T’was the night before Christmas…

(that's my boy posing for the camera...I'm so proud)

Anyway,

I had some fun this year making shirts for the kids…and me.

This is a fun, simple way to add a little of your own touch to a T-shirt.

All you need is a white shirt, gel glue and dye.

Pre-wash the shirt then put it over a piece of cardboard that has been covered in plastic. Use the gel glue to write a verse or phrase that you like. You can also draw a picture or design. Let the glue dry at least 4-6 hours.

Once the glue has dried, you can dip the shirt into a bucket of dye. Use any color you want. I followed the instruction but the color didn’t come out as dark as I would like so I would say go stronger on the amount of dye you use.

After the dye process (which takes about 30 minutes to an hour depending on the color and how dark you want the color) wash the shirt in your washing machine and dry in the dryer.

Here’s the one I did for myself.

Have a very wonderful Holiday!!!

Hair today, gone tomorrow...

For what feels like forever, my daughter and I have been growing our hair out to make a donation. While it might not seem labor intensive it didn’t come with out its hurdles. When you have a 6 year old there can be a few battles about knots and tangles in her hair. I mean you pull a blanket over your head and run around trying to scar your bother and there is a fair amount of static built up. Crawl around in the grass and dive under that tree to get a ball and your going to come out with some issues.

Bath night is always such a joy. Thank goodness it’s hubby’s job. “Daddy that hurts” “Daddy, your pulling too hard” “Stop yanking on my hair!” Aahhh the memories they’ll have.

I know I sure went through an awful lot of conditioner. And this may sound strange but I get hair headaches. Don’t laugh, it’s true. All that hair pulling down can make your head tired. And if you pull it into a pony tail that get’s it our of you face but man…nothing feels better that taking it out at he end of the day!

So for a few years there has not been more than a tiny little nip to the ends of our locks. My daughter had her hair in a braid most of the time just to keep it somewhat under control. I did what I could to make mine look presentable and tried to keep from looking like one of those older women desperately holding onto youth by having long hair. Not sure I pulled that off??

Either way, the time had finally come. We reached our goal of 12 inches. We took some time one evening taking a bunch of silly hair photos. Then this past Saturday we were off to the salon. The first time ever for my daughter. I always cut the kids hair at home so they don’t know what the salon is all about. She had a few questions on the way about where she was going and what they were going to do to her. Would she be in a different room? Was it going to hurt? How would they do it?

She was such a wonderful little trooper!!! The look on her face when they washed her hair and massaged her head was priceless. I think she’s ready to move in there.



Silly Moustaches...


Cousin it...

Yes, that is the front of our faces...

Ponytails GONE!!!!

Before and After....

What do ya think?

Big difference huh?

Here and here are a few places you can check out if you’re thinking about donating hair.

Tis the Season...

It seems that this time of year more so than any other brings people together socially. I’m someone that could stand to plan a gathering and do something festive all year around. I love to have friends over and have that “party” atmosphere. Sometimes it can be as simple as having another family come over for pizza night. We have the kids make their own pizza then send them outside to run themselves silly while the grown ups talk.

Other times it’s a bigger gathering with more of a theme. I have a pumpkin carving party every October, where the neighbors come over and we eat tons of food and carve our pumpkins then line them up on the step out side to take an after dark pumpkin picture.



You could invite a bunch of people over and ask that everyone brings an appetizer. That always seems to be a hit. I love appetizers, why not make a meal out of them.

Or host a cookie exchange. Get 10-12 bakers organized and each participant makes 10 -12 dozen of one type of cookie. Then you come together and swap so you go home with a tray filled with all sorts of different treats and you didn’t have to spend days and days in the kitchen. This concept works well with soup too. It’s so nice to have a freezer filled with containers of soup all winter.

This past weekend I went to a Gingerbread decorating party (without kids). It was so relaxing to sit back with some wine and decorate our houses while catching up with our gal pals.

Here’s my creation….

To keep the festive feeling going, I had a Christmas party the next day with just my family.
I pulled all the tree trimming supplies out while hubby mad a few bloody marys.

The kids got to decorate their own gingerbread house and since I had already done mine, I was less “type A” about how they did their decorating. Worked out great for all of us.

Hubby strung the lights while the kids and I worked on the gingerbread house and then we all moved in the living room to hang the ornaments.

I guess I was focused on the tree and sadly my house did not survive for very long.

What fun ideas do you have for sharing time with the people around you??