Merry Christmas!

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From our family to yours, have a blessed holiday season!

Ornament Swap

Ok, it's officially crazy time. Not only have I been busy working on Christmas gifts (I'm pretty sure my machine started smoking last night), it's also the busiest time of year at work. I've worked late every day this week. Granted it was only about 15 minutes each day, but still, working late is a rarity for me (not that I won't, my position just rarely requires it). But I digress.

Today I'm linking up at Mackey Madness to show you the ornaments I received in the swap she sponsored! I was paired with my new blog friend Kendra at Life in the Slow Lane. I was so excited to receive these little beauties in the mail!

Aren't they so cute? The first two were handmade where Kendra lives in Kansas.  And I have always loved that quote from Thoreau! Thanks, Kendra! To see what I sent, check out her blog!

Stay tuned for (hopefully) another post on Friday of all our Christmas decorations!

Lunch Break Make: Button Ornament

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  Friday night, Marcus and I decorated the house while watching Home Alone (one of my top five favorite movies of all time). I just love this time of year, and it's such a fun time in our lives as we create new family traditions and combine the traditions we grew up with.

My family never really had a tradition of making ornaments, but my mom insisted on keeping EVERY (and I mean every) single ornament I ever made in school or church and they ALL go up on the tree year after year.  We joke that we have the tackiest tree on the block, but it really is fun to see all our "artwork" and it's special to have a tree that's so personal to our family and full of stories and memories.  

This is the second Christmas for Marcus and me as a married couple and we don't have any handmade ornaments on our tree yet, so over Thanksgiving, I decided to make one!

This is a perfect Lunch Break Make. It takes about an hour, and once again, you can do this at your desk at the office, or on your couch, or if you're like my sister, on the train while commuting into the city!

Here's what you'll need:

Styrofoam ball, ribbon, glass-head pins, buttons!

Starting with a larger button, stick two pins through the button holes into the foam ball:

Repeat!

Continue to cover the ball with buttons, using small ones to overlap.

Tie a pretty little bow with your ribbon, and pin it to the ball.

And then you have a lovely handmade ornament! 

I used a combination of green and red, but you could use any color combo you like.  Wouldn't a white and silver one be pretty?

I originally saw this ornament at Curbly, and I'm linking up at Tip Junkie- check it out for lots of fun ideas!

Turn It Red

Today is World AIDS Day. Most of you have probably heard me talk about my job at Blood:Water Mission and how we work to empower Africans to have clean water in their communities. What you don't hear about as often is the equally important work we do in the fight against the HIV/AIDS crisis.

For the past month, we've shared stories of our friends who are living with HIV/AIDS and inspire us and others in their communities to join in the fight against this horrible disease.  And today, on World AIDS Day, you can join us as we Turn It Red. Learn more here.  You can also see how the ONE Campaign is joining in these efforts against the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Maybe you know someone who has HIV/AIDS. If you don't, or even if you do, I encourage you to watch this video of Leah, who is living positively with HIV/AIDS.

Today, I'm wearing red for Leah and countless others who have been affected by this disease.  Will you join me?