...Christmas Tree decorator by night!

I so love the Ho Ho Holidays! Only a few more days 'til Christmas! I can't wait. I'm done shopping, done wrapping, done decorating, and done online buying and done elbowing people out of the way to get that present...ing! Now I just get to wait until the big Day and enjoy the holiday fun. Aaaa :)

So I wanted to share with you how I dealt with what is pretty much the most popular gift to give for Christmas: Gift Cards

I had tons of them! They're so nice to get for that person in your life who is so dang hard to buy for. So for one gift I got a bunch of different gift cards. I'm also a "Go Green" kinda girl so I save every scrap of paper while I wrap (with eco friendly paper)...but then I end up with this:

All kinds of weird little pieces of oddly shaped paper that I can't do anything with. Until now! This is where the gift cards come in. These little scraps are the perfect size to wrap up all my gift cards. I wrapped each gift card with the box it came with and put a bow or a little note on each one. Then I put a piece of Christmas ribbon between each one to connect them together.

And finally I placed the whole thing in the tree to be a deoration/put it out of my cats reach cause they love anything ribbon!

Isn't it precious! And speaking of tree...here's what our beautiful tree has going on this year:

SQUIRREL! Yes we have his and hers squirrel ornaments because I love them and think they are awesome and hope to own one one day! Anyway. Let's see, what else:

My cute little snowman Colts football ornament. Yes, I am still a fan! No, I did not fall off the bandwagon because I didn't jump on in the first place. Always been a true blue fan!!

HTB and I have a tradition where every year we buy a new ornament and it always has to be reindeer themed. This was last years pick:

And this is the newest addition to our ornament collection! A cutie we found at Cheer Pier 1. I swear he was calling to us like they do in their commercials. He was saying "Please, take me home!" So we did:

We love him! Here's our beautiful tree in all her glory:

(Ignore the dark corner. We can't find the broken bulb and that spot is covered with presents right now)

There's not much that can make me wake up any earlier than I have to, but this time of year I make an exception. I wake up a few minutes early and go downstairs and plug her in. I get up before the sun does so it's still nice and dark. I love sitting on the couch and eating lucky charms and just enjoying how pretty she is. It makes me so warm and happy inside.

Here's some other cute decorations we have up around our house that fill me with Christmas:

So is your house bursting with the Christmas spirit too? Did you come up with a clever way to deal with all your gift cards? Good luck with those last minute Christmas preparations!  I hope everyone gets lots of friends and family time and I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

I linked up at www.thriftydecorchick.com



**I am available for hire in the northern Indianapolis area. Please feel free to email me at organizerbyday(@)gmail(dot)com for further information. I look forward to organizing with you!

...Christmas decorating by day too!

So as you all know I love decorating my house with construction paper. I wanted to show you a quick cute Christmas (say that 5 time fast) project I did using...wait for it...construction paper! First I started with a white piece of construction paper. Then I walked around the house looking for any 3 round objects that were different sizes. It is surprising how many round things were EXACTLY the same size. Yes I'm shouting, because it was so frustrating trying to find different sizes. Seriously, look around at all your round stuff. You'd be shocked. Anyway, this is what I came up with:

Coffee, butter, and that thing. Then I traced them onto the white paper:

Then I cut them all out and attached them smallest to biggest (duh) with some yarn so they were bouncy and floppy:

Next I added cute little faces and some Christmas cheer and that was it!:

Told ya it was quick. They are so precious! And easy to make! I cut out little arms and a black hat for the guy one (the one on the right...your right) and stuck them on the window:

A.dor.a.ble. I am in love with my little snowcouple! HTB smiled so big when he saw his. :) This time of year totally rocks. If I could just get some snow in that backyard! I know I know, be careful what you wish for. But I want to go drinking and sledding so bad! Do you have snow where you live? Or do you migrate south? Me, I don't mind the cold since it's only a couple months out of the year.

I'll be back soon to show you an organized and cute fun way to jazz up those boring gift cards. For now I'm going to go enjoy some of my homemade Blueberry Coffee Cake!

Happy shopping these next couple days! Only one more week til Christmas Day!!

**I am available for hire in the northern Indianapolis area. Please feel free to email me at organizerbyday(@)gmail(dot)com for further information. I look forward to organizing with you!

...falalalalaing by night!

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas!! It truly is the most wonderful time of the year! Everyone is nicer and friendlier and givinger (made that word up) and cheerier and I just flippin' love it! I realized that I had officially grown up a couple years ago when it was Christmastime and I discovered it really is better to give than receive. It brings me so much joy to buy for my friends and family all the while not forgetting the true meaning of Christmas. I know very much so that it's not about gifts...but it still rocks my jock when I watch my nephews face light up after ripping open the gift I got him.

So to help make the holiday season that much jollier I decided to do my own Christmas countdown and I wanted to share how I made it in my organizy (made that one up too) way. First thing was to make a trip to the craft store and buy as much green, red and white stuff they had. Then I did the first rule of organizing: Clear the space

This is what I came back with:



Adorable!

Then I got to cutting. Since I had 5 pages of 5 different patterns and the countdown was going to be 25 days I did some quick math and realized it was going to work out perfect! All I had to do was come up with 5 cute Christmasy things I could cut out. I ended up with a tree, some ornaments, a gift looking like one, and a candy cane (which I am coincidently eating right now :)). I cut all the paper into squares to make for easier cutting and then stapled the corners so the paper would stay together. Does that make sense?:

See the staples on the sides and the bottom? No? I swear they're there.

I cut out little white pieces to write what that days activity was going to be. Then I stuck numbers on one side and the message on the other.

And finally I stuck little velcro dots on both the cut out and the green poster board with the number side showing so that each day we can turn one over and see what fun Christmas activity is in store for us! Then I put a ribbon on it and hung it up in the kitchen.

Even HTB gets into it. I love it! And there are stickers e.ve.ry.where! Isn't it cute?!  Fun, simple, and soo easy. I used alotta glue sticks and a little bit of elbow grease cutting those puppies out. I think I might have broken a sweat at some point, but it was totally worth it :) So how do you countdown for the big day? Did you make one or find a great one at the stores? Either way, it gets the job down! Now I must get back to my online shopping cause I'm too lazy busy to go to the mall. Happy shopping and Happy Happy Holidays!

**I am available for hire in the northern Indianapolis area. Please feel free to email me at organizerbyday(@)gmail(dot)com for further information. I look forward to organizing with you!

...way-super-not-even-exaggerating late on this post by night!

So as I have always been open about this...I'm a huge dork. A huge dork that gets super totally into the holidays and doesn't let and Scrooge get in my way! And when I say holidays I mean mid-August I am already getting out fall decorations to start the season and the decorating keeps going til Easter New Years. I was so EXCITED to show you my Halloween decorations, but sadly my computer got sick mid-October and I wasn't able to get her fixed until now (mostly because of a TON of procrastination on my part).

Anyway

I wanted to share with you all some of the cute fun stuff we had around here for Fall (I'm posting this as inches of snow fall outside, but whatever)! Anyone that saw our house thought I was a second grade teacher and that's why our house was decorated with construction paper everywhere. I don't know if I should have been embarrassed or taken it as a compliment...but who cares.

So first I made a spoooky tree (remember this was supposed to be done during fall)

It was super easy to do once I had the base established. I cut out a bunch of leaves and thin brown strips and taped them e.ve.ry.where.

Then I put a cute pile of apples at the base.

...cause I'm cute like that. And I put a big sleepy owl in the branches.

I apologize again for the crummy pictures. I am hoping Santa brings a camera down that chimney for me! But isn't he so dang cauute!

In fact, he was so cute I made another one.

He's a little cock-eyed, but that's ok! He sat in this window.

Then I made Frankenstein and Franenstein

I crack myself up. I added some school stuff (again cause at the time it was Fall)

Then I made some funky spideys!

One creepy...and one cute.

Stay with me people. I'm almost done. I know everyone is dying to see Christmas right now. I promise my next post is jammed packed with Christmas!!

Here was the front door. And at the bottom of the door is my favorite thing I did!

I can't stand how hilarious I am. Right? Everyone else is laughing at this too, right? Well I know I am! And Scrooge on you if you aren't! I am glad Fall is over though, cause CHRISTMAS IS NEXT!! Yes, I'm shouting it!
I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving with their families and friends!! I know I had several moments where I thought how thankful I am for the amazing life we have. I thank God everyday for how blessed we are.
So are you ready for Christmas decorating yet? Do you already have your car radio tuned to the station that plays Christmas music 24/7 like me?! Did anyone go ape crazy on Black Friday? Who was out the longest? My sister was gone 14 hours! Who can beat that?! I know I was a bum. Maybe some year I'll try it, but for now I prefer sleeping in! 26 more days!!


**I am available for hire in the northern Indianapolis area. Please feel free to email me at organizerbyday(@)gmail(dot)com for further information. I look forward to organizing with you!

...pumpkin carver by afternoon

CAUTION: Do not attempt without adult supervision!

Happy Beautiful Fall day everyone! I decided today was the day to carve my chunky pumpkin that's been living outside for a few weeks now. I figured it's close enough to the Big Day (Halloween). So I started with the first step to organizing...Clear the Space:

Then, skipping step two (Find the Function (cause it doesn't apply here)), step three involves: Get organized. I know, duh, but seriously it's just that simple. Put everything out ahead of time so that it's easy to access everything and there's no delay in your project:

I cut open a paper bag and put it under the pumpkin to make for a quick cleanup.

**side note to explain the Vaseline. I always do research on the cheapest easiest way to preserve a pumpkin. I've found that the best way that works for us is Vaseline. I know others say bleach is the best, or the expensive "fresh pumpkin" juice you can buy is great. But I'm cheap and that little container was $.99 and the only time I use it is this time of year and we've had it for 3 years now. Awesome!

Here's my steps:

1. Wash that baby so it's good and clean. That makes an easier carving surface. Then you cut the top off:

2.  Make sure you make your "chimney" in the top so that it doesn't set on fire when you put the candle in. You'll wanna carve out the top. It'll look like this: 

3.  Gut the sucker completely. Set the seeds aside if you wanna cook 'em. I find it's easiest if you take the knife up the sides to cut the pumpkin seaweed (as I call it) off the pumpkin. It scoops out better. 

4.  Then draw whatever kind of face you want, or trace your favorite from a pumpkin design book. Use a knife to cut out the pieces. 

If you're having trouble cutting out the mouth, try cutting it in half like this:

5.  Then once you're all done, rub the whole thing with Vaseline, inside and out. I've found it helps the pump' keep for at least 8-9 days. Just in time for Halloween!! Plop a candle in the middle and TA-DA!

It's Steve!!! Why do I name my pumpkin? I dunno. I've done it every year. Last year was Earl. Isn't Steve so cute and shiny!? I just love him. And now he lives on our porch:

He's not perfect, but that wasn't what I was going for. So it works out well. Have you carved yours yet? Is it as crazy detailed as mine? (I kid, I kid) What about costumes? Anyone got a crazy cool idea for your Halloween apparel? Lemme know! Cause I love this time of year!

**I am available for hire in the northern Indianapolis area. Please feel free to email me at organizerbyday(@)gmail(dot)com for further information. I look forward to organizing with you!