Everyone's gotta have shoes!! - - - it's a giveaway!!

So, I found this great tutorial online for baby shoes... They are adorable. Here is the link.

These are the easiest little project and they make great baby shower gifts!!

This first pair is a beautiful green and brown toile with matching brown ribbons and a green button to finish it off. Too cute!

These next two pairs are for a set of twins. One has yellow accents and the other has green. I'm telling you, these are so cute!

You know what... I think that these are so cute that I am going to make a pair for a giveaway! Wouldn't it be fun to have a giveaway on my blog? Yes, I think it would. Here's the deal... ever since Christmas when I had the tour of homes blog, I have gotten lots of hits and lots of people visiting, but your all like little ghosts. You drop in, but I never see you :) So, I'm going to do a giveaway. If you leave a message and tell me how you found my blog, you will be entered in the giveaway! Now some of you may be thinking that you don't have any babies, and are not intending on having any soon, but these would make great baby shower gifts also, so go ahead, come out of the woodwork and let me know who you are and see if you can't win a pair of these adorable shoes!!

What do I do with all that Christmas Stuff?

Remember all that Christmas stuff I had out? Well, what to do with it the other 11 months out of the year? The one question I get from everyone is "where and how do you store all of that?" Well, here is the answer... in my garage! Handsome hubby and I spent one entire weekend (earlier this summer - - thankfully we did it then not knowing that he would break his back and not be able to help put any of it away!) putting up shelves in our garage. We were trying to come up with a "cheap" meaning not break the checkbook option, but it also had to be ligtweight and able to be taken down and put back up when we move. Ahhh, the chalenges of military life! I think we came up with a fantastic solution and even though out next place may not have a huge garage (or no garage - sorry Autumn) I think this will be versatile and be able to be used again. We bought the heavy duty garage shelf supports - - the cheap ones though - - don't look in the garage storage area or the storage area for that matter... go to the nuts and bolts area of your store and hidden in there you will find the "cheap" storage brackets. They were only $1.25 each. Then we went and got the full sheets of MDF (lightweight) and had it cut right there in the store into three equal long strips and whala! You have a great shelf for very little money!! We actually had 4 sets of these (for a total of 12 - 8 ft shelves) Here is all is in our garage. This one wall is just my Christmas stuff/stuff for dinners. I try to label everything very clearly in case I need something during the year. I am notorious for wanting all my silver Christmas bulbs for a dinner in July... so I try to keep it all organized!

You can't tell from the picture very well, but the top shelf is all of my "table top" Christmas trees, that way I don't have to take all the decorations off of them and I don't have to pack them up in a box or crate.

The Problem With a Pretty Christmas

You know, there is just one problem with having a "pretty" Christmas. You have to take it all down! We are in the middle of trying to pack up Christmas right now. And not just pack it away in the garage, but as any of you military families know - even though we are not supposed to move this next year, the moment you think you can just put all the glass ornaments in a box without wrapping each one individually, that's the moment the Army will decide you need to move! So, with that in mind, I am trying to be patient (not an easy thing for me) and wrapping everything carefully. I also have the problem of wanting it all organized (another thing that doesn't come easy for me). It's just that you never know when you might need something that has been packed away with the Christmas stuff! I am notorious for using Christmas decorations throughout the year - - just re purposing them! So, with that in mind, my goal for the day is to get this stuff packed up in an organized manner while staying patient! Hmmmmm.... maybe I'll just change my goal to "getting Christmas packed up!"

The other problem with a pretty Christmas is that once everything is down and put away, your house looks naked! There's no more glitter or sparkle glowing back at you everywhere you look, no more magical hanging forest to light your dinner table with, and no more "natural" nightlights made from Christmas trees that are left on all night because you forgot to make sure the powerstrip was pulled out far enough from the corner before you started decorating the tree! Not that that happened to me, I'm just saying it is possible!

Well, with that being said, if I am going to accomplish any of my goals for the day - - organized, patient, packed up.... I had better get myself moving! Wish me luck!