Mid-January Slump

I feel bad for not posting for awhile but, honestly, I haven't really had anything interesting to talk about.  Yesterday, I resolved to make a concentrated effort this week to post multiple times, though, and try to come up with interesting things to say.  After making this resolution to myself, I then realized that I had never really posted too much of anything about Christmas so, since we're in that kind of "blah" part of the year where the holidays are over and everyone's kind of over the winter weather since there isn't really anything fun happening (at least, holiday-wise), and you're starting to wish you were somewhere beachy and fun and vacation-y, I thought maybe a catch-up Christmas post might brighten everyone's spirit a little?

Alan and I made homemade gifts for everyone this year - rag wreaths (I got the idea from my law school classmate Ali on her blog - check it out, it's always got cute stuff and cute ideas).  Here is a picture of the before (this is 1 yard of 6 different fabrics cut into 6 inch-ish strips ... it's A LOT of fabric ... if I ever make any more of these, I would recommend only 3/4 a yard of each fabric):

Then you get a wreath form (like $3.00 at Hobby Lobby) and you tie, tie, tie until you can tie no more.  Alan helped me do all of this.  First we tore the fabric and then cut it into strips, and then he would hand me the strips in the pre-determined order and I would tie them on (it was much easier with his help ... it would've killed my back to keep reaching over to get a strip of fabric every 45 seconds).  It was fun doing a project like this together - we watched several Christmas movies and had some good bonding time.  Here's Alan with the finished product (this was the wreath we gave my parents - it's Razorback themed):

My parents got the Razorback wreath, my aunt got a jungle/animal themed wreath (she works at the Little Rock Zoo, so it seemed appropriate), Alan's parents got a patriotic wreath (Alan's dad is a career military man), and my grandparents got a western themed wreath.  They turned out really neat, if I do say so myself, and everyone seemed pleased with their homemade present (made with love, don't you know).

What about the spoiled labradors and the bad cat, you ask?  How was their Christmas?  Check out what Santa brought them:

Augie with his favorite gift from Santa, Ferdinand the Bull (Ferdinand has, tragically, already lost his tail, but that doesn't make him any less loved by spoiled labrador # 1)



Layla and Ellie Phant ... this is the first toy she grabs for when I let the spoiled labradors in when I get home in the evening, unless she grabs for a tennis ball (both spoiled labradors stockings had tennis balls in them, and those are a big deal at our house).

 

The Bad Cat got switches!  I laughed for what seemed like forever when I saw these in his stocking (courtesy of my mother)!  I don't know if I've explained why he is a bad cat, but it's because he has an issue with marking his territory in our dining room.  It's disgusting, and my mother thought that he should get something that showed him that his actions are unacceptable and that Santa really does see you all of the time.  The Bad Cat, however, thinks they are toys (as you can see in this picture - he chases them if you run them along the floor, and he chews on them if he catches them).

The spoiled labradors also received 10 tennis balls (5 for each) in their stockings.  They llllooovvveeee the tennis balls, and they have taken to getting all 10 of them out and bringing them over one at a time to show to me and Alan.  Which is all well and good, but they don't put them back in the toy chest, so there are little booby traps/land mines all over the living room just waiting to break somebody's ankle.  And, of course, when I pick up all of the toys and tennis balls and put them in the proper receptable, it's only about 90 seconds before they are immediately over there again, nosing through the toy chest and bringing everything out ... mostly, I think, just because they can ... because they are spoiled labradors.