We have been flooded with Christmas cards this year and they seem to have all come in at once! We have a great idea to share with you on how to keep those cards looking pretty and organized! 

Here's what we did: 

We gathered our supplies: 

glitter

clothes pins

glue

paper plates

painting sponge

Added glue to one plate and glitter to the other {it doesn't look like much glue, but it is}. 

Dip the clothes pin in the glue 

Spread it out evenly with your painter sponge

Place the clothes pin in the glitter and................

We simply took a long piece of string and wrapped it with garland

until it was the length we wanted it to be. It had to cover this long hallway

And now we have the perfect place to display our cards and share them with family and friends as they enter our house. 

Hope you enjoyed this super easy and fun DIY to help you make the most of all the Christmas cards you receive this year! 

• Thursday, December 18, 2014
• card holder

Holiday Glitter Card Holders

We have been flooded with Christmas cards this year and they seem to have all come in at once! We have a great idea to share with you on how to keep those cards looking pretty and organized! 

Here's what we did: 

We gathered our supplies: 

glitter

clothes pins

glue

paper plates

painting sponge

Added glue to one plate and glitter to the other {it doesn't look like much glue, but it is}. 

Dip the clothes pin in the glue 

Spread it out evenly with your painter sponge

Place the clothes pin in the glitter and................

We simply took a long piece of string and wrapped it with garland

until it was the length we wanted it to be. It had to cover this long hallway

And now we have the perfect place to display our cards and share them with family and friends as they enter our house. 

Hope you enjoyed this super easy and fun DIY to help you make the most of all the Christmas cards you receive this year! 

Read more »

With only 9 days until Christmas, I need all the inspiration I can get! What about you? I'm almost done with the shopping, now to mail gifts, bake and decorate cookies, wrap my family's gifts and get ready for the Christmas party! Whew, I'm tired already! 

We've pulled some of our favorite linked items from last week to share with you! 

This will be our last linky party for 2014, so make sure you visit often and link even more! 

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We have had so much fun sharing all the ideas with you for 2014, come back next year to find even more inspiration! Would you like to link up your inspiration? At the end of the post, there are directions to do so! Come join the fun! 

Make sure you stop by our co-hosts blogs, they all have some amazing inspiration going on!

Missy & Kristen at Sweetly Chic Events // Shauna  Ella and Annie Magazine // Cheryl at Moms and Munchkins // Stephanie at Spaceships and Laser Beams // Paula at Frog Prince Paperie // Nikki at Tikkido

An InLinkz Link-up

• Tuesday, December 16, 2014
• DIYs

Last Tuesday Linky Party 2014

With only 9 days until Christmas, I need all the inspiration I can get! What about you? I'm almost done with the shopping, now to mail gifts, bake and decorate cookies, wrap my family's gifts and get ready for the Christmas party! Whew, I'm tired already! 

We've pulled some of our favorite linked items from last week to share with you! 

This will be our last linky party for 2014, so make sure you visit often and link even more! 

{Source}

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We have had so much fun sharing all the ideas with you for 2014, come back next year to find even more inspiration! Would you like to link up your inspiration? At the end of the post, there are directions to do so! Come join the fun! 

Make sure you stop by our co-hosts blogs, they all have some amazing inspiration going on!

Missy & Kristen at Sweetly Chic Events // Shauna  Ella and Annie Magazine // Cheryl at Moms and Munchkins // Stephanie at Spaceships and Laser Beams // Paula at Frog Prince Paperie // Nikki at Tikkido

An InLinkz Link-up

Read more »

I'm excited to announce, I have teamed up with 20 creative and talented bloggers to share some Christmas fabulousness, AKA a Christmas Blog Round Robin! 

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS 

As each blogger shares a Christmas post, you will be treated to recipes, Christmas home decor, Christmas parties, DIYs, crafts and so much MORE! At the end of my Christmas post you will find a link for another bloggers post, click on it and by the end of the round robin you should see 20 different fabulous Christmas posts and end up right here where you began! 

Have fun reading, learning and receiving some Christmas inspiration! 

Today we are sharing, our Elf on the Shelf Hot Cocoa Bar! 

Do your kids have the Elf on the Shelf? We have TWO! One for each of the kiddos. Sabrina and Frosty came to visit us on December 1st for the first time this season. My kids were so excited when they woke up to a Hot Cocoa Bar hosted by their elves! 

As I was thinking about the design for the return of the elves, I remembered I had purchased this table cloth a few years back and thought it would be fun for a Vintage Christmas party. I created all the designs with a very similar Tartan pattern. I'm so excited how it came out - it matches perfectly! 

As any fabulous Hot Cocoa Bar should have, we chose some seasonally delicious treats to add to our hot cocoa this morning. 

Several different types of marshmallows are a must have for a successful Hot Cocoa Bar. We decided on the mini {aka snowball}, Peppermint and Vanilla Snowmen marshmallows. As an added treat, I made some hot cocoa marshmallow mugs. 

The kids had their choice of cold chocolate milk or hot milk to dip the chocolate sticks into. They chose both, of course. Add a mini candy cane to the hot cocoa and you instantly have hot chocolate mint! 

Both of my kids thought is was so great to have hot peppermint cocoa and reindeer donuts before school! The added bonus was the "candy" factor! 

These little cuties were so easy to make and made a great impression on the kids too! Four ingredients are all you need - mini chocolate donuts, mini pretzel twists, red hots and candy eyes - that's it! 

Frosty and Sabrina left behind some Dear Santa cards for the kids to fill out so Santa knows what to bring them. This past weekend my kids made their lists and each have about four pages! I'm hoping they will pick their top three and write them here for Santa to see. 

Each one of the kiddos received a personalized Elf Report telling them, their elves would be reporting back to the North Pole each night with a report and to be good! My son has an issue to temper tantrums, so we are hoping to nip this in the bud! Keeping fingers crossed!! 

We hope you enjoyed our Hot Cocoa Bar as much as the kiddos did this morning! 

You can find all this Party Suite in our shop today! 

The Elf Hot Cocoa Bar Party Suite includes: 

Welcome Sign

Elf Report Card

Dear Santa Card

Straw Flags

Food Labels

How do you celebrate the arrival of your elf? 

Vendors: 

Styling + Design + Photography| Jennifer Kirlin, BellaGrey Designs

Marshmallows | Jet Puffed

Mini White Mugs + Saucers | IKEA

Square Milk Bottles | UR Party

Chocolate Sticks | Home Goods

Don't forget to check out The Crafting Chicks to see what Christmas goodness they are sharing!

Have fun! 

• Monday, December 15, 2014
• bellagrey designs

Home for the Holidays Round Robin

I'm excited to announce, I have teamed up with 20 creative and talented bloggers to share some Christmas fabulousness, AKA a Christmas Blog Round Robin! 

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS 

As each blogger shares a Christmas post, you will be treated to recipes, Christmas home decor, Christmas parties, DIYs, crafts and so much MORE! At the end of my Christmas post you will find a link for another bloggers post, click on it and by the end of the round robin you should see 20 different fabulous Christmas posts and end up right here where you began! 

Have fun reading, learning and receiving some Christmas inspiration! 

Today we are sharing, our Elf on the Shelf Hot Cocoa Bar! 

Do your kids have the Elf on the Shelf? We have TWO! One for each of the kiddos. Sabrina and Frosty came to visit us on December 1st for the first time this season. My kids were so excited when they woke up to a Hot Cocoa Bar hosted by their elves! 

As I was thinking about the design for the return of the elves, I remembered I had purchased this table cloth a few years back and thought it would be fun for a Vintage Christmas party. I created all the designs with a very similar Tartan pattern. I'm so excited how it came out - it matches perfectly! 

As any fabulous Hot Cocoa Bar should have, we chose some seasonally delicious treats to add to our hot cocoa this morning. 

Several different types of marshmallows are a must have for a successful Hot Cocoa Bar. We decided on the mini {aka snowball}, Peppermint and Vanilla Snowmen marshmallows. As an added treat, I made some hot cocoa marshmallow mugs. 

The kids had their choice of cold chocolate milk or hot milk to dip the chocolate sticks into. They chose both, of course. Add a mini candy cane to the hot cocoa and you instantly have hot chocolate mint! 

Both of my kids thought is was so great to have hot peppermint cocoa and reindeer donuts before school! The added bonus was the "candy" factor! 

These little cuties were so easy to make and made a great impression on the kids too! Four ingredients are all you need - mini chocolate donuts, mini pretzel twists, red hots and candy eyes - that's it! 

Frosty and Sabrina left behind some Dear Santa cards for the kids to fill out so Santa knows what to bring them. This past weekend my kids made their lists and each have about four pages! I'm hoping they will pick their top three and write them here for Santa to see. 

Each one of the kiddos received a personalized Elf Report telling them, their elves would be reporting back to the North Pole each night with a report and to be good! My son has an issue to temper tantrums, so we are hoping to nip this in the bud! Keeping fingers crossed!! 

We hope you enjoyed our Hot Cocoa Bar as much as the kiddos did this morning! 

You can find all this Party Suite in our shop today! 

The Elf Hot Cocoa Bar Party Suite includes: 

Welcome Sign

Elf Report Card

Dear Santa Card

Straw Flags

Food Labels

How do you celebrate the arrival of your elf? 

Vendors: 

Styling + Design + Photography| Jennifer Kirlin, BellaGrey Designs

Marshmallows | Jet Puffed

Mini White Mugs + Saucers | IKEA

Square Milk Bottles | UR Party

Chocolate Sticks | Home Goods

Don't forget to check out The Crafting Chicks to see what Christmas goodness they are sharing!

Have fun! 

Read more »

You may have seen our Saint Nicholas Day celebration featured over on Everyday Party Magazine, but just in case you missed it, we are featuring it here too! 

Do you celebrate Saint Nicholas Day? We just started a few years ago and the kids love it. What is it you ask? The day is celebrated on December 6^th, where children put a shoe outside their bedroom doors on the eve of Saint Nicholas Day, with the hope to find candy, gold coins and maybe a small gift inside them. The story of Santa Claus begins with Nicholas, who was born during the third century in a village called Patara. His parents died in an epidemic while Nicholas was very young. Nicholas used his entire inheritance to assist the needy, sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to God and was made Bishop. Bishop Nicholas was known for his generosity to those in need, his love for children and his concern for sailors and ships. The anniversary of his death became a day of celebration, St. Nicholas Day, December 6^th. 

One particular story was of a poor man with three daughters. Back in those days a young woman’s father was supposed to offer prospective husbands something of value ~ a dowry. The larger the dowry, the better the chance a young woman would find a good husband. Without a decent sized dowry, a woman was unlikely to marry and be sold into slavery. Mysteriously, on three different occasions, a bag of gold appeared in their home, which provided the much needed dowries. The bags of gold were said to be tossed in through a window and landed in stockings or shoes left by the fire to dry. This led to the custom of children hanging stockings or putting out shoes, awaiting gifts from Saint Nicholas. Sometimes the story is told with gold balls instead of bags of gold. That is why three gold balls or oranges are symbols for Saint Nicholas.

Over the last few years we have tried to incorporate all the symbols associated with Saint Nicholas into our celebration at home. We start with the Miter, which is the hat Saint Nicholas wore, we make one out of construction paper and adhere it to a chocolate Santa along with a gold pipe cleaner or Crozier as his staff. Candy canes also represent the Crozier. Three gold balls or clementines can substitute the gold coins. This year, I made “gold coins” out of marshmallows and sprayed them with Wilton’s Gold Color Mist, the tutorial for this will come in a later post. They came out great! I can’t wait for the kids to try them. We will add two more bags of “gold” to the kid’s shoes this year as well. Rolos and Werther’s candies are two of their favorites.

We thought it would be fun to design a set of cupcake toppers or favor tags for this holiday that some may not even know about. To get your free download, click on the link below! 

St. Nicholas Tags, Cupcake Toppers, Favor Tags, Party Tags,

Each tag represents a symbol for St. Nicholas Day:

1)      Candy Canes = St. Nicholas’ staff or Crozier

2)      Ship = St. Nicholas’ concern for sailors and ships

3)      Boots = Shoes the children set out for St. Nicholas to fill

4)      Saint Nicholas = Himself

5)      An orange = The three gold balls

6)      Flower = Just like life and beauty bloom from a simple bulb, 

we too want to grow in our hearts and bloom in our lives

7)      White Flower = The three young women from the story

8)      Gold coins = Dowry

9)      Anchor = Sailors and ships

10)   Bag of money = Dowry

I hope you have enjoyed learning about Saint Nicholas Day! Of course, there are many ways to celebrate this day, this is just one of them. 

• Friday, December 05, 2014
• Christmas FREE Printable

Saint Nicholas Day

You may have seen our Saint Nicholas Day celebration featured over on Everyday Party Magazine, but just in case you missed it, we are featuring it here too! 

Do you celebrate Saint Nicholas Day? We just started a few years ago and the kids love it. What is it you ask? The day is celebrated on December 6^th, where children put a shoe outside their bedroom doors on the eve of Saint Nicholas Day, with the hope to find candy, gold coins and maybe a small gift inside them. The story of Santa Claus begins with Nicholas, who was born during the third century in a village called Patara. His parents died in an epidemic while Nicholas was very young. Nicholas used his entire inheritance to assist the needy, sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to God and was made Bishop. Bishop Nicholas was known for his generosity to those in need, his love for children and his concern for sailors and ships. The anniversary of his death became a day of celebration, St. Nicholas Day, December 6^th. 

One particular story was of a poor man with three daughters. Back in those days a young woman’s father was supposed to offer prospective husbands something of value ~ a dowry. The larger the dowry, the better the chance a young woman would find a good husband. Without a decent sized dowry, a woman was unlikely to marry and be sold into slavery. Mysteriously, on three different occasions, a bag of gold appeared in their home, which provided the much needed dowries. The bags of gold were said to be tossed in through a window and landed in stockings or shoes left by the fire to dry. This led to the custom of children hanging stockings or putting out shoes, awaiting gifts from Saint Nicholas. Sometimes the story is told with gold balls instead of bags of gold. That is why three gold balls or oranges are symbols for Saint Nicholas.

Over the last few years we have tried to incorporate all the symbols associated with Saint Nicholas into our celebration at home. We start with the Miter, which is the hat Saint Nicholas wore, we make one out of construction paper and adhere it to a chocolate Santa along with a gold pipe cleaner or Crozier as his staff. Candy canes also represent the Crozier. Three gold balls or clementines can substitute the gold coins. This year, I made “gold coins” out of marshmallows and sprayed them with Wilton’s Gold Color Mist, the tutorial for this will come in a later post. They came out great! I can’t wait for the kids to try them. We will add two more bags of “gold” to the kid’s shoes this year as well. Rolos and Werther’s candies are two of their favorites.

We thought it would be fun to design a set of cupcake toppers or favor tags for this holiday that some may not even know about. To get your free download, click on the link below! 

St. Nicholas Tags, Cupcake Toppers, Favor Tags, Party Tags,

Each tag represents a symbol for St. Nicholas Day:

1)      Candy Canes = St. Nicholas’ staff or Crozier

2)      Ship = St. Nicholas’ concern for sailors and ships

3)      Boots = Shoes the children set out for St. Nicholas to fill

4)      Saint Nicholas = Himself

5)      An orange = The three gold balls

6)      Flower = Just like life and beauty bloom from a simple bulb, 

we too want to grow in our hearts and bloom in our lives

7)      White Flower = The three young women from the story

8)      Gold coins = Dowry

9)      Anchor = Sailors and ships

10)   Bag of money = Dowry

I hope you have enjoyed learning about Saint Nicholas Day! Of course, there are many ways to celebrate this day, this is just one of them. 

Read more »

This is a busy month, to help make sure you stay organized, download our FREE December Calendar HERE! Only 21 days until Christmas!! Are you done with your shopping? I'm almost done, I only have to complete my gifts for my hubby! 

Happy Holidays! 

• Thursday, December 04, 2014
• December calendar

Free December Printable Calendar

This is a busy month, to help make sure you stay organized, download our FREE December Calendar HERE! Only 21 days until Christmas!! Are you done with your shopping? I'm almost done, I only have to complete my gifts for my hubby! 

Happy Holidays! 

Read more »

Are you ready for some AWESOME Christmas inspiration? We have it for you today! Last week if you joined the party we have here every Tuesday, you saw these fun ideas for the holiday season! 

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Each Tuesday you can link up your party ideas, DIYs, party themes, games, recipes and MORE!

Find all the information at the bottom of this post.

{Source}

DIY Snow? Seriously?! We LOVE this idea!! I'm originally from Colorado and now live here in Dallas, so we don't get much snow, it's more ice! We traveled to Colorado for Thanksgiving and it snowed while we were there ~ my kids loved it and played outside for hours!! Their hands and toes were frozen but they had a blast. So we will be trying this fun activity, next time my kids ask my mom to send them snow! 

{Source}

What a great way to use the extra Christmas lights we have left over after we decorate! You could create so many fun pictures or words. What about you name in lights?! 

Our fabulous co-hosts are SO incredibly creative and inspiring! Please stop by their blogs to say hello and pick up some inspiration! 

Missy & Kristen at Sweetly Chic Events // Shauna  Ella and Annie Magazine // Cheryl at Moms and Munchkins // Stephanie at Spaceships and Laser Beams // Paula at Frog Prince Paperie // Nikki at Tikkido

An InLinkz Link-up

• Tuesday, December 02, 2014
• Christmas Link up party

Come Party with us at the Party Time Linky

Are you ready for some AWESOME Christmas inspiration? We have it for you today! Last week if you joined the party we have here every Tuesday, you saw these fun ideas for the holiday season! 

{Source}

Each Tuesday you can link up your party ideas, DIYs, party themes, games, recipes and MORE!

Find all the information at the bottom of this post.

{Source}

DIY Snow? Seriously?! We LOVE this idea!! I'm originally from Colorado and now live here in Dallas, so we don't get much snow, it's more ice! We traveled to Colorado for Thanksgiving and it snowed while we were there ~ my kids loved it and played outside for hours!! Their hands and toes were frozen but they had a blast. So we will be trying this fun activity, next time my kids ask my mom to send them snow! 

{Source}

What a great way to use the extra Christmas lights we have left over after we decorate! You could create so many fun pictures or words. What about you name in lights?! 

Our fabulous co-hosts are SO incredibly creative and inspiring! Please stop by their blogs to say hello and pick up some inspiration! 

Missy & Kristen at Sweetly Chic Events // Shauna  Ella and Annie Magazine // Cheryl at Moms and Munchkins // Stephanie at Spaceships and Laser Beams // Paula at Frog Prince Paperie // Nikki at Tikkido

An InLinkz Link-up

Read more »