Your 12 Favorite Posts in 2012

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I thought it would be fun to end the year showing you what the top 12 posts were here at The Real Thing with the Coake Family in 2012. 

Before I show you those, I want to thank you so much for joining our family and not only reading our posts, but sharing them with your family and friends. We have had a very successful first full year of blogging and it is because of you! There is much more fun to come in 2013. I hope you will continue to follow our family in the new year.

If you don't currently follow our family, I would love to have you join us. I am super close to reaching a goal for 2012. I wanted to hit 200 followers via Google Friend Connect(in sidebar) and 200 via facebook. At the time of writing this I was at 196 and 190 respectively. I would love for you to help me reach my goal. :-) Of course, if you prefer you can follow via twitter, pinterest or Google+.

Now on to the top 12 posts for 2012 as voted by you! Just click on the link above the picture to view and/or pin the post. Enjoy!

12. Homemade Christmas Gifts ~ Etched Glass Pans

Family New Year's Eve: Noise Makers

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As promised, I'm showing you a cute and simple craft you can make for your Family New Year's Eve celebration: noise makers!

 Earlier this week I told you about the fun we had at our family New Year's Eve. Today, I'm going to give you a tutorial on a simple craft you can make to add to your family fun on New Year's Eve. 

Family New Year's Eve

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I have another post I have waited for a year to share with you. I'm excited to share with you our super fun Family New Year's Eve. Since my girls are getting older, I wanted to make New Year's Eve fun for them as well as for us grown ups. Let me show you our celebration and give you a printable to make your own family New Year's Eve fun.

Free Doll Clothes Pattern: Holiday Reversible Wrap Skirt

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I've got a quick gift idea for you if you need a gift idea today. Seeing as how it is Christmas Eve, your going to need something quick. This free doll clothes pattern is super easy and fast. Today, I'm showing you my latest of these skirts - a holiday reversible wrap skirt for your American Girl doll or other 18" doll. 

I've made these in the past: Sewing American Girl Reversible Wrap Skirts. There may just be some others of these under the tree. ;-) I can't wait to share that with you after the holidays.

Tree Decorating Ideas: Popcorn and Pom Pom Garland

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I've got a fun tree decorating idea for you today. A few years ago, we bought a small tree for the playroom. I thought it would be fun for the girls to decorate their own tree and it would also be a nice touch for when my parents visit, as the playroom is the guest room as well. This year we found a cute mini tree skirt at Target along with a set of mini ornaments. Now our tree is a bit more official. Pumpkin was telling me how she liked it but it seemed a little plain, as though it still needed something. I came up with an idea, she loved it...and now you see it on their tree. I made a pom pom and popcorn garland for their tree.

Isn't it cute? Let me show you how I put it together and a few of the details.

Christmas Activities: Gingerbread House Recipe

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Today I am excited to share with you the recipe for my favorite Christmas activities - making gingerbread houses. My family and I have been making these log cabin style gingerbread houses since 1976. You can read more about that here: Christmas Activities: Gingerbread Houses.

First let me show you our house we made this past weekend. We got together with most of our East Coast family. This year we made 4 houses. Lots and lots of candy was eaten. Thank goodness my Aunt brought some healthy snacks too or we may have gone into a sugar coma. lol!

Christmas Activities: Gingerbread House

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I'm super excited to bring you today's post. Today I'm sharing with you my all time favorite Christmas Activity: Gingerbread houses!  My parent's started this activity with their, then young, family in 1976. I was 5, my brother was 7. To my knowledge, not a year has passed that we have not made Gingerbread houses! Now we have moved on to another generation making gingerbread houses every year.

How to Recover a Chair

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I shared this post last week at The Frugal Girls. In case you didn't make it over to read it, I'm sharing it with you here today. I want to show you How to Recover a Chair. It is not a hard process, but it does take a little bit of time and a dose of patience. Not always my strong suit(the patience part), but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do, right? 

I don't know about you, but in addition to my holiday crafting, baking and activities, I'm also trying to get my house ready for company and for the holiday's.

Table Decorating Ideas ~ Christmas Centerpiece

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I'm so excited to show you some Table Decorating Ideas today. Last year, both of my girls told me that they wanted to help design our Christmas Centerpiece for this year. I was all too happy to oblige them. We started looking for ideas in September and each contributed a different design element to the centerpiece. We settled on the Christmas Centerpiece you see below. What do you think?

Didn't they come up with a cute idea? Of course I helped with the ideas as well. The concept of the centerpiece is to have trees with presents under them and Santa on his sleigh flying away after delivering the presents. 

Gift Wrapping Ideas ~ Fabric Gift Bags

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I'm back today with another post in my series about the Homemade Christmas Gifts I made for our family this year. Today I have a Gift Wrapping Idea for you. I had to come up with a solution for how to mail the glass etched pans. I wanted them to be in bubble wrap. I couldn't see how to wrap them in paper and have it look nice, so I made Fabric Gift Bags to put the gifts in for mailing. They turned out so cute and the bonus is that each family will now have a reusable gift bag to use for many Christmases to come!

Gift in a Jar {Gift Tag Printable}

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I'm back today with another in my series of the gifts I've made for our family. Today I want to show you how I decorated the Gift in a Jar to give it a bit more of a holiday gift feel. I've got a Gift Tag Printable for you so you can make your own.

Once again, if you are immediate family, please check the mail. Your gift is on its way to you. See it in person first, please! For the rest of you, just in case you missed it, the actual recipe of what goes in these jars is in my post: Gift in a Jar {Homemade Christmas Gifts}. The jars are dry ingredients to make Christmas Candy Brownies...yummy!

Come Find Me - I'm Guest Posting Today

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Hi Everyone!

I hope your day is going great and that you enjoying my current series of Christmas Gift ideas.
So far, I have shown you the Glass Etched Pans and the Gift in a Jar(Holiday Brownie Mix). I have more planned to show you later this week and next week as well. So tune in for that.

I also wanted to let you know that I am guest posting today over at The Frugal Girls. Now I don't know if you are like me, but it seems that on top of the gifts and decorating, I try to fit in those fix up projects that have been put off all year. I try to get my house ready for guests and such. Today, I'm guest posting, showing you a tutorial on how I recovered our kitchen chairs.

I hope you will head over to The Frugal Girls and learn How to Recover a Chair. While you are there, take a look around. Heidi posts amazing deals all day long. Lots of great things going on over on her site! You may even find a great deal that you need or a free book on Amazon. Woot, woot!

Have a great day!

Take care,

  

© 2011-2012 The Real Thing with the Coake Family.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Gift in a Jar {Homemade Christmas Gifts}

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I promised you I would be back today with the next part of the Handmade Christmas Gifts I am making for our family this year. Today I'm showing you the Gift in a Jar that is part of the whole gift I am sending. Once again, if you are my parents, in-laws, or a sibling of mine, please stop reading and wait for your package to arrive at your house! Thanks!

If you aren't one of those people, let me show you this fun and yummy gift that goes perfectly with the etched glass pans I showed you in my last post.

Homemade Christmas Gifts ~ Etched Glass Pans

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I've been hard at work getting ready for Christmas. I really like making Handmade Christmas gifts for our family members. We don't live near our immediate family, so everything must be mailed. For me, that means I need to be done early, that way I can miss the lines at the post office and the packages will arrive in time.

Today I'm showing you the first part in a series of the gifts I've made for my parents, in-laws, and all of our siblings. If you are one of the people I just mentioned, please stop reading now and wait for the package to arrive at your house! Thanks! If you are not one of those family members...please keep reading, I would love to show you the beautiful Handmade Christmas gift I came up with this year. :-)