Maegan Waldrip: 2013

Christmas time is my absolute favorite time of the year! Every year I am reminded of my awe for the story of Jesus’ birth and reminded what a precious gift we have all been given in not only His birth but also His death & resurrection. I too am thankful to have been raised by parents who instilled in me the true meaning of Christmas and to have been blessed with a family who always comes together during this time of the year to celebrate Jesus’ birth. Another reason I love Christmas is because I get to utilize my love for decorating and bargain shopping! WHOO HOO! I have found this year that I have loved it even more than in the past due to the FREEDOM of a crazy semester in graduate school, which might I add is completed and completed successfully!

Now back to the decorating and bargain shopping. I have tried my hardest to get every present at a bargain price or at least a discounted price. I was pretty successful! Of course, I cannot really go into detail about the bargains I found because I would be ruining the surprise of all my gifts. I did, however, find bargains on my wrapping products! My theme this year was all LEOPARD! I love leopard print and really wanted to move out of the traditional Christmas décor. The past few years I have done a gold and brown theme so it was easy to incorporate the leopard with the décor I already had. After buying 2 rolls of leopard-burlap ribbon from my friends/Chi Omega sisters at Trim the Tree here in Jonesboro (they have EVERYTHING you will ever need for Christmas décor so go check them out on Nettleton!) I was ready to assemble my Christmas tree for this year. Here is how it turned out!

Once my tree was complete it was time to wrap all of my bargain priced presents! YAY! Keeping with the leopard theme as well as the bargain theme I found my leopard wrapping paper at TJ Maxx for $2.99 per roll so of course I bought every role they had. If you know anything about me then you are probably laughing because I visit TJ Maxx several times a week, and anytime someone ask me where I purchased something my answer 90% of the time is “TJ Maxx!” Anyway, after celebrating my bargain find of wrapping paper I drove down to Hobby Lobby where I purchased brown and gold ribbon for $3.99 per roll and two bags of paper crafting tags (one black one brown) for $3.99 per bag. I used double sided tape to assemble my tags & punched a hole in the top of them to make my creation come to life! I also purchased a leopard bag and two brown bags for $0.99 each for the little blessings in our family (easier to unwrap). And yes, I used my Hobby Lobby coupon of 40% off! Now that you know all about my Christmas wrapping here is a look at the products that created the final product!

Wrapping products!

Name tags after being assembled.

Name tags labeled & ready!

The finished product of my Christmas wrapping!

Bags & tissue paper make opening gifts easier for the little ones :)

TA-DA! All finished & topped off with my sweet Lucy posing!

I hope you all enjoyed reading this blog entry as much as I enjoyed sharing it. May you all find some inspiration to find some bargains, share your creativity during the Christmas season, and most importantly remember through all your shopping and decorating that JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Not knowing whether we were in Arkansas or Mississippi was the main question and struggle of the weekend due to the deer camp being half in AR and half in MS. Lauren and I were lost all weekend, but I must say I will take that being my only struggle any day of the week. Madison, Lauren, Nathan, and I all made a trip to the deer camp for a nice relaxing weekend full of fellowship and Gods great outdoors! Let me just say his artwork is A-MAZING! Here is a sneak peek at the beauty were able to see...

Our weekend started with a rainy journey on Friday that ended with a good meal (grilled chicken, baked potato, and salad) cooked by yours truly and Nathan. The boys and dogs spent the evening relaxing (Yes, we took all 3 dogs) and Lauren and I worked on our crafting. I would say it was a great start to the weekend.

Saturday morning started with a little front porch conversation and the latest and greatest in the fashion department. You can be sure to hit Nathan and Madison up for all of your fashion needs! HA!

Boots and shorts...its all the rage!

After a tasty breakfast (eggs, biscuits, and sausage) our day of riding around looking for deer stands began. The views were beautiful and the fun we had was much needed! We headed in around noon to eat lunch and watch the razorbacks play….yeah, so moving on with our weekend. Saturday’s dinner consisted of steaks, mashed potatoes, rolls, sweet corn on the cob, and for dessert apple dumplings! Sounds yummy? It was…thanks for cooking Madison and Lauren!

Here are some pictures from our fun Saturday and Sunday!