that's amore monday: girl's christmas edition

as if you didn't know this was coming...girl's christmas! how could that not be honored in 'that's amore monday'? it is literally one of my very most favorite days in the whole year. i think we say this every year, but this was by far the best year.

we started reminiscing and this was actually the 8 ANNUAL GIRL'S CHRISTMAS party. can you believe we're old enough to have an 8th annual anything? wow. in the beginning {in high school} we bought millions of presents for all of the girls that came {i think} we soon figured out that was too many presents. so we started drawing names. the name drawing continued into last year when we decided that the gift we were to give had to be homemade. what a fantastic idea! we all L-O-V-E giving & recieving crafts. this year we went one step further & since our group has consistentlybeen a group of 5 we now make crafts for each person. another super fun idea.

goodness, it was such a blast to visit with some of my very best friends: laugh, tell stories, give them gifts & enjoy the craftiness of my dear friends. we pot luck-ed with every dish containing cheese {this was not purposeful but definitely the reality} & had a ball....a cheese ball rather. an additional cause for cheer was that cory & shannon were in town to celebrate with us. what a joy to be blessed with good friends & great company.

now for some crafts. i know you're dying to see them.

all my friends have blogs as well so i'll link you to them. i'm sure they will show you a few tutorials of their crafts over the next week or so if you're interested}

here's cory & her gifts. i just had to add this in because she isn't fake smiling! good job cory!

rachel who you've heard me talk about many times made each of us jewelry. she recently opened stella bella boutique on esty.com & we were all secretly {or maybe not so secretly} hoping that she would wrap us up some of her jewels...& she did! YAY.

we all got something different but that fit us perfectly.

jenna got some precious flower bud hair pins in light blue & dark purple.

i got bow earrings! you know i love a bow. and with the color they are i feel like i can wear them with almost anything. i had been contemplating buying them for myself from the store but i'm so glad i waited! shannie got some dangling peach gems.
& cory got a pink rose w/ emerald stone pendant necklace. so dainty and cute! it even matched the shirt she was already wearing - aw. next comes shannon. she recently moved to south carolina to be near to her beau, andy & we've been missing her terribly ever since. you may remember our adventure to see her {here}. she made us super sweet vintage tea cup candles. they are so cute i don't know if i can bring myself to burn mine. please don't notice my nasty countertops & instead focus on our precious cups!
one more shot.
ok i lied. here's a close up of mine! shan knows how i adore gray so this little cutey is just. for. me. jenna was a college addition to girl's christmas because she instantly became a bestie when we moved to uk. she made us the most adorable pleated christmas aprons after following darby's tutorial {seen here}. jenna just started sewing one day a few years ago and found out that she was a natural. i want her to expand...i know that she would be fantastic at anything she started stitching - she could make us all wardrobes if she tried i bet. just picture us all making your christmas cookies in these gorgeous things!

cory {our other out-of-towner} made us bath treasures. she made us jasmin vanilla bath salts & sugar scrub. i cannot wait to try them out! she also made us homemade felted soap like what you would buy for $14 at anthro {seen here}. goodness, i have creative friends! i apologize for my terrible photography on this one. and now for my crafty craft. i take no responsibility for the creativity of this craft. i found this amazing blog & copy-catted, i basically want to be ashley ann. but i have to say, i was very proud of myself for how they turned out. you know aggrevated i get over crafts & how i generally screw something up beyond repair. this time it was smooth sailing & i was thrilled with the product. i hope the girls liked them too. i monogramed canvas tote bags for my girls! see ashley ann's tutorial {here}, you are going to fall in love with her. i did a few steps slightly different & came out with the same result. i'll share all those with you this week, so stay tuned!

merry christmas girls {and blogland}! i had so much fun with you all this weekend & am so thankful to have each of you faithful, strong & creative women in my life!