This is one of my favorite things I got for Christmas.

It is a little cable holder that Container Store carried as a stocking stuffer.

This little item has a circle of adhesive on the back.

I took multiples of these and attached them to the back side of my desk along the edge.

This view is looking down the wall that the desk is against, looking down from the top .

One holder holds the cord to my Silhouette, the next is the printer cable, then my phone charger, and then the charger for my Apple products.

I am not receiving any compensation for the review of this item.  I like them because they are single simple holders that can be arranged the way you want them.  They are also small enough they are not noticeable when you are look at the desk and they keep everything organized and easy to reach to plug in to my laptop.

Yes, that is a cable holder on my laptop holder you are seeing but it did not hold the cables, they kept slipping out.

I love organization, so now off to the next project.  Hmmm, I wonder what that will be?

I thought I would show you how I altered some garland to decorate a candle.  This candle is one of those that is wax but it has a flicker candle in it.

This is a look from the top.  I like these candles because I don’t have to worry about drips and candle wax on my furniture.

So, I started out by finding a piece of paper that I wanted to use to compliment the decor of the room. 

I measured around the candle then torn the paper and distressed it.  Oops! I put the paper on the candle upside down. 

Easy enough I pulled it apart and flipped it over.

Now, I found this tinsel at HL and decided to us some Copics to give it some various colors.

I randomly colored various pearls to add some dimension and various looks.

As you can see I added some black and various shades of brown.

With that done I hot glued the piece of garland on to the candle in the middle over the paper I distressed.

Ok, the paper on right side up now I’ll glue this on the paper.

Looks like a lot right now but wait until you see it with the others.

Here they all on the Mercury Glass candle holders.  I love the way they look.  I did have trouble keeping this one up on the small candle holder.

I solved this by cutting a circle the same size,  distressing the circle, and hot glued it to the Mercury Glass.

I love these candles all spruced up.  They add texture and whimsy to the room.

Today I spent the day with my BFF and just tried different techniques and made a non-Christmas tag.

Phyllis made the Kraft resist tag, and then we used picket fence stain, along with various distressed inks.

Used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the awesome crown for $.99 and then embossed it with some “old age” aka gold from Stampendous.

From there we just started trying different things to include on the tag, from tinsel, to the distressed banner, a little doily and glitter covered “DIVA”.

The border at the bottom is a TH border where we covered it with foil and used Eggplant alcohol inks to color…super cool technique.

The little holder holding the Diva is from my birthday cake, so I wanted to be sure and keep it as a reminder of the great time with all my friends I had on Saturday.

The colors of this tag are so rich, but the best part is spending time with a friend and both of you creating something beautiful.

Ok, let me see if I can get this right this time.

Isn’t this beautiful.  You should hop over to Whipperberry.com (click on the word Whipperberry.com) and see how to make  Homemade Vanilla Extract.  This is where I got the inspiration to try and make my own homemade vanilla for gifts to give to the ladies at the office.

I followed Whipperberry’s instruction for getting the cheap Vodka and ordering the vanilla beans.  Ordering the vanilla beans off the internet was a lot less than buying them in the store.

I found these little jars at M’s and thought they would be perfect; however, they did not seal as well as I thought they would (after all they had a rubber seal).

I stored them in the entry hall closet and once a week I would give the little bottles a shake.  As you can see they turned to vanilla extract (and yes it took about 2 months for it to homemade vanilla extract).

So since the little bottles were leaking and I decided to us Glad’s press and seal to see if that would help.  It did but it still made me a little nervous.

I didn’t have time to make the beautiful labels she made but I did make some that turned out pretty cute.  I simply used a Waltzing Mouse Labels 4  and printed the Homemade Vanilla Enjoy! out on cardstock.

Probably should have included the word extract….duh!

A little assembly line and before I knew it, they were ready to put on the bottles.

Punched a hole in one end and some Baker Twine wrapped around the lid and you are done.

I think they came out so cute and everyone like them at work.

I also used some in my Christmas Cherry-O Cream Cheese pie and it was excellent!

I love giving unique gifts but this one may be one that I do every year.  I’ve already started looking for some cute bottles.  I also think I may use vanilla Vodka to make ….”vanilla extract”… genius!

If you try making Whipperberry.com homemade vanilla, let her know and be sure and leave me a comment.

You have the right site!  I decided since it was the first of the year a little updating on the look of the site might help.

Since I feel like I’m always sitting at my laptop posting and a girl certainly loves her coffee, this little lady would be nice for a change.

Don’t worry, the site will still be bringing a variety of items to the table.  I have a lot of projects rolling around in my head and a BFF that goes right along with me.

Just a quick post today.  I got so much done this weekend, including writing my thank you notes and cleaning out 2011 files getting ready for 2012.  Repainted, reorganized my craft closet and getting everything put back in place.  On top of that I washed, dry, hung up, folded 5 loads of washing.

However, I’ve been taking a lot of pictures of somethings I did for Christmas and now that it is passed I can start posting about them.

Yummo! First up on the list is this Cinnamon roll.   My #2 Daughter’s boyfriend , made these gigantic rolls for Christmas.  The glaze is a carmel butter glaze.  I need to get the recipe.

These were huge!  They were good.

I’ll show you tomorrow my Homemade Vanilla Extract adventure.  I’m ready to get this party back up and going, so be sure to check back and leave me a comment. 

Has this ever happened, you start only going to do one thing and before you know it, it has blown into a huge event.

Packed up my Christmas and decided I really needed to revamp the way I stored it.  So I empty the closet of everything.

This looks even worse in person.  Ok, I have to admit it, it has not been painted in 26 years.

This stuff works great at getting the old 3m hook adhesive off.  I’m not being paid to say this, I just use it and it took the old gunk off in nothing flat.

I also used this to fill the holes in the wall.  I know it is a closet but that is how I roll.  This stuff is pink when you put it on and turns white when it is dry.

I got the exact color that I painted the “Woman Cave”.  Here is a tip, take a picture of the color chart on top of the can of custom blended paint. Then when you need more you can take the photo to the paint store and get it made.

I also painted the wood shelves ….yeah, yeah but they need it.  Ok, take a close look at the wall on the right.  Yep!  I stenciled hounds tooth on the wall.  Not the entire wall just a little.  I wanted  to see if I could do it and make it look right.  I like it!  But it is a closet so on to finish.

I added two extra shelves on this side of the closet so I could have additional room to store craft items.  I had to add the braces for the shelves and to cut the shelves.

Had a little difficulty getting the shelves in because they have to go in a certain way to get past the door facing but, I did it!

Unbelievable, how much more storage space you have with just a couple of extra shelves.  Now, I can get our Christmas decoration stored and get my craft room reorganized so I can play with my Christmas gift.

Someday, I’ll have a great camera that will allow me to take a decent picture of a Christmas Tree with lights.  For now my little “Sure Shot” will have to do.

I’ve been up since 5:00am rubbing a turkey breast (no not DH’s) with lemon, butter and a Tuscany rub… now I’m having a peppermint mocha cup of coffee in front of the fireplace smelling it beginning to bake.

What I miss about today is my children being small.  They would be so excited on Christmas morning, giggling, scurrying around and all the while I would be sitting in front of the fireplace, drinking my cup of jo and hearing them scamper back and forth to the bathroom.  Then I would hear them say, “Mom!”  ”Can we come out, yet?”

Life has a way of moving forward and now my children are in their mid 30′s.  Christmas is no longer at my house it is where the kids are.  I’m fine with that too, Grandkids rock and rather I’m there when they first get up or 2 hours later, they are still excited, giggling and scurrying for presents.

Today, we are having Ham or Turkey sliders, with some stuffing and cranberry sauce.  We mash potatoes with cream cheese and garlic, bacon wrapped green beans, stuffed mushrooms along with tamales, shrimp, dips and chips, lots of desserts and each other.  The best part………being with each other!

He is the reason for today.  He was the reason for yesterday and He will be reason for tomorrows!

Merry Christmas Everyone!   Happy Birthday Jesus!

Have you ever had those days where you couldn’t sleep.  Today is one of them for me.  Oh I went to bed and went to sleep just couldn’t stay asleep.

During this time of the year I have so much floating around in my head, and things I want to get done, things I need to get done and no desire to do any of them.

I have Christmas’ like that.  Last year everything seemed magical, this year everything is a chore.

I haven’t even tried to do Christmas Cards, I think I’ll make New Year cards and take some pressure off..oh wait that just means I have an extra week.

I’ll work today trying to start to tie up the loose ends.  Maybe if I wrap some presents and get them under the tree I’ll feel better about where I am in the process.

I have somethings to show you but I can’t post them until after Christmas because they are Christmas presents.

Aren’t these great looking apples?  My #2 Daughter had them in her basket at Thanksgiving and they are just begging to be an apple pie or cobbler.  I know, chasing a rabbit and random thought here, but I thought the picture came out perfect!

I’ll try to come back and post something, but as you can see I have been lazy lately.  I have a lot of projects on my list but I’m not starting much of anything until after Christmas is over.

I love Christmas!  I love it because of what it means, the birth of my Lord.  I love it because my family seems closer, I love it because people seem to be nicer.  I love it because of the sparkle and glimmer that comes to a dreary world.  I love it because of the excitement in my grand children’s anticipation.  I love the music, the thought of winter wonderland, snowflakes, hot chocolate, pumpkin spice lattes.  I could go on forever!

The tree is decked out in red, black, white and silver.  It is mainly silver because I’m in the process of collecting mercury glass ornaments.   I love the way the light dances off of the mercury glass.

Doesn’t look as cool without the glimmer of lights, now does it?  It’s hard to see the clear or mercury glass when the light is not bouncing off of it.

The mantel is difficult to get a full picture because it is really long.  We have a corner fireplace so the mantel is large.

These two Mercury Glass Trees are the latest addition to the mantel.  They are from Pottery Barn (pretty expensive) but I gave myself an early Christmas present.  You can put a string of lights in side of the trees (they even notched the glass so it would sit flat).  If you click on the picture before this one you can see the trees lite.

 Now the weather is going to be cold this weekend, so the fireplace will be lite too and this entire side of the wall will be sparkly and warm.

Finally, I got my Santa collection out and displayed.  With the furniture redone this year, this makes the Santa collection really pop.

That is a Santa hanging in the middle of the mirror….you gotta love 3m products.

Revamped my believe banner, using some silver cord instead of a black and red ribbon.

Secured it with hooks on the mirror.

There are Santas even in the China Cabinet.  Oh by the way I have seen another Santa that I am going to have to get, can’t wait, still hope they have one!

There are 3 windows across the front of our house and I hang a wreath in each window on the inside.

I bought these from Bath and Body probably a good 7-8 years ago.  This year I changed the ribbon from black and silver to burlap.  It works with the new color of the dining room.

Now I need to add some red poinsettias in the center piece on the table.  Micheal’s, HL or Joann’s? Maybe!

Ok, grandkid story….we saw the Muppet Movie last night and I was holding my 6 yr old grandson.  Kermit and Miss Piggy was singing Rainbow Connection.  I started singing with them and Gareth says, s “NaeNae,  have you seen this movie?”.  I explained no, the Muppets sang this song when his Momma was a child.  I instantly felt really old!