Giveaway Winners

I had such a fun time reading all your comments from the Sew Mama Sew give away. It seems that most of the favorite ornaments are those that have special meaning. It seems like some of the most treasured ornaments are those that some of you made 15-30 years ago when you were little. I've taken note and will be saving some of the ones my children make so I can give them to them when they are grown. I love that some of you display your "ugly" ones proudly front and center. Some of you give them a place of honor in the back of the tree! Still on the tree no less!

I wish I could give each of you a silhouette but I received 144 comments! {a record for me} So I have decided to give away 3 silhouettes instead of the 1 I had originally planned on.

So the winners are (chosen by Random Number Generator):
#70, #6, and #25

Congrats to Kris #6: Those are beautiful! I would love to win!

Melissa #25: My favorite ornaments are the ones my kids make at school and church each year- especially the ones with pictures of them! Those silhouettes are darling- I'd love one!

Tiffany #70: I got your silhouettes for my kids last year! Love them, and would be thrilled to win more ;) Favorite ornament is a hallmark godchild from 1976. Too fragile to hang, but is dearly loved!

In other news, I found the tutorial for the stocking advent calendar so look for it later tonight or early tomorrow morning!

Tutorial Delay

I had the tutorial for the stocking advent calendar all written up and ready to be scanned into my computer the night before last. Now I can't find my piece of paper!!! I know I put it somewhere safe {so it would be safe from the kids, dogs, and hubby} yeah well that worked out great cause I can't find it anywhere! Seriously I have a short term memory. I really should have made Mr. PD put it somewhere safe from me! I'm keeping my eyes open through out the day and I'll post as soon as I find it. Although I have a feeling I will need to write it up again!! It also might not be until tomorrow because I get to have my mom over for a visit all the way from sunny California! Yay!





PS I get my forgetfulness from my lovely mother who has been known to be frantically looking for her keys while they are in her hand, or for her cell phone when she is on it talking to me! I'm not that bad {yet.}

Paper Stocking Advent Calendar

I love having an advent calendar in my home. It helps to keep the "is it Christmas tomorrow?" questions to a minimum. I made my little calendar 2-3 years ago and it is one of my favorite things to get out for Christmas. It was super simple to make and looks awesome. I've gotten tons of compliments on my calendar.

Sometimes I display it like a garland on some ribbon, or on a dead tree branch as you can see in the picture below. This picture was taken on Thanksgiving and there it is next to the TV and my little guy. Well it kept falling over and I just couldn't get it to stay put. Usually when I opt to display it like this I put it in a really tall vase then fill the base with those floral gems. Well I apparently left my really tall vase in storage in TN.


I was getting pretty fed up with stockings falling off any time my kids went near it. So I looked around for another idea and realized I had some extra garlands {because I don't have any banisters, or columns in AL, sad} so I strung one up across the living room/dining room cased opening. I then used ornament hooks to hang up each of the little stockings.

{and just so you know we keep it real over here in the PD household I didn't bother to clean up the toys, backpack, or the bag of trash the dog is finding really interesting!}

At first I started to hang up the stockings in numerical order but then I realized that it would look odd half way through the month with stockings on only on half of the garland. So I took them down and then put them back up in a random order. Each little stocking holds 2 little Hershey's Kisses (one for each of my kiddos) and a little slip of paper with an activity to do that day. The activities are little things and things already in our calendar {hey, it's not like my kids know!} such as color Christmas pictures, make gingerbread houses, church Christmas party, and picking up Grandma from the airport.

I'm working on the pattern to post tomorrow so you can make your own stocking calendar. I love advent calendars so if you've got one posted on your blog share the link with me, I'd love to see it.

It's here, It's finally here!

Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day 2009!


I'm giving away one of my custom Digital Portrait Silhouettes. Like these:


My giveaway is open to international entrants as well!

I'll even give you 2 chances to win!

Post a comment telling me what your favorite Christmas ornament is for one entry.

Follow my blog (or if you already do) and post a second comment telling me you do.

I'll pick a winner on Sunday December 6th!



In case you are wondering, my favorite Christmas ornament is the 2002 Swarovski Annual Christmas ornament.

It was given to us on the year we got married by a very special friend of mine (my German, social studies, and Seminary teacher - all in one!) We then started the tradition of buying that year's ornament every Christmas. We will be getting ornament #8 shortly in the mail. I can't wait to Have my tree decked out with 25, or maybe even 50 ornaments someday! It's just a lovely visual reminder of our time together as a family.








Don't forget to visit Sew Mama Sew for the master list of giveaways!

The worst Christmas tree EVER!

Last year we decided to have make a wonderful Christmas memory and cut down our own Christmas tree {all Mr. PD's big idea.} We even went to a tree farm in TN were we lived. We were all excited until we got there and they told us that the only trees they had for cutting down were Leyland Cypresses or White Pine trees. Once I took a look at the selections I tried my hardest to convince Mr. PD to buy me one of my favoritest already pre-cut Frasier Firs. {Love!}

But NO! Mr. PD would have none of that. So between the two available selections I chose the lesser of the "ugly" trees. Ugly trees! not real Christmas trees at all. {no offense if they happen to be your choice of Christmas tree.} There was no talking my hubby into buying the already cut Frasier Firs, NO we were going to create a tradition! So we ended up with a Leyland Cypress.

Fast forward to when we start decorating the tree. My arms broke out in little red bumps and itched like crazy! I was allergic to the stupid thing! So Mr. PD and the kids got to do all the decorating while I supervised and gave constructive criticism.

Fast forward to when it was time to take it down. The stupid tree dried up so much that the needles were super poky like thorns! We managed to get all the ornaments off and most of the lights as well. Our arms were scratched up and bleeding from the tiny paper cut like scratches the tree decided to give us. Then I just looked at Mr. PD and said, "it can keep the lights!" We then took it outside light and all and dumped it in the back yard where we let it really dry out before burning the dang thing!

Never again! This year we got a nice Douglas fir and I tested it on my arms before bringing it home! Mr. PD definitely created a Christmas memory that we will never forget!


Do you have any "fun" {after the fact} holiday memories?