Up All Night- The Growing Prysocks

Tis the season for Christmas music. For my post I'd like to talk about the ups and downs of those very special songs that (most of us) only listen to this time of year.

First let's talk about my favorite Christmas music. My favorite Christmas album hands down is Relient K's "Let it Snow Baby....Let It Reindeer." I know, clever. This album is actually an expanded version of their previous Christmas album, "Deck the Halls, Bruise Your Hand." Here are some favorite tracks:

Santa Clause is Thumbing to Town: A hilarious depiction of disaster at the North Pole which causes Santa to have to hitchhike his way around the world to deliver presents.

I Celebrate the Day: A Christmas love song to Jesus as only Relient K could create.

I Hate Christmas Parties: An angsty Christmas break-up song. Hopefully no one can relate, but a good song nonetheless.

In Like a Lion (Always Winter): This is arguably not a Christmas song. It first appeared on one of their EPs and seems to clearly be an unfairly rejected track for the Narnia soundtrack (the main theme is "always winter, but never Christmas"). It may not technically be a Christmas song given that it's a song looking towards the end of Christmas and cold weather, but the song still has a Christmas-y feel.

Boxing Day: A perfect day-after Christmas song. If you're unsure about Boxing Day, find out more here. It's really more of a Canadian thing.

Relient K also has a really good version of "Sleigh Ride" which I may or may not have been caught car-dancing to. Here's the animated music video, and no I don't know why they're all rabbits.

As far as classic songs go, my all-time favorite is The Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Andy Williams

Now let's talk about the other side of Christmas music. In my years of loving Christmas music, I've noticed a few oddities about some Christmas songs. Take my favorite for example, The Most Wonderful Time of the Year: "There'll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories...." Ghost stories? Who tells ghost stories on Christmas? Yeah there's "A Christmas Carol" with the ghosts of the various Christmases, but shouldn't the scary stories be kept to Halloween?

Another one, "Santa Clause is Coming to Town": "You better watch out! You better not cry!.....He sees you when you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good, you better be good for goodness' sake!" What delightful lyrics to sing to your children! "Hey kids, you better be real good because Santa is watching you all the time and he's coming for you! Now let's take you to the mall to sit on his lap!"

Let's not forget the passively aggressive undertones of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas.":

"Now bring us some figgy pudding and a cup of good cheer.....We won't go until we get some, so bring some out here."

First of all, who eats figgy pudding? Figgy pudding is neither A) a yummy sounding treat or B) something that seems appropriate to ask someone for outside their house. If you're going to ask for food at someone's house in return for a Christmas carol, at least pick something like cookies, or some egg nog, or a friggin' candy cane. Have some standards, people. And why are you showing up at my house asking for food anyway? Halloween was two months ago! You should leave and go meet up with those guys telling ghost stories on Christmas. It is not appropriate to show up singing outside my house saying you won't leave till I give you figgy pudding. If you keep standing out there singing then all you'll be getting from me is a restraining order. Now get off my lawn so I can go back to watching Christmas Vacation.

For more cynical views on Christmas and many other holidays, check out this Jim Gaffigan video.

"Merry Christmas ya filthy animal."

When David and I moved in to our apartment, one of our biggest concerns was the storage space. We were moving from a really spacious 2-bedroom to a cozier 1-bedroom. Before we left Texas, we cut down on our stuff a lot. Craigslist, storage and even giving things away were key in making sure we could 1) afford to move and 2) we could fit it in out new place!

Once we got here and learned how to utilize our vertical space, I started dreaming about a place to put my crafting supplies. My very own craft closet. It didn't take long for us to realize that we DID have enough space for me to commandeer a closet, and my Mom and I worked to make it happen. Here is what we came up with!

On the right, I have ANOTHER magnetic whiteboard and another corkboard. We used one of the racks that used to be in our Abilene kitchen to hold more of my crafting supplies:

And, after a some fun with some plastic bins and my handy label-maker, I have the most amazing space to store my stuff and craft as much as I please.

For almost a year, I have been trying to keep track of the dozens of craft projects I wanted to make. I would jot down lists, copy and paste instructions from the web into word documents and even just try to remember neat things I had seen. But I'm finally deciding to take a page from my dear friend Samantha and post a list on our blog. So this post is probably mostly for me {Stephanie} and not so much for you guys...unless you love crafts and would like to peruse all the links!

If you DO like crafts, click on the link. You'll be taken to another blog that has a tutorial. Some tutorials are more complete than others!


To Crochet:

Wrist-Warmers

Adorable Mini-Animals

Fairytale Finger Puppets

Farmyard Finger Puppets

Bella Hat

Star Slouchy Hat


To Sew :

Crayon Roll

Dishtowels

Black Apple Dolls

Felt Playhouse

Felt Playhouse Pt. II

Felt Playhouse Pt. III

Adorable Embroidery

Grocery Bag Dispenser

Apron

Car Trash Bag

Reusable Grocery Bags

Cashmere Bunnies

Sewing Machine Cover

General Crafts:

Tissue Paper Art

Paper Punch Art

Christmas Star

Fabric Magnets

Magazine Christmas Trees

Cutest Shoes Ever

Mason Jar Pincushion

Fabric Labels

Presents For Others:

Triforce Beanie

GPS Cozy

Rice Bag Feet Warmer

Molten Chocolate Mugs


Baby/Kid Crafts:

Baby Bib

Baby Bib II

Baby Wipes Clutch

Burp Cloths

Take-Me-Home Tee

Baby Booties

Matching Game

Quiet Book

Birthday Crown

ABC Blocks


Things to Cook/Bake:

Avocado Salsa

Risotto w/Butternut Squash

Corn Salad

Roasted Brussels Sprouts w/Bacon

Pumpkin Cupcakes w/Cream Cheese Icing

Guinness Chocolate Cupcakes

English Toffee

Here is the final installment of apartment pictures! This blog is VERY picture heavy, so I am going to keep things short and sweet!

On the wall right next to the dishwasher it where we have most of our pots! We got the rack at Ikea {surprise!) and we LOVE it. We're learning to use that vertical space!

I wish I could say this was all my {Stephanie's} idea, but I'm pretty sure that David was the brains on this one. And I'm so grateful! It's amazing and gives us so much more space than we had!

Here is the view from the chaise and recliner:

And, obviously, so does Beesly. :)

As promised, here are a few more of our apartment pictures. Today, we're going to look at the "living room" and "dining room." In case you did not get a chance to look at the floor plan, just know that the main floor of our apartment is really just one big room. David and I separated it into two different spaces to have a little more room!

When you first walk out of our bedroom, you look straight at our washing machine/dryer. I'm sure that a view of these appliances aren't super exciting but we LOVE the fact that we have a washing machine! I'm finding myself searching for things to wash sometimes just because it is so much easier than it used to be! So, I had to show you a picture.
This picture gives you a sort of idea of how things are placed downstairs. That door in the back right of the picture leads into our bedroom. I am standing in the dining room while taking this picture, looking into the living room! And even though you cannot quite see it, on the right side of this picture is our kitchen.
Here is a picture of our bookcases. I had to whittle down four bookcases to two. So sad. But I brought along the essentials, so I'm not suffering too much!
{And, of course, Beesly refused to move out of the picture!}
Here is another view of our books! And, again, even though you can't see it, there is a door on the left that leads to the balcony!
Here is our fire place! We LOVE it! We placed a bunch of beautiful candles inside and I loved lighting them in the evenings. Recently, we bought firewood, as it's starting to get cold outside.

This is my favorite new addition to our apartment. We got it at Ikea {of course} and we're using it as storage for some of our dishes. I could not get a good picture of this, but we places square mirrors in the back of many of the shelves. It looks great and really adds a feeling of space to the room!

One more shot of our pretty dining room!It's so hard writing about our apartment because I have so many little crafts and stories for each room! But I'll try and keep things short and sweet.

Tomorrow I will show you the last few rooms: the kitchen and the loft!

Ever since David and I moved into our new apartment here at The Edgemoore, we have been wanting to get pictures up for all of our friends to see! We were able to get a lot of the furniture and such put into place when my wonderful mom came into town for a week. David was out of town and Mom and I went to Ikea 3 times in 5 days. It was fabulous!

Here is another view. Beesly forced her way into the picture.

Here's the bathroom! We {finally!} have a bathtub, which is so exciting. It is something I definitely missed when we lived in our Abilene apartment!