Dolly & Blanky

So this was not my "best year" for handmade gifts. I made only one.  I'm not sure how I feel about that now, since part of Christmas to me is making handmade gifts... but circumstances did not work out this year for it.

I just wanted to share with you what I DID make this year... This cute little dolly for a even cuter 18 mo. old girl on my list.

And since no dolly is complete with out her own blanky I made her  a quick little quilt to go with it.

The doll is a pattern from the Wee Wonderfuls book.  (which I highly recommend...)

The quilt is my own design.... well actually not much of a design, I guess you would call it impromptu quilting. I just took the scraps left over from the doll and a fat quarter and started sewing until I found something that I liked & was the right size.

The doll was the first stuffed item that I've made since high school!! She was easy to make and I had alot of fun picking out her clothes *grin*... I may have to start playing around with making some more next year!

Linking up!

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Don't forget you have until 5pm PST today to enter the HomeGoods $50 gift card giveaway here!!

Win $100 Visa Gift Card- Accountability & Those Dreaded New Years Resolutions

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and Jimmy Dean. However the feelings and opinions expressed here are my own.

Lots of sugar, not good for me at breakfast... good thing the temptation is in Paris

This post contains probably more than you care to know about my eating habits *grin*... but keep reading you can win a $100 Visa Gift card, details at the end of the post!

Accountability.... oh what an ugly word. Especially when it's associated with those dreaded New Year's Resolutions.

You see it's easy to make a New Years Resolution in your head.

Come on you know you do it! At the beginning of each new year, you dream of changing those things about you that you think are not right. However when it comes to the "next step" you  don't dare to write it down or even *gasp* tell someone else about it.

I'm the Queen of what I call the "imaginary" New Year's Resolution.  Imaginary because it exists only in my own head.  I can't remember the last time I wrote down a New Year's resolution.  I'll spare you the list of things on my imaginary resolution list in the past...

2010 was an odd year for me, one of great accomplishments but also of a few great trials.  I feel like the year just blew by and I haven't even had time to take a breath and realize it was here, now it's almost over.

One of the things that fell by the wayside last year was me taking care of myself. Now I don't mean the "do your hair, get out of bed and get dressed" take care of yourself, that I'm fine with... I mean the "eat healthy, exercise and don't wear yourself out" take care of yourself.  I know as women we have an innate instinct to put others (mostly our families) first, but I really feel like this can be a problem sometimes. I can not tell you how many times I've stayed up too late or spent my whole day driving kids around then eaten a horribly "anti" nutritious fast food meal for dinner. Only to wake up the next morning feeling like I got hit by a truck... my "take care of everything else" first instinct having failed me.  Causing a completely unproductive day the next day due to the fact that I wore myself out the day before.

This time last year,  I was at a checkup with my Doctor- just a routine checkup, nothing wrong, and I complained to her that I just can not "get going" in the morning. It's true- I'm usually pretty much useless before noon. Her first question to me was "what are you eating for breakfast?"... Me, not being one to miss a meal, said "oh I always eat breakfast, usually cereal".  She just gave me a disapproving look and told me that I needed to drop the carbs in the morning.  "Really?" I thought to myself. You see I fancy myself a bit of a carb addict and was not prepared to hear that my little addiction might be getting in the way of going about my daily routine.  She proceeded to tell me that I really needed some protein in the morning, no sugar and very little carbs.  I was spiking my blood sugar first thing when I woke up putting myself on a downhill slide the whole rest of the day. She also explained to me that as I age I may be able to help fend off some weight gain by increasing my protein and decreasing my carbs.

So I went about trying to dump the morning cereal. But you see there is a problem, I do not make the wisest decisions at 6 am.  That bowl of cereal is just too easy to pour. Making an egg requires a pan, which requires cooking, neither of which I was in the mood to do at 6 am.  I tried eggs, protein shakes, yogurts, cream cheese, and even a spoonful of peanut butter.  None of which worked their way into my morning routine. About February, my "high protein" plan was out the window.

Then a few weeks ago BlogHer told me they were looking for some bloggers to try out a new protein based breakfast food.  At first I hesitated then I realized that this program could give me just the push (and accountability) I needed to drop my morning carb habit...


Accountability...

yes that awful word. But I "signed up".. and now here we are.

As part of my the healthy choices I'm making for the new year... I am going to KICK that cereal habit.

Jimmy Dean offered to let me try some of their new D-Lites line. Convient, yummy, and high in protein. They might be just the thing that I need.

I picked the D-lights Canadian Bacon on a Honey Wheat muffin and the Turkey Sauseage Muffin.  I tried the Canadain Bacon muffin I got the Turkey Sausage for my husband since he's also trying to eat more protein in the morning.

iPhone photo - snapped right before I ate it- you get a photo of the food- not of me at 6 AM! :)

I will admit I was a bit nervous, the whole concept of microwaving an egg sounded a little unappetizing, but I was very pleasantly surprised!  I took off the cheese before I microwaved it because I don't like cheese, but you don't have to do that. One tip I will share with you, take it out of the freezer the night before and put it in the fridge to defrost, I think you get a better result.

So..... the egg was NOT rubbery and the bun was soft not chewy or hard.  Honestly you could not tell it was microwaved, it tasted like I had just cooked it. I really liked it, plus it was quick and easy & I think this has got a really good chance of making it into my morning routine.

My husband also really liked the sausage muffin.  He's really short on time in the morning and liked the idea of microwaving something that he can take with him, or even just cook when he gets to work.  I think next I'll try some of the bagel varieties, my 15 yr old daughter is not a great breakfast eater but she loves bagels & sausage - maybe if it's fast she'll eat something in the morning.

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I recognized I've not done the best job taking care of myself in 2010, so for 2011 I really want to make being healthy a goal.  It's time to stop burning the candle at both ends, eating too much fast food and get back on that elliptical machine!! (oh, do we even want to talk about the dreaded exercise topic right now?)

So for 2011- My Better Choices Resolutions will be:

-Eat Protein at Breakfast

-Exercise 3x a week.  (I know that 5 is ideal, but I'm are moving up to 3x a week from zero the last 3 months). I don't even know what I can still do.. Have my legs turned to jello? This could be scary *grin*

-Vitamins every day! Including extra calcium.. and Vitamin D during the winter (yep, I think it really does help with the "blahs"..)

-Stop before I'm "burned out"... stop over committing myself, say "no" when appropriate. My kids aren't going to be little for much longer and I don't want to miss it because I was too busy doing other things.

So what about you? What are some of the "Better Choices" you are going to make next year?

Do you dare write them down?


Better yet do you dare share them here with everyone?? Cause you know.. then you'll be committed!!

Just to give you an extra little "push" Jimmy Dean is giving away a:

$100 VISA GIFT CARD!!

as part of their Jimmy Dean D-Lights "Better Breakfast, Better  you"  program

to enter:
No duplicate comments. You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Leave a comment describing ONE thing you want to try to do better next year! (It doesn't have to be food or health related!!)

b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

d) Read the official rules for alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

Be Sure to read:
Official Rules

Check out the Better Breakfast, Better You round up page to see what other bloggers are saying.

Contest open December 28th 2010 - January 30th 2011

A little post holiday humor...

Hey!

I hope you guys had a wonderful Christmas! We had a fantastic weekend, we didn't go anywhere it was just us, but that was what was so fantastic about it!

I just had to pop in here to  share with you guys this gift from my 9yr old! 

We have a Cafe Press store in our mall. You can put pretty much anything you want on a t-shirt and they print it in 15 min for you. I didn't know it,  but my husband took my kids there to make some Christmas gifts...

This is what my 9 yr old came up with for me... 

"I can't stop sewing"

I opened it up Christmas morning and could not stop laughing for about 15 minutes!

so is this what they really think of me? *wink*

Joy to the World

Okay, this is a long post with lots of photos, but my Mom wants to see what I've been working on for the last 3 months... hence, lots of photos :)

Sometime towards the end of the summer I was asked to help out with a new event that was being planned in our area for church.   My job at church right now is to organize activities for members of our Stake (which is a group of several different church congregations in my city).   All of the work done for this event would be volunteer and there were a lot of people all working hard to hopefully make it a success.

The idea behind the event was to display Nativity sets or Crèche's owned by members of our congregations , along with having live Christmas music, activities for children and some yummy treats.  This was the first year that anyone in our area had done this, although I know that it is done all over the country and has become a great tradition for many people.

After the event was over the only thing I could think was "my cup runneth over". It was a fantastic experience for me to be a part of.  There were several kinks to work out along the way but in the end things turned out just how we wanted them.  I had so much help from wonderful wonderful friends, I was overcome with emotion at how willingly and happily so many people volunteered their time and their talents to make this event come together.

It was a crazy crazy week to get ready, many late nights and long days at the church setting up. I will admit I was tired & just a bit overwhelmed.  After the event started I  sat down and quietly listened to the beautiful music and watched peoples reactions as they viewed all of the nativity sets, I felt such a feeling of  peace & joy, - the true Christmas spirit.  

This will be my last post until after Christmas, it's been a long 3 months for several reasons, but it's now time to sit and enjoy some time with my family, and I can not think of a better post to "end on" before Christmas day.  

I realize that not everyone who reads this blog celebrates Christmas, or believes what I do, and I completely respect that.  This project used up most of my creative energy the last few months and this is a creative blog.  I had so much fun planning it and was so excited to share what we came up with!  Also,  I would like to share with you a bit about who I am, and what "makes me tick"... and my religion is a large part of that... So Merry Christmas and a truly Happy, Happy Holidays, from me to you.

Now, for some of those creative & crafty details :)

I was not given much direction for the decorations/setup for the event, other than to make the Nativity sets the main focus.  Since this was our first year we were anticipating about 200 sets to display (which is very close to what we had).  We had the gym filled up then 6 smaller rooms decorated with "themed" Nativity sets.  

In the gym I set up 8 round tables in the center of the room. In the "hole" left by the tables, I set up 5 Christmas trees and just wrapped them in geomesh. My husband came up with the idea of the star in the center. There is a hole in the center of the floor used for a volleyball standard. We bought some PVC pipe and stuck it in the hole, then attached a star to the top and ran 8 strands of light out from the top.  The photo does not do this justice, the warm Christmas lights gave a wonderful glow to the Nativities on the table.

The Nativity sets in the center of the gym were displayed with white tulle & white twinkle lights.  

I wanted to create a way to "guide" someone though the gym. We had 4 long displays of nativity sets around the edges of the gym and I wanted them to feel connected to each other. I had a friend of mine cut from vinyl the Christmas story from Luke chapter 2.  I gave her the words and told her what I wanted on each board, and she did a wonderful job designing the fonts & flourishes on the boards.

The boards are just simple foam core that I found online.

We also had some themed rooms.  I asked 5 different people to decorate these. All I told them was the theme of their room and the size of their tables. They did the rest, so I can take absolutely no credit for any of their ideas. Each one of them absolutely blew me away! They all did such a wonderful job and each one was unique.

Traci put together the "Vintage" room. Mostly nativity sets that were vintage, but a few newer ones also that had similar coloring to the vintage ones. She brought this awesome wreath she made along with some other wonderful vintage Christmas decorations.

Tamara was assigned the Glass/Crystal room. Which worked out perfect because she had all of these beautiful black tablecloths. They showed off the crystal & glass perfectly.

Angela was a crafty genius and put together the Children's nativities room. She covered the wall first with blue butcher paper then HAND cut out a silhouette of Bethlehem out of black butcher paper that she taped over it.  

This is a photo I snapped with my phone while they were setting up. It shows best the layout of the room and I'm kicking myself that I didn't take a better photo of the room all set up. She also strung stars from the ceiling!

Jessica set up the White room.  She brought lots of tulle and twinkle lights, the room was just algow it was so gorgeous. 

Kendra put together the International room.  She had the fantastic idea of bringing suitcases, hatboxes and other decorative things from home to display the nativity sets on.  This room had the most interesting sets in it.  It has inspired me to start collecting nativity sets as I travel.

We also had a Children's craft room.  My friend Brandi painted a 6'x9' canvas backdrop that we hung up for a backdrop for the kids. They had lots of dress ups and were able to dress up and pose for a photo.

Brandi also came up with the genius idea of this little craft:

She used toilet paper rolls, wooden dolls, hay and paper towels to make little craft kits for the kids. They got to build their own to take home. My kids still have theirs in their rooms.  She cut over 500 toilet paper rolls to get ready for this!!! 

Like I said before it was a wonderful & fun thing to help out with. There were many many people who worked on this, not just me.  It would never have happened otherwise.  We've already got some great ideas for next year!!