Christmas in Ohio 2011

Last Christmas was just like any other day for me.  The Arizona weather seemed to erase the magic and not being with my Ohio family was quite depressing.  

I'm thankful that the Husband and I were able to spend this Holiday in the Midwest!  Seeing all of the kids open their presents from Santa brought that magic back, making everything right again.  

No snow though! I guess I can't have everything ;)

 

I felt my photography skills were lacking so I don't have many pictures to share.

Let me start by saying that the younger half of Design DNA does her Holidays BIG!  This girl had 3 live trees (living room, dining room, basement), and 2 artificial trees (foyer and guest bedroom).  Unfortunately I wasn't able to capture all of the Christmas flair.

Dining Room:  Colors were white and silver.  The Brother-in-Law informed me that he used 17 strands of lights on this bad boy!

Living Room: Colors used were very rustic - brown, maroon and cream.  She did a lot of ornament clustering this year.

Going along with the rustic feel of the living room, sticks were grouped in a large vase and finished off with the same  coordinating ribbon from the Christmas Tree.

The stairs even got the Christmas treatment.  White lights and live garland were strung up the railing.

Thanks for taking the tour.

We wish you and your family a great new year!  

-Design DNA

DIY Candle Holders - Nature Meets Glam

Supplies: 

• Aluminum cans
• Sticks from the yard
• Candle sticks
• Hot glue
• Rope 
• Clear beads

Step 1:  

• Gather all the sticks you can find (well I had to because I don't have trees in my backyard - some how I had sticks though...)

Step 2:  

• Cover the can with a natural colored paper 
• On the first can I used scrapbook paper 
• On the second can I used a brown paper bag

Step 3:   

• Hot glue the sticks around the aluminum can (If I could go back, I wouldn't have used the aluminum cans for this project but maybe glass votive holders from the Dollar Store.  The can is much more visible through the sticks then I would have liked.)

Step 4:

• Adhere the cans to candle sticks (I had some glitzy looking taper holders I purchased from Hobby Lobby a few years back.)
• To help tie the natural look of the sticks  to the more glamorous look of the  candle stick, I strung clear beads on a thin rope and draped it around each can.

Confession Sunday

We hoard Christmas cards!! 

Reasons why...

1. They are too pretty to throw away
2. The guilt of throwing away overly priced cards from loved ones eats us up in side
3. We are determined to recycle them and reuse them in ways unimaginable (unimaginable may be a bit dramatic)

They all seem true but # 3 makes me feel less like the lady who finds dead cats in her garbage filled living room....

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Big sister - I like to break down the greeting cards from years past and turn them into new Holiday cards.

Greeting Cards Pre-op

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The patient is prepped for surgery 

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Creating a new base for the card (folded card stock in half)

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I used double stick tape to adhere the 

old greeting card image to the new folded card stock

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New cards made from old - mission accomplished!

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Little sister - She recycles her old greeting cards into gift tags.  

 Cut your desired shape, use a hole punch in one of the corners and put a ribbon or piece of yarn through the hole.  Attach your gift tag to whatever your hearts desires!

Cubicle Wars 2011

I work with a great group of people and although the content of our job is quite serious, we manage to cut loose from time to time.  

Last year we started the tradition of decorating our work spaces for the Holidays... some of us became very competitive!  

We'll try to top ourselves and each other every time ;)  

2010 - Team Stefanie and Corie 

That's right, we had a fireplace !!

2011 - Team Stefanie and Corie 

Welcome to our Winter Wonderland!

2010 - Team Elly and Lawinna

2011 - Team Elly and Lawinna

2010 - Team Aleah and Jason

2011 - Team Aleah and Jason

2010 - Team Jennifer and Chiquita

2011 - Team Jennifer and Chiquita

Coming soon...

Christmases past...

I've been busy making Christmas gifts for friends... Gifts that have to be mailed across the country... Gifts that I can't post until they receive them...and it's killing me!! 

I feel like it has been a lifetime since my last post and I was itching to put something out there. Here are some pics from Christmases past...

2008

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What: 

My Charlie Brown Christmas Tree and handmade snow ball ornaments.

How: 

• I raided the backyard for branches (and glued white glitter to the tops to simulate snow)
• The snow ball ornaments were created from white string, a balloon and fabric stiffener (glue, mod podge, etc.)
• Blow the balloon up to your desired snow ball size, wet the string with the glue and wrap it around the balloon in several directions.  Let the snow balls dry over night.  Deflate and pull out the balloon. 

2009
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Above: Grandma's hand painted village (which Jaime {sister} and I later inherit).  Below:  Grandma's hand sewn stockings

2010
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Last year's Christmas card - 

featuring our beautiful children ;)

 The first Christmas away from my Ohio family :(

Below:  Grandma split her Christmas village between Jaime and I.  I proudly displayed them in lieu of a Christmas Tree (I'm scared the puppies would be too curious of the tree).

We {the Husband and I} received so many greeting cards in the mail - I just taped them to the brick fire place.   

How do you display your Christmas cards??!

Prizes from 'Try To Keep Up!'

We recently learned we won third place in the September Stashbusting contest over at T-Shirt Diaries.  

Yay!  

What did that mean for us?  

Well, a few days ago I received some pretty awesome handmade greeting cards....from Canada :)  

These lovelies were made by Leslie over at Try To Keep Up!  

Lots of love went into these beautiful cards - thank you Leslie!!

Doppelganger

Doppelganger: A tangible double of a living person that typically represents evil. In the vernacular, the word doppelgänger has come to refer (as in German "doppelt(e)") to any double or look-alike of a person.

To quote Pee Wee Herman (from Big Adventure)  
"What's the Significance?" ... 

...well, I have a lot of friends that resemble famous people.  In my opinion.  

A few years back I discovered Picnik.com - such a great editing tool! To better familiar myself with its features I started my silly celeb twin project.  I even found that some of my blog friends look like famous people...

Megan from Polish The Stars 

 Kate from the frugal vegetarian

 Tara from Self Discovery

I was watching the The Haunting of Molly Hartley and I couldn't put my finger on why the main actress looked so familiar.  It eventually dawned on me that I felt like I was looking at myself.  I Googled Haley Bennett to find that maybe I don't really look like her much at all - a few similar features I suppose.  Eh, it's all I can come up with.  What do you think? 

...who is your celeb look-alike?