Blogmas | Annual Holiday DIY Project

Hello!

I love being able to do something creative around the holidays.

It’s become a bit of a tradition to do ornaments and now that I have been exploring the dot painting world, it has really opened a bunch of ideas in my mind and it’s fun to share them with my loved ones and of course blog about them. My only regret is that not every person will get one in the mail.

Sidenote: For the past month, I’ve had three bouts of stomach flu or whatever – I no longer believe it was stomach flu, but I’m also terrified to go down that road to find out what is exactly going on with my gut. Anyways, since I was down and out for several weeks, I was even more scared to do anything constructive because it would always come back to bite in the ass–literally! I know, TMI but you gotta laugh, right?

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What you will need for this project:

• Unfinished wooden ornaments – depending on which product you choose, sometimes you will be given string, multicolored beads, paint markers
• Acrylic paint – I used two different brands of paint: Bunny Barn and DecoArt
• 3 Paintbrushes – a large, medium and smaller brush
• Palette container
• Damp and dry wash cloth
• Cup of water
• Dotting tools

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Last Christmas, I went back to the brand I used in my 2021 ornaments because they had two different collections, and I swore I had saved the others in one of the folders, but I guess I didn’t, which really bugged me in late October, so when I went looking for these characters days later, I had hoped I didn’t purchase the same designs! The ones I did find though, they had trees, bells, and snowflakes, but I really liked the others in the batch that I choose to overlook them and do my best to make every single ornament unique and I hope you (and their owners!) enjoy what I was able to do this time around.

The first day I only went in with eight characters and their base coats – for at least three of the ornaments were only painted in one color: the stars, snowflakes and hearts. Technically, the silver bells are only color, but they have a layer of glitter on top of them. I’d just like to point out the glitter wasn’t my idea; this was an addition made by my mother! For a woman who has panicked everytime I have paint out, she went all in with the glitter, I was actually very proud of her! Honestly, I didn’t know what I exactly wanted to do for these three and I went back and forth more on the hearts, but I do think keeping them as they are, is just as festive!

Once I had finished painting those guys, I moved onto the next few as i tried to do four at a time, but that really depended on the colors I still had available on my palette, so I did the baubles, snowmen, and angels, as they didn’t require much in the first layer. The snowmen were fairly simple as I just went to paint most of it in white and added the black on the arms, face and top hat. I had the thought of putting a neon orange nose of them but I figured all hell would break loose if I did so they went without their standard carrot nose. I just realized I didn’t even give them a scarf either. Oops!

The baubles were another easy-going ornament for me as I just used a color called “pure blue” and it is beautiful! I was tempted to use it everywhere but that was also part of the problem with it, since the shade was so vibrant, it was somewhat difficult for my mom to remove on the brushes, skin, …floor. It’s the same blue that reminds me of that scene in Harriet the Spy where her classmates “accidentally” pour a jug of blue paint on her. The last scene of her frantically scrubbing it off, is exactly how my mom had to remove it as well! Back to the baubles though, after they had dried, I grabbed my rustic gold and painted the section where you thread the string on top of it and it actually makes it look really good! I was worried I’d regret my decision there because when it dries, it tends to soak into the surface and instead of becoming lighter as acrylic paint normally does, it can look dark, but thankfully, the blue stands out just enough to balance out that dullness it can have at the end of the day.

This photo was taken before the wings of the angels (and the trees were decorated!) were taken.

The angel. I was somewhat thrilled to have a small stack of heavenly angels as a part of my holiday project. I was conflicted though because I wanted to keep them with a simple design, but also make them to be individuals as well; in the end I went with the latter as it just seemed better to go in this route in case, I got a little overzealous with making sure every angel was different from the other. So, they all received a sky-blue gown, white wings and light-yellow face/halo.

Next, I went to the reindeer, stocking, trees, and despite doing the Christmas trees last year, I was thoroughly excited to be a little more creative–sickness be damned at this point!

Anyways, I started with my trees, and I managed to remember the precise shade I had for my original tree project back in 2020, and it had a bluesy green color and I thought it made the trees more winter-y, which is what I really wanted to showcase a natural look with some decorations here and there. Every tree had the standard blue-green coat, brown trunk and yellow/red on top for the star. When I finished with the basic things, I moved on to create their overall look with yellow, red and blue dots everywhere; some trees had a design I enjoyed creating last Christmas and I definitely went for it on some of them, while the others have a couple or few smaller dots that make them seem cute and meek at the same time.

As for the reindeer, I knew they would appear this year, but since I thought, I was going to have that other collection, I figured I’d only have to focus my attention on the face of the reindeer themselves, whereas with the batch I ended up with, were made with the whole body intact, I was a little nervous on how to make them “believable” if that makes sense. Although I will admit, I did create a little Rudolph face on the bells last Christmas as an added bonus to the mix, and I absolutely loved that idea, but I was concerned on whether I’d feel comfortable making a harness over the chest and front legs like they were all a part and ready to carry Santa’s sleigh through the night sky. I didn’t use a pencil outline for any of my initial designs for when I started on the dot process, I just went with my gut and I’m happy to say it actually worked out in the end of the day.

To round off this cluster of ornaments, we have the innocent stocking. My mindset going into this one was to basically copy what my actual stocking looks like, it’s a ruby red with white topper or ruffle, I don’t really know what that part of the sock/stocking would be, but then again, I’ve never had to care of the correct term. Anywho, when I went into painting, I used this beautiful red shade that definitely captured the same color that of red-hot cinnamon candies, but that damn topper was difficult. My mom had thought of using the silver glitter again, and at one point I had agreed with it, but then I changed my mind when I suddenly found myself with two stockings with bright blue… Honestly, I don’t regret it. It’s really pretty! The other two were never painted actually painted; if I had the confidence to do it, they were going to have a textured fur look in that area but again, I still loved how they turned out too!

Here’s something funny for you, now that I’m officially done with these ornaments and they should be getting to their rightful places soon, I’ve already decided on what I’m doing next year. If I can find a bunch of them, my plain is to do gingerbread men and women. As much as I enjoy the variety packs, only having one character may be easier on me as I can just give my heart to my design process. What do you think about this idea?

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Do you have any special Christmas crafts you do for or with your family? For those who do not have anything, but have your own ideas though, what is it? Share with me in the comments!

Monthly Favorites | Lovely Words

Hello!

In January, I talked about the fact that I’m keeping a reading journal for 2022, so I have a better way to keep up with what I’m getting into on a daily basis. I keep a note of everything from the number of books I read each month, how many pages I finish, and the days in every month as well. These things are perfectly normal of a regular bookworm, but I took a step further with adding my favorite words, affectionately titled “Lovely Words” as it was an innocent thing to include in my journal at the time. And then, it definitely grew into something I tend to focus a lot of my time because I really enjoy finding new words and looking up what they mean, especially if they are from other languages.

In my ‘Goodreads Reading Challenge’ post, I had shared a collage banner of all of the words that captured my attention during that first month, and it was interesting to see everyone’s comments about this section, but I felt bad for only discussing those 31 words, so when I came up with this series, I thought it would a great idea to include every word from the previous three months. So, I hope you enjoy this batch just as much as I do!

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I am arranging each month based on the colors they were given at the start of the year. I know I don’t mention it a lot but I technically have two journals, and for my habit tracker of how many days I actually read, is in a different color. For the most part, I’ve stuck to that color but unfortunately I don’t have an orange and can’t see the yellow very good so I have had to switch those colors around. I know it doesn’t really matter for you, but in case anyone was curious by the color changes with every month.

February:

One thing I do need to explain is, I may have finished three books in February, but I attempted to read about three others, which were The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, The Curse of Beauty by Lauren Lee Merriweather, and Disease and History by Frederick Cartwright. I include ALL of the words, even if I don’t complete the book itself, because honestly that would be too much work to remove them anyways.

daffiance, ensconce, malcontent, recalcitrance, thence, imbue, guardroom, simemet, disir, cuirass, jelling, lamentations, pastureland, petulant, portent, rebuttal, miscarriage, litany, lexicon, trellis, cornucopias, jessamine, compulation, verve, primrose, karanasi, epistle, spiles, consecration, abhors, paraffin, tesserae, sodden, dwarven, loquacious, precipice, hangerook, processional, and gothar.

March:

March as a whole was on another level when it came to reading in general. I managed to complete five books, but I also tried one other book and it was Waylon: Angel and Ruthless Reaper by Theodora Taylor. I did not make it very far with it and I’m pretty sure I did not include any words mentioned in this story. I collected 56 words in all with the others, so a part of me was happy as a clown at this accomplishment!

crug, lain, clowder, centurions, greaves, eldritch, aesir, dour, covart, plait, malcontents, rabble, affright, sheen, pittance, perpendicular, eaves, pommel, dephlane, stalwart, opalsent aloof, salk, seidhr, mirthful, entreat, pennents, somble, vista, thersals, herbcraft, batlements, abate, viste, nettled, sullen, magpielike, spattergroit, transpired, pactiturn, pallor, abussal, skiff, cumbersome, sneer, filligreed, font, spever, pourbiere, grouse, cloudberries, alms, subterfuge, verbena, knattleitir, cloven

PS: Can you tell I read two Viking fiction books or is it just me?

April:

This month I really wanted to finish every book I put in front of myself, but sometimes when I think I’m ready for something else, I end up changing my whole lineup, so with that being said, I attempted to read three romances These Three Words by Alexis Winter, Sexy Filthy Boss by Piper Rayne and Hitching the Cowboy by Kennedy Fox. I’d like to get back with the ones by Alexis and Kennedy because I love how these authors write their characters and couples, but we’ll have to see where in the log they will end up and I’ll definitely write a book review of the Kennedy Fox book as it goes with the bonus post I released over the weekend!

permance, trotting, impertinant, castanets, perambulater, repulsion, roil, Doha, skety, asronyeh, jebnah, ghadoh, adhen, nunu, queer, rapture, gaylingly, heliocentric, counterance, periphery, proviso, rhinophyma, sobriquet, bint, feign, a’arf, ma’amoul, tay’ebeh, khalo, accosts, bedragged, pantomime, caricature, dastardly, smarm, tutelage, chaste, Blomma, trove, frock, minuscule, jester, fawning, hap, debacle, evangelism, entrapped, entendre, omnipresent, sortileges, pedantic, cordinal, gore, woe, croup, prow, lament, sanguinary, revently, morrow, capitally, providence, menagerie, machinations, traipsing, leaflets, liaise, grobing, scantimonious, Veritaserum, simpered, leaves, berks, vying, niffler, lintel,

PS: I read about 18th Century ladies, a Syrian refugee, and Vikings jarls. I traveled a lot in April, thus the many unique words above.

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I think I will do like a mid-year review of my progress sometime this summer, because I’d like to compare it with whatever happens in the next six months. I don’t know when I’ll be able to get that one out for you, but I’ll figure out some way though!

How are your reading goals for 2022 going so far? Do you keep a book journal every year to keep track of everything like I am? If you are or have in the past, tell us something about your overall design or what you thought was most important to keep notice of during a single year!

November Moodboard

Howdy!

It is time for another monthly moodboard!

By the time it turns into November, the leaves on the trees are turning various colors and falling to the ground. One of my favorite colors the leaves change into is actually red. To me, this symbolizes autumn. There is so much orange to embrace in October that I feel like any shade of red is a welcoming surprise. So, I knew what kind of theme I wanted to go for this time, and since I would look around the house for the previous ideas, I have stopped several items for this board.

The items used in this moodboard

Something that was a little shocking to me, was the fact that I had so many things at my disposable! If I had more room, I probably would have added them all!

The biggest difference with this one was the fact that I didn’t have a big enough bandanna to use for my backdrop. I asked my dad if he had any and even though he has tons of them, they’re all cut in half in order to fit around his head the right way. Unfortunately, I couldn’t use it in the way I have been, which sucked in a way, but all was not lost because my mom was helping me too, and while she was doing laundry, she let me use her Christmas kitty shirt she’s had for years! One thing you’ll notice with the pictures is that I didn’t use the front of it, because I thought it would overshadow the rest of the stuff on top of it.

The three largest next to the shirt were the Ritz cracker box, that was so unbelievably heavy for my toes, that as it was nearing the edge of my bookshelf that I just let it fall to ground. Since it was also brand new, I know not to be surprised for the many broken pieces in the packages! The second thing was actually a little present from my nephew the last time he came over. He walked into my room with the Hoosier back scratcher. When I finally got around to doing this, it had been on my floor for about three to four days.

As for the smaller items, I also had a package of UNO cards on top of my mini bookshelf that I grabbed, thankfully these were a lot easier for me to get ahold of with my toes and move to the space on the floor. The final piece that I used that came from my room was my little Spider-Man figurine.

At the same time, I was searching for stuff to use for this board, I was also rearranging my nephew Nolan’s bookshelf with several of my books. I literally had two projects going on at the same time! So, you can easily imagine by the time I got around to doing the photos for the moodboard that I couldn’t grip much of anything after the hell I went through with my books! Anyways, while I was already in Nolan’s playroom, I went and grabbed a couple of Hot Wheels cars, knob that belongs on his work bench and a single red ball (that you swear was orange in the pictures!) and placed them in my trusty bucket so I could just drag it back and forth between rooms!

And like that, I am done with this post! I feel like I should mention before I get asked whether or not I got any sleep the night after, I did! My mom and I worked so hard that we actually slept like babies. It was crazy! We hardly ever do this, but it was a big day for us that literally the next day, we both vowed not to work on anything. You ever get like this?

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How do you like the color theme for this November? What should we do for next month? Blue? Festive colors of green and red? Let me know!

Baby’s First Easter!

Howdy!

It has been a really long time since I’ve blogged about a family gathering or in this case, a celebration. I keep wanting to kick myself whenever we babysit Nolan because I have good opportunities to snap a few pictures of whatever he’s doing, so the night before our Easter festivities, I had my mom charge up my camera because it’s been a couple of months since I’ve last used it and I felt like this was a good idea because I’ve been in the middle of something and all of a sudden my camera goes black on me. This way, I knew I would be good for two hours or so, depending on what I think was worthy because that in itself is a totally different story. Since my nephew has become very mobile either when he is in his “car-car” or army crawling on the couch or floor, the booger is fast. and he changes his reactions quickly that I needed a lot of juice in my camera so I wouldn’t have to depend on anyone else for help if it dies on me.

Nolan is at the age where not only does he put everything in his mouth, but he is very aware of things. When it comes to holidays though, I think we all kept going back and forth whether he would be interested in going on a makeshift Easter egg hunt. He loves colors, mostly red, so we figured he’d enjoy that part but there was the fact that they’re somewhat slippery and they can split apart. These are two things that he hasn’t experimented with a lot lately, so there was a slim chance that he could ignore my mom and I’s best efforts to make the living room into a sea of shiny colors!

When they first arrived we basically fell in love with his little outfit and gushed on him about it. Blondie and Brandon looked very nice too, but they didn’t get as much attention as him, which I think they were pretty fine with anyways! Personally, I thought he looked like a little farmer with his overalls, and since the redness in his hair is starting to push through more often, he looked like an Irish farmer! After obsessing over how cute everyone looked, we took some family pictures and surprisingly Nolan actually minded really well. Once he noticed the eggs all around though, he began to lose interest with family pictures pretty quick, but we managed to get everyone together before we released him to check them out.

One year, Blondie and I had to settle for an inside Easter egg hunt and we even did one for Halloween too (only because it rained for four days straight!). We weren’t happy about it at first, but I actually enjoyed it because I was allowed to get on the floor and scoot around to the candy. When we officially decided on this idea I was really pumped to bring it back for him. It’s in a controlled environment and leaves clothes very clean afterwards, or it should. I think Nolan enjoyed himself, that is until somebody tried to take away one egg so he could look for others. He didn’t really like that part, but he was obsessed with the eggs though! He played with them all day long.

Nolan also received a couple of baskets from the Easter Bunny as well! The one that came to his house got him a backpack instead of a basket, because the next day he was to start going to the babysitters and it would be an easy place he could put his toys in, and honestly it’s a freaking adorable idea! The backpack came with a few various sizes of Hot Wheels cars that not only can he enjoy but his daddy and his Aunt Meggie can too! The Easter Bunny came to our house too, and asked his MiMi (my mom) to decorate his basket. Next year he might want to consider asking me instead and you’ll understand in a minute what I mean. He got a very cute soft lamb that says the Jesus’s prayer for children. He was also supposed to have a sippy cup but Pa-Pa apparently couldn’t wait and let him try it out a week in advance. He’s known to do this, I was supposed to receive my first cell phone on my 16th birthday but he couldn’t wait anymore and gave them to us two days prior! He’s a soft-y when he wants to be!

After that, we had lunch, the adults had lasagna but Nolan had half an avocado and almost a whole banana! A couple of weeks ago, he decided that he was done with baby food so now he only drinks formula and people food. My dad has never been happier!

I think he had a lot of fun! I know we all did that’s for sure! Nolan has a lot of energy, and I love playing with him. I swear he gives out that energy everytime he comes over. Everything is innocent in his eyes, he’s not scared of anything, he’s not jaded as we are and I think this is a time to really cherish because as he gets older he’ll lose all of that and fear most things and can be influenced in other directions. We’ll get to all of that in a later  date though, right now let’s focus on these moments.

How was your Easter weekend? What were your traditions growing up? Do you have an alternatives when it comes to a rained out egg hunt? Let me know!

Blogmas | Unisex Baby Wishlist

Hello!

Don’t worry, I don’t plan on talking about Blondie’s pregnancy or the baby this much, but apparently I suck at planning ahead whenever I was busy doing NaNo at the same time!

Since you guys know that I will be entering the role of the “cool aunt” Megz next summer, I figured this was appropriate! Now my views of neutral prints, patterns and colors may not fit what you think as “neutral” so we’re going to be respectful of each other on this post, especially to me because I’m really new to this and I’m just going to share what I liked, okay?

To me, I think most unisex colors are like gray and black. However, I like to think there are certain pastel shades that can work well for this too, there’s a very light yellow, mint, baby blue, and even lavender. I feel like the bolder colors just automatically puts the child into a box for whatever gender they are, so in the way I went about this, I searched for grays, mint and whites apparently. Let’s just say, I will be a happy camper once we figure out what it’ll that way I get a better idea of which side to look for because this was honestly harder than I pictured it to be!

So I think we’re going to talk about the things I found on Walmart.

4 Pack Swaddle Blanket Set – Although it is not pictured above, I really liked it. I think all four blankets were cute and very unisex, as both genders can be interested in owls and stars. Personally, I liked the baby blue one with the clouds. When I was younger, I wanted to be a meteorologist. and I still enjoy looking up at the sky and the clouds, but let’s be honest here I’m really looking for aliens!

Disney Mickey Mouse Fleece Blanket – Again, I think both genders can be into Mickey Mouse or any other classic Disney character. I know if they have a boy Blondie will still try to incorporate Disney in there somewhere, and Mickey Mouse is perfect. And let’s be honest every person (or in this case: child) needs a good fleece blanket.

Going on Walmart’s website and trying to find anything for the baby was more difficult than I thought it would. It was all confusing whereas going on Target was simpler; easier to read and figure out where everything was on the page. This is the reason why I have a larger batch of things that I liked from there.

Now about the things about Target and one other item that I found on another website!

3 Pack Elephant Bibs – I thought these were really cute! I think I fell in love with these for the mint and elephant print. Some people could think that these two would be considered “boy” items but I think girls can rock a good mint every once in a while too! So I think it works too!

4 Pack Burping Cloths – Keeping with the gray and mint theme I guess, I also found this burping cloth set, they don’t match the bibs perfectly as the pattern for this are arrows instead, but I still think they’re pretty adorable too! I hadn’t heard of these before, but I do think they are handy, especially if you don’t want to keep using up dish rags all the time.

Gray Arrow Blanket = This was another one that I fell in love with, this is a gray blanket. I think it’s just a regular blanket, not fleece or anything. I think it would be better since the baby will be born in the summertime, but also Blondie tends to turn the temperature down throughout the day and night, so it might be handy to keep around.

Giraffe Sleep ‘n’ Play Suit – When I first saw this, I swore the animal on it was ducks, but it’s a giraffe. Somebody needs to tell the designers that giraffes are orange, not yellow! Anyways, I think I just gravitated towards this because of the little feet booties! Any animal faces at the feet are so cute on babies! I mean, I have cool feet myself but I can’t pull off a cute onesie for the life of me!

100% Wired Graphic Jumpsuit – I loved, loved, loved this! I have a real weakness to graphic tees myself, so finding baby versions was too cute to pass up! I thought this was cuter though because I feel like with Blondie and Brandon having one dog and four cats, this kid will be the non-fur animal in this family! Especially in the first couple of months!

2 Pack Mint and Stripes Pants – These were so sweet! They are still in the mint and gray theme I’ve got going on. I really liked this one because of the black and white striped pants.

2 Pack Gray and Stripes Pants – I did find another set of pants in gray, they’re not from the same brand or type, but I thought they were cute too! I liked the cuffs, I’ve always loved that detail. It seals out the cold from the outside, so yes, they’re a personal favorite too.

Baby’s First Halloween Bib – This was actually the first thing that popped up on the screen, plus all of the Thanksgiving and Christmas ones too! I think babies should have seasonal clothes too, as it would be nice to dress them up in but I also know that they’d probably ruin them too within the hour is up, so I thought these bibs were a better option but as I was told, the baby may not be old enough to eat solids by Halloween or even Thanksgiving, so they just need up being a cute decoration for the squirt!

Butler Bulldogs Onesie – This is my only non-Target and Walmart item. I think this baby deserves some Butler Bulldog apparel and I’d be happy to share the Butler love forward with this baby. I honestly wanted to get the baby a Butler pacifier, but they weren’t on the website when I looked but I did find both bibs and onesies instead. And weirdly enough, I picked the gray one automatically, but I think gray would look better for this post as I’ve done nothing but talk about gray on here.

I think Blondie said we might found out what the gender is sometime in February, probably around Valentine’s Day as she wants a party that surrounds a holiday, and honestly that would be easier to plan if she wants to incorporate hearts into the theme, but yes, they have an idea of when they’re going to find out and how they want to share it with everyone!

What are some colors and patterns that you think can be counted as gender neutral? What do you think of my little wishlist? Have I lost my mind already?! You can be honest there.