holiday – Graceful Mommy

Holiday House Tour

Posted on November 21, 2016April 14, 2017 by Graceful Mommy

21
Nov

I’m usually not one to decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. I always felt like it took away from the fall feel of Thanksgiving. But, here we are, decorating for Christmas! This is our first Christmas in our new house, so I wanted to actually enjoy the decorations this year. It always feels like it goes too fast. With it being our first year in our home, we don’t have too many decorations. Our house style is very simple, so with our decorations, we wanted to keep it simple, too. We go for a less is more feel. Anyways, here’s a look at our new home and house decorations!

We went for a more minimalist tree theme this year, too. A simple tree skirt, only a few red ornaments, and a white garland. Ah, it’s perfect! Not sure why I didn’t turn on the lights for the photo, but you get the idea. The two chairs on the side of the tree were found at a thrift store! They are so comfy. The blanket is the falsa blanket from Wild Sunshine Threads.

We moved our Ikea couches around a bit to be able to fit the tree in the perfect spot. I love the new set up! It’s so open, yet cozy and comfortable. We love this room because there is no TV. So naturally when we sit in here, we just end up talking for hours. Gracie loves reading in this room :).

Here’s a look from another perspective. As you can see, our walls are pretty bare. While I LOVE them because it’s so simple and eye pleasing, I do feel like it’s missing stuff on the walls. Any ideas?! I’m stumped.

As you walk through the house, you enter the family room/kitchen area. Here is a look at the tree from the family room.

On the wall, I hung a shelf with some of Gracie’s christmas photos and another little tree. I call this tree Gracie’s tree, hehe.

In our kitchen, I put just a few decorations up. A little tree on the table, a banner on our chalkboard, and some other little things.

We just mounted the TV onto our kitchen island so that it can be tucked away when we’re not watching it. Love when the TV is not the center of attention.

Our table is from Ikea and our chairs are from amazon (Giantex eames chairs).

Well, there ya have it! A sneak peek into our home and our christmas decorations! We are still finishing up our bedroom and office, so I will share those soon! Are your christmas decorations up? I would love to see them!

Home

Christmas Activities

Posted on December 23, 2015 by Graceful Mommy

23
Dec

Can you believe Christmas Eve is TOMORROW? What! Just craziness. Anyways- Gracie and I have been super busy getting Christmas gifts together. She’s been loving going shopping with mommy and watching mommy wrap. Her favorite thing lately is trying to grab and crumble up the wrapping paper. So cute. I think she’s really gonna love opening her presents! We’ve been doing some other fun Christmas activities, too! We are checking things off our BUCKET LIST!

Gingerbread House

We built a gingerbread house while Gracie sat in her Chicco high chair and watched! It’s so cute to see Gracie so observant now. She literally watches everything I do! I think it’s so adorable. I haven’t built a gingerbread house in like forever. So that was fun! It was actually a little bit harder than I thought!

Decorate

We finally decorated our place for Christmas! We put up our tiny tree, stockings, and some lights and other decorations. I also put all my Christmas books up (the ones from teaching!). I’ve started reading some of my favorites to Gracie. Christmas decorations can truly transform the living space. It’s so cozy now! I LOVE IT! We put on Christmas music while we decorated. It was a lot of fun! Gracie loves music. And loves to look at the tree.

Christmas Lights

We took Gracie through the drive through Christmas Festival of Lights. It’s a huge park where they put tons of beautiful Christmas displays and lights. It takes about 10-15 minutes to drive through. They also give you these 3D glasses to wear and it makes the lights look crazy. I don’t really think Gracie was that interested in the whole lights thing, but she seemed to have fun looking at everyone in the car!

Also, as we were waiting in line to buy the tickets, a Santa was walking down the line of cars greeting the kids. Is this not the FREAKIEST Santa picture you’ve ever seen?

Santa Visit

Speaking of Santas… we took Gracie to see a real santa! Well, not “real”, but better than the Santa above. This Santa was at a mall. We had to wait one hour to see him! Gracie actually slept the whole time in line. Then, she woke up right before seeing Santa! I thought for sure she was going to cry, but she didn’t!!! She was super calm, kept looking at Santa, and held onto the white fur part of his coat. It was seriously the CUTEST. I hope I don’t forget to do a Santa picture every year.

Christmas Cookies

Every year, my mom and I would bake Christmas cookies. It’s probably one of our longest traditions. We go all out and make tons of different kinds. It ends up being a huge long day. It seems like every year, we keep adding more and more people to the tradition! I love it! And this year was Gracie’s first time cookie baking! We baked cookies at my Aunt’s new condo this year (so fun!). Gracie ended up sleeping for most of the baking extravaganza, but it was lots of fun!

What Christmas activities have you been up to!?

DIY, Home

DIY Baby Handprint Ornament

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Graceful Mommy

07
Dec

Recently, I posted a bucket list for baby’s first Christmas. One of the activities on the list is to make a homemade ornament. This is such a fun way to create memories during Christmas time. Gracie is 5 months old, so I wanted a way to capture how little and cute her hand is right now.

When I taught first grade, I loved doing handprint crafts with my students. They turn out so adorable! I sort of went into this with the same expectation. It’s gonna be easy, right? Oh my- was I wrong!!!!

Here’s what happened. We got a plaster handprint kit from hobby lobby. Basically all you do is mix the white powder, paint, and water. Easy so far. Then, pour the plaster into the mold that they give you. Easy… Next step: put hand in plaster for ONE MINUTE. Wait, what? A minute? How am I going to hold Gracie’s hand in there for a minute? I decide 5 seconds should be good enough. So I put Gracie’s hand down and she grabs the plaster. Haha! Digs her nails in all the way down and grabs a huge chunk. I knew right then that this was not going to work! It looked nothing like a hand. Then, because I only held it in for a second, it kind of all flattened out in the end. Hm…. definitely looks like Gracie made it. Hehe.

After that fiasco… we thought it may be easier to do her foot. Wrong again. I think this project is made more for like a 5 YEAR old not 5 MONTH old. We definitely laughed and had fun, though. That’s all that matters anyways. I consider this a Pinterest fail but a memory win.

I still wanted to have an actual handprint ornament craft… so we started over. Back to hobby lobby for supplies! Spoiler: this one actually turns out cute!

Materials You Need

Plain ornaments (Hobby Lobby has both frosted and regular- we did frosted!)

Elmers glue

Glitter

Spray Adhesive

Ribbon

Marker

Steps

Put elmer’s glue all over baby’s hand. I used a brush at first, but it was actually easier just to spread it around with my fingers.

Next, place the ornament in baby’s hand. This craft actually works cause Gracie just tried to grab the ornament, which put her handprint on it perfectly!

Then, wash baby’s hand before she eats glue.

Next, fix up the handprint a bit with q tips or your finger. I made three of these and each one I had to touch up just a little. One of the ornament handprints only had 4 fingers. One of her fingers must not have pressed down, so I just made one with glue and a q-tip.

Then, sprinkle the glue handprint with glitter. And shake off the excess. Let it dry for about 10 minutes. After, I sprayed the ornaments with a spray adhesive so that the glitter wouldn’t get everywhere. Honestly, I’m not sure that this is even necessary.

After the spray dries, write a little message on it with your marker! Add a little ribbon and voila! Cute craft completed! Mine didn’t end up perfect but I think the little mistakes make it more charming!

Give both a try and let me know if you have better luck with the plaster handprint one. Maybe i’ll attempt that again next year? Or, maybe not.

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