So Sew Organized

Happy New Year, blogging friends! I'm finally back after a little blogger Christmas vacation. Here are some pictures of our week that was Christmas! My family was here in Maine visiting for about 12 days, as well as some of my other cousins. On Christmas day there was 58 of us all in the same house. Some of my cousins I hadn't seen in 4 years, so it was a great day full of fun, laughter, family, and food. It was wonderful to have so much time with my family, and hard to see them all go. However, it is exciting to start a new year and make plans for the month ahead! I've got a lot more coming in the days ahead, as well as some new features for this blog that I think will be helpful to you. For now though, would you share some of your Christmas highlights with me? Comment below with one of your favourite parts of Christmas this year, and feel free to share some pictures on my Facebook page so I can see your celebrations in action!

I had so much fun celebrating Independence Day this year! I wore lots of red, white and blue, painted my nails to match, and sang American songs. Even though I only lived out of the county for 3 years, being back gives such a sense of pride to belong to the land of the free! We celebrated for two days, with picnics at my cousins house, movies, games, parade, and fireworks. I decided to make some of these fun Patriotic strawberries for the occassion! You may have seen these floating around Pinterest (Do you follow So Sew Organized ?) and I had made them a few years back so I knew how easy they were. And friends, they are so, so yummy! They were a big hit with adults and kids alike!! The perfect amount of sweet, juicy, crunchiness. Because that is a thing, don't you know. :) You can make your own, too...they are super simple! Start by washing your strawberries and picking out the best ones for dipping. Melt your white chocolate. I put mine in a one cup glass measuring cup so it w...

I enjoy snapping still life pictures, so I thought I'd let my camera tell the story of our 2013 Christmas. So much more happened than this - like family time, games, food, and lots of other fun stuff. But this gives you an idea, shows you some of what I've been soaking in and enjoying the last two weeks. What did your Christmas look like?

On New Year's Eve my cousin and I put together a fun dessert to go along with the festivities. After searching pinterest for ideas we came up with these dessert kabobs! We wanted to keep things fun and flexible to each person's likes and dislikes, so we laid out options and let them build their own kabob the way they wanted it. We included strawberries, bananas, cubes of pound cake, marshmallows, rice krispy treats, and chocolate sauce to drizzle on at the end. I made brownies to go on it, too, but they were too moist, they wouldn't stay on the stick! I guess that's a good problem to have??? The finished product was SO yummy, if I do say so myself. :) Did you do anything fun for New Years? I heard that only 8% of people go out on New Year's Eve, were you one of them? Any new party ideas to share?

With Christmas approaching, there is an anticipated weight falling on many a homemaker’s shoulders - having house guests! This doesn’t have to be a dreaded event. With the proper preparation and the right outlook, this can be a positive time for you, your family, and your guests. I personally think house guests are fun! Today I’m sharing some of my tips and ideas for preparing for overnight visitors. All of this comes from personal experience, so this is tried-and-true stuff! I have personally stayed in over 100 homes throughout the US, so I’ve literally seen the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to hospitality! Trust me, I could tell so many stories...instead, I decided to turn them into a post preparing you to be the best hostess you can be. :) 1. Have an attitude of hospitality Not only will your attitude towards guests be visible to them, a good attitude will set them at ease in a strange place. Hospitality is a Biblical command as well, so why grumble about doing it? Greet...

Last year I had a custom request for some Thanksgiving/Autumn printables. They were so fun, I thought I’d re-vamp them for this year! That is right, there are new Thanksgiving and Autumn planning printables at So Sew Organized! It is fun to do themed work for special occasions such as a holiday. For my yearly management printables I like keeping things simple and streamlined, but with holiday stuff it is fun to add specific colours and even some graphics. I still keep these simple and easy-to-use, but I think they can be fun for everyone, too! Some of these stayed the same as last year - but a few got updated. I also better designed them to work for both Canadian and American Thanksgivings. There is a calendar for both October and November, and the countdowns and such are not specific to a certain month. That gives flexibility no matter where you live! If you already have some of these printables from last year, but would like just the updated ones for 2013, just leave me a comment o...