Category » holidayJones Design Company

Nov

07

thankfulness

This season leading up to Thanksgiving is one of my favorites. If there is anything I’d like to be, it is thankful, and so I love the idea of expressing our gratitude both in spoken and written word.

thankful tags in silver

I have created a set of cards to help encourage this attitude of thankfulness.

thankful card place setting

You could put one at each place setting at the the Thanksgiving table, have your family and friends fill them out and share with each other. My sister does this each night leading up to Thanksgiving with her family and then saves the cards to read the following year.

thankful card

Another great way to use the cards is to turn them into tags

thankful for eggnog lattes

and hang them on a thankful tree.

thankful tree 2011

The boys and I tromped out into the woods, cut down a few branches, put them into a heavy urn and filled the bottom with stones to hold the branches in place.

thankful tree in urn

Every day, we each write one thing we are thankful for. And the rule is that nothing can be duplicated. This is our first year doing a thankful tree and I’m looking forward to seeing what the boy’s come up with. I hope it is a great way to instill in them the importance of having a thankful heart. I know it will be good practice for me and Ryan, too.

thankful tree living room

thankful for legos

thankful for apple crisp

thankful for me

{at least we’ve instilled some self-esteem in this silly child}.

If you would like to do a thankful tree in your home, or if you’d like to use these cards at your dinner table, please download the pdf below.

There are ten subtle fall colors and each card is 2 x 3.5.

To create the tags, I cut out the card, punched a hole, added hole reinforcement stickers, and cut the edges at an angle.

I hope you find great ways to use these cards.

Click the image below to download.

Happy Thanksgiving!

{please feel free to send this to your friends & family for their holiday celebrations as well … you can use the share, save, send button below to make it super easy}

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Posted by emily | 83 comments

Jul

05

I know, I know … another 4th of july post

fourth of july collage

I’m sure blogs all across America will be posting their photos of one of the happiest holidays we celebrate. And I’m no exception. It’s just too colorful, festive and full of great memories to skip it!

So there you go … our 4th of July.

Hope yours was delightful as well.

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Posted by emily | 10 comments

Jan

19

valentine goodie bags

My friend Rae … she’s amazing. I’ve talked about her on here plenty of times and will continue to showcase her talent because … she’s amazing.

Look what she came up with this time:

Valentine goodie bags + stickers.

valentine bags 2

You can select from her adorable designs, add your child’s name {or your own, I suppose – how fun would it be to give these to your co-workers? Or your milkman?} and she’ll send you a glassine bag and label as a set. You can order as many as you need for only $.89 each.

valentine bags 3

Look at all of these darling designs.

Rae came up with a great list of unconventional fillers for the goodie bags: doughnuts or doughnut holes, cocoa powder + marshmallows, s’more fixings, fruit loop necklaces, cake pops, fudge, bark, brittle or caramel, anything mini, or dipped in chocolate {such as rice crispy treats} or colorful macaroons.

Or something with a little less sugar perhaps? How about…. trail mix, dried fruit, flavored popcorn, granola bars, chocolate covered raisins or pretzels, fruit leathers, or flavored croissants or scones.

Good ideas, yes? I think plain old chocolate would also be a nice filler. Just saying. {I like chocolate}.

valentine bags 4

So many cute designs, it is so hard to choose!

You can purchase yours by heading over to her new website {click on her logo}

{oopsies … “your a hoot” should read “you’re a hoot” and Rae is on it}

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Posted by emily | 19 comments

Dec

22

a white christmas was not made for our family

I love the idea of decorating for Christmas with a neutral palette of whites and grays, maybe some natural elements and definitely shiny metallics.

{country living}

My six year old, however, does not.

“Christmas is not about white and brown,” he declares. “It is about red and green and silver …”

So as much as I would have loved to use the burlap stockings I made and an assortment of wintery white pillows layered on the couch, I had to go with my sweet boy’s wishes.

red

and green

and silver.

Because sometimes making a six-year-old’s Christmas feel magical is more important than indulging his momma’s love of white. Lesson learned.

Many blessings to you this Christmas. May you be filled with God’s overflowing love and grace as you celebrate His Son with your loved ones.

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Posted by emily | 39 comments

Dec

14

advent calendar … 15 days late

I love the idea of a fancy advent calendar with sweet little numbered packages for each day as the children count down to Christmas. I dream of being organized enough to have one all ready to go by the time December 1st comes around.

But, unfortunately, I’m not quite that organized.

I saw this cute idea for an advent calendar using 25 Christmas books that you wrap up, then open and read each day.

I loved the idea so much I ran to the library {on November 30th}, checked out ever book I could find having to do with Christmas {and got a little desperate so I resorted to a few that just have something to do with winter or snow}, and planned on wrapping them up. But I never could get to it. So they are sitting in my bedroom and every night or so, I pull one out to read. It actually has been great to have a new book about Christmas to read each day and hopefully next year I’ll make a point to wrap them.

Since we didn’t have a true advent calendar, I decided to throw a little something together during naptime to help with the countdown and make each day a bit more special.

I’ll call it a ‘ten days ‘til christmas candy cane countdown’. It is not my best work, but hey, it will do the job.

If you haven’t yet put together an advent calendar and would like to make your christmas count down more fun {and sweet}, here is what you’ll need:

:: evergreen wreath {mine is as fake as can be from the craft store}

:: tags

:: number stamps & ink pad

:: candy canes

:: ribbon

STEP ONE: stamp each tag with a number {from 1 to 10}

STEP TWO: punch a hole in the candy cane wrapper

{ugh, sorry about the atrocious manicure. I should really use lotion more often … and maybe paint my nails}

STEP THREE: thread the tag string through the hole

My original plan was to use that red & white bakers twine {purchased here} instead of the plain white string that comes on the tags, but it was naptime and every momma knows how precious those minutes are and I just had too many things I wanted to accomplish to take the time to change out the ribbon. But if you have some extra time, I think it would be much cuter.

STEP FOUR: tie to branch on wreath