Holiday Craft Exchange and a Birthday Party!

So if yall remember, I joined a Holiday Craft Exchange this year. My partner in this craft exchange was Penny from Charlottesville, VA and I made her a really cool holiday yarn wreath. You can see it here. I received her gift to me in the mail the other day and I am so excited to share it with you! It is AWESOME!! She made me a super cute T-shirt Scarf! And in my favorite color!! She also included a really cute button wreath ornament for our tree. I loved being in this craft exchange! I can't wait to participate in another one.

Here is a picture of the scarf and the ornament.
A close-up of the rosettes on the scarf. Too Cute!!!

A close-up of the super cute button wreath ornament! I can't wait to try to make one myself.

On Friday we celebrated my wonderful Little Brother's 24th Birthday! We went out to one of our favorite restaurants: Sakura's. When I say favorites I mean a restaurant my family has been going to since Jamie and I were in diapers. When we were really little, Mom and Dad would bring McDonald's to the restaurant for us and they would eat sushi. Then we graduated to terriyaki chicken and now we go there as much as possible. My husband on the other hand "does not eat bait". But we did find a new favorite for him at the restaurant; a pork and egg dish on rice. (he kept threatening to ask the waiter for some gravy and collards to go with it; omg) So now hopefully we can go there on a few date nights.

It was so much fun to have dinner and celebrate Jamie's birthday as a family. I think we laughed till we cried on several occasions. Yes... we were THOSE people in the restaurant. And yes I did see that a lot of the other people there trying to enjoy their dinner were giving us the stink eye but so what. We were having fun and that is what is important.

I got to wear my new scarf!

Jeremy, Me, and Jamie

Dan, Dad, and Mom

Me and Mom

Super Cute Super Easy Christmas Card Idea

Okay, so I joined another Handmade Christmas Card Swap this year! I wanted to find something cute and easy to make multiples of. I also wanted something in the card to double as a Christmas Ornament. So after some searching online I found this super cute and easy "JOY" card from Disney Family Fun online. You can also find the tutorial here.

Basically all you need for this project is:

Black Cardstock

Plain Blank Notecards

Orange Marker

Black fine point Sharpie

Candy Cane Stickers

White/or Black Rub On Alphabet (optional)

Glue Dots

Metal-rim key tags

1. For the "O" in Joy you are going to use the metal-rim key tag and decorate it like a snowman. Black for the eyes and mouth; orange for the carrot nose. Cut a top hat out of the black cardstock and attatch to the key tag with a glue dot. Now decorate the hat however you want to. For mine I used some holiday stickers, cut out poinsettias out of some scrapbook paper, or cut a candy cane and made a sort of ribbon on the hat. They turned out pretty cute (see pictures below)

2. To attach the "O" to the card, drape the key tag string over the top of the card and secure it with a candy cane sticker.

3. Now you are going to finish spelling the word "JOY" on the card. Use one candy cane as the "J". For the "Y" you are going to cut a candy cane in half and then stick the "u" shape on top of the bottom half of the candy cane sticker to form the "Y".

4. Ta Da! Super easy and Super cute card to send to all of your friends and family! Don't forget to write a nice Christmas Greeting on the inside!

I think the backwards "J" on this one is kinda cute!
Gotta love the snowflake sticker!

This is my girl snowman card. I added some eyelashes and cut out a cute poinsettia out of some christmas scrapbook paper I had on hand. Super Chic! Also note on this one I did not use the candy cane stickers but some Alphabet Rub Ons instead.

Terrance the Turkey

I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving. I was very sick on Thanksgiving; that's why I look a little rough in these pictures. It was a lot of fun seeing family though!

Me and Mom
Me and Jamie

AVA!!!

Me, Grandaddy, and Ava

Me and Jeremy

That Sunday we went down to Bamberg to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Fudge Family. Mama Fudge had the place decked out to the nines! It was amazing!! The focal point of this year's Thanksgiving Decorations was Terrance. Mom and Dad Fudge found Terrance at an Antique Store in Orangeburg. Only in Orangeburg.... so without Further Ado.

Terrance the World; World Terrance. Oooooo Ahhhhhh

Terrance the Turkey in All his Glory

You can see in this picture that he is walking through Fall Leaves and Cotton

How awesome is that? Even the Plates had Turkeys on them!!

So All in All it was a really good First Thanksgiving as a Married Couple. And we'll get to do this all over again in about 24 days for Christmas! So Exciting! I will share some of my Christmas Decorations later this week and I'm going to post a really cute Christmas Card idea so get excited!

Thanksgiving

First, I hope everyone has a Wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving on Thursday!

I want to use this post to share just a few things that I am thankful for this year:

1. I am very thankful for my wonderful Husband. Jeremy is the man of my dreams. He is always there for me, loves me no matter what, listens to all my stories (no matter how many times he has heard them before), encourages me when I'm having a bad day, and is always looking out for me. I Love you Jeremy Fudge!

2. I am thankful for my wonderful family! I don't know what I would do or where I would be without my Mom, Dad, and Little Brother Jamie. Y'all are the best!

3. I am thankful for my new family! I absolutely LOVE my in-laws! They are so much fun to be around and we have so much in common it is insane! I am so happy and feel very blessed that I can officially call them family now.

4. I am very thankful for the roof over my head and the food in my refrigerator.

5. I am very thankful for all of my friends. I love knowing that I can call and talk to them whenever I need them and I hope they know that I would do the same for them too!

6. I am thankful for all of my extended family. I was so happy that so many people could come to the wedding and share our happy day with us.

7. I am very thankful that babies Anna Hong and Rylee Barfield arrived safely and in good health. I'm so happy I get to see them grow up and be a part of their lives.

I know there are lots and lots of other things that I am very thankful for but I'm going to stop there and keep some to myself. Everybody Eat lots and lots of Turkey! (my favorite foods at Thanksgiving dinner are my Aunt's Sweet Potatoes and my Grandma's biscuits!) Talk to y'all after the holidays! It will be Christmas before you know it.

Holiday Craft Exchange!

Sorry I haven't been blogging much lately. I have had the worst cold ever. Lost my voice, major sinus pressure, just ugggg. I've been sleeping most of the day for the past week. I am so ready to feel better. And I hope I am not sick for Thanksgiving this year!!!!

So this year I joined Craftaholics Anonymous' 2011 Holiday Gift Exchange. I love doing these exchanges. I usually join one gift exchange and one holiday card exchange each year. They are so much fun to do! Not only do you get to be crafty and get stuff in the mail but you also get a chance to meet fellow crafters from all over the United States. Awesome!!

This year I got paired up with a really nice lady named Penny from Virginia. I have become completely obsessed with yarn wreaths so that is what I made for her. Penny I hope you love it! I put it in the mail the other day if you are reading this!! Here are some pictures:

Her last name starts with a "G". I really wanted to make her gift personal.

Love Love Love how the felt flowers came out and so easy too! Check out the tutorial here.

I will share pictures/ the link for the cards I made for the card exchange later. Right now it is time to rest so I can get better and enjoy my movie marathon.

New Things

Can you believe it's almost time for Thanksgiving?? And then it will be Christmas!!! Where did the time go? Just yesterday I was worrying about wedding stuff and now I'm trying to get Christmas presents ready to go!

New Things in my life:

I am in love with yarn wreaths. yall should check them out. Just google yarn wreath tutorial and see for yourself how super cute they are! I'll post pictures of mine later.

I have a holiday job at Little Lambs and Ivy/ Lark. It is wonderful! I love working there so far. I am there on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.

I am hand making most of the Christmas presents this year. I really like this idea better than going out and buying something made from China.

Well that's about all I can think of right now. I'll write a longer post later. Now its time for Breakfast for Dinner. yummy

Wedding Flowers

Since some people have been asking, I decided to do a post on our wedding flowers. All the flowers were done by the fabulous Mrs. Vicki Walker. I think they turned out wonderful! And I love how she added butterflies to the centerpieces. If you remember, I put up a picture of the inspiration in this post. What do yall think? If you are in the Columbia area and would like to contact the florist just leave your name and email and I'll forward it to her.

I still love looking through all of our wedding pictures...what a wonderful day.