Christmas Yarn Wreaths

According to my friend Katie G, I am getting "very crafty". I don't consider myself crafty at all - doing a craft and being crafty to me are different things.

But for Christmas I got excited for this craft: yarn wreaths. They are quite festive plus I knew I could handle wrapping yarn around a foam wreath so I went to Michaels and this is what I brought home:

The Process: 

The results: Merry Christmas Cait!

 

Mini Ornaments and Feathers

Next the Grinch Wreath: 

 

 

The Snowy Wreath:

 

And lastly the results for the Jingle Bell Wreath:

 

 Here you can see the colors better:

They were fun and easy to make and I planned on making more for gifts but when I went back to Michaels - all the foam wreaths were sold out! I guess my ideas will have to wait untill Michaels is re-supplied. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Eric's favorite holiday is Christmas. I like it a lot too, but not nearly as much as him. We wanted to get in the holiday spirit for December and so it all began...

We hung up the lights! 

  The hard way, on a slippery roof, in shorts, while holding a staple gun.

 

Don't they look nice?

  I hung the lights on the inside of the window. The safe way, hahaha!

Then I wanted more lights over our patio space so I could see them all the time.

And we came up with this:

We bought a little (wanna-be) 6 foot fake tree from target and decorated it with our tiny collection of ornaments from last year, festive candy canes, lights, and new animal ornaments. 

 Lastly here is our 2010 Christmas Card:

Deep Sea Fishing

We took advantage of going Deep Sea Fishing in the Off-Season to see how we liked it. We were both a little nervous of what a 5 hour deep sea fishing trip might do to us in the middle of December - freeze us, make us sick, bore us to death... 

Lucky for us our boat didn't lie - it was "Reel Fun"

We left out of the Dana Point Harbor and it was a nice and calm sunny day.

 We went with Joe and Nate&Jess (pictured below) and we all caught lots of fish and took some home.

See the guy in boots? Well he worked on our boat and his job was to take away your pole if you made excited noises wgen you had a fish -- so we adapted and learned to fish by being very quiet and secretive! 

We drove to the black sea bass "spot" and were told to drop our lines to catch some big ones! I got very excited and dropped my live squid down right by the front of the boat. Eric was next to me fishing, and we instantly were both getting a lot of action. Then, I got a huge bite - more like a swallow- and was pulled to the rail of the boat. Quietly (because I wanted to catch my own fish) I whispered to Eric "I have a big one!". He quietly responds, "Ok Reel it in." 

I am pulled further out over the boat, and this thing was sooo heavy! I whispered, "Eric take the pole its too strong". He quietly cheers me on, "Michelle you can do it, just reel!" I get a little louder - because I am about to have my fishing pole yanked right over the boat, "No Eric TAKE the Pole, I can't do it!" "Chelle you can and I want you to get your fish." No more quiet, "ERIC!!!! PLEASE!" Then SNAP, my line breaks. Ahhh, I was so disappointed. I knew it was a really strong fish - it almost pulled me over the boat, but Eric didn't believe me. 

Two minutes later Eric gets a huge bite and is pulled to the edge of the rail too! He an announces not so quietly, "Whoa, I got a real big one!" Then the boy in boots comes running - he tells Eric to run up and down the side of the boat. They thought the way this fish was fighting it was a halibut but after about 5 mins Eric and this boy get the fish up to the surface and its a 50lb black sea bass! HUGE! We couldn't keep it or bring it up on the boat because they are protected. But here are some guys that kept their 45lb black sea bass, just so you can get an idea.If we could have brought it on the boat I am sure this is exactly what Eric and I would have looked like. And the arm of the non pictured person would have been the boy in boots.Funny huh. 

Eric now understood why I wanted him to take my pole and why I was almost pulled over the boat. 

After Eric's big 50 pound catch he caught a cute little Rock Fish.

And I caught this little Sargo.

The seagulls and pelicans followed our boat around and spent the day begging like dogs. They liked when we caught little fish - and were quite impressive at dive-bombing anything we had to throw back. 

Eric was getting ready to clean the Sargo's. 

  While I played with them...

 

 Nice big fish. If we caught a fish that was smaller than 10 inches we had to throw it back.

Check out the spikey fins. Ouch! Eric cooked them and they tasted delicious! 

Wild Animal Ornaments

I may have gone wild...!

Well people, these are just the beginning of my plan for making next year's Christmas Tree WILD!! It may look silly now but just you wait. And yes, you don't have to ROAR about it -I know- waiting a whole year is tough... the anticipation may drive you WILD too! But here is a sneak peak at next year's overall theme:

 I bought these each for $1 and the spray paint was less than $2.

I also bought these little 'screw eyes'. I used the drill and then added a dab of super glue to keep them secure. 

 *note* IF you buy really cheap spray paint, expect to be painting layers and layers and layers of it. I used two stupid bottles of this cheap spray paint and still almost didnt have enough! 

And here they are hanging on the tree!

 Remember - Just the beginning to the theme for Next Year!