Christmas times. :)

With finally being caught up on all pre-Christmas orders and Christmas gifts my creative brain has exploded into all the fun projects I have had on my pinterest boards for ages and I am having a great time pouring through them...rocks turned cute things was first on my list...

 followed by "make a glove into a bear".  :)

I've also had time to update one of my favorite items in the shop.  After Christmas you will be able to add either a name meaning or a date of birth to my ever popular name pillows. :)

And this year we had two Christmas cards made up.  Sara Luke, my all time favorite, made this one for us....

...and I bought this one from my friend Heather when she was raising money for a charity cause whose name is escaping me at the moment. :)  Both lovely and both sent out...some to some and some to others. :)

And randomly, Moses asked if he could go see "the pretend Santa" at the mall.  With him we have talked about how Santa was once a real person, who did good for others when he was alive, but how that was a long time ago, how people pretend to be him now, etc, etc.  Which of course, because of the stage that Moses is in, led to a whole conversation about how Santa died and where he is buried, etc.  So Moses prompted his asking to see this "pretend Santa" with "Remember when Santa died...well can we go see the one who pretends to be him and dress up like him?"  This is a HUGE milestone for Moses, who up until now has been deathly afraid of any adult in a costume. :)    

And here's what Porkchop has been up to...the arrival of our new Hokie nutcracker prompted a game of table top toy football...

 And the squinkies exacting revenge on our elf...

...Gulliver's travels style. :)

I hope this finds you a little relaxed...if not a lot...and enjoying some of the little things of this Christmas season. :)

custom order sunday and what i made for monday-easy caramel popcorn

Here's a double post for you...just so you know I have not given up on custom order Sundays or what I made for mondays...custom orders were still happening and treats are still being made. :)

Here's what I made for this Monday...

This is my friend lauren's caramel popcorn recipe.  This is a (very worthy) repost.  It's not too late to make this for gifts for friends and neighbors. 

 caramel popcorn

 3 bags of microwave popcorn

2 sticks butter; 

2 cups brown sugar; 

1/2 cup light corn syrup (Karo); 

1/2 tsp baking soda; 1 tsp salt; 1 tsp vanilla

pop popcorn and put it in a large roasting pan.

preheat over to 225.

melt butter on medium heat.  add karo, salt and brown sugar.

stir constantly and bring to a boil. 

then leave it untouched for 5 minutes. 

this part freaked me out the most...i was sure it would stick to the pan/burn on the bottom/etc...it did none of those things.

Remove from heat.  Add baking soda and vanilla.  Stir it up until it is all blended and caramelly.  

Once it is all well mixed together...pour it kind of evenly over your popcorn.  Don't worry if everything is not covered...it will get there. 

Put it in the oven for an hour.  Every fifteen minutes get it out and stir it up. 
When an hour is up...remove from the oven and spread out on cool cookie sheets.  Break up any large clumps.  Try to share some. :) 

And here's my favorite custom order of the week...a friend of mine asked me if I could make her daughters drawing into a 3d creation.  The result, I think, is something cute and fun that I hope her daughter will get a kick out of. :)

And here's what our elf has been up to...

 ...making a copy of his little buns...

 ...rolling with his gnomie...

 ...playing a game of scrabble...

 and playing hide and seek with the legos.

And because I can't get over it...please explain to me how we got to this young man stage on the right?

How's your Christmas season?  Crazy or awesome?  Peaceful or insane?

ten minute gift.

Need a quick little something for a friend?
Try making these quick tea bag cozies. 
Adapted from a tutorial from Mollie of Wild Olive they are unexpectedly cute. 
I made mine much larger and more coffee cup shaped in order to hold either a pack or two of cocoa or a few tea bags.  If you drag the photo above to a word document to can enlarge or shrink it, print it out and cut out to use as a pattern. 
Mollie hand stitched hers, I used my machine. :) Both results are adorable. :)
You could attach to a small bad of marshmallows if giving with cocoa or slip a coffee gift card inside. :)

Coffee would go great with the elf sized donuts that Porkchop made for the boys last night. :)

Happy day to you! :) xo

and we're back.

We just had another quick visit to Blacksburg...it was fun and fast. :)
We saw some friends, we babysat my new nephew, I taught my brother in law to make the worlds best pot roast (email me for directions) and we made Norwegian krumkake...in traditional cardamom flavor and the new scandalous chocolate. 

We got lots of snuggle time with Jack but not nearly enough.

I gave Jack a Christmas gift I made for him...a super soft and warm minky blanket that looks football like...but rectangular.  Pretty cute, if I say so myself.  Him and the blanket, not me. :)

And our elf showed up in Blacksburg to surprise the boys!  We woke up on Saturday to find him at the door trying to get in!

 Then he was hiding in Moses' cereal the next morning...

 and waiting in the car to go home later that day.  The boys were thrilled with his appearances. :)

Then this morning he took his revenge on a certain friend of mine who has been taunting him.  Porkchop used his photo as a potty pad to send the message that he isn't afraid. :)

Yes, this is of a friend.  Yes, we are just like that.  No, it is not offensive.  He thought it was funny...and so did I. :)

xo and Happy Monday! :)

more elf.

Life is too crazy for a real post at the moment...so enjoy some of our elf shenanigans.

Happy Friday to you! :)

here i am!

THIS is what I have been dealing with.  On top of all the other crazy in my life right now, I decided that hoho is ready to potty train.  Because really, I do better with 50 things to do than five.  So why not?  So far, so STUBBORN.  He will do some business on the pot, but not the OTHER.  You know the one.  Say a little prayer for a Christmas miracle for us, please.

 Our elf Porkchop (named after Doug Funny's dog) has been rocking the baby Jesus...

 ...climbing tree tops...

 ...turning our milk green...

 ...and doing some gold fishin.  Among other trouble making things. :)

 I've been decking the halls...in love with Moses' past years creations. 

 Enjoying temps in the high 60's and lots of sunshine.  I LOVE YOU VIRGINIA!

And finishing up the LAST HOHO's of the year! :) They will be "up for grabs" on my Little Bit Funky facebook page at or around 7pm tonight. :) Look for them and claim them fast! :) You can find the FB page to the right------------->

Lisa Kanos and Karen Snyder---you both win copies of Sew to Swap for your donations to charity:water. 

Jenni Carlisle---You WIN THE QUILT!!!!

All of you need to contact me with your address so I can get your items in the mail to you! :) xo

O Happy day to YOU!

making a list.

In case you were wondering...here is how I feel at the moment.
I just need a few good solid days of working and I think I can get all things under control.
November has 40 days right?  That should do it.
I feel like for every one thing I mark off of my list, I add three. 
But I refuse to stop moving...it will get done!

Do you elf on the shelf?  We just started this year...the boys LOVE waking up in the morning to find out what our naughty elf Porkchop is up to.  (five points to you if you can connect the dots for the random elf name.

I've been having awesome luck at the Goodwill lately...so I have started listing a few items on my ebay.  You can check out all that I have on my Ebay page HERE.  In addition to some vintage goodness (which hopefully will continue to be added to), I've also listed my Cricut Expression, that I never ever use.  It's in almost new condition and could totally be given as a gift. :)

And a question for you...my super saver sister in law has convinced me to start couponing (after coming home from CVS with bags full of FREE (good) things).  She turned me on to Hip2Save.  What's your favorite coupon site?  Method?  I'm a newbie and I would love some help getting started. :)

Also, now that Thanksgiving crazy has passed...could you take a moment to donate to my charity:water site?  You can click on the bottle over to the right.  I've only had TWO donations...which I am chalking up to it being Thanksgiving...but now that it's over...can you take a moment and give $10?  As it stands you have great odds to win a prize. :)

OK...that's it.  Homework: Do you elf?  Ideas? Do you coupon?  Resources?  Can you give $10?  Bottle on the right. :)

Thanks!