Tuesday, November 19, 2013

My Favorite Christmas Books...

I promised a post today to share the progress of my Master Bedroom.  Well, a change of plans had to be made, due to the fact that I wasn't able to get any picutres of my bedroom.  It has been a dark and gloomy day... I have literally had to have my lights on during the day today because otherwise I literally feel like I'm sitting in the dark.  And dark gloomy "light" really doens't make for the best pictures.  So I'll have to try again another day I suppose.  But I did still promise a post, so rather than a post of my bedroom, here is a short list of some of my favorite Christmas books!  The pictures are a bit dreary (dark gloomy light + the quality of an iPhone) but here they are for you anyhow...

Red Sled by Lita Judge...
this is a story mostly told by pictures, but it's so cute nonetheless!  It's not really about Christmas either, but the story takes place during Winter, so I'm going to go ahead and say that's Christmasy enough for me.  :)

Santa Claus and the Three Bears by Maria Modugno, Illustrated by Jane and Brooke Dyer...
This one doesn't take a genius to know it's a take on "Goldielocks and the Three Bears"  But who doesn't love a classic tale turned Christmas?  Illustrations are so wonderful too!

Christmas Trolls by Jan Brett...
I'm such a fan of Jan Brett!!  I love how her illustrations share a sneak peak of what's to come on the next page.  Not to mention her stories are always charming and fun.  This has been a favorite book of mine since I was little.  :)

Toot and Puddle Let it Snow by Holly Hobbie...
I seriously love Toot and Puddle books!!  Their friendship is adorable, and Holly Hobbie just doens't disappoint.


Now those are just a few that we already have in out collection, but there are so many more that I hope to add to the collection eventually... Here are a few on my "Wish List"  Doesn't everyone have one of those for books??  ;)

(Source of all photos below: Amazon)
Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner, Pictures by Mark Buehner
My sister first introduce me to this book.  It is SO much fun to read with the kiddos!  The story is so cute, the pictures are beautiful AND fun, as the artist hides a little mouse (along with some extra things to find) on each page.  The kids generally won't let you turn the page till they have found all of the hidden "treasures"  So don't expect this one to be a quick read.  ;)


The Christmas Tale of Peter Rabbit by Emma Thompson
Now, I've never read this book, but both my daughter and I are big fans of Peter Rabbit.  I know perfectly well that Beatrix Potter didn't write this book herself, but I'm going to go ahead and do the unspeakable "judge a book by it's cover" and by the inspired illustrations, I'm going to go ahead and say this one is a win.  :)
The Night Before Christmas by Holly Hobbie...
Confession: I already have 4 (maybe 5) different illustrated versions of this poem.  It's probably the most recognized Christmas Story of all time, next to the Nativity itself.  But seeing how I'm pretty much in love with Holly Hobbie's illustrations, this one seems like another one I'd love to own!  I'm crazy, I know.  But at least I openly admit to that.  :)

So there you go!  Again, I am always looking for more books to add to my "library"  What are some of your family's favorite Christmas books??  Really, I'd LOVE to know!  

Monday, November 18, 2013

Stenciled Sign, and Happy Early Christmas to Me!

So it's been a while since my last update!  I apologize.  It's been one serious ball of crazy at my house the past little while.  My energy has litterally been sucked out of me, and getting the dishes done has generally been my greatest accomplishment in the day.  We have been plugging away at a very extensive project, our Master Bedroom!  It's not anywhere near being complete, but it's finally far enough along that I feel comfortable enough sharing my progress with you.  A post that will hopefully be up sometime tomorrow.  For now, let me share a sneak peak of what will be making it's appearance in my bedroom:


This was a collaborative effort, yet again, by Mr. B and myself.  :)  I was going to do a tutorial on how we made this sign, but my hubby basically took off on his own, and completed cutting the boards, putting them together, sanding this bad boy down AND completed the staining all before I could say "Wait, let me grab my camera!"  True story.  So I can't help you with any of the said above.  However the lettering was very simple.  You can use any stencil, that's all that it is.  But I opted to make my own stencil with my new Silouhette Cameo!!!  For those of you who dont' know, I've had my eye on getting one of those puppies for quite some time now.  I have been pleading with Mr. B to get one for me for Christmas, which he was totally on board with... except for the fact that I wanted it early.  Like, WAY early... June-ish??  I had so many projects building up in my head that I could make with this thing, I just wanted it now!  haha!  Well, it took a lot of begging, and now that it's November, Mr. B finally caved and let me order the dang thing!  YAHOO!  No worries, he got his Christmas gift early too, to be shown in tomorrow's post.  I think that was the final kicker to letting me finally order my Silouhette Cameo.  :)

Anyway, it took a few trys (more like 10 or 11 or 13) to pick out a font that I loved (I'm kind of a font hoarder, so going through them was a bit of a joke) and getting the size right, but once I had it figured out, it only took me a couple of minutes to stencil the disign on.  Now it just needs to be hung up.  YAY!