "recognize" is because I really want to celebrate the day or because I just like the color pink and filling my environment with heart shaped things is a happy thought.

The dilemma, of course, is that decorations cost $$ even if you make them yourself (especially if you make them yourself, in some cases). That said, I'm going to lightly entertain the thought of doing the place up for February 14. Here are some of my favorite options:

Crayon Hearts

- a little involved, but inexpensive and I do love the effect. 

Pom Pom Window Garland

- simpler but time consuming

Raspberry Tart Cookies
- easy and delicious!

We'll see how far I get with acting on any of these projects (there's a lot of tempting "ready mades" at Target). I have yet to paint that picture for the living room wall, although I did sort my sock drawer/bins last week - another tick on my list of things to do! Hopefully I'll have the whole list completed before long and will be able to start a new one (or take a break...)

decking the halls.

Like it or not, the Christmas holiday shows its glowing face earlier and earlier every year.  Even I was shocked that businesses were slinging up decorations as they were pulling down the ones from Halloween.  This year I'm choosing to embrace it as a good thing. It shows how much people hunger for the joy, excitement and "good will towards men" that the Christmas spirit encourages.  If people want to start thinking that way sooner - wonderful. Sure, it also marks the beginning of an insane shopping frenzy but I'm choosing to ignore that part of it, avoid the mall, and stay positive.

One of my favorite aspects of the season is coming home to a Christmas tree and a house strewn with twinkling lights, pine cones, and hues of red and green. It's amazing the feelings of comfort, anticipation and happiness those things can stir up inside me, not to mention the warm memories they evoke. Of course, nothing's more dismal than seeing the sad carcass of a dried out evergreen laying roadside the day after New Year's. Like the shopping, I'm choosing to ignore this unhappy thought and focus my attention on how I'll make the most of this holiday season, starting with those lovely decorations.

Last year I invested in a few things like garland and a pretty table runner and this year I have some new ideas but would like to take a more DIY approach.  I'd like to say it's to save money, but as I've learned, DIY can quickly turn into "just as expensive as buying it pre-made, except that you can say you made it yourself." So I'm doing it more out of the desire to try something unique. Here are a few inspired ideas that I've collected from the old blogosphere:

click image to enlarge

1. Decorating with food {popcorn garland, a box of clementines & two bags of coffee}

2. Orange Slice Garland {still researching the best method for drying out the oranges}

3. Advent Wreath {using a Bundt cake pan, which I don't have...}

4. Mason Jar Candles {with epson salt "snow"}

5. Felt Wreath {this seems a bit ambitious for me. that's a lot of felt}

As you can see, I'm mostly inspired by the idea of using food in creative ways to create a classic yet cozy Christmas at home. All I need now is a Bundt cake pan, hundreds of felt squares, mason jars, lots of oranges and a couple of other things....

Piece.of.(Bundt).cake.

5 days till Christmas!

As previously mentioned, we're trying to be healthier these days in what we eat, which includes cutting out sugar as much as possible. Today, however, in a very serious tone, Tim said, "I'm really needing some sort of holiday sweet." I half reluctantly agreed to make some sort of Christmas cookie, but wanted to try a new recipe, so I turned to the mother of all crafts and baked goods - Martha Stewart. Outrageous Chocolate Cookies (found here) are what Tim decided on. All I have to say is.... this one's a fail Martha. Tim will probably love them, but I find them sickeningly sweet. Plus, I'm not a fan of cookies that have that hard outer "shell" and are all gooey inside. I should have gone with my initial idea of making chocolate chip banana bread.

Tonight Tim is at his workplace's Christmas party. We'd both forgotten it was tonight and I had all my ideas on how to spend the evening together once Jack was in bed not to mention I was in the midst of making him his cookies... and I'm not going to lie - we had a bit of a disagreement over the whole thing. I admitted I overreacted and made it into a way bigger deal than it needed to be... plus he had kind of sold me on the idea after talking up the gift card raffle that would take place. Things like "$500" and "win big" were some words he used, so I secretly joined him in his anticipation of what sorts of loot he'd get from this event. Maybe he would come home with an early Christmas present!!!!

He won a $10 gift card to Starbucks. Bahahahhahaha.

(not to seem ungrateful of course..... its two cups of coffee we didn't have before I suppose!)