Merry Christmas From The Martins!

If you normally get a Christmas card from us and didn't this year - don't fret - you didn't get cut out. We have been so busy living our crazy "new normal" that I never actually got around to ordering cards. Just think of it as us helping the environment or something.

Seriously though, from our family to yours - have a very Merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years! 

Merry Christmas from the Martin Family!

Merry Christmas from the Martin Family

Dear Kate Spade, I Love You

Not sure when it happened, but somewhere around my junior or senior year of high school, I feel in love with a simple black, NYLON purse.(enter Kate Spade Classic Sam)

I can still remember the pure joy of opening it on Christmas morning. And I also remember my anger and heartbreak when it was stolen my last semester of high school. :( But then my sweet Meme replaced it as part of my graduation and all was once again right in the world.

Me loving a purse was not a big shocker since Meme bought me my first "designer" handbag in the 5th grade - man I loved that green Dooney and Burke! But thinking back to when I fell in love with that black bag, I still don't really know WHY I loved that bag so much (circle of truth: I still have it tucked away in my closet even though I haven't carried it since 2000/2001. The only one of my "designer" bags from middle or high school that I still have) But there is just something about Kate Spade that resonated with me then and still does today. And how can you not love a brand that is classic and retro, uses vibrant colors, witty sayings AND adorable graphics like this one?

For Christmas this year my sweet hubby bought me the most adorable Kate Spade cross body purse and a new PINK wallet! (He did good...really, REALLY good!)

My new Kate goodies started me off on this trip down memory lane. Over the years there have been several accessories and bags that have be added to my collection, most of which have never left.  I just realized that the makeup bag I carry in my purse, is the same olive green Kate Spade makeup bag I got in college. I still remember the trip to Florida when Kipper bought my travel makeup and toiletry bag. And then I realized the one piece that has really stood the test of time - my multicolored striped satchel!

It was my freshman year of college and I was looking for a cute book bag when Momma and I found this bright colored Kate Spade diaper bag at Nordstrom. Since that day it has been though a lot: attended college, 2 trips to Disney World, made its rounds in New England, visited more beaches than I can count, taken at least 3 cruises, explored the streets of New York, a trip to Chicago, survived multiple Miss Texas weeks, ventured to Vegas twice, over a dozen trips to Canton, a million work events and Kipper's first Tri! And those are just the things I can think off the top of my head!

Seriously, it is one awesome and well made bag!!! 

Now if I can just talked Kipper into getting me my dream bike..... and about 100 other things on the Kate Spade website!  :)

Love Lives Here

When Kipper and I first started dating, money was tight and we didn't always have a ton to spend on each other at Christmas. We would generally just do one nice gift or a few smaller ones. After we got married and combined finances we still didn't have tons of money to spend at the holidays. And it never fails when Kipper would do our budget, he always budgets for me to spend about half as much on him as he will on me. This drives me crazy because I love surprising him, but it forces me to plan ahead and get creative.  Each year at Christmas I try and create a special gift for Kipper. In 2010, I sort of outdid myself  (if I can say so myself) and created a painted photo canvas that he will tell you is his favorite Christmas present ever! And honestly, out of all the projects I have done it was the most special to do and it makes me smile every time I see it! (even though I have learned a lot this year through other projects and I think I could make it 100 times better now! lol) 

This year Kipper has been working to purchase a bike so he can start riding with some of the guys at work. He asked everyone who wanted to give him a gift to make it a gift card towards his bike so that he could pay it off in mid-January. So...I decided I would do something a little smaller this year. Of course I turned to Pinterest to find some inspiration! :)

I loved the ideas of doing something with buttons and was originally going to do a M or Martin, but then I found the heart with the "Love Lives Here" and I knew that was it!

Here is how I did it:

• Used a colorful sheet of scrapbook paper to cut out the exact shape of the heart I wanted. 
• I used a print that had different colored circles on it so it blended well with the buttons. 
• Picked a selection of buttons in all different colors and sizes out to sew onto the heart.
• Yes, you read that right...I hand stitched the buttons on verse gluing and I am oh so happy I did! 
• Here is a great tip to help if you are sewing buttons onto paper, especially several in a confined space: use small pieces of scotch over your stitches on the backside. It helped give the paper more weight and support.
• Sewing the buttons took longer than I expected because I was very particular about where each button went cause I wanted as little of the paper showing, but I also wanted to stay within the lines of the heart I cut out
• After I got all of the buttons sewn on I wanted to do something subtle to fill in some of the larger spots between buttons where the paper was showing. Because rhinestones are my thing,  I went in and scattered different colored rhinestones, as well as some AB stones throughout the heart. 
• I let that dry overnight and set out to find a frame
• Tip for picking out a frame: because of the dimension in the heart, you can't just use any old frame. It needs to be something that has some depth from glass to the artwork/photo. 
• I found Hobby Lobby had the most options of this style frame and they are ALWAYS  running 50% off sales on frames. I ended up getting this one for $10 or $11! 
• Next I went into photoshop and created the text to print on the background. 
• Even though I used photoshop, you could very easily use word or publisher to do this. 
• Print the text and cut it to size for the frame. 
• Glue the heart onto the background paper.
• After the glue has dried all that is left to do is pop it in your frame! 

I was super excited to give it to Kipper, but I was also a little worried it might be a little too girly. Yet as I watched him open it and then the way he looked up and smiled at me - all those worries went out the window cause I knew he loved it as much as I had hoped!

This post is part of Get Your Craft On Tuesday at Today's Creative Blog!

Memory: A Way To Hold Onto The Things You Love, The Things You Are, And The Things You Never Want To Lose

A few years back I had a stack of old family photos that I for from my mom to use in some frames I had in my bedroom. Mixed in with them I found three snapshots from Paris when my Papa was deployed over seas at the start of the Vietnam War. On their own they weren't anything spectacular, but as a collection they almost "spoke" to me for lack of a better way of saying it. On a whim one night I decided to take the three photos and create something to hang on the wall in our bedroom. My Papa passed away when I was in the 2nd grade, so all of my memories are from a young age. The older I get the more I wish I could hear the stories about his travels during the war, among many other stories. Sometimes when I look at these photos I try to imagine the day, what it was like, what he did etc. While I might never know the "facts" in these and many other old photos, to this day, this project is one of my favorite projects that I had ever done and it makes me smile every time I see it.

As I was trying to decide what to do for Christmas gifts for family members, I remembered how much both Momma and Vickie loved the three plaques I did with the pictures of Papa. I decided I would create one for each of them as my special Christmas gift.  Not only would this be a gift they could enjoy, hopefully it will be something that will be passed down through our family as well. 




It took me a little bit of time to pick out which photos I wanted to use cause I wanted them to flow together. This is one of those projects that I stretched out a little longer than I normally would because I wanted to make sure they would both LOVE them!  By the looks on both of their faces when they opened them,  I am pretty sure I can say I succeeded! :) 


  

Momma's Gift 

Vickie's Gift

Creating A New Holiday Tradition

Can you believe it is already the 7th of December?? I sure can't! The last week of November we started getting all of our holiday decorations out at the house (which is certainly one of my favorite times of the year!) As we were getting everything out I told Kipper one thing we have never done is an Advent Calendar. After talking about it I turned to my trusty inspiration, Pinterest, and within 30 minutes I had a plan!

I went to Hobby Lobby and just wondered the aisles of Christmas until I decided on all the supplies. I purchased a strand of basic evergreen garland, a make it yourself advent calendar and 24 miniature stockings. It didn't hurt that everything was 50% off either!

I cut the numbers off the calendar and glued them on to the stockings for each day. Yes, this does seem odd, but if I wanted enough numbers to cover all of the days I would have had to buy several packages of all the other numbers Hobby Lobby sold (which were NOT 50% off) So to make this project budget friendly this is the route I went, which worked great!

For the display of the stockings I folded the garland in half, fluffed it and hung on the wall in this random spot that I always want to put something, I just never had. Needless to say, this worked out perfectly and it is right on the entry hall as you come in the house!

 Now for what is IN each of the stockings! Because we don't have kids and it would just be Kipper and I doing it I decided to get creative. I came up with 24 questions that both Kipper and I would answer separately. Each day we would pull out the slips of paper and read to each other what we wrote. I wish I would have kept the list of all the questions, but I didn't. As soon as we get through all of them I will put the complete list, but here are some examples.

• What is your favorite Christmas memory from your childhood?
• Gift you have been most excited to give?
• Eggnog or Cinder?
• Favorite Christmas movie?
• Favorite Holiday tradition as an adult? 
• What did you ask Santa for this year?
• Favorite line from a Christmas movie?
• If you could give your spouse ANYTHING this Christmas, what would that be?
• Give or Receive?
• What is a Christmas tradition you would like to start? 
• Christmas song you wish they would stop playing on the radio?
• The holidays are a time to...

 I am really glad we did this because everyday I look forward to going home and having those few moments with Kipper. While some of the questions are silly, it has been special to hear what we each choose to write down. Almost all of the answers have been an amazing reflection of how much we really love each other. (even though Kipper keeps asking where his "prize" is each day because as a kid he got a piece of candy or something each day!  lol) 

After Christmas I think I am going to make a scrapbook page or something out of them so we can look back at them years later. The best part of how I made this is next year we can come up with a whole new plan on what we will pull out each day!