Family and the Lake House

Thursday, December 8, 2022

Gumdrop Christmas Creations

Hey, Hey, Hey!

Today's craft/treat of the day is so much fun - Gumdrop Christmas Creations! We've got ourselves a reindeer, a snowman, a Santa, a penguin, a tree and a little gift! These little fellas could look so cute out on display in your kitchen or as an activity to do with older kids...or heck, you can just purchase the gumdrops and eat them, because why not?! LOL!

I found these gumdrops at Walmart, but here's a little link to them from the Walmart website just in case you don't want to go on a gumdrop hunt - the link is a one pound bag. ;)

Okay, back to these cute little creations and how to make them...

The great thing about these is that the gumdrops alone will stick together, so no need for any edible adhesive or toothpicks...

...all that matters is that at least one side of each gumdrop is cut so it'll adhere to the next layered gumdrop.

The most tedious part of the process was adding these tiny sprinkles as eyes, a snowman's mouth and Christmas lights to the tree. This took some patience and the end of a knife to poke and flatten them into the gumdrops. I did try to use icing, but my tip was too big, so if you decide to make these that could definitely be an option. Or if kids are making these you could always use little googly eyes. :)

Next, I stood my little sugared friends up and sprinkled snow around the plater...

Gumdrop Christmas Creations - Gumdrop Santa, Gumdrop Reindeer, Gumdrop Snowman, Gumdrop Christmas Tree, Gumdrop Penguin, Gumdrop Gift

Mr. Rudolph is my favorite. :)

These were so fun to make and I could feel my creative juices in full throttle! I did mess up on quite a few, namely a gumdrop gingerbread man that just wasn't looking right. EEK! If you end up making these I'd love, love, love to see what you come up with!

Thanks a million times for stopping by the blog today. Each and every view and comment means so much to me!

Best Wishes Always,

Marie :)

I'd love it if you followed me on Pinterest and/or Instagram!

I'm linking up with:

Wonderful Wednesday Link Up

The House on Silverado

Life as a Leo Wife

Encouraging Hearts and Home Blog Hop

The House of Silverado

This post contains affiliate links for which I may be paid a commission.

Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Easy Stocking Tags

Hello and Happy Wednesday!

Are you ready for a 30 second DIY!? We could all use a 30 second DIY right about now, am I right? ;)

Seriously, this took zero effort, but it left a huge impact!

I found these black tags at Hobby Lobby and I immediately knew I wanted to use them for our stockings. I then went on a sticker hunt around the store. At first I was thinking white letters, but then these gold stickers caught my eye and it was love at first sight!

My kids' names are Henry, Eliza and Jane, so I needed an H, an E and a J.

You guys, that's it. I centered the stickers on the tags and hung them up! They look sooooo pretty and, like I said, they make quite the statement!

What do you think?

Thank you, as always, for stopping by!

I appreciate each and every visit and comment!

Marie :)

I'm linking up with:

Two Chicks and a Mom

Wonderful Wednesday Link Up

The House on Silverado

Life as a Leo Wife

Encouraging Hearts and Home Blog Hop

The House of Silverado

Tuesday, December 6, 2022

The Easiest Way to Repurpose Faux Wreaths

Hey guys!

I'm here today to show you the quickest and easiest way to repurpose any faux wreaths you may have lying around. I've had these little wreaths for years and for some reason, I can never discard of them. I decided this year that they needed new life.

We went and cut down a tree this year and once it was set up in our living room, I gave it a little trim, luckily I had held onto the clippings to use as decor throughout our home.

Once I had other bins of Christmas decorations out and about, it occurred to me how I could use the clippings, along with how I could give my tired wreaths new life.

Are you ready for the easiest DIY EVER?!

All I did was wrap the little faux branches around the clippings...

That was it!

I repeated this several times until it looked right and then I decided on a place to hang them.

The back of my new chairs seemed fitting and lovely.

Easiest DIY ever, right?! Have you ever done this? I'd love to hear what you do with older wreaths and tree clippings! There are so many possibilities!

Thanks, as always, for stopping by!

Cheers, my friends!

Marie :)

I'm linking up with:

Two Chicks and a Mom

Wonderful Wednesday Link Up

The House on Silverado

Life as a Leo Wife

Encouraging Hearts and Home Blog Hop

The House of Silverado

Prime Purchases

Hello, hello, hello!

Phew! Anyone else starting to really feel the hustle and bustle that is the holidays?!? I'm over here already out of breath and it's only December 6th! Wowza! I'm linking up today and sharing our Prime Purchases. Most of it has been Christmas and then an unfortunate amount includes Jon's sardines...Ewww!!! He loves his sardines. Ugh! LOL!

I'll get right to it!

For Teachers...

Gift Cards

For Jane...

Color Reveal Barbie

Cinderella Carriage LEGO Set

For Eliza...

For Henry...

For Henry and Eliza...

For Me...

For Jon...

Wouldn't be an Amazon order without sardines. Yuck!

For our home...

Batteries

Trash Bags

Oh boy! I have a feeling I'll be making more purchases in the coming days...I'm really behind this holiday season...Okay, back to running around I go!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I truly appreciate each and every visit, comment and purchase. :) :) :)

Marie :)

I'm linking up with Prime Purchases.

This post contains affiliate links for which I may be paid a commission.

Monday, December 5, 2022

Hello Monday

Hello Monday!

This Hello Monday is going to be a little bit of everything!

Last week Jane and I crafted our hearts out!

Jane worked on painting this taped Christmas tree...

She also made this hat! I was so surprised. I've been letting her "wrap" anything she wants to let her work on her cutting and taping skills and she's really enjoying it. I just bought her another roll of wrapping paper over the weekend just for her to use for "wrapping" ... I love it so much!

I made this vintage Christmas Countdown...

The elves have started to become more mischevious...

I made these melted candy covered strawberry lights...

Jon and I attended his office party and I have zero pictures from the event. Oops. My mom was here to watch the kids and after the office party, this table, chairs and bench arrived! I've been looking for a new table and chairs, but I wasn't ready to spend a couple thousand dollars doing so. This set cost me $200 and it's in impeccable condition!!!

These pieces were for sale through a local business that supports our schools through donations from the community. I found out the woman who owned this set passed away on Wednesday of last week and was a vital member in our community; she gave so much AND she loved children. I loved knowing all of this and it gives us further reason to really take care of and maintain the condition of this set!

Eliza dressed up for "bells" day at school, but she also opted to wear an entire Christmas ensemble and, to be honest, I'm here for it!

I made these brown paper bag snowflakes. They're not posted to the blog yet, but I plan to get them up later today!

The girls have been playing a little bit! Hallelujah! Henry and Eliza have always been such good friends and have always gotten along so well, but Eliza and Jane...well, that's always been a different story and I truly think it's the age difference. It truly makes my heart so happy when they play together...

I threw together another little craft - this faux wreath turned fancy! I'll be posting about this soon, too!

I got in a much needed workout amongst the Christmas decor!

Henry had another basketball game! They lost to an amazing team. Henry is in the blue and the guy sitting at the scoreboard table is a Michigan Dearborn basketball player! He was super tall!!! It was cool he came to watch!

My niece, Aurora, turned 21 on Sunday which officially makes me old. Ha! This is her when she was five or six while we visited at my parents' house...oh to go back to this time...

Our Christmas cards arrived and they turned out beautiful!

The back is bittersweet, but Jane described our year perfectly...

I ran to the store over the weekend and when I came back, I found Jon all dressed up in the basement! LOL! Jon and Jane were having a blast!

Henry made signs for the Michigan game on Saturday night and we let him stay up to watch! Gosh, that was a long game - it ended just before midnight, but we came out with a huge win!!!!!!!!!!!!!