I'll Be Back Soon!

Sorry I've been gone so long! This semester has been super crazy, busy. But big things will be happening soon, I have an apartment to decorate!

                                 -Katelyn

Styrofoam Ornaments

Day 8!! 
I'm finally getting caught up! Things have been super hectic these past few days. Today I'm going to share with you giant Styrofoam ornaments that I made to hang up in my dorm room. These are super easy and fool proof. 
Supplies: 
   Styrofoam shapes (I picked mine up from the Dollar Tree
   Glitter
   Glue
   String

Step 1. "Paint" glue onto they styrofoam ball. 

Step 2: Cover in glitter and let them dry. 

Step 3: String them and hang them up! 

I told you they were fool proof. I was going to wrap them in wire, but I ran out of time before finals started. Until next time, they will remain just glittery! (Nothing wrong with that!) 

Snowflake Window!

Day 7!!!
Sorry I've been gone a bit! Between finals, work, and trying to pack so I could go home for break. Ugh, I have a lot of crafts to get caught up on! The drive home was no fun either, but I made it home! And now it's a world of snow out there and I am stuck inside. Perfect for me to get caught up!
I wanted to decorate our window so it could look pretty on the outside. I also didn't want to spend a ton of money on decorating the windows. So I resorted to the days of Kindergarten and paper snowflake, but I didn't want them to look like a Kindergarten Katelyn made them. Turn to Google and I found this website of snowflake patterns. I then used this website to lean how to fold the paper. But you know, it's way to hard for me to completely follow directions. So I made a few following the patterns, then I made my own. I then hung them up on our window around our Christmas tree and they look so pretty. They made up for all the snow that we didn't get. 

Reusable Gift Bows

Day 6!
Ribbon and I have a love hate relationship. It makes presents look so pretty but it gets thrown away right after the gift is open. Seems like a waste of materials, right? Not to mention, it costs like five bucks for one bow! This year I have come up with a solution for the dreaded bow! And it only cost roughly 10 cents per bow if that! 

Supplies:
Felt
Ribbon (I bought it at the Dollar Tree. I feel no guilt, I still have a ton left for future projects.)
Hot glue

Step 1: Draw a bunch of circles on your felt. I used my hairspray as a template. I also make one with squares. I like both types equally. Now cut out the circles!

Step 2: Put a medium size dot of hot glue in the center of your felt circle. 

Step 3: I'm not really sure how to describe this step, I learned how to do it by looking at pictures.  Fold the felt upward around the glue circle. I fold mine in half and then half again. I then hold it until the glue hardens. It should look like this!

Step 4: Glue them all to a base circle. Start in the center and work your way out. I used 6-8 circles/squares for each "bow".

Step 5: Glue a few strips of ribbon to the bottom of the "bow". 
Step 6: Attach to the presents!

I really like the way they turned out and they match my wrapping paper!

                         -Katelyn

The Actual 12 Days of Christmas

  Today starts the Actual 12 Days of Christmas!
  I have a serious problem trying to keep myself from giving people their Christmas and birthday gifts early. My mom has received her Mother's Day gift and birthday present early for the past 10+ years. It's so hard for me to keep them! My mom just happens to have the same problem also. She once told me that waiting for Christmas would almost make her sick to her stomach. Same thing happens to me. Then her and her brother started giving each other early Christmas gifts when they were living on their own. 
     When my brother and I were little, my mom started the 12 Days of Christmas. We had these special bags with 12 little gifts inside. They were never anything big, just something to hold us over until Christmas. My first gift that I can remember was the bananas from Bananas in Pajamas. If you don't know what they are, click here. Weirdest kid show ever right!?! I still get that song stuck in my head! Anyways, every year we have the 12 Days of Christmas. I really enjoy it. It's never anything big, mine are usually lip gloss, nail polish, mini lotion ect. My brothers get GAC, mini AXE spray, boy things! I know it sounds silly but we are always really excited about it and can't wait for it to start. 
     Now please don't think that we are super spoiled. These gifts are small and meant to tide us over until Christmas. (Yes, I am 20 years old and I still get these gifts, but my youngest brother is  eleven so we all get them! :P ) Every year on Christmas Eve, my parents give us pj's and another gift. We happen to love the pj's. It's been a tradition ever since I was little. As for the other gift, one year we got Snowdens (It happened to be my favorite movie that year, and my dog now uses it as her own personal stuffed toy.), another we got a body pillows, and one year we got a go cart. The go cart is a whole other story! What I am trying to say my parents gave us the 12 Days gifts, pj's and a surprise gift. Then Santa would visit and life was great. We never knew anything different. And I wouldn't change a thing! We received the perfect amount of gifts for Christmas. Besides, Christmas isn't about gifts! It's about family and the story of Christ's birth, which my parents kept in our minds when growing up. 
   I love the way that my parents treated Christmas and when I have kids, I plan on doing the same thing! So Mom, I'm ready for my pj's and cinnamon rolls! 

Snowflake Ornaments

DAY 5!
I honestly think that these are super cute! I had some extra snowflakes and tulle from my snowflake wreath adventure. These are so easy to make and took me only about 15 minutes start to finish! I love snowflakes because then I can keep my decorations up longer! (A lesson I learned from my mother.)

Supplies
Glitter
Plastic snowflakes (Dollar Tree) 
Tulle 
Hot glue gun

I got fancy on the glitter for this one! I wanted it to be super sparkly and shimmery. I mixed fine white gold, silver German glitter glass (chunkier glitter), and iridescent glitter and mixed them together until I liked it. I wish I had something big to glitter in this stuff, I'm in love with it!  I do have a big vase at home... (stay tuned to see if that pops up!) Anyways this is what my glitter turned out to look like. 

I then glittered the snow flakes in the same process as the ones from the Snowflake Wreath. After that I cut my tulle in about 5 inch strips. I then knotted two of the strips together and then tied a third on to fill the gap. (The first two strips made an X and the third piece made a line horizontally across the X)

After tying 10 little puffs, I put a dot of glue on the back of the snowflakes and pressed the puff onto the glue dot.  Let them sit for a bit so the glue will harden. 

TaDa! Aren't they adorable? I love them. I hung them up on our door to accent the wreath. I then hung the rest up in our room. I plan on keeping these ones and putting them our Christmas tree next year (that is if we can fit one in our apartment!). They are just so cute :). I hope you enjoy making these!

-Katelyn 

And Welcome to Pre-Finals Week!

It's getting to be crunch time around here! Not just for finals, but to see if we can make it another week without having to do laundry. I really don't want to have pay to do laundry when I can just do it at home... 
Anyways it finally started snowing last night! It snowed quite a lot. Now it can just stop until I get home for Christmas break. Anna and I went for a walk in it. We went to go look at an apartment. 

Obviously, Anna is not prepared for white out conditions. She would blend in. But don't worry, I wore my bright orange coat just in case the wind picked up! 

I have a little (super big) obsession with Starbucks' Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate. It doesn't help that it is right down the street from my building. Anna and I had to stop there on our way back after apartment looking. Which brought us to the following conversation:

             Me: I want to make a snow angel, but I have no snow pants. 

             Anna: Yeah... 

             Me: I wonder if the snow would clean my pants... I dropped a pizza roll on them. 

             Anna: Don't worry, I have Cheetos on my pants and I wore them to work. 

             Me: I think that we should try the snow angels...

See we really do not want to do our laundry! Let's face it, I'm to cheap to do do my laundry. But that's ok, I will admit it. 

Then we commentated a snowball fight out in the circle at 11:30 at night. Who ever the kid was that did a handspring over the snow pile, we have a trophy for you! It was pretty entertaining. That is college for you :) 

-Katelyn