bring joy

Frugal Holidays: DIY clay baked ornaments + 5 inexpensive Christmas crafts

I think I may be more excited for Christmas than my kids.

It’s one of those years when our kids are the perfect age for Santa–they all get it, & though Hyrum (our 8 year old) may have his doubts about Santa, he still plays along.

I’m giddy with anticipation for the magic of Christmas eve & the excitement of Christmas morning.

As part of our Christmas traditions, we’ve made some Christmas ornaments. In years past we painted ceramic ornaments (mostly just Joseph & I), but this year I wanted to include the kids more.

So we made these:

I got the idea of using oven bake clay from this post from .

The kids wanted some colored clay as well as white, & we used Christmas cookie cutters to cut it into shapes.

I bought the clay on sale from Micheals–about $10, the baker’s twine was $3 (which...

{MM} healthy eating tips, texting, & current obsessions

marvelous mondays

No, that is not me with some Abercrombie model.

That’s my wickedly handsome brother, Nate (one of four brothers).

{And Salem just a few months old, is sleeping happily in the sling I’m wearing.}

I just happened to come across this picture recently & as a continuation of my thoughts in Thursday’s post (awesome thoughts by the way, especially loved Ashley’s comment about pregnancy being like growing old in fast motion), I was struck with the thought–this is why kids are worth it. It’s not for me, it’s not for Joseph, it’s for my kids. I’m choosing to have a bigger family, for my kids. So they can learn & grow from each other.

I love my siblings, especially my little bro. My upbringing would have been entirely different without that little punk.

♥♥

With Nelson Mandela’s passing last...

the perfect day (yesterday) + bring joy guide to gifting

family, frugal holidays, gift guides

I love gifting (though it must be thoughtful, personal) & I’ve got a round up of some of my fave things.

But first. You know, yesterday’s post was a little glum. And maybe I should do that more often because yesterday, the actual day, turned out to be rather idyllic. Joseph had to work late & didn’t get home until 7:30 & I didn’t leave the house other than to take the kids to school, pick up Hyrum from his after school Scrabble club, & chauffeur Amalia to her dance class. So nothing obviously extraordinary about this day. But, there were a few things that made it fabulous.

1) I took a long nap with Salem & woke up feeling like a million bucks. Sometimes a simple nap will do that.

2) I followed that up by making some of this. I did make a few substitutions–I halved the recipe & only...