Free Christmas Printables: Deer Head & Fair Isle

Last Christmas I changed up my mantle decorations, and designed a couple of prints to go on it. I never had the chance to share them, so thought I would this year! I didn't take a picture of my mantle fully decorated (that I can find anyway), but I did take a few of the deer head print up close, probably to send to my mom for feedback I'm guessing. :)

I printed mine as 11x14 prints at SAM'S for less than $2 each. Dollar Tree has 11x14 black frames, so I just bought 2 and spray painted them gold and also added a coat of the glitter blast gold spray paint.   

As you can see, the deer head has a glitter look to it, so you can print it and call it good, or if you're feeling feisty, you can add some actual glitter to it once you print it. I just covered the deer head in regular glue, then glittered it. I decided to do the red nose separate so it could be removed, and I also thought it might be easier to glitter that way. So after I glittered the whole deer head, I cut a small circle out of cardstock, and covered it in glue and red glitter, then taped it on to the deer head. My reason for doing this? Well, Manny was (still is) obsessed with deer, moose, etc., and I knew he wouldn't want me to take this down (I was right) after the holiday season, so I took the red nose off and left it on our mantle.  

 

Again, not the best picture because I just found a picture of the kids where you could see the mantle in the background and zoomed in. But it gives you an idea of what I did with it in my regular decor. I would take a better picture, but I've since taken it down because I had to re-do the mantle since the realtor is going to be coming soon to take pictures of this house we're in because the owner is going to put it on the market since we're moving out soon. Never a dull moment here! :)

If you'd like to download either print, I've included them below in 3 sizes: 5x7, 8x10, and 11x14.

Deer Head: 5x7 here, 8x10 here, 11x14 here

Fair Isle: 5x7 here, 8x10 here, 11x14 here

Tis the Season! :)

It's Been Just a Little While

Well I really can't believe it's been almost 7 months since I blogged. I really don't know how that happened. A few people asked me why I stopped blogging, and there's no real answer other than life got in the way. I've started this post many times, but something comes up and I never get to finish it. And honestly, I probably put too much pressure on myself on what I'm writing/sharing, and just wanting to get it all done. But goodness I've missed blogging and mostly the record it provides for me. Sure, I do fun posts of crafty stuff and fun products I like, but this is mostly about documenting my family, and the ability to look back on it is priceless. I wish there are things I had blogged this last year so I could remember them, and maybe I will still try to add some of my favorites. I keep notes on my phone of things the kids say, and I probably need to have them somewhere safer than my bipolar phone.

All that to say, I'm back. I think? I don't really know what it means to "be back", other than I want to start posting here more often, and stop putting pressure on myself to do it a certain way. I realize not everything I post will interest everyone. Which I don't know if anyone is even still reading anyway! :) But even though blogging has really "gone out" in many ways since I first started, I want to continue on with it. So we shall see how this goes!

So, what have we been up to the last several months? Well, shortly after my last blog post, we celebrated Manny's 4th and Maeva's 2nd birthday! It was a fun character party, and I hope to get that on the blog before their next birthday. :) Life has been busy with these 2. They really are at fun ages. It's definitely not all roses and sunshine, but they make me laugh even when I think I might be going crazy...you know that feeling, right? Tell me you do. Lie to me if necessary.

Patrick started a new job in August, which has changed his schedule some but we are hoping things settle in soon as he's really liking it. We are also building a house! We have been renting the house we're in for over 3 years now - which I TRULY cannot believe it's been that long!! Gosh time flies. It took us a little while to sell our last house, then we wanted to wait to buy until we knew for sure what part of the city we wanted to be in. So we finally decided, and I sure hope it was the right decision! Haha just kidding...mostly anyway. ;) We will be moving to a different part of the city that will be more centrally located to Patrick's clinic and the hospitals he goes to. Anxious to get moved but also sad to leave our little community as we've really made some great connections here. Thankfully it's only about 25 minutes away so not far at all! Our house should be done in about 5-6 weeks if everything goes as planned. I am glad to have most of the major decisions behind us and hope it all comes together like we imagined!

Manny played tball this fall, which was an experience for us all. Maeva loved going to the games as much as him, and we were sad to see the season end. I didn't really plan to do tball just yet, as we thought we'd start with soccer. However, soccer was on Wednesday nights, and I am a leader at our youth group that same night, so it didn't work out this year. But tball far exceeded our expectations and I loved seeing the growth in Manny! Plus there isn't much cuter than a little boy in a tball uniform. :)

Maeva is sweet and sassy as ever. She is hilarious and strong-willed and keeps me on my toes. She talks SO much more than seems possible at this age. Manny talked a little late, or was harder to understand I guess, so it's just weird to me to hear her talking so much when she's such a little peanut. I need to do a post on each of them and all the things they are up to. These ages have held so many things I want to remember.

Something else we've been busy with is getting certified for foster care! I just got word from our case worker that we are finally done with everything and ready to sign contracts next week!! So that's really exciting. Since it will be so close to our moving date once we are ready to open our home, we plan to wait until after we move to take a placement. We will likely do some respite care until we move since that is short term and wouldn't cause a child to have to transition with us.

I think I could go on forever. Life is truly just whizzing by in front of my eyes, and we just stay so busy. How another year has almost come and gone is beyond me! Here's to documenting more of it on the blog since I can't seem to remember anything in my old age. :)

I'm planning on posting a free Christmas printable tomorrow, so stay tuned!