M O D F R U G A L – Page 11 – Budget Minded Modernist

Festive Festivities Recap

I went through my Instagrams so I could do a round up of our holidays. We are trying to get back into some semblance of a routine before school starts on Monday, just to ease us in.

Since I last updated, we did a bit more decorating…

From 1:30-3:30ish in the afternoon is when the disco magic starts in the kitchen…I bust out the sparkly platforms and get my boogie on…just kidding, not really. My windows are DIRTY.

I made another strand of wooden baubles with bigger spheres, since I ended up draping the first one on the white tree.

We made candy! Dark chocolate crunchy and creamy peanut butter bites. Reese’s are our favorite, so it was a logical choice to start us off.

We made our own Christmas crackers this year. We followed the tutorial here.

We knocked out a couple of screenprinted Minecraft T-shirts for gifts.

Speaking of screen printing, we also made our own wrapping paper at the Watkins College of Art Open House. These were the most fun to unwrap..I wish I had pictures of all the different patterns we made.

We went down to the Country Music Hall of Fame to make T-shirts with Hatch Show Print. They didn’t have as many of their vintage printing blocks as last year, but we still got fun shirts out of it.

We had a whirlwind trip to my parents for a few days…a party, presents, food, family and fun, until we had to leave to come back home on Christmas Eve.

Back home, we scurried and prepared and cooked for the next day, just in time to reveal the last figure of the Star Wars Lego advent calendar…..we call him SantaMaul.

We made our first batch of homemade donuts and donut holes that morning…a lot of trouble, but very tasty. We used the Pioneer Woman’s recipe. One problem. She doesn’t tell you where to add the shortening and after reading 100 comments, not ONE person seemed to mention it, so rather than read through another 100 comments to see if it gets resolved, I went to the gold standard of Alton Brown for his recipe to find out it gets incorporated with the warm milk and yeast. Their recipes are very similar and Alton has never led me astray.

Otto was very pleased with the treats in his stocking. He is eagerly watching a bag of them being opened here….

It was a big day for him too.

The CC was so excited about his Christmas present, he had to cut into the walls within hours. AS YOU DO.

He crawled under the house running wire, and by bedtime, we had music in the living room. Camouflaging art gallery wall hijinks coming soon.

Our new tradition for a more formal holiday meal is to make a nice boxing day dinner. None of us want to bother with cooking a big dinner on Christmas, and everyone was happy…except that I overcooked the Beef Wellington. Boooooo. It was still very tasty, but over done for me.

We went down to the Rutherford county line to get some fancy sparklers for New Year’s Eve. Fireworks are banned in Davidson county, and the park rangers are always out in our neighborhood, so we have to buy quiet pyrotechnics.

NYE also happens to be Thing One’s birthday…who is now a TEENAGER. Gulp.

The slumber party with 13 year olds and sparklers was exhausting…..

…and by New Year’s Day, we felt like Otto’s new nutcracker toy.

Time to take down the decorations and get back to normal life.

We have spent some of our time off hatching the next renovation plan, so I’ll be back with that very soon. I hope everyone had a nice holiday, whatever you got up to!

Flash Forward

I’ll post up some snaps of the holidays soon, but I need to keep things somewhat chronological.

While everyone is looking back at 2012, and looking forward to what 2013 will bring, I had the chance to glimpse forward 30 years, or so I can only hope. We went to spend a few days with my parents before Christmas, and during that time, I got to crash a party..kind of.

My mom and 15 of her closest girlfriends get together a few times throughout the year to celebrate birthdays, and the holidays are no exception. This year, a couple of ladies had to miss out, so I somehow wangled an invitation. I’ve been hearing about this gig for years, so I was in! This younger generation interloper was ready to try and keep up these energetic ladies!

Because these are wizened and sensible women, they rented a limo to drive the majority of party guests to the lovely country home of this year’s hostess. There is wine involved after all.

It was every bit as cacophonous as I expected, with many talking over each other wielding insults, compliments, and all around chaotic merriment. We had a gorgeous lunch with champagne, a crackling fire, and a communal present swap where the rules had to be explained… Every. Single. Turn. It doesn’t matter they’ve been doing this every year for a few decades. The Golden Girls don’t have ANYTHING on this bunch.

Despite the fact a significant amount of time was spent discussing various forms of cancer, who died recently, who has been diagnosed with any of the dizzying variety of ailments and diseases…they laughed until they cried. This is their world now. This crew refers to MD Anderson like we refer to the grocery store. As friends, spouses, and loved ones drop away, one by one, they still have each other.

I can only hope that I am lucky enough to have that kind of support system in 30 years. Through multiple husbands, children, mastectomies and boob jobs, these ladies inspire me in many ways, and I was grateful for the chance to witness it in all it’s tipsy, giggly, somber, yet sweet glory. Thanks for having me.

TARDIS and Dalek

The CC made the kids TARDIS and Dalek ornaments this year. Dr. Who fans know what this means. I told you guys he went all out this year!!

If you want to see how he did it, head over to his Instructable for the TARDIS HERE, and the Dalek HERE.

Crafty Time: Holiday Projects Edition

We are geeky crafters. We are not ashamed of it…although, there was a period in our youth it seemed like a dirty secret…. 20 somethings with no kids who were home making things instead of..I dunno, doing whatever the hipsters were doing=Decidedly Not Cool. We got over it and decided to embrace the craftiness, since it typically yields things we like. Funny how that can happen.

I’ve rounded up a few projects from past years for your holiday pleasure.

Airplane and Helicopter Ornaments

Wood Veneer Ornaments

Every Year, The CC makes the kids an ornament, and every year, he frets about running out of ideas, but he always pulls it out in the end. Can I just say, he outdid himself this year and I can’t wait to show you. Dr. Who fans will enjoy them.

DIY Agate Slice Ornaments

agate in light

Heat embossed gift wrap

bag graphic detail

Map stenciled gift wrap

I mix up the decor every year. I like trying to find new ways to use my decorations each year to keep it fresh. I can’t imagine having to put everything in the same place, put together the same way, every year. Is that weird?

On a general decor note, most of this stuff, and the food gifts and projects just end up on Instagram, but a few had posts….might need to be better about that? Posts like this and this.

BTW, ditched Followgram now that Instagram finally has static pages for users, so the IG link above and in the sidebar will now take you to my page on Instagram instead of a 3rd party site.

The disco balls have been making our holidays sparkly for a couple of years now…

Bucky gets into the spirit.

Last year was the too wide taper caper for the brass deer….

And then there’s that damn elf. Don’t EVEN get me started.

I’m slowly getting this year’s vibe going…far from done, more to come!

Crafty Time: Bauble Edition

I made a garland of wooden baubles. Why?

Once upon a time, when people only read magazines made on paper, I tore out an image from Real Simple. Since then, it has made its way to all the digital formats like Pinterest etc.. and I still like it after all this time, so maybe this is the year I actually do something about it? OK, then.

Here are the original shots, back when Hable Construction textiles (see the napkins) were all the rage.

The simplicity and crispness of this styling still works for me and I wanted to make that wooden garland the minute I saw it. When everyone was going ape about the Ferm Living candleholder, I remembered this tablescape and knew it was time.

So, I braved Michael’s during the holidays to gather my supplies.

Instead of red string, I decided to try this red suede cord. The larger balls were not drilled, so I had to do that myself. Luckily the CC has a drill press he lets me play with now and then.

Without a vise, I had to hold the balls in place and hope I could stay on center.

Then, I strung them all up on the cord very loosely.Â I don’t know yet how I will arrange the table for Christmas, so I decided to err on the side of caution. I can always tighten, but can’t add length once it is cut.

It was super simple and quick to put together. I might have to go to the woodcrafters shop and look for other woods. I’d also like to see if I can find even bigger spheres since the biggest ones at Michael’s are still smaller than the RS balls, but if I don’t have time for all that, I’m still happy knowing I can add on and tweak later.

You can see above that the red suede is creating a dust, but I’m hoping that’s just a temporary settling in thing. It might be a problem for someone using a white tablecloth.

Catching Up and Slowing Down

Do I still have a blog? Somedays, I’m not so sure. Here’s what’s been happening via Instagram.

We had some dear old friends in town a couple of weeks ago, and we spent hours here until the candles all burned down…we miss them!

My Christmas Cactus bloomed in November!

I finished my ceramics class and am really looking forward to next semester. I have found a teacher I really like, and respect, and I am learning so much more than I did in my last class.

I found some sparkly shoes on Ã¼berclearance I am now referring to as my Holiday Hooker Shoes.

Holiday decorating will begin this weekend, preceded by the bumping, tripping andÂ cursing involved in getting the bins down from the attic.

Every year, it’s the same. I start off well. I picked up a few things this Summer and Fall, and I’ve been trying to get all my errands and shopping done so that I can be finished by this weekend and start wrapping.Â But, it never seems to work out that way.

I lay out what we have for each child, and find some glaring hole of inequity that I somehow missed. To further complicate the gift equality spectrum, Thing One’s birthday is during the holidays. I get stressed and grumble about how lucky they are to have shoes and a roof over their heads….ungrateful….blah, blah….spoiled…blah blah…..and then my little inner rant is over and I get on with it.

We recently got one of these……

….and I am reminded how lucky I am to have this kid around to hate me when he gets sent to his room. While I am not religious at ALL, quite the opposite…it brings this to mind.

The message translates loud and clear to my godless soul. I’m working on a zen holiday season. When annoying things happen, I will remember the plate.

…..remember the plate……

Our first batch of holiday gift candy FAILED. The chocolate didn’t temper properly and is too soft and gets all over you. Tastes great, but we have to start over. I hope we have enough packaging supplies to cover the fail…..

….remember the plate….

Four miles from the car, this happened to Thing One’s bike. Stripped threads and no tools meant it wasn’t going back on, so the CC and I took turns pedaling back all four miles on one pedal.Â

…..remember the plate……

See, I’ve had some opportunities to test out zen holiday 2012 already, and all is well.

I think this Santa needs to remember the plate too, poor guy.