Monthly Archives: December 2011
Dec 30 2011

Knitting With Juniper

by Crystalyn

A few weeks ago I decided to try and reteach myself how to knit. I had big dreams of knitting up some beautiful fair isle Christmas stockings. (Maybe someday.) After a good hour of yelling at my yarn and getting laughed at by my wonderful husband, Juniper decided to show me how its done.


So what DID I manage to knit? A long strip! Woohoo! So what do you do with a long strip of pink, knitting yarn? Why, make a hair bow of course! Because really, what girl couldn’t use more hair bows? I won’t get to wear it much though, since Juniper claimed it for herself.. I guess she DID help make it. :)

Speaking of hair bows. I just found this image on my laptop that I never shared. I need to come up with some cuter ways to wear my hair. Shorter hair is annoyingly hard to style… Pony tails are getting boring. Any fun suggestions?

Categories: Fashion, Tutorials / DIY | 8 Comments »

Dec 29 2011

Nine Months

by Crystalyn

Guess who is nine months old now? (Well, this post is a few days late but whatever) It’s funny how when you are pregnant, nine months seems like FOREVER, but after the baby is born it seems like no time at all. Flynn is one extremely curious little guy. He is far too interested in exploring to sit and have his picture taken. He enjoyed his first Christmas very much, lots of wrapping paper to tear up and try to eat. He is FAST. It’s ridiculous how quickly he can crawl around the house. Any time he gets even remotely near the stairs, his big sister grabs his leg and drags him around the living room. (Which he loves, of course!)

He is definitely not a little baby anymore. I miss newborn Flynn and all his sweet cuddles, but nine month old Flynn sure is an awesome little guy. I can’t wait to meet grown up Flynn and see what kind of man he turns out to be. (I’m kidding, I can TOTALLY wait.)

Categories: Life | 2 Comments »

Dec 27 2011

Traditions

by Crystalyn

We started a new family tradition this year. Christmas Eve + Warm Fire + Hot Chocolate in Santa Mugs + Roasted Mini Marshmallows + Christmas Records = A lovely evening with my sweetie. When the kids are older, we’ll let them join in. Maybe :)

Categories: Holidays | 2 Comments »

Dec 25 2011

Christmas Love

by Crystalyn

Oh Christmas, how do I love thee. I love the lights, decorations and yummy treats. I love the challenge of finding that perfect gift for loved ones. I love spending time laughing and playing with family. I love starting new traditions. And most of all, I love that Christmas represents the most amazing gift ever given to men, our savior Jesus Christ.

I (semi) successfully made my very first silicone mold, with which I made a few of these lovely ornaments. I gave some as gifts, and kept this one for myself. I sculpted this last year, so I am excited to finally see it finished. (I never painted it because I wanted to make a mold eventually.) My nativity collection has grown quite a bit this year.




Categories: Holidays | 2 Comments »

Dec 24 2011

{Recipe} Smores Bark

by Crystalyn

We have had an unusually high amount of chocolate around here lately, with the holidays and all. After we made peppermint bark last week I was in a chocolate melting mood, and we had some mini marshmallows leftover from Juniper’s birthday party so I thought I’d make some smores bark! Seemed like a good idea. (Turns out it was.)

For some reason my photos all turned out to be a weird color… so ignore the cruddy photography and focus on the yummy, chocolatey, marshmallow goodness.

1. Poor a handful of marshmallows into a pan. Stick them in the oven at 350 for a few minutes until they are nice and soft.
2. Use a spoon to spread the melted chocolate around.
3. Sprinkle mini marshmallows on top of the bottom layer of chocolate and pour on MORE chocolate. (Never a bad thing, right?) Stick it back in the oven.
4. While that is getting nice and melty, crush up some graham crackers. Be sure to break a hole in the bag and make a crumbly mess.
4. You’ll also want to make sure to mislabel your graphics. Once it’s all melty, smoosh it around with a spoon and make a goopy mess. It will look TERRIBLE at this point. Just trust me, it will be yummy. Sprinkle your grahams cracker crumbs and push them down into the chocolate with a spoon.
6. Put it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. When it is hardened completely, pry it off the pan (Mine popped off easily with help from a butter knife.) Break into pieces and enjoy!

So good. This batch will be coming with us tomorrow when we visit family for Christmas. Is Christmas really already tomorrow?? I have been a gift-making-maniac lately. Hence the silence on this here blog. I didn’t want to share anything or I’d ruin the surprise! But boy have I got lots of projects to share with you once this holiday weekend is over. (And I promise not ALL of them involve chocolate.)

Categories: Cooking, Tutorials / DIY | No Comments »

Dec 19 2011

My Sweet Juniper

by Crystalyn

This past Friday my sweet little girl turned three years old. Three. She’s grown up so much in this past year, it’s killing me. She’s the most energetic and sweetest kid I’ve ever met. I am so grateful to have her in my life.



Categories: Life | No Comments »

Dec 15 2011

Colorful Cookies

by Crystalyn

I’ve been a little preoccupied lately putting together a little birthday celebration for my Juniper. (I still can’t believe she is going to be 3 tomorrow, and I’m sure I will express similar feelings every year until I die.) Today we baked some super colorful cookies. (I got the idea from this post on Tablespoon.) They sure are pretty cookies! (Can you tell which color Juniper helped roll into balls?)


Juniper helped make a couple of the cookies, and she did a pretty good job! She was pretty excited, as you can see from that hilarious look on her face. She’s a funny kid.

fffffffffghjklzxcvvbnmasdgfghjklqwerytyuiop zxcvbnmasdfghjklqwertuyuiop
(Juniper wanted to type…)

Categories: Cooking | 15 Comments »

Dec 10 2011

Princess Crown

by Crystalyn

We stumbled across this cute dress up crown tutorial tonight, and Juniper just had to have one. She even helped me pick out the fabric and sat on my lap while I sewed it together. Needless to say, she is sleeping with her new crown on, and I don’t think she’ll take it off any time soon. (She even let me do up her hair in the back like a princess.)

Quick projects are the best. I see more cute crowns in our crafty future.


Categories: Sewing | 2 Comments »

Dec 6 2011

Snow and Clamshells

by Crystalyn

We woke up to a pretty surprise today, our first snow! So fun! And yes, those are socks… I don’t own any gloves yet ha! We celebrated our first snow day by building our very first fire in our fireplace. Perfect for warming up after the inevitable snow ball fight.

After lunch, I got some time to work on my latest project. I’m having so much fun hand-quilting these clamshells. If you can guess what I’m making, I will mail you $10.


Categories: Life, Sewing | 4 Comments »

Dec 3 2011

DIY Candy Cane Garland

by Crystalyn

When I saw this Candy Cane Bunting tutorial on Smashed Peas and Carrots, I was inspired to put together my own version with real candy canes. I just love how putting two candy canes together makes a heart. (Back to my heart-shaped obsession.)

So here’s what you’ll need: candy canes, cotton thread, decorative ribbon or string, and scissors. Put two candy canes together to make a heart shape, and use the cotton thread to tie them together where they overlap. Wrap the cotton thread around a few times and tie it nice and tight. I also snipped off the extra plastic wrapper at the ends of the candy canes. I made 11 hearts. I would have made 12, but a certain little girl managed to sneak off with two candy canes. (Ok, ok… I bribed her.)

So with the two boxes of candy canes and the decorative string, this project cost me a whopping $3. Not bad.


To turn them into a garland, simply hang up the decorative string/ribbon and hang the hearts! No need to tie them, they’ll stay in place on their own. Or if you’d like, you can just hang the hearts all over your Christmas tree. I might just buy some more candy canes and do both! I guess you could make something that will last through the years if you use plastic candy canes, but then you can’t eat them and that’s half the fun!


Yesterday I bought some pretty fabric for a special Christmas gift. I almost never get to buy new fabric so it was pretty exciting! I can’t wait to start cutting it up!

Categories: Holidays, Tutorials / DIY | 1 Comment »

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