The EASIEST Last Minute Gift Ever

So...do you have EVERYONE on your list covered?  Are you sure?  Neighbors, Mail Carrier, Teachers?

Well, if you like me there always seems to be a person {or two} that manages to escape your memory until the last minute.

Well here is a SUPER easy last minute gift idea.  I got inspiration from a gift I saw on pinterest.
    I'm so addicted to that site!  Ugh.

Here are the steps.
 1.  Buy a box of Ding Dongs, a box of Ho Hos and a Christmas kitchen towel.
 2.  Stack the Ho Hos ontop of the Ding Dongs and wrap up with the towel.
 3.  Tie up with twine or ribbon
 4.  Add a tag that reads " Sending you some Christmas Ho, Ho, Hos from the Ding Dongs next door"
   **change wording slightly if you are not sending to a neighbor

Here are mine:

I told you it was easy!  Easy, but cute. 

I hope you all have an amazing and stress-free Christmas!

Linking to:

25 Days of Reading, a different kind of Advent Calender

I'm itching to start decorating the house for Christmas.  We are waiting until the 1st of December to get out the tree and all the other decoration goodies.  If my husband had it his way we would wait until Dec. 12th.  In his family they always waited until the 12 days before and kept up all the decorations until the 12 days after Christmas.  I think that is a lovely idea, but I am entirely too impatient to wait that long. 

Only one more day to wait!  But, today I got in a little Christmas spirit fix by making my daughter an advent calender in preparation for tomorrow.  I love advent calenders.  The buildup of something little each day is fantastic and brings out the kid in me.  This year I decided that I wanted to do something "different" for my 3 year old.  The last thing she needs is a big ol' hunk of chocolate covered sugar every day so I came up with this.

You see, I happened to stop at one of my favorite thift stores yesterday and they had a special on children's books.  I bought an entire bag {25 books} for $5.00.  Perfect!  So I took out the paper mache advent calender I had bought at Hobby Lobby and painted it with some craft paint and use the trusty Sharpie to write the numbers on the front.

Then I wrapped each book seperately and put a number tag on each one.

I made a second set of number tags to put inside each box of the advent calender.  Some boxes also have an extra treat like stickers, fancy erasers, etc.

So every night before my little Punky Brewester goes to bed she can go to her advent calender and open the box for that day and pull out a number tag.  Then she gets to find the wrapped "present" that has the matching number tag.

She gets to unwrap the book and we read that book together as her bedtime story.

I hope she likes this as much as I do!

Do you do advent calenders in your house?

 

Happy Cyber Monday!

Ooh Cyber Monday, I'm glad your here.  You are so much better than Black Friday.

 Black Friday means getting up early.  Really early.  Fighting over $3.00 plastic containers with the crazy lady with curlers in her hair and waiting in endless lines.  But Cyber Monday means leisurely shopping at your home computer {or office computer, I won't tell!} while sipping coffee.  So much better.

To celebrate Cyber Monday I have listed some new Holiday Items in my shop along with some old standbys along with a special Cyber Monday discount code for my Etsy Shop.

Just go to http://www.mudpiesandmarigolds.etsy.com/ and enter the code:  cybermondayblog20
to get 20% off EVERYTHING in my shop.  Sweet.

Here are a few of the things you can find.

Set of 3 Bottle brush trees with Vintage spool bases: 

Shabby Chic Chalkboard

Magic Santa Key

Vintage Tinsel Wreath

DREAM garland

I'm sorry... but it's almost Christmas

I have been a VERY bad blogger.  A no-good, horrible blogger.  I have been MIA for a while and for that I am sorry. 

BUT...I do have a good excuse. 

First there was planning my daughter's 3rd birthday party.

Then there was this {an amazing three week trip to Turkey for my beautiful sister-in-law's wedding}:

We had a blast and I learned a lot.

1st--  That the pomegranates that I could pick off of the tree in the back yard in Turkey{how cool is that} are very sweet and not like the ones we get at the grocery store here in the states.  And that makes me sad because my daughter LOVED eating those as a snack while we were there.

2nd--  My daughter is a beach baby.  SERIOUSLY.  She loves the beach and was fearless.  She learned to doggy paddle while we were there and we asked to go to the beach every day.  This makes me happy but it also makes me sad because we live in St. Louis...not exactly close to a beach. 

3rd-- The Ephesus {one of the ancient wonders of the world} was more that I hoped for!  And, there are hundred of other amazing ruins in Turkey that will blow your mind.  Like Pammukale {also know as the cotton mountains}.

Then I had a craft show a week after we returned to the US.  {what was I thinking!}

And now Thanksgiving is over and I back with a few Holiday themed creations.

vintage sewing drawer centerpieces

vintage spool and sheet music bottle brush trees

Santa's magic key for homes without chimneys

burlap trees

sets of vintage style gift tags {that I have also used as ornaments}

      I have a handfull of items listed right now and will be adding much more this week so check back!
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and that all of you who went Black Friday shopping have recovered and are getting plenty of rest today.

What did I do!?

For most people Christmas is over and has been for a while.  All the Christmas stuff is shoved into plastic bins and trash bags packed away nicely until next year, their tree is down and the house is once again in order.  Not the case for me.  Why?  Because being the insane person that I am I thought doing a craft show next November (for the first time by-the-way) would be FUN.  Well, that meant that I spent the week after Christmas scavenging like a desperate rat shopping the "after Christmas sales" at just about every store you can think of for goodies.  I bought WAY too much stuff...to, wait for it...CRAFT with!  Yep.  I can tell your shocked.  So, while everyone in their right mind is over Christmas (or at least Christmas stuff) I am in the midst of it.  I'm sick of Christmas stuff.  I may need to take a break.

I've made over 70 of these:

And 56 of these:

And just a few of these:

Not to mention about 100 gift tags like these:

So, if they don't sell you all know what you'll be getting for Christmas next year from me.

My Holiday Home

We have been busy the past month with visiting family from across the pond.  My husband's parents were here for a month visiting with us and we were sad to see them leave last week.  

Since they left I have been a busy girl.  I think I have finally talked myself into attempting to do a craft show next fall so I've started making my wares.  Luckily for me this mean that they currently double as my Christmas decorations this year.  I have the tree up and decorated and the mantel is finally in order.   I started making my decorations about 3 months ago and my collection is mostly made of vintage sheet music and vintage books.  I was both excited and a little bummed to see that Pottery Barn and Ballard Designs have also chosed that them for this year.  Oh well, I guess it just means that I'm in good company. 

I think I'm ready for the holidays.  P.S.  Why is it so hard to get a good photo of a Christmas tree...they never look are good or magical as they do in person (or in magazines)!  What is the secret?

Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest

Holiday inspiration

I can't stop thinking about the holidays and I'm really fighting the urge to put up the holiday decorations.  I mean REALLY fighting it!  I've been cutting my cravings by making some holiday gifts and decorations.  Miss Mustard Seed has really inspired me this year with her sheet music wreaths and ornaments.  I could only get my hands on one book of music so I used that to make this wreath.

But I do have lots of old, falling apart books so I think I will use those to make my ornaments this year.  So far I have only made one of these (I wanted to test out the look before I committed to making a whole tree worth).

But my favorite by far is this book wreath tree topper I made yesterday evening.  I basically used an El Cheapo chipboard like coaster that I bought in a set of four for 50 cents at the craft store this summer ( I just knew that I could use them for something).  I covered it with parchment colored scrapbook paper.  I then made several (maybe 20) cones out of vintage book pages.  I broke out my trusty hot glue gun and got down to work.  So this vintage inspired tree topper cost me nothing!  Well except a couple of hot glue burns.  Yay!

Yes, that's a oil bottle.  Like I said, fighting the urge!

Party time...