My Christmas wrap-up...

Hello loves!!

I realize posts have been a little scarce these couple of weeks. I don't know how some of you kept up through the holidays! I'm ridiculously impressed. My schedule was so upside down, I could barely think straight. I can't imagine getting my thoughts organized enough to have continued posting regularly. Hopefully- as we head into 2012 (feel free to insert a record scratch there), things will be calming down and regulating a bit so I'll be back to my usual silliness.

How, in all that is good, is 2011 over?!

I can't.

This year seriously flew by on fast forward. No doubt I'm not alone on that. It seems to be the general consensus every time the subject comes up.

Since this is the last day of 2011, I figured this was my last chance to catch you all up on all of my left over Christmas goodness without looking like somewhat of a lame-o. I suppose I technically have through 3 Kings Day to grasp on to my Christmas spirit, but I'm choosing to accept that this year's Holiday season has come and gone. This way, I can welcome the new year with fresh, open, and loving arms!

Lets start with my Christmas present to myself...

:)

I find it SO difficult to spend money on myself (Cue New Year's Resolution... Thats a post for another day though!), however, Black Friday super sweet deals make the blow a little easier. So when Silhouette and Crap I've Made had an amazing promotion going, I couldn't wait any longer to finally get a Silhouette Cameo of my own.

That's right- I am officially the proud owner of my very own Cameo!!

The machine my person so eloquently refers to as "The cricut on crack." I honestly couldn't explain this any better myself! If you're lost, just follow along. You'll want one in a few pictures...

So I was able to justify this purchase because I figured, It isn't just for me! I'll be using it to make things for other people!! Starting with- wrapping my Christmas presents! I made the decision I was going to wrap gifts in craft paper this year and just embellish using cool things I made with my machine. I had no clue how time consuming this would be but I am so proud of how they all came out. 

Everyone LOVED their wrapping so much they didn't even want to open them! And that's saying a lot.

I'm already thinking up so many more projects for my pretty little Cameo, so stay tuned! Much more crafty goodness to come!

So wrapping wasn't my only crafty project this season-

I made Christmas ornaments for each of the couples in our families!

*I used a Martha Stewart paint to make a snowy looking scene as a base around the bottom of the ornament and to add the year

*I filled the ornaments with just a little fake snow and a couple tiny ornaments from Michaels- each ornament got 2 mini snowflakes and a mini Christmas tree

*I printed out pictures of each couple, added scrapbooking corners and tied bakers twine to them and rolled them up to get them in. I had to use tweezers to get them all straightened out (Which was surprisingly easy once I got the hang of it!)

*Finally, I embossed the names on to a Martha Stewart Christmas tag to add a personalized final touch to each ornament.

Check out how the turned out!

Those still make me smile!

And finally- I just thought I'd show you all what a good girl I was this year!

The boy too!

We were both seriously spoiled by our families and each other. Here's a little taste of the hardcore ridiculousness that showed up under our tree this year...

Yup- I got a KitchenAid stand mixer!! I know you're all excited about what this will mean for future food posts... Gahhh!! I can't wait!! And the person has already finished his Lego Architecture replica of Fallingwater and we already have a beer brewing. Such a great Christmas.

I think I speak for both of us when I say the greatest thing was to get to see his family so close to Christmas AND see my family on Christmas. We are so blessed to come from two incredible families and spending time with all those incredible people is what really made my heart feel the holidays.

So thats it for my holiday posts! Did you like it?! I hope you're all prepared to move into a New Year and have some big plans for what the next 365 days will hold for you. I LOVE New Years because I love the idea of giving yourself a fresh start and a chance to be everything you hadn't gotten a chance to take on yet. Here's to everyone being a little better, healthier, more successful, and more loving in the new year! 2011 me took some serious strides, so I can only imagine how much more proud I'll be of myself at this time next year. Do you all make it a point to have extra faith in yourselves at the start of the year? Now's the time to do it!

Alright everyone- lets get this started off right! Time to tackle another year. I'll see you all there! :)

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I've got to say... Its pretty difficult to believe its Christmas when its 80+ degrees outside...

Boo to that!

When I was little, it felt like it somehow always managed to get cold for Christmas day! 

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Yeah, not so much anymore!

But sweater weather or not, I could not be happier that its Christmas! Like I've said quite a few times this year- this is my absolute favorite holiday. There's so much feel good-ness in the air. I LOVE finding great presents for my loved ones and spoiling them rotten. Budgeting during my holiday season is always worth it when I see their faces opening their gifts!

And it's finally here!!

I hope no one is offended by me posting one more Christmas post after the fact. I did some very creative wrapping this year but everyone I know and love reads my blog- so I didn't want to give it away! I also didn't want you all to miss out on the fruits of my labor. Because I worked my booty off on it!

For Christmas, I wanted to share a special post with you all.

I owe my child-like spirit at the holidays to my parents- so this post is for them. You all get to come along for the ride to. Here are some pictures to show you how cool I've always been at Christmas time and...

A new vlog!

With a special holiday story and message... So enjoy!

My very first Christmas!

I believe this is the year I was REALLY sick for Christmas morning... and I got my first kitchen! 

My loot! Nothing says "future domestic goddess wannabe" quite like a toy washing machine! I LOVED that thing!!!

 My big sister and I (more often than not referred to as "Broder")

Rockin' the matching sweaters!

So Merry Christmas all you lovelies!  I hope Santa was good to all of you. No doubt there will be some fun posts about everyones Christmas adventures... Can't wait to read them all! 

Here's hoping your holidays were not TOO much like a scene out of "Christmas Vacation"...

2 more sleeps till Christmas!!

Im baaaaack!!!

Happy Christmas Eve Eve everybody!

... yes, I did just go there.

Wisconsin was absolutely perfect and I have so many fantastic pictures from the wedding that I'll be sharing soon- I promise!!

We're going to ignore the whole "got home, got sick" thing and just move right into Christmas awesomeness!!

First things first... I have to call someone out...

Dear Mommy-

My readers are very sad you never sent me old Christmas pictures so I couldn't do the post I was planning.

Since it's Christmas, I'll look past that. Maybe you can redeem yourself by sending me the pictures tonight so I can do the post tomorrow... I'll be watching my inbox when you get home tonight.

I love you!!!

Any hoot-

I wanted to share what Christmas looks like here at our place!! We kind of got a late start, but it's definitely Christmas in here... So enjoy!!

 We actually decided to go minimalistic this year. Its a tech tree. You hang lights on it.

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Yeah ok... what kind of Christmas freak would I be if I actually did that?! I still thought it was hilarious because we did have that sitting in our tree spot until we put up our real tree. 

The joys of dating an entertainment lighting tech- you have things like this handy!

Can't start decorating without some eggnog in our moose mugs! So awkward to hold but Im so happy we have these!! If you don't get it, you don't know Christmas. 

 So... the spider santa. (Sorry Roxanne!!) This is actually a great story.

As I mentioned before, the person LOVES halloween! This guy was part of our balcony decor for his holiday. After all that stuff came down, we realized this guy some how got forgotten.

We joked around about just adding hats to make him fit the current holiday...

So the person came home to find a santa hat on him.

Merry Christmas.

I. am. awesome.

Christmas garland!! Ignore the kitchen. The person is in charge of all things holiday lighting, and this is part of his kick booty-ness. 

More kick booty garland and lights over our stockings I made for us last year. Might I add- last year before I had a sewing machine, I had to do those babies by hand! Means they're made with more love!

And yes- we're watching best of SNL- Christmas Special! We are full of Christmas class.

Finally tree time!

My handsome person bringing in our 9' tree. Aint he cute!! :) 

Blurry dog wants to help. I thought this was too funny not to add to the mix! 

After all the manual labor and doing his part (lighting the tree- he is a lighting guy after all!), the boy and the pup needed a nap...

This is my life. 

I love it.

Me doing my part, setting up the ornaments! I was so worried a real tree wouldn't be able to handle my ornaments. My family has always done the Hallmark ornaments. For years, we've all had our specific collections that we add on to every year. My sister has the eskimos and I have the fisher price toys just to name a couple. Now that my sister and I work for the mouse and can't come home for Christmas, my mom divvied up the ornaments so we could keep growing our collections. Of course theres also the ornaments that have sentimental value and the sprinkled in random balls and jingle bells to fill it all in. Thats how you make up the magic that is your own Christmas tree!!

Can you tell I love it?

The finished product!

The skirt and the bows are hand me downs from my mom...

Next year I have big plans to quilt a skirt and make my own bows!

You should probably stick around to see how all that comes out. 

 Decided this year I wanted to start a Christmas village. These are my very first pieces! My mom has always had a kick booty one- snow, a ski lift, mountains, a backdrop, brick roads, and a whole slew of houses. But you have to start somewhere! For me, I started with the hardware shop, the gingerbread bakery, and a Christmas tree farm. 

Santa delivered the presents early!! I'm not sure if these pictures truly capture the epic-ness that is the amount of presents going on under that tree right now! It's out of control! Obviously, someone was very good this year. I cannot wait for Christmas! I hope everyone loves their presents as much as I loved getting them!

I hope everyone is geared up and ready for the holidays! I'm seeing everyones statuses going up about family coming in and getting ready to go see family- I can't help but smile. This is what the holidays are about. Wonderful times making memories with the ones you love. My family comes in tomorrow. I work all through the holiday but I like to think of it as just another way to celebrate.

Good luck getting your last minute things ready! What do you have left to do? I for one will be baking up a storm tonight... I wonder if theres time to make cupcake flags...

On Vacation...

Hello Loves!!

Sorry its been so quiet around here- Im trying desperately to get ready for the holidays. Am I the only one they intensely snook up on this year?
I have big plans for some great posts next week but sadly this week I've really dropped the ball with all of my link-ups.

To top it all off- We leave today for Wisconsin!! I didn't schedule any posts for while we were gone but I didn't want to leave you all high and dry-
So I'm re-sharing some pictures I used in a guest post over at Kassi's blog Truly Lovely...

This was one of my favorite posts I've ever done and I didn't want any of you to miss out if you didn't get a chance to see it over on her blog!
So enjoy!

Before we get started... if you haven't been paying attention- this, in a nutshell, is my life.

Oh, hey Disney Junior Live on Stage at Disney's Hollywood Studios. I actually make a living as a performer for the Walt Disney company. I sing and dance for the greatest audiences EVER- Mickey loving preschoolers and babies!! 

Any hoo! I often get a bit of a backlash from non Floridians when I tell them Christmas is my favorite. I get a whole lot of "You don't even know Christmas if you haven't had a white Christmas!" To that, I say bite me! :) As much as I would LOVE a white Christmas, there are things I get where I live that certainly make up for my lack of snow...

I'm smiling just telling you all about this. Hi, my name is Nerd.

One of these amazing things I'm referring to-

The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights!

This display that so many technicians work tirelessly to put up at Disney Hollywood Studios every year is one of my favorite Christmas things ever. Once it opens up, I make it a point to walk through after work as often as time allows. On one of those trips, I brought my camera a long so I could share the experience with all of you! So here you go... If you can't make it to Disney this Holiday season, I wanted to bring a little piece of the magic to all of you! I hope it warms your heart like it always does mine.

This is one of my favorite nativity scenes. It's life size but I never think it's over the top. Tasteful and beautiful!




How cool is this? There's fake snow blowing, Christmas music blaring, hot chocolate being served, and periodically, the lights "dance" to the music in a perfectly programmed display of awesome!

My favorite thing about it- walking through and seeing families experiencing it together. From the very young to the very old, everyone walks around amazed and happy! I absolutely adore it.

I hope you all loved these as much as I do! Have a lovely weekend and I'll be seeing you all on your blogs when I get back into town! Oh right... that will be the week leading into Christmas...

Hey, 2012! You ready for us?

Friday's Fancies- Holiday Party!

Hello loves!

Friday already?

Is it just me or is this holiday season going even faster than this year has gone?!?

I'm ALMOST done with all my Christmas shopping but I feel like something else always comes up... So truth be told, I never finish my holiday shopping. It's sort of like that old Toys 'R Us/ Nickelodeon thing where if you won you got to run through the store and keep throwing things in the cart till your time runs out. (Am I totally alone in this reference?) Point is, I'll keep shopping till I run out of time!

I should add- I'm randomly off from work today... 

After my random day off- I work 3 days then I have 10 days off in a row. 

What did she just say?! 

10 days off in a row. What the hell am I going to do with myself?! For half of it- I'll be in Wisconsin for a wedding (woot woot shout out to Angie and Robin!!) and other than that I'll be baking, wrapping, blogging, and probably just hanging out with my zoo and enjoying christmasy candles.
Half vacation, half stay-cation- literally the week leading into the craziness that is Christmas and New Years at Disney?! I think I need this. I could not be more excited about this if I tried!

Now- since it's Friday, I am linking up with {av} from over at {long distance loving} again for Friday's Fancies. I cannot express enough how much this link up is helping me find my creativity in fashion for the first time in a long time. At least for me, it has become so easy to just fall into a comfy routine. I put on whats easy, usually a tshirt and jeans, and Im done with it. Putting together these outfits on fridays are sort of a workout for that side of my creativity. Looking at how to accessorize and put things together? These are exercises I don't usually do. And I find it pays off in my day to day! Call me nuts but you feel better when you look better. 

Do I sound crazy putting so much weight on something so seemingly simple as putting together an outfit?

Meh!

Whatever it may be- Im loving participating in these link-ups!

This weeks theme was "Holiday Party!" I always think of holiday parties as a sort of old school tradition. I wish I could go to a holiday party back circa "MadMen" time. That, to me, is the epitome of what a holiday party should be about... (minus the "everyone cheating on their spouses"businesses that always goes on in that show!)

Maybe next year I'll start an annual/themed holiday party...

I let that image influence how I picked my outfit... That and my current obsession with bows... So- it's a Vintage/Bow inspired Holiday Party outfit!!

So... someone throw a party worthy of this sort of outfit! Thank you!

Happy Friday, everyone! I can't wait to go see all of your outfits and keep getting inspired...