New Years Wreath

So this is a totally last minute post......cuz it will be 2013 in 3 hours and 45 minutes write now as I write this

But this entire project in general was extremely last minute.  I just made it last night but I was determined to get it done because I wanted to show my support for New Years.

New Years Eve always kinda gets screwed....at least in the decoration department.  It gets the tiniest section in the store and then WHAM it's alllll Valentine's Day stuff

I like to root for the underdog so I felt it was my duty to pay homage to it

Just like any other of my wreaths I glued shreddy paper stuff (this time it's the foil kind) onto a form which in my case is always a cardboard round.......cuz I'm cheap

I found an oversized party hat at Walgreens and cut out the Happy New Year on it

I glued it onto poster board for structure and cut it out again

I didn't take a picture but I glued a scrap square of cardboard to help it pop out more

Then I just glued on some different blowers and horns from the dollar store and some squiggles I cut off of the party hat

That's all folks!  I wish you all an awesome year ahead of you! =)

Milk Jug Snoopy Porch Decoration

Isn't it funny how you shop shop shop at Christmas time...and then sometimes the littlest cheapest things turn out to be the BEST gifts!

My niece Brooke LOVES Snoopy so Christmas at the Jackson residence has sort of turned Snoopy themed

They have a cute Snoopy "Merry Christmas" yard sign outside so I wanted to give them something cute to add to the mix

Save yourself a couple of milk jugs and clean them out real good.....it takes a few rinses

Ask me how I know that

 After 2 rinses it looked perfectly clean but when I took a big deep whiff  I gagged one of those gags that feels like it starts at your pelvis bones.... YUCKA!

So save yourself the potential barf session and avoid sniffing it until about 3 rinses

Somebody told me after the fact that if you let it dry in the sun it gets rid of the smell faster....so maybe go that route

Cut the top off one jug and color the cap of the other with a black sharpie for his nose

Hot glue the one with the nose on top of the other, handle facing up

And just that quickly you can already see him coming together

I bought a beanie from the dollar store, but I wanted him to have a pom pom style hat....so I made my own

(sorry for the crappy pictures)

Take a 2 inch wide piece of cardboard and start wrapping around it with yarn until you have a pretty thick bundle.  Just imagine in your head how big you want the pom pom to be and kind of guess

Carefully slide the entire bundle off the cardboard keeping it all together the best you can

In the middle I put on a twisty tie, but you could also just tie it off tightly with another piece of yarn

Cut through the loops of yarn on each end

Trim it up to make a uniform ball shape

I didn't take pictures of the rest of the process but it's pretty straight forward

I hot glued the pom to the top of the beanie and stuffed the end of the beanie a bit with batting to make it stand up a little and not fall flat

Cut out ear shapes out of black felt and glue them to the sides of the head, then glue on the beanie all the way around

I glued on some googly eyes and wrapped him in a scarf I had my mom crochet (crocheting is on my list of things to learn)

The finishing touch was a pair of ear muffs I found on a whim...I think it really makes it!


And here he is

Isn't he cute?  I think I was just so in love with him I didn't even notice his ear muffs were all caddywompus.  So I apologize for his disheveled appearance.   Sorry Snoopy

Well....I do have one pic from my phone where he is put together like a proper gentleman....but he's on our ironing board....sitting next to the bottle of Renuzit....awesome

There ya have it folks

It was my favorite Christmas gift I made and it cost me 2 bucks and some change

I was so happy they seemed to love it as much as I did

I was really shocked at how much my brother inlaw liked it...it was cool!

Now I want to make a whole litter of Snoopies....maybe I gotta figure out some Woodstocks too?

Ohhh the possibilitie!

Spice Cake Cupcakes with Eggnog Buttercream

We were having a cookie swap at work earlier this week and I decided to be a rebel and bring cupcakes instead.  

After all I am the crazy cupcake lady so it only seemed appropriate

I wanted to do something "Christmasy" so I decided Eggnog would be perfect

And then of course spice cake is the cake of the season (minus fruit cake)

 

For the cake I used Duncan Hines spice cake mix.  I added a touch more cinnamon to my taste but it was pretty good as is

For the eggnog butter cream I followed my basic Coffee Creamer Buttercream ratio

But I subbed the eggnog for the coffee creamer.  It wasn't as "eggnoggy" as I wanted so I added more cinnmaon and clove and just under a tablespoon of dark rum and a 2 teaspoons of vanilla

You can really play with it to make it just how you like....clovey....boozy.....whatever!

And here was our little cookie table.....with me being all cool and different.  Ya know....I'm a badass like that!

DIY Felt Pet Ornaments

Don't forget about the furbabies this Christmas.....after all they are family members too!

             

Every year I try to give them something small and last year I made them felt ornaments that looked like them

Meet Mimi, my oldest sisters dog

She's a Brenchie.  That's  "Frenchie" for anyone outside my family who speaks proper english. (My family has its own language largely based  on incorrect pronunciations by all the children of the family). 

And this is her in felt form

Next up is Wrigley, my second oldest sisters dog

Ain't she just the cutest damn thing you've ever seen?   And she has THE cutest bark in the world.....I'm not sure it will translate well via Bloggin but I will give it a try.  

It goes a little something like this :

Bow wow woo woooOO wooOO!  

It's so stinkin cute I find myself mimicking it just for fun.  I'm glad my husband is weird like me and doesn't mind me barking randomly

 And here is her ornament

And this is Phoebe. Also known as "Beebee" or "Beebers"  If you're thinking she looks familiar it's because she is Mimi's sister.  Yep....sisters have sister dogs.  

Even though they are sisters they couldn't be more different!  Mimi is more serious and Phoebe is that weird goofy girl you can't quite figure out.   Her lip is constantly getting caught on her teeth so we have dubbed this her "Ugly Elvis" look.  So it only seemed appropriate to pay homage to her goofy ass face

Now here comes the auntie guilt.  This sister also has a yorkie named Morty.  (Full name Mortimer Jasper)  I tried about 3 different times to make an ornament of him but was never happy with it so I threw it away and he never got one.  Now I feel bad.  Maybe I'll take another crack at it this year.  

But just so he gets the spotlight too, here are some pics of the man himself (the only male pet in the family)

He's soo cute in his xmas sweater!  Love that dog!

And last but CERTAINLY not least is my baby.  The only cat in our clan

The beautiful, the magnificent.... Mo Mo!

(look at her...a little blogger too.  Mama is so proud!)

When I unpacked it this year I noticed she lost a whisker.  I choose to believe it was for realistic effect.  After all, she does lose them in real life.  And whenever she does I pretend they are a quill pen and wish I could use them to sign the Constitution.   Is that weird?

So there ya have it...cute, easy, cheap, and personalized gifts for all the pets in your life.  Ok..so  maybe it's more for the owners...but who cares!

And they are just as easy as they look.  I  made templates out of paper, cut them out of felt, sewed them together, stuffed them a wee bit, and added the details. I used E6000 glue to glue on the eyes and noses etc, but you could use whatever glue you think works best.

   Add some thread to hang them and they are done!  Super easy...you could whip out a few in these last few days before Christmas and wow the crowds!

Your furry four legged friends will be so happy you remembered them! ;)

DIY Ugly Christmas Sweaters

With the Ugly Christmas Sweater Party growing more and more popular every year, ugly sweaters are becoming harder and harder to come by at thrift stores.

Goodwill is getting picked over super fast early in the season

I learned this the hard way last year and ended up making my own for me and The Boy

This project is perfect if you have a plain Tshirt or old sweater already.  We didn't at the time so we just bought some plain cheapy ones from Walmart 

(for the record, Walmart has some pretty hideous sweater and turtle necks already if you don't want to make them)

I bought some stockings at Dollar Tree that had felt embellishments on them  I cut them off and sewed them onto shirts

I added pom pom onto the wrists of the shirts and for the nose of The Boys reindeer.  

I bought mardi gras beads as well and sewed it onto the neckline of my sweater

Let you're imagination go wild!  The cheesier the better......and it's cheap!

Snowman Hat Headbands

When I made these Pilgrim Hat Headbands for my nieces on Thanksgiving it got the wheels turning in my head for a Christmas version

A snowman top hat instantly popped in my head

So I went and got myself some more of those little hats at Michael's (on the Xmas aisle), some stiffened felt sheets (I wanted the holly leaves to stand up nicely) and some cheap headbands, and a glue gun

I made myself a template and cut out the holly leaves and used a hole punch to make the berries quickly

Then just hot glue them on

Here's my little assembly line of hats

I hot glued them onto headbands but you could also glue them onto alligator clips or some kind of hair barette

Then put them on some cute kiddos and you're all set!

It makes any outfit super festive!