This year was the first that I decide to embark on making Christmas sugar cookies. I tend to stick to pain free, simple Christmas baking. I not overly skilled in the kitchen.. as most of you probably know, so I waited till my wonderful hubby was home so he could help me NOT screw up the recipe. I used Sally's recipe, and they taste delicious. For icing we just made a very simple icing sugar icing in three colours: blue, green and white, and then I had a gel red icing tube left over from other baking quests I guess.

(note: I wouldn't use the gel in the future, as I didn't realize that the gel doesn't harden making it impossible to stack your cookies without ruining the design... yes these things occur to me always after the fact... sigh.)








As you can cookies came out well and it was really fun for me to sit down and ice them. I am a nerd for creative artsy crafts and projects. I even printed off some inspirational cookie designs from Pinterest to help me out. Now... to stop myself and Andrew from eating them all before we have our little party this weekend... hmm.

I am super excited for my sister in law, Cheryl & her mom, Ruth over at Peck Cloths. They will be having an open house on December 6th (which Kelsi and I will be attending of course!). Check out this fun little announcement I was able to make up for them to advertise the date :)

If you'd like to see more of their selection of cloths and others goods, make sure to check out peckcloths.com and definitely come check out the open house on December 6th.

My friend Nicole came over the other day and was sharing with me an idea of felt books made for children (find examples here), they are SO NEAT!

Nicole inspired me to make a board book for Emma, one which I was going to buy here. But WHY NOT create it myself. Its no gorgeous felt book, but its really great for her age right now. I'll work on the felt when she might appreciate it more (2 years old maybe?)

I used this post that I found via pinterest as my guide. She takes a real board book that she got for free from a Wendy's and simply covers it with her own design on card stock, so simple. So that is what I've done.

I've been thinking about what to do with my Christmas greeting this year. Since we are on a new budget (as I recently resigned from Compassion to stay home full time with Emma - yay!) I decided that getting cards printed, even though I design them, is a bit more then I would like to spend this year, so I am trying to get resourceful.

I decided to do a fun little "year in review" page that I can send out to far away family in a simple letter envelope on 8.5 x 11 printer paper. I was still able to have a little fun, especially with all the hand drawn titles and little vector graphics. I can't wait to send it out to our loved ones!

Here is a little sneak preview of my design:

Lisa-Jo Bakers wrote an amazing post 10 Things To Do Differently *Before* You Lose Your Temper on her blog Surprised by Motherhood. This is a great resource for a mom with one or many children running around her home.

Jen Wilkins wrote a wonderful post about cherishing all of the personalities and gifts that God blesses a child with in her post when your child's personality annoys you.

This adorable wrap is a MUST BUY for whenever we might be having baby #2... no I'm not pregnant. Settle down. I personally LOVE the Natural & Grey Stripe option.

We are so so happy with our latest scarf purchase (ok, our only scarf purchase) for Emma from Coral and Poppy. She loves wearing it, it keeps her cozy and its adorable. This plaid one is calling my name.. now if only I could fit it in the budget..