Life

A day at National Harbor

This past Christmas there was a terrible snowstorm in Pennsylvania and my aunt and two cousins couldn’t make the drive down to Maryland for our holiday celebrations. Lucky for us, the three of them came to visit this weekend! What a wonderful weekend it was!

On Saturday, we trekked to National Harbor for a girls day out. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our fantastic weekend:

Our first visit to the Peep store!
Our first visit to the Peep store!
My adorable little sister holding a giant Peep.
My adorable little sister holding a giant Peep.
Another picture of Em with the Peep.
Another picture of Em with the Peep.
Peep store!!
Peep store!!
What to buy, what to buy....
What to buy, what to buy….
A group shot (minus me) at National Harbor.
A group shot (minus me) at National Harbor.
My beautiful aunt and cousin.
My beautiful aunt and cousin.

It was a fantastic day. If you ever have the opportunity to visit, you definitely should.

And, just for good measure — a picture of my momma and step dad in their laundry room. John is finishing the whole thing and it looks amazing.

My parents in their almost-remodeled laundry room.
My parents in their almost-remodeled laundry room.

 

 

 

 

Christmas, Craft Projects, Holiday

Cookie Cutter framed art

Do you and your family make Christmas cookies every year? We do — in fact, it’s a big to-do in our family. We set aside an entire day dedicated to making our famous sugar cookies before our extended family joins us for the holidays.

Last year, we went through our cookie cutters to weed out the ones we never use, and my mom pulled out a set that used to be her mom’s. We never use them because they are a bit of a pain to use, but she didn’t want to throw them away. So, she gave them to me to make Christmas artwork for her. I turned them into a pretty and festive framed piece of art that she displays in her kitchen — how perfect!

To make the frame, I bought a ruby-red fabric with gold diamonds on it, as well as some spray adhesive. I also grabbed a shadow box frame since the cookie cutters aren’t flat.

I sprayed the adhesive onto the black insert that came with the frame and tightly wrapped the fabric around the edges. I trimmed off the excess and let it dry. Don’t go overboard on the spray glue because it can seep through your fabric.

Once the fabric was secure, I figured out how I wanted to space my cookie cutters, then started to glue. The cookie cutters were hollow(ish) on the inside, so I had to glue something inside of them so the glue could reach the fabric. For one, I glued crumpled up paper, which worked great. For the remaining ones, I glued small magnets. Those also did the trick.

With the cookie cutters ready to be added, I piled up hot glue on top of the paper/magnets, then carefully placed them onto my fabric-covered cardboard.

After I had all four glued on, I wanted to add a little something extra. I had ribbon that matched the fabric perfectly, so I tied four bows to add to the frame.

Once they were all about equal size, I glued them onto each of the cookie cutters.

Then, I popped the cardboard back into the frame and secured the back. Voila!

Life

A disappearing weekend

What a fast weekend! My sisters are both in town for a wedding (congrats, Ryan and Amber!) we had a great time last night, but boy are this weekend and this visit wrapping up too quickly.

For now, we’re gonna go get pretzels at the mall and the the hubby and I are gonna watch the Ravens game. I probably won’t have too much time to craft until tonight, but I don’t mind 🙂 I love it when my sisters are both here!

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