OK...just to piggy back on yesterday's post...one of my other fave bloggers, Centsational Girl, posted today about photos and blogging...

Our minds must've been in the exact same place this weekend. She has some good tips about uploading pictures. I'll have to check out Windows Live Writer because I, too, despise uploading pictures to Blogger. Don't even get me started. I'm thrilled to know there's another way.

Check CG out if yesterday's post didn't send you into a coma. She also has a disdain for flash that I forgot to mention also. I use it only in extreme circumstances--John's school program was one of those "extreme" circumstances. Natural light is my friend. And she is also a big fan of PW...but who isn't? The woman is amazing.

This should prove that it's really not me...it's the camera....and a little photo editing to thank for purty pictures.

And whoever posted yesterday that came through as High Altitude will you please let me know who you are?! So curious and you should join us when we do the LL class :)

We spent this weekend at a few church festivals. The first one was at our church, HFBC. This is the second year we've attended Candy Cane Lane. There are bounce houses, rides, crafts, and a live nativity. John really enjoyed himself.

Here he his desperately trying to feed a camel that has probably been force-fed by way too many eager children today.
HERE, CAMEL! Eat some more...

Ok, regular readers, bear with me. I'm attending some Bloggy Christmas Parties over at Thrifty Decor Chick and The Nesting Place ...I love these things....




I had soooo many ideas for "easy" projects in my head going into December that I almost made myself crazy. But reality struck and I only did a few of the projects that I had planned to do. But I'm at peace with that. This tree truly is thrifty. Time consuming, yes, but quite thrifty.


I was infatuated with tags and hand-stamped muslin ribbon this year. I saw a lot of this stuff on Etsy. In fact, I bought these cute little tags from Paper Eclectiques and used them as ornaments for the tree. LUUUUV this idea. I might buy some more for next year


I bought these tags from Creations by Minda. Have I mentioned how much I love Etsy and all the hand-crafted unique items you can get on there? It's like a year-round, 24-hour Nutcracker Market (which I missed this year, by the way!!)

I saw a lot of hand-stamped muslin but I just made that myself. I was eager to experiment with tea-staining to make the muslin look old. I bought several yards of muslin which is DIRT cheap and just cut long strips of it, soaked it in tea for a few hours, let it dry, then stamped it with a few different stamps, and Voila! My own custom ribbons....

I added some little rhinestones on the snowflake stamp because I love me some sparkly (read: this took way too much time BUT I like the way it turned out)


Couldn't resist these sparklies at Target

My little tree topper

This was the week of parties and I'm exhausted.

We went to a work-related party on Thursday evening, then on Friday we had Kyle's work Christmas party, this morning we had a birthday party for some neighborhood friends, this evening we had invitations to 3 Christmas parties but only made it to two--sorry Christina!

I'm pooped. Here are some pictures from the birthday party. There was a petting zoo, a pony ride, and face painting station set up in our neighbor's backyard. John loved riding the pony.




The poor animals in the petting zoo were being man-handled quite a bit. I just hope someone gave them some valium before their debut because I think they would've appreciated it. Here are the animals cowering in fear in the shadow of one of the birthday boys!

What has Anna been up to lately? A lot. She has had an ear infection ever since the day before we were supposed to go to Ecuador (a month ago) and on Monday (after a long cranky weekend) I took her to the doctor and her ears were still infected! Poor thing. She had just finished up her 3rd different antibiotic. She also had some gnarly looking purple gums from teeth that were attempting to come through so she's been through the ringer.

By Sunday I was beside myself with all the waking up in the middle of the night and general crankiness. Since I couldn't give her any pain relief besides Tylenol and teething gel I got desperate and went all holistic on her. I read that you can make a mixture of 1 tbsp warm olive oil + 5-10 drops of tea tree oil and put a few drops in the infected ear. The tea tree oil has antiseptic properties and is supposed to help soothe the pain. I also read that you can rub a warm cloth with a few drops of lavender oil on the jawline to help with teething pain and yes I did that too. Well, the next day I took her to the doctor and she perscribed some numbing ear drops that I administered once and ever since then she's been fine so was it the essential oils or the perscription drops? I don't know but my sweet angel is back.....

.....back to modeling mom's crafty projects that is! Here is Anna's Christmas dress I made. I'm basically making her wear it every other day so I get some good use out of it. I used a pattern and, man, is that so much easier than trying to wing it!

It kinda looks like an angel robe the way it's all flowy and loose. I think I might add a sash to cinch it a little at the waist. um, check out those chubby legs...oh my goodness.... Here Anna is showing off standing with one hand. She's really advancing. Two days ago she crawled to something, kneeled, and pulled herself all the way up and stood. She is mobile! And today I actually saw several crawling paces on only hands and knees versus the army crawl she normally does. This little woman means business--especially when it means keeping up with the brother.