The Pics of Christmas

I feel like I am living in a Winter Wonderland these days, except that is was 80 degrees outside yesterday.  Today we are having a lot of rain which will bring a cold front in.  Should be back in the 40s and 50s tomorrow and Christmas.

I wanted to show a few pics of areas around my house.  I have had so much fun decorating, baking, and crafting this year.  I hope you enjoy these pictures.

This is a picture of our table and tree in the sunroom.  This room is off of our kitchen.

 

 

This is the other part of our sunroom.

 

This is a picture of the tree we have in the foyer.

These pictures are taken in the kitchen.

This picture is the fireplace in our family room, which is also off the sunroom.

I hope you are enjoying family and friends this holiday season! 

Merry Christmas!

Hugs, Meg



 

 



Gift Card/Ornament

Today I am showing you a gift card that I made that I will use as an ornament on the tree.  I will give this to someone special on Christmas morning.  I love red and white this time of year and always have to add some glitter.  It is hard to even think that it is close to Christmas right now.  We have 75 degree weather yesterday and today we are going to get to 80 degrees.  I wore sandals and short sleeves to a Christmas party last night - what is up with that. 

So, here are some pictures on my project.  I have been using a lot of twine on my projects lately.  It seems to give everything a little extra something.

Look at the detail on the die cuts on the tag.  It is hard to see, but I glittered all of the edges of the scalloped circle.  It really makes it pop!

 

 



 And when you turn the tag around, you see the gift card holder attached.

Of course, this is a Starbucks gift card.  My stepfather loves to drink Starbucks when my mom and him go to Harris Teeter to do their grocery shopping. 

Hope this post finds everyone enjoying the holiday season.  Merry Christmas!

Hugs, Meg



Wine Glass Class

Ok, so maybe I painted a bit too much this month.  I went with another friend to paint wine glasses.  I really, really enjoyed this glass and learned a lot.  We spent two hours drinking wine and painting wine glasses.  I painted one that was Christmasy and one that was not.  It was fun to meet new friends and paint together. 

The paints that we used were Pebeo Porclaine 150.  They work really well.  After letting the paints dry totally for 24 hours, you bake the glasses and then they are dishwasher safe.  Love this!

Here are the two glasses that I painted.

Happy Tuesday!

Hugs, Meg

Starry Night Raleigh

Well, I have been painting a lot this December.  I painted with a friend of mine from work the other night.  We did the Starry Night painting with a twist.  The skyline in the painting is from Raleigh. 

As always, I start with the bare canvas.

Then we started painting the swirl.

And then the background/sky with the orbs.

 

 

We added more colors to the swirl and the orbs.



 

Then we started on the Raleigh Skyline buildings.

 

 

We added dimension to the buildings.

And then here is the finished product. 

I was really happy with this painting.  I really love it!

Happy Monday!

Hugs, Meg



Ugly Sweaters

This year we organized an Ugly Sweater Event that went along with our neighborhood Wine and Beer Club.  I used the ballots and awards that were printables from www.thedatingdivas.com.  This is a great site to get lots of ideas, and inexpensive ones at that, to date your husband.  I love it.  But the info on the Ugly Sweater Party was really fun. 

Here is the pic of my husband and I, and then one of just me, in our ugly sweaters.

 

 

Hope you are having a Happy Sunday!

 

Hugs, Meg

Snowman Lights

We put up three trees this year in the house.  The artificial tree that we have put up the last few years had an area where the lights didn't work anymore.  So we decided to go back to putting up a real tree.  I think we bought the biggest tree on the lot.  It was almost like the Grizwald's on Christmas Vacation.  We thought it was going to bust out the windows in the sunroom that we put it in, LOL!  I will post a picture of the tree later this week.  I wanted to post an ornament from the tree first.  My favorite thing in world, next to ladybugs that is, is snowmen!  And this snowman is one of those Mitford snowmen that Hallmark produced a few years ago.  If you haven't read the Mitford series, you really need to.   Very inspirational books. 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas everyone!  I am so in the spirit this year!  Maybe because I am not having surgery over the holidays like I have the last three years!  I am enjoying the holidays this year!

 

Hugs, Meg

Toffee

Another tradition that my daughter and I have had the last 15 years is making toffee. It is very easy and delicious.  I made a double batch over the weekend.  It consists of saltine crackers, butter, sugar and chocolate.  You don't even know that the saltines are there.  It is a great combination.

Looking forward to Brittany coming home and seeing all that I have done!

 

 

 

Happy Wednesday!

 

Hugs, Meg

Munch Mix

I have always made munch mix at Christmas ever since my daughter was a little girl.  It is another tradition that we have at our house.  This year I am making it a little bit differently.  We have a great new tailgating spot for all of the ECU home football games and have met a great couple that tailgate next to us.  Vickie gave me this munch mix recipe this year after she made it for one of the football games.  It is so good and different that we decided to make it several times ourselves for the football games.  I made it over the weekend. 

It is from a Taste of Home recipe.  The mix includes cashews, crispix cereal, pretzels, bugles, colored fish crackers, and cheez-its stirred with butter popcorn oil and ranch mix - baked for 45 minutes.  It is addictive.

Happy Tuesday.

Hugs, Meg

M&M Cookie Bars

This weekend has been full of wrapping, baking, and getting ready for my daughter to come home next week.  I am excited to have her around for a month. 

I am making a few things so that she will have them when she gets home.  I will make more goodies as the month goes on.  I think most of the posts this week are going to be about food - hope you enjoy them. 

One of the things that I made are M&M Cookie Bars.  They are amazingly moist and chewy - they will melt in your mouth.  One of the things that has always reminded me of the holidays is M&M cookies.  I have never made them in bar form before, but my mom and I always made M&M cookies at Christmas.  It was a tradition.  I am continuing that tradition.

 

 

I found a website that I really like that has a bunch of really good cookie recipes on it.  Here is the recipe for what I made above.

 

http://www.whatmegansmaking.com/2013/01/thick-and-chewy-mm-cookie-bars.html

 

 

I hope you will try these for yourself.

 

Happy Monday!

 

Hugs, Meg



Winter Painting

I am posting another painting that I did this week with a friend of mine.  I have to say that this is my least favorite painting of all of the paintings that I have done.  I thought it would be great to do a snowy scene this time of year - I guess I am hoping for some snow this Christmastime, however we hardly ever have snow here in NC.

As always, I take a pic of the blank canvas:

 

 

I didn't realize that we would use so much light pink and violet in this painting. 

 

We started working on the mountains first.

I knew at this stage that I wasn't going to like this painting much.

The creek is next, which I wasn't sure about the color.  Looked more like a path to me.

We then started adding more of the scene.

And more of the details.

 
Here is the finished product.  You tell me what you think of it.

Happy Sunday,

Hugs, Meg



Girly Gift Card

I believe that a card can be a true gift for someone.  I love the sentiment that Accessories are a Girl's Best Friend.  I used that on the card that I have below.  The colors used are more for Spring but the concept of a gift is the same.  I made the earrings that are attached to the card.  The Magnolia Stamp that I used is colored with copics and glittered!  I love glitter, almost as much as I love ladybugs!

I hope you enjoy this card!

 

 

 

 

Happy Friday!

 

Hugs, Meg

Distress Stamp Watercoloring

Well, so far I have posted everyday in December.  I hope you will be there supporting me as I take on this challenge. 

 

Today I am posting a card that I used distress inks on but in a watercolor type of fashion.  It is similarly based on the creations of Michelle Zindorf.  I love following her blog and working on creations similar to hers.  She has beautiful work. 

 

I hope you are enjoying your Thursday!

 

Hugs, Meg

 



Tilda with Love in her Heart

As I posted yesterday, I make cards for swaps that I send around the world.  This card was a simple card but it was lovingly made for a special friend for a free swap.  I thought of it as Tilda with a loving heart.  I used different designer papers that I had in my scrap box and just felt the hearts were perfect.  Hope you enjoy this. 

If you haven't figured it out yet, I am trying to post on my blog everyday in December.  I am hoping that I can do it.  I try to do this every year but I don't always make it.  Hopefully this year will be different.

 Happy Wednesday!

Hugs, Meg

Traveling Tilda

I am in a number of swap groups, however, this year I have not swapped as much as I like to.  I haven't had a lot of time to be creative this year and I am telling you now that I am going to change that in the coming year.  This will be the first year in the last 3 that I do not have to have surgery near Christmas.  Hopefully I am not jinxing myself.

I created this card for a friend of mine in Australia for a free swap. 

Happy Tuesday!

Hugs, Meg

Simple Birthday Card

I am involved in a Birthday Exchange, with a number of other people.  The great thing about this is you make birthday cards for everyone that has a birthday in the month, but when it is your birthday then you received a number of cards from everyone on the list.  It is really pretty fun.

I created a pretty simple card for the month of November birthday girls!  Here is the card that I created.

I used a Stampin Up stamp set that I hadn't used in ages to create this card.  Love the stamp sets that are for double stamping on an image. 

I need to come up with another simple card for December for the birthday girls.  I think I will make it a bit Christmasy!

Happy Monday!

Hugs, Meg

Phi Mu Mother/Daughter Event

Last weekend I had the most amazing weekend with my daughter.  She was inducted into the sorority Phi Mu at East Carolina University as a founding member.  This is the first year they have Phi Mu and there were 118 girls.  The reason that it was so special for me is because I was in Phi Mu when I was at James Madison University before I transferred to ECU.  I was able to be at the installation and actual induct my daughter into the sorority.  It was a very special weekend.

One of the events for the weekend was a Mother/Daughter painting event.  We had so much fun!

Here are the pics of the painting that we did.  The flower for Phi Mu is the carnation.  The pic was hand drawn for us on the canvas.

 

 

The sympbol for Phi Mu is on the vase. 

 

Here is the beginning of the painting.

Then we worked on painting the flowers.

And more flowers.

And more flowers

Then working on the overall painting.

Then my daughter, Brittany, and I together.

What a fun time we had together. 

Well, here is to the first day of December!  Happy Holidays!

Hugs, Meg