Dog from H E double hockey sticks

So whenever we go out of town we have a dogsitter stay at the house because we have the dog from hell.  He is like the dog on Marley and me, he eats toys, eats socks and for some reason likes to dig my underwear out of the dirty clothes hamper and do god knows what with it.  I just know its no fun chasing the dog around the house who has your granny panties in his mouth and I'm screaming to everyone don't open the door.  Goodness knows the last thing we need is for the dog to run outside with my big ass underwear I'm sure the neighbors would love that.  They are probably already suspicious of the loud noises coming from the house trying to figure out if I'm beating the dog, my kid or my husband (I have never beat my kid so don't go calling DCFS on me otherwise they would find out that I also let my kids play with matches, eat play dough and drink redbull) Ok, back to the subject.  Our dogsitter stays at our house while we are gone and because our dog isn't fixed and she is a 20ish year old blond bombshell he greets her by humping her leg each time.  Lets face it he would hump anyones leg old or young.  The dog is usually up in my grill and by grill I mean crotch, he is  crotch sniffer so I have to warn everyone coming into the door that oh he doesnt bite he just sniffs.  While we are gone she leaves me a note that says Jazz (our dog) was so good and behaved well.  Who the hell did she dogsit for cause I have lived with that dog for over a year and the last thing he reminds me of is a well behaved dog.  I'm thinking she either drank the entire time we were gone, possibly even shared the alcohol with the dog, is a dog lover no matter how much he humps her leg and eats her underwear or that she is just thankful that we returned and wanted to be pleasant cause we paid her.  Either way I'm forever grateful that she likes to stay here and take care of my hellion of a dog.  Now where did that dog go with my Hanes her way.

Dont let this cute face fool ya.....

Decor Ideas

I get so many of my decor ideas from other blogs so if your looking for some Christmas decor ideas check out this today its when the link party starts up for Christmas decor ideas.  http://theletteredcottage.net/holiday-home-linky-party-our-christmas-mantel.  You can see the mantels of those that linked up as well right now there is about 190,  keep checking back to the site because people will be linking up all week.

Butter Behavior

Room temperature butter takes way to long to happen, and it never fails that I remember that it needs to be room temperature when I'm starting the recipe.  In hopes of fast forwarding the process I decided to lay the butter in the window and see if the sunshine helps speed things up.  If your thinking just melt it a bit in the microwave do not do this, it will mess up cookies and make them flat and the consistency is always wrong.  I'm no butter connoisseur I'm just saying zapping butter does my recipes no good.

Bring the outdoors in.

Decorating with the outdoors.  Ive showed you a few things you can do with pine cones, here is another cute, simple idea for that as well.

Now lets see what can be done with live tree branches.  Here they are in a large metal container on the fireplace hearth.  This could go anywhere, by the front door, or outside the door on your porch.  You could use anything as well, a decorative small trash can, a large basket, even a toy box container such as the wicker ones, pots used this spring and summer for your plants would work as well.

Here are branches just laying on my outdoor table, no need in it just sitting there empty all winter when I can decorate it for free with tree branches.  

I decorated with live branches as well on the front porch in this large lantern that I had.  I put branches, lights, and some decorative strands of beads in it. 

Many of you have these baskets or a basket like this, why not put some branches in it as well and then put ornaments on top.   That's an easy decor for your table or counter top as well and can be moved easily.  I ran out of branches so I gotta go cut some more.  

Take a walk and you will find lots of items to decorate with.  If your looking for red berries Ive been known for the past few years to visit a certain abandoned house on Gender Rd across from the fire station at the corner of Gender and Groveport Rd that has red berry branches that are perfect for decorating with.  Not that I'm telling anyone to trespass I'm just mentioning where there are beautiful live red berry branches that no one is using or will miss.   My sister trespassed the first year for me you gotta love a sister that is willing to get in trouble in the name of decor.

Another Dolllar Tree idea

Picked these cutie metal signs up at the local Dollar Tree.  They are 8.5 x 8.5 in size so a good medium size much larger than my hand.  They already have a ribbon attached.  What could you do with these?  Well these could be used in the middle of a wreath, hang from your window, hang from a mirror, on a doorknob, leaning in a corner in your kitchen, since they are metal you could put these on your mailbox as well,  give it away by attaching to a large gift, or get our your sharpie or paint pens and personalize them.   How cute would the snowman's belly look with "The Bolin's say" let it snow, or Happy Holidays "from The Bolin's".  They had 2 or 3 more designs as well that I didn't pick up but I'm sure I will be in there this week to get those as well.  Not bad decor for $1. 

Gift idea

I have posted this idea before but thought Id do again this holiday season. This one is for neighbors but it could be for friends as well.
Purchase refrigerated roll of cookie dough

1 to 2 cookie cutters from the dollar store

Maybe even cookie gel to write on the cookies or anything else you can think of.


"Sugar and Spice and everything Nice!! That's what GREAT Neighbors are made of!" is what you are going to attach to the roll of cookie dough along with any accesories with cute ribbon. You could write that saying on a christmas card, christmas paper, scrapbook paper, anything would work.
You could put thats what great friends are made of, great families are made of, great babysitters are made of, the skies the limit on this one.

Shaving Cream Man

Its a tradition that each time we spend the night at my sisters house that she and Preston bring out the shaving cream for bathtime.  He calls himself Shaving Cream Man and his superhero powers is shaving cream....duh.   Im not sure which one of them gets a bigger laugh out of it but each year it takes more and more shaving cream.  Yes, Yes I do intend to use these pictures someday against my son because thats the type of mom I am...your welcome son.

 Below is what happens when one boy covered in shaving cream decides to hug one mom who is in her clothes taking pictures of the shaving cream action.

Bundle o' ornaments

This is a picture from Pottery Barn catalog.  They had their bundle o' ornaments hanging from a front porch but you could hang them anywhere.  I am hanging mine from my dining room light.  This could be hung from your kitchen light as well as long as the kitchen light hung down.  I hung my ornaments from fishing line and then covered up the fishing line with ribbon that I had left over.   I hung 3 to 4 ornaments from one stand of fishing line and tied a knot at each ornament to keep its place so that it didnt gather at the bottom in a bundle. Its one large ornament and several smaller ones that are different sizes.  Ornaments are cheap right now.  I guarantee these will get compliments in your house and ooohs and aahhs and its all about the ooohs and aahhs people,   Ignore the mess on my dining room table that is Holiday Central in the Bolin house right now.

My sister did the same thing only she used different colors .  Here is a picture of hers, it looks great!

Dear Santa....

---

I've been a good mom all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my child on demand, visited his doctor's office more than my own doctor's, caught my sons vomit in my hands, fundraised for his school with items that I didnt even want to purchase, and spent 2 days a week volunteering at his school when all I wanted to do was go back to bed for a while and watch reality tv.  

I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmas', since had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back of a receipt, in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find anymore free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:

I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any color, except purple, which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze; but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store.

I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy and while we are on the subject perky boobs since those seem to be gone as well while I was feeding my child to what seemed like 24 hours a day.

If you're hauling big ticket items this year, I'd like fingerprint resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music; a television that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals or anyone named spongebob; and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone and eat cold York peppermints and not have to share them with anyone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, "Yes, Mommy" to boost my parental confidence, along with  kids who don't fight or a dog that doesnt misbehave, chew, bark or tear anything up and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without having to lay down flat on the bed.

I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting "Don't eat in the living room" and "Take your hands off each other", because my voice seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.

If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without having to get up from my dining table chair to refill a drink, get the ketchup, or grab another napkin to clean up spills, .

If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable?  And can you make my favorite Starbucks drink fat free but still taste like a mound of sugary delight?  It will clear my conscience immensely.

It would be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is ringing and my son saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back.

Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in to dry off so you don't catch cold.

Help yourself to cookies on the table but don't eat too many or leave crumbs on the floor.

Yours Always,

MOM

P.S. One more thing ...you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my children young enough to believe in Santa.

Happy Anniversary

Today is our Anniversary and we are celebrating it in TN.  Preston will be spending the evening with my dad,  Im sure they will eat junk food, watch movies and maybe even a little Wii competition.  Im glad that hubby and I get a chance to have a night out and that Preston will have some time with his grandfather.  Happy Anniversary Darlin'.  I love you more each year and I feel blessed to be your wife.

Easy decor for a girls room

This is not a Christmas idea but instead of girls room idea.  I tried decorating my stepdaughters room on a budget so here is how I did it.  First at the dollar tree they have stick on wall appliques so this is where all those dots came from.  They had all sorts of appliques including chalk board ones. They came from the dollar tree up on Brice Rd near the old Target.  Not the best part of town but their store is better than the one here in CW, the new one in Lancaster is good as well its in the Target shopping center.   Ignore the Justin Beiber poster, goodness knows I try to.

2nd I bought tissue paper, all different colors and pipe cleaners to make the tissue paper pom poms hanging on the wall.  She wanted them randomly hanging from her ceiling but they would of been cute in a corner.  Its her room so she won.  The black and red ones were from her Twilight bday party they were hanging above the kitchen table and are now hanging in her room as well.   You could use all one color, 2, 3 or as many colors as you want.  Here are the instructions on them at one of my favorite blogs http://designdazzle.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-to-make-pom-pom-tissue-flowers.html

3rd thing is that I bought these white small frames at the dollar tree as well.  It comes with white ribbon already attached but I changed it to purple and all I did was put scrapbook paper in it and a letter T.  You could buy several of these and put different colors of scrapbook paper and hang on wall and it would be cute.     You could even put one letter in each of them and spell your kids name out.

Thanksgiving in TN

Looking forward to seeing my family in TN this Thanksgiving.  This Thanksgiving my moms house will be filled with family and friends and I believe about 30 people for the day.  Wow that's a lot of hugs and possible cheek pinching for Preston, luckily I'm too old for that....I hope.  Wish us luck!
Oh and ignore the fact that whenever I go back home that I return with my southern accent in full gear, it only lasts a few days. 

Popcorn turkeys

This is a really cute idea.  Popcorn turkeys for the kids.  Check out the link for instructions its actually really easy.  (copy and paste link if you cant open it)

http://onecharmingparty.com/2010/11/02/the-kids-table-paper-bag-turkey/?ref=nf

Kid tree

Because the kids rooms are upstairs and they are only in them when they are sleeping I don't put tree's in their rooms.  Instead I put it in the foyer so they can see it at all times.   I try to do it in a kid friendly theme so its in snowmen, nothing but snowmen.   Preston loves finding snowmen ornaments and pointing them out to me when we are out and about.   This tree has a black hat, stick arms, a carrot nose, red scarf and pipe sticking out of it for more of a snowman effect.   (thanks to my neighbors the Z's who gave us the snowman accessories)   

 

Christmas Copycat idea

First off this is not my front door, secondly I wish it was cause I love the color, thirdly (that words sounds and looks funny to me but I looked it up to be sure its a word and yep it is) I love the wreath idea.  This is a good one to copy if your looking for something new this year.  This could be a cheap idea since at most craft stores you can get wreaths for $2.50 or cheaper.  The wreaths are held together by ribbon.  Super cute idea and replicate worthy.

Decorating with pine cones

Decorate with easy stuff such as pine cones and cinnamon sticks (cinnamon sticks can be found at dollar tree store, not bad for $1 a bag of them).  You can also decorate your light fixtures and hang ornaments from it at different lengths.

Tree topper

Im not your typical tree topper.  First its always hard to find one I like and I always like a little glitter to my tree.  Here is what I do instead.  I take wired edge ribbon and start making a large bow on top of tree with several pieces hanging down that will be incorporated in the branches of the tree. 

This is what your ribbon will look like when its just hanging.

 The next step is to crinkle it.  Basically your just folding each piece of ribbon that is hanging down accordion style,start from bottom and work your way up.

 This is what it will look like after you let go of the scrunched up ribbon.  You will then want to grab the end of the ribbon and slightly stretch it to the bottom of your tree.

 Afterwards this is what you get.  But its still not enough for me.

 I then stick Christmas glitter doohickeys in the top for a topper to get it more umph and to make my tree pop just a bit.  These were bought at Walmart cheap. 

Revamped

Im going to show you my decor mishap...it happens a lot.  Things look good in my head but when I actually do them, not so much.  Several years ago I bought all 4 of us new Christmas stockings.  I decided 2 days before Christmas that I should put our names on them.  I couldn't find what I was looking for as far as iron on letters go so I grabbed a glitter glue pen.  Big mistake.  It was goopey and globbie (not sure if those are words but they work for me) and a disaster.  Stockings aren't cheap so I left them the way they were and for years cringed each time the gold glitter shinned in the Christmas lights.  This year I decided to do something about my mess up.   I could of just covered the top half in ribbon but decided to go another way.  I found these feather thingies and letters for our first names since I was covering up our names so now the stockings that used to look like this now have a little pizazz to them.  Here is the lesson, even if you mess up try and think of ways that you can revamp.  Cost was $2 each to fix since everything was 50% off.