A collection of Elf on the Shelf ideas

I heard about the Elf on the Shelf a few years ago, but thought that maybe my kids would be too old for it.I sort of wish I had started it then.  Seems like such a fun Christmas tradition that so many families are having a lot of fun with.
If you are one of the few that hasn't heard about elf on the shelf, the idea is that your family adopts an elf of your very own.  The elf then is the eyes and ears for Santa reporting back who is on the naughty or nice list.  In some houses, the elf gets into some mischief of his own at night when everyone is sleeping.  It's hard to be good all of the time!


Since I am still soaking up the sun in Hawaii, I thought it would be fun to gather a few of my favorite elf on the shelf pictures and report back.  Just in case any of you needed a good laugh, or a little inspiration!
Cutting the mattress tag off lilblueboo
Elf Flour Angelsource
Helping himself to the contents of mommy's pursesource
The Elf is taken hostage by the Lego mini figssource
Elf fishingsource
Out on a ride with Barbiesource
The Elf is quite the ladies man!source
Taking a marshmallow bathsource
Shavingsource
TP'ing the treelilblueboo
Just having some fun with a dry erase markersource
A friendly wrestling matchvia
So what has your elf been up to?

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Some Easter ideas for your little peeps

Last year, I shared several Easter projects that I still love this year and know you will too.
Emily, from recipe for cute shares this adorable carrot candy box tutorial just in time for Easter. I just love her special childhood memory of hidden candy boxes filled with chocolate, forgotten and slowly pre-heating in the oven!

Last year, I posted this about planting jelly beans. My kids loved it!

You take a bag full of jelly beans,

plant them in the ground

and watch them grow!

I got the idea from See Jane Blog. Happy Easter!

Dandelions and Lace has a great pattern and tutorial  for these felt bunny plushies.

I made a few of my own.

Eighteen 25 has so many great printables.  I love this adorable bunny tail printable . 

Now go hop on over and print some off for your little Easter bunny's.

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I love Lucy! A Review of their Walkabout Pants

I've talked before about how I love Lucy.  Not the show (although that is great too), nope, the line of workout/active wear made by women just for women.  

Last week Lucy sent me a pair of their Walkabout II pants to try out.  

I have several pairs of Lucy pants, but not any of the walkabout pants, so I was excited to get a chance to review them.

 

Since I was reviewing the walkabout pant, I decided that I needed to try them to (what else) walkabout in!

The kids and I walk to school every day, so I thought that would be the perfect occasion to give them a shot. 

I think the pants are lucky because our resident bald eagle was out in the tree by our house waiting to say good morning.

The pants were so comfy that after I walked the kids to school, I just kept walking right to our local Starbucks for a nice morning treat.

I even tried them out again on our local trail a few days later.  

It was a rainy Sunday afternoon and I wanted to see how they would do getting wet.

They did great!  I stayed dry and so did the pants!

Here's what I like about them:

1. They are comfortable

There is an internal drawstring to adjust the size of the pants without making them lumpy and bumpy (women don't want any extra bumps in the tummy area now do we ladies?!) and they are lightweight and roomy without looking sloppy.

2. They had tons of pockets

I don't like to carry a purse, especially on a walk, so it was nice to be able to put my money, credit card keys, and whatever else I need in my pockets and know they will be secure (my favorite are the zippered pockets so you  know the important stuff won't go anywhere!).

3.They dry quickly

I took my youngest son on the trail walk on Sunday when it was raining.  He wore jeans, I had the walkabout pants on.  His pants were soaking, my pants were dry as a bone.  The raindrops were beading up on the pants!  One hazard of living in the Pacific Northwest is that it's always wet.  No matter what pants you wear, you run the risk of the bottom few inches of the legs soaking up water, getting wet and then staying wet for sometime.  Not in these pants!  

4. The fit

The thing I love about Lucy's clothing line is that there is a fit for every body.  They carry short and tall sizes in all of their pants so you can always find the perfect fit.  Because of the drawsting you can adjust the waist. I even wore long johns underneath the pants one day and they still fit perfectly!

5. Durability
One thing I know when I buy the Lucy brand is that the clothing will hold up and remain durable wash after wash after wash.  You know those favorite pants you have?  I have a pair of Lucy Capri leggings that I wear at least twice a week to the gym and have for over three years.  There isn't a single sign of wear, no seams ripping, no holes, no fading (even though they are black!).  They look the same as the day I bought them.  All of my Lucy gear is like that, so I know the walkabout II pants won't be any different.

The cons:

My two older kids both thought the pants looked like snow pants.

Could be that I was wearing it with my ski jacket, but because the pants are made of 96% nylon, they do have a little bit of a sheen to them, just like my snow pants do.

The walkabout II pant would be the perfect pant for traveling.  They are lightweight and comfortable for any climate, easy to pack, and easy to dress up or dress down.
They are great pants if you have an active lifestyle in a warm climate or in a rainy environment.  They are perfect for morning walks to school!

Thanks Lucy for letting me try them out!

disclaimer: Lucy gave me a pair of their new walkabout II pants in exchange for a product review.  All opinions are 100% mine.

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Printable Christmas Gift Courtesy of Jones Design Company

A few weeks ago, the amazing Emily over at Jones Design Company, offered up this Christmas printable for FREE!

I had my husband make a few copies (remember I don't have a color printer) and I picked up a few frames at Ikea.  

They make wonderful hostess gifts.  Thanks Emily!

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Guest post-Christmas Advent Calendar

I am so excited to get to introduce all of you to my friend Grace.  Grace is an amazing photographer who is based in Montgomery, AL.  She's a mom of four sweet kiddos, and I am proud to call her my friend.  Grace mostly blogs about photography (you will drool!), but this past week, she blogged about an advent calendar that she made for her kids in celebration of Christmas.  I just had to share it with all of you.  Welcome to Holy Craft Grace!

I’ve been wanting to build some new traditions for the holiday’s for awhile now and this year I actually did something about it.  I LOVED having Advent calendars when I was a kid, it was such a fun way to count down the days until Christmas. So I started from there.

I wanted to do something with my own kids that put the focus on preparing ourselves for the true meaning of the season.  After some thought (and a cruise through Pinterest!) I came up with my own version of an Advent calendar.   Look what some envelopes and stamps can get you. . .

(The first Sunday of Advent this year is November 27th which is why it starts with that date/number.)

I already had the linen/barnwood hanging up in the foyer (something I had custom made from the AWESOME people over at CHARLESTON HOUSE FRAMING & GALLERY) so I decided to put my holiday spin on it and use it as our background for my envelope calender.  Each envelope has a slip of paper in it with something to do – donate to the food bank, make cookies for friends, give compliments, cut out snowflakes.  I had to keep in mind our *very* hectic schedule when filling the envelopes, but I think we should be able to accomplish each day’s task.  There is a mix of ‘giving’ tasks and ‘fun family time’ tasks.  In the Sunday envelopes there are short children’s prayers each child will take turns reading while we light our advent candles.  And December 6th is the Feast of St. Nicholas so I put his story in to read and celebrate.

I am so happy with how it turned out and think the kids are going to love it too…they already want to start opening the envelopes!    The whole project  was probably under $20 (I already had the envelopes, twine and ‘backboard’) and I can see just stringing the envelopes inside an empty frame.

I just love the simplicity of this advent calendar, and the oodles of memories that will be made from the activities.  Thanks Grace for dropping by.  

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Window Shopping Day 4-Halloween Edition

This whole week I have been sharing with you some of my favorite things from a recent window shopping trip. Yesterday, I started my Halloween Edition and today I continue it.

This little guy was found at a scrapbook store. Pretty sure, he's all paper. Totally cool

This Halloween topiary gets an A for best use of an old thread spool. And check out the Halloween colored twine...love it.

So many great things to see here

I love the poison jar, the black tree and the silver glitter skull

Aren't these owl ornaments amazing?

There was a bucket of skulls too

I couldn't get enough of all of the really cool figurines they had. I love the tissue paper details.

I found this owl high up on a shelf

Every year I spray paint and put glitter on several real pumpkins. I love that they added ribbon and flowers to these. Keepin' it classy!

Like I mentioned yesterday, there were a ton of Halloween trees out there. And why not? How else are you going to hang your Halloween ornaments?

This Dracula ornament was too cute! You pulled the bat at the bottom and he did little jumping jacks.

This little owl was too cute.

I love the vintage feel of these black cats

I don't even know what to say about these guys. I just thought they were pretty cool. Like "hello, you are interrupting my conversation".

And these look like the bratty kids who steal your candy from your pillowcase on Halloween night

I love this black pumpkin

Seriously, weren't those some of the best Halloween decorations out there?! I had so much fun sharing my window shopping treasures with you. Did you have a favorite? Next time, lets go shopping together!

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