Christmas Decor Inspiration

Some of the items I pinned before decorating! We don't have a tree yet, but I decorated the mantle and shelves and some walls. And we finallllllly have couches to sit on! They arrived last night! I will share pictures eventually.

But now the Christmas decor inspiration!

Source: marthastewart.com via Christina on Pinterest
 

Source: flickr.com via Christina on Pinterest

Source: marthastewart.com via Christina on Pinterest

Source: marthastewart.com via Christina on Pinterest

Christmas decoration time

We had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving with our family and some close friends. I hope everyone had a good one! It was one of those fun holiday get-togethers that last into the late evening. And Kavi slept over my parents' house, for his first real sleepover there(without me or my husband there)! I can't wait to hear how that went. I hope very good.

Now it's time to start decorating for Christmas!! I am excited. I debated whether to make a few pillow covers to sell in my shop, because I felt rushed. But I ended up doing it on Monday night and I am glad I did. They are cheery pillow covers! I have two 16 inch and one 20 inch in the shop. If no one buys them, they could be good gifts or decor for my house!

I'll be posting pinterest decoration inspiration soon!

Sparkly

I painted my nails in a color that is just silver sparkles. They would be better for Christmas, but I couldn't resist. (It's my sister's nail polish. She and my mom always have the cool colors!)

 Yesterday Kavi said that my sister's face looked sparkly in a picture- what he actually meant was blurry. But we thought that sparkly could be a good alternative to the word blurry! "Doctor, my vision is sparkly, do I need new glasses?"  "That picture came out too sparkly". I love the things that three year olds say!

Etsy news...after having the shops on vacation and then recently opening them up, I was excited to make a sale on Saturday and on Sunday after a long gap of time! I sold two different pillow covers that had been for sale for a very long time. It feels so good to know that they will be used in someone's home now. So I finished up sewing one of them yesterday(had been a duplicated listing) and packaged them. Today I have to mail them. 

Should I have any more orders soon, I will have to switch to a more wintery packaging. But I had these paper leaf doilies and thought I should still use them! They are pretty.

Christmas Gift idea: DIY Tea Wreath

I saw this on pinterest! First I just saw the non-Holiday colored wreath. Then I went to the blog where the idea came from and saw this red and white wreath, perfect for the holidays!

 

Source: kojodesigns.blogspot.com via Christina on Pinterest

And here's the one that was made just to match a kitchen and can be used all year:

Source: thehappyhousewife.com via Christina on Pinterest

If you have pinterest, you can go repin these ideas for later! If you would like to see the tutorial right now, it's here: Tea Wreath tutorial 

I will be looking up more DIY gifts to add to my pinterest board. 

A month

One of my favorite teas, Irish Breakfast from Twinings, 

and a Christmas mug that I actually use all year. 

Tomorrow will be a month since we left Florida and arrived here!!! In some ways that feels so long ago now. We are still settling in and setting up house. It takes longer than you think, when moving out of state and restarting your household! Right now Kavi is at my parents' house while I am alone at the house getting some things done. So happy I can do that now!

Another Fall picture. I just can't help it! This was on Saturday in the downtown of another small town near here. Behind it is an adorable white church. There was a wedding there that day. We saw the groom and groomsmen getting pictures taken and then pictures of the bride too.

An Etsy post

I finally reached my box of Etsy jewelry items, in the corner of the 3rd bedroom, under many other boxes! I opened it up yesterday and wanted to activate or relist any items that expired while the shop has been on vacation. It's a little more tricky than I thought it would be. I had put my shop on sale before moving, using Etsy on Sale. Before the sale officially ended(I set the end date/time on their website), I switched my shop to vacation mode. I think that messed up Etsy on Sale's ability to remove all the sale info that is supposed to automatically be removed at the scheduled end of the sale.

So when I went to reactivate a few items, I noticed their titles, tags, and first picture, still had the sale info on them! So now it's going to be a little more time consuming to get things for sale again. I only have three items available now. And I need to again evaluate the Etsy situation. I think I may need to focus more on the sewing side/The Cozy Nest shop, instead of the jewelry shop. We'll see.

I wanted to share two sweet items I saw on Etsy today. When I added the second item as a favorite, I realized the bird in the print had the same orange face and belly as the photograph I added to my favorites. That was not intentional, and makes me like the items even more.

Amazing bird photograph: szalonaisa
Dreaming print: CafeBaudelaire

Heavenly Leaves

For me, with living in Florida most of my life, Autumn has been a rare treat! I am so happy I get to live here during it. I know I have already said that here, but I am still so happy about it.

Yesterday we walked around Noccalula Falls, which I have talked about before. But I couldn't find the post. We couldn't ride the cute little train, because that part is shut down while they decorate the place for Christmas!

I took too many pictures while there, because I was having so much fun in the Fall beauty. Now I have to decide which of the many to share!

More Recipes

More recipes, via pinterest! I guess what I (and obviously LOTS of others) love about it is that you can just pin them to use as reference later. The picture with the linked recipe is so handy! My mom made a few recipes this past week that she collected on pinterest. As I had still been unpacking my kitchen (oy vey), I haven't gotten very creative with dinner yet. But that should change very soon!

 I still need to get my crock pot out of its box (done for moving). Today, I will do that and will clean it. Then I will have to decide which scrumptious looking recipe I should try to make first(and will have to buy the right ingredients).

Chicken and Dumplings! 

My mom made this. I got to taste it, and it is goooood. Such comfort food.

Source: bubblecrumb.com via Little on Pinterest

Crock pot brownies?! 

I definitely have a weakness for brownies, which is why I rarely make them. Too much temptation! But now that we moved and I will have more functions to go to, I need to make them. I can share with a crowd and not eat a massive amount by myself.

Source: marthastewart.com via Christina on Pinterest

Falafel! I was surprised that this could be make in a crock pot. My mom made some of those, too, and I got to taste them(I think a different recipe that the image below). Yum!

Source: crockpot365.blogspot.com via Tiffany on Pinterest

And this recipe, not cooked in the crock pot: Spinach Manicotti! I don't feel as excited about this one, but it does look delicious! And I need to represent some of my Italian-ness here a little! This recipe even calls for homemade "crespelles" instead of the usual store bought pasta, which sounds a little time consuming to me. But I bet it makes it even better.

Source: skinnytaste.com via Christina on Pinterest

Shark boy

CHOMP!

 (above photo courtesy of my friend Jill)

Kavi transformed into a shark this weekend! We went to a "trunk or treat" on Sunday in the downtown area. Three churches set it up and were expecting a few hundred to show up. Instead, there were thousands! It was a little overwhelming and there were long lines everywhere. We didn't even bother standing in the block long line to go to the trunks for treats. But thanks to knowing people who put on the event, we got the candy hook-up. ;) And then Kavi danced in the back of a pickup with friends while they kept handing out candy.