Five Gratefuls

... my cozy home and Christmas tree lights.

... not just learning new things, but using what I learn.

... black ink + kraft paper

... a friend that braves the cold every morning.

... little girls that cuddle up on my lap and are snoring 2 minutes later.  

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{inspired by Passionista}

Service Advent Ideas

Source: collectedblog.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

{visit collectedblog for her free download and allaround awesomeness}


Coming up with 25 days of service projects can be hard work!  We made our service advents with 14 and 15 year old girls so a lot of the ideas we came up with were fairly simple, and a lot were repeated.  But I thought I would share some of our ideas with you and some that I added to mine in case you were a little stumped for ideas.

Doing someone's elses chore for the day.

Making dinner

Cleaning out closets and donating clothes.

Donating coats for the coat drive.

Make cookies and take them to someone who could use cheering up.

Visit an elderly friend or neighbor and talk to them about their Holiday traditions.

Visit someone who is sick.

Give a meal or gift card to the homeless

Write a thank you note to your parents

Do something to help out a teacher at school

Buy a book for the Joyful Life Library

Donate toys or blankets to a shelter

Secret Santa for a less active girl at church

Babysit so parents or a friend can go Christmas Shopping

Play a game with younger siblings

Visit a nursing home 

Read the Christmas story from the bible to younger siblings

Toys for Tots or similar

Ask your bishop or church leader for ideas of who could use a little help

Missionary/Military letters or packages

Litter clean up

Clean someone's car

Open the door for someone

Pay It Forward

Donate Blood

Donate food to the food bank

Send someone a letter in the mail

Help serve at a soup kitchen or similar

Hope that helps!  What are some of your service ideas?!

Library Pocket Advent | Tutorial

Here it is!  Can I tell you how much I love it?!   It is exactly how I wanted it to turn out.  Well maybe even better than I hoped.    I love it when that happens.     

Each and every tiny detail brings a smile to my face.  The colors, the bling, the tape and twine,  the unperfect perfectness, all in one happy, christmas-y place.

I love that I took the time.  The time to think of what I wanted and how I wanted to make an advent calendar.  The time to dig through my supplies to find little treasures.  The time to make it just right and even redo if I wasn't perfectly in love with something.  The time to make something that can be with us for a long time.  

Are you in need of an advent calendar?  You can learn  how to make your own after the jump... 

InstaFriday. 12.2.11

Hello InstaFriday I have missed you!  I kept meaning to say I was thankful for you during my 30 days.  I guess you can count this as catching up from Day 26 or something!  I heart you and your earlybirds and your ease of use with other apps like Phonto and PicFrame.

Wanna see what we have been up to over the last month?  Don't worry I put them in collages so you don't have to scroll forever.  {Picnik is FABULOUS for that by the way}.  Look for sneak peaks of my advent calendar that I'll be posting later today!

Craft fairs are not for procrastinators.  I'm just sayin.   But in the end it was a success.  Even with all of the snow we had that day and 600 less people than last year. Afterwards I set up shop in Greenies. If you are local stop by and check it out!  There is some fun stuff for Christmas presents!

1. Thanksgiving Family night with bingo, hand turkeys and hot chocolate. 2.  Watching the Oregon Civil War with my sis.  I love that we love football.  3.  Stacks and stacks of pretty fall colors.  4.  Trying my hand at homemade caramels.  Two words.  Sea salt.  5.  Happy Thanksgiving!  6.  I made 6 dozen rolls for Thanksgiving with the extended family.  There were 90 people there!  7.  Wii party with my bro and new sis.  Ahh the newlyweds.  Thanks for coming guys!  8.  My favorite part of Thanksgiving is the leftovers and the cranberries.  I just don't like my cranberries to touch anything!  9.  Last year on Thanksgiving we had a snowstorm.  This year it was 70 degrees the day before!  There are pros and cons to both.

We pulled out our quiver of snowboards {I think we own 10} to get ready for the snow season.  Ivy can't wait to try it out this year.  

Christmas is in full swing at our house.  Is it at yours?

1.  My favorite silhouette shape.  2.  On a pillow.  3.  Ivy never lets me do her hair  unless I distract her with new games on the Ipad.  4.  Me being emo.  5.  Working on my advent calendar.  6.  Santa's little helper putting up the decorations.  7.  My silhouette has been working overtime to get my advent done.

8.  I heart buffalo check.  9.  Ivy loves her some eggnog.  I'll have to show you the video of her drinking it.   We get the light AND mix it with fat free milk.  10.  Merry + Bright.  11.  An instagram of my instagrams,  ordered from PostalPix for Christmas presents. 12.  Have you snagged a bag of the peppermint marshmallows yet?!  So good as rice krispie treats, and just right for hot chocolote.  13. Merry Christmas.  14.  Little girl is growing up,  she wasn't even scared at all.  Too bad she asked for a pony.  15.  A bag of these little cuties only lasts a few days around here.  16.  We couldn't bear to wrap up all our Christmas books so we just stuck them all under the tree to read to our hearts content.

We hit up Costco the other day.  We steered clear of it during Thanksgiving so we needed to get the essentials.  We also happened to need gas.  Ivy kept me entertained with Peek a boo while we sat in line.  Apparently Costco is still busy after Thanksgiving.  

Thank you Insta Gram and Insta Friday for capturing the everyday of our everyday!

A Little Service. Advent

Can it really be December already?  I love December, don't you?  I've had advent calendars on my mind since I've been putting one for our family together.  It just needs to be hung and I can't wait to show you.   Until then I wanted to share this little service advent calendar we made with our Young Women at church last night.  

On our schedule was a service activity.  But we also wanted to  help them have service on their minds for longer than one night, especially during the holidays.  So I came up with an easy way for them {and I} to perform service all month long, keeping Christ more centered in our Christmas.  

It is simple to put together and  if you want to make one for yourself, I bet you could even get it done today and not miss out on a day.

I found the envelopes in the gift bag section at Michaels.  I think they were $3 for 25.  I cut numbers with my Silhouette but you could use stamps or any number stickers you have on hand.  Hole punch the top and string them all together.  Tuck in a card with an act of service to do each day, and you are ready to count down the days to Christmas!  

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PS... The winner of the Level Up Intro To Photography class is Italia!  Thanks so much for entering!  And I'll let you know when the class after Christmas is so you can learn how to use your new Christmas Presents!