i live in the north pole

Hi my name is Amanda and I live in the North Pole. And by that I mean my living room is a winter wonderland full of Christmasy goodness. Ben and I made the journey to cut our tree over the holiday weekend (all 10 miles away). We tried a different place this year that we did not love as much as last year, but it was still fun. The place we went was a little more domesticated and less rugged hiking through the mud. It may have been the mansion sized house behind the tree farm that tainted the experience just a tad...but not enough that it was not still really fun and festive. After we got our tree we set it up and got to decorating, and then attempted the almost impossible task of teaching the puppy not to eat the bird ornaments... really hard for him clearly.

such an adventurer.

boyfriend and girlfriend

I love this dog, but he was SO annoying to have at a tree farm. Not the best place for a hunting dog. I think he ate some mushrooms too.

Its fun starting out and working with what we have to make decorating cute and fun without spending a boatload of money every year. We are firm believers that you can make people feel special and loved without draining your savings account or going into debt. It may be a little more work and time, but home made and creative gift giving, hostessing, and decorating are so much more fun and memorable in my opinion. Anyway, enough of my rant...here's where we are at so far

eureka! the lights are good!

my dinner: frosted flakes and cider



I promise after Christmas I will share my homemade gifts, but I don't want anyone who is getting them to see and ruin the fun!

CHRISTMAS!

more than clucks and fries.

We are having an onslaught of beautiful birds in our backyard this time of year. Our neighbor has this tree with winter berries on it and it hangs over on our side of the fence. The tree is so pretty and the birds are so interesting to watch. There are tons of them. Tangle, our 6 month old Brittany puppy sits at the back door and stares at them forever without even moving. He is a bird dog by nature so he can spot them from the other side of the house. He is reminiscing over the days when his parents let him play outside for hours on end and didn't have to worry about him being muddy and stepping in wet poopie (ok maybe that is me reminiscing).

I love watching this little birds, and i was interested at what they were so of course I googled it. Looks like we have some Red Robins!

(By Jim Cruce/Audubon Society of Portland)
Even though they look more orange than red to me, its fun knowing what we have. I think I might build a little bird feeder of some kind, here are some ideas for homemade ones from Martha.


gourds.



paper cup molds.



suet? what is that?

I'm not crazy about these. Anyone know where I can find any other interesting/easy ones?

aaaw thanksgiving

These are some of my favorite things which my thanksgiving consisted of...

red velvet cake.

deviled eggs



gravy (my favorite)


and best of all...



elf.



Happy Thanksgiving friends!