Chill @ Queen Mary

My sister surprised us with a trip to Long Beach to check out Chill a few days before Christmas.
First of all… Brrrrrrrrr!

After cruising around outside, we walked into the dome where the Spruce Goose used to be to check out The Ice Kingdom. 13,000 square feet of stuff make out of ice. And you better be wearing a parka because it’s 9 degrees. NINE!


Look at that Rudolph nose and rosy cheeks! That’s not Photoshop! It’s dang cold in here!
  


Thank goodness we didn’t get to find out if his tongue would stick to the ice…

Towards the end of the icy dome tour, Will was at the end of his rope with the coldness. We went back out, ditched the parkas, and did a little Ice Tubing. I couldn’t get a good pic of the 2 story tall, 100 feet long slide made of ice… but Will can show you that it wasn’t fun at all…


Then we headed outside where they had an ice rink set up right in front of the Queen Mary.

Ice skates for everyone! They were really cool because the straps were like roller blade straps. Awesomesauce! Now… back in the 90s, I was quite the roller-blader, so ice skating is a pretty easy transition. I know… you can’t even begin to wrap your head around how cool I am.
  

 
That’s my dad out there on skates! He did pretty good! He just needs to bend his knees. Ha! My sister and I are clowns… clearly.

Despite Hubby’s reservations about ice skating, especially since our crazy child just had staples removed from his noggin, no one fell! Hubby has only been ice skating one other time in his life… with me! Ha Ha! We went on a date to the Disney Skating Rink, but that was 8 or 9 years ago. Yikes!

We all had a blast! They even offer free admission aboard The Queen Mary! Too cool! Chill runs until January 6th, so you better hurry your booty over there, so you can freeze it off!



**We didn’t get any perks from The Chill or any of their affiliates. This was a trip we took all on our own and my opinions are mine… all mine!**

Yarn Pom Wreath

I got a wild hair up me bum (Yes, I just became English. What?) to make a bunch of yarn poms while watching Michonne kick some may-jah zombie bum on The Walking Dead. I had a bunch of yarn that I’ve accumulated since, Oh, I don’t know… middle school?! Ridiculous. So I grabbed some colors I thought would work well together and just started wrapping and cutting. And then I wrapped and cut some more. And then some more.

Should I make a garland or a wreath or stick them in a few mason jars…? I wasn’t quite sure. My decision was made when I was putting some random junk away and found a naked wreath form. Ding-Ding-Ding! Winner Winner Chicken Dinner, folks. This is what we call a work-what-you-got craft for a whopping $0 cost.

I grabbed some supplies:

Yarn poms, wreath form, hot glue gun, extra glue sticks. Booya Grandma.

After debating on whether to group the colors together or do it haphazard, I decided I needed to just start it and see what happens…
 
 
It seemed like the best course of action was to just layer in each color. I started with the red and dark red since it is supposed to be Christmas-y, so I figured those colors should be the most dominant. I had ended up using the rest of the skein of dark red yarn to help fill out the red some more. I didn’t start off with whole skeins, but I ended up using up what I had left of every color on my wreath. Talk about using up what I’ve got!

65 poms later, it was done!
Pretty cute, right? I’m a sucker for mindless crafts that you can do while you catch up on your dvr. This is totally one of those projects and came out so stinkin’ cute! I opted for red, dark red, teal, navy, yellow, and white, mostly because it’s what I had on hand and it was Christmas-y enough. The nice thing is that it will lend itself to everyday use or I can add some fun embellishments to transform it for different occasions, too.

I toyed with the idea of adding a bow, but it was competing with the poms too much, and Hubby said no. So… decision made! Sometimes husbands are right… sometimes.

Hot chocolate bar

Being that we don’t have a mantle in our house I always like to dress up our little areas with something a little different and fun. Last year I did a drink station in our dining room (you can read more on that here)

 

This year I decided to do the same-ish concept but make it a little more kid friendly. We are still having our annual Santa Party and this little Hot Chocolate Bar will be awesome for kids and grownups alike!

Notice I still have yet to paint that little dresser of goodness.  Next year.  I swear it.

I want the theme of my house to be a bit modern and a bit rustic.  I paired my burlap trees that I made last year (here) with some shiny red ornaments and one of my felt poinsettias…also crafted last year (here). The bar got filled with all kinds of good fixin’s for hot chocolate like candy canes, peppermint marshmallows, and cookies for dippin’ and stirrin’.

 

I just used whatever I had on hand, and ball jars truly do work for freaking everything don’t they? 

 

And you really can’t have a hot chocolate bar without hot chocolate right?  This is homemade and AWESOME…easy peasy recipe to come soon!

There we have my little bar!  If you’re cold and need a lift, come on over and I’ll have a cup of cocoa all ready for you!  If you’re good…you might get a little Schnapps in there too !

Holiday Craft: NOEL

It all began with Pottery Barn. A couple years ago I came across this crazy awesome NOEL sign in their Christmas décor. I died. I died again when I saw the price… $149?! WAY out of my price range, especially for something I’m going to have up for a month. Ouch.

Of course it was time to make one of my own. In true DIY-ness, it’s a fraction of the cost.

I made a trip to Joann’s and picked up some “fancy” wood letters. With my coupons in hand, the letters were even cheaper than advertised.

I had the chalkboard paint from another project or two, so that was free. I love having some chalkboard paint in my DIY arsenal because then it becomes part of the array of possibilities when I feel like randomly painting something… Do I paint it white, red, green, gold, or chalkboard it? So many choices!

I’ve had this little can of paint for a while now, I’ve used it for a few projects now, and even having to put 2-3 coats of paint on each project, it’s still over half full. Yes… I’m a half-full kind of gal.


After 2 coats, I was done with the paint part. I let them sit for a few hours to make sure the paint cured up and tried to keep a nosey 3.5 year old away from my project… Oh, did you notice my Flat Rate Mailing Boxes under there? They’ve been very handy as splatter boards for spraying and brush painting. Yay free stuff!


After the paint was dry, you have to “condition” the chalkboard paint by doing a quick rub all over and then wipe it off. It helps get rid of that crisp black look too.

I was debating on how to fasten the letters together and then hang it… so Hubby stepped in and came up with these little helpers:

Picture hangers! We had a bunch of them and they held the letters together while giving me an easy means for actually hanging it on the wall. Win-win!

Easy Peasy! This little sign was done and hung!

Then I decided to give it a little chalk shading and make it pop a little more against the wall:
Ta Da!
Ok. One more glamor shot.

Even our Elf on the Shelf, Iron Man, found a home there this week:
Yes… our elf is named Iron Man. I tried for at least Tony Stark, but no dice. Will loves Iron Man. There’s no way around it…

I love it. It’s so cheery above my kitchen sink. I love that I can change it up and maybe do a little bit of candy cane stripes on there, or little stick figure people or who knows!

Have you made any fun new holiday decorations? Or did a cool knock off of something you love but is way over priced? Share! Share! We love to see those fun crafty DIY things!