8th Day of Christmas: Dolling Up for the Season

This is the first of my guest posts for this series!

Thank you so much to my amazing friend Rachel for taking time to do this for me!
She always has the cutest nails ever, and she is going to share with you how to get super cute, easy holiday nails.

Funky Christmas Nails

Nothing completes your Christmas party outfit like cute nails!

-Start with clean, dry nails in whatever shape you  prefer.  I like to use a nail brush to make sure they are squeaky clean.  

-Apply a thin layer of base coat polish.  This helps the polish to stick to your nail and last longer.

-Once the base coat is dry, slap some green polish on the top half of your nail.  Don't worry about it looking good, just make sure the tips are covered.

- Now you need ACETONE nail polish remover and what I call a "french brush" (it's about 1/4 of an inch wide and has a flat tip.)  Dip the brush in the remover , then drag across the bottom half of polish until you get the shape you want.  Then clean up sides, making sure to wipe and re-dip often so that you don't stain your cuticles.  Let dry.

-Using green glitter polish, go over top of green polish tips.

-Next you'll need a dotting tool.  If you dont have a fancy one, you can make one by sicking a straight pin into the eraser of a pencil, or simply use a toothpick!

-Put a few drops/blobs of red polish on a smooth surface (a Ziploc bag works great and makes for easy cleanup.)  Dip the tip or your dotting tool in the red polish and then put a dot in the center of your nail below the green tip.  Then continue with two more on each side.

-For the finishing  touch, using your dotting tool, pick up a jewel  from the top side and place on the WET center dot.

-Last but not least, seal in your polish with a top coat.  This helps protect your polish and makes it last a little longer, but most of all makes your nails nice and shiny!

Now, you're ready for Christmas!!!

Note: I used "Sinful" nail polish from Walgreen's.  If you use different brands of polish at the same time, make sure they are all formaldehyde free/ or all have formaldehyde.  If you use both, the polish will not dry correctly and you'll have soft spots and get smudges. 

This is day 8 of a 25 Days of Christmas series. To see the rest, click here.

http://anotheradventurewithourcupcake.blogspot.com/2012/11/25-days-of-christmas.html

7th Day of Christmas: Cookie, cookie, cookie!

When I was living at home, my mom and I made Christmas cookies every year..usually multiple times during the month of December. Some were from scratch other times we used store bought dough.

When I was younger, my all time favorite Christmas cookies were the sugar cookies with the characters 'printed' in them. I'm sure the only reason I liked them was because of the faces, but o well.

Today felt like a Christmas cookie kind of day. In attempts to not add any more food to our kitchen before our move this weekend, I went a head and grabbed a couple things of store bought Christmas cookie dough; peppermint chocolate chip and my favorite sugar cookie characters.

I am planning on giving some cookies as gifts this year, so keep your eye out for some homemade recipes in the next couple of weeks.

This is day 7 of a 25 Days of Christmas series. To see the rest, click here.

http://anotheradventurewithourcupcake.blogspot.com/2012/11/25-days-of-christmas.html

6th Day of Christmas: Show me the Lights

Last year around this time I was very pregnant...35 weeks to be exact. That put Christmas right in the middle of my 37th week of pregnancy. The fact that I was full term, and had spent my entire 34th week of pregnancy in the hospital for pre-term labor, meant that there was no way we were making the 6 hour trek back home for the Christmas.

So, instead I tried to find something festive that we could do. I did my research and found an awesome house that put on a full blown light show. It was complete with music synchronization to their own radio station.

We set out tonight to go see that house. Sadly, we got there and there were no lights this year. I was so bummed! But, I did my research a few days ago and found another house that was supposed to have a great display as well. 

We made the trip all of the way across town. I am so glad we did! It wasn't just one house. Both the house I found online and their neighbor did a display together and it was awesome. They didn't have their own radio station, but they did play music and the lights were synchronized.

This picture just doesn't do it justice, but its the best I could get this evening. We are planning on going back next week with my parents, and I will take better pictures and a video.

Rowen absolutely loved it.  She stared, laughed, oohed and ahhed. It was so awesome to see just how magical Christmas is to kids by the look on her face. I know she wont remember this, but I will. I hope to keep that magic alive for her for Christmases to come, and make more wonderful memories of going to see the lights year after year.

This is day 6 of a 25 Days of Christmas series. To see the rest, click here.

http://anotheradventurewithourcupcake.blogspot.com/2012/11/25-days-of-christmas.html

5th Day of Christmas: A Little Bit of Decorating

Ok.. I know I said that I wasn't going to decorate. With us moving in a week, there really isn't any point. But.... I saw these at Dollar Tree and couldn't help myself.

I will update with a picture of them put up tomorrow. Its too late and dark outside to take one tonight!

This is day 5 of a 25 Days of Christmas Series. To see the rest, click here.

http://anotheradventurewithourcupcake.blogspot.com/2012/11/25-days-of-christmas.html

4th Day of Christmas: Sweet Traditions

Getting a new ornament was a yearly Christmas tradition in my house when I was growing up.

Today, while I was picking up a couple things from Hobby Lobby to finish up Christmas gifts, I decided to take a look at their ornaments since they were 50% off.

I found this, and for those of you who know us, can attest to how perfect it is for Rowen's ornament this year.

This is day 4 of a 25 Days of Christmas series. To see the rest, click here.

http://anotheradventurewithourcupcake.blogspot.com/2012/11/25-days-of-christmas.html

3rd Day of Christmas: MistleTOES!

Let me preface this by saying that I am NOT A CARD maker by any means. In fact, posting this, while being linked up to Randi's blog is a little embarrassing :) If you haven't seen her homemade cards, they are AMAZING!

That being said, Colin's grandparents live in New Hampshire. We had decided to send them pictures for Christmas. That seemed too impersonal, so I decide to make them a card too.

I saw this idea on Pinterest, but the link was a plate, not a card. I loved it!

I stuck Rowen in her high chair and painted her feet! Then I stamped them. Cut them out and glued them to some card stock.

It definitely looks like an elementary school kid made it, but I love it! I hope Colin's grandparents do too!

Colin said it looks like a chile pepper. I find it appropriate considering New Mexico's state question is "Red or green?"

This is day 3 of a 25 days of Christmas series. To see the rest click here!

http://anotheradventurewithourcupcake.blogspot.com/2012/11/25-days-of-christmas.html

2nd Day of Christmas: Salt Dough Ornaments

I remember doing salt dough ornaments when I was a little kid. We went over to Grammie's house and she had the dough ready, cookie cutters, paints, you name it. It was so much fun! My mom still has them and they still go on the tree every year.

This year I saw salt dough ornaments of hand prints on Pinterest. I don't know why that never occurred to me! Even though we are not putting up our own tree this year, I knew that I wanted to make some since

Rowen is only going to be this little once.

While she was eating lunch I got everything ready.

You will need:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1/2 water

I mixed the flour and salt together in a bowl. Then I added the water. I kneaded the dough for 5 minutes.

Simple as that, the dough is ready.

After I rolled out the dough, I gathered my little Cupcake and we got started.

It took a few tries to get it right. You need to push down into the dough pretty hard to get the hand prints to show up.

I cut around them with a butter knife and used the end of a wooden spoon to poke a hole for the hanger. I wasn't going for perfect, but if you are, you could always use a cookie cutter or something rounded to cut out your ornament.

Then I stuck them in the oven at 250 degrees and let them bake for 2 hours.

After the cooled completely, I decided to paint Rowen's name with the year on them with acrylic paint. I then let the paint dry. I  took them outside and sprayed them with acrylic sealer.

Lastly, after they were dry ( I would recommend drying them outside overnight), I used some ribbon for a hanger, and they were done!

I had so much fun, and so did Rowen. Mission Accompolished.

This is day 2 of a 25 Days of Christmas Series. To see the rest click here.

http://anotheradventurewithourcupcake.blogspot.com/2012/11/25-days-of-christmas.html

1st Day of Christmas: Santa Baby

I love Christmas-did I mention that already? I love everything about it. I love the lights, decorations, food, and most of all, being around family. 

One tradition we had when I was little was going to see Santa. No matter what, we went every year. As I got older, of course I became less and less interested. Now that I have Rowen, I am so excited to be able to take her to see Santa. 

See Santa?......Check!

This is day 1 of a 25 Days of Christmas series. To see the rest, click here.

http://anotheradventurewithourcupcake.blogspot.com/2012/11/25-days-of-christmas.html