Day 4 of 30 Day Photo Challenge - Gratitude

Day 4: Art

I have always loved art.  It was always one of my favorite subjects.  I am so very grateful that I found the art of origami and that people actually pay me to make my art!

Day 25 of 25 Day Photo Challenge: Christmas!

Day 25: Unwrapped

As you can see I couldn't choose just one photo.  This one is the mess after just our little family opened up our stuff!

 Noa & Marley posing in the mess.

One of my favorite gifts.  Noa made this little piece of art in school and wrapped it for me to open.  It's a clay sculpture of two fish, an octopus and a hook.  I just love the colors and the octopus and that Noa made it!

I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and may peace and joy be with you this holiday and in the new year!

Day 24 of 25 Day Photo Challenge: Christmas!

Day 24: Xmas Eve

My kids get to open one present on Christmas eve.  I choose to let them open books.  But they were thrilled by them (my kids love books!!).  It was such a nice night.  My mom and stepdad came over for dinner.  They brought shrimp cocktail for an appetizer and I fixed feta pasta and a salad and then we had my homemade cookies for dessert.  We all sat down and played a board game then the kids left out milk and cookies for Santa and went to bed!

Day 22 & 23 of 25 Day Photo Challenge: Christmas!

Day 22:  Cookies

I had to save this for today because I didn't make cookies until today.  This is one of my favorite things to do for Christmas.  I love making the dough and rolling it and cutting the shapes out, then decorating them with the kids.  Oh and I used blue because I somehow ran out of yellow food coloring and I needed .... wanted a third color.


Day 23: Sparkle

My son made this at school because they studied all the different celebrations that go on in December and how other countries celebrate.  So they made a sparkly Star of David.  This was also the first year we got to celebrate a night of Hanukkah with some friends of ours who are Jewish.  It was so nice for the kids to get to experience a true celebration with the lighting of the Menorah and traditional Hebrew Prayer,  Latkes, and jelly doughnuts.

Day 20 & 21 of 25 Day Photo Challenge: Christmas!

Day 20: Memories

Ok so I am cheating a bit with this one.  I went back into my photo library and found this picture of my son Noa when he was about 4 months old.  He looks so happy to have that Santa hat put on him.  For his first Christmas we traveled to Colorado where my mom was living at the time.  It was such a fun trip and it was his first Christmas.

Day 21: Bells

It's always been a tradition in our house to have bells hanging on the front door.  Not sure where I got the tradition but I like it.  It always sounds merry when someone comes in the door.

Day 19 of 25 Day Photo Challenge: Christmas!

Day 19: Reindeer

So now that I am looking at this I think it might actually be a moose as opposed to a reindeer.  Oh well...  they are kinda close right?  But anyway James and I bought this on our trip to Alaska back in 2000.  We have a tradition of buying an ornament from every place we go one trip to.  Our kids also pick out an ornament on each trip.  They will then get to have all their ornaments when they get married and have their own family.

Merry Christmas

I finally got my Christmas cards out so I thought I would share it with you my blog readers too.  So go here to see my Christmas card.   How is it already less than a week until Christmas!?!?!  This break from work is going by way too fast!  Oh well at least the kids will be done with school tomorrow and then we can all hang out for a few days.

Day 16, 17 & 18 of 25 Day Photo Challenge: Christmas!

Day 16: Ornaments

Not your traditional ornaments picture but I just had to show off my uncles' place setting!  We drove to Durham Friday afternoon to have dinner with my uncle and his partner and have our Christmas with them.  I love that he used a cute little glass ornament ball to hold the place cards.  So cute!

Day 17: Wreath

Since I've already done a picture of the real wreath on the front of our door, I thought I would show you the wreath that we don't throw away at the end of Christmas.  It's a fun bell wreath that jingles when you open the door!

Day 18: Giving

If I had thought ahead and been on top of my game I would have gotten a picture of the toys we gave to Toys for Tots.  But I didn't sooooo  here is a shot of the mess that is my bonus room present stash and wrapping station.

Day 15 of 25 Day Photo Challenge: Christmas!

Day 15: Warmth

I love coffee especially and mostly espresso drinks.  I used a mocha from McDonald's this morning to warm up.  But I also used my really cute handmade drink cozy to keep it warm too!  I wish I could say I made it but no.  I don't really sew.  I bought it from a former coworker off her Etsy shop.  So you could have one too!  Oh how I love Etsy .... anyway check out her shop pug & basset!

Day 14 of 25 Day Photo Challenge: Christmas

Day 14: Glitter

I found this beautiful glitter velum paper today and I LOVE it!!  I wanted some more Christmas type paper to make more Christmas origami ornaments and I found this paper.  It's not really considered Christmas paper but when paired with more traditional prints I think it will be so pretty! 

Day 13 of 25 Day Photo Challenge: Christmas!

Day 13: Festive

I finally got out outside lights up today!  At first when I unloaded all our Christmas stuff I realized that all the strings of lights I used to use outside had died.  So I was thinking that we had to buy new lights until I remembered my mom had given us some lights from their old house when they moved.  They look like big old fashioned lights.  There are really big ones that are staked in the grass and then the smaller ones on the porch.  But they are so neat because they change color constantly.  So now the outside of the house looks as festive as the inside!

Day 12 of 25 Day Photo Challenge: Christmas!

Day 12: Vintage

I've had this ornament as long as I can remember.  It's one of my favorites.  I know I got to pick it out on some trip we took as kids.  I love this little mouse Santa!

Day 9, 10 & 11 of 25 Day Photo Challenge: Christmas!

Day 9: Treats

 One of my favorite treats you can only get around Christmas!  It takes all the will power I have not to polish off a box in a day!


Day 10: Joy

My kids as they helped pick out our Christmas tree.


Day 11: Carols

Very atypical carol picture!  R2 does sing a little song when you push a button on him!  It's so cute and unusual.

Day 6, 7 & 8 of 25 Day Photo Challenge: Christmas!

Day 6: Stockings

There is a reason that I am just now posting day 6 & 7.  All our Christmas stuff was still up on the storage shelf in our garage.   It's a 2 man job to get it all down so I had to wait until James was home to do it.  It all got pulled down yesterday so I finally started getting it all up today.  That's my fireplace with the stockings.


Day 7: Snow

This maybe the only snow we see this winter!  If we get snow it most likely won't be until January if we get it all.  So this is a snow globe my mom gave to us a few years ago.  It also winds up to play music and Santa rocks and the train goes around and around.  Needless to say my kids LOVE it.


Day 8:  Tree

Yeah ..... we still don't have our big tree.  The plan is to get it this weekend.  But this is a little fake one I have had since college.  I put it in my craft room in front of the bay window so I could see it and the neighborhood.

Ten on Tuesday

1. What are 3 things that are on your Christmas wish list?
A new watch, a new big skillet with a lid, and the new Red Hot Chili Peppers Album.

2. What’s your favorite Christmas song?
Silent Night.  It's my favorite to sing and when it's done well it's so pretty.

3. Do you have a favorite band or singer that sings it especially awesome?
Nope.  The only band I like to listen to Christmas music from is The Barenaked Ladies.

4. Have you heard about the website goodreads?
Oh yes!  I have an account.  Want to be friends here's my profile.

5. What are 3 books you want to read?
Life of Pi, Into the Wild and The Diary of Anne Frank (I'm ashamed to say I've never ready it).

6. Do you hunt deer?
No.  My family on my dad's side does.  I've eaten it before and like it but hunting is not my thing.  At all.  I don't care if other people do as long as they use the meat or give it away but not just for sport.  Hunting for sport and not using the meat is cruel in my opinion.

7. Have you started Christmas shopping? Are you completely finished?
We have started but by no means are we finished.

8. Did you shop on Black Friday? What was the best deal you got?
Nope no shopping on Black Friday for us.

9. What’s one holiday tradition your family has?
On Christmas morning growing up we always had the same music playing.  Now Is The Caroling Season by Fred Waring & The Pennsylvanians.  It's still one of my most favorite Christmas albums of all time.  I play it now for my family on Christmas morning.

10. How many blogs do you read? Do you subscribe/unsubscribe often or do you purge every once in a while?
 I consistently read about 5 blogs.  I think I am subscribed to like 20 in my Google Reader but the ones I like the most I have delivered to my email if possible.  I don't tend to purge often I just get bored with the blog and stop reading it or I will sporadically read it.

Day 5 of 25 Day Photo Challenge: Christmas!

Day 5: Santa

This is my son & the AMAZING Santa from the other night at Enchanted Airlie.  Santa was so good.  He really talked to each kid to find out what they wanted and to remind them to be good.  He told my son to stop putting his clothes on the floor and stop pouting when he doesn't get his way.  I swear the man was psychic or it's really Santa!

Day 1, 2 & 3 of 25 Day Photo Challenge: Christmas!

As I said yesterday I am going to do the new 25 Day Photo Challenge: Christmas! by Positively Present.  So let's get started since I am a few days behind!

Day 1: Lights

I kind of cheated on this one.  I knew we were going to Enchanted Airlie tonight and I would be able to get a really good lights photo.  Airlie Gardens is a local garden you can tour any time of year but at Christmas they do special Enchanted Airlie Nights.  They have beautiful lights set up all around the gardens, Santa to visit and a whole Lego Village.


Day 2: Decorations

This is the ONLY Christmas decoration we have up right now!  I totally forgot I ordered this wreath back in October from my neighbor's daughter who was selling it for something.  But they brought it by the other day and it's a beautiful and smells so good!  I just got finished with my semester at work and the end of the semester is busy so we haven't gotten out all our Christmas decorations yet.  That is coming next week.

Day 3: Gifts

We have just started Christmas shopping.  We picked up this video camera for my son Noa.  He loves to take pictures, so thought this would be fun and James found a really good deal on it.  He also got the activity book for Marley who loves to color.

Christmas Fun

My 30 day photo challenge is over BUT the same blog is doing a special Christmas photo challenge. It started on December 1st but I just found out about it today.  I will start it tomorrow since it's 9PM on Friday and I'm not leaving my house to get the first picture.  But stay tuned!!


On a side note I have been getting a few custom orders in my Etsy shop and I wanted to share one of the custom order Christmas ornaments I just made.   It was requested by repeat customer and she wanted an ornament for her goddaughter.  She wanted Notre Dame colors and 2011 paper used.  I could not find 2011 paper anywhere so I came up with adding a paper ribbon with the year on it.  I choose some pretty paper in blue, yellow and green with a slight pattern on it.  I also added just a few "petals" with shamrocks on them.  It is Notre Dame after all and I thought it would be a cute touch.  The customer loved it and so did I!

Day 3 of 30 Day Photo Challenge: Gratitude

Day 3: Happiness

Folding origami gives me peace and happiness! I am working on a custom order for Christmas ornaments in Christmas colors, which is reminding me that Christmas is coming!!  And that makes me even happier!!

Pimpin Myself Out

I must apologize for my very infrequent posts as of late. It's that time of year and things are just so busy. Between the usual mommy stuff and all the Christmas stuff I have very little free time. And what free time I do have, I have been hard at work crafting for my new venture. Katiemade Crafts on Etsy.com. I love crafting and have always had some project I was working on weather it's a scrapbook, making candles, cards, clocks or calendars. Anyway I am selling some of my creations on on my Katiemade Crafts site on Etsy. Right now I just have some frames I have decoupaged but I intend to add more things as I have time. So I know Christmas time is hectic but check out my shop and maybe pick up a present or two or three....