And it rained for 40 days and 40 nights!!

Do you like the title?!?! It sure seems like it has been raining for 40 days and 40 nights but in actuality it has only been a week. A week of rain however, can cause some damage just ask our UPS driver. He got stuck in our driveway tonight and he has been there for over an hour. He is SOOO stuck! While the husband tends to the UPS guy some more I decided I would get in a quick post.

***Update: Our UPS drive kept digging himself deeper and deeper that by the time the semi tow truck came to pull him out (over 3 hrs later) it took him a good 30 minutes to get him out***


This last weekend was an extremely busy one for our house. I had last minute Christmas shopping to get done, grocery shopping for 2 (yes 2) Christmas parties, a really good housecleaning and I wanted to get a few crafts done as well.

Friday night, after work, Maude (my Saint Bernard) and I had the house to ourselves. My husband had boys night out to the hockey match. It was the perfect time to get a few items checked off my list. I made my shopping list from the list of recipes I would be making for the parties, I made a few more fun color crayons (I showed you on an earlier post) for the kiddos and I made two sugar scrubs for last minute gift ideas for anyone.

First, I found these jars at Walmart for $2.97 so I picked up 4 of them.

Then you combine 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of vegetable oil and a few drops of essential oil. I bought massage oil (essential oil included) from Bath and Body Works. I doubled my batch because I was going to make 2 of them.

You mix it together and voila! I put it in the jars and tied a red ribbon around it; to make it more festive I may hot glue jingle bells onto the ends of the ribbon but I haven't quite decided on that.

After spending countless hours running all over Spokane (11 stores total) on Saturday, I came home and basically crashed but not before I pulled this off.

I received this tin decor piece months ago from a good friend (Thanks Lori) and it was just meant to have twigs and branches of sort sticking out of it. I found these frosted branches at Michael's; they were normally $7.99 (a bunch of 3) but they were 50% off so I picked up 2 sets. I put a couple foam pieces that I cut to size in the bottom then stuffed the branches in. I also added white tissue paper to cover the foam and make it prettier. It literally took 5 minutes and it is wonderful. The color green works great with my decor this year. I may spray paint the tin white so I can use it year round but for now it's just perfect!

Yesterday morning, the day of one of the parties, I woke early and The Hubs was still in bed, as was our dog so I decided to bust out a craft real quick before the chaos ensued. I took my wooden picture frames from Michaels ($2.99 ea) and with a flat head screwdriver I bent the metal holders on the backside flush with the back of the frame.
I then took an already made cork board ($3.50 after 40% off coupon at Michael's) and cut out the cork and cardboard backing to fit my frame. I then hot glued it to the frame so that the cork side was in the frame cut out if you were looking at it head on. Then I took corks from wine bottles, Thanks again Lori!!, and hot glued them inside to create a cork trivet.

Super cute and very effective. We used them at the party to put a hot pan on them.

I will be making a couple more to keep on hand for gifts throughout the year. Well it wasn't long after I finished that the house was awake and it was time to prepare for the festivities. I will be back later this week to show you the tables, share the recipes and the good and the bad.