the Dessert Tree

Here in our house, we do themed trees for Christmas! At one point, we only had 1 tree and it was a hodge-podge of Christmas decor... things that I had and stuff that Peter had but eh, nothing too terribly exciting. Then I inherited some old handmade Disney ornaments, starting collecting vintage glass balls and became the proud owner of my Grandma's Hallmark ornament collection and before I knew it - I had enough stuff to be able to do different themed trees throughout the house! The hardest part for us is compromising on one theme! (Not that we have to compromise too much, we did put up 3 trees this year :))

So one Saturday afternoon, while Chase slept soundly, Alaina and I crept out to the garage and decided that this year we would create a Dessert tree. We sorted through my boxes of kitchen themed ornaments and pulled anything that had to do with dessert or baking. Cupcakes, gingerbread men, ice-cream cones, slices of cake, lolly-pops, candy and sheets of cookies, some wire whisks and spatulas and a few vintage glass bulbs. If it was cute, sweet and or pink, we were going to use them!

The only new ornament I had to purchase for this tree was the knitted D!

(I really need a larger tree for all of the ornaments! I looked everywhere for a 6ft. flocked Christmas tree to no avail. I was too late! major bummer)

*Alaina picked out this ornament because according to a 7 year olds philosophy of dessert, bacon is a perfectly acceptable dessert choice. :) - in case you were wondering how the 3 little pigs found their way onto our tree.*

and because you can't have a dessert tree without a glass, or jar, of milk!

I have a special blog-hop party and a pretty giveaway to do tomorrow! Don't forget to pop back by this weekend!

a late night sneak-peek

Ok, so instead of scrapbooking today, which I really wanted to do, I put together a petite gift wrapping kit. I spent much of my morning making flowers and playing with my type-writer, getting ready for a fun event that's soon to take place! I'm excited to be participating in a crafty blog-hop where I'll be gifting my creation here on my blog!

Here's a sneak-peek of what I have planned~ check back this Saturday for a very merry be-gifted giveaway! (say that 3 times fast!) ;)

Tomorrow is "find the most perfect ornament for my bestest" day and then it's on to the giftwrap selection. Every year, Peter and I do an ornament exchange for Christmas. Since there's nothing either one of us really needs, picking out a small ornament each year has carried so much more meaning than any last minute gift could. Whether it's just a silly ornament (like the tv dinner tray ornament a couple years back) or more meaningful (like the mommie owl with her baby for my first Chirstmas with Alaina) I really look forward to our ornament exchanges! So this year, I've decided Christine and I will start an annual tradition and do an ornament exchange! (I'm secretly super excited to be choosing an ornament for another girl~ there are so many cute girly options!)

Journal your December

I was asked to be one of the guest designers for Journal Your December, a blog with daily prompts to help you along as you create your own journal! I figured as I put my page together, I would photograph each step and share the process! (I used the Peppermint kit from my Etsy shop for this page.)

the supply list:


small photo - I used a wallet sized photo trimmed down to a square
one album cardstock page
5 circles of sewn garland
bakers twine
large vellum tag
vellum star
paper button sticker
*sewn packet of sequins and snow
*glue-dots



Directions:

*for each of the kits, I packaged them in a sewn sleeve, to make this packet I filled the sleeve with sequins and snow and sewed a small little packet - about the size of a wallet size photo.



1. decide on the placement of your photo and use glue-dots to secure the sewn snow/sequin packet to your page. Take the bakers twine and bunch it on top of the packet.



2. I used a section of 5 circles and folded 1 of the circles over another. Use glue-dots to secure the garland over the backers twine.



3. Place the photo (but without gluing it into place) over the area that you'd like it to go. At this point, I just want to double check that this is really where I want my photo to be placed! Use a glue-dot to and stick the vellum star underneath the bottom corner of your photo.




4. Use 4 glue-dots to secure your photo into place. I place the glue-dots onto each corner of the photo. Use one of the paper stickers to place onto of the corner edge of your photo.



5. Lastly, I printed my title onto the large vellum label. Use a small glue-dot towards the very top of the label and then carefully slide the vellum label underneath the paper garland.

and the end result ~

I also used the index card to do all of my journaling on. My prompt was Collections, so I chose to do the journaling on how my collection of vintage deer first got started!

I hope this might help you with one of your pages! I plan on scrapbooking some more tomorrow and maybe putting together another little layout-outline. :) We have family visiting this week so crafting is squeezed into small breaks throughout the day. It makes for some very quick and interesting projects! good-night!

a new month,

means a new color challenge for the Crate Paper blog! This really is my favorite challenge and I absolutely love coming up with a new combination of colors each month. This month, inspired by our unusually wintery weather, I chose colors that were cooler and more muted. (and they couldn't be further from the typical red-white-green colors that are so expected this time of year!)

I decided to create 5 pages for my December Journal. Each page is 6x6 inches and I used a combination of 4 collections by Crate Paper (Neighborhood, Peppermint, Random Farmhouse). I wish I had pulled out the Portrait collection out to play with, of course I remembered after I had finished up!

So, here are my pages:

Silver & Gold

our Wreathe

ttv Santa

vintage ornaments

home for the holidays

~ all wrapped up!

and did I mention that I get to give away a Crate Paper collection each month! How sweet is that?! I'll be choosing a winner next Friday, if you feel like participating in the challenge this month. The details are in my post on Crate's blog. :) I'll be back tomorrow to post another page for my December Journal, I'm a guest designer this month for a journaling based blog!

8 things I love: Saturday

just popping in this afternoon to post my Saturday 8 things list! I must say how much I adore this color combo, grey + yellow + a little gold = spectacular!

metallics by taraanderson featuring slip on shoes

1. light flowy (not a real word, I know) blouse
2. Grey dress pants, straight leg
3. Vintage Wool coat ( I love this yellow one with the fur color!)
4. perfect small clutch
5. Leopard flats (for staying in)
6. metallic heels (for going out)
7. gold rings
8. gold cuff bangle (I adore light pinks with gold, it's so feminine!)

That does it for today! I need to get back to cleaning and scrapbooking. I have some special people coming to visit us this week and I need my home to be holiday guest ready!. Happy weekend. Oh and yes, I absolutely plan on posting photos of our Christmas trees, there are 3 this year!

December is here!

Remember this photo of my box of vintage Christmas ornaments I posted last year?

Well, I collected a few more this year! and this is only some of them, I used a bunch and then remembered to take a photo. What luck I have! :)

Are you ready for December? I just finished putting our trees up today and I think the house is mostly finished being decorated. The Christmas dishes are being washed and I have a whole list of projects and crafts to do this holiday season! So exciting! But first, I will be watching The Santa Clause tonight and continuing to wash dishes. :) What's your opinion on Christmas dishes? yay or nay?

Oh! and I added my holiday playlist to the side bar here ----> It's some of my favorite Christmas music - enjoy!

a winner, plus some other stuff

Sorry! Yesterday ended up being so incredibly hectic, and I didn't go anywhere.... well, with the exception of the post office. :) I did have plans to go out on Black Friday but I chickened out at the last minute and decided I really didn't need anything desperately enough to brave the crowds. Instead, I tidied the house and put away some of the Fall decorations in preparation of my 23285394875 + boxes of Christmas stuff.

Now, onto the important stuff!

and the winner of the of December Journal is:

Kanani said...
LOVE the colors and textures in the peppermint journal kits! thanks for the chance to win!

21.11.11

Thank you to everyone who left such sweet comments! It's so hard giving away just one kit... but I have a few more giveaways planned for December. It seems like the perfect month for gifting handmade items doesn't it?! I'm on my way to Home Depot this afternoon, exciting, right! I need a few paint samples for my next color challenge with Crate Paper. Have a wonderful Saturday and weekend!

Peppermint GiveAway!

Good morning! What could be a better way to start off this week than with a giveaway? :) I had so much fun this weekend with the reopening my little shop, (thankyou to everyone for your purchases and sweet comments! I really do love creating ~ especially Christmas items!) I thought a Holiday Kit would be perfect to giveaway. Today's giveaway is one of my Peppermint December Journal kits!

Starting next month, I'll be doing little step-by-step tutorials on creating some of the pages for this journal. I've always wanted to create a December Journal but I didn't want the pressure of having to photograph and scrapbook everyday. I created this journal with that idea in mind, a 6x6 inch mini that I could fill whenever I found a free moment! {December might be the most wonderful time of year but it's also the busiest!}

To enter this pepperminty Holiday Giveaway just leave a comment at the end of this post! I'll choose a winner this Friday. Good luck and happy Monday everyone! ~ Tara

Etsy Update

it's all updated and I gave my shop a little makeover this week complete with a new name! yay for a productive morning! I have still a few more things to add to the shop this afternoon but so far it's coming right along. :)

If you have any questions about the shop, I'm going to be working all day and I have my computer next to me so feel free to drop me a line! Have a wonderful weekend ~ Oh! and I'll be doing a little Holiday Giveaway on Monday.... if you feel like popping back in! :)

Etsy, part 2

Today was all about photos and music. I finished taking my photos this afternoon, did a little scrapbooking and found a new favorite song. I'd say that makes for a pretty spectacular day! Other than Etsy I'm working on the next Everyday Challenge for the Crate Paper blog. This month's challenge topic will be a first for me so it's kind of special. My challenge post will go up on Monday if you happen to feel like scrapbooking next week. ;)

here's a few more photos for Etsy. I really love Christmas colors, they're so pretty and girly. It's such a fun change from all the orange and black we had for Halloween just a couple of weeks ago!

{I made another little page for my December journal using one of the kits. I'm on a roll!}

and I found this song, that I think is so amazing! I must be late finding this song so it may not be new to you but I put it on repeat tonight and edited all of my photos to it! It's my new fav work song.

Time for some peppermint tea and a little menu planning for next Thursday! good night!