advent day 18 (plus a guest post)

Day 18 was build a gingerbread house.... which Steven and I did for the very first time.
You can check out the post over at my friend Charity's blog (cause I saved this one just for her-since I love her soooo much)!!!
Here's a tiny sneak peek...for more head on over to her blog!

-kellie

advent days 5&6

The newest advent additions to our week:

Advent Day 5: Put Christmas sheets on the bed.
(still need to do, but I will tomorrow)
This one might sound silly, but my mom got me these sheets/comforter awhile ago and they are just so cute. And since my Christmas decorations really only have a home in the common areas, it's a good way to include the bedroom into the holiday decor.


Advent Day 6: Listen to lots of Christmas music.
(done a lot by me (at least))
This Christmas I've been enjoying listening to Christmas music quite frequently. We play it at work, I keep the music station on in my car (or play Christmas music), and I even made some playlists.

So I made a little playlist of some of my absolute favorite Christmas songs. Just in case you needed some tunes to get you in the holiday mood! Enjoy.

love, love,
kellie

see more here:
advent day 4
advent day 3
advent day 2
advent day 1

advent day 4

Advent day 4: Decorate the apartment
(done by Steven, Valerie, and I)

And just a few photos of my favorite spots of our apartment....




xoxoxo
kel

advent day 3 here
advent day 2 here
advent day 1 here

advent day 3

Advent day 3: decorate the tree
(done by Steven and I; and enjoyed by all of us, including the kitty)

Our favorite ornaments:



(1. green bay packers-his, hes a cheese head through-and-through; 2. champagne- mine, such a good holiday drink; 3. apple- mine, because i'm a teacher!)

And kitty just loves hiding out under it.


xoxo
kellie

see more here:
advent day 2
advent day 1

advent day 2

Day 2: Make a fire
(made by Steven; enjoyed by all of us)




see day 1 here

love,
Kellie

advent day 1

This year I decided to make an advent calendar (that was...eh....better made). Let's face it last year's was a bit last minute and since I couldn't quite decide on the style I wanted to make it, I just went for easy.
But this year I decided to try something different; hence, the pictures below.

I created my little (ok, big) advent calendar by making envelopes out of Christmas scrapbook paper and double-side taping them to a giant frame I had (with the plastic-ish cover still attached). Inside each envelope is an activity or an idea for my boyfriend, roommate, and I to do.


Yea, I'm pretty excited for this December.
And once we take down the envelopes, each envelope will become a part of a Christmas mini book I plan on making. And since I'm going so above and beyond this year, I'm also planning on taking pictures of each activity to add to the mini. (Although I'm not entirely sure how often I'll get around to posting all these advent activities....)

Here's Day 1:
Hang the wreath on front door.
(done by Steven)



What are some advent activities on your list this year????

xoxo
kellie

25 things before december 25th

Some more advent ideas I found via weheartit.com:

I'm a little jealous I didn't think of them first. ;)

This is by far one of my favorite times of the year. I love the Christmas season and all that it has to offer: lights, family time, presents, snow (or the thought of it), cinnamon smells, Christmas dinner (best meal after Thanksgiving), chilly evenings and fires in the fireplace, the music, sounds of bells, scarves and other winter attire, and some of my very favorite movies!

In order to take in all that I can this season, I decided to make a list of 25 things I want to do before Christmas day; hence, the advent idea. The beauty of how I created my advent calendar is that I can change around the to dos and dates....I like having a plan, but I love it even more when that plan can be flexible. :)

Okay, okay so my list of things I will accomplish before (or on)December 25th:

1- hang up christmas wreath
2- make my gift wish list
3- get out the christmas tree
4- go to a christmas party
5- break out the christmas music
6- decorate my apartment
7- get out my christmas bed linens
8- buy stocking stuffers
9- make a holiday garland
10- have a blog holiday giveaway
11- send christmas cards
12- decorate the youth room with the youth for christmas
13- make ornaments
14- donate money to the bell ringers outside stores
15- watch christmas vacation
16- get or buy firewood
17- have a fire in the fireplace
18- volunteer with others
19- watch a christmas story
20- try a new holiday food receipe
21- watch white christmas
22- finish holiday shopping (early)
23- bake goodies for gifts
24-pick out the perfect christmas eve outfit
25- got to christmas eve service

happy holidays,

kel

hello there december

After reading my awesome pal Katie's blog and her super fantastic idea of making her own advent calendar for her son, I decided to make one for me too! A little daunting, but after tons of searching for ideas, I came up with my very own. Best part? It's super easy too!
So here's tomorrow's to do:

december 1: hang up my Christmas wreath

december 2: make my gift list

Wanna make your own?
Here are the steps in how I got mine together:
materials:
-construction paper (i used red, green and white...original, right?)
-scissors
-markers (i used black, red and green)
-a clip board
-a binder clip
-my list of 25 things to do before Christmas

steps:
1-make your list of 25 things you wanna do before Christmas!
2- cut up sheets of paper. I split 1 sheet into 3 slips. do this for all your colors until you get a total of 50 slips
3- sort them out and label them (half get numbers 1-25) the other half gets the "to-do's"
4- i put a light green sheet of paper under the slips and over the clip board. (this way I don't have to paint the clip board, but the ugly brown doesn't show through. another note: i tried to make sure that since i used a light green under sheet i used dark green for the slips)
5- clip the numbers on top and using the binder clip, clip the to-dos on the bottom.

that simple :)

Oh.....and my list of 25 things?
You'll have to come back tomorrow for the other 23 things :)

lovelove,
kellie