It took awhile to recover from the big birthday and turkey day, but now we are in full Christmas Mode!

vannyB was a trooper seeing Santa this year.

You wouldn’t know from his photo though.

It took a mere HOUR and A HALF of waiting in line to see Mr. Claus, but that didn’t phase vanny.  As soon as we got close enough for van to see him, he had the biggest grin on his face!  He squealed and laughed and even walked right up to Santa, BUT sitting on the lap was a different story!

And here are our Holly Jolly Decorations!

We decided on a mini tree this year partly because the ones we normally get {tall and lanky} were not available, but also because we weren’t sure how Mr. Go-Go Gadget Arms would be with the tree and ornaments.

Here’s our beauty! Short and Sweet!

van LOVES turning the lights on and off with the remote.

Every morning we count to three and turn the lights on with a big grin!  It’s my favorite!!

Here’s the Mantle..

I’m LOVING the gold wreath over the artwork.  {Wonder if it could stay up year round?}

I also love our Christmas stockings…

And here is what the outside of the house looks like!

the rope lights are back!!

and so is the painted pumpkin stack!

Maybe next year I’ll actually get ALL the xmas decorations up prior to the week before Xmas.

Who am I kidding?!

Happy Holidays!- the vB’s

Bet you guys thought I forgot about Shoe of the Month didn’t ya?

Yeah – it’s been like 11 months since I last posted a shoe.  But it has taken that long to find a pair worthy of being a member of the B&T- SOTMC.

Behold..

The Audrey Brooke Paris Leopard Flat… $59.95

{Yes- it’s a total knock off of the Tory Burch Reva, but seriously who can afford a $235 shoe???}

They also come in black and silver metallic.

I got the leopard print ones and have been sporting them with my blue jeans.  Mommy Likey!

As promised, I’m back with the details on the DIY’s for van’s birthday!

The first project I tackled was the highchair.  My plan was to find a “old school” wooden highchair via craigslist that I could spray paint.  A bit of stalking and I found this beauty for $10…

A can of spray paint later…

VIOLA!

I love how it turned out!

Maybe now I’ll put it back on craigslist to sell for double!! {make momma some extra moolah!}

Next, I was all about making a balloon wreath.

It took one 16″ foam wreath, some floral pins, and about a gazillon balloons.

My thought was that I could hang this balloon wreath on the storm door the week of our birthdays. {Jan, April and Nov}

Cute, right?

Let’s see, what else.. oh yeah.. the Birthday Banner.

I printed up 11 monthly photos of vannyB to hang on the mantle using some clothespin’s.

Just a fun way to see how much the boy has changed and grown over the past year!

Lastly,  I made a pendant banner cake topper for van’s Smash Cake.

All it took was some fun scrapbook paper, baker’s twine, and 2 lollipop sticks!

Using a cardboard template, I cut out a bunch of diamonds.

and then folded them all in half.

Once I decided the layout, all I had to do was glue the sides together with the twine in between.

Since the smash cake was so small, I thought 2 rows of pendants would look better than 1 long one.  {it only took 3 tries for me to figure this out!}

And to keep it real, there was one project that never came to fruition.

It was to make a homemade cupcake stand.

courtesy of maryjanesandgaloshes.com

I’m still working on finishing it up as I think it would be cute to put on the kitchen counter!

So there you have it, my Birthday DIY’s!  Who’s ready to start planning for next year??