Elf On the Shelf

Its been a good run, but Henry must return to the North Pole (closet) tomorrow night for an entire year. Poor guy, its probably pretty darn cold. Mommy and Daddy will enjoy the vacation from scrambling out of bed at 6am to quickly move the little bugger before little feet hit the floor. Henry never forgot to move, but it was pprreeeeetttty close a couple times. Despite the close calls we love Henry, Charlee loves Henry and it was something that we did as a family for Christmas, he brought a little Holiday cheer into our home. 

Tomorrow Night we're going to leave Cookies and Milk for Santa, we have some magic Reindeer Food and of course a carrot for the Reindeer, and we will be leaving Elf Donuts for Henry for his long journey home to the North Pole. Yes, Elf Donuts....Check it out.  I'm going to attempt to craft a little donut box out of cardstock to put them in, fingers crossed everything works out! If not...they'll be on the plate too!

Anyway this year was our first year with Henry so we're still getting to know his story and what he can do...He wasn't very creative with his hiding, but I just thought Id share some of the spots he did hide. If you have an elf and have a picture of the things he did please post a link and share them! I would love to see!

This was my favorite, Something about an Elf in a tree...he Looked like he belonged there.

..he wishes!!

and of course on his shelf, next to Charlee

The Santa Key

The other day while cruising around Pintrest...(the greatest site for inspiration you will EVER find. If you don't already use it, you should start! as soon as you finish reading this post of course)...anyway the other day while I was looking for some last minute Holiday Ideas I came across this very cute key.


So simple and such a cute idea! Its a Santa Key, for the houses that don't have chimneys so that Santa can still get in to leave all the Good girls and boys presents. You can of course use any kind of key, write out or print off one of  the cute little sayings and be on your Merry way. If you're not the crafting type I hear you can buy the Santa Key's at Lawtons Drugs here in Halifax.

Christmas Crafting: Cork Tree

Only 12 more sleeps till the Big Guy in red makes his big visit,  12!! I don't know where the time went but holy mackerel it doesn't feel like Christmas. I'm finding it really hard to get into the Christmas spirit this year, my place isn't nearly as festive and there weren't many Christmas crafts done this year either. Pretty sure the lack of snow and +10 weather has something to do with that for me personally. I'M NOT COMPLAINING!! I like not having to shovel my car out, or spend 15 minutes bundling Charlee to go to the grocery store. But a little snow cover for Christmas wouldn't hurt, would it?

Today I had a free day to catch up on laundry, cleaning and BLOGGING! <3  As I was scrolling through the blogs I follow I came across the cutest Christmas craft that literally made my chin drop. A CORK TREE!!! I have had a vase full of corks sitting on top of my wine rack waiting to be used for something this cute.

So easy and a perfect little addition to any wine lovers gift! The idea came from the Stonewall Kitchen Website, my kind of website!!  It was one of their Holiday Tips of the Day. Be sure to take a look at the other tips, they are all great.

Source and Tutorial

Here is my first cork tree for my house, Im sure there will be more to come.

Instead of using a small piece of tree I glued 4 corks together to form a base for it to sit on. I also liked the look of it without the base. If you don't have enough corks to create one of these you have 2 options...You can buy a bag of corks at the "Bottle Your Own Wine" store for $5. Option #2 ....Drink Up!  I like #2, Cheers!

Homemade Christmas Ornaments

I cant believe its been almost 2 weeks since I posted!! I apologize! In the past week or so I've been keeping busy, getting ready for the big Holiday and doing Cupcakes for the wag jag deal and other orders. Finished the 2 most important people on my Christmas list and now to add to gifts and figure out what the heck to get my parents and the in laws...I'm open to any suggestions!

So when I decided on the "theme" for our tree, about 4 years ago, I really wanted to do Gingerbread men and it had to be "country-ish". I looked everywhere for gingerbread men decorations ANYTHING would have done...I know it might be hard to believe now because they are everywhere, but there was nothing. So I had to make my own! I found a recipe online for Gingerbread ornaments, which was pretty much a gingerbread recipe with no egg. I looked last year through all my recipes and can't find the exact recipe I used...frustrating! But here's a link to a very similar one, with instructions!

Gingerbread Ornaments

Every year I put 3 trees, our main tree, a smaller one in the kitchen, and a tiny one in Charlee's room. Last year the tree in the kitchen got a huge makeover, from gold and red to Kitchen themed! What's on a kitchen themed tree? Started out with Cinnamon Ornaments, Gingerbread and Heart Shaped.