Posts Tagged ‘christmas’

There are few things I love more than the smell of bread baking in my oven… even if that bread came from a can in the refrigerated section of my grocery store!

The recipe I’m sharing today is OH SO simple, and will turn a can of biscuits or rolls into a fabulously delicious side dish, worthy of even your pickiest eaters…

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m taking a two-week blogging break to spend time with family — and to enjoy Dave’s extra-long two FULL weeks of Christmas break!

However, I couldn’t just leave for two weeks without wishing you all a VERY Merry Christmas, or without sharing our 2012 Christmas card — and a few cute family pictures!

Since I didn’t do much decorating for Fall or Thanksgiving, I was itching to get out my Christmas decorations. I scaled back quite a bit because I knew Nora would get into EVERYTHING… however, our house still feels really festive!

Come on inside and take a look!

Today, I’m sharing a very simple (but effective) “Clear the Clutter Before Christmas” challenge that will hopefully encourage and motivate you to clear a little bit of clutter from your home and life before Christmas day.

No matter how busy you are these next 10 days, YOU CAN DO THIS… and you’ll be so glad you did!

The past few weekends have been chucked full of holiday entertaining in our home — apparently our new kitchen nominated us to host every single holiday party this season!

If you’re also entertaining this holiday season, here are 10 simple tips that should help things go a bit smoother — and actually let you enjoy your time with family and friends!

Today is the last day in my week-long Creative & Clutter-Free Gifts series… and it’s my favorite clutter-free gift of all {acts of service}.

I’ve always been a big fan of service gifts — much more so now that I’m married, have a house to maintain, and a child! I’d take the “gift” of a cleaned kitchen or a few hours of babysitting over almost anything from the store… any day!

Today is day 5 in my week-long Creative & Clutter-Free Gifts series… and we’re talking about a bunch of ways you can give back to different charities!

If you have people on your list who literally have everything, a simple donation to special charities in their name might be the best gift you can give them.

Today is day 4 in my Creative and Clutter-Free Gift series and I’m super excited — because we’re talking about giving cash!

I never liked giving cash until I realized that there are tons of creative {and personalized} ways to give this fabulous clutter-free gift. I’m sharing 10 ideas today!

Today is day 3 in my creative and clutter-free gift series and I’m talking about “experience gifts”.

Experience gifts can be a little more time-consuming to plan… and they aren’t necessarily inexpensive, but they ARE a fantastic clutter-free gift that your recipient will probably remember for a very long time.

Today is day 2 in my week-long creative and clutter-free gift series… and we’re talking all about gift cards.

I’m a huge fan of giving (and receiving) gift cards and today, I’m sharing 9 ideas to add a little creativity for this fabulous clutter-free gift.

Today is the first day in my week-long Creative & Clutter-Free Gifts series… and I’m just SOOOOO excited! All week long I’ll be sharing lots and lots of creative ways to give practical and clutter-free holiday gifts that should please everyone on your Christmas list!

I’m starting the series off with my favorite clutter-free gift {FOOD}… I have 13 creative ideas for giving the gift of food.

Now that it’s October, I feel like I can {and should} start thinking and planning for Christmas — specifically Christmas gifts.

This past weekend, I spent about 10 minutes making a Gift List and a Wish List — I do this every year and I’m always amazed by how these lists help me to simplify the holiday season.

As much as I LOVE putting up our Christmas decorations… I also love taking them down again.
Yes, it takes the better part of an afternoon to gather them all into my storage bins and bring them downstairs, but after I’m done, the house feels so open, light, and un-cluttered.

I packed up our decorations this past weekend… and have a few tips to simplify and organizing the process.

Despite the challenges of a fussy baby, a little bit of bad weather, and an over-all lack of sleep, we had a great Christmas break and made many wonderful memories during our first Christmas as a family…

Here are a few of the highlights!

Christmas is only TWO days away — and I’m taking the weekend off! And even though I can’t share my holiday card with you just yet {we’re sending New Year’s cards instead of Christmas cards} I figured I should take a few minutes to wish you a VERY Merry Christmas!

I really do love spending time baking in my kitchen, and there are times when I like making more “involved” recipes. But most of the time I rely on semi-homemade food — especially this time of year when we have so many holiday parties that require food.
However, any time I start with a boxed mix, I almost always manage to spruce it up a bit and make it look {and taste} more homemade. Here are a few of my favorite semi-homemade “recipes”!

Several weeks ago, I shared a bunch of tips to get organized BEFORE the holiday season; however if you’re like most people {including myself} — you probably got busy or procrastinated and are now frantically shopping for last-minute gifts, making food for all your holiday parties, getting your holiday cards in the mail, and clearing the clutter from your home!
Sound familiar? If so, here are a few tips to get you through the next two weeks.

There’s only 8 days until Christmas… and if you are still frantically searching for the perfect gift, it might just be time to “resort” to a gift card.

However, even though a gift card might not seem like the most personal or thoughtful gift, I can almost guarantee the recipient will love it… and with just a few minutes and a little creativity, you can package your gift cards in a thoughtful way.

Here are a few creative ways to give a gift card:

I know it’s still the day before Thanksgiving — but since I’m over nine months pregnant and since I wasn’t able to put up many decorations last year — I decided to get a head start on holiday decorating this year.

And I’m SO glad I did!!