Don't judge a box by its cover

So my husband and I moved our family three days before Christmas 2015. I almost killed him for moving our household right before Christmas. The kids didn't have beds, we provided sleeping bags and pillows and they thought it was great fun, camping indoors. Our new house was piled high with moving boxes. I was able to find most of the kids Christmas gifts in time for Saint Nicholas' visit to our new home. I'm still finding gifts from last Christmas, I'll just wrap them and give them this year, right?

We've unpacked all of the boxes in the house, but quite a few remain in the garage and my new art studio. I've been missing some horse tack for what seems like months - 10 most likely -  Two weeks ago, my husband decided it was time to move the minivan into the garage. Not sure why he decided it was time, the spring thunderstorms and tornados have passed us by safely, I might add.

Although, the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve was especially scary for North Texas. We had been experiencing especially mild winter weather, when one evening the temperatures dropped about 30 degrees and we had a thunderstorm. We hadn't been in our new house a week, when the tornado alert sirens started blaring.  We stared at the tv watching the tornado's direction - coming right toward our house- My brother - in - law called us and said not to stand next to the windows. In our new house, it's hard not to stand near a window or a French door leading outside, plenty of light in this house as opposed to the ranch house cavern we used to live in. I was mentally assessing the situation, could I lower the children through the  pier and beam access holes in the kitchen or utility room faster when he called. And luckily for us, the tornado changed direction, but not so lucky for hundreds of people living in Rowlett and Garland. They lost homes, loved ones,  pets, cars, etc. We knew people who lost everything when the tornado rampaged through their neighborhood.

So my husband cleared out a spot in the garage for the minivan. He found some storage containers  labeled Lights and Christmas, so naturally I opened the boxes expecting to find Christmas lights. Much to my delight, I discovered 4 headstalls, 5 bits, 5 sets of leather braided reins, only 1 green shipping boot, 4 green polo wraps, a breast plate, a martingale, 3 sets of stirrup leathers including one set still in package, a cavasson, lunge line, bent out of shape lunge whip, various training aids but nothing in a complete set, and some western equipment. I was overjoyed to find my pelham double bridle and my first nice flat leather hunt bridle!  Today I oiled Dolly's leather halter,and 4 english bridles along with 5 sets of reins.  Perhaps next week, I will tackle the martingale, breast plate and english stirrup leathers. I told my trainer with all this equipment, I needed another horse - like a hole in the head -

Zulily Packages

A Zulily box was on my front doorstep this morning!  I love when I get packages from Zulily, it's a mini-Christmas morning for me. I order clothing, hair accessories, toys, books, fragrances, shoes, lingerie, pj's,  for the family but the delivery time to my doorstop is about 3-4 weeks from the order. I don't always remember what's in the box, although Zulily is good about letting me know when parts of my order ship - notice I said parts of my order. I've noticed that my order doesn't ship all together,  I used to make it a point to purchase something for my son when I've ordered a lot of things for his twin sister, so when the order came in, he had something, too. But I've stopped doing that because the items in the order often don't arrive at the same time. I might get a box filled with Zulily goodies from 2 or 3 orders or one item at a time in some cases.

So today's order was from  two different orders and it did contain something for my son. I'm sure he will be thrilled with his new E-Land Kids chambray shirt - no, he would rather have a toy or Legos.  My daughter actually got a big haul this morning: a pink feathery hair accessory, a Tutu & Lulu mustard yellow and blue floral ruffle dress, a Tutu & Lulu  Christmas tunic with red polka dot leggings and a Tutu and Lulu pink and blue floral ruffle dress and pant set. I was not left out, I got Spanx lingerie!

Tutu & Lulu outfits for my daughter!

  

Another Tutu & Lulu outfit! Won't this be cute for Christmas?

Biblical Christmas Wrapping Paper

During art time this morning I let the twins paint using dot dot paint as well as finger paint on kraft paper. We are creating our own Christmas wrapping paper. I had been drawing stars for them to fill in and Christmas trees, then Nathaniel asked me to paint a rainbow, like Noah's Ark. That got me thinking, why not draw a picture representing each book of the Bible.

Emma drew a whale:

Natty chose Exodus (15-40):



After we finish our Christmas wrapping paper, I'll tie the gifts up with simple bows using yarn ribbon or tulle in coordinating colors and give our gifts within a gift to special people in our lives.  This is going to be a fun way to learn the Bible, spread the Good News and express our creativity!

Project: Chrismons

As an adult and a mother of precious boy/girl twins, I want to bring Christ back to Christmas. I want my children to understand their Christian history and God's saving Grace.  Chrismons are symbols used by early Christians as a symbol of faith as well as representing biblical and theological concepts.
Last Christmas, the twins were 22 months, we decided to decorate a small, artificial evergreen tree on top of our bar. This way we could keep the children from pulling the decorations off the tree and we could have some decorations in the house.  We added non-breakable decorations to the tree including a silver star Emma and Nathaniel made in the church nursery.  This silver star was the start of our Chrismon project.
This year we are going to have felt Chrismons on a bigger tree hopefully in our dining room. We might have to hide the wrapped gifts in another part of the house- I suspect twins would rip through the paper as soon as the boxes go under the tree -

Last night, I started cutting out my pieces from a pattern I found at Sunday School Kids.  I'm going to make mine three dimensional, by adding stuffing to the patterns and gold glitter glue where appropriate. The Jerusalem star will be designed using gold glittery felt.

Dallas Sample Sale

I spent this weekend, doing one of my favorite things: shopping!  The Dallas Sample Sale was this past weekend, and I found great bargains, one of a kind items, and some new designers.  I discovered several shops I wanted to share with others.

A Peace of Paper designed by desperate mom,  Jan Hurn. Her designer stationary has  straight to the point faith messages. Her Christmas cards  truly share the Christian gospel.  I was quite happy to find Christian Christmas cards at reasonable prices, her products can be found at www.peaceofpaper.com  

A yummy treasure at the Dallas Sample Sale this year was Texas Toffee, handmade in Garland daily. I bought a quarter pound small bag of almond toffee and one of pecan toffee yesterday and  scarfed it down. I did share it with my husband, so I didn't make a complete pig of myself. I will order more for his Christmas stocking, since I've already eaten the other two bags. I can really appreciate home made toffee after my almost disastrous caramel popcorn balls at Halloween.  check out www.texastoffee.com

If you're looking for precious baby gift items, look no further than the Three Marthas. They have everything from fabric photo frames, to burp cloths, monogrammed onesies, embellished baby blankets and more. I purchased a green monogrammed onesie for Emma and a burp cloth/drool bib decorated in cowboy fabric for a baby boy gift.  www.3marthas.com

Lastly, but certainly not the least, I discovered Whitney Elizabeth. She designs and her sister helps her make, Blossom Accessories.  Her creations are a must for every young at heart girl.  She makes blossom hair clips, brooches, headbands, baby crochet headbands, necklaces, etc. I stopped by her booth several times, unfortunately Emma was having an "I need a nap!" meltdown each time, and I was unable to have Emma model items without her screaming.  So much for the cuteness, but I would have loved to have purchased one of the baby crochet headbands or crocheted blossom hats, if I could have discerned which color for Emma.  Choices of pink, turquoise, red, ivory, purple with different colored fabric blossoms, I think it was too much for Miss Em.  Check out www.WhitneyElizabethDesigns.com for your favorite little girl.

I'm a bit exhausted from shopping; however, this week I'm going to start wrapping the gifts I purchased this weekend, so I will have them ready for my family's big Thanksgiving Dinner Reunion.  I like to have the majority of my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving, so I can pass the gifts out to my out of town relatives, it cuts down on shipping expenses and saves my sanity for later in the season.

Please note, I did not receive compensation for my review of these wholesalers/shops.