Animal Cruelty

One of these days I'm going to come home from work and Pablo will have up and moved out, taking his bed and jar of treats with him.  But that's a risk I'm willing to take.  Today's brand of torture was for the sake of Christmas.  And really, would you have been able to pass this up for $4.99 at you local Target?

Pablo's no stranger to hats.  He is mortified by being dressed up but at least it ensures he will stand still for photos.  Here is his Little Lion Man look:

And of course, his Longhorn helmet signed by Earl Campbell:

Needless to say, he was not too pleased with my new purchase, but if you ask me it was totally worth it!

Just don't let him know it's actually a cat hat.  That would just be salt in the wound.

Pablo's Tree

I ordered a mini live Christmas tree from my cousin a month or so ago while at a family dinner.  Actually, I picked it out and then proceeded to make my dad pay for it since I didn't have cash or a checkbook on me.  Thanks, Dad!  I don't remember exactly what it looked like in the sales catalog but basically I was imagining a  3' rosemary tree or something.  This week it finally came in!

It is the cutest little tree I've ever seen.  It's maybe 1.5' tall and came with its own string of 20 bulbs.  It also came with the mini Nutcracker and a couple of tiny drum ornaments.  I've decided it is officially Pablo's tree this year. 

I think Pablo is pretty excited.  According to the instructions that came with my little dwarf pine tree, I should be able to plant him in my yard after the holidays (and freezes).  It's supposed to grow to 4-5 feet!  I'm pumped at the prospect of having my own real Christmas tree in my backyard.  That is, if I can keep it alive long enough to plant it. 

Feliz Navidad!

Homemade Store-bought Ornaments

While I was on my crafting kick the other night, I picked up some 60% off clear glass ornaments at JoAnn's.  I think they set me back about $2.

I decided to internally paint them with the acrylic paints I still have left over from Halloween.  I'd seen this on a few blogs and on Pinterest and decided it was worth a shot.

I just squeezed paint into the ornament and then rolled it around until I got a design I liked or in one case, I had covered the whole ball.  I went with blue and green to match my living room and bring some more bright colors to my tree.

They dried overnight and then I popped them onto the tree.  Is it an only child thing that I can so easily entertain myself?

Pablo's Present

I love my dog and all, but I'm not usually one to spend a lot of money on him during Christmas.  Part of the reason is my family does an excellent job spoiling him.  And the other reason is my lazy little chihuahua isn't much of a "player".  He's more of a sleeper.  This year I was feeling crafty and decided to make him a gift.  It looks like a toy but more than likely he'll use it as a pillow while sleeping.  Best part, it only cost me $0.80.

Really all I did was buy two pieces of felt and then sewed and stuffed it with stuff I already had on hand.  I drew a dog freehand on notebook paper and used that for my stencil.

I used some yarn to whip stitch the two pieces together, stuffing as I went.  Since Pablo isn't an aggressive player I wasn't worried about him getting to the stuffing and tearing it apart.  Gracie on the other hand would have disassembled this in 2 days tops.

It was a very quick project.  Sometimes you just feel like crafting and this hit the spot.

I decided to let Pablo give it a test spin when I finished.  I'm not positive but from these pictures it looks like he approves of his new toy/pillow.

After I confirmed his approval, I took it away from him and wrapped it up under the tree.  Trust me, Pablo's not that bright.  He'll still be surprised on Christmas morning.

Outdoor Christmas Lights

This was my first time to ever put up outdoor Christmas lights and I had to restrain myself not to go crazy.  It took me a few days to finally get this much done because I've been working around the rainy weather.  The first part I got done was lining the roof.  I thought this was going to be hard, but it turned out to be a cinch.

I started the process inside on my couch.  I bought these plastic clamps that eliminated the need for nails or hooks.  I didn't buy enough for every bulb so I placed them on every 3rd or 4th bulb.  My neighbor has one for every bulb and they make the lights stand perfectly and create a straight line.  Mine go in every direction and are a little messy.  Whatever.  It's a learning curve.  I'll try to pick up extras at the after Christmas sales and use them next year.  Once they were attached, I went out side and popped them on the shingles.  It probably to no more than 15 minutes to do the whole roof (well, the front facing side of the roof).  What a great invention!  And since I have no peaks from the front of the house, all was done with my 6' ladder.  No roof walking required.

As you can see I bought the new LED lights.  The only downfall is their color.  They are a bright blue-white versus the old yellow-white lights.  It makes them a little crazy looking.  As you can also see from the above picture, my big ol' tree blocks a lot of the house.  My original plan was to just wrap the trunk and limbs.  Here's how far I got with my $50 in lights.

It was so good in concept, but was probably going to require another $50 in lights to complete.  Maybe next year.  I may also try using my old yellow-white lights to do it if I get adventurous this weekend.  I'm not sure if that will clash too bad or even if I'll have enough. 

I used two more LED strands to wrap the post on my porch and I still have one more strand that I've yet to hang. 

I'll keep you posted if I make any major changes or decide to install at 10' inflatable Santa.  Just kidding on the inflatable. 

Bulk Trash Repurposing

Last month, before tossing out all my tree trimmings into bulk trash, I snagged a few branches and let them dry out in my garage.  It was the ulitimate recycling project.

I was frustrated with how much stores charged for decorative branches and stuff.  I decided to save the $30+ and figure it out on my own.  I basically just chopped everything to the length I needed and them spray painted them. 

Piece of cake!  I choose yellow to bring out the yellow stripes in one of my Missoni for Target vases.  I don't think I could have purchased a better fit! 

I'll rearrange them a little nicer once I figure out where they are going to reside.  Things are still moving all around in my dining room.

Crafting: A Cautionary Tale

It was bound to happen.  It was really just a matter of time.  Last night I had a crafting emergency.  No, I didn't run out of spray paint.  I didn't lose me tape measure.  I cut myself.  With a razor blade.  [Parents, breath.  I'm obviously fine as I'm blogging just 16 hours later]

Razors are sharp.  And when you need to remove stickers and glue residue from glass, they do the job without leaving scratches.  Unfortunately, one wrong move and they can cut you pretty bad.  Last night I sliced a flap off my finger about the size of a black eyed pea (the New Years Day treat, not the band).  And with it about 1/3 of my fingernail.  It bled and bled so at 8:45 I hopped in the car and headed to PrimaCare hoping to get in before they closed at 9pm.

My pinky now has a safety helmet

I'll spare you the photo I took once they got it to stop bleeding and instead show you my bandage.  They glued the flap down since it was too thin to stitch.  My crafting injury was fixed by....crafting of sorts.  I find this amusing.  I've never had a doctor glue me back together.  At least it wasn't a hot glue gun.

I spent about an hour at PrimaCare.  They were very nice.  It's amazing how fast they treat you when you walk in bleeding.  Of course, I already knew this because I also walked in bleeding in 2003 after cutting my foot.  The upside of this, I'm once again current on my tetanus shot.  Bring on the rusty nails!  While being treated I must have filled out or signed about 10 forms.  My shock was making me a little punchy:

Description of injury: razor sliced fingertip

Who was involved: me

What happened: crafting gone wrong

Where did this injury occur: home

When the accident occured: 8:15  11/30/11

Why did this injury occur: carelessness

So I'm now on the mend and going to be steering clear of razors for a while.  Luckily the cut and the tetanus shot where all on my left side.  This means I'm still good for our company's annual Christmas bowling tourney on Friday.  Team I Can't Believe It's Not Gutter is still poised for greatness!