Soap and Reindeer

As I am posting gifts that I am giving my family, I can only hope that they might actually NOT read this right away. :D But I just loved how these turned out!

It has been a DIY season this year, I am trying to not spend money that I don't have and this is totally awesome.

Now don't mind the dirty table behind him. He was the first one I did and I also have a list of things to do that are very long, so I'm a little messy right now.

How did I do this you ask? I'll show you!

First I made soap. But you don't need to make your own to do this, you just need a bar of soap. I mean, I guess you could do this around anything soap shaped too.

But let's just say soap.

You will need the following:

Pipe Cleaners

Wiggle Eyes

Red Pom Poms

Jingle Bells

Ribbon

Cup Towels

Soap

Hot Glue Gun with Glue.

First you wrap up the soap, leaving out two sides to make the ears:

I had the top of my towel folded so I could make sure the layers over lapped on the top of the soap.

Next you I bunched up the sides, inserted the pipe cleaners, and tied a ribbon around it:

You could hot glue the pip cleaners, but I wanted to use as little glue as I could.

Now you get the hot glue out!

Add hot glue to the googly eyes and put them right where the towel begins to curve.

Then glue the red pom pom for it's nose.

The Pipe cleaners will become your antlers, so you need to bend them around to form them. I went with three prongs on each antler.

The last step is gluing up jingle bells. One for each pong and one in the middle. Be careful with the hot glue, the jingle bells are small and when you hold them, it's pretty much guaranteed that you will get some glue on your fingers, so work quickly.

Then you will have a cute little reindeer as the wrap for your awesome homemade soap (or whatever you decided to wrap).

I also recommend a little tag. Glue it between the ribbon and ear. Mine is just labels the sent of the soap, and I made out who its to on a sticker on and added that to the bottom of it.

Super Cute!

I hope you enjoy and try it out, they are fun and easy to make!

Wedding Anniversary

Today, November 19th 2011, I have been a Mrs. for three years.

I remember my wedding day like it was yesterday.

I was halfway through my pregnancy, so I had to find a dress that could hide the bump as well as possible. I didn't really want my pictures to have a big ol' belly. The song we danced to was "18th Floor Balcony" by Blue October. We got married at Chapel Dulcinea and it was wonderful.

Since we got married we have and experienced many things.

The day after we got married we found out we were going to have a boy.

My husband had to try not to leap out of his chair and fist pump the air.

I started crying from happiness and couldn't stop the entire ultrasound.

The technician even asked me if I was okay.

This is from before we found out what we were having, but it was all I could find at the moment.

We went to Las Vegas for our honeymoon, a trip the Josh won at his job. Our first time on a vacation together, and Josh's very first time on a plane. Although the trip was free, we still spent $800 dollars. Heehee.

 After spending 24 hours in pre-labor and 18 hours in labor, I gave birth to our son Christopher James on April 5th, 2009. By far the best and most important thing of our marriage was this event. Nothing can compare to become parents. My love for husband grew ten fold when I watched him become a father.

This is him at 6 weeks old. I am only going to post this, I already bombard this blog with his pictures.
After our son was born, time went so fast and suddenly we were celebrating our 1st Anniversary.
Our routine as a couple was set and we were no longer considered newlyweds. We had a few times when things got a little hard and there was stress put onto our relationship, but we were able to overcome them and grow stronger.

Then our 2nd Anniversary passed and we felt like an old married couple. Our schedules became so hectic. We worked opposite schedules and I started going to school. But we have figured out a way to make sure we still spend time together.


Now we have come to our 3rd Anniversary. Statistically speaking we are now at a 30% less chance of getting a divorce. We are considered a successful couple. All I can say is that I am more in love Josh today than I was when I saw him at the end of the Aisle. There are definitely things about him that bug the crap outta me, but it doesn't stop my love for him.

And he loves me too. He sticks by me, even when I am in the middle of my crazies. He will taste the random food "ideas" I make, and even like a few of them. He tolerates it when I pull out a camera because I "have to have a picture". Like these ones I took today:

Now those are the originals, taken by my lovely brother-in-law, but I LOVE LOVE the following edits.
I am a member of a social network for moms called Baby Gaga and some lovely moms edited the picture for me. I am going to be taking a photography class in January, so until then I need a ton of help. I couldn't choose just one, so I am posting all of them!

This one is by http://members.baby-gaga.com/member476545

By: http://members.baby-gaga.com/member910329

By: http://members.baby-gaga.com/member503654

By: http://members.baby-gaga.com/member966688
Last one!

By: http://members.baby-gaga.com/member849826

Thanks to all those Mommas!




I look forward to all the future years I have with my husband and all our next Anniversaries.

I love you Josh, you are my second half.

Twenty Four

Today is my birthday, I turned 24.

In the twenty fourth year of my life I did these things:

Re-enrolled in college, and haven't gone a semester with out a class.

I caught my very first costal fish.

I began this blog.

I began my food blog (The Tiny Kitchen That Could).

I stayed at the same job the entire year, but worked 4 different postions before settling in the one I am.

I celebrated 2 years of marriage (and in four days will celebrate three years!)

I celebrated my husband's 26th and my son's 2nd birthdays.

I cut my sons hair.

I have let it grow out again.

(That is from Halloween.)

My 24th year hasn't seemed like a big year, but each year has it's own special memories.

I look forward to a wonderful 25th year and a lot more memories!



What a Halloween!

I love when the holiday season starts.

I love to decorate (even with the modest decorations I have).

I love to make holiday meals (and I am trying to choose what I am going to make).

Halloween is the very beginning of all of it, and I am so excited we have started (again!!!).

This year Christopher's costume had to come from a resale shop because we're trying to have a cost effective holiday season this year (don't we every year?).

We started two weeks before Halloween getting ready for the fall!

I have a few decorations and they are the ones that I can leave out for both Halloween and Thanksgiving.

And we carved our pumpkins a little early because we didn't trick or treat at our house, we went to my Mom's.

We all had so much fun, and Christopher especially loved getting candy!

Fall Decorations!

When we first bought the costume!

Look at the little Dragon!

Time to carve the pumpkins! I had him in his "farmers overalls" for the occasion.

He is not helping me empty pumpkin guts, but getting the tootsie roll I put in there. He didn't want to put his hand in the pumpkin at all.

Vampire teeth!

A few days before Halloween, still wants the costume!

My Mom was a scary spider victim.

I went as a 80's...something. Bahaha.

My Mom's Graveyard cake.

Finally; Trick or Treating!

"Look Candy!"

Checkin' out the spoils of the night!