I'm bad at keeping up on a blog, but I'm great at finishing projects!

Update: I moved (just across town to get the Doodle into her old school district), I started dating a wonderful man and I got busy (see also : lazy) and stopped getting my daily Jillian ass kicking shred. I moved where I no longer have easy access to a treadmill and my motivation has gone into other things such as home upkeep, parenting and DIY projects!!! As I will tell you about here now.

The tree is up - The house is decorated - The presents are wrapped and under the tree.

I am so ahead of schedule!

In the interest of getting something for everyone and not having the funds to spend more than about $3 on each person I decided to make homemade gifts with love.....

All You need is cheap solid colored coffee mugs - I got mine at the dollar tree because they were bigger and I wanted them all to match - They certainly do not have to. Plus the bigger ones can be used for soup and other things as well. Thrifts stores sell them 25¢ to 50¢ a piece.

  I got vinyl letters from Walmart - You can find all kinds of different alphabet stickers at Hobby Lobby, Michael's and other craft stores, but they are more expensive and you can't really peel and re stick like you can with the vinyl kind. (Other ways to do this is to cut your stencil into contact paper, stick on and paint OR stencil your letters on with graphite tracing paper and free-hand with your paint marker. I find that my freehand SUCKS so this was the easiest, cheapest and least time consuming way for me to go about this particular project.)

Outline your letter.

 Peel it off. There may be some paint residue that has gotten under the vinyl - Don't worry about it, it will look fine when you are done.

 Draw lines through or color in your letter. Design it however you wish...

 I free-handed some holly on mine to make them them more "Christmas-y"
Bake the mugs in the oven (a.k.a. redneck kiln) at 300 for about an a half hour to an hour to set the paint so that it be permanent.

 Now for the filling: I bought holiday recipe cards and I wrote the recipe for a Brownie in a mug - Just another thing they can do with their personalized mug. (I am going to mix the dry ingredients for this and put it in the cup attached to these cards.) My handwriting is horrendous, but I thought typing would make this gift a little impersonal and Personal is totally what I am going for.

 The Doodle made baggies of Peppermint Hot Cocoa (I wanted to make homemade hot chocolate, but I went the lazy route and got Swiss Miss) We put two packets of cocoa mix (because they are larger mugs), threw in a handful of mini marshmallows and a soft peppermint stick. I chose soft sticks because they are larger and will melt into the cocoa faster when the gift recipients are stirring with it.

 Doodle bug tied the bags with ribbon and curled. I bought a pack of 12 small plastic ornaments for $1 (Again Dollar Tree - LOVE THAT PLACE!) We used a Sharpie pen and wrote the To: and From: on the ornaments and attached to the bags as name tags.

 Finished Product: (Minus the brownie mix that I am going to add) I threw a little chocolate snowman in to add some cuteness.

 

 Total cost: $40 - That's $3.33 a piece.

Dollar Tree: $21

12 Cups: $12

Pack 12 ornaments for name tags: $1

2 packs of 6 chocolate snowmen : $2

Hot cocoa mix 4 : $4

Mini marshmallows : $1

Package of 12 peppermint sticks: $1

Walmart: $4

2" Vinyl Stick letters : $3.74

3 Porcelain Paint Markers $4.92 each: $14.85
Buy paint markers here.

These are so awesome I stayed up last night until after midnight making them and I wake up at 6am. Anyone that knows me will tell you that I love my sleep and anything less than 8 hours makes me a USELESS and CRANKY  See You Next Tuesday, but for some reason I am in a great mood and full of energy today. I am so excited to go home and finish the rest of them tonight! Yay!

Things that I love...

I love to sing out loud when no one is around - or in the car where perfect strangers in the cars around me can see and shoot me those "You fucking weirdo" looks. You've all done it. Maybe a few of you have been on the singing end too. I like to smile and wave when I catch their eyes.

I love Willie Nelson's Georgia on my mind. It always makes me feel...that's it, it just makes me feel. Don't we all have a song like that?

I love to take a bath sometimes and just lay my head back with just my nose and mouth poking out above the water and relish the silence and the muffled sound of my own breathing. THAT is peace. Toes in the grass or sand to connect to Mother Earth - head under water to connect to myself. I think that it has been too long since I've had a bath...

I love random acts of kindness. I like to believe that it restores someones faith in mankind, because it does for me. I'm kind of like Anne Frank that way. I think that for the most part people are inherently good - or really want to be.

" I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.."

I love to get lost in music. To put in the earphones, turn it up, close my eyes and let it take me away. It's almost like everything in the universe disappears but me.

I love to ride a horse and although I'm not supposed to, I trust that majestic creature to take us where it wants to. With my eyes closed the wind blows through my hair, the sun warms my skin and the smell of grass, trees adn the sweat of the horse surround me. It's everything that I don't have to see to know it's there. It reminds me of what faith is.

We need to remind ourselves of all the things that we love - to know that we can find happiness in the smallest of things, even if they are just a series of spuratic far between moments that we can linger in now and then. They exist and so do we.