Christmas Centre Pieces

I need your help! I am trying to come up with an inexpensive DIY centre piece for my church christmas party. I am borrowing these great vintage canning jars from a friend and trying to come up with a filler for the inside. I did the christmas party last year, so i am reusing the green branches and bought new berries this year. The centre piece last year wasn't see through and a tad smaller, so i am stuck on ideas. I have also tried, ornaments inside, but those either don't look nice or they don't fit. I also have thought about popcorn, but Boston isn't fully sleeping yet and i don't want to wake him.


What is everyones pick? Or take your favourite and make adjustments. Or trust tell me to scratch these and start all over again!

The one that looks like ice is water and saran wrap. Thanks Liam for the idea!


And also what should i put the jar on? The stripes in the first few pictures were from last year and the red dots are a napkin. But open to any cheap idea.


I should mention the party is Saturday and i am busy doing a lot of other things for the party plus going to work every day. Please suggest nothing time consuming ;)

A Service Exchange

I organized a service exchange for our Relief Society activity last night. As many of you ladies know, when you organize an event you want people to actually show up! At 5 minutes to 7, there was no one at the church but me. At 4 minutes to 7, one lady showed up and then about 10 minutes after 7, 17 more ladies showed up! I even got a thumb up from the Relief Society President regarding the turn out. I personally am just happy at least one person showed up!

I know many of you know what a service exchange is, but for those of you who don’t know, here is what the invite said.

You are invited to a service exchange party

Wednesday, November 23, 7:00 pm at the church

Think of a service, any service, whether it is baking a pie, sewing, knitting a scarf,

cleaning, babysitting or organizing a kitchen.  Next write your service, your name and

phone number on a piece of paper and place into an envelope.

Finally, bring your envelope to our Relief Society party!

We then played Chinese gift exchange (or white elephant) to exchange the services. We had tons of different services offered from; fudge, knitting a scarf, gift wrapping, cookies, cinnamon buns, canned peaches & jams, decorating consultant, 3 hours of cleaning, hair cuts for the whole family (a lady with 3 boys and 2 girls happily got this), homemade cards, pies, canvas picture craft, and the list goes on! And what did I exchange; well I gave away the 2 hours of organizing service and received, a night of babysitting! I’m so excited! I really want to go see the new Twilight movie or maybe i should use it for the night my work has its christmas party.

Our ward was having a fast for a lady in the ward last night, so the RS presidency didn’t want to offer refreshments. Instead they asked me to make take home refreshments. I had no time to bake or really do anything huge, so simple store bought caramel popcorn it was.

I found the cute printable here.

We also did an optional cookie exchange at the end of the service exchange. As of Sunday we had 12 ladies signed up. But by yesterday only 8 ladies participated. But that is fine with me considering I am trying to lose weight, not gain it!

I made these yummy cookies. Honestly, yummy!

And on a side note, if you can tell by my picture of the popcorn, my laundry room has become my little do it room. Since our kitchen has no counter space and my desk is in the living room and Boston can climb up on it, I had to find another space for me.  My laundry room has become this space.  I cool cookies, do crafts, store items, take pictures, etc, on the washer and dryer! I even moved most of my little craft items and stationary into the laundry room. Oh how I cant wait for a day when I can have a “office” with a door!

Invitations

My second attempt (first attempt here) at Photoshop. They are invitations for our ward relief society bbq. 
Idea found here.

Big Birthday Bash

We had Boston's final and biggest birthday party on April 30th in Calgary at Scott's parent's house.


The theme was Cookies & Milk.


The Invite.

The Decor.

The cake says "cookie" on the top, just hard to tell from the picture.

(chocolate covered pretzels made by my lovely sister)

The Birthday Boy.

If I could change anything from the party, I would have asked someone to take pictures through out the party!! I was just too busy entertaining and watching Boston that I didn't think about pictures of the guests and the birthday boy having so much fun!


It was a fun party, thank you for everyone that came and for everyone that helped make the party a successful 1st birthday for Boston!

Party #2

I invited two close friends over and their families for a tiny little party for Boston.

Aunt Alyssa helping Boston blow up his candle!

Sneak Peek

I have spent the last few weeks shopping and crafting for two little boys 1st birthday parties! These little guys are about a month apart and almost have the same name (one letter difference).

Here is a little peek into what I have been creating for the parties...

The first party is in 1 week and the next party is in April! 
I love being a MOM and a friend to an amazing MOM how also has been busy crafting and shopping for the parties!

Thankful Thursday

Today i am thankful for my condo building and that fact it wasn't the one on fire in Calgary today.

Check out this link...
http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100318/CGY_Fire_Millrise_100318/20100318/?hub=CalgaryHome

I think this really hit home and i started crying watching the news. Millrise is just one community over from my community and the buildings are almost exactly the same. The only difference is mine is 1 year older and only 3 floors and this one is 4. But i do believe they are the same builder and shaped like mine. I couldn't even think what i would do or feel if this happened to us. My heart goes out to anyone that has been involved in a fire. It is just sooo sad!

On a happier note, i am also 32 weeks. I took these pictures on Monday after my sister reminded me it was the 15th of March and I am due the 15th of May... exactly 2 months left! And no my belly button has not popped, that is just a crease in my shirt.

People keep asking me if i am ready for baby to come and honestly, is anyone ever really ready? K, maybe people are more ready than i am right now. I am missing a lot of important baby items and also missing a lot of important information (which i plan to start learning Wednesday as my prenatal classes start). Oh well... I am taking 2 days off at the beginning of April and enjoying a 5 day weekend. I am planning on sewing a bunch of baby blankets and also start to organize baby clothes.

The baby bedding i want is on order and can take up to 10 more weeks. But the cushions to my rocking chair are at my friends house right now being recovered! I also want to paint the babies room so bad, anyone that knows me knows, i love color and decorating but we don't know 100% if we are going to be here in September and I don't want to paint if we are moving. We wont hear back from the schools till another month or more.

So am i ready, NO, but a few of the reason are out of my control. We are just keeping busy. Scott is focusing on his last classes and also applying for tons of internships for May. He has to do one to complete his degree. Scott also was called to teach seminary 3 days a week at 6:30 in the morning. He started when we got back from Arizona. He seems to be enjoying it, i just hope the youth are enjoying him!

I am just going to work and when i get home and on weekends i de-junk and organize. I am thankful for Scott's sister Amanda as she is letting us store a bunch of boxes at her house that use to be in the spare room.

Happy Thankful Thursday!

A Baby Shower and A Baby Bump

It has been a busy last 2 weeks with tons going on at work. We had our international employees from all over come for week long meetings and the Christmas party. The highlight of the week was the little baby shower the ladies threw for Marietta (a lady who works in the Netherlands) and me! Marietta is due about 2 weeks before me. One day at lunch they took us ladies out for a nice lunch and had balloons and gift baskets for us. I wish someone got a picture of the table, it looks really cute, but instead I took a picture later of the balloons (there was a few more but they popped) and also the gift basket. Scott and I had so much fun opening that night. Tons of cute outfits and blankets!

Saturday night we had my work Christmas party at the Rotary house, which is located at the stampede grounds. It was yummy food and a good time. My friend from work was trying to get me to dance but I enjoyed the socializing a bit more. BUT she did get me out there to do the Cadillac ranch! I was shocked that no one knew the dance to it but Marcy and me. I guess growing up going to youth dances and doing it every time, you never forget it! Someone did get a picture of us out there. It isn’t the best picture, but you can see a baby bump!

I wanted to add this funny picture. My work did a door decorating contest for Christmas. It was a christmas carol theme and this was Marcy's door.

Just a few days ago before I left for work, Scott took a few pictures of my belly at 22 weeks. The ones with my face didn’t turn out but here is one of my growing belly. I am really thankful I bought 3 knit dresses when I was in NY in the summer. They are all empire waist and perfect right now since I refuse to buy maternity clothes! Since they are not maternity dresses, they won’t fit forever but this black dress really made me look pregnant. In fact I had my first stranger ask me when I was due that day!