Shepherd Costume ~ Sauri Style

SO... You remember Caridad's 2011 ~Halloween Costume~ right??  Yes, it was originally made for the Nativity Play at church on Christmas Eve 2009. 

She and Reynaldo decided that they wanted to participate in the Nativity Play last year.  We originally thought that Ernest would make a great lamb for Rey to "shepherd" but when it was time for play practice, Ern was having nothing to do with it. 

Men size T-Shirt and different types of rope

His name was crossed off the sign up sheet!  Poor guy he's still drinking a bottle for goodness sake. 



Babies Sauri with Papi.  Excuse my shadow...





Aunti Vi sewed Caridad's Angel outfit in 2009 but I didn't feel comfortable asking her to whip something up for Reynaldo this time around.  Granted, I did not yet own a sewing machine, I figured that I would rely on my fellow bloggers in blogland to help me with ideas. 

I used ~her~ method and I think it worked out perfect. 

Listening to instructions.  Caridad looks a bit confused wouldn't you say?

After all, I do not imagine that Shepherds back in Jesus' day were draped in gold and fine linen.  Wouldn't you agree that they probably wore simple cloth that was not immaculate and not prim and proper? 

Don't get me wrong, I will sew something up for Rey the next time something like this comes along but I vow to make it simple and fitting for a Shepherd, not a King.     

My beautiful Shepherd and Angel Sauri

January 2012 ~ Scrapbooking ~

In 2011 I made the decision to become a ~SEI Club Member~.  I knew that I wanted to make my Christmas Gifts to my family a little more meaningful.  Handmade maybe...

I also love taking pictures.  {Some day I will have a nice fancy camera that I know how to use and my photographs will look better than ever.}  I have also really enjoyed the experience of documenting the Babies firsts in their baby books.  So I decided it was time to start scrapbooking. 

Oh my goodness, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.   But my MEGA club shipments come in every other month and thus, my grand stash of materials for scrapbooking continues to grow and grow.

I decided that I was going to make a 2012 calendar for my parents for Christmas.  In order not to spoil anything, I've waited until after the holiday to share my creations with you.  

And here is January 2012. 

       
I also posted some sneak peaks to this layout ~Here~ and ~Here~. 


My Materials:
From SEI's Sunny Day Collection
1}  Tulip Field solid cardstock
2}  Umbrella glitter paper
From COLORBOK's Pink/Blue pack
3}  Mixed dots
From Ranger Stickles
4}  Yellow 
5}  Some foam letters we bought at the $ Tree...Sorry I don't have the original packaging to know the manufacturer.

So what do you think?  Do you do scrapbooking?  I'd especially love to read comments from experienced scrapers.   

Mommy Sauri~

I linked this post here:

Creation Corner

Christmas Jamies

I had to post pictures because I think they look adorable. 

Even if they weren't surprised at what was waiting in their December 24th envelopes on the ~Advent Calendar~, at least they are enjoying the surprise.


Mommy Sauri~

Merry Christmas

At this time we hope to be fast asleep as Santa is making his rounds. 

May your Christmas be full of family and friends and lots of red and green chili.

Mommy Sauri~

{Hand-me-downs} Christmas Style

Merry Christmas Eve!

While my Cubi was out of town, I had to take a couple of days off of work just so that I could get Reynaldo and Caridad to school and back. 

There were about 4 days, of the 18 he was gone, that I had no help. 

Aunti Vi was out of town.  Grandma Donna and Grandpa Charlie were enjoying the beach with Uncle Carlos and Aunt Sarah.

Needless to say, I had no other choice but to take the days off.  Thank goodness for paid time off...

Anyway, I spent a couple of days with my Grandma Mela making pastalitos and fudge and tamales and and and.  She's wanted to lighten her Christmas load of decorations and I was the lucky recipient.  Our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree is no longer so

The small satin covered red, green and white balls...I already had the larger red ones.  I just love how they reflect the warm glow of the lights on the tree.  I was so glad to receive others.  The little gloves, some iron pots and pans, felt horse heads, clear plastic balls that encase beautiful illustrations of children, a new train and the porcelain circles with Santa against a blue backdrop, all came from Grandma Mela.  It's hard to imagine how our tree looked before our new ornaments were put up. 

This cute Snow Man Mickey now sits on the couch with a plush Santa Clause that was also a hand-me-down from one of my co-workers. 

These little beauties below serve as inspiration for craft projects for next Christmas.

I've not found an appropriate spot for them yet.  

For now they sit on the door hinges on the front door and garage door. 

And this last hand-me-down is my absolute favorite.  Not only because I think it works perfect on the entertainment center, opposite our trusty ~snow man~, but more so because I remember this being out for Christmas at Grandma's house when I was a little girl.   

To others all these may be considered garbage or junk.  To me, these are treasures I will cherish for the rest of my life.  I'm so glad Grandma thought of me to hand-down-to.

You can bet your booty that The Sauris are going to be visiting every corner of our beautiful city.

Please be safe in your travels these next couple of days.

Mommy Sauri~

Christmas Crafts - just a glimpse

Because Papi was gone, I didn't have the camera.  That means that I didn't get to take pictures of the step by step process of our Christmas craft projects.

First let me start by saying, I did have a great idea about December's front door wreath...
I bought material to make my wreath and it sat around in the plastic grocery bag for a couple of weeks.  I was searching for the inspiration to get to work.  A tutorial maybe? Yea that's what I needed.  Even though I could see our beautiful, festive front door wreath in my mind's eye, I had no idea where to start. 

THEN

I found ~this one~  which includes step by step instructions. Inspiration was born.  But...I should have known that I needed to buy 4 times the amount of materials than I originally picked up.  I returned to the store 3 times because I kept running out of ornaments.  On my 3rd visit...THEY WERE SOLD OUT.  I even went to 4 other locations around the city and still could not find my red and gold ornaments.  Needless to say my inspiration has died and I'm a bit disappointed. 
1}  The December Wreath for the front door is 80% done
2}  December's Wreath is not going up in 2011for sure
{and}
3}  I'm putting it away until next year.  This way I can let my brain rest and come up with something spectacular to fill the empty space that ornaments do not cover.  It is beautiful though and next year it will make its appearance, promise.

I have seen lots of these types of Christmas Trees all over blogland and I knew I wanted my own to be the centerpiece on our dining room table.  I also wanted to add texture while keeping with the Casa de Sauri Christmas theme of green, red, gold, silver and white. Although Caridad and I no longer have finger prints, and poor baby girl received one too many blisters from the hot glue, I like the final product.  The gold one is my favorite!

 

I found someone in blogland that had a similar picture on a post of her Fall pumpkin turned Winter snow man.  Our pumpkin was not ready to be thrown away.  A couple of coats, ok 4 coats, of acrylic white paint, some felt facial features, a warm winter scarf and a top hat to cover his cold stem...And our snow man was born.  Notice the same gold material that we used on my favorite tree.       

Every month I try to fill these candle holders with something festive, according to whatever it might be that we are celebrating or are going to celebrate.  I cannot find candles that I think look nice inside of them so usually we fill them with candy.  This time around we are using RED HOTS. 

And that brings me to our trusty ~Advent Calendar~. I made the Christmas Eve envelopes extra big to hold the babies' new jamies.  I even bought the heavy duty clothes pins to make sure the envelopes stayed pinned to the line.. 

As you can see, my plan failed.  Majorly. 

You think they know what's in store for December 24th? 

Oh well. 

Mommy Sauri~

Advent ~ Morning Ritual

Well Papi finally returned from his trip to Cuba. We all were super excited to have him back. Man it's tough to be a "single mommy" even if it is for just 18 days. I don't know how you single mothers do it. I gain more respect for you all every time Ferny goes away.

I took a shower maybe 4 times while he was gone. Not becuase I like the dirty hair look but becuse it was all I could do to get a couple minutes of extra sleep in the morning after a busy day of DOING EVERYTHING BY MYSELF. Cubi, I'm soooooooooo glad you are home. Now I need to shower.

So you guys remember ~this year's~ Advent Calendar...We've had a lot of fun all month taking turns opening the day's envelope. 

Whoever wakes up first, goes and wakes up the other so that neither of them miss out on the day's activity or gift.

The babies are excited to draw a Christmas picture.  Do you see Cari's big smile!

Just a couple more days left until Christmas.  Are you guys ready for Santa?

Mommy Sauri~

Co-Worker Gift

I cannot exactly remember where I found this idea but I'm 99.9% sure it was one of  DGouldthorp's weekly posts over at NutriMirror.

I've had the piece of paper in my daytimer since last year with the intention that I was going to do this and hand out to my co-workers for a Christmas Gift. 

So I finally made them and placed them on everyone's desk at work. 

Merry Christmas Co-Workers, here is your Emergency Kit.  Lord knows we need this stuff from time to time. 

Love, Mommy Sauri~

Advent Calendar

One of my fondest memories as a child is the Advent Calendars that Mom used to get for us kids every year.  It was so fun opening a new "door" every day to see what was waiting behind. 

Last year one of the families from Caridad's class gave each child an Advent Calendar.  Each day revealed a gift wrapped square of Chocolate.  The Chocolate tasted great too!  I couldn't leave out baby Rey so I combed the stores looking for something similar for him.  I'm not sure why I didn't just ask Mrs. Gopal where she bought the  calendars that they gave the Kindergartners, but I was only able to find a "cheaper" version of the chocolate-behind-the-door calendar.

No worries though because Sis shared her yummy chocolate with Little Brother every now and then...

One of my favorite bloggers posted a tutorial here for her Advent Calendar last year.  I vowed ever since that I was going to do this for my kids in 2011.

Here is how the Sauris do Advent Calendar...Gather fun, Christmas inspired paper

 

Make envelopes..........all different sizes

Make coordinating pieces of paper to write the day's message on

Stuff your envelopes.....

Decorate some clothes-pins for hanging...

And there you have it.  See the blank spot at the end, don't tell the babies but that is reserved for the big finale for Christmas Eve. 

I hope the Babies Sauri enjoy it!

Linked here:

Me Making Do