Christmas decor....

Black Friday for most people means waiting in line in the freezing cold at 2 am....just to get a percentage off of the hottest toys and electronics.

There is nothing in the world that could be discounted enough for me to get out in that madness. I value my personal space and don't really feel like going to jail right after Thanksgiving. 

Instead, while my husband was sleeping off his graveyard shift, the kids and I put up some Christmas decorations in the house. 

YAY for the holidays! I am excited to hit up the stores to get some new ribbon and wrapping paper and wrap up the gifts while the kiddos are at school this week!!!

Personalized Wrapping

Last night, I started wrapping a few little Christmas presents for the kiddos in our family. 

This year, I am wanting to do something a bit different. My goal is to wrap presents in solid color paper, use all different types of ribbon, and make gift tags using pictures of the recipient. 

I started with my two baby cousins, Isla and Caroline, and printed out cute pictures of them. Then I used green paper to fold and cut a little picture frame....glued the picture on the inside, and wrote our names on the back of the picture. In my craft closet, I found 3 types of ribbon so I started with a cute candy cane pattern for Isla's and a sparkly pattern for Caroline's. 

They turned out so cute...especially since the kiddos are so cute. I can't wait to do this with all of the presents I wrap....although 2 presents in, I am almost out of paper and ribbon. Darn....I guess that means I have to go shopping!

Happy Thanksgiving Y'all!

I am thankful for each and every blessing in my life!!!!!!

And I am thankful for the TEXANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope your day is filled with family, food, and fun!

Homemade penguin costume for school program

The 2nd graders at our school always put on our holiday program and this year, it is all about penguins. This means that the PTO and the music teacher have to come up with some quick and easy costumes for about 80 kiddos to wear (my kiddo included). 

The children will wear solid black, long sleeved shirts and jeans, and will wear a penguin bib and hat...custom made by yours truly and 7 other PTO moms. A huge thanks to Cindy, Jennifer, Denise, Cassandra, Crystal, Sonya, and Lupe for coming over this morning and putting almost 80 of these together in true assembly line style. 

We had a hat station and a body station....with one person cutting, one person folding, one person gluing, one person tracing, one person hole punching....it was an adventure! I made some blueberry muffins and a breakfast casserole and Denise brought some drinks. If you offer food...they will come to help!! That's my theory at least. 

Here is what they look like....

The bodies are made of white poster board (two bodies from one sheet) and the bows are simply colored paper, accordion folded, stapled, sprayed with Diamond Dust glitter spray, and hot glued onto the poster board. The hats are black card stock and various colored paper glued together, and then a handwriting strip stapled to the ends. these will be given to the teachers to staple together as they fit each child's head. 

I can't wait to see how my cute little penguin looks in this costume!!!

Disney Cruise PAID IN FULL!!!!

Congratulations to my hubs for working extra shifts, and congratulations to me for cutting back and saving money in places so we could pay off our Disney Cruise, ONE MONTH EARLY!!!! 

Our full payment was due on December 24, but we paid it off this weekend :)

Now it really feels real! We are now in the "saving for spending money" phase, which is going well because I have been putting little bits of money back each time I found some extra. We have been saving since August and are more than halfway to our goal. I have full confidence that we will meet our goal hopefully by early February. 

Lookie what I saw yesterday...

My dad and I were delivering the wedding cakes and cupcakes in Galveston and drove right past the port!!!!!

So now I am a pinning fool. I have already made a bunch of crafts for the trip but there is always time to do more right....

Thus far, I have made myself a headband, family water bottles, the boys' lanyards, Jansen a shirt, our fish extender, and some Mickey Mouse glow sticks. (Click on the links to see the finished products).

This cruise is going to be a whole polka dot theme for me. I am a HUGE lover of polka dots so this is perfect!!! 

For some good cruise ideas, check out my Disney Cruise Pinterest Board.

Calla Lily and Hydrangea Wedding Cake and Cupcakes

Well, I am home. This was so nerve-racking for me to make all of these for the wedding and then travel about an hour away to deliver and set it up.

All in all, it turned out beautiful. If it were my wedding, I would have loved it.

So here is what I made....

vanilla with almond buttercream

chocolate with peanut butter buttercream

And here it is set up at the reception hall....

I am so glad it is over. I hope they had a beautiful wedding...from what I saw it was gorgeous.

Here are some of the professional pics from the wedding photographer:

Linking to: Keeping it Simple

Wedding cupcake sneak peek....

Tomorrow is the wedding!

I have baked all day long. My back hurts, my legs hurt, my neck hurts, and my feet hurt. All in all, the vanilla almond cupcakes are finished and the cake is finished (all but the flowers).

I am going to bake the other 4 dozen chocolate cupcakes tomorrow morning, and ice and decorate them after that. Thank goodness the icing is complete!!! One less thing to do tomorrow. The plan is to put the flowers on the cake once I get there. No risking the destruction of the flowers!

So here is the sneak peek of the vanilla almond cupcakes with gum paste calla lilies. 

And with that, I will hit the hay. Full pictures to come tomorrow when everything is set up. :)