Merry Christmas!!

From our family to yours! Oooh, I forgot how long it's been since I've posted a picture of the kids. Mr. Peanut had to get glasses! Funny enough, he could have gotten a monacle (just like the actual Mr. Peanut), considering he has Anisometropic Amblyopia, which means he has diminished vision in one eye. Funny that I've never thought of that before! He does excellent with them. Most of the time...

Christmas Card Holder "Tree"

For years now, I've been receiving Christmas cards and had no idea what to do with them. Put them on the fridge? Clutter City! Stick them to the wall? No thank you, I prefer not to repaint each year. So mostly, I just show them to the fam and then they sit in a pile for a loooooooong time because I can't.get.myself to throw them away!!

I knew this year was the year I was going to do something about it! I started looking on the interwebz and happened upon a simple cardboard triangle, covered with fleece and ribbon to make a memo board. Never being the one to do things simply, I talked to J-dub the Hub and came up with a plan.

He cut a simple triangle out of a 2'x4' piece of pressboard. I covered it with an identical size layer of quilt batting and then a layer of fleece that overlapped enough to pull it around and staple it to the back of the board.

I ran to Joann Fabrics to buy ribbon and happened upon THE MOST ADORABLE trim in the whole entire planet--little Christmas light bulbs!! It was actually 100% what I had hoped for, but didn't actually think existed!

I grabbed another two pieces of trim because they were adorable and I would find a use for them someday--stockings and gingerbread men--and meant to grab plain green rick rack (forgot it), and upholstery tacks (Hallelujah! I remembered those).

I realized when I got home that I was missing the green rick rack, which I was going to use along the sides and bottom of the "tree." Listen folks, I know myself. If I had waited to get this done until I went back to get the green rick rack, it wouldn't have gotten done. Period. So I made the decision to use the super cute (and much more expensive) stockings and gingerbread men just along the two longer sides of the triangle.

I pinned the two sides of the triangle (hereafter called the RRR because both trim had red rick rack) to the fleece and J-dub the hub and I started the light bulb trim on the bottom. After folding the ribbon on the trim, we pounded an upholstery tack (using a tack hammer--imagine that) through the light bulb trim and the RRR. Then we put the lightbulb trim at an angle that looked good and tacked it down on the other side to the RRR. We measured up 12 inches from the trim on the OTHER side and cut, folded, and tacked the ribbon. We repeated the same process until we got to the top of the tree. We decided to leave some room at the top so we wouldn't be crowding the cards.

To finish it, we pounded in a tack at the edge of each point and stapled the RRR behind the board.

We think it turned out great!! BRING ON THE CHRISTMAS CARDS PEOPLE!!

Haven't Ordered Your Cards Yet?

LUCKY YOU!!

This year, I was thrilled to be asked to partner with Shutterfly for my Holiday Cards. Unfortunately, my procrastination got the better of me and I didn't notice I hadn't received the proper codes for the promotion until a few weeks ago. AFTER I had already ordered my cards. :( Woh-woh...

Then, to add insult to injury, I couldn't get my blog to work properly. If you hadn't noticed, this blog is looking a little wonky. With all the Christmas activities, I don't have another 12 hours to spend trying to get it to function properly, since that's about how much time I spent last week just trying to get my column over there ----------> back over there ----------> from clear underneath all my posts. Grrrrrr...

On to better topics!

I have these hot codes that I'd love to give to three of you for 25 FREE 5x7 flat or folded cards (standard shipping is only $5.99)! It's a little late, but don't let that stop you! Shutterfly has an AMAZING selection of New Year's Cards!! Why not distinguish yourself from all the others by sending your cards after all the hustle and bustle is done??

How about something simple and bright?


Maybe you want something more traditional?


This one's my personal favorite!


And here's a really cool idea--2011 highlights!


To enter to win a set of 25 5x7 cards (shipping is $5.99 for standard shipping and they may take up to 10 business days to receive, but if you're doing New Year's Cards--who cares??), just leave a comment on this post. Please leave me your email (in long format ie YourEmailAddress at YahooGmailorWhateverelseyouuse dot com) if your Google profile doesn't link to your email so I can get in touch with you to give you your code! Contest will end 12/21 at 12:00 a.m. EST and winners will be notified 12/22. The codes expire on 12/31/2011, so if you win, be sure to get back to me immediately!

GOOD LUCK!!