It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas ... Threw up all over our house!

It's is truly the holiday season around The Stafford house!







For years I have avoided and boycotted the holidays. Growing up in my family, the holidays were not a fun time. My mom suffered from seasonal affect disorder and went through deep depression during the holiday season. On top of that, my parents had a rocky marriage for as long as I can remember. Nether of my parents had enjoyable family holiday memories from their families of origin. Not to mention the stress of the holidays did nothing good for my dad's bipolar disorder. There was often struggles between whether we went to see family for Christmas and if we did, which ones and when. There is one famous Christmas when my dad's parents came down. My dad and his dad got into a HUGE blowout argument and they ended up leaving early.

So, coming out of that I married into the family from hell (for many reasons, and I'll spare you all the gory stories) when it came to the holiday season. My ex-husband's father and his wife were awesome. They were flexible, and understood that we had 4 families that had to be visited. But his mom and mom's mom had no such understanding. We were required to be at the grandmother's house for Christmas morning to eat and open presents. No matter what!!!!! It was so stressful, that one Christmas morning I actually took a Xanix just to try and stay calm through the whole thing.

So, now, three holiday season into my relationship with my wonderful husband, it seems I have finally found a place of peace and joy when it comes to the holidays. The decorating, the baking, the gift giving, have all been overwhelmingly enjoyable. And I am just expecting it to get better and better.

Here's what I have pictures of so far...

The entrance decorations re-using the shepherd crooks that Wes McCarley made us for the wedding.
















Our beautiful wreath, which I love so much!







And the back porch decorations I made out of a bunch of misc. pine branches bought at a wonderful price at the tree selling place.













Stay tuned for more inside decorations. Hopefully tomorrow. But for tonight, I'm wishing you all a wonderful holiday season. May it be not only merry and bright, but peaceful and stress free.

I was tagged by Wife of the Party (Jess) for a little get-to-know-you-better Christmas fun. I'm tagging The Clevingers. Have fun with it.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Wrapping paper absolutely! My mom and I always try to out do each other with the wrapping job.

2. Real tree or artificial?
My family has almost always had a real tree. A couple of years we had a fake on and I wined and moaned about it the whole time. I just don't see the point. The smell and feel of the real tree is what's important. So, in sort, I only believe in real trees!

3. When do you put up the tree?
This year we bought it and put it up on Thanksgiving. I think that'll probably be our family tradition from now on.

4. When do you take the tree down?
Sometime around New Years. But if it were me, I'd probably leave it up all year because I just love it so much!

5. Do you like eggnog?
Not a big fan. Might drink a little bit if someone offered, but I'd never buy any myself. And those eggnog lattes that starbucks sells are just wrong!

6. Favorite gift as a child?
The year the Tickle Me Elmos came out, I wanted one really bad, but they were all sold out and expensive (my parents were in a really bad financial situation). So, my baby brother took his allotted $5 mom and dad gave him to spend on me and got me a small key chain sized Elmo head that laughs when you push him. It meant so much to me because he had found a way to get me something I really wanted. I still have it and it still cracks me up every time i hear it laugh!

7. Hardest person to buy for?
my brothers sometimes

8. Easiest person to buy for?
My mom!

9. Do you have a nativity scene?
No. We have one when I was little, but as an agnostic, it's not really my thing.


10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
mail, if I can get them printed and in the mail. They're about to become New Years cards if I don't get on it!

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
I really can't think of anything. I think I blocked them all out!

12. Favorite Christmas movie?
White Christmas

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
I'm an over achiever, so get it out of the way as soon as possible. Like, right now, I'm done.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Not that I can imagine.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Fudge!

16. Lights on the tree?
Clear white only! The colored ones make me thing of little kids. We might have them when we have kids if they request it, but for me it's elegant clear white all the way!

17. Favorite Christmas song?
Santa Baby, Carol of the Bells, and It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (although I only know the first line so I probably annoy Jay with it!)


18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
We'll be traveling early in the week of Christmas but will be home by the actual holiday.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?
Um... no.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Star. Angels kind of kreep me out, and with trying to combine both my spirituality and jays, the star is the easiest way. Plus we have this totally cool minimalistic star!

21. When do you open presents?
Christmas day only. We never got to do the Christmas Eve thing.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
What is it about the holidays that make people completely stupid drivers! Drives me nuts!

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?
This year we're doing rustic. Homemade paper craft ornaments, twine, popcorn and cranberry strands.

24. Favorite Christmas dinner?
Ham, cream corn, green beans, and sweet potato casarole with pecans on top.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
I'm hoping for a cricut machine but, I'll be extremely happy with anything crafting related!

26. What was the first gift of Christmas?
I'm not sure what the question is getting at. I think the "right" answer is Jesus but as an agnostic, I'm not sure.

I know, I know, I know!

I'm the worst blogger in the world! I've left you all hanging for an entire week now without an update. Well I appologize! I've been a little under the weather lately, not so much physically as mentally. Plus work was really, really busy last week. But I'm totally coming out of the fog, and should have almost an entire day to myself on Thursday (assuming everything goes as planned at work today and tomorrow!) ::crosses fingers::

But just to give you a little preview of what is to come (hopefully on Thursday) here are a few blogs that will be making their debut appearance this week.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas... Threw Up All Over Our House

Breaking News: Crafting Glitter Takes Over Local Chalotte Man's Apartment

Public Service Announcement: New Charlotte Store, Paper Source, Will Literally Sucks Money From Your Walet

The Wonders of Decorating With Shot Glasses

So stay tuned... I promise you, it'll be worth the wait!

b

All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth

Well... not exactly. But All I Want for Christmas is a Cricut Machine just isn't as catchy of a song.

I know what you're asking... What in the hell is a Cricut Machine. Ah, my friend. Let me introduce you...






This is the one-and-only-never-duplicated-infinitely-amazing-crafter's-holy-grail Cricut Machine. Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa (did you hear the angels singing?)

I'll explain it first in Jay's words, "It looks like a printer, and smells like a printer, but amazingly it's not a printer." Yes, babe, you are exactly right, it's not a printer. In fact it's a die cut machine. So, the other day when I made a Happy Anniversary banner for Dan and Shannon's first wedding anniversary, it took me about an hour and some pretty major hand cramps to cut out all the letters. With this machine it would have taken a fraction of the time and absolutely no hand cramps.

Basically what happens is you get different cartridiges for the machine which are different font styles and shapes. Then you simply select the letter/number/shape you want, load the paper in the machine, push the button and WAAAALAAAAA! It is quite amazing! You can even get vinyl to put through and can make quotes and such to go on the wall.

They have quite a few different machines at quite a few price points. I'm certainly not expecting to get the mack daddy version nor is that one necessary for what I do. (Jay about had a corinary right there in the isle of Michaels when all they had was the mack daddy version bundled with multiple cartridiges. It totalled to almost SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS!)

The one I'm looking at is the smallest version and cuts shapes from 1" to 5 1/2", it comes bundled with a basic font cartridge and a basic shapes cartridge and is about $188 depending on where you look.

Since Jay and I have set a spending limit of $50 for each of us, he won't be able to get it for me on his own. So, don't be surprised if Jay contacts some of you in the near future so see if you want to contribute to the Cricut. Other wise I'm just going to have him give me cash and I'll start saving for it.

Trust me though, once I get it, there will be plenty of blogs showing off all the wonderful things i can do with it! Speaking of, I have a bunch of blogs in the wings. I need to show you all the wonderful things I've gotten at Paper Source since it opened last weekend, and then Thursday we got our tree and ever since then I've been making ornaments for it as well as decorating the table, front entranceway, and back porch. Lots and lots of fun stuff to show off.

What's on your holiday gift list?

PAPER SOURCE OFFICIALLY OPENS IN CHARLOTTE

I know you guys have all been waiting with batted breath to hear how the Paper Source opening weekend went. Well... maybe that's a little over exagerated.

The weekend was kind of crazy to say the least. I got an email from the North Carolina director of Operation Homefront on Thursday request assistance with almost 30 frozen turkeys that Rooms to Go had donated to needy military families. She was unfortunately out of state tending to her sick mother. So, I volunteered to pick them up, drop three of them off with families and then drop the rest off with one of the Operation Homefront contacts in Fayetteville. I figured I had skipped out on helping Jess bake cookies for the christmas packages for selfish reasons (the paper source openings), so I couldn't pass up this opportunity for the same selfish reason.

So, Friday night was LOOOOOOONG! I didn't get to Jess' house until almost 1am. Poor girl! It was worth it, though. I'm so glad that I could help and hopefully some families will have a turkey this thanksgiving that either wouldn't have had one or having one would have caused a financial strain on the family.

I came home Saturday night so that I could teach my movement class at Alexander Youth Network on Sunday. After that was over, I came back to the house, hurried Jay up, and we went to Paper Source.

There really is no way to describe what this store is like. It's like the Holy Grail of paper crafting! They have all the best tools, so many great templates, and they sale things both in large quantities and small so you can do any type of project. Unlike a scrapbooking store, this store understands that you may not be making only one of something. If you are making holiday cards or save the dates for something, you will need to make 10-100 just alike. So you they sell things in different quantities so that you can do that.

They have awesome stickers, sheets and sheets of different sized round and square stickers. The really nice things is that they also have word templates on their website for them. So, that way you don't have to worry about trying to figure out how to print on them.

I got so many cool things. I got a bone folder (which is actually teflon and not bone), a new small circle punch, a glue pin, some beautiful brown glitter to use with the glue pin, some absolutely gorgeous paper, this totally cool little sticker maker called a Xyron (love, love, LOVE IT!), and some awesome funny letter press cards for my brothers for christmas.

It's so nice to have somewhere to go that sales the tools I really need to do a good job at my craft projects. Michaels and AC Moore are good and have done me good for the last few years, but they are like the walmart or Sam's of craft stores compared to this store. For one thing, you don't have to weed through the puffy t-shirt paint from middle school projects or the summer camp inspired foam and plastic keychain making supplies.

And unlike Michaels and AC Moore, Paper Source is full of employee who are crafters first and employees second. One of the employees showed me how to use the envelope making template kit that I was buying as well as the envelope liner template that I'll probably pick up in a few weeks. She also showed me some great ideas for using punches, decorating unexpected areas of envelopes to show a fun surprise. She showed me how to use the embossing heat gun (which may very well be my next tool purchase), and great ways to use glitter.

I walked out with not only great tools, but great ideas and great encouragement! I highly recommend the store. It exceeded even my high expectations. If you get a chance (or make a chance) to go by the charlotte store or one in your area, absolutely do! And if you want to go with me, just give me a call! I'll probably be going most weekends. ;-)

Jay said that the longer I watched the demostrations, the more money he could feel coming out of our bank accounts!

p.s. hopefully tomorrow I'll post pictures of my loot!

Paper Source Countdown...T-2 and 1 days!

Well, I wasn't able to post a countdown blog yesterday because I actually had to work and was too busy. (Gah! The nerve!)

So, today we'll have a double feature to make up. First up is this absolutely adorable boxed card set which portrays not only Paper Source's sense of style but also their sense of humor.





http://www.paper-source.com/cgi-bin/paper/item/Naughty-List-4Bar-Note-Set/3000.431/39299973.html


In case it's too hard to read, the card says:

Dear ________________

Let me be totally honest, you're on the naughty list. It wasn't even a close tie. Better luck next year. Love, Santa

Love it! Love it! Love it!

http://www.paper-source.com/cgi-bin/paper/item/Naughty-List-4Bar-Note-Set/3000.431/39299973.html

One of the things I love most about Paper Source is that they cater to crafters of all skills and creativity levels. They have everything from printed personalized cards that are completely put together for you, but they also sell all the piece so you can do your own thing. In between they have these kits.







And what would you do with this kit?





http://www.paper-source.com/cgi-bin/paper/item/Luxe-Green-Stripes-Holiday-Photo-Card-Kit/3000.431/4071295327.html

Needless to say, I am very excited for the grand opening tomorrow. But it will be Sunday before I can get over there and start my shopping. Rooms to Go has donated 30 frozen turkeys to Operation Homefront and I volunteered to pick them up, deliver a couple in this area and then take the rest to Fayetteville, so I'll be able to help Jess make cookies for the soldier packages she's putting together! That should be really fun and I'm really looking forward to dropping off these turkeys at the homes of wounded vets and being able to thank them and wish them a happy thanksgiving!

Paper Source Countdown... T-3 days!

Woohoo! Only 3 more days until the Charlotte Paper Source opens!

Today we have another envelope template. This one is a liner template though. How better to spruce up a boring ol' cheep envelope than using some of that left over crafting paper you know we all have laying around the house!







And what can you really make with this template? Just take a look!







Anyone want to go with me on Saturday to the Grand Opening???

See images here: http://www.paper-source.com/cgi-bin/paper/kits/envelope-kits.html