Here's my Christmas newsletter. I'm not sure if I like this smilebox thing....but wanted to try it. It certainly is more simple to just post it and email it to everyone, but I do like to send our traditional Christmas cards.....When you click on it, you may want to click the mute button on the bottom of the newsletter or you get two different songs going on at the same time...the newsletter and my blog music....LOL I didn't think of that ahead of time oops!

Newsletter design made with Smilebox

Marshmallows!

I didn't know that you can actually make marshmallows so easily! I found a recipe...well actually my sister found a blog and it gave the recipe, she sent it to me and I had to try it. So I went out and bought a few things that I didn't have....unflavored gelatin, and peppermint extract, because I decided I wanted to make them flavored. It was a messy process, and sticky....but this is the result. I felt so accomplished. These will be going into the hot chocolate mix that I'm making.

And then I had to dip some in chocolate......This was not an easy process!

and sprinkled some peppermint on top! YUMM!

Got a new toy!!!

So, my amazing husband got me something that I was not expecting.....yes it's my Christmas present, but he wanted to give it to me early since he knows that this month is so important and there will be many Kodak moments, Yes, I got a camera...a very nice camera. I don't know much about cameras, but it must be nice because it's one of those that the lenses come off, and it comes with an instruction manual of 316 pages! I got to page number 91 and I'm totally lost. No matter, I'm so excited and ready to learn all the fun settings. So below, is my first picture. It is an apple fritter, and I think the camera makes it look so amazingly delicious.....I hope it makes me look better too when a picture is taken of me. :)

My very first picture taken with my new camera....Beautiful!



It's December 4th and this is what I made today, a wreath for our door, and of course I took a picture of it with my new camera....it looks so pretty!

I put it together.....I love bells, and I found this one and had to put it on the wreath! Love it!

 And below is the picture of what we will be doing tomorrow (Sunday) with the kids....decorate our own Christmas ornaments to put on our tree that we will be setting up tomorrow. I think this will be a new family tradition, making Christmas ornaments every year. I will have to put the year on the ornaments that way we will always remember how old the kids were when we made them. I'm super excited....I'm finally in the Christmas mood!

I love Michael's I spent like 3 hours there today.....I could spend the whole day, but Roman was not having it!

I love felt.....so I did it again!

The Halloween advent calendar I made with felt was such a success with my kids, that I had to make one for Christmas! December is fast approaching and I thought I wouldn't have time to get this done...but I did, and it came out better than the Halloween one, so next year I will have to make some adjustments to the Halloween calendar. Can I just say....I LOVE FELT! It is so easy to work with, cheap, and who knew there were so many things you can make with it! I've been making felt flowers for head bands, I also use it for the back of the fabric flowers, the calendars and my girls and I made grandma Rosie some flowers with fuzzy pipe cleaners as the stems. Now she has a vase with flowers that won't ever die! I think I spent $7.00 to make this calendar. I'm only going to fill the pockets with chocolates this time, not toys like the Halloween calendar, so I made the pockets smaller. The felt letters with sticky back is the only thing that was pricey, they are $6.00 for a package, but I had a 40% off at Michaels so I got a good deal. The snowmen, gingerbread people, the snowflakes and the striped pipe cleaners I got for a dollar each packet at Joanns!! I cut out the numbers from a sparkly foam that I also got at Michaels for a $ 1.00. They have felt numbers but I couldn't find white and I really wanted the numbers to be white, the pockets, of course are felt, and they sell for .25 cents per rectangle, and the white felt I got out of the fabric remnants bin they have at Joann's for only .88 cents! I glued everything with tacky glue, the only thing I did have to sew was the ribbon that I braided to hang it with...so that's it, it's done! Although, one of my friends pointed out that I should have made it as a countdown,  it should start with 25, so it's bugging me.... I may have to switch all the numbers around now :)