Here are a few of my ideas:

Tea Party!-  I will be using a mixture of tea cups for a fun and eclectic way to drink our tea

Food:  British food of course, tea sandwiches, scones and probably some sort of fun cake.

Decor: Red, white and blue, Paddington Himself will be there, suitcases, lace and doilies.

Sources:

1. Karas Party Ideas

2. Amazon

3. Amazon

4. Shop Sweet Lulu

5. Amazon

6. Table Cloths Factory

Hope you enjoy my inspiration!

After I took down my reclaimed wood advent calendar, the wall over my mantle looked so bare.  I wanted something new, and fun!

I had my husband build me another reclaimed wood piece.

I stained it dark walnut just as I had with my advent calendar.  I love the contrast between the dark wood and the light trim and walls.

I searched and thought for days about what I wanted to paint on it.  I wanted it to be a reminder, something that I would want to look at everyday, and something very ungeneric.  That means just painting the word LOVE, or FAMILY on it was not going to cut it.  Not for this girl.  I like to be different. 

Here is what I decided upon.

I think it is such a great reminder.  Love it is not something you have, it is something you do!  To show your family and friends how much they mean to you, you have to act.  Now every day I have a reminder that I need to show the ones I love that I love them.

We finally got a nice dose of snow to highlight our holiday season as well!

My father in law built me these lovely window boxes this summer and I am so pleased to see them filled with garland and covered in snow!  They are as lovely as I had hoped!

It wouldn’t be the holidays with out a trip to Santa.  For some reason, the simple trip to our downtown “cabin” always brings out that holiday feeling in me.  It is just not the holidays until Santa comes to town!

As you can tell, our little Lucas is still not so sure about Santa.  Although he did get the courage to ask him for a Big Truck.  Ezra had a looong list to share this year.  Oh Boy!

See those little bells around the boys’ necks?  Santa sent those to them in the mail this year!

How is your holiday season going?

In the middle of all the hustle and bustle of the holidays I had a Little Mermaid Party that I put together. 

Little Julia turned 4 and her favorite movie is The Little Mermaid.

Here are some pictures of what we did for her party.

See those little blank blue mini tiered cakes in the background?  Those were for the children to decorate.  Part of the party activities was for the children to decorate cakes.

They also painted little tote bags with fabric paint.  Here is the birthday girl getting ready to decorate her bag.

Julia’s cake was from my favorite local bakery Pretty Sweets.  It turned out adorable!

The tables were set in turquoise, lavender and white with tons of coral, sand castles, pearls and sea shells.

Julia loved her pretty under the sea tables.

We have a very specific bedtime, stringent rules on video game times and daily chores are required.  Some of these coupons will effect those household norms, but it is just a treat!

These are all “gifts” he would love! 

Feel free to print these out for your little ones if you think they would like them too!

I must say, I am super excited about this new tradition to share with my children.  We have been having so much fun with Jingle in our home. 

He introduced himself to our family with a lovely “breakfast” that he set up for us while we were out for the day.  How did he know that our family loves to have breakfast for dinner? 

He also seemed to know that we did not have a waffle maker, and brought one for us.  According to the letter he left Lucas and Ezra, waffles are a favorite at the North Pole.  Now they are a favorite in our home too!

He also explained in his letter that he would report back to the North Pole when they have been naughty.  He said that if there was nothing naughty to report that he would be able to enjoy his “vacation” from the North Pole and would be able to have some fun around our home. 

Here are a few things Jingle has done in the night. 

Playing with the cars.

Reading stories to some of his new friends.

One night that silly elf TP’d the boys’ room!  It was hilarious. 

Here he is swinging from our kitchen chandelier!

Weeeeeeee!

The rosettes are made from coiled up pages of an old dictionary.  The white flowers are coffee filters that were dipped in coffee to give them a vintage look.

There were so many talented ladies there, but I really love the way mine turned out.  For now it is living over the kitchen sink, until I can find the perfect spot among our Christmas decor.

I was first inspired by This pretty that I found on Pinterest.

Dare I say, I think ours turned out even better?

Here is what we did.

My handy husband took 6 boards and connected them for me. 

Then came my job, to make it pretty.  I stained it a nice dark walnut color and added 24 small nails. 

Onto those nails I hung 24 pretty ornaments that coordinated.

I decided to add another level to the simple ornament advent.  Behind each ornament there is a circle with a word on it.  That is the word that we discuss for the day.  Here are a few examples:  Love, Peace, Joy, Fulfillment, Spirit, Charity, Gift.  Each day we will discuss the word, different meanings of it, how it is present in our lives and how it is relevant at Christmas time.  This will be a great vocabulary building excercise for Lucas who is now 2 1/2.  For Ezra I am hoping we can help him understand a little more what Christmas is about and how these words are present in our lives everyday. 

They we will hang these pretty little guys on a special tree (or two) day by day.

Yay!

I love the idea of hosting a cookie exchange over the holiday season.  It seems like such a fun way to share recipes, get together with friends and score a bundle of sweets to take home.

Here is a printable for all of you out there thinking of hosting a cookie exchange this holiday season.

These would make great little favor tags, or you could put one on the front of the boxes that everyone would take home. 

Speaking of boxes, how great would these gable boxes from Garnish be for your guests to fill up.  Each box is only $1.75 each.

Pop a decoration on the front of this box and everyone will be so impressed with how organized your party is!

How about this for a simple and inexpensive favor idea?

Buy some wisks or silicone spatulas and tie a tag onto it for each lady to take home.  Who couldn’t use another wisk or spatula?  They are always useful. 

The beauty of the cookie exchange is that refreshments are covered!  Everyone will enjoy those cookies!

To download simply right click on the images and save to your computer. 

Have fun!

She allows people to download fun vintage graphics for free to use on projects.  Yay!

Here is the fun I had with a couple of her graphics.

My husband is a bicycling enthusiast, so I thought he might like this one.  And he did!

I loved this funky vintage octopus so much I wanted to add him to our bedroom. 

Aren’t those pillows great!?  I love them!

I simply downloaded the images from The Graphics Fairy.  Thank you Graphics Fairy. 

I then printed them out on heat transfer paper.

Then I took my fabric, these happened to be cloth napkins, and ironed the images on.  After that is was some simple stitching with my machine to turn them into pillow covers. 

She has so many graphics on her site to choose from.  So go have some fun!

Hooray!