Cup Cake Clock

Ok, this isn't original AT ALL...I stole it from Martha Stewart and did it last year for a New Years party ...but non the less its was so simple that I wanted to share JUST in case anyone out there is throwing a NYE party and looking for a simple and cute idea!
Here you have it...the cupcake clock.



I used a greased mini cupcake pan, black gel piping, and wrapped a cake stand in foil. Go BETTY!!! Pretty sure I got a doile award for this one!

Happy Wife Happy Life - The Garage Project....

The Shed project began WAAAAAAAAAAAAY back in July because I was tired of coming home to THIS....


After a few months of working on his "simple structure" walls, a roof, and a primer coat of paint meant we could move all of THIS from the garage to the shed...

And so the garage then looked like this....

Some would stop here as it is a drastic improvement however anything worth doing is worth doing right. So Hunter added walls, trim, and paint, even to the floor!




Now our garage looks like THIS...........

TADAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! Clean garage, Happy Wife Happy Life :)

Christmas 2010

We arrived Thursday night to my parents home spotlessly clean, perfectly decorated with warm and cozy candles lit ready to celebrate Christmas. My dad joked over the phone on our car ride up saying "Mom's ready for you...she's cleaned the house 3 times, redecorated 4 times, and has walked into your bedroom 5 times to make sure this is the prefect f'n house in America...hahahaha I love you Mom Thanks :) It WAS all PERFECT!

Mom reads the blogs!!...she wrapped her books with xmas ribbon! :)

Love these Photos in my parents home...the top one is of my Dad when he was in the Marines years ago and the bottom picture is my oldest Brother who is currently serving.

Mom and Dad hang stockings for all kids and grandkids. I LOVE THEM!

Friday after a relaxing morning we headed to Reston Town Center where Dad showed us around his new office space. It always nice to see where family spends most of their day :) Next we headed outdoors to take in the ice skaters and Christmas decor before stopping into a bar called Clyde's for a few Christmas Eve (afternoon) cocktails. After Clyde's we bar hopped over to Jimmy's Old Town Tavern, a pub right next to my parents house, for a few beers and then headed home for the night. We noshed on apps, cracked a few bottles of wine at home, and played Euchre for hours! We night capped with a viewing of A Christmas story and of course a reading of Twas the night before Christmas by Dad. It was a great quality time family day.

Christmas morning mom and I awoke first and dragged the boys out of bed around 9ish. Coffee, gifts, breakfast around the table, and then Showers in that order. The rest of the day was spent like I'm sure most of yours eating, and playing with our new gadgets. Santa brought me a new Cannon Rebel T2i camera, Chanel perfume, big pearl earrings, Vickis Pjs, hot rollers and lots of other fun little items. Hunter's big hit was his new BB gun and he and my dad both got the little helicopters from Brookstones that brought much entertainment to us alllllllllll day! In between helicopter playing Dad and Hunter managed to cook a delicious prime rib, scallop potatoes, and veggies for Christmas dinner. No one stood a chance at staying awake after that meal :)

The snacks I said in an earlier post I wanted to make. Home made chex mix, oreo balls, and Ranch dill oyster crackers!

Sunday Mom and I left the boys sleeping to do a little outlet mall shopping and then met up with them in the afternoon at Jimmy's for some lunch and football. Sunday night as pictured we got cozy by the fire in our PJ's with the Beecher's mac n cheese. Which by the way DID NOT disappoint. It was cheesy, yet had those those crunchy pasta/cheese pieces on the top and edges, I LOVE those. Sad to leave Christmas 2010 behind us but feeling very blessed to have spent it with such a loving and fun family!

Not a great picture of Mom and I but hey what do you expect it's a PJ pic! :)

A 4 day work week ahead...Then Hunter and I our bringing in the New Year at Crave Dessert Bar! My girlfriends and I getting our hair and makeup did, and putting on fancy dresses to dance the night away!

BTW.....SUPER Jealous we missed all the Charlotte snow! The pictures you all are posting of the snow fall on your homes and streets are just gorgeous. Although, I hate that it caused a few travel hassles :( Hope everyone is home safe and sound now and ready to bring on 2011!!! I know we are!

Gingerbread Houses

Thanks again to Dave and Nicola for hosting a relaxing and fun Sunday gathering. Here's a few pictures from the Gingerbread making festivities. I just can't wait until one day we can all do this with our kiddos!

Proudly displayed on our diningroom tea cart :)

Getting very excited for Christmas!!! Dad bought a 170 dollars worth of prime rib at Wegmans for Christmas dinner! Excessive for 4 people? Not to him :) Mom has been putting thought into her pretty table to serve it on, and my sight and taste senses are ready to be pleased! :) There's some toys being given that I know Dad and Hunter will enjoy playing with (you'll shoot your eye out with that thing!), we'll watch Christmas vacation and laugh til we cry, and I can't forget to bring my Twas the night before Christmas book from when I was little so Daddy can read it to us on Christmas Eve. There will also be some game playing and wine drinking....ahhhhhhhhh quality family time. Thank you Jesus for being our Saviour!

Christmas Card Ideas

Now, that our Christmas cards are out I can blog about them :) I realize it's sort of late for Christmas card ideas so you all will just have to put this post in your memory bank and come visit it again next year. I actually do that all the time....blog roll and click on last years Christmas posts to get ideas for the upcoming holidays. And you can do it any holiday for that matter.

Anywho, I have an obsession with Christmas Cards. To me Christmas Cards are a HUGE part of the season and a simple way to let your friends and family know your thinking of them during this time of year. I love sending them out and I love receiving them :). In today's social networking age they loose a little bit of their luster when you send out that family picture and everyone already knows how much your family has grown over the past year because they see through facebook or blogs. BUT, the traditionalism of receiving things like a hand written letter or Christmas card you can't deny and that's what this Wanna-be Southern Belle loves!
Hunter and I don't have cute little kiddies yet to put on our Christmas Cards so I'm always looking for pretty and creative ideas for our cards. Four years ago I was BIG into Stampin' up and hand made ALL of our Christmas cards. If you have the time, try it! Even if you don't have the time just make a few to send out and buy the rest! If you want to try it and don't know where to start here's my step by step with an Example included! :)

Go online to gather some ideas and decide on a card you'd like to make or use as your inspiration. Then head on over to Michael's or any craft store and buy a few simple supply items. You can get creative and make several different cards or you can make the same card for everyone. If you make the same card you'll cut down your supply need. Here's an example.... I searched the below sites and found this card on split coast stampers. While browsing the cards I made sure to look at how many items it would take to make and this one was cute and basic... just needing paper, and stamps. Some people get REALLY into their card making...which is great if you want to drop the bucks on all the different supplies it takes for the great effects and embellishments.
Inspiration Sites:
SplitCoastStampers
Martha
Stampin' UP

Things you'll need for this card:
Red Card Stock (in the inspiration picture it looks like they are using more of a brick red & olive color cardstock)
Green Card Stock
Christmas Tree stamp
Little star stamp (Im SURE you can find this at micheals)
A Pharse Stamp
Gold Ink pad
Martha Edge Punch
Two-sided Tape glider
paper cutter
And these little guys are the best! They are a little sticker that you can place under your Christmas tree cut out to give it a raised 3-D look.


There ya have it and if any of my friends or family want to make cards one year... your in luck, because I have supplies out the wazoo that you can borrow!

Two Years ago is one of my all time favorite cards that we sent out. After home making cards the year prior I was in the mood for something elegant! To FineStationary.com I went and once I read the saying on this card I knew immediately it was a perfect reflection of Hunter and I. It was original, catchy, yet meaningful! I still to this day can remember it off the top of my head "The old wish but no less sincere, may you be blessed with prosperity and a happy new year!" It just makes me smile saying it :)

And last year we were engaged and soon to be married so I had a little fun with our engagement pictures and "the soon to be Lunsfords" saying :) Here was our last years card...

Matching return labels :)

And this year was a really really tough choice! I first thought I would do a wedding picture and something cute like Love The Lunsfords Est. 2010. But honestly I'm kinda of wedding pictured out and if I was then thought my friends and family would be too. Then as I was browsing cards at Tiny Prints had the idea to do a sepia picture of our fireplace and do something along the lines of Merry Christmas from our home to yours....

But I just created this today and didn't get our house decorated in time to snap the picture and get them ordered. I do LOVE this card though so even though I'm spilling the beans right now by showing you all I might just have to use it next year :)

My other idea was to look on etsy to find something different. I found these and they were simple, cute and inexpensive...done! Christmas cards ordered!


UNTIL.........Hunter came to me with the idea to take a picture of Jake "going #2" with a Santa hat on. The thing was he wanted to capture this picture and use if for our dirty Santa party invites. I loved the idea and immediately order a dog Santa hat :) Luckily I know Jakes pooping schedule...every morning when I first let him out! So one Saturday morning I followed him out there with the camera and as he went to swat I put on his Santa hat quickly and wala! The ONE picture I had time to snap turned out perfect! We got lucky, very lucky. So I went inside and started looking for Christmas party invitations that would fit this picture of JAKE doing his business with a Santa hat on. Shockingly enough, I found NOTHING. Not many invitations allowed you to upload a picture (that more of a Christmas card thing) and the ones that did didn't fit our dirty Santa theme. With that said I gave up on the invite idea and started looking at Christmas cards to upload the picture to. THIS is what I came up with. I thought it was fun, light hearted and HYSTERICAL :) I HAD to order some! Hunter thought they were funny but was worried not everyone would see our humor. And with the etsy ones already ordered we didnt want them to go to waste. We ended up just ordering a few of the Jake cards and then sent our Etsy ones to most people.
Can you believe our long drawn out Christmas card picking process? :) Does everyone think about their cards as much as I do?
I can't wait to check our mailbox in a few hours!!! xoxo

Twas the week before Christmas...

This week before Christmas has been busy busy! Work is demanding as usual with a 7:30am time stamp in, along with having something planned EVERY night after work.

• Monday we had Hunter's work Christmas party
• Tuesday a Charlotte Bobcats basketball game in celebration of a friends 30th birthday
• Wednesday my work Christmas Party (which I actually bailed on in order to have taco night with my hubby at home...we just couldn't do it knowing we had Thursday and Friday plans coming up too!)
• Thursday a girlfriends dress fitting and then dinner to visit with another friends mom who is in town.
• Tonight we are headed to dinner with another close girlfriend of mine and her boyfriend whom we have YET to meet and they've been dating for probably around 8 months now!! LONG over due!
• Tomorrow will be filled with laundry, house cleaning, Christmas shopping(only a few little things left to get for my Pops), and Jake will get all the ball throwing and walking his heart desires since he has been such a neglected puppy this past week.
• Sunday I will hang out with my little sister in the morning and then we have a Gingerbread House making party (not sure how to word that) at 2pm which I must say I am UBER EXCITED FOR :)

There's just something about decorating Gingerbread houses that brings on the Christmas Spirit. Our friends The Mitchells are hosting! They are providing the structure of the houses but having everyone bring a candy to decorate with and a dish/app to pass. The husbands were convinced to come by telling them there will be beer and football on TV at the same time :)
This gathering is such a great way to get friends together to celebrate the season without having to throw a huge Christmas party! I can't wait!

• Next week Hunter and I are working Monday - Thursday and celebrating Christmas with with my parents in D.C. until Monday! It will be a quiet weekend with just the four of us which we are REALLY looking forward to. Quality time, relaxation, yummy food, maybe a little ice skating in Reston Town Center......can we skip to Sunday and Then to next Thursday PLEASE!!!???

For the weekend in D.C. with my parents I had Beecher's Mac n Cheese shipped to their house. It was one of Oprahs favorite things. I'm such a sucker for 1. Mac n Cheese, 2. Oprahs favorite things, then throw the holidays into the mix, I picture us enjoying it as a family in cozy sweatpants on the couch in front of the fire.....mmmmmmmmmm I hope it doesn't disappoint! We also have lots of chex mix supplies left over from the Christmas party so thinking about making a Chex Party Mix. On top of that I'm craving Oreo Balls and Hunter's moms Oyster Cracker Snack Mix ....not sure why I'm craving all these things? No, not preggers :) But, I forsee a little time spent in the kitchen this weekend!! Mom I'm bringing some snacky stuff just so you know :)

Other than food, another thing that has been on my mind is UGGS!!! I've been going back and forth on whether I want a pair or not and have officially decided I DO!! I don't plan on wearing them out on a Saturday or anything but I'm thinking to throw on after work, wear to a friends house on a Sunday, or to those cold football games! Yep, I want em and I can't get them fast enough! Except I don't know what size, what color, or what length. Do I go up a size or down a size, black, chocolate, or grey, short or tall???? Decisions, decisions. It's not the time of year to buy ourselves things anyways, its the time to buy for others...so I'm holding off for now but I REALLY WANT THEM. And I think its interesting how I went from not being sure I wanted them to all of sudden NEEDING THEM NOW. Such a GIRL!

Hope you all are stress free and enjoying the Holidays! Have a great weekend. xoxo

Dirty Santa - Smiling Faces

No editorial needed for these pictures :)