Happy 30th Keelie!

Today is my lifelong friend's birthday. I've known her since 1981, when God blessed me with making her my next door neighbor.

We surprised her on Saturday with a 30th birthday party. I was worried for two weeks that she'd find out about it. It was great to know she was genuinely surprised when pulling up the driveway on Saturday evening.

Shocked to see all her family and friends standing in the driveway.

with her hubby, Justin

buds

Glory had fun at her mommy's party.

30th cupcakes

Blowing out the candles, with help from son Jonah & nephew Brooks.

Keelie's nephew Mitch really enjoyed the cupcakes.

Looking through the scrapbook I made her of us through the years.

Love ya girlie! Welcome to the 30's!

My 1st Blogoversary‏

Today is my 1st Blogoversary. Yes, a year ago today I started Kristi's Thoughts. In the past year I have written 100 posts; some craft related, some about my cats, some about events, and still some about the random. I have enjoyed blogging world so far. I'd like to blog more often but my procrastination and life tend to get in the way.

Thank you to those of you who have followed along with me through this 1st year. I have no doubt that you sometimes wish the posts were shorter and there were less pictures, but lets face it, that's me. I write like I talk and yes, I'm pretty chatty.

Get ready for year 2. I have no idea what's in store for us, but I'm sure it'll be entertaining. Stay tuned!

Making Ornaments

As you know from previous posts, I did a lot of crafting during the holidays. And yes, I'm still talking about Christmas! ;) One of my more time consuming crafts was making these ornaments. Part of Red Writing's TWOC were homemade gifts. I got the idea to make these ornaments from one of Hobby Lobby's weekly adds. They had these class ornaments on sale for 40% off. I didn't know how to make ornaments but thought I could figure it out and make some cute gifts for a few friends. I did some googling and got a few ideas on what to do.

One of the ideas online was to make marble looking ornaments by pouring different color paint down the insides of the ornaments and turning it ever so often so the paint would swirl/marble together. At the end you turn the ornament upside down and let the remaining paint drain out, which also helps in the marbling.

I also painted the outsides of some ornaments. I'm a fan of polka dots so the two I painted the outsides of were adorned with these.

After the paint was dry, I hot-glued the tops onto the ornaments and then piled on the ribbon with hot glue as well.

I also personalized the outsides of the ornaments with names and dates, as well as used a little scrapbook bling around the sides.

The ornaments that I painted on the outside were also painted with Modge Podge once dry to prevent the paint from chipping off.

Show & Tell

So back in October I blogged about how I would display my Christmas cards during the Christmas season. This was part of Red Writing's TWOC - Accent Crafts #1. As you can tell below, I did my own version of what Better Homes & Gardens did (theirs obviously was better) and really enjoyed displaying my cards this way. After all, Christmas cards are one of my favorite things of the season.

BH&G's cards display

This is how mine looked with all the ribbon up and two cards. I just used all the various ribbon I had in my Christmas gift wrapping box.

I attached most of the ribbon by tying it, others I taped onto the inside of my cabinet door.

End result. I actually ran out of room and had to tape cards to the side, top, & bottom of the door.

I like my cards so much that I think I'll leave them up until the end of January...or even February! ;-)

Just another close-up. Toward the end of the season you could barely see the ribbon.

Red Writing's TWOC - #12 Tour of Homes

Yes, it's January 4th, but I'm just now wrapping up the TWOC. I got a bit behind but decided I MUST finish what I started. I also had high hopes of tidying up the apartment to show you more, but there is post Christmas stuff everywhere so you are seeing a few glimpses of the apartment, and some of my favorite pieces.

Meowy Christmas!

My Christmas tree. Notice the sign, "Dear Santa, Define Good."

Rashahn made me this advent calendar and gave it to me for Christmas. Totally fits my tree decor. Love it!

She also made me this great wooden sign. I told her at least a year ago that I loved this saying on stuff I see during the holidays. Thanks to the Cricut and her painting talents I got my sign! Oh, Robert did participate by putting the hooks on. Love this!

My counter is a mixture of items; nativity, little Christmas trees, frames, & my NOEL letters. My lighted garland hangs below.

Our stockings - Sylvest, Me, & Jax

I displayed my Christmas cards on my cabinet door and decorated the kitchen with holiday dish towels, and other Christmas accents.

Hehe.

Random stuff displayed on my entertainment center.

I like displaying ornaments in various bowls and trays.

More ornaments - the entire table was too bad to show. ;-)

Yay! I finished the TWOC.

NOEL

Okay, it's time to make good on one of my promises in Red Writing's Twelve Weeks of Christmas. Yes, I'm still talking about Christmas. ;-) I said I would make the NOEL letters I posted in week 7 (above) when we did Accent Crafts. I finally have completed them.

I started working on the letters the first weekend in December when I had a craft day in Houston with Deborah & Elizabeth.

I bought various Christmas scrapbook and tore it into random pieces.

I then Modge Podged them randomly onto the letters.

For all practical purposes they were complete, except that I wanted to paint the sides like they did in Better Homes & Gardens.

At first I was just going to paint the sides, tops, and insides and leave the back and bottom unpainted.

For some reason leaving the backs & bottoms undone bothered me and made me feel as though they were incomplete. So last night I painted the the rest.

Ta da! They are all done now. I haven't put up any Christmas decorations yet so I'm still enjoying them this season and they will be ready to go next year.

Hannah Elizabeth Frueh

Hannah Elizabeth Frueh was born November 10, 2009 at 8:13 pm to Margaret & Paul Frueh. She weighed 8 lbs 0.2 ounces and was 20 inches long. Margaret was induced early that morning and after being in labor all day, Hannah entered the world via c-section.

Paul introduced his baby girl to the world. We were all waiting at the nursery window and were thrilled to see the little pink hat. IT'S A GIRL!

Footprints on Daddy's shirt.

Leigh Ann, Leah, & I snuck back to recovery to see Marge & meet Hannah.

Mommy & Hannah

At home - Margaret & Hannah got a visit from Molly & Jack.

We had to postpone Marge's baby shower that was planned for three weeks before Hannah was born. Thankfully we were able to shower the family on Dec. 19th, which worked out great because Miss Hannah got to attend the shower and everyone got to meet her.

Hannah & Marge w/shower hostesses : Leah, Beth, Molly, Leigh Ann, & I

Such a cutie pie! She's getting so big!

(PS - I bought her the pink dress & sweater once we knew she was a girl! She needed some pink!)