Christmas in July!

This is not a throwback Thursday, friends--unless you count throwing back to Monday.

This is craigslist score Thursday!

Last Friday I scoured the interwebs for a good deal on a tall Christmas tree. I started on Amazon and quickly moved to Craigslist where I found this beautiful 12’ pre-lit Elizabeth Pine for next-to-nothing. And when you buy a 12’ Christmas tree on Craigslist for next-to-nothing, you must put it up immediately…you know, to make sure all the lights turn on and that it’s not missing a huge section in the middle. Plus, I wanted to see her in all her glory standing tall in our living room! She needs some fluffing, but is otherwise fabulous and gigantic.

Two questions:

1.       How do you decorate a tree that’s not only 12’ tall, but also has a very large diameter?? Wrap it in tinsel? Do you have any great DIY tree decorations up your sleeves? I don’t want her looking all bare and exposed…but I also don’t want to spend 1.5 mil on ornaments.

2.       How do you keep cats from chewing up the light cords? My sweetest, biggest bear, Banks, chewed mine last year NOT ONLY where it connects to the wall, but also in several places inside the tree itself making it impossible to fix. We will definitely put cord protectors over the main cords to the wall, but what about the inner ones?? I read online to put plastic straws out for them to chew on and that seems to have helped, but I feel like the Christmas tree may be so tempting that even the most desirable of straws may not distract from it. Tips? Tricks?

One more thing—the boxes the tree came in had been reduced to cardboard scraps and smelled of musty storage unit, so I went out searching for plastic containers as a replacement. I went to the container store and couldn't find anything big enough on my own, so I talked to one of the sales reps who pointed me to {this} storage bag which is perfect (I bought 3). Definitely worth looking into if you struggle to get a large tree back into a small and deteriorating cardboard box each year. 

And yes, the sales rep did ask if I was just now getting around to taking down my Christmas tree. Apparently, they don’t sell many of those bags in July.

smile like the sun

January 6, 2012: Makes you smile :) I'm going to stray a bit and post several pictures, videos, and cute things that make me smile.

First of all, this guy is responsible for many, many smiles everyday. When I'm down or frustrated, he always turns it around into a joke and has me laughing in minutes. Pictured here with my sunglasses on at Starbucks in Minneapolis. 

My mom showed me this video the other day and it definitely made me smile. You must watch until the end :)

Hanging with my peeps makes me smile. [Hawaii, January, 2011]

This poster made me smile. Clearly this guy has never seen an actual cat. And apparently there was some discrepancy on the sex (rightfully so with those teeth!). [image]

And this poster too...srsly. [image]

These cuddle bugs always make me smile.

Benson made me smile all during Christmas with his love of the tree. [view larger in youtube]

Jimmy Kimmel makes me smile. Especially his Haloween challenge.

What makes you smile? Share the wealth!

homemade salted caramel sauce

Hello lovelies!

Baked goods are pretty standard co-worker gifts during the holidays. They are easy to mass produce, usually not expensive, and since they are homemade (unless you're naughty) they give that thoughtful/warmandfuzzy feeling to the recipient. However, it's always embarrassing to show up with the same baked good as someone else (ala prom dress nightmare), so you have to get pretty creative/on pinterest. Last year I made granola and it was a huge hit with the ladies (there's only one man in the office).  This year I pulled flexed my cooking muscles a bit with homemade salted caramel sauce. If you've never made caramel sauce before, and I hadn't, it's pretty tricky (without a candy thermometer). I tried the first recipe many times (4)--all wrong, wrong, etc. The first one I waited too long to take it off the heat and it solidified immediately. The next three I was too anxious and they turned into a sloppy sugar and cream mixture. However, I did use the printable seen in my pic above from that site. Not wanting to give up for good, I'd already bought cute jars and Rhett cut out the printable tops, I finally switched to this one (two tries late). We got it right on the first try. I say we because the nascar speed in which the steps need to be preformed would have been very difficult by myself, and honestly, Rhett has more of a knack in the kitchen than I do (he wanted to switch recipes after two fails...sigh). Anyway, I can't say exactly why the second one was easier (ask Rhett), but it was and we made several batches. The caramel sauce was delicious. I gave each person a small jar and an apple as shown on one of the blogs. It was a hit, of course. I ate some on Christmas Eve on plain cheesecake and it was over-the-top yummy. I suggest putting your new years resolutions aside to indulge in this salty sweet goodness. And make some for new years gifts while you're at it! (the printables make you look super prepared and crafty)

Hope everyone had an excellent holiday season! I've got some fun pictures to share soon :)

banks' christmas sweater

I bought Banks a Christmas sweater from the dollar spot at Target. Cats don't understand sweaters.

But he looks so cute!