pinecone garland.

a neat-o blog I follow is Twig & Thistle. well they had this project tutorial to make pine cone garland that I swooned over ages ago and then filed away for a rainy day. (common theme which relates directly to my arts-n-crafts binge-ing)

well i finally got around to making it, with my friend Allison's help. all you need is those yummy smelling pine cones that come out this time of year, some ribbon or twine and a few screw hooks.

my mantle BEFORE garland:

my mantle AFTER garland:


next craft on deck, this short tree-stump trivet made out of felt that will make some slightly altered appearance in baby king's nursery. yay!

skype xmas.

it's always tough to make those decisions on where you'll spend the holidays and this year was no different. we couldn't visit everyone we wanted to in person, but that didn't stop us from using the next best thing to connect with as many folks as we could!!

SKYPE! Or as my brother calls it SKKYYYYYYPPPPEEEEEEEE.

you might remember when i posted about it back here when i went to Singapore. my other half and i use it almost every week to connect with my siblings. we call them - skype dates. sometimes we eat dinner together or just spend an hour vegging on the couch. depends on the mood :)

this christmas justine was stuck in florida working so she couldn't make the trek up north. sooooo we opened presents over Skype and it was a HOOT!


it doesn't beat the real, in-person thing but it far outweighs not getting to see each other at all. Yay for SKYPE!

happy holidays.

wishing you and yours a BLESSED holiday season.

with love, the King's

happy thanksgiving

with many things to be thankful for this year, we wish you and your family a happy thanksgiving from our home to yours.

happy poppy day.

happy Veteran's Day everyone!
Thanks to all those who are serving or who have served our country!

and to all my canadian friends and family...
happy remembrance day!

christmas countdown begins.

50 days until Christmas. Yikes!!!
Every year I try to begin early and get as much done as early as possible. This year - having SERIOUS trouble getting the momentum! Lots of distractions with house renovations, baby related excitement and work kicking into major high gear. Drats.

Last night I was reading an article on 'simplifying the holidays' and had to laugh aloud at the tip "try moving other projects to different parts of the year". don't see that in our future! there isn't the time, nor the energy, to be as creative and crafty as I usually like to be. that is probably the most overwhelming part.

Haven't set the holiday budget, made the lists yet, thought about Christmas cards, nothing. Better get cracking! I will take their suggestion to set small, attainable goals.

(i take that back, I actually have purchased some items and can cross one person off our list. consider progress made!)

memorial birthday fun - dinosaur style.

we celebrated the start of summer in style. blessed with gorgeous weather and great company, we headed to central new york for a fun filled BBQ weekend!

Brother Jon came in from DC and we celebrated his twenty-fifth birthday, dinosaur style. You see our family LOVES anything from the dinosaur barbeque. Their cookbook made the rounds one year as christmas gifts so @ his bday dinner request - everything on the table had to come from the book. Let's just say... YUMMMY.

Other festivities included lawn games such as ladder golf and Polish horseshoes. This horseshoe game is like no other - ski poles, beer cans and a frisbee (you really had to be there) and woah the ladder golf tourney (brackets included) was pretty competitive. Then Sunday we hit the water and took a nice boat ride and swim.

You can check out the rest of the pics here.

happy halloween.

boo.

easter decor.

easter SNUCK up on me this year. and if i were asked - i'd suggest giving easter a fixed schedule versus this variable one that allows for it to be in march. don't get me wrong - i respect why it's celebrated and do love a 2 holiday month (just like hoops and yoyo) but it's just too darn cold up here to be celebrating easter this soon.

it made me SLOW to decorate! i was soo rushed putting out decor... i didn't want my poor eggs or bunnies to get frostbite. despite the bitter cold - we celebrated on Saturday with family and we had a very nice easter holiday. here are a few pics of my THINKSPRING* easter decor. i'm into greens and birds lately.


jelly beans fill the hurricanes and i put rocks, fake reindeer moss and lotus' in my apothecary jars for a botanical feel.

*THINKSPRING is part of my strategy to get spring to come sooner. (why else would i wear my new skimmer keds with no socks in 25 degree weather?!)

hoppy easter.

from lucy and her friends.


ps. it's a YAWN, not a ferocious attack on the bunny ears.

smoked irish dinner.

me: "babe - can we have boiled dinner for st patty's day?"him: "sure, i'll stop at wegman's on my way home. do you mind if i twist up the menu a bit?"me: "no problem as long as the staples are there!"

i present you SMOKED corn beef, roasted cabbage, carrots, onions, and garlic-cheddar mashed potatoes. the boy uses ANY excuse to break that smoker out and put it to good use! a very different flavor than what comes from the traditional crock pot! the veggies were all done in a balsamic reduction glaze that was oh-so-YUMMY. oh... and for dessert:

st patty's day.

i was recovering from the flu so i didn't get to the parade this weekend. BOO! despite not making it, my attire was quite festive. (gotta love those $5 Target tees!)

Happy St Patty's Day everyone!! Any fun plans or events to share?!

ps - i took this pic with my new phone... not too shabby!

happy v-day.

my crayon hearts are up!

seeing stars.

for christmas each year, i try to make homemade gifts that people will enjoy. last month the main project was creating STARS out of sticks.


it all started when i saw them for sale at the rochester public market. i immediately fell in love with everything but the PRICE as one lonely star was going to cost nearly one hundred smackers. i thought i could make those easy-peasey for WAY less.

while visiting NOTL in early december, we got the entire king family involved in my crafting project! i hadn't done much research you see... so it was a day of trial and error. i'm happy to report the output of the day was magnificent!

Check out the pics on my Projects page!

out with the old backgrounds.

i finally changed the background pics on my phone and computer. my phone's had a pic that my little bro sent me from his phone that he took when setting up their tree. (note the thumb) he was lucky enough to score the only evidence of me sitting in santa's lap (or next too. somehow his lap wasn't big enough for me as a chubby child).

my computer background has held a sneak peak into our xmas cards that I ordered. lucy gets more festive with each and every year. i wanted to share the blooper pics from that photo-shoot, but I couldn't ruin the surprise that was hitting mailboxes!


poor lucy.

merry xmas.

merry christmas to all.

make your own christmas ornaments.

this holiday season i've been on the JIT (just-in-time) gift-giving inventory plan. this means i'm running around (ok - so no real exercise is occurring) trying to get EVERYTHING done but I'm really so behind I don't get to anything until less than 24 hours before it's required to be 'gifted'.

recent problem: it's 9pm, Grey's Anatomy is on (which despite BOMBING this season, I can't let go b/c of all the time invested from previous seasons), I have an 8am mtg (boo) & a holiday happy hour event which I NEED to bring a little something-something to for all the ladies.

recent solution: glitter balls. spend your commercials creating quick ornaments filled with holiday CHEER. (yes, there are still people on this earth without DVR) i found this idea on hgtv's christmas crafts countdown. click on the Nov 23rd date from the calendar and watch the quick video... she has lots of good ideas for glittering glass balls.

a few basic supplies are needed: christmas ball ornaments (i got some cheap ones at kmart and the dollar store), glitter (i HEART martha stewart glitter), glue (w/clean spout so it's easy to 'write' with), a small paint brush and ribbon.

you can follow tutorial steps here on my projects page, but the basics are:
1. using glue, draw SOMETHING on the ornament. (i'm really into MONOGRAMMING lately)
2. shake glitter over the glue, making sure to cover all sides.
3. tap the ornament to remove the excess and repeat until it the glue has good coverage.
4. let the ornament dry. (i set them all in shot glasses to dry overnite)
5. when glue is completely dry, use a small dry paintbrush to brush off excess glitter.
6. string ribbon color of ur choice and HANG from tree!

happi bday.

happy birthday to me. happy birthday to me. happy birthday to NICKY. happy birthday to me. what a celebration this Floridian weekend! i am so grateful to have spent time with family and i can't thank our hosts, Justine and Lauren, enough for letting us invade and take over their apartment. i was showered with love and presents the whole weekend long which was just fantabulous. i didn't want to leave!

among my presents - a pedicure, pink winter gloves, a bottle of wine from my FAVE winery, an ironing board and iron, the cutest crafting TOTE and craft supplies, a mini dressform, sewing supplies and a gift card to Joanne's to stock up on more CRAFT supplies! happiday.

let me give you a closeup of how adorable the giftcard was dressed.oh - and how could I forget the best present of all. 3 feet of snow to shovel on the day of our return!

christmas tree.

today we dressed Lucy up in her SANTA collar and headed to Wilbert's xmas tree farm to cut down the world's most *perfect* xmas tree. apparently we're a little rusty picking out trees from being gone last year. it wasn't until it was in the stand until we noticed it has curviest trunk ever. i'm just waiting to come down one morning and find it on it's side. (sigh)

check out some more pics on my gallery page.

elf yourself.

i've been elfed! one of the best parts of my weekend was finding this insanely funny christmas site. i could spend hours dressing people up as elves and watching them dance.

it took a few tries to make sure I got the BEST spot in the elf lineup. (keep watching at the end, I even do an AIR GUITAR move) lisa looks like she's done this before with those hip swirls and jon's got the best neck rolls in the house. mc can't quite keep up with the rest of us (sigh), but his robot rocks the elfin world!

you can watch ours here or create your own elf lineup here.

ps - for those spread the elfin cheer, there really is no science to the lineup order! (boo)