~Pages, Amazon, and Swagbucks~

Whenever I visit a new blog, I look to see if they have an "About Me" page. It dawned on me that perhaps I should create such a page for my blog! So I did. :D For those reading my blog via feed readers, you'll have to click through to my blog to see it (look under my header).

And just for kicks, since we're talking "about me" here's a picture of me from Christmas. That my daughter took.

I'm thinking of getting her a kid's camera for her 3rd birthday, I think she'd have a lot of fun with it!

OK, back to the pages...you'll also see a page entitled "Affiliates". I have Amazon and Swagbucks listed. I've never sought to make money with my blog, but over the years I've been blogging I have posted links to Amazon multiple times. I figured that the links I post might as well be affiliate links. :) If you click through my blog with the links I've provided, a small percentage of your order will be credited to my account. Your order will remain private (I won't know who has ordered or what they purchased). It's something small, but I hope that if you have an Amazon order, you'll remember my link. I appreciate it! And I promise that I won't post links just to try to generate an income. I'll continue to post links as I find books/items that are of interest to me, and clearly note that the link I'm providing is an affiliate link.

Swagbucks. I can't believe I forgot to blog about this, but in August I got my KitchenAid mixer! Waaaaaahooo!!! It's amazing! I did it almost completely with Amazon gift cards I earned with my Swagbucks. If you haven't tried it out yet, do give it a try! It's fun, free, and easy!

~Happy Christmas Eve!~

My house smells like Christmas Eve - well at least what Yankee Candle thinks Christmas Eve smells like! It also smells like cinnamon rolls (breakfast tomorrow) and blueberry pie (dessert tomorrow).


There has been a flurry of cleaning, baking, cooking, and laundry, and now I am sitting down to enjoy a cup of peppermint tea.

Happy Christmas Eve!

~Five?~

Wow, I just cannot believe it is only five days until Christmas! Where has December gone????!!! I remember back to when I was growing up, and how five days till Christmas just seemed tortuously long. Now it's nothing.

This year we're staying home for Christmas. Maybe next year we'll make the trek to California for Christmas. We'll see! I want to go sooner than that though, because it has been too long since we've seen my family! :(

As Christmas nears, I'm thinking of my grandma more and missing her more. The last Christmas we went to California (2009) was her last Christmas here on earth. She always worked so hard to make Christmas special for her family! I think Christmas was her most favorite time of year! Now she's in heaven, with Jesus! The One Who we are celebrating, and she is with Him.

I hope you have a blessed Christmas!

~From T-Shirts to Jammies~

Awhile back, I made a pair of jammies for my daughter, from two of my husband's t-shirts.


I love the way they came out!

For the top, I used a vintage t-shirt pattern that I found at a thrift store. For the bottoms, I traced around a pair of leggings that my daughter had. Then I added hearts to each piece in contrasting colors! They kind of curl around the edges, and I like that.

The pattern cost $.10, I had the elastic, thread, and of course the t-shirts. One pair of jammies for $.10 is not bad at all! :D

~Water~

In the summer, I am very careful about getting enough water! But in the winter, I don't pay enough attention to how much water I am drinking. With the cold weather, I want coffee (laced with sugar and cream), hot cocoa, and tea (with honey). But water? Not so much!

I have heard that your body needs as much water in the winter as in the summer, so just recently I decided to make sure I get my daily water. I have a 2-quart pitcher which I fill in the morning, and leave on the counter. It's a visual reminder to drink my water, and I don't have to keep a tally of how many glasses I've had. I often drink more than the 2 quarts, but at the very minimum I drink my 8 glasses of water each day.

One benefit I have just noticed, is that my skin is not so dry. A few weeks ago my hands were so dry that they cracked and started bleeding while I was out shopping. It was kind of embarrassing to be handing my money over to the cashier with blood all over my hands! Normally, at the onset of winter, my skin becomes dry and stays that way until spring. My hands crack and bleed, the skin around my eyes is so tight it's painful! I've still had to use lotion, but my skin is not painfully dry. I've tried what I thought was everything to help my dry skin, but apparently I was missing one thing: water!

~Baby Gift~

Last night I had the privilege of attending a baby shower for a lady in our church. Since she is having a BOY I decided to make some gowns from the daddy's t-shirts. Thankfully he was willing to part with some of his t-shirts (unbeknownst to mommy!) and I came up with these three gowns:


It was a lot of fun to sew them! The one on the right was proving difficult for me to figure out how to cut, because no matter how I laid the pattern on the t-shirt, some of the design was going to end up in the seam allowance! Then I came up with the idea to use the contrasting t-shirt on the top of the gown and I was able to keep the whole design on the gown.



I told Kevin that I've really been surprised (for my sister and now my friend) that the guys are willing to part with their t-shirts. Kevin said, "yeah, there's a real bond with your t-shirts." I laughed, but it is oh-so-true! Guys do have some sort of bond with their t-shirts that a gal just can't understand!

This time, I used a pattern for the gowns (rather than the free pattern/tutorial which I used last time). I think I like the cut better on these than for the free pattern, so if I make them again I'll stick with the pattern. I used McCall's pattern M6103, in size small (13-15 pounds). I hope I chose the right size - I didn't want to make the newborn size and have them fit for 2 minutes. :)

~All Ready to Clean!~

Top: Tupperware cup with scrubby pad and cleaning toothbrushes, parmesan container with baking soda, all purpose cleaner, disinfectant, and window cleaner.
Bottom: Trash bags, Dr. Bronner's liquid castile soap, Mr. Murphy's oil soap, and my essential oils I use in my cleaners.

I spent some time cleaning out my cleaning cabinet the other day, and making new batches of cleaners since I was out of them. It seems funny to clean my cleaners, but I had spilled baking soda in my caddy, and every time I set my bottles on the counter, they left a ring of baking soda behind. It's nice to have a clean caddy!


My cleaning cabinet.

I also made a double batch of laundry soap. I'm ready to clean!

~Somehow...~

...I do not remember lining the nativity scene up like this. Hmmmmm.

~Hello, December~

Hello, December!


Where did the rest of the year go?

Right this minute: listening to my daughter sing "Happy birt-day to you" (she's supposed to be napping, I think today's "nap" is a bust), needing to go down to the basement and switch laundry, sipping hot chocolate (I got bit by the sugar bug over Thanksgiving. Sigh. Now I need to step.away.from.the.sugar.), and thinking about doing dishes.

Happy December! *Smiles*