Merry Christmas!

I will be away from my blog for the next few days to spend time with my family for Christmas.  I want to wish you and your family and friends a very Merry Christmas!  Eat lots of great food, and cherish the new memories you will make....I know I will.  ;o)  I'll be back next week with my Top Ten Books of 2010, and let me tell ya...it's shaping up to be a great list!

Merry Christmas!

Calling All Ham Experts!!!

So, this Christmas will be bringing me a new experience....cooking a ham.  When it comes to ham, I've always gone the safe route--either make a trip to Honey Baked Ham or rely on my mom to cook one.  I really have no clue what I'm getting myself into. 

If you read my HodgePodge post, you read what happened between the grocery cart and my kitchen counter--the netting *WITH THE DIRECTIONS* disappeared!!!  How does this happen?!?!?  I've never had that happen before, and I've bought my share of turkeys and chickens over the years.  Thankfully, I was able to call the grocery store and speak to this really sweet girl in the meat dept. who gave me the directions.  :o)

Here's my question(s):

The directions say to add water to the pan before putting it into the oven.  Um, how much????  Also, it says to baste as needed.  Baste it with what?  The water?  The directions mention nothing about any type of seasoning, so I'm clueless here. 

I don't want to do any kind of sweet glaze because hubby likes a very traditional tasting ham.  I just want a ham that has a good, simple flavor, and one that doesn't turn out too dry.  It's a 9 lb. spiral sliced ham that's supposed to be cooked 15 min. per lb.

Help, please!

One of This Year's Crafty Christmas Gifts

I don't always get to make gifts for Christmas, but when the time for me to do them is there, I take advantage of it.  Like last night...  I was wide awake at 11:30, and I really had a hankering to cross-stitch (thanks to my friend, Margaret).  The only problem...I have SOOO many projects that I have started and not finished.  Did I even want to go there?  Um, yes...just not toward one that's unfinished.

I decided I would yank out a quicky kit that would be also be a great gift.  I've known forever that I would make up this cute little keychain and give it to my mother-in-law someday because she loves lighthouses.  I'm so excited to put this in her stocking on Christmas Day.  :o)

(Oh, and um, mom....on the off-chance you're reading this, just click that tiny red "x" if you would...thanks!)

 I'm at about the mid-way point here...working on the backstitch for the clouds.

 Bella couldn't make it to the half-way point!  By this time, it was about 12:30 in the morning, and she was ready for her beauty sleep!

 And at 1:30 in the morning, I'm done!  (Pardon my pink plaid pj pants.)

 So, at a normal time of the day, I ironed this sucker, and tried to get out the frame imprint.  Not much luck, but it won't matter anyway.

 Next, I yanked out some interfacing to stabilize the picture, and ironed it to the back.

 After ironing the interfacing on, I used the clear insert of the keychain to figure out where to cut, and got to tracing with my pencil.  

 And voila!  We have a cutesy lighthouse keychain!!  The instructions advised that the fabric should be glued inside the keychain, but I didn't like that idea in case MIL wants to pull out the lighthouse and put a picture of something else in there.

This was a Bucilla kit that was fast and easy, but I absolutely cannot recommend the thread that's included in their kits.  I cannot count how many times my thread knotted up on me, as well as frayed.  Very frustrating, but I'm still happy with the finished result.  ;o)

Christmas at My House

I have had the GREATEST time this year decorating my house for Christmas!  Last year, we didn't get the chance to do anything...certainly, not putting up our tree.  So this year, I didn't want anything to be left undone.  I even decorated my mantle for the first time.  ;o)  Enjoy!

If you see a lot of people saying that it's difficult to take a good picture of a Christmas tree, they are all correct!  I can't remember how many pics I took of mine before I decided this pic would do.  :o)  Our tree doesn't have a whole lot of rhyme or reason, except that there are several blue ornaments (hubs and my favorite color).  There's a lot of snowmen ornaments, in addition to several Star Wars ornaments to satisfy my Star Wars addicted husband.  See these posts if you haven't heard what I've had to endure all of my married life when it comes to Star Wars.

One of my co-workers gave me this gorgeous beaded ornament last year (when I had no tree to put it on), and it was one of the ornaments I was most anxious to hang on the tree.

My mother-in-law hooked me up with this awesome University of Memphis ornament for my birthday last month.  I have been a Tiger fan my entire life, and I love it that there are now ornaments available for all us crazy Tiger fans!

This was our first ornament for our first tree after hubby and I got married in 2002.  Super cute, don't ya think?  :o)

This one is from our cruise to the Bahamas in 2005.

This is one I made this year thanks to a really great tutorial for fabric balls.  I decided to turn mine into ornaments, and I love the way they look on the tree.

This was my first attempt to make a beaded ornament like the one my co-worker gave me last year.  Not bad, but I think hers looks better.  :o)

__________________________________________

Wait up....I'm not done!!  There's a few other little decorative things I've put up around my house this year.  Check out this little "vignette" that I created for one of our side tables....

I love snowmen, and I'm slowly building up a collection of them.  My mother-in-law will probably always have me beat in quantity, but I'll catch up to her one of these days. *grin*

__________________________________

One more thing!!!!  My first attempt at decorating my mantle.  I can't tell you how many times I changed my mind on this.  I didn't have a lot of extra money to spend this year for new decorations, so I tried to use as much stuff as I had on hand.  My final cost on my mantle was about $7.25...woot woot!  :o)

 The green garland was a steal for $1 at Goodwill.  Yep, believe it.  :o)  I wrapped it with 2 rolls of ribbon from Dollar Tree.  I also added some snow-painted pine cones and red birds to the garland.  So far, I'm up to $5.25.

 The stockings we've had for several years, and I think we'll be switching them out for something a little nicer next year (hopefully).  To jazz them up, I snatched up some cute glittery letters at Wal-mart for $1 each.

My little snow-covered buildings I've had on hand for several years, and I almost tossed them a couple of years ago.  So thankful that I didn't do that because I really like how they look with the decorated garland...reminds me of a logging town near the woods right after it's snowed.  Ahhh...  ;o)

__________________________________

So, that's my holiday decor!  It's kind of a mixture of every color in the world, but I did the best I could with what I had.  I tried to tie it all together with "snow" elements....the snow colored tree garland, the snow on the pine cones on the mantle, and the snowmen on their snow blanket on my table.  ;o)

Did you do anything different this year?  Or maybe something REALLY cost-effective?  Do share!

Oh, and I'm linking up to my first linky party ever for crafty stuff...I'm such a newbie!