Christmas Schedule

Hello to all you lovely folks out there! Sorry about the hiatus. It turns out having 4-5 projects going on simultaneously, trying to work full-time, keeping the house clean, Christmas shopping, and still keeping my head above water is proving difficult. I don't know how other blogger mommies do it. (!!!!!)

I have been working on a lot of really fun projects lately, but I've failed to document, even though the thought to take pictures crosses my mind all of the time. I'm going to be honest and say that when I started this blog I had high hopes of it (eventually - I know full well something like this takes oodles of time) turning over some income at some point. I've never been motivated by money, though, and it actually seems to be a de-motivator, as I've had less of a desire to blog since I hit it hard back in September.

I have (in my humble opinion) some great things to share at some point, but for now I'll leave you with this useful idea.

Since my husband and I were married we've tried really hard (sometimes too hard) to please both sides of our families and share our time with them equally. It hasn't always happened, but that's always been our goal.

Between my husband's family and my split-family (both parents remarried) it's hard to coordinate schedules sometimes! This year, to try to make things a little more organized, I put together a schedule that I emailed to all of our siblings and parents so that they would know when we would be where.

I used Excel to create the spreadsheet and used a few free fonts to make it look Christmasy. I'm sharing them with you today if this is something that you'd like to use, too!

Head over here to download the workbook and find the two fonts I used below:

Commercial Script font (Script font used)
Budmo Jigglish (Marquee font used)

***A quick little tip for multi-line text in excel. The key combination Alt + Enter results in a new line within a cell. That's how I'm able to create the list in the key section.***

Happy Christmasing!

Be Our Guest - Setting up a guest bedroom

When my sister told me that her and her husband were planning on coming to visit (there's always an open invitation for any of my family or friend's to come visit!) I was excited to transform our room into a guest bedroom for their stay.

Something to note: we live in a two-bedroom apartment.

Housing guests is always a little bit of a challenge, but I try to make all parties comfortable. I wanted to make this visit as comfortable as possible because my sister is expecting her first child. If there's one rule I follow, it's that pregnant ladies get treated like royalty.

It started when I was pregnant with my first child; I was blown away at how much nicer people were to me: offering chairs and beds, making sure I always had water, carrying things for me, and overall, being concerned for me - asking how I'm feeling, etc. After experiencing all that kindness, I felt a duty (gladly accepted) to do the same for other expecting women.

And so (segue back into the main point here) I set out to make my sister's stay as luxurious as it could be - bar staying in a two bedroom apartment with four other people, two of whom, are less than three.

We had a great time during their visit, and after one night of sleep my sister said, "I woke up and I was so comfortable I didn't want to move." Success!! :)

I could have sworn I'd read a post from Clean Mama (a great blog that I follow - go follow her, too!) about prepping a guest bedroom, but when I searched for the post I couldn't find it anywhere. Therefore, I had to make it up as I went, trying to dig through the recesses of my brain to remember some of her tips.

1. The Bed
This is where I started. I made sure to wash the sheets the day they came so that they smelled fresh and hadn't been slept in. I also changed out our 'shammed' pillows for some normal matching pillow cases in the event that they forgot their pillows (my sister is not the type to forget pillows. She brought six and still used the ones I provided). I also pulled in the pillows from the front room for throw pillows. I added a throw blanket on the end for added warmth if needed. As a tiny extra touch, I exchanged my wedding photo for this print I found at LollyJane.com.




2. The Nightstands
Because I wanted to make this a luxurious stay, I set out some foot cream (for my brother-in-law to use on my sisters cute pregnant feet) and some men's lotion. Alarm clock, bowl for pocket contents, tissues, remote to the fan, lamp and some reading material.



On the other side I simply set out my extra set of scriptures, a lamp, and a massage roller.






3. The Bathroom
Luckily I keep the majority of my 'get-ready' supplies in either baskets or drawers, so my counter is generally pretty cleared and I simply moved them to the other bathroom.




Hey There!

I moved our toothbrushes and pill reminders out and added a few touches. Bath salts (in a cleaned out spaghetti jar with some paper letters taped to it), a shower cap (from our last stay at the Little America), new disposable razors, face mask, and Indulgent Eye Gel (love me some Mary Kay!).






Have you ever been a guest somewhere and you need something desperately but were too embarrassed to ask? So there you were, trying to open, sift through, and close every drawer and cupboard in the powder room as silently as possible, praying your host didn't hear you snooping around.

Something I'm always secretly hunting for when I am a guest is Q-Tips. Seriously, do most people keep these guys in a hidden closet I don't have access to?? To save my guests from having to peer into every drawer in the bathroom, I made sure cotton balls and Q-Tips were in the open and ready to use.






And lastly, towels. Because we don't have a linen closet, I always keep my towels rolled and in a basket in the bathroom. Lucky for me, I didn't have to do anything to ensure that my guests had direct access to a towel. I'm pleased to say we had no occurrences of our guests standing wet and nude in the shower hollering for a towel.







4. The Suitcase Stand & Wall Decor
At the end of my list comes this little tidbit. I'll be honest, prior to reading Clean Mama's post, I had no clue what these little do-dad's were for in hotels. They always sat idling in the closet waiting for me to discover their use. Now that I know, I've become more cognizant of keeping my suitcase elevated so that I don't have to sit on the floor to access it. We don't have a suitcase rack, so we used this little beauty we had lying around instead: 

Aren't we so fancy? 
I didn't want my sister to be subjected to my bridals so I covered them up with these beautiful printables from Elise Creates and [I don't know where!!! I tried for 1.5 hours to refind it online and I can't!!]



I can't keep this little clothed these days. #pottytrainingprobs

And that's a wrap. I had such a nice time hosting my sister and her husband, but you know what? They couldn't have cared less about all my preparations! I'm not saying I'm bitter about it. I'm just saying, as a guest, they had pretty low expectations. It wasn't until I asked if they liked the quote above the bed that they even noticed it! My sister didn't need all the extras and I didn't need to go out of my way to make it so complicated, but I enjoyed doing it! I am discovering that I am a little over-the-top and, for the most part, I like it!

What are some things that you like to prepare for as a host?
And better yet, what are some of your best/worst experiences as the guest? I would love to hear your stories and suggestions!