Ruler of the Elves

We’ve had quite a bit of snow around here lately, so we decided to take advantage of the fluffy white stuff and head outside for some sledding. Well, not me. I just manned the camera on the sidelines since I didn’t want to risk hurting the Sweet Pea. But Chris and Pinky had some fun on the slopes.

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Here is Pinky catching some air on a little snow ramp.

And then Chris took his turn.

They spent around an hour and half sledding, snowball fighting and making snow angels before they came home. (I left after taking a few pics. It was too cold for me!)

In other news, we are half way through our 52 weeks of photos project. Here is the shot from week 26 and a summary of all we have done so far. Click on the collage to see each photo individually.

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The following post chronicles the short life of a cheap novel turned decorative wreath of historical fiction. Librarians close your eyes!

Brittany, my lovely cousin, previously asked in the comments “which book did you kill to make the wreath,” referring to the book wreath I recently slaved over made. The answer is a great book (according to reviews) called The Religion.

Thanks to the Dollar Tree, I was able to make this scholarly ringlet for only 2 bucks.

The supplies included:

• Wreath ($1 at Dollar Tree)
• Book ($1 at Dollar Tree)
• Glue gun & lots of glue sticks

Seems simple enough. I started this project psyched to add some extra holiday décor to our home on the cheap. However, I will warn anyone who chooses to take on the task of actually making this wreath that it is VERY time consuming. If, after reading this you choose to proceed, feel free follow the directions below.

1. First, start by cutting/ripping the pages out of the book. I felt a little guilty destroying a perfectly good book, but I can’t imagine that I would have actually read it if it were sitting on a book shelf just collecting dust.

2. Next, use your hot glue gun to stick a layer of book pages around the plain wreath so that it will blend in and be easier to glue the rolled pages on.

3. Then, roll up individual pages and start to glue a single layer around the wreath like so…

4. Once you have a full circle of those around, flip the wreath over and continue to glue rolled up pages around and around.

5. After about an hour, you will feel like you should be done, but there is still more work to do, so continue filling up the wreath in circles and then fill in any holes you may find to make the wreath full.

6. Repeat step number 5.

7. Cry a little because you still aren’t finished after using 300 plus pages.

8. Wipe away your tears and repeat step number 5 again.

9. Voila! Your wreath is now finally finished and you only have 20397 blisters on your fingers from the hot glue. Hang your wreath and admire your hard work.

After having the wreath up for awhile, I discovered that there were some pages that were crazy long and made the wreath look a little wonky.

So, I simply trimmed it up with some scissors to even things out. Better, right?

I can’t believe it’s already the middle of January. Where has the time gone? It’s been almost 2 weeks since I’ve posted, so I knew an update was long overdue. Here’s a little slice of our lives so far this year to keep you up to date…

1. Busy & Tired – Three nights ago we were all actually in bed by 8:30 pm. That’s a record for us. Really. We are normally night owls, but because we’ve been busy doing all sorts of things (I don’t even really know what) we’ve been completely wiped out.

2. Snow – We currently have 14 inches of lovely white snow outside. It has caused one school cancellation, a two hour school delay and a rescheduled doctor’s appointment. Let’s just say getting around has been somewhat interesting. Thank goodness for 4 wheel drive!

3. Purple Parfaits – We tried a new dessert recently, thanks to a new cookbook Pinky received for Christmas. 25/52

4. Baby Sweet Pea – Our little fetus surely is growing. According to some websites, he is the size of a small baby doll, about 12 inches long and weighing in just over a pound. However, it doesn’t seem possible that he is that big yet.

5. Play Dates – Pinky has been having fun hanging out with friends and the invitations just keep coming as she gets to better know the kids in her class. I think we have 3 planned meet ups in the next week. However, those play dates may start to wane if she continues to tell kids she is vampire. Hehe. One of the moms told me her son could not sleep because he was afraid Pinky would show up to suck his blood at night. Thankfully, Pinky clarified that she was just pretending and the little boy was able to rest in peace.

6. Projects – We are planning to start doing some makeover work to our blah bedroom and clearing out our dressing room soon so it can become a nursery. I’m 24 weeks along, so I suppose we should get cracking on that. It’s not like this baby will wait. And with our track record for procrastination, we will be lucky to finish it by then. Wish us luck. – Oh, and I also finished that book page wreath I was working on. Yay!

Recently, I’ve been contemplating some things that I would like to get accomplished or at least work toward in the next year and I thought I would share them with you. Call these ideas New Year’s resolutions or just “the stuff I hope to do” compiled into a nice list with pretty pictures. Pictures always make things better, right? Without further ado…

1. Welcome a healthy baby boy into our family. I know, I know. I’m pregnant and therefore, the baby must come out at some point. We just hope that the little Sweet Pea is healthy and happy once he leaves his warm, dark, fluid filled home and comes into the real world. Hopefully, once he makes his grand entrance, it won’t take us too long to get into a routine and back to our normally scheduled programming.

2. Finish more of the projects that I start. This past year, I’ve pretty much failed when it comes to completing the tasks that I start, i.e. the book page wreath (pictured above) that is half done. Sure, I’ve been able to share a small handful of projects I’ve done, but there are so many more that are still waiting for the finishing touches. I need to get my booty in action so that I can check those off of my to-do list because I’m sure that I will only be adding more in the new year.

3. Become a better housekeeper and organizer. I hate laundry. And dishes. But especially laundry. Even though I have no problem washing and drying stuff, it is the folding that kills me. Our clean clothes end up piled on a bed or a random chair and sit there waiting patiently for someone to fold them. So, I really want to try to be a better laundry do-er. Oh, and if I could get some things organized, like our office stuff, which currently has no home because the previous office is being turned into a nursery, that would be nice.

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4. Keep practicing photography. Although I have no plans on ever becoming a professional photographer, I would like to continue to learn and grow in photography skills. I feel like I’m always figuring out something new and would love to continue to be able to better document our family and capture memories.

5. Enjoy the little things. I feel that the past few years have flown by so quickly that sometimes I forget to just stop and really take in all of the amazing little things in my life. And even though, I know things are about to get ten million times busier this year, hopefully I will be able to slow down a bit more from time to time and enjoy my wonderful life and family.

So, that’s it for 2010. I hope that everyone has a safe and happy New Year!