beanski

the advent calendar

I'm trying to get ahead of Christmas this year. I know that probably annoys some people but nothing ticks me off more than when a holiday sneaks up on me like Halloween did this year and I'm out there scrambling to plug in the lights 15 minutes before the trick-or-treaters start knocking. I get so frustrated with myself when I'm packing up the Christmas decorations and all of my holiday ideas promising that next year I'll get organized on-time. There is about a 9% chance of me actually pulling off this Advent calendar (especially every day) but I'm going to try. Below is my list (along with what I'll use for the calendar). I think I'm worried probably because a lot of my ideas are just too involved to pull off at night after we all get home at dark from a busy day. I'd love any simpler, cheaper ideas for counting down the days until Christmas with the kids. What do you do?

1. Watch Charlie Brown Christmas - hint to where it is hidden in the house
2. Hang Christmas lights up outside - something that lights up and is Christmasy
3. Take food to a local shelter - something small and non-perishable
4. Make Christmas cookies - sprinkles! The girl loves sprinkles.
5. Pick out a Christmas tree and decorate it - a small ornament
6. Drink hot chocolate - marshmallows and clue to where to find holiday mugs and hot chocolate
7. Sing Christmas carols - new Christmas CD
8. Make a Christmas paper chain - Strips of paper and glue
9. Go Christmas shopping - $ for each of them to shop for eachother
10. Wrap presents - ribbons and Christmas stamps
11. Drive around and look at Christmas lights - Small battery operated light string
12. Make photo ornaments - Photo of each kid and hint about where to find the rest of the project
13. Make a gingerbread house - Gumdrops and candy to decorate the houses with
14. Make a paper Christmas tree - sparkly ornament stickers to decorate them with
15. Visit Bentleyville - tickets
16. Ride the Polar Express - tickets
17. Visit Santa and his reindeer - carrots for reindeer and paper to make a list for Santa
18. Stay up late - coupon for staying up late
19. Put money in the Salvation Army bucket - $ for each kid
20. Sing Jingle Bells - jingle bells for each of them
21. Draw a Christmas picture for grandparents - new craft supplies
22. Decorate the windows - Renee's favorite, window stickers!
23. Make a holiday centerpiece for the table - sprig of evergreen and some ribbon
24. Make bookmarks for your teachers - pom poms and eyes - http://www.michaels.com/art/online/projectsheet?pid=25411

Totally realistic considering I work full-time, huh? Also on the totally realistic list are a whole bunch of handmade gifts like these beach bags and these ruffled aprons and these quilted coasters and these wine sleeves that I'm sure I'll totally get done on time. Did I mention the ruffled stockings I'm totally making? Yeah. I should have started getting ready for Christmas in July.

party planner

I set sort of unrealistic expectations for my kid's birthday parties when Renee had her first birthday. I think I forgot that someday she was going to turn two and then when she turned two I swore that I wasn't going to go crazy and I was going to keep it low-key. And then I went crazy. 

Then I had another baby and GOOD LORD that is an awful lot of birthday party planning.

But in a good way.

Because I LOVE doing it. I get all of these ideas floating around in my brain and I lay awake at night thinking about it. I scour etsy looking for inspiration, do random googling like "activities for first birthday party" and sit at the computer for hours coordinating the invitations with the thank-you cards with the decorations. I make banners and cakes and personalized stickers. Somedays I think should have been a party planner because it really is one of the few things that I really love.

I'm eye deep in birthday planning right now because my baby? He turns one next week. Sniff, sniff. Me hurting my back has set me back (no pun intended) but I made a vow today to follow through on my plans. My husband can try to talk me into ordering pizzas and buying a cake but I am just not made that way and I would be sad on his first birthday. I want to be happy on his first birthday. But I'm going to be sad because you know, WHERE DID MY BABY GO?

What do you do for birthday parties? Low-key? All out? Just family? Where do you find your inspiration?

Here's a peek of Cam's 1st birthday - the invitation, which I ordered from annoncingyou on etsy:
 

the beginning of a little boy's room

This is the first post in what I'm hoping will be many posts as I slowly but surely convert our house from old quilting lady (the former owner) to modern, hip, young person. That would be me, yo.

We so far have decorated about 100 square feet of many and I'm still waiting on my husband to put in the new faucet in the kid's bathroom before I go ahead and call it complete and post pictures of the cuteness. HINT, HINT HUSBAND. And I need to figure out some art for the walls because the kid's handprints on canvases didn't go so well. ART PROJECT FAIL. I did SEW a shower curtain, though, but do me a favor, if you ever shower in the kid's bathroom, don't look at the inside of that shower curtain. OK? Thanks. These are fabrics I used for the bathroom because Renee LOVES octopi (octopuses?).

In the meantime, Cameron's room is next. He's currently using the gender neutral newborn bedding I bought when Renee was born and while I like it I've been itching to give him something more boy. And blue is my FAVORITE color so I've been excited about that.

This was my initial inspiration. I LOVE it. I seriously DROOL every time Susan posts a quilt. I showed it to Ski and his exact words were: "That is way too sissy. It could be a girl's quilt."

So, I had to regroup. I poured over etsy looking at fabrics, showing Ski a few here and there to get his green light on the masculinity of his son's bedding. Nevermind that the boy wears a PINK bib at breakfast EVERY day because we're too cheap to buy him new ones.

I need help though. I can't decide if I should go with the bright greens and blues:

Or the more muted greens and blues with brown:
 
I'm leaning towards the brights but don't want it to be obnoxious.

What do you think?