Life, Gluten Free

My TMD Update

I love my life.

Even though I have had hardships lately and sometimes it is necessary to cry and let your emotions out, I have a lot to be thankful for.

So I pressed my pen down on the paper this past Thanksgiving and I wrote down all that I am blessed with. This is a tradition that we do every year on Thanksgiving. I flipped through the pages of our Thanksgiving book and glanced at what we had written in the past years.

I noticed the one for Thanksgiving 2006, when I was pregnant with my daughter. We didn't know "who" she was at the time of course, so I smiled when I saw my husband's handwriting for his list of what he was thankful for.. "baby"

That baby turned out to be our daughter, Sophie - who has made our lives magical.

I am thankful that I look at her and see myself when I was her age.

I am thankful for the moments where her face seems to sparkle and I can see little pieces of my husband and myself, enterwined into a beautiful person of her own.

I am thankful that we gave her life and that despite her severe allergies, she's thriving and healthy and beautiful.

A while ago I mentioned on my blog that I have been having a lot of jaw and teeth issues, so I wanted to follow up with that. I am still dealing with it, although I believe I have found a dentist that can help me. The route that I am taking is neuromuscular dentistry and I pray that I will be better soon.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy every moment of the holiday season, knowing that the true blessings in life are the people that you cherish. For they are the ones that make life what it is, the special bonds you share and the moments that you never forget.

Shutterfly Photo Cards

I don't know about you, but sending out christmas cards has always been a favorite part of the holiday season for me. I like picking out the stamps, signing our names and wishing our friends and family a wonderful holiday season - from our family to theirs. Last year, we sent a photo card with pictures of our family - myself, my daughter and my husband. Everyone really appreciated it and I decided that it was a really, really good idea.

Most of our family and friends live in different states across the U.S. We even have one set of family members in Europe. So what better way to say Merry Christmas then to send them a card with a joyful picture of ourselves. In fact, I kind of realized that it's our duty to spread the christmas cheer in form of a very cute picture of our daughter. She brightens the hearts of many.

Shutterfly offers a variety of holiday cards and christmas photo cards to suit your taste and budget. They even offer photo calendars, which I think would be a great gift for grandparents especially.

I browsed through their selection and my favorite card is the Many Memories Tree Christmas Card with my second favorite being the Picture Joy flat photo card.

Shutterfly also offers:

• Photo Mugs
• Christmas Invitations
• Birthday Cards

*For writing about Shutterfly, I will receive 50 complimentary photo cards. We recently took a family photo at a park and we hope our holiday card will brighten the season for our friends and family while gently reminding them how much we care and that our thoughts are with them, even though they may be miles away.

Do you send Christmas Cards? What is your favorite kind to send?

DIY Christmas Ribbon Tree Craft

I love the holidays and I love crafts... put them together and crazy things can happen.

Like these ribbon trees.

DIY Christmas Ribbon Tree Craft

Supplies:

Cone (size of your choice.. I did one large 3 - 7/8 by 8 - 7/8 and two small 3 X 6)

Ribbon (slightly over 10 yards for the large cone, about 4-6 yds each for the small cones)

Hot glue gun

Pins (optional, helps to pin ribbon temporarily to get an idea of where to glue it)

Scissors

Sanity

Christmas tunes

Let's get started!!

For the large cone (3 - 7/8 by 8 - 7/8)

Cut 5 inch strips of ribbon. Fold them (as seen above) and pin them on the cone to get an idea of placement (optional step but helps at first!).

Apply some glue to the cone, lay a strip of ribbon down. Fold the strip of ribbon over and glue the piece together at the top of the ribbon to secure.

Continue until cone is complete, while alterning rows of different ribbon of your choice or use the same ribbon for the whole cone.

Topper

I did use a topper, though I am not sure what to call it... it has a pointy end, which I was able to poke down into the cone. Alternatively, you could glue a round piece of fabric or felt and have no topper. On one of the small ones, I glued some pom-pom accents (the little round puffy balls).

For the small cones

Same thing! But I used 3.5 inch ribbon pieces.

I love these!

What is your favorite christmas song?

Mine is one that I have been singing to my daughter every holiday season since she was born. Every time it comes on, she recognizes it and sings along.

I am linking this to the events:

and Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog

Thankful Turkey Craft

While I was searching for something on google, I stumbled upon a blog called Simply Modern Mom and found this tutorial for Thankful Paper Plate Turkey.

I also noticed another tutorial for a Thanksgiving Garland that looks great! Each person gets to write blessings on the leaves that you cut out.

It was so cute that I couldn't resist making it with my daughter. I quickly grabbed the supplies and set our craft table up for action.

We decided to use a variety of different colors for her handprints (aka the turkey feathers) and make a colorful turkey! This is a pretty simple craft and is age appropriate for toddlers with help from an adult.

Here is what my daughter had me write on her sticks for what she is thankful for (this is coming from a 3.5 year old and I think it is superb):

- Sticks

- Paper

- Crafts

- Momma

- Dada

- Grandma

- Books

- Friends

What are you thankful for?

Here are a few things that I am thankful for:

- My family

- Laughter

- The feeling of gratitude

- Sparks of creativity

Tis The Season for Crafts

We're all a little bit excited here because we've gotten the first snow of the season, albeit quite late. The weather has been about 10 degrees warmer than usual. We had some guests for about 3 weeks that were hoping to see snow and they just left on Tuesday. Literally hours after their plane left the ground, the first snowflake fell.

Because my daughter and I enjoy crafts so much, we decided to lay out a rug on the hardwood floor of our living room and sit next to the heater and make some early christmas ornaments. A perfect thing to do on a chilly day.

How do you spend those first frosty days of the season?