It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I've got a huge secret. Wanna hear it?

I know. I know. It's not really a secret if I share it. But it's sooo good. It's the best secret ever. Can you guess what it is?

SANTA'S COMING! Like right now, he's on his way. Google's tracking him. So I hope you were good this year. I sure wasn't but I'm bribing him with cookies and other goodies. It totally works if you're looking for some last minute points with the Big Man. It doesn't hurt to leave a little something to warm up the soul too, if you know what I mean. 

But from the bottom of my heart, Merry Christmas. I hope you enjoy tomorrow with your family, your friends, and those you love the most. 

And I hope you have some good food. I know I'll be stuffing myself silly. 

Top Five: Christmas Songs

I think just about everyone has a list this time of year.

A list of people to send cards to. A list of cookies to make. A list of people to exchange gifts with. If you're a little person, you might have a list for Santa. 

I have a list of songs that put me into the Christmas spirit. Like, it's not Christmas until I hear each and every one of them. Here's my top five Christmas tunes:

1. The ever fun and cute, "Dominck the Donkey" by Lou Monte. 

2. The classic song by Thurl Ravenscroft, "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch."

3. Charlie Brown's "O Tannenbaum" performed by the Vince Guaraldi Trio.

4. A great collaboration is one with the Barenaked Ladies with Sarah McLachlan singing "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen / We Three Kings."

5. Last but not least, my absolute favorite. Bing and Bowie singing "Little Drummer Boy / Peace on Earth." It isn't really Christmas until I hear this gem. 

So tell me, what gets you in the spirit? 

Happy December!

I have been a serious slacker. No printables, no posts, no pictures. Ugh. What am I doing with my life?

Well, for one, I'm working. As in, as much as normal people do in a week in three and a half days. For two, I'm exercising seemingly every day. When I get home and finally eat I just want to sleep, which I don't do. Especially not now that we have this den of pain set up in our living room.

Many thanks to our tri-friends Andrea and Mike for the trainers! 

I've missed making printables and posting updates. I hope you've missed me too. Maybe this month I'll see my actual work job become less hectic, but maybe I'll become an astronaut. Both are as likely. Either way, I want to work on being more efficient with my time.

In the meantime, enjoy this Christmas printable featuring Santa's reindeer.

Santa's Reindeer

Although I might not feel like I have a lot of free time, I can't complain when I spend it with this handsome guy. Here's us finishing our second 5k, the Troy Turkey Trot.

What have you been up to lately?


The printable is formatted to fit a 8" x 10" piece of paper and features the following fonts: Simon Script.

Merry Christmas - 2013

Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday, today. I hope you spend it with those you love most.

What can I craft this Tuesday? Pallet Wood Memory Frame

A long, long time ago in a galaxy far away somewhere in the millions pins on pinterest, I found the perfect gift for my father. The problem was it's $75. Not that I'm not willing spend that much on my dad, it's just that I could make something like it myself for much cheaper. That's what I set out to do this Christmas. 

My first step was to find free pallets. You can generally find them on Craigslist or behind a store. I went to my normal store and picked up three snow covered ones. Then the hubbs and I deconstructed them. We use our circular saw to cut along the edges and then see-saw it off the center nails. It's not a fast going process but it's not as slow as it could be.

Half the time we pulled the boards off the center pallet support the nails came with it. Make sure you a handsome husband around to pound out those rusty things.

Make sure he's also around to use the power tools. God forbid us women folk use them...

From one large pallet we got a pretty decent pile of wood boards. For my dad's sign, I used three pieces of wood that were 25" long and between 4.5" and 6" wide. The final product was 17"x25". 

Next, I took the boards I was going to use and sanded the crap out of them. The only bad thing about pallets is that they're so roughly cut. It takes forever to get the natural grain back out. Here's a before and after picture.

I wiped them down to get most of the excess dust off and left them overnight to dry. Back at it the next day I used mending plates with #8x1/2" sheet metal screws to connect the boards. I used three instead of the four boards I sanded. It looked best with the frame I picked out. 

Then I white washed the boards all together and left it to dry overnight - mainly because I'm lazy I had other to do. While it was drying, I worked on the wording and fonts I wanted to use for the frame. I ended up using Aquarelle and KG Hard Candy Solid for the words. I used a lead pencil to shade in the back of the page so that I could transfer the words onto the wood. Using a pencil I traced the outside of the words so that I could painstakingly paint the words on. The things I do for those I love. I tell ya. Here's my process:

I took my frame - which was an stand up frame - and took off the kick stand (what do you even call that thing?). I then put in a saw tooth hanger on the frame so that I could mount it on the base. With two more sheet metal screws attached it's ready for mounting. 

Fast forward a week...Ryan finally decided to work on his "honey do" list. Which included getting an 8"x10" print from our wedding. In the mean time, I put in two D-ring hangers (attached with sheet metal screws) to the back of the base.

Armed with the right picture, I finally finished it! I'm almost positive this is going to go over well Saturday when my dad opens it. By the way, good luck finding a box to fix this...

I spend $5 for the picture, pennies for the screws (if you think about per piece), let's say $2.50 for a three pack of D-ring hangers (so $1.67 for the pair), about $3.25 for the mending plates, and finally $12.50 for the 8"x10" frame. Add that all up and it's about $25 for materials (including tax). That's a steal compared to what you would've paid for just the frame. All in all, I say win. 

What do you guys think? Something easy you could do? Who would you make one for and what would it say?

Happy Friday! Safe Travels

Tomorrow, Ryan and I will be making our journey north. I'm so excited to spend the time with his family. This will be our first Christmas spent with them since we've been married. In past years, we'd either go up the week or two before or for a couple days afterwards. But this year, I get to experience a full LaBarge family Christmas and I'm excited. If you're traveling this holiday season, whether it's down the road or across the state, I hope you're safe. You want to make sure you can enjoy yourself once you get there!

Now, my dad is known for his apple pies. He crams about 7-8 apples per 9" pie. It's large. And they're delicious. Word gets around on these pies. Unfortunately, he's been busy. So I baked pies. From scratch. And from those apples from my freezer. Remember those?

I know, my edging technique needs work. You see that lattice technique though, right? I know, the widths vary. But you know what? These are going to be fantastic. How do I know? These are my fourth and fifth pie I've made this baking season. So yea, they're going to get eaten. If not by my in-laws, then definitely by me. Because I. LOVE. APPLE. PIE. I have the ass stomach ache to prove it.

That brings us to your fourth and final printable for December. It's pretty generic, but you can put it on beautiful paper in an equally pretty frame and have something good going on. 

O Little Town of Bethlehem

Please note that this printable was formatted to fit an 5" x 7" paper.

What can I craft this Tuesday? Jolly Rancher Vodka

"Pssst...I've got a secret...Santa's coming." That phrase makes me smile just about every year. Right around this time, maybe a week or two earlier, my mom starts telling me this. It's like a highlight of the year. 

In case you've been procrastinating gift buying, like my husband, here's a last minute project you can make today that'd be ready for gifting on Christmas next week. I made it for my brother for his 28th birthday back in November. He hasn't tried it yet but it's sure to be delicious.

Here's what you need:

1 large bag of Jolly Ranchers

5 glass swing-top bottles (buy at Hobby Lobby when they have the half off glass sale)

1 handle of the cheapest vodka you can find (I used Fleischmann's)

Here's what you do:

Step 1. Wash all your swing-top bottles with hot water and let air dry as you're going through the next step.

Step 2. Unwrap each and every single jolly rancher in the bag. You should end up with about twelve of each flavor and possibly a hand cramp. If not, no biggy. 

Step 3. Add about eight candies of each flavor to separate swing-top bottles. I did twelve and I think it was too many.

Step 4. Open your cheap ass vodka and using a funnel, pour in the vodka until you hit the bottom of the bulb at the top. This is very exact. Not really.

Step 5. Set it and forget it. For about a week. You don't need to shake them. But let's face it, it's fun and feels rewarding. Here's a couple pictures of what'll happen. You'll know it's ready when the candies are no longer visible and the corn syrup it was made from is no longer coating the bottom. Gross, I know.

that one of the right is vanilla beans in vodka

the morning after I put it together

then I shook them 

Step 6. Wrap and give those bad boys away. Or enjoy. Either way.

Do you have any left to shop for? Does anyone you know fit the bill for this gift? Any last minute things you're trying to put together?

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday. That seems to be a popular thing to say around the office every Friday morning. Maybe because we're all just ready for the week to be over. (I know I'm ready for that on Monday.)

It's getting so close to Christmas and I can smell how close I am to being fully ready (I have some loose Christmas strings that I need to pull together). But, I swear by the end of this weekend I'll be done! I'm really hoping I'll be done. 

This Friday's printable comes from the holiday song "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - We Three Kings" by the Barenaked Ladies featuring Sarah McLachlan. I love their version! I hope you like the printable.

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - We Three Kings

Please note that this printable was formatted to fit an 8" x 10" paper.

Happy Friday!

As I mentioned on Sunday, this month I'll be giving you a new printable every Friday in the spirit of giving. And because I was so excited about Christmas, I went crazy with making them for myself. Without further ado, here ya go.

12 Days of Christmas

Please note that this printable was formatted to fit an 8" x 10" paper.

What can I craft this Tuesday? Christmas Garland

In preparation for the Christmas season this year, I raided Hobby Lobby a few days after Christmas for some fantastic deals on their holiday decorations. Typically any leftover stuff they have on the shelves gets reduced to 50%, 75%, and finally 80% off. I snagged two nine foot garlands for about $5.00 total. Go me, for the win. 

Of course, by the time I bought them (in January), they were put away with the Valentine's Day decor. That was a joy to try and find again. Once we did find them, they promptly sat on the couch for two weeks while I got my act together. And boy did I. Here's what I started with:

That's one garland, a string of white 100 count LED lights (1/2 price at Walmart after Christmas), some muslin fabric, and one ripped bed skirt. Yep, you read that right, a bed skirt. We got itfor our wedding and in the one year we've lived at the apartment, seams are tearing, pillows are exploding, and the bed skirt was ripped. I don't think we're all that crazy in bed (don't read too much into that) but I didn't expect this thing to be falling apart at the seams! 

This year our tree is again blue and silver so I thought that it would be a good filler for my garland. After separating it from the white stuff, I proceeded to cut it into a bajillion 1" x 6" strips. Then I tied, and tied, and tied. With some pinspiration, I thought it would look neat wrapped around the garland. 

I tied two strips of fabric between each set of lights. Then I cut up the muslin in the same fashion and repeated. There were so many strips to tie. 

Here's what it looked like once I was done with the fabric.

Then I wrapped it around my garland and set it up on my mantel. I think it looks pretty damn nice. Maybe next year I'll make it fuller with other ribbon, ornament, or pine cones. What do you think? What should I add?

What have you done for your house to get it in the holiday spirit?

"It starts"

Today's been the day I've been waiting for. I thought it was going to happen last Friday, but no. Today was the day. I couldn't have been more happy. It's almost like the perfect ending to an entirely shitty week.

Today, I heard Christmas music on the radio. And I loved it. It truly marks the beginning of my favorite time of the year.

This week has been one straight from hell. I was under the impression that the whole C&B deal would be done about two weeks ago. Unfortunately, everyone else had another idea and the request for changes just keep ROLLING in. I'm going to send an email out that says all changes must be signed, sealed, and delivered by falcon. Oh, and there better be a $100 bill attached to it. To top that all off, clearing entries I did at the beginning of the month apparently had like a million dollar impact on the P&L. And not in a good way. Joy. And the nasty emails were just pouring in.

Let's just say I'm glad to have this week over with. Now, on for the weekend!

Hopefully it's better.

How's your week been?

What can I craft this Tuesday? A Long Distance Mug

As much as I love a good alliteration, Tuesday Thriftovers wasn't working for everything I wanted to do. It's restrictive and I didn't like it. So I'm renaming Tuesdays. Don't worry, it's all the stuff you would've gotten anyway. Here's today's post:

I'm not sure what's gotten into me, but I'm all into Christmas right now. I've already gotten presents for my mom, my sister-in-law, and I've started on my nephews. I saw this really neat pin a while ago and I knew instantly I wanted to make it for my best friend. Since she doesn't read my blog (yet) I can post it here well before Christmas time. As I mentioned before I'm going to add more pictures of my steps so you can see the progress at each step.

I started with two plain white mugs I picked up from the dollar store. I had a black sharpie, black sharpie paint pen, and red bic permanent market on hand.

I wanted it to look and with Colorado it's not hard because let's face it, it's a box. New York is a bit trickier. No matter, I printed out pictures of each state and used my superior scissor skills to make templates. I held down the Colorado template because it was four straight-ish lines. I taped down the New York in order to keep it steady.

Here's the result. See, Colorado is totally a box.

Then I added little hearts as to where we both live. She lives in Denver, I live near Albany. You can see the map on my monitor that I used to put the hearts in the general vicinity of where they are actually.

I found this quote that I love and it always reminds me of our friendship. "Together forever, never apart. Maybe in distance but never in heart."

Then I threw these bad boys in my cold oven to set the ink and mesh it with the glaze.

I set my oven for 400 F and let the mugs heat up with the oven. Then I set my timer for 30 minutes and went back to work. After the 30 minutes I turned off the oven and let the mugs cool down with the oven.

 

After they were cool, I wiped them down to make sure I didn't screw up the ink was truly set. While working on this today I found a great post with some tips and tricks for crafty on mugs, plates, etcs. Now I wait for Christmas so I can send it out! I'll package it with tea, some honey sticks, and a note of love to her!

I'll leave you with a picture of us from my wedding. Love you Christina!