a moose head in our living room

We have our tree up, a bunting in progress, a garland strung and a paper maché moose bust completed.

Christmas is well on its way in the Jones family house. However, so are the semester finals. Hence why I've dropped off the blogosphere last week and probably for most of this week, but here's to study breaks, craft projects and good grades. (*fingers crossed)

Meet Maxwell the Moose. He's newest member of our family and even though he's not a person or a pet or even a house plant we sort of love him and think of him as a permanent fixture in our home. Maxwell and his bow tie add a hint of class to our currently messy living room.

you can do it all by yourself

Traditional, Minimal, Whimsical

When it comes to decorations there are three types of people. (Four actually, if you count the grouchy, under-their-breath-muttering Grinches who don't decorate at all.) First, you have your traditionalists. For them Christmas is cherry red and ever green. Period. Second, there are the minimalists. These people like golds, silvers and whites with subtle hints of deep reds (maroon, burgundy or ox blood this year if they're on trend) and maybe some moss greens. The last group is anyone else. Bright colors for Christmas? Holla! Tacky ("vintage"), every color lights?--they're their.

I find myself in the latter two groups. I guess I'm a bit of a rebel against the man. (You know, the man who decided Christmas colors were red and green.) This year though I'm saving my whites and silvers for New Year's and I'm trying to make our home merry, bold and bright for Christmas.

These are some easy diy decorations to get your home all cozied up for the holidays.

(The first one is a link to a kit which is a little too pricey in my opinion. If I make these, I'll probably get some stiff felt from Joann's and trace the shapes from the cookies cutters that we got from IKEA. (These cookie cutters are ridiculously awesome by the way. The package included animals like a porcupine, a squirrel and a moose.))

Are you a traditionalist, a minimalist, or a do it your own wayist?

masked crusaders: saving the world one bamboo shoot at a time

Halloween was a'ight, but our costumes were the bomb.

I'd like to thank the makers of felt, Pinterest and too much free time homework but no desire to work on it for stopping what would have been the unnecessary creation of felt flowers and turning my time and felt into a serendipitous union. (I googled "make felt" to see what other things people do with felt and felt flowers was the first search to pop up.)

Also, these masks were super easy and fun to make; although, for visual impairment reasons, I only wore mine for this picture and to come up behind people and say hello with a straight face. Now, I really want to make more masks, perhaps for next halloween, a masquerade ball, or any criminal activity that we might stumble upon and need to put a stop to. Paper mache, watch out, I'm feeling some inspiration flowing my way.

As for our Halloween-y activities, we watched a bit of Hocus Pocus (best Halloween movie ever, just so ya know), took photos on center street for a photo assignment (which allowed us to see lots of interesting costumes, including a too realistic Joker a la Heath Ledger variety), and bought the newest Orson Scott Card book (so good!).

Even though nights at home are awesome, we've decided that we are going to step up our celebration of holidays and random events. Luckily, Guy Fawkes Day is coming up. We're working on a life-sized effigy for the burning. (If anyone is down for a bonfire Monday night, it's on. Otherwise I'm just kidding.)

Vision Board 2012

1. Make decorations for upcoming holidays in advance (to avoid shabby craftsmanship and panic) and celebrate every occasion together.

2. Practice daily, weekly and longterm planning to accomplish goals but still make time for fun and adventures.

3. Go to France in the fall!

4. Make a case for my new laptop.

5. Keep on writing, journaling and blogging daily. (Bonus points if I enter a essay contest. There are a bunch I could do well in.)

6. Go to the temple twice a month.

7. Study the scriptures every day on my own and with Nick.

8. Floss every day. (This one is cupcake flavored, but I prefer the bacon one I saw.)

9. Travel around Europe, at least to England, Wales and Spain, while we are there during the fall. (This means we need to plan and budget this into our trip beforehand.)

10. Get an internship with Pinterest or another social media network during the summer.

11. Assist a professional photographer and improve my own photography skills through practicing each day.

12. Master the Adobe Master collection in my new job and minor.

13. Train for and run another half marathon and get these shoes as a reward.

14. Learn more Mac shortcuts on my laptop and use it to build my design skills.

15. Do well in all my classes this semester. (Which can be measured by going to all my classes, doing all of my assignments and meeting with my professors throughout the semester.)

16. Make some sweet projects with my new sewing machine!