New Year's Eve Manicure!

When I was younger, I was obsessed with painting and decorating my nails! I would do them all by myself and they turned out beautiful. I was, what you would consider, thrifty when it came to decorating my nails. I thought it was crazy to spend a fortune on fake nails, paint, & glitz when I could easily do it myself. Lately, I've been getting a little lax on upkeep. I very rarely paint or decorate my nails EVER! Well, today I finally felt in the mood to do my nails, especially since New Year's Eve is right around the corner! A girl's got to look good for New Year's Eve parties!

Here are a few easy steps for an awesome New Year's Eve Mani!

First things first, gather all the supplies you'll need.

*Nail polish

*Nail scissors

*Nail file

*Nail clippers

*Cuticle file

*Cuticle cream

*Nail art, rhinestones, etc.

Time for the New Year's Eve Mani!

1. Trim nails to appropriate length.

2. File nails so that rough edges become smooth. Filing nails can also help with the shape you want your nail to be (i.e. square, rounded, etc.) I also like to file the top of the nail so that it is extra smooth and shiny.

3. Use a cuticle file to file back your cuticles.

4. Massage a cuticle cream, I prefer Sally Hansen's Cuticle Massage Cream, into nail bed.

5. Paint nails! I chose a sparkly gold color - it's New Year's remember!

6. Choose nail art for extra glitz! I chose hologram star decals and adhered them to the corners of my ring finger nail and thumb. You can apply the decals using nail glue found at any local drug store.

7. Finish with a clear top coat to keep your nails looking nice.

The finished product...

It's hard to tell, but using a nail pen in a silver color I drew 4 lines stemming out from the star decal to make it look like a shooting star.

I hope this has inspired you to have some fun with your nails this New Year's! Have fun with it, be creative, and have a happy New Year's!

A Few of My Favorite Things

This Christmas I didn't ask for much, but there were a few things that I received that I just absolutely loved.

This Bad Boy

Pretty much this was the only thing on my Christmas list and my husband got it for me. I'd say, "He done good!"

This lovely cast iron dutch oven...in red of course!

Candle holders from my sis-in-law Jessi

She always finds the perfect things to match the decor of my house!

Yankee Candle from my mommy!

My mom got me a small tumbler of Yankee's Harvest scent back in the fall and I fell in love with it. I loved it so much in fact that I burned all of it up in about three weeks. Harvest is definitely my favorite scented candle of all time! I was so stoked when I opened up a Christmas baggy with the large Harvest candle inside. Now, I will have this candle for a long time.

What were some of your favorite gifts you received for Christmas this year?

What's For Dinner?

Day 21: A Recipe

Brittney's 30 Day Blog Challenge

On Wednesday, I made Matzo-Crusted Chicken and Vegetable Tian for dinner! I made both these recipes awhile ago so it was nice to have both again. It was delicious! Here are the recipes for you!

Matzo Chicken Cutlet Recipe

Vegetable Tian

For dinner tonight, we will be having Lite Pasta Alfredo with Chicken, Kielbasa, and a Cajun Kick. You can find the recipe here.

I'm also going to try baking bread from scratch this afternoon as well! And, I'll be using my new Kitchen Aid Mixer of course! I'm so excited!

Have a wonderful day everyone! What are you having for dinner?

Christmas Craft Gifts

This year for Christmas gifts, I decided to make all of my gifts using vinyl letters. I also decided to set a goal to spend only $100 for friends and family. While I went over about 2o bucks, I'm happy I set a budget and stayed pretty close to it. The $100 budget not including my husband, best friend, daddy, and dad-in-law. Past Christmas's I did not set a budget. Now that I'm getting older, I'm beginning to realize the importance of setting a budget for yourself...no matter what the holiday or occasion may be. I'm also realizing that the $100 budget is doable. Having the budget set made me more aware of when sales were going on for items I needed as well as being more alert for when I saw coupons in the mail or online. Many items I was able to get 40 to 50% off on because I found Michael's coupons online. On Black Friday, Joanne's allowed their customers to double coupons. I used two 50% off coupons and take an additional 25% off your total purchase. I walked away with three 8x10 wood plaques, wall mounts, stamp, ink, and lots of embellishments for 20 bucks! Sweet! Below are some pictures that I took of the Christmas craft gifts I created.

Gift for Isaac:

3 Picture Frame Set - Found at Michael's

Scrap paper

Starfish and Whale - Vinyl

Ribbon

Red, yellow, and blue paint

Peace Blocks:

Ribbon

Scrap paper

Vinyl Letters

Burgundy and sage green paint

Silent Night Holy Night:

Red paint

Ribbon

Jewels

Green vinyl letters

The Magic of Christmas is not in the presents, but in His presence:

Green paint

Ribbon

Jewels

Red vinyl letters

Kaitlyn's Hairbows:

10x8 wood plaque (Joanne's)

Pink paint

Teal vinyl letters

Ribbon

Jewels

Flower embellishments

Hairbows added to ribbon

As For Me and My House, We Will Serve the Lord:

Two 6x24 wood plaques (Michael's & Hobby Lobby)

Burgundy paint

Coffee paint

Cream vinyl lettering

Sew Much Fabric, Sew Little Time:

10x8 wood plaque (Joanne's)

Coffee paint

Ribbon

Cream vinyl lettering

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full:

10x8 wood plaque (Joanne's)

Lavender paint

Ribbon

Cream vinyl lettering

You can download and order vinyl images here:

My Vinyl Designer

Vinyl Ready Designs

Wonderfully Wordy

Have you made any special crafts or gifts for Christmas this year?

Happy Crafting!

Christmas 2010 Recap

Hello everyone, I'm back! Sorry I've been MIA for awhile, but for the past few weeks I was caught up in the hustle and bustle of Christmas and then some. I don't know about you, but Christmas seemed to come out of nowhere for me. I definitely pushed the wire as far as Christmas gifts are concerned, but I got everything made, bought, and wrapped just in time (Christmas Eve to be exact). Aside from being a bit behind on things, I had an amazing Christmas with friends and family! Ray's sister and her husband were in town and I'm so glad we got to share a few days together. I love them so much.

I also have to say that Brittney's 30 Day Blog Challenge ended up being an epic fail for me. This month I just didn't have time, but with anything I start, I'm always determined to finish them. I'll knock out a few days in this post, but they will be a little out of order - I left off on day 21. Now getting back to Christmas. Here are some pictures from the holiday season!

Family Force 5 Christmas Pageant Concert

On December 14, I took my little sister and her friend to the Family Force 5 Christmas Pageant Concert at the House of Blues at the Mandalay Bay. There were three other bands that performed: Shoreline's End, Secondhand Serenade, and Forever the Sickest Kids, but I came just for Family Force 5. Family Force 5 is a Christian crunk rock band from the south and I absolutely love them! We had a blast at the concert and surprisingly it wasn't too packed. I would show you some pictures from the concert that I took, but they came out so bad they're not worth showing.

Source

Source

Jessi's Baby Shower

Jessi's shower was on December 19th at my house. The theme of the shower was nautical, which is also baby Isaac's theme for his room.

Diaper Cake hand crafted by my mom-in-law.

Basket of goodies for Isaac from The Baby Price is Right game.

The Captain's chair!

The Flag Banner spells out Isaac's name.

I was feeling a little ambitious, so I decided to bake a boat cake.

Yummy mini brownies I made, topped with fish ring pops.

I made a quilt for Isaac and I think it turned out pretty good for my first time making one.

My theme for the quilt and the entire gift was Eric Carle's Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?

Morgan & Bridges Girls' Luncheon at Cuginos Italian Deli

Last year the Morgan & Bridges ladies decided to make it tradition to have lunch a few days before Christmas at Cugino's Italian Deli. This year was so much fun, and the food was delicious! I had the chicken parmesan toasted sandwich. Yum o!

Christmas Eve at Bucca Di Beppo

Every Christmas Eve, the Anderson family and our close friends the Poole family eat dinner at Bucca Di Beppo. It has been our tradition to go here for at least 10 years. We had an awesome time, and we finally got into the Pope Room as you can see. This Christmas Eve we had a few new things happen - Pope Room, Katy Poole brought her new boyfriend, and I got to drink wine with all those who legally could. I tried a Pinot Noir and Lambrusco. I'm not a big wine drinker, especially red wine, but I have to say the Lambrusco was delicious and is an excellent choice for anyone who isn't into drinking wine. I think it just tastes better.

Earlier that afternoon, my family and I attended the Christmas Eve service at Hope Baptist Church. One of the best things said that night, "I submit to you, that when the Creator steps into creation it is time to celebrate!" ~ Pastor Vance Pitman. You can go to the Hope Baptist Church website (Day 22- A Website) and watch the sermon video (Day 23- A Youtube Video) here. Later on that evening, my husband and I opened our gifts to each other.

Christmas Dinner with the Morgans

Christmas morning is spent with my parents (The Anderson's). We typically begin with opening presents first, just because it takes a pretty long time. In our family, we go around and each person opens one gift at a time and repeat until all the gifts have been opened. After opening gifts, we had a wonderful lunch complete with ham, nanna's taters, salad, and rolls.

Christmas evening, is spent with Raymond's side of the family. We had another amazing feast, filet mignon, green beans, and glazed carrots. We opened gifts, which is completely opposite of Christmas morning with my folks. It's pretty much a free-for-all when we open gifts at the Morgan household. We also spent literally the entire night playing The Beatles Rock Band. It was so much fun!

This Christmas was definitely awesome! My favorite part of it all would definitely be the amount of time spent with family, friends, and focusing on what the real meaning of Christmas is. Christmas is not about the presents, but His presence!

I hope all of you had a blessed Christmas. Do you have any unique family traditions? What was your favorite part of Christmas this year?