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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Christmas Deals And Steals


A few of my after Christmas deals
 I wasn't planning on going shopping the day after Christmas. The sales are never that great and the crowds are not worth it. However, my sister had a Sephora giftcard to use and we really wanted to check out Hobby Lobby's after Christmas sale. Well, we get to the Lobby first and as soon as we're in the parking lot my sister remembers that it is closed on Sunday! Bummer... but I am very happy with the Lobby for allowing its employees a day off for rest. Anyhoo, we then made our way to Shopko and found 70% off of all Christmas decor! I got a couple of advent calenders and a pack of 24 LED tea lights with 24 replacement batteries. Then we spent hours in Sephora where I scored some TexasLash Mascara! Everything's bigger in Texas! How could it not be awesome?! I ended my shopping at Walgreen's of all places and found 50% off of everything. I got mugs for .35 cents, plates and bowls for .75 cents, bows for .49 cents, a Disney princess snow globe for my niece for .99 cents, and light up Christmas Mickey and Minnie Mouse cups for my angels for $1.25! Need stocking stuffers for next year? Head to Walgreen's STAT! It's like everything is free! Did anyone else find any good after Christmas sales?

Sunday, December 26, 2010

The Story Of Our Tree

Our Christmas Tree 2010
Every year we scour the Tri-Cities for our perfect Christmas tree. In the end, we usually purchase it from Fred Meyer of all places! They always have the best prices and best looking trees. This year we skipped all the other tree stands and went right to Freddies. Only there was a small problem... many of the trees were still tied up, covered with snow, and frozen! Our early winter made it so that we could not tell what any of the trees looked like, even the ones that were untied since they were frozen stiff! We looked at the few that were untied and slightly defrosted, but in the words of Eddie Money, nothing said  "take me home tonight". That's when we decided to take a gamble! We would pick a tree that we had no idea what it looked like! We knew we needed to look for fullest tree we could find. We finally found a tall sturdy Noble Fir with branches begging to burst through the rope. We made our purchase and then took our tree home to wait for it to defrost. Lucky for us, the tree turned out to be beautiful. It did have it's "bad" side, which is facing the wall, and a slight gap towards the bottom branches, but I was nervous it would be worse! I am so glad we got our tree Thanksgiving weekend, even though they were all frozen, because about a week later almost all the trees were gone! While this will probably be the only time we do this, it turned out a-okay and made for a fun Christmas memory!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Oh Christmas Tree

So, I have been wanting to experiment with the Bokeh on my camera and finally found the perfect opportunity! My Christmas tree! I have seen how to create those cool little shapes out of lights before, and after brushing up with a how-to from http://www.kevinandamanda.com/ tonight, I hunted down some paper and scissors and got down to business. It's super easy, and although I wish I had those shaped hole punchers to create more shapes, I made do with folded paper hearts learned in grade school and some crazy shape my husband created. If you want to try this go get your DSLR out and read this http://su.pr/87inoR. Please note, the model is a Sock Monkey Santa Claus. Classy, I know... should've used the gingerbread man pillow ;-)
Hearts


Normal Bokeh on my camera.













Crazy shape created by the hubs.