Christmas for a Dollar

Lately I've been a little obsessed with doing crafts especially the ones I find on others blogs! This Christmas we're trying to be careful with our money, but the only Christmas decorations we had was a Nativity set that I got for Christmas last year. Cute huh!

We didn't even have a tree! But no worries our house is now Christmassy and all for $1!!

The other night me and John stopped at the Dollar Store to get one thing but that never happens.. I really wanted a cute wreathe for our front door and I found a bare pine wreathe (it looked pretty wimpy) some glittery red berries, some poinsettia flowers, they have tons of cute ribbon, and I got a cute ornament of a reindeer covered in gold glitter. I put them all together and here's how it turned out! Pretty good for the Dollar Store!

I had lots of berries and flowers left over so I found a cute vase from my house added a knew ribbon and I have a new center piece for our kitchen table.

I found a cute little vase at Walmart for $1 stuck a whole package of candy canes, added some ribbon and a flower! Super cute, I think!

My dad had cut a bunch a blocks for me when I was a YW camp leader last summer and I have a bunch left over still so with some cute christmas paper scraps from an earlier project we made this cute sign! John did the letters because he is amazing with that kind of stuff!

John is a snowflake wizard!! So we decided to make all of our ornaments. Of course snowflakes! Here are some of his masterpieces!

We didn't have a tree but we did have some skinny pine trees from our wedding so we put some snowflakes on them.

But for our main tree we put gold glitter on them just to jazz them up a bit! I love glitter!! Everything is better with glitter!

We were at a craft fair the day after Thanksgiving and saw these cute ornaments one booth had the difference was the type of paper they used. Theirs was music notes and maps but we thought to use some cute christmas paper to put them on our tree. It just happens to be as easy as it looks. I love how they turned out!

From the Dollar Store I bought a roll of ribbon that is 3 yards and made 7 little bows for our tree. Bows on a christmas tree remind me of my mom, she always liked putting bows and flowers in the tree! It's a great touch!

Here is our skinny tree! Everything from the star, garland, and every ornament costed under $1!! I am very impressed with how well we did! Now we were able to get each other the presents we wanted. Which makes me so happy that I can make John happy!

The best part about christmas for $1 is that John likes creating things just as much as I do. So the last 2 weeks we have spent our time together sitting at the kitchen table creating all these great things. It was so much fun! I have a wonderful husband!

Wall Flowers

I saw on a tutorial how to make paper/napkin flowers on the MADE blog. It looked so easy I had to try! And it is so easy I made 3 giant flowers. Here's how you do it!

I was using tissue paper cause that's what I had; on the blog they used giant napkins. First get 4 giant papers and one slightly smaller for the middle. The smaller one will be the middle color of your flower so its fun to do a different colors or design. I cut up the edges on the middle sheet first before folding it will make it much easier.

Then fold all the papers together like you would a fan. Then tie a string around the middle to hold it together. I used a twisty tie for baggies. You could use anything really.

Cut the ends in a curve. That will really finish the flower.

Then flare out each sheet and your flower will end up something like this!

If you curve the edges like this it makes the flower like a little more like a paper flower. But still really cute.

I tied them all together and hung them on the wall. They really are giant flowers! I didn't think they would be so big but they are really cute. I was thinking they would look cute in my nieces bedroom or in my future sewing room! ;) (can't wait by the way)

I love blogs!

I just found a new blog that I can go crazy about! It's called All Things Thrifty. I like it so much I added a button to make it that much easier for everyone to check out the great things she is creating all the time! My other favorite blog is Make it and Love it I've been checking out that blog for a while now and actually that's where I've been getting all the great ideas of how to decorate my home lately. So I finally added a button for that one as well! So check them out! You won't be sorry!

Raspberry Lemonade Slush

I found this yummy super easy raspberry lemonade slush recipe on my favorite blog, Make it and Love it. It was delicious!

It only has three ingredients Simply Lemonade, ice, and frozen raspberry. And a little sugar if you would like.. Stick it in the blender and yummy!

Bowling Night!

When me and John were dating we went bowling at least once a week. Actually our first date was bowling. I was horrible! haha I think my score was like 50.. But now I actually do pretty good and I can keep up with John! I'm pretty proud of myself 8)

Here are some fun pictures of our bowling date!

You know John is having a good time when he makes this face!

Again using my phone to take pictures, not the best idea..


It has been a long time since we've gone, but we had alot of fun just the two of us.

Experimental Dinner

The other day I was watching Man vs Food on the travel channel. We don't have cable right now and it's the closest thing I can watch to the food channel.. Well Adam the show's host was in a restaurant in Hawaii and the best dish that everyone loved looked so easy I thought I would try it for myself. Luckily John is so easy to cook for so I wasn't afraid to try something a little different. All it is, is white rice, two ground hamburger patties, two eggs over easy, and brown gravy. It was good! But I forgot to take into consideration that restaurant dishes are always two times the food then you need. So if I ever make this again I will only do one of each. Neither one of us could finish it and it has been a couple hours since dinner and I'm still way full!

Our Happy Halloween

On thursday me and John went with my brother-n-law Andy and his daughter Mady to our ward's "Trunk or Treat". It was a lot of fun and Mady was so cute! She was dressed as Snow White. My sister Anna had to work so she wasn't able to go. So I did Mady's hair and makeup. It was a lot of fun for me and I think she felt like a true princess. In the picture she was being a little shy because everyone was looking at her. She was so cute after we got her all ready and done taking pictures she gave me the biggest hug! :)

At the trunk or treat there was a chili cook off and a little children's parade to show off the kids costumes. Mady got to tell everyone in the microphone what princess she was. She loved it. When we were running car to car she would say "trick or treat!!" and "thank you!!" it was the cutest thing.

John and Andy decorated the back hatch of the jeep with glow in the dark spider webs and a black light. Everyone thought it looked really spooky! I sat in the back behind the spider webs and held the candy bowl for everyone because it was so cold and windy. All any one could see of me was my teeth and my jacket. I looked like the cheshire cat.

On saturday we went to my parents so we could see everyone in their costumes. My sister Michelle and her husband Shawn dressed as Sumo Wrestlers. There costumes were so funny we all couldn't stop laughing. They barely fit in the living room!

Norah was a cute little pumpkin! She is the most adorable baby! In this moment that the picture was taken John, Michelle, and my dad were all taking her picture at the same time and she just sat there and posed for everyone it was the cutest thing ever! I love her!

Ruben was the awesome Spider Man! He had some pretty sweet moves! He is our little entertainer!

Heidi and Clara were princesses as well so we had to get a picture of them all together. Heidi is Ariel, Madyson is Snow White, and Clara is Rapunzel. Such cute girls!