A Very Crafty Christmas

As Christmas approached, I became giddy with the thought of giving gifts (I told you...that's my love language, people).  Then Curt did an assessment of our financial situation to determine our budget for gifts and things began to look grim.  It was time to get crafty.  Now, I'm definitely not a super crafty person...but I do like to make things...and I love to read blogs about people making things...and my parents just gave me a sewing machine for my birthday.  It was time to put it to work.  I had a lot of fun making all my little projects and learned a lot about my new sewing machine.  Hopefully it won't start gathering dust now that the holdiays are over...

 These sweet little bags were for Curt's sisters.  Each bag held a pair of earrings from my dear friend Katie's fair trade store, "Baksheesh" in Napa Valley, CA.  You can find them on Facebook too!  They have a TON of amazing stuff.  All handmade, all fair trade.

 

I also dusted off my old knitting needles and made each of his sisters an eternity scarf (the most awesome scarf you've ever worn)...if you're a knitter, this is super easy!

For my sister's new baby (due at the end of March...can't wait!!) I found a cute tutorial for pacifier clips.  I tried to make them gender neutral, as they are not finding out the sex of the baby, but Curt said they look "girly."  Maybe it's an omen??

And finally, for my sweet nephew, I made him a set of magnetic fabric letters and a cute little bag to go with them.  I learned SO much from doing this project....the applique letters on the bag look a little rough, but I'm okay with that.

Feel free to provide me with some feedback:  good, bad, and ugly.  My real dream is to quit my job, have lots of babies, craft from home, and sell my stuff on Etsy (I've got a long way to go on this one). Or own a bakery with Laura Dean called "Crumbs."  We will wake up early, wear aprons, bake 'til our hearts delight, drink tea, and laugh with our customers (in my mind, this one is more feasible).

Also, I did not come up with any of these ideas on my own (told ya, I'm not super crafty).  I've included links to where I found all these fun things.  As I've said before, I'm not crazy about the idea of my own blog...but I sure love reading other people's....especially very talented crafty people.  My hope is you'll be inspired to create, no matter what your medium, and maybe you'll find a fun new blog to follow.  Much love to you all!!

Christmas!

Our first Christmas together as a married couple was a little bittersweet.  We were happy to be in our cozy little apartment, happy to be married, and happy to share the celebration of the birth of Jesus together.....but we definitely missed our family and friends a lot.  We decided to have a special "New England" dinner for Christmas Eve.

We had lobster, clam chowder, and  pear and walnut salad.  It was super yummy!

Christmas morning, we went with the Edmonds' family tradition of eating lots and lots of good food.  We had cinnamon buns, egg/sausage casserole, fruit salad, and bacon.  We spent a lot of time talking with family on the phone and skyping.  We put the computer up on our pass-through and skyped with the Kenneys over breakfast.  Later we caught up with Julia, Bobby, Ben, and the rest of the Cowgills in Kentucky.  It was the next best thing to being together.  We'll skype with my family on Wednesday, when they do their Christmas.  We can't wait!

This little note from Santa was in my stocking.  It was a coupon for a foot massage from my husband!  Look how creative Santa was with the packaging :)

Since we only have one car, we did our stocking shopping at the same time.  We went to Target (where else, really?), set a meeting point and time, and split up to find goodies for each other.  I had a blast (if you don't know me, my love language is most definitely gift-giving....esp. little inexpensive things that I know someone will like)...Curt doesn't find quite as much joy it it, but did a great job anyway.

 He LOVES to floss his teeth with these little flossers.  It's kind of weird.

My parents gave us a vacuum for Christmas!  It was seriously disgusting how much we needed to vacuum.  We put it to work right away!

We also ate Christmas Dinner with our friends, the Marshs and the Bourckels.  Unfotunately, I don't have any pictures :(  but we had a great time catching up with them and playing with their adorable son, Connor.  We had an awesome dinner and then played our new favorite game, "Ticket to Ride."  If you've never played it, you need to.  It's the best!

Lots of snow coming today/tonight....  Hopefully we'll have some snow pictures soon!

Christmas Eve

Happy Christmas Eve!  Curt and I enjoyed a quiet day together, rejoicing in the birth of our Savior.  I'm happy for a day off from work, our beautiful Christmas tree, and a good-lookin' husband :)  We're doing Christmas Eve New England-style and having lobster for dinner...pictures forthcoming...   Here's some Sufjan for you to enjoy. My personal faves.... #41 "Holy, Holy, Holy" and #31 "Joy to the World"

Looks like Santa came early!

Curt's Birthday!

We celebrated Curt's birthday this past Tuesday (December 14th).  It was right in the middle of finals week so we kept the celebration low key.  I made Curt a dinner of his request:  meatloaf (thanks again to our amazing friend Laura Dean for this recipe...it's the best!), mashed potatoes, and macaroni & cheese.  I took the liberty of adding green beans to our exceptionally starchy meal.  Curt's not much of a "cake" guy, so for dessert we had creme brulee.  It was quite the adventure in baking, but it turned out pretty well!

It was fun to celebrate Curt together as a married couple.  I'm so thankful a husband that loves the Lord, loves me, is kind, sweet, smart, funny, helpful, even-tempered, and forgiving.  We have so much fun together every day and I look forward to celebrating many more years of my great husband.  Here are a few pictures from our night:

The feast!

 Poor birthday boy trying to study.

 Thanks again to Julia and Bobby for our creme brulee set and torch!  It was so fun to use.

 Yum!

 Happy Birthday, Curt!  I love you!

Christmas in the city

We've been venturing into the city for a few fun Christmas-y outings.  A few weeks ago we went with some friends in our building to see Handel's Messiah.  Curt and I had never been before and we had a great time.  It was fun to get dressed up and go to Symphony Hall. 

 Our group at Revere Beach, before getting on the T.  It was VERY cold and windy.  Why yes, that IS my new coat...thanks for noticing!

The performers at Symphony Hall

 One of my favorite Christmas traditions growing up was going to see the Richmond Ballet and the Richmond Symphony perform "The Nutcracker".  I would go with my sisters, my mom, and my grandma and it was something I always looked forward to every year.  As a dancer, I have a great appreciation for ballet and I LOVE to see a live performance.  I was bummed this year when I realized that I wasn't going to get to see the Richmond Ballet's performance, but I also realized that I had a great opportunity to see the Boston Ballet perform.  I checked into tickets and was immediately disappointed.  They were SUPER expensive....especially for our little budget and especially for 2 people.  Then the next day, Curt and I met up with my friend Kelly in Boston for dinner and she was telling me about how her friend could get discounted tickets for "The Nutcracker" from her work and asked if I wanted to go.  Yay!  God is so good! I got a discounted ticket AND we only had to buy 1 (which I'm sure Curt was overjoyed about b/c he doesn't exactly share my love for ballet).  Win-win!  I had a great time meeting Kelly's friends from Harvard and seeing the Boston Opera House...very fancy!!  Thanks again, Kel!

 Kelly and me

 The front hall of the Boston Opera House

 The girls

 Opening scene set

 The ceiling...it was beautiful.

 Sorry for the low lighting...no flashes allowed. :)

It's Christmas! Let's Be Glad!

As our first married Christmas approaches, we decided to bring the joy to our apartment in the form of decorations.  Don't get too excited....it's not much, but it makes us happy.  Because of regulations in our apartment building, we had to get a fake tree (eeek...sorry to all you real-tree lovers).  Here is Curt putting it together:

One of my favorite things about decorating the tree growing up, was looking at all the old ornaments that my sisters and I had made in elementary school and laughing at all our old school pictures.  We didn't have any of those funny ornaments this year, but I did have a few favorites.

• My great aunt, "Auntie," hand-crocheted these beautiful snowflake ornaments.  My mom used to have the whole collection, but she has graciously divided them up among herself and the three girls.  We are so happy to have them on our tree!

• Our close family friends, the Janneys, gave us a bridal collection of German ornaments for our wedding.  Each ornament symbolizes a wish for the new couple as they begin their lives together.  This teapot is one of my favorites and it symbolizes hospitality, something I pray we will always show in our home.

•  Another close family friend, the Murphy's, gave us a beautiful set of glass Santa ornaments from Princess House.  This guy roasting a marshmallow over the fire is so great.

 

Here are a few more of us decorating the tree.

The final product!!  We are missing a tree topper and a tree skirt.  Donations welcome :)  If I get ambitious, I may try to make a tree skirt....we'll see.

Here's  a cute little ropey tree that I found on sale at Target.  I like it so much, I might just leave it up all year 'round.  And yes, we need some candles for our candlesticks...

Also, if you can name the origin of the title of this blog post you will have a special place in my heart....