Christmas Baking

I love to bake, it is one of my favorite things to do. This year for friends and family baking was the easiest way to go about making affordable presents. We spent a weekend making different things and went to the dollar store to get the plates to put them on. We made muddy buddies (or puppy chow as some people call it which just sounds nasty to me) peanut butter pretzels dipped in chocolate, mint oreo truffles, rocky road fudge, regular fudge, 7 layer bars, cheesecake gingerbread bites, pretzel kiss things with m&m's, and peanut butter cookies with a reeses in them. It was all very simple to make. I will eventually post recipes for everything,

Lewis Is Old

I can't believe he turned 29 this year. Next year we will have to do it up all fancy for his 30th but this year was low key. We both worked on his birthday but we did go out to dinner. I also dropped off a gift basket I made for him and he loved it! 

I forgot to take a picture of the gift basket I made for Lewis but it was pretty simple. I included a few of his favorite things. A pineapple; this is because whenever we have a party or get together he always asks someone to bring one, it's weird but I love him anyways. A pepperoni stick, not like a little on but like a 2 foot one. A package of salami, A thing of brie cheese, some chocolate covered almonds, and I got him a huge happy birthday balloon. He was really surprised and he told me he has never had someone go out of their way to do that for him. I guess I made it really special without even trying. 

New Orleans

Okay, I'm a lot later posting this. We surprised my oldest sister for her 30th birthday in New Orleans. It was an amazing feat to pull off considering my family can not keep a secret to save their lives! We had such a good time and I even got to try on wedding dresses! It was so much fun!

Yes, that is a drag queen 

I asked Brittany to be my matron of honor, Tiffany to be my maid of honor, and Stephanie to be a bridesmaid while there. 

Didn't find anything on this trip but it was sure fun!

Oh Christmas tree...

I ma so happy with our Christmas tree! I put in a lot of hours making our tree skirt and a lot of the ornaments by hand. First off we were disappointed when we realized the permits to cut down trees in the wild were only for a small area about 3 hours away. It's pretty dumb, but we looked at the usual places for a tree and we actually found a beautiful tree for $30 at Sam's Club. 

It's actually really full and lush. It wasn't brown and dead like the ones at all of the other stores we went to!

Making this Christmas tree skirt was one of the most rewarding things ever. I definitely burned my fingers a lot and used about 50 glue sticks but it was so worth it. The end product is so beautiful and it look so much better than a store bought one. All in all it cost about $12 for fabric and about 8 hours in labor. I found the tutorial on pinterest (link here), it was really easy to execute it just took a lot of time.  I used 3 different fabrics, burlap with gold threads, a white and gold cotton thingy, and some off white fleece. The one on the tutorial looks so much better but I like that mine has character and was the fruit of my own labor. It is worth it to do a lot of your own projects in my mind. I love having that sense of accomplishment. I hope you love it as much as I do!

It really just does look so good under the tree, but I am bias :)

Palette Shelves

I am so stoked for these! I found a picture (link here)on pinterest for amazing palette shelves and Lewis made it for me! He is so amazing in all that he does for me!

It was so simple. He cut the palette into thirds and then used the scraps as the bottom to the shelves. 

They might be upside down but they are all different shelves. He ended up making 3. One has a small ledge on the bottom, one is a regular self, and the third is an open shelf. 

He even sanded them down for me! 

We are still trying to decide on how to hang them or what to put on them. We did end up staining them with a walnut color stain. It ended up making them look like reclaimed wood. The best thing about this though is they only cost about $1 to make. You can get palettes for free at any big box store usually and Lewis used screws to put them together. So far here's the work in progress. I would like to add pictures and other decorative things around the shelves to make it look more balanced.