Christmas Tea and a few other Christmas-y things!

Last night I got to attend a Christmas Tea at the church where I attend MOPS. It was my second year in a row getting to go and I really enjoyed myself!  It was a fun night of hanging out with friends, sipping on tea, snacking on yummy finger foods, Christmas carol singing and fun raffles!

I felt so empty handed while I was there because I didn't bring my phone or my camera! What a bad blogger, right? :) I was in such a hurry to get out the door, I forgot my camera and then my Hubby wanted to use the Bible app on my phone, so I had to leave it at home!  I did luck out and my friend Sonia got this picture of our friend Kirstin and me!

We attend MOPS together and I've had the privilege of getting to know Kirstin better over the last few months. She is one of my favorite people and has the most beautiful heart. I don't think I've ever met a person who loves to bless and serve others as much as Kirstin!

Kirstin is our MOPS "craft girl" and is the one who always comes up with all the fun crafts I'm always posting about.  She found and met a local craft blogger who makes so neat things and that's where she got the inspiration for these gumball machines we made at MOPS last week.

They were so fun and easy to make!  Just some paint, a terra cotta bowl, a wooden ball and a glass bowl!  So super easy and fun!  Our friend Sonia made several larger versions for centerpieces at the Tea last night and they turned out SO cute!

And speaking of Christmas and crafty stuff...I got an order from another friend for some Christmas scarves for her two little girls.  I hadn't done little girl scarves in a long time but they were fun and easy to make and I was even able to do some for my girls too!

I've been going through my Christmas-y stuff these last few days, trying to figure out just where to put all my old Betty Boop ornaments!  I have quite a collection from over the years, which started way before our girls came along.

Since my birthday is so close to Christmas (it's next Monday already!), I've received several as birthday presents!  I love them but hate how cheaply they're made.  Example of that...note the broken off hand at the bottom of the picture. Add in my curious little girls and well, it's been a recipe for disaster with more Betty casualties! So sad!

And speaking of casualties...my laptop decided to finally give out on my after being abused by my girls just a little too much!  My hubby agreed to let me get a new laptop as my birthday/Christmas present and I was thrilled when it came in over the weekend!

It feels so good to type on a keyboard without 11 keys missing! :)

Well, I'm so excited that my birthday is just around the corner! I was just telling my Hubby tonight that I'm starting to feel old and that I'm in denial that I'm gonna be 32 already, lol!  Would it be wrong to just go around and say that I'm 30?!? :)

Oh Christmas tree!

It only took me two days and a zillion interruptions, but I finally got our Christmas tree decorated!  I recycled some old ornaments I had from a couple years back since the Hubs banned me from buying new ornaments this year.  Ha! I love doing different color schemes every year (last year was teal and purple) but since I couldn't buy anything new this year, I just went back to hot pink and silver.  I  like to add our "special" ornaments on after I put all the regular ones on and I think they add a special touch to the tree. The only sad part this year while decorating was putting on the "new house 2007" ornament.  For a second there I felt like maybe it shouldn't be a part of the collection anymore, since we lost the house this year, but I decided to leave it up anyway.  It's a part of our story and doesn't need to be erased, necessarily.

I came across this link on Pinterest the other day to a blog where the gal took an awesome picture of her Christmas tree looking like it was glowing with a zillion lights! I thought it looked so pretty, so I decided to play with my camera settings to see if I could get the same result and after a few tries, I think I got it!  

The tree looks like it's glowing so bright and really, it only has like three strings of lights on there!

Well, I was hoping to write more tonight but I am getting so super sleepy! I guess I'd better call it a night and start fresh again in the morning!

Christmas with Shutterfly!

I cannot believe how fast the holidays are creeping up on us!  In just a couple of weeks we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving and then before we know it, it will be Christmas!  Yikes!

This year I am determined to get ahead!  We've already started our Christmas shopping and my goal is to get done as early as possible so that we can just sit back and enjoy the holiday season!

One of the things on my list to complete soon is Christmas cards!  I found out last week through Becca's blog how Shutterfly is offering a special promo for bloggers to earn 50 free Christmas cards by blogging about Shutterfly's Christmas selection, and I was super excited to check it out!

Over the weekend I got my Hubby to sit down with me to look at Shutterfly's selection of Christmas cards.  I was amazed at the huge selection of  cards and after lots of looking around we narrowed it down to either this one...

or this red and blue combination which is a fun alternative to the traditonal Christmas red and green...

There are a ton more to choose from ranging from whimsical to traditional. I also got to looking around at their address labels and thought these were neat.  I especially love that scripty border around the words.

Another item I found that would also come in handy for gift giving are these..

Again, I'm loving the red and blue!

I am so excited about ordering this year's Christmas cards!  With so many awesome things to choose from, it's going to be tough decison!