The "Pinterest"ing Things I Did In 2011

I thought it would be fun to take a look back at the ideas I pinned and see how many of them I actually used. I was surprised to realize that I actually  used more ideas than I thought I did. I posted the pictures of most of them and the link from Pinterest and in some cases a picture of how mine turned out.  :) 

I made this for my family for our Christmas gathering. It was BIG HIT!!!

{I didn't take a picture of mine but I assure it looked just as beautiful! lol}

I totally forgot to take pictures of my gifts, but I used red and white polka dot paper for my bows and white gift bags with red and green tissue paper and red/green glitter monograms hanging from them. They were super cute and it made it really easy for handing out gifts!

I love this whole wall, but our boys have a space under their windows so that's where we are going to hang them. Yes, I said going to hang them it's still on the to do list. :)

This worked great!

{I didn't get a picture of mine.}

I LOVE how pretty these look and to think I had mine in a zip lock bag!

Can you imagine?!

{I got a little over excited and started putting everything in mason jars! lol}

I loved the idea of adding a little pizazz to a plain frame and...

I happened to have 4 of them sitting in my garage.

I love the way they turned out!

What a fun way to display your donuts.

They looked so pretty on my table!

This was such a great idea! This free download was super cute

but of course I couldn't find the link when I needed it so...

I had to recreate it from memory.

I already have the cute one downloaded for next year. :)

 

I LOVE this but I can't show you mine yet because I couldn't

 find enough berries to finish it! lol

This is so pretty!

I thought it would be perfect as a backdrop for...

a winter party.

{My photography isn't so great but it really was pretty in person.}

 I used this as an inspiration for...

these. :)  The original design is really pretty

but this matched something else I already had.

I thought this sounded like something different to try this year

for our staff Christmas party.

We made two bowls of the candy cane punch and it was a BIG HIT!!

 

ORDERED IT!! Can't wait to get it! :)

I made the snowman sandwich faces for my little boys.

They loved it!!

I loved the burlap wrapped around the table,

but I thought it would also look great as..

a backdrop!

I love the simple elegance of it.

I also got this idea to wrap mini loafs in coffee filters and tie with ribbon
but I couldn't find my pin to show you the original.

I thought these little cuties looked so adorable sitting on that trunk that..

I had pictures done by Simply Sweet Photography with my boys and a trunk!

{Clearly my youngest loved the idea too!!! lol}

I totally say this to my kids all the time now!!! lol

Finally, I had to add a link to my whole style board because I actually get up every morning and pull up my style board on my phone to look to see what I can I try to pull together!

{I know, I'm such a dork! lol}

I had so much fun getting inspiration from Pinterest in 2011. I can't wait to see what great ideas I will find in 2012!

Cookies For Santa

One of my committees at work is the Sunshine committee which is responsible for putting on the staff Christmas party. We like to try to do something a little different every year so this year we decided to do a Cookies for Santa theme. We went with a traditional red, green and white color pallet and all things Santa. Here is how it turned out....

The centerpieces were wrapped packages with elf hats and Santa hats on top.

Each place was set with a Santa favor box for taking home extra cookies and...

and a bottle of water.

We hung multi sized paper lanterns to add a little fun.

 The dessert table was filled with 24 dozen homemade cookies!

 I LOVE using paper mache letters to add a little character to a table!

The beverage station was stalked with extra water, peppermint punch

and of course milk.

 The signs we used.

 No party would be complete without a party game...

We had people share unusual things they have done for Christmas and we posted them around the room for everyone to try to figure out who did what. It was a lot of fun!

As a special thank you to our wonderful staff, we placed a custom stocking cookie in their favor box. They were a big hit!

It was such a fun afternoon filled with good food and good friends! It is such a blessing to love your job and the amazing people you work with!