I'm glad that I didn't decide to make my new year's resolution to blog more often, because that sure hasn't happened! Its the 9 of January and I can already tell its going to be an amazing year. Last week while shopping at Hobby Lobby, my most favorite store in the whole world, I was called and asked to come in for a job interview out of the blue. A long term sub position in the third grade. I was beyond excited, especially since I didn't even apply for the job, it just 'fell' into my lap. When I hung up the phone with the principal all I could think about was how thankful I was for the opportunity, and how humbling, but amazing it was that God worked and wove so many different things and people together to make this opportunity available to ME at exactly the right time! Today was my first day teaching  the group of rowdy third graders, but I loved almost every minute of it. This morning sitting in my teacher's desk I heard the bell ring and little 3rd and 4th grade feet come hurrying down the hall. All I could think was this is it, here we go, please God let me be able to do this I was so nervous. At times I felt as if everything was under control and others I felt like I didn't have a clue what was going on. I just kept reminding myself that it was only the 1st day. It hasn't sank in that I'm all "grown up" now with a job that I spend too long in school to have. I know the next month is going to be an adventure and I can't wait to see where God takes me next!

Maybe Christmas dosen't come from a store... Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little more

As I shared earlier I graduated from college 3ish weeks ago so I didn't have a bankroll to buy gifts with this holiday season. I only made three of the gifts I gave, but those three saved me some dough.I crocheted scarves for three special ladies, my mother-in-law, my grandmother-in-law and my Granny. As I sat down to write tonight I realized that I forgot to take pictures of all of these gifts :( The grandma's scarves were very simple single and double crochet patterns that didn't take long to create. My mother-in-law's on the other hand, was a stitch new to me called the crocodile stitch.


NOT the one I made



Her scarf looked just like this but it was heather gray, and boy was it a doosie! I wanted to make more than one but since it was my first time it took a while, and two whole skeins of yarn! Not to mention I had to watch a 30 minute long YouTube tutorial after reading the directions to understand what they meant! She loved it so it was well worth it! Next Christmas I plan to be more prepared and organized in my Christmas crafting.

My Daddy even got in on the holiday crafting and made me the cutest snowman to stand by my front door!



The scarf in this picture I made a couple of years ago!

-Merry Christmas & Enjoy!-

Oh Christmas Tree...

Finally after graduation (eeekkkkk) the other weekend my husband took me to the tree farm to pick out the perfect tree. He felt bad for not taking me sooner so he said I could have whatever tree that I wanted... Bad idea :) We got a monster tree and I Love it so much even though Jock says I have lost my tree picking privileges... It finally feels like Christmas in our house!

To save some money this year, since I am a poor officially graduated college student, I have made some Christmas gifts. I will share them after they are given, I don't want to spoil them for their recipients.

-Merry Christmas-

My Totally Awesome Vintage Tree

I love love love old vintage things, so when I saw a scraggly cardboard box at my Granny's house this summer I was beyond extatic. In this scraggly box was a silver aluminum tensil christmas tree...still in the original box!! I knew that I just had to have it! Granny gladly said I could have her christmas tree, anything for the favorite granddaughter right?!  I'm guessing that my Granny and Papa purchased the tree around 1962 or 1963, but I'm still on the hunt for a picture of them with the tree.We also found some awesome vintage ornaments in the attic!! Sadly the color wheel has long been lost, but one day I will find a replacement!

LOVE LOVE LOVE my Tree!!

A Thanksgiving of Firsts

This year my husband and I took on the task of hosting our very first Thanksgiving in our home! The holidays are such a busy time so we decided to simplify and have both of our families over at once so we could all spend time together. We ended up entertaining ten guest. My mom came over early and we attempted dressing for the first time using my granny's recipe and I must say it turned out well. ...or the pan speaks for itself. :)

After all of the food was gobbled up and football was on T.V us ladies settled back down around the table of some wreath making to kick off the christmas season. We used  this tutorial from pinterest to guide our creativity! It was great to spend time with my mom and mother-in-law at the same time doing something fun. We thought we could skip the hot glue step, but we ended up having to go back and do it so I highly recomend you do it!

This is my finished product!

Throughout the month of November my husband and I also kept a thankful tree. Each day we wrote something that we were thankful for on a leaf and tied it onto our "tree". (We missed a few days because we didn't start on November 1st)

All in all we had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of firsts and I hope all of these 'new' things that we did this year will become tradition in years to come!

It has been a busy week in the Wilson house. On Monday night I am pooped but happy! Friday night I made corn bread for the first time ever! I was way nervous because my husband has told me all of these great stories about his mom's and his grandma's cornbread, but I was up for the challange. Last week my daddy gave me a lesson on how to make cornbread the right way, so I set out to copy his recipe. My husband loved it and I was relieved! Daddy's go to recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens 1980something was a hit! I was a little impressed with myself !

Recipe: 1 cup flour (all purpose)

             1 cup corn meal

             2 tbsp Sugar

             1 tsp baking powder

             1/2 Tsp salt

             2 eggs

             1 cup milk- I use 1/2 sweet milk and 1/2 butter milk

             1/4 cup crisco melted.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and pour melted crisco in a cast iron skillet. Put in the oven to heat. Mix dry ingredients first, then add in eggs one at a time. Pour in the milk and pour the hot grease from the pan into the cornbread batter. Mix well adn bake for 20 minutes and Thats All!



For my sweet friend Heather's baby shower I made two hats for her baby that is due in Feburary. I was able to view the patterns for free so I will post them here to share... later when I find the website again!

And finally Saturday night we threw my mother-in-law a birthday party at out house. It was a small gathering of family and some good food but she said it was the best party she had in a while! Before the baby shower Saturday morning I made her gift as well! I had picked up a cute rectangle frame from goodwill Friday while my mom and I were shopping. I got home to take it apart to make her gift and the painting had real butterflies pressed under the glass. I was totally grossed out! I threw all of the nastyness away and made her a chicken wire earing holder like all of those cute ones I have seen on pinterest. It was a busy weekend, but I'm greatful for all of the people I get to share my life with.

Before

After

Happy Birthday!

-Enjoy 

Its only the 7th day of November and I can already tell this month is going to be non-stop. I was just able to replace my Halloween door decor with something a little more generic! I was sad to see all of my Halloween decorations go, but I'm excited that Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I am hosting my first ever Thanksgiving at our house! Yippie! My new front door decor is nothing fancy and it sure didn't take any time, not that I would have had any to devote to the project anyway! I looked around my craft room and found an old frame that I wasn't using for anything and decided that would be what I used.

I nailed a picture hanger on the back, but I lost one nail... no worries a thumb tack did the trick!

Next I found some ribbon in my ribbon box and ran it up under the picture holder so that I would be able to attach my W I bought at Hobby Lobby a while back for like 4$

I looped the ribbon around my W, tied a knot in the end and took it out to hang on the front door. Its pretty plain, but it beats having a naked door!

- Enjoy.