Crafting, Cooking, Christmas Decorating, and a Couch!

This blog post brought to you by the letter C.

Today was packed full of so many fun and productive things!

I woke up at 7 (!!!) on my first day off for some reason. I laid in bed for an entire hour, trying to make myself fall back to sleep. But it just wasn't happening, so I got up and ready for the day.

I went to get some groceries, and then spent way too much money on Christmas decorations! But I'm sure it will be worth it once I get them all up.

When I got home, I started my first project of the day: a coffee filter Christmas tree! I wanted to make a wreath instead, but I couldn't find any Styrofoam wreaths when I was in town. Anyway. You might have seen this craft at The Nesting Place.

I used small coffee filters, because I made a small tree. I had a 200 pack, and that was plenty for this project.

This is a very simple craft. You just fold the coffee filters in fourths:

And glue them to your form.

Voila!

It is kind of a fat, round tree, but I lost patience when I was trying to trim it up. So I decided to just leave it like that...I think it's cute. I have TONS of coffee filters left (I actually bought 4 packs of 200, not knowing how many it would take for the tree. I guess I over-estimated!), so I may try to make a wreath too if I find time one of these days.

The next project on my list was to set up our Christmas tree. Luke and I buy a real tree every year for our living room, but I decided this year I wanted to set up a tree in the dining room too. The one in the dining room will be the traditional, formal tree, and the real tree in the living room upstairs will be the "fun" tree.

We had an old, artificial tree in our attic for some reason, so I had to get that and bring it downstairs. That was quite an ordeal, because the box completely fell apart in the process. And when it broke, I was surprised to find that each individual branch was detached from the tree. So when I finally carried them all downstairs, I started sticking the limbs right on the tree, not paying much attention to what I was doing. When I had about two rows done, I realized that...duh! All the branches were different sizes, and were color-coded based on which row they were supposed to go on. So I disassembled the first two rows, sorted all the branches, attached them to the correct row, and then fluffed the whole thing up. It took FOREVER.

Anyway, that tree is going to be red and gold with white lights. I have the lights and ribbon on right now, but I forgot to buy hooks for the ornaments, so I will have to finish that part later. This post is evidence of how extremely absent-minded I can be! Anyway, I will share pictures later when it's completely decorated.

The next project of the day was to clean the house, and then make dinner for Luke. He was coming home with our NEW COUCH! So I wanted to make some good food for him :-) I decided on homemade macaroni and cheese....YUM.

I used this recipe from The Pioneer Woman. The recipe called for dried mustard, which gave it a really interesting sort of bite to it. It was very good, and different! I would make it again. But I probably won't have to for awhile, because it made enough to feed a small army. Ha! I didn't get a picture of the finished product because there was a lot of commotion going on with the couch being brought in and everything. But you know what mac & cheese looks like anyway ;-)

The last task of the day was to get the new couch into the living room! Unlike last time, it fit, and was not harmed at all in the process! Luke, his dad, uncle, and cousin all helped bring it in. Because of the crazy circumstances (i.e. the first couch we bought not fitting through the door, and being ripped) Luke had to pick out the couch by himself because I was at work when he took care of everything. Anyway, I had only seen the couch in a picture sent from Luke's phone, so I was a little nervous. But I really like it!

What do you think? My favorite part is that Ellie wanted to model for you all ;-)
(P.S. We plan to get a new, square coffee table or ottoman in the future)

Well it has been a jam-packed day, but I am just chomping at the bit to get started on my Christmas cards, so I might work on those for a few moments before I completely crash. I feel like it's been such a productive day! I think the school should give us 5-day weekends more often ;-)

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone! I am thankful for all of you!!