VW Bus Quilt

I finally got around to taking pictures of my VW bus quilt. I started this quilt (and thought I would finish it) my year off between undergrad and grad school. It turns out I overestimated my ability level and underestimated the difficulty of this quilt. Luckily I had my mom to help me along the way.

This was the view from my front yard as I was taking photos today, thought it was too pretty not to share.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I love decorating my house for Christmas. It makes our little old home even cozier. I'll start the tour in our living room:

Our Tree



These are our childhood stockings. I love how they're a little matchy!

Now on to our dining room:



I got these great trees at an antique store in Grace, Idaho. They were going out of business so I got them for $5!


Here is one of our advent calendars

Our Christmas village:

One year my family and I worked on this village together (since it was clear I was never going to get in done on my own!). We watched movies, ate snacks, and painted our fingers to the bone. I love the way it turned out though.

My husband painted this little cutie

This was my mom's handiwork

I painted this house, look at the car in the garage!

The hamburger shop and post office are from the Lemax Christmas village

My talented mom painted this beautiful church

I painted the little school

Christmas crept into the kitchen as well:




Hope your holidays are merry and bright!!

Our First CSN Giveaway!!

I am very excited to announce that we are hosting our first giveaway for our readers!! One lucky winner will receive a $30 gift card to spend as they like at any of CSN's 200+ stores!

You would not believe the merchandise that CSN Stores carry. They carry some of everything, from modern decor to tea pots and much more.

Now seriously, I don't have a baby but if I did...

And try to tell me this isn't the coolest toaster you've ever seen, try...

How to Enter:

1. The giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents.

2. Leave a comment telling me what you would like to spend the $30 on (you don't actually have to spend your winnings on that item).
3. Facebooking or blogging about this giveaway will give you an extra entry, but you must leave an extra comment for each, telling me you've done so in order for it to count as an extra entry.
4. It would be nice if you decided to follow us, but we won't make you...there is an extra entry in it for you though (please leave yet another comment telling us you already were a follower or that you are a new follower if that is the case).
5. One more chance to win, grab our button for your blog and leave another comment telling us you did so.

6. Leave me your e-mail address or make sure it is visible on your blog so in the event that you win this giveaway I can contact you.

Entries will be accepted until 11:59 pm MST on December 29, 2010. A winner will be chosen at random. I will notify the winner by December 30, 2010 via email (please respond within 48 hours). The winner will also be announced here on our blog. Good luck!!

Hand-made Christmas

Here is my attempt at a creating a home-made Christmas.

Christmas Advent Calendar

Tea towels made from dollar store dish towels and scraps left over from my Christmas tree quilt.

Bracelet and bookmark made from my own hand-made beads and buttons from my glorious button box.

Christmas Ornaments

I've decided to try making a hand-made Christmas this year. Luckily there are some great ideas out there in blog land. I thought I'd share my hand-made Christmas ornaments (which were inspired by this cute project):


These ornaments were actually really easy to make. Check out this great tutorial for the details on how to stamp the lettering on the washers. After I had stamped the washers I super glued them together, then added a festive ribbon and one of my hand-made beads. I think they turned out pretty cute and were a really fun Christmas project.