Welcome to the first installment of Craftmas (or Craftukkah or Craftzaa, whichever you celebrate)!  I don’t know about you gals, but we are super tight on money this year and that is ESPECIALLY true around the holidays.

However, like many, I have some creepy Martha Stewart desire to decorate our house in everything tinsel, and I squeal with glee anytime I see something covered in Santa Clauses.  Hey, I’m not proud of it, but there you go.

So during my daily Anthropologie browse a couple weeks ago (ah, but to dream), I stumbled upon a beautiful tree ornament. I won’t show it here (again, scared of copywright ramifications…thanks, lawyers, for screwing with my craftiness), but you can probably find it on their site.  Anyway, this little item happened to cost a pretty $398.  Um, yeah.  Here’s my interpretation of the same tree topper, with exciting step-by-step instructions!

This project cost me about $20…only 5% of the store-bought cost!

Here’s what you’ll need:

-small grapevine wreath (I think this one is 6 or 7 inches in diameter)
-bundles of sticks and other decorative items of your choice
-glue gun and glue sticks

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Nope.  I’m not talking about that list of qualities your fairytale in-laws possess in your dreams… You know, the dreams where eating organically isn’t considered “hippie” and you and your mother-in-law share the exact same tastes and shoe-size?  No?  Just me?  Humph.

I’m talking Christmas Wish Lists + The In-Laws… i.e.: Sticky Situation in the Making, right?

Telling Evs’ parental units what I want for Christmas continues to be awkward for me… This is definitely one of those aspects of marriage that I never considered when we got engaged.  Last year, I was overwhelmed by the generosity of his mom and dad.  However, while I do love a pretty package under the tree with my name on it, if it were 100% up to me, I wouldn’t make any specific requests from my new side of the family for the holidays.

However, my Mother-in-Law insists upon the submission of a Christmas Wish List prior to Halloween.  Yep, we have an Early Shopper on our hands.  Which, kudos to her - I always find myself, eight days before Christmas, circling the mall parking garage aimlessly, stalking exiting shoppers for their parking stops and beating my head against the steering wheel in time to Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.

Ahem.

Anyhoo, as instructed, I recently submitted my In-Law Wish List.  As always (”always” being relative since really this is my first year to have technical “in-laws” but whatever), I followed the Three Cardinal Rules of Gift-Requesting-From-Non-Blood-Relations-You-Don’t-Have-Sex-With:

(1) Lots of options
(2) Lots of price-points but nothing over $50
(3) No clothes (don’t ask me why - just feels weird)

Now, without further adieu… The In-Laws Wish List!

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With Thanksgiving coming  up, there will be lots of family, friends, and food.  From elaborate to simple, you can create a pretty table to enjoy it aound!

Oranges with clove initials for placeholders are pretty and smell wonderful!

Cream colored pumpkins with cute placecards attached are easy to do and a nod to the traditional.

For centerpieces, something as simple and easy as candlelight is made a little more special with the addition of some dried citrus slices glued to the bases of the candles.

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Many years ago, my Father was transferred to California for work. He took with him his wife and three daughters who were 6, 3 & 1. We moved from our home in the Home Counties of England to just south-east of San Francisco. There were many cultural differences between the USA and the UK, not least the celebration of Halloween.

To go to school in one’s Halloween costume was not something that I had ever encountered in England. In fact, costumes were more for school discos or parties rather than school events. I had not even *heard* of trick or treating, let alone experienced it. And as for school Principals who dressed up as Big Bird and then led a school costume parade around the football field, well, let’s just say I was a little surprised.

Fast forward over 20 years, for it is, I realised 21 years since we moved to California {and 20 since the earthquake I was able to write about first hand in a school Geography lesson a decade later back in England} and Halloween is far more widely celebrated in England than ever before. Traditionally, UK autumnal celebrations centre around Bonfire Night/5th November/Guy Fawkes night {which I will tell you all about next week} but in recent years we have celebrated Halloween ourselves as well.

So, on Saturday afternoon I carved our pumpkin (turning the fleshy part into puree which I froze to use as part of the food for our bonfire night party) and hung the decorations I made last year up with some fairy lights in our kitchen window. Turns out paper pumpkins, witches hats and bats illuminated in the window at about 6.30pm declares that you “are open” for trick or treaters. Who knew?!

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Last week, my close friend from college and recently-moved-in neighbor K, threw a pumpkin painting party*. She invited spouses from her husband’s squadron and extended an invitation to some of the wives from my husband’s group. I was thrilled at the prospect of crafting with a group of women and possibly making some new friends.

But I hadn’t painted or carved a pumpkin in years. To be honest, I can’t remember the last time I did either. Which is terrible because I pride myself on being the Martha Stewart of Air Force Spouses. (Haha, just kidding! I will never reach such great heights!)

After some sleuthing, I found some great ideas for decorating pumpkins without carving. 1. Plaid and striped painted pumpkins. 2. Graphic, almost folksy free-handed designs. 3. Patchwork white-on-white. 4. Doily as stencil. My favorite is the white-on-white patchwork. It looks like a Denyse Schmidt quilt, but in pumpkin form! All of these came from the Better Homes and Gardens’ Quick and Easy Painted Pumpkins for Halloween photo gallery.

Photos from Better Homes and Gardens.

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In case you need some last minute Halloween costume ideas for those raging parties this weekend, allow me to display years worth of somewhat clever and always hilarious outfits. Let’s step into the Halloween time machine for a second, shall we?

#1 1999. Our freshman year of college. I believe my best friend and I are ‘Julia Goolia Spice’ and ‘Hannah Banana Spice’. We are possibly related to the Spice Girls in some way, but mostly we fell prey to they common sport of dressing inappropriately just because it’s Halloween. Shameful, really.

#2 2000. Our sophomore year in college. As you can read in my caption, we are a ‘Pure Angel’ and ‘Evil Angel.’ I had to edit this one a bit but I cannot help but chuckle. The hooker boots are key, my friends.

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Each year, Charlie’s favorite shop, Tails in the City, has a Halloween parade and costume contest.   As you can imagine, this is one of my favorite events of the fall!

This year Charlie was a lion - and a very ferocious one at that!  It’s definitely the cutest costume he’s ever worn - it matches his fur perfectly.

I think the side view is the most adorable.  When he wagged his tail, the lion tail wagged too.

And here he is with his new friend Brady, who dressed up as a lobster.

What’s your most favorite fall activity?  And you dog-lovers out there, what is your pet going to dress up as for Halloween?

E.

I hope you’ve all got Madonna’s “Holiday” stuck in your head now!

Now that we’re entering the fall season, it’s almost impossible not to start thinking about the holidays. We’ll start with football, lead into Halloween, then comes Thanksgiving, and finally the December holiday season of Hannukah, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. It’s such an exciting time of year, but can also lead to lots of stress if you’re a newlywed.

I’ve written about compromise before, but I think one of the hardest areas to reach a compromise is when dealing with the holidays. I’m sure no one’s going to bicker about where they’re celebrating Halloween this year, but Thanksgiving and Christmas can be very touchy subjects. Both people have their own traditions and both don’t like the idea of not getting to observe those traditions. My mom makes the best food on the planet and our celebrations are always full of tons and tons of family. My husband’s mother doesn’t love to cook and she is an only child. My husband is an only child. Holidays at his house are quiet and relaxed. They eat whatever she feels like fixing that year and then go home when it’s over. But both of our families want us to celebrate with them.

Fortunately, for us, we’re not getting any pressure from either side. My family is willing to give up Thanksgiving this year because we spent it with them last year. But I’m the one that still wants it my way and wants to spend the holiday with my family. I know I’m being unreasonable and my husband would just rather go along with me than argue about it, so we’re going to spend Thanksgiving with his family. For Christmas this year, both of our families are getting together in the mountains and renting a large house that will accommodate everyone for a week.

Now that a baby is in the picture, things have changed a little and everyone wants to be there for his first Santa Claus experience. No one wants to miss any of those moments. The whole things stresses both my husband and me out and I’m hopeful that we can get into a good routine that helps us establish our own traditions. And I hope, more than anything, that within the next few years we can establish a tradition of celebrating these holidays at our own home and our kids can spend the holidays at home.

The most important thing, though, is that we surround ourselves with people that we love. My grandmother’s thought was always, “It’s Christmas when you get here. Even if it’s February!” So I’m going to adopt her sweet little viewpoint and go with the flow!

What works for you? How did you and your significant other blend the holidays?

Rachel forwarded us information on the amazing organization Patriot Paws:

Mission Statement:
Patriot Paws is passionate, committed, and obligated in our goal to train service dogs that will enhance the lives of disabled veterans who have given so much for our nation, and to provide a service for other Americans with mobile disabilities. We are committed to build partnerships with community and state organizations which will allow us to give back to our community while enhancing the lives of all individuals involved.

They train dogs, primarily from shelters and rescue organizations, to help disabled veterans with everyday tasks/chores/life. The primary training is done by inmates of the Texas Department of Corrections, and the whole program is run strictly on donations. It’s a win-win! Thanks Rachel for passing this along!

Happy Memorial Day! Let’s all take some time to remember what this holiday is about and celebrate those who are dedicating their lives to service.

xo,
E.

Have you already begun displaying your spring decor on your dining room table?  I was a little puzzled this year.  I don’t remember what I’ve done in past years, so I didn’t already have a plan for what to do.  To my husband’s dismay, I did a Google image search for Easter/spring table settings.  I found these especially inspiring:

Here’s what I ended up with:

Images: (1) Hey Day Downtown Bozeman, (2) Country Living, (3)  Elixer, (4) Heather Bailey.