Last week we were focused on getting ready for the holiday festivities that are starting up this week. Since we're from two different cities we try to balance the holidays with both sides of our families which means we do Thanksgiving with one side and Christmas with the other. This year we're heading back to Detroit to spend Christmas with Serial's family so we're doing an early celebration with my immediate family this week.
We've been busy little elves working to get together our gifts and clean our condo. It actually felt pretty good to be so productive and now I feel like we can just relax and enjoy this time with our families. The downside? I neglected my blog. Big time. So, in an effort to avoid getting coal in my little blogger stocking, I thought I would do a little recap post and promise to be better about posting this week. Forgive me?
Good, here we go!
I've been sewing a bunch this past week and true to form, Rooney is curious and doesn't want to be left out of anything. I set up shop on the new table I built and since it's right behind our couch, he just lays there and stares at me. My own little floppy ears stalker.
We've been busy little elves working to get together our gifts and clean our condo. It actually felt pretty good to be so productive and now I feel like we can just relax and enjoy this time with our families. The downside? I neglected my blog. Big time. So, in an effort to avoid getting coal in my little blogger stocking, I thought I would do a little recap post and promise to be better about posting this week. Forgive me?
Good, here we go!
I've been sewing a bunch this past week and true to form, Rooney is curious and doesn't want to be left out of anything. I set up shop on the new table I built and since it's right behind our couch, he just lays there and stares at me. My own little floppy ears stalker.
What have I been sewing? Pillows for our condo (we have zero decorations up so I thought it would be a quick and easy fix to make it look less like a dorm room) and gifts for the holidays. I'm going to do a few simple tutorials on all of these, once the gifts have been given. I'm not a sewing expert, but you don't really need to be for small projects like these. You could even sew them by hand if you don't have a machine.
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This weekend I treated myself to a new book. I'm typically a thrift store or used book shopper when it comes to my reading (or the kindle .99 specials), but I have been thinking about this book since it came out and just couldn't hold out any longer. My hands-down favorite blog is Young House Love so when they put a book out, I was anxious to get my little DIY hands on it. I read through it cover-to-cover as soon as I got it home and it was worth every last cent. I love it so much and can't wait to tackle the projects in it.
I've been whipping up goodies in the kitchen and experimenting with a few different raw dessert recipes. I like to make them up as I go so sometimes they are a big fat failure and other times they are delicious. This raw carrot cake that I threw together was a winner. I'll be writing that one up soon, promise. If you're craving something sweet and raw right.this.second, check out the pumpkin bars or double chocolate bars that I made.
I also got to squeeze in a visit with my bestie's family before the holiday craziness started. Her little one is almost 6 months old so they're enjoying the first Christmas happiness that comes with having a little one that oohs and ahhs at the sparkly tree. While I was there we had a chance to hang the frame and the height chart that I made for her nursery. They look so cute in her nursery!
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We've also been continuing our quest for day hikes in the Chicago area. It's our substitute for the woods. We are lucky that we have a car to get to all of these various places and I love the time we spend time together outside in the fresh air, but we do miss the mountains. I'm going to start doing a post for each of the parks and areas we visit, just in case others are looking for ways to get away in the area.
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We've also been cleaning house. We don't have tons of "stuff" but it felt like we did because our space is small and we weren't really organized in our closet space. So, I spent a day just pulling everything out of all of the closets and placing things into three piles. Everything was marked as sell, keep or store away. It felt awesome. Yesterday I took two big containers to our friends' house to store in their garage attic (how awesome and sharing are they for letting us do that) and put everything we were keeping back into the closets, using hooks and shelving we had. Today I'm going to post all of our "sell" items on ebay and craigslist to make a few extra bucks and free up space. It's so great. I love a good organization project.
So that's it, friends. That's what we've been up to. Hope you all have been enjoying the holiday prep and finding time to relax with your loved ones. Have a great week!
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