These Are a Few of My Favorite...

...ornaments!

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned my addiction to ornaments to you before. But when I heard that Jolanthe at No Ordinary Moments is hosting an ornament show and tell today, I was compelled to share some more of my addiction with you:) I just can't help it!

This is the oldest ornament on my tree. It was knitted for me by my great-aunt when I was about three or so years old. I can't even remember not having it at Christmas. It's definitely a fave!

This adorable little cottage with the red door was a gift from my hubby on our first Christmas in the first house that we owned~which incidentally had a red front door. Love it!

Blue is my favorite color and I just fell in love with this *Midnight Santa* at first sight. He is just a truly beautiful ornament.

Alvin has always had a special part in my Christmases. I had *his* Christmas record as a child and pretty much wore it out. I now own it on cd and it debuts each year at the time of the tree trimming~not a minute before either.

This teeny, tiny wooden house is one I picked up on a trip to DC. It's just as charming as can be!

This set of baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph always has a special place on the tree. They are so beautiful!

I love this little Italian angel my parents brought me from Rome one year. She has such a sweet face.

These are just a few of my favorites~I have many! As you can see, all different kinds of 0rnaments grace our tree. I am definitely not a *theme* person. Each year as I decorate our tree I love to remember where I got it, who gave it to me, which trip I bought it on, etc., and tell the kiddos all about them. You can read more about our Christmas tree here.

Don't forget to drop by Jolanthe's and see many more favorite ornaments!

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while. It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it. However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it. Plus it's a little bulky. When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it! It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make. I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course. They have these little wooden door hangers for .79. I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each. I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing. I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had). Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

Making Notebooks

Recently I tried out a new craft idea~and it was SO much fun!! And extremely frugal, too. That's always a bonus, right? So here we go: 1. Take your basic composition notebook (purchased at the back-to-school sales for .99 each). 2. Go to your craft supplies and get your Mod Podge ready, along with a good paintbrush. 3. Look through all those scrapbook papers you've been randomly collecting and choose some. 3. After choosing your paper for the cover of your book and trimming it to fit, start *painting* the cover with the glue. Next, give the back of your paper a good coat of glue, too. (I left the binding uncovered so that I could use a contrasting paper there later on). 4. Glue it on! Remember to smooth out any air bubbles under the paper. 5. Flip the cover open and make a few cuts on the corners so that they will fold over nice and neat, then add a little more glue to the edges of the inside cover and a little more to the paper edges. 6. Fold them over and press...

my blessed life

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