sincerely yours, dena

For my husband’s birthday this year, all he wanted was for me to make him a Cornhole court. So with help from a friend (a lot of help) we put together his very own bags court. I still have to finish the final step of painting the Patriots logo on the blue box and the Green Bay Packers logo on the green one. This game is super fun and is best played with a beer in your hand.

A few suggestions in construction:
- I used MDF instead of plywood on the top. It’s cheaper, smoother and precut at home improvement stores
- Triple sew the seams of the bags. A lot of pressure is put on the seams during the game. I found myself running upstairs with broken bags during the party fixing them
- If you can’t find corn (which I found at Lowe’s later) I used beans.

I got my cornhole plans from cornholecornhole
You can get free plans from cornhole-game.com

Both site give a history and rules of the game.

Nobody wants a crappy favor. Any favor that is worth getting costs too much when you are throwing a large shower. A great alternative it to donate the money you would have spent on a scary plastic mini baby or a chocolate picture of the happy couple. For my friend Maggie, we donated to the Animal Rescue League of Boston in honor of her beloved Dakota who left us early this year. You don’t need a shower to donate, go ahead and donate now!

I try to avoid buying off of registries if all possible. For my friend Maggie’s shower I had a no brainer gift. She and her hubby-to-be saw a dwarf lemon tree in a gardening catalog and got all excited about it but never pulled the trigger to buy one. So I ordered them a tree and had it delivered directly to their house. That was a selfish move as well, knowing that I was going to assist in carting the gifts from the shower home:). I wrapped up lemon so she would have something to open at the shower.

I made this quilt for my sister-in-law who graduated from Mercer University last month. Congrats Katie! It contained pictures of family members hugging and holding each other. There was a quote on the back that read: “Your family may not always be able to hug and hold you, but squeeze this quilt tight and you will always be able to hug and hold them.”

Other helpful links:
Editing photos in Photoshop
Example of another grad picture quilt

Man!!! I’ve hit the baby age… I feel like I’m making a congrats card every week. These paper diapers are making great mileage!

My girlfriend needed a invitation in a pinch for her bridal shower. Weddings are like my favorite thing in the world so of course I jumped at the opportunity to help. I always make 3 different versions of something I make so the person can pick but my first one is always the best. Of course she loved the first one too!

My husband and I try to give each other thoughtful gifts rather than expensive gifts. For Christmas last year I gave this picture frame to him. It’s got a picture of the front door of every house we’ve lived in together. The last picture is of the architecture plan of our front door of our current house. Once it’s finished I will replace it with a real picture.

One of my favorite holidays is Easter. I remember as a kid how much fun it was to hunt for my basket early Easter Morning. I still carry on the tradition, kids, adults and pets. This year we had 2 house guests that got to share in the fun. I’m not afraid to hid in challenging places. Everybody knows who’s basket is who’s by the picture on it. Rubbles found his basket first this year.

Now that we live in Maine our friends and family have a little bit farther to travel to visit us. More times than not they stay the entire weekend. So in the guest rooms I have little baskets with goodies that they can enjoy during their stay. I also have assorted reading material bedside that includes state specific travel guides.

Goodie Basket fillings:

• Clean bath towels
• Hand cream
• Lip Cream
• Foot Scrub
• Qtips
• Cotton Balls
• Toothpaste
• Antibacterial wipes
• Nail file
• Guest Comment Cards

You could have greedy friends like my friend Bob and expect to take the basket home with them. Watch out for those kinds of friends.

My concept for the kookie kompetition is simple, Cookies for Santa. I got these cute matching mugs and saucers from Christmas Tree Shop for only a $1. Don’t you just love a bargain? gag. Anyways, I filled candy bags with hot choc and marshmellows ans stuffed the cup then wraped it all up using basket wrap and finished it off with a bow.

my cookies from last year