A Semi-Homemade Christmas

Well I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! As grinchy as it sounds,  I LOVE the holidays but I always love taking the decorations down just as much. I think just getting back to normal is as much of a Christmas gift as any other for me!

Tyler and I ended up going to his parent's church for the Christmas Eve service just as we do every year then heading to my parent's house for dinner. Then we woke up bright and early on Christmas morn (about 4:30 am for Tyler) and headed to Tyler's parent's house with homemade cinnamon rolls in hand. After the Caldwell food and gift fest we headed to my parent's house for round 2. We were home by about 3:00 pm to veg out and play with our toys!

On to the gifts..... My Dad decided to challenge me with doing only homemade Christmas gifts for him and my mom this year. Oh how the creative juices started flowing at the thought, okay not really, I was stumped for a while!
Although the challenge seemed daunting with only a few weeks until Christmas, Tyler and I embraced it and we ended up making 7 gifts either completely homemade or at least semi-homemade!

Here is the low-down:

• 2 button down shirts with monogrammed cuff. Obviously I didn't make the shirts but I did monogram the cuffs.
• 1 collapsible picnic basket with monogram. Again, I only monogrammed.
• 2 cheese boards by Tyler

• 1- 8 x 10 inch Red Oak picture frame by Tyler.

• 1 purse/day bag made by me.

I can't tell you much more rewarding gift giving can be when you but a little more thought into it. I hope that we have the time and energy to do even more next year!

Happy New Year!!!

Guestroom Update

Well we have finally found a hot minute or two to do some updates on the house. Nothing extreme, just a few little things that I have been meaning to get to lately.

One such thing is the bed skirt from my childhood bed that is about 4 inches too short for our guest room bed. Nice....

You can't fully appreciate the horror in this picture but it was all I had. Nothing like a too short, ruffled, white on white bed skirt to perk up a room!

Anyway, my kind and patient friend Blair devoted 3 hours of her Saturday morning to help me tackle the project of making a box pleated bed skirt to replace the old one. She has made a few in her day so she made it look so easy. In truth, it was not too hard and MUCH cheaper than buying a custom made one for my taller than normal bed.

Ta daa....the finished product!

Not perfect but for my first try and only $35 total I would say I did alright! Thanks for all the help Blair!!