Away In a Manger...

Is my absolute favorite Christmas song. In fact, I see it as more of a lullaby and I sing it to my kiddos year round! I also have a love of Nativity sets. I'm getting a little collection going!

So I was fascinated when I spotted THIS on Pinterest!

Source: sarivalsisters.blogspot.com via Amy on Pinterest

Love It!

And, of course, I was in love with the idea of making one of my own. So intriguing. Like a ship in a bottle!

I've got a small army of clear glass ornaments. So that part was easy. I found a Nativity shape on the Silhouette online store that I liked and I took a lucky guess at the sizing. I say lucky, because I only had to do one cut on my machine. I put some fake snow into the ornament...I realize there was no snow at the Birth of Christ...but it's so pretty and almost Heavenly looking. Anyway, I then very gently rolled up my cut out and inserted it into the ornament. I soon figured out that tweezers would be a handy tool, and I grabbed ours. It took some working, but using the tweezers I was able to get the cut out placed exactly how I wanted. And here it is:

Soooooooo coooooool!

My children were amazed! How did I do that? How did I get the paper into the ornament?

Christmas is such a magical time!

Go Big Red!

Maybe you know...maybe you don't...but I'm a Nebraskan.

Born and Bred and Corn Fed

And I'm PROUD! 

Through my life:

I've been asked by someone from California, "Do you, like, still have trouble with Indians?" 

I've been asked by someone from Florida, "Do you have to go to a well to get water?"

I've been asked by someone from Oklahoma (ummmm...only separated from us by Kansas), "Do you have cows? Do you ride a horse to school?"

My answers have varied:

"Do you know what year it is?"

"Do you have this thing called "education" in your state?"

"Are you freaking kidding me??? You're from Oklahoma! You're in the same boat we are!!!"

Anyway...I love Nebraska. We're in the middle...that means we're not too crazy. Lots of space. Lots of clean air. Lots of blue sky! Not too far of a drive to see fields of green, orchards, berry farms. People are friendly here and helpful. It's right on the sign, "The Good Life"!

Maybe you know...maybe you don't...but Nebraska has this little football team.

They're called the Huskers!

If you follow college football, you've probably heard about them. 

I'm not a big football fan. I was in the marching band...so I know that the game is just the Half-Time pre-show! However, I can't help but get swept up by, what I like to call The Red Zone.

This week they lost (Big Time) to the Wisconsin Badgers. Maybe you heard my husband hollering? Sobbing? With all that raw emotion...I thought we needed some Husker Cheering in our house. This is what I came up with:

The inspiration came from Pinterest (pinspiration!) When I saw THIS.

Source: sheskindacrafty.blogspot.com via Amy on Pinterest

I unleashed my Knock Off Powers and grabbed some ribbon. First, I tried pinning the ribbon rolls to the wreath, but they went all crooked on me. So I got out my glue gun and made a zillion little rolls from the ribbon and then glued them into place. I used my Silhouette machine to cut out the glitter & black "N", but I couldn't get the white background right, so I hand cut it.

I'm pretty excited with how it turned out! And, win or lose, we love our Huskers!!!

Check out these FABULOUS parties we're Linking up To

God Bless You Banner

Happy Friday, Everyone!!!

Today I'd like to show you this banner I whipped out on my Silhouette.

This past Sunday, Louie celebrated his First Communion! There was a beautiful service for the entire second grade where every child took part. Either with a reading, song, or (Louie's job) to bring forward the bread! There was a very sweet song Thanking Jesus and a very sweet prayer to Bless all the parents. Cue the tears!

Following service we had a little party at home with family and food and CAKE! I wanted a little something to hang behind the cake table.

The "flags" came as a three flag set on Silhouette's website and the letters are from a regular font from my computer. So easy to make and Louie loved it. He thought it looked "manly" and...I quote..."It works for my Communion, but it also works if I sneeze!"

Feelin' Lucky???

Get your minds out of the Gutter, People!

I'm talking about St. Pats & Pots-O-Gold & Leprechauns!

I'm also talking about how LUCKY I am! My DarlingHubs (I purposely didn't put a space there) surprised me for our anniversary last December by ordering me a Silhouette on CyberMonday! How cute is that??? Because he had heard me rant and rave about all the insanely cute things I'd been seeing in blogland.

Now sit down. I haven't used it yet!!! I mean, I've used it, but I haven't completed any projects with it. I'm ashamed to call myself a crafter! I remedied this sorry situation yesterday by whipping up this cute little banner. Read "little" to mean: Fifty Foot Long! Not really, but almost!

Sorry about the glare from outside! Sorry, also, for my super boring bamboo blinds! Any suggestions on window coverings would be greatly appreciated! Since this is such a crummy shot...I took close ups!

So. Are you? Feelin' Lucky?

I AM! And I really like this banner! And it was ridiculously easy to make. The Silhouette is FANTASTIC and I was able to do this while helping my three-year-old ClingOn put together puzzles and ALSO hold my Croupy Kat on my lap and sing her the Tiny Turtle song over and over. TMI?

Next up on my Silhouette To-Do List...Jazz up this weird beam between our kitchen and living room with some vinyl.

Stay Tuned...