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December 31, 2015

10 Easy DIY Christmas Gifts

Can you believe it’s only 2 days until Christmas?

This year we have really tried to stay on a budget when it comes to buying Christmas gifts. I decided to use my DIY skills and make quite a few of the gifts for people — I think people really like getting something they know you put your heart into.

I put together a few ideas of 10 easy last minute DIY projects you can pull off before the big day….

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December 22, 2015

Give the Gift of Health for the Holidays

Disclosure: I have been given the Venta Airwasher to review but all opinions are my own.

I am the driest person on the planet. There is not enough eye drops, lip balm and lotion in the world to keep me moisturized. I also am allergic to dust mites. When I take allergy pills for that I get, you guessed it, even drier. I have always used humidifiers year round. They are a pain though. Some of them are super loud, some of them run out of water halfway through the night and some of them have even grown disgusting mold. When the people of Venta asked if I would like to try out their LW45 I said sure! What the heck is an airwasher? It turns out that it is not only a humidifier but it also purifies your air. It took me less than 5 minutes to set up and I was ready to go. My furniture studio is inside my home and I am constantly sanding something and there are particles floating through the air and a constantly layer of dust on everything or I have to use smelly products like Shellac or stain that leave my house smelling toxic.

The airwasher removes particles from the air and and sends the air back out purified and humidified. After using the airwasher for only a couple of weeks I have noticed that I have only had to dust once! I only have to add water daily and rinse it out every 2 weeks to keep it clean. The airwasher can also help keep your family free from germs that are floating through the air which is great seeing as we constantly have a house full of teenagers here. I have noticed that my skin feels less dry, I haven’t needed to take allergy pills and I am having to use eye drops less often which is a Christmas miracle in itself. They also have different fragrances that you can add to it to keep your home smelling fresh (I haven’t tried those yet). I’m definitely going to be using the airwasher year round as it removes bacteria, dust, pollen and static electricity. If you are looking for a Christmas gift for your own family or for someone else I highly recommend a Venta Airwasher. It’s an investment in your families health for years to come!

December 21, 2015

2015 Christmas Tour Finale

Happy Monday my friends!! Hope you all had a great weekend!

We had a perfect holiday party on Friday night. The unnamed child brought her boyfriend over for the first time, and being thrown into that much family is enough to send anyone running for the hills. Let’s cross our fingers he comes back.

Yesterday, I should have been working on projects, but it was a rainy, gloomy day, so we went to eat at Cracker Barrel, took a few new shots of the tree in the basement, wrote my post and watched Christmas movies.

The unnamed child graduated high school on Thursday, and we are going to take her out to a fancy dinner on Monday, but other than that we don’t have any other holiday parties until Christmas Eve.

I’ve shown you bits and pieces of my Christmas decor throughout the weeks, and today I thought I would show you the whole shebang put together….

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December 16, 2015

Holiday Gift Guide for the Teen Girl

Happy Hump day!!

Can you believe there are only 9 days left until Christmas?

If you heard my story earlier in the week about getting into a fight at Target, you will understand why I am doing the rest of my Christmas shopping online.

In our extended and immediate family, we have a lot of teenagers. Teens can be hard to buy for since, usually, everything on their lists are high dollar. Obviously, we can’t afford to get the unnamed child five $200-$300 items, and coming up with other lower ticket items can be difficult….

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December 14, 2015

Gumball Machine Turned Snow Globe (and I Got in a Fight)

Happy Monday!

I hope you guys had a great weekend! I wrapped some gifts, finished some painting (on projects and the house), and watched some Hallmark Christmas movies. I will be honest that I have never watched any of these before. Now … none of them that I have watched, so far, are going to get any Academy Awards, but they are strangely addictive. I’m embarrassed to admit how many I have in my Tivo queue right now.

Another thing I have been doing lately is stalking a certain toy I wanted to buy for my niece for Christmas. It has been out of stock everywhere since Black Friday, and I have been checking Target every couple of days since. I was there once again the other day, and lo and behold, there was one lonesome one on the shelf. I grabbed it off the shelf and sat it by my feet with my purse on top of it. It was a little play village, and I was deciding which family I wanted to go in it.

A lady pulls her cart (with 4 children under the age of 5 in it) up next to me, points to my village, and tells me to hand it to her (tells me … not ask me mind you).

I nicely told her that I was sorry, and I was already going to buy it (hence it being off the shelf, by my feet, and my purse was on top of it).

She just stands there staring at me.

Then she rudely says, “If you’re not holding it, it’s not yours.”

I nicely pointed out that I had taken it off the shelf and sat it next to me because it was heavy, and I was just trying to figure out which family I was going to buy to go with it.

Louder this time, she repeats herself, “If You’re Not Holding It, It’s Not Yours!”…

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