Homemade Xmas Goodies

This year I ventured into more 'homemade' gifts more so than in previous years - I've been so inspired by all these ridiculously crafty geniuses in BlogLand.

For example, my awesome Christmas Card Wreath that I'm OBsessed with!!

Here are my top 5 homemade goodies that I just had to make as gifts for some wonderful people in my life...all by scratch (okay fine, so I didn't actually MAKE the pretzels/kisses, but you get the point), all made with lotsa love:

1. Hot Cocoa Mix - found here from 'delia creates'
2. Chocolate Chip Cookies - found here from 'Today's Nest'
3. Holiday Pretzel Kisses - found here from 'Little Birdie Secrets'
4. PomPom Necklace - found here from 'Little Miss Momma'
5. Sugar Body Scrub - found here from 'Prudent Baby'

The week leading up to Christmas I was a slave to making this list happen before the big day...

Hot Cocoa Mix
I have to admit my hesitation when I started combining all the ingredients for this cocoa mix...that makes 45 servings BTW!! But let me just tell you that I'm never going back to those little pre-made hot chocolate packets again. I packaged up 4 jars of this mix as Christmas gifts - of course had to add a little cute holiday fabric to the lid:

Chocolate Chip Cookies
I've never made cookies from scratch. At least not in my adult life...can't remember much of my childhood. Anyway - I always buy the pre-made stuff - but I'd love to have a go-to basic C.C. cookie recipe on hand, that one day Kapri will be able to help with. I whipped up a few batches of these to go along with the cocoa mix & for everyone we saw on Christmas day. They were so yummy...though this recipe made SO freakin many, even though I made them a bit on the larger size. Look at this, it's like...the Mount St. Helens of cookies on my counter-top!! I still have some in my fridge...wanna help me eat them??

Holiday Pretzel Kisses
Chocolate, pretzels - my kinda combo. I practically ran to the store to buy the 3 simple ingredients for this sweet & salty treat. Easy peasy! I got a bag of the Candy Cane kisses and a bag of the Mint Truffle - both are numalicious:

PomPom Necklace
These lil fabric lovelies came from an AHHdorable mom blogger, she's:
a. Gorgeous,
b. Uber-creative, and  
c. has a cutie patootie little boy that's about a month younger than Kapri!

I saw these I could picture myself wearing one immediately. It took me about an hour for each - and I gave a few away as Christmas gifts to my sistas. I heart them so!!

Sugar Body Scrub
I've always wanted to make a homemade scrub - and this one is a quick & easy gift idea. I should've made one for myself first so I knew how it worked out, but I didn't...so hopefully someone will report back to me & let me know if they liked my gift!

I used granulated sugar (maybe I'll try raw sugar next time...which is good for extra exfoliating) and sunflower oil, which is a lighter oil with very little 'fragrance'. Then I went to Henry's for some essential oil...I couldn't think of a good combo of 2, so I thought I'd just go with the vanilla...buttttt that one was like, double the cost of all the others!

So, I went with grapefruit...which was yummy, light & fresh - I also gave a little scoop, adorned with a small jewel {to kinda hide the fact that the scoop was originally from old formula containers - I knew if I saved em they'd come in handy someday!} Anyway....YAYYYY for homemade!

Christmas 2010 Recap

I cannot believe another Christmas has come & gone...just like that. It's like when you get married, sorta... you spend hours upon hours, day after day, prepping...planning...organizing...creating - for just one single day. Then it's all over, in a blink of an eye.


Anyway, I anticipated Kapri would have an incredibly amazing time ripping open all her presents... however we had a little sicky on our hands. The common cold has made its way through our house, one person at a time... so I think it's just been lingering. Kapri has had a runny nose forever it seems, then Christmas eve proved to be pretty bad for her. She had a low grade fever of 101-ish, and was just suuuuper fussy & whinny almost all day. Grammy Mary & Aunt Manda/Uncle Steve dropped by for a bit, but it was short lived as Kapri was pretty much out like a light bulb by 6:30 - crazy right?!!


She was doing better this morning - but then we had 6 other family members over at our house to spend the day together...along with this incredible dish:

Land-O-Lights

This year we had our 2nd annual family venture to Christmas Card Lane in Rancho Penasquitos. We went last year - when Kapri was only 7 months old. This year she was really able to appreciate it! It's amazing how much joy you get out of seeing your kid happy. She was in awe, each street we went down she just kept saying 'wowwwww'...and 'ohhh'. I'm so glad we've turned this into a yearly event for our little fam.

I was a little worried that we wouldn't be able to go this year

Rain Boredom

Kapri & I were getting a weee bit stir crazy being cooped up inside during the week-long rains we had this past week. I worked from home the last 3 days and I have tomorrow & Friday off, yay! But today I just hadddd to get out of the house. It cleared up for a bit this afternoon so I decided to venture over to Barnes & Noble and let Kapri run around...apparently all the other parents in this city had the same idea!

Anyway, Kapri *hearts* books...and I *heart* the ginormous kiddie area they have in the back of the store. It's seriously awesome. There's a TON of kids books,

I wanna keep this for myself...

I cannot get over how adorable & EASY this big snowflake was to make...which is now in the hands of a great co-worker/friend of mine, she loves snowflakes...so after stumbling upon THIS tutorial on "A Glimpse Inside" - I knew this would be perfect for her...it's made of different pieces of wood, hot glue, white spray paint, glitter glue, sheer glittery white ribbon...and lotsa love & attention to detail!

Rain play

We had a cozy family Sunday today. We went to Souplantation for breakfast (1st time ever, was soooo delish!), then we can home & I pointed out this tree next to our house that has become the most wonderful shade of yellow...like a warm, canary yellow. I swear this happened over night!! Plus with the rain, the tree trunk & branches are darrrrk brown, almost black - it's such a mesmerizing color combination. A sight rarely seen for us San Diegans...drunk on

Makes me wish I was on a island...

I was fortunate to get this fabulous custom diaper cake order from a good family friend the other day...and honestly, it really makes me want to be on a warm tropical beach, with an orchid in my hair and being fanned with a huge leaf! This just makes me happy looking at it..I love making these diaper cakes!

Xmas Craftiness

I am loving my newly made Christmas card holder...inspired by THIS post on the latest craft blog I've started following, Gwenny Penny. It's not exactly the same, but definitely got the idea from this.

So here's the final outcome of my version:

Early December

Instead of using a wire hanger, like in the tutorial, I found a wire wreath round at Michaels for $2.99 + a 40% off coupon. 

Then instead of single red beads, I found a 5ft fake red berry vine that was on sale (50% off $6.99)! 

So I wrapped that around the inside of the wreath, then spray painted the clothespins green, attached a big red bow I got at the Dollar Store, and hung it with a red/white polka dot ribbon, that I had extra of from a previous tutu I made. It's my new fav:

late December!

I have to be honest though....this thing below is what I made for Xmas cards about a week ago...what was I thinking?? HA

It turned out to be super flimsy & wasn't sturdy enough, especially for those bigger photo cards. So,I took this down off the wall, removed the 3 ribbons, and hung the lil sign in another place

Love. Joy. Peace.

My newly designed Christmas cards have made made, printed, and shipped out to our little list of oh, only 60 people... I just love these little postcard style beauties!! I saved money by only having these printed in a small postcard size, though I did front & back...B&W on the back was cheaper than color, which I really only wanted/needed on the front. I think this will be the style we'll go with each year, a little Mejia tradition. ;-)

I didn't have to buy envelopes AND postage was only a whooping $.28 - compared to the normal rate of $.44 each. The text on the left was printed out on each, but then I decided to hand write everyone's name/address, instead of buying & printing out labels. So I was able to send em out to a lot more friends & fam without breaking the bank!  Now let's hope they don't get TOO destroyed in the mail, haha!

Just hangin

I love this little girl more than life itself. I love our quality mommy/daughter time together. I love watching her explore.

Wine Tasting - Temecula

Last Saturday I extended my birthday celebration by inviting my friends & fam to go wine tasting up in Temecula on a big party bus! I'm no beginner to these...I have a few under my belt now - so I knew that no matter what, we at least had to stop at Maurice Car'rie. They have THE most AMAZING brie bread EVER. I swear. It's warm & buttery & crunchy & melty & sinful & decadent -- all at the same time. Your taste buds have never experienced LIFE until you shove your face with this brie bread. Observe:

Anyway...wine tasting, it's always so much fun! It's tame in the beginning on the drive up, and it's crazy (& amusing) on the drive home.

18-Months & growing

K just had her 18-month checkup and doc said she's doing GREAT! I actually like filing out the paperwork in the waiting room these days, is that weird? It's like a checklist of 'milestone' type things your kid can or cannot do, or specific behaviors they demonstrate in a given situation. I know it's MY kid, so yeah, I'm biased...but she's so smart, it just blows me away sometimes. It makes me proud & I couldn't ask for more, that's for sure. There's not a day that goes by that I don't wonder, "how'd we get so lucky?!"

Her vocabulary is blossoming, and her ability to 'mimic' almost everything we say these days is kinda making me nervous. I really have to start watching what I say, and how I say things - especially things I'd prefer her not to copy. She's so full of life & curiosity & makes us laugh all the time. She's so good about holding my hand if I allow her to walk through a store if I don't immediately put her in the cart...or if we cross the street, I'll set her down & she'll reach up to me & say "mamma"...."hann" (hand). She knows that Mika isn't allowed on the couch, so if she puts her two front paws up on it, Kapri will say "dow" (down)...just like we do, haha!

She's also not throwing quite as many tantrums compared to a few months ago - I think that's mainly because she can somehow or in someway tell us what it is she needs or is upset about. She uses a mixture of words, signing, or simply showing us. And lately she's been doing really great with people's names, including her own.

She's now 2' 9" tall (82.95%) and 28 lbs (89.58%)...she got her flu shot, and for the first time ever, didn't cry. Seriously, she is my little rock star!

THISMUCH closer to 30...

My bday kinda crept up on me this year. On Tuesday (Nov 30), I turned 28...it's weird to type that, because it means I'm only 2 short years away from THRITY! Which isn't necessarily a bad thing...I just have this vision in my head that by 30, I should have more accomplished. Don't get me wrong, I have a steady job (that pays the bills, but is not something that makes me truly happy), we live in a beautiful city, I have a great car that I've wanted forever...and I have something that a lot of people my age do not - a loving husband with whom we've made one smart little daughter. THAT right there is a huge accomplishment that I'm undoubtedly grateful for. I guess I just have a vision of being "30" with an actual 'career' rather than a 'job' and owning a home....well, I guess I still have 2 years left, so I better get on that! haha

Anywho...I played hookie from work and went to the 'world famous' San Diego Zoo - as true San Diegans... we definitely take that for granted. This place is so beautiful. We had a nice, relaxing, crowd-free day checking out all the different animals. At one of the monkey exhibits, there was one larger guy that was sitting up against the glass. Kapri ran over to him, said hi, then gave a kiss kinda on the glass - it was adorable! She mainly enjoyed just running around...which I wouldn't have been comfortable with if it was more crowded.

All in all - it was such a fun day...I loved it, but I think Kapri loved it more...when both James & I are with her, she likes to say "mamadada mamadada mamadada" over & over...it melts my heart. One day I will get a video of her saying it, you'll die over it's cuteness.