I'm in Christmas Card Heaven!

So a former co-teacher of mine posted a blog not long ago that included two of my favorite things... Shutterfly and free! Apparently, to get free photo Christmas cards, all I have to do is blog about it! Shouldn't be too hard considering I LOVE Shutterfly to begin with.

When Isabella was born I switched from the photo site I was using to Shutterfly. I switched over because of a promotion for free prints for new members but I found it to be fabulous! I can upload and store all bazillion pictures of my baby (so not exaggerating about the bazillion part...), I have a share site that my out of town family can use to see my little girl grow up, and they have great perks and promotions. I have loved absolutely everything I have ordered from Shutterfly. Whenever my mom and I take Izzy's portraits, I get these fabulous matte, large prints for my wall.

I got this cute little card for my husband for Father's Day

The photo album turn out surprisingly well AND they are so much easier and less time consuming than scrapbooking (as much as I love scrapbooking....) My mom just ordered the most adorable calendars for Christmas presents!

With that said, I have yet to use Shutterfly for Christmas cards. Mostly because I don't usually send out Christmas cards.... Every year growing up, my mom would buy a special stamp and embossing powder and all of us kids made an assembly line to create our family Christmas card. Once I got married, I just never got back into making special Christmas cards to send.... though every year, I get all these picture cards and every year I vow to make photo cards next year.... well guess what, people??

THIS IS THE YEAR!

Guess my only problem now will be deciding what pictures to use! Wish me luck!

pssst... what to get 50 free Christmas photo cards for yourself? Check it out http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Glitter!

My favorite movie! haha just kidding... I just made myself laugh just thinking about that....

Anyways! I think I'm getting more and more delirious the closer this boutique gets. I started painting glass ornaments today and I had this brilliant idea to put glitter in one. I got the idea from this jar a dear friend sent me when he was deployed to Iraq. It is a little jar filled with brightly colored sand that forms a picture of a camel, our names, and the Polish word for 'smile'. I love that little jar! It sat in my classroom for years when I was a teacher and I have to admit, I have spend a great deal of time marveling at the detail that can be achieved with sand.

So I decided I would use my little sand jar for inspiration but just go simple with my ornament... I was just going for gold and silver stripes.... And I now have glitter EVERYWHERE! I spent four years in art school blowing glass, making paper, sculpting, painting, working in the wood shop... and yet I can't pour stinking glitter into a glass sphere without spilling half the bottle... so silly! Though I have to admit, out of all the ornaments I made today, my husband likes this one the best... so I guess it turned out okay!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree - Special Christmas How To

One of my most favorite things about Christmas time (other than all of the lovely music!) are Christmas trees! Well, REAL Christmas trees. I don't do fake trees! As a kid, I loved going and picking one out... trying to figure out which one is the biggest and fullest and straightest.... going home and watching my mom and dad figure out where the hole is so it can go against the wall.... laughing while my dad struggles with the tangled lights because he just threw them in the box the year before... fighting over who gets to put which ornament on with my sisters... I love it all. And they smell so good!!! There is nothing better than walking into your house and smelling a good old evergreen in your living room.

Unfortunately, our little condo does not have room for a Christmas tree. Even less so now that we have an 18 month old running around. Last year, my husband surprised me on Christmas Eve with a little four foot Charlie Brown tree and we squeezed it in for a week or so.

I have to admit, my first year without a Christmas tree was really hard! I had all of these special ornaments from our first year of marriage and I wanted to hang them. So I went out and bought some huge glittery ribbon and made a ribbon tree on the wall behind our couch. Turned out pretty well! I did that for a couple years until I got sick of vacuuming up glitter in JULY! It's been a few years and I still find glitter in my couch.... So last year I tried something new. Turned out to be much easier to hang than my glitter tree AND it doesn't create a glitter disaster. I just used a strand of Christmas lights.

Here's what you will need:

1) 1 strand of Christmas lights

2) some push pins

3) ornaments (preferably ones that are semi-flat and not too heavy)

4) a topper (I usually use a large, wired Christmas ribbon but you could get some sort of flat star. I think I might make an angel this year)

How to hang your tree:

1) Make sure your lights work

I had a little helper this year

2) Find a wall space that has easy access to an outlet

3) Put one push pin where you would like the top of your tree to be

4) Using the end of the lights that does NOT plug into the wall, put the first light around the push pin

5) Go down about 4-5 inches and out 4-5 inches to the right - you can eyeball it - and put your second push pin

6) String your lights over to the second pin

7) Go down 4-5 inches from the SECOND pin and 4-5 to the LEFT of the TOP - place your pin - string your lights

8) Continue down until you've reached about a foot from the floor - you can use a second string of lights if you run out but you shouldn't need to

9) Decorate!

You could do this with white, colored, little, or big lights. I use little white ones because that's all I have. I think I'm also going to do a wall tree made of picture frames! I'll post pictures when that one is up.

I'd love to see pictures if anyone tries this one!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving a day late! What a great time to dwell on all the blessing in our lives. Something we should be doing everyday....

I know last year was my baby's official "1st Thanksgiving" but this year was so much better because she could enjoy all of the food. And boy did she!

Followed by some Noni time

And a little reading time

The only thing missing was my baby brother. But he'll be home for Christmas!

Back to reality of burlap and yarn. One week until Crossroad's Christmas Boutique!

Oh My Buttons!

So I went button shopping the other day and realized that buttons are EXPENSIVE! The fabric store has single buttons up to $15! One button!!! Granted, they are very cool buttons... but still! So you may be able to grasp my abundant excitement when I found a treasure in, where else? My mom's sewing room! I wasn't even looking for anything but I happened to be sitting on the floor (while my mom fixed her serger that I had accidentally may have temporarily broken while trying to sew burlap....) and I happened to see a cool basket under my mom's sewing table. I took it out thinking we could use it for our Christmas Boutique display (Crossroads Bible Church! December 4! Be there!). When I looked inside, I realized I hit the mother load! I found the most fabulous button collection ever! Turns out my 87 year old great aunt has kept every button she ever bought since the Great Depression (which my mother told me I could go home and blog about since I already blogged about her fabric-savin heart....) And of course, these little gems were kept in an old, glass Skippy peanut butter jar.

Seriously, one should probably not get so excited over buttons, but these buttons are amazing! Really, people... it's the little things.... There are buttons in this little Skippy jar like I have never seen before! Check out these little tweed and wool covered numbers.
Makes me want to run out and get some red wool so I can make myself a red coat... just to put these red buttons on! I can't wait to use some of these puppies! I actually had to make a mustard yellow neckwarmer while my little one played in the bathtub just so I could use this lovely black felt button.
Can't wait to use more of these vintage buttons!

Sneak Peek - Christmas Stockings

I had a tons of fleece my mom had left over from who knows what. I was going to make some scarfs but really? Kinda boring... so I thought I'd try my hand at Christmas stockings!

Lessons learned -

1. Fast food napkins make excellent sketch pads

2. Cutting stockings freehand is more difficult than once thought

3. A Serger is a must when using fleece!

4. Who wouldn't want a cowboy boot Christmas stocking?!?

This is a very rough version since I don't have time today to put on all the finishing touches... that and I don't own a serger so all seams will have to wait until Monday when I go to my parents house.....

I'm in love! With plaid!

And my husband (I have to say that or he'll get jealous!!!)

Long ago, in a land far away.... okay, okay... Not so long ago (like a week and a half...), in a land not so far away (my parent's house...) I raided a treasure trove (my mother's fabric box!) and found glorious things! Plaids! Not just any plaids... heavy, flannel plaids my sisters and I used to make jumpers a good 15+ years ago! My mom, bless her fabric-saving heart, was kind enough to let me scrounge around and take whatever I wanted. Heck, it's been there for 15+ years... she obviously wasn't going to use it....

These plaids bring mixed feelings. On one hand, I hate thinking back to that horrible plaid jumper that I thought was so cool at the time (Hey! It was the 90's!)... on the other hand, it is some pretty incredible fabric...

So I made myself forget the image of three sisters in nearly matching outfits (I can't remember due to repressed fashion memory but it's pretty safe to say there were matching hats involved...) and tried to come up with wonderful ways to use my loot.

I decided to go with clutches because, well... I ran out of the burlap I was using to make clutches and it's too late to run to the fabric store....

After cutting and sewing a few plaid clutches, I realized that putting my usual taffeta and organza flower on the front was just not going to do! Even I can't make taffeta work with a heavy plaid flannel! (do you like how well I think through an idea before starting to sew???) So I started experimenting with flowers made out of the flannel and I'm am now in love with my new plaid flower!!!!
I have a feeling you will soon see this flower on a good many things... headbands, clips, pins, handbags, clutches (of course), hats, my daughter's clothing.... yeah, I think I'm going to run with this one 'cuz I like'em. I was going to add a couple more layers of petals but this one is already so big that I don't think it needs anymore... maybe on some smaller ones.... we'll see. I have plenty more plaids to work with!

yarn, yarn... and more yarn

I went shopping today... uh-oh! and bought 11 new kinds of yarn! And Christmas ribbon.... And glass ornaments to paint.... Now I'm slightly overwhelmed...

You may be thinking, "11? That's not that much..." But you have to understand! I'm sitting here with my yarn freshly rolled into balls.... surrounded by all these fabulous new colors and textures and I want to make 345892698236 different things at once! I've already tested all my colors by making a flower of each... I felt like I was blowing glass again... getting ready for my blow slot buy pulling glass flowers...

Anyways... Michael's was having a phenomenal sale this week. Almost all yarn was 50% PLUS I had a coupon for an extra 20% off of all sale items!!! Seriously, the amount I spent for what I bought is just unheard of.... I was so excited that I could stick to my budget and still get the "really good" yarn. And it only took me an hour of putting yarn in my basket... and changing my mind and putting it back... and then getting it again.... back and forth! I just couldn't part with the lime green with metallic thread! <---- it's fabulous! I swear! My poor daughter was a little angel through it all....

I actually went against my cardinal because of this sale.... I bought textured yarn! Oh my! And not just one textured yarn... I bought two! See I have this aversion to boucle yarn.... It's hard to work with, it breaks really easily, and to be frank, I just don't like the look... But that's just my opinion and I know most people disagree with me. It does, however, have a few pluses... it's really soft! I had some brown boucle yarn left over from some neckwarmers from last season so I used it to make my little cousin a teddy bear hat for her baby boy she is having in January. And I actually liked how it turned out so much that I bought more of that same yarn. And the other textured yarn was such a gorgeous color that I couldn't turn it down. I tried to take a picture but my camera phone really doesn't do it justice :( It is seriously the most gorgeous blend of warm light to dark browns and a rusty orange... beautiful! Now to figure out what it's going to become.... I'm thinking it's going to make a great accent flower for a burlap clutch! We shall see!

Through A Forest of Plaid Christmas Trees

So I've had this idea for Christmas trees for awhile and I finally started to create the picture that's in my head. I raided my mom's old fabric boxes to see what kind of Christmas fabric I could find (and in the process, had one of the large rubbermade boxes full of fabric fall on my head... luckily it didn't knock the idea out of my brain! yeah, yeah... cheesy joke... whatever... :) ) I picked my favorite plaid and made myself a few sample 8-12 inch trees. I'm still playing around with decorations so stay tuned!!! I also have a few burlap and lace ones cut out! you know you want to see'em! If all goes well with the decorating, I will have tons of these for you to pick up for yourself at the CBC Holiday Boutique! <---- yeah... I figure if I plug it enough you'll all come out and see all the hard work we've been putting in!!! :)

bad picture, I know... but I'll do a real picture once I have them complete!

Holiday Hats

The first batch of holiday hats is here!

Introducing the Poinsettia Hat $20

And the Bow Hat $18

available in almost any color hat and bow

And the Harvest Slouchy Hat $25

Perfect colors for Thanksgiving! Made of super soft, taupe yarn and orange plaid (or Harvest Dots) fabric.

And I know the bow looks GIGANTIC! but if you wear it in the back or to the side, it's really cute! I wear mine all the time!

Also popular for holiday photos....

The Ribbon Hat $15-$18

available in almost any color hat and ribbon

New Holiday Flower Clips and Headbands pictures are coming this week!

Crushing

I have a crush! Don't worry... it's not a people crush... it's a blog crush! I've been a facebook fan of BellaLu Photography for a few months now and I'm seriously in love with their work! It's amazing!!! I wish I had known about them when I got married because their wedding work is beautiful (not that I don't love my wedding photos... I just really like the BellaLu style...) I started saving my pennies from sales (literally just the pennies :) the rest has to go to the budget! :)) so one day I can book a session for Izzy! Want to check out BellaLu Photography? Now's the time! Once they hit 2,000 fans on facebook, they are giving away 5 randomly selected photo-shoots.

Okay I'm done with my gushing.... Off to calm down my sugar crazed one year old (mistake to give a toddler who has had very little exposer to sugar halloween candy the day after giving yourself a slight concussion by dropping a very heavy box of fabric on your head....) and see if I can get a few more things made for the CBC Holiday Boutique (coming December 4th! yes... that was a shameless plug...) before my husband gets home!

Kid in a Candy Store

Today I was a kid in a candy store! Only it wasn't a candy store... it was my favorite fabric store Fabrics R Us! It was a quick, in and out trip because I had my not-so-fabric-store-friendly toddler with me but it was still glorious! Let me paint this heaven for you... This fabric store has so much fabric that they have to have 3 separate stores all in the same shopping center. The fabrics are so packed in that you can barely walk through the aisles. I literally walk aisle by aisle running my hand over all of the different textured materials! My favorite of the three stores is filled with any fabric you could ever need to make a prom dress mixed with embroidered Indian silks and burlap. AND all the fabric is cheap! Well, cheap in comparison to Joann's.... though I do love Joann's.... If you pay cash, they give you another 4% off :)

But despite all of the exquisite fabrics, there is another reason I love this fabric store... When I walk in, it is like walking straight into a Russell Peters routine! I am so not kidding! Here is a typical conversation I have with the sales woman...

"Um, can you help me with this, please?"

"What you want, honey?"

"How much is this fabric?"

"Two dowlla!"

"Two dollars a yard?"

"Yes! Two dowlla!"

"Can I get a quarter yard?"

"Nooooooooo"

"No?!"

"Nooooooo! Haf yar!!"

"Oh okay... I'll take half a yard..."

"Why only haf yar??"

"Well I only need a quarter...."

"Why not yar??"

"I only needed a quarter...."

"Haf yar! What else you need?"

"That's all I need"

"No more? Why you not need more fabric?"

And so on... even though it takes awhile to get my half yard of fabric it is so worth it just to have the hysterical conversation with the little Asian woman... and to hear the Indian man buying fabric for his daughter's 16 birthday party negotiate prices with the store owner! I no longer need the Comedy channel!

Item of the week Wednesday - Neckwarmers

Item of the Week

November 3-9

15% off of all neckwarmers

Gear up for chilly weather! Neckwarmers are a fabulous way to keep warm without the hassle or bulkiness of a scarf. We have 3 great styles to choose from:

3 Button Classic Neckwarmer - $20

(also available in Boulce yarn)

Chunky Lambswool Neckwarmer - $40

Turkey Time!

Can I just say... I love summer! I love the hot weather, the sun, the beach! Everything! But the holiday season comes in a very close second! And I have to admit, with all the crappy weather we had this summer, I am really very excited for fall and the holidays. I was actually kind of disappointed this morning when my husband told me it was supposed to get up to 80 this week... I was looking forward to getting out my cuddly sweaters, lighting my pumpkin spice candle, and making stew in my crock pot...

Oh my goodness! I'm getting so excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas just trying to write this thing!

I love everything about Thanksgiving! I mean really... what's not to love? You get to hang out with family, eating the best food ever, watching the parade and football! I love it! I can't wait to eat sage & sausage stuffing and canollis! As if I'm not already in the holiday spirit, I decided to dress up my house a bit more for Thanksgiving. I already have pumpkins and autumn colors all over but what I really need is turkeys! And burlap of course....

Here is the first version of my new turkey and burlap wreath.

I have quite a bit to add to this little puppy but it will have to wait until tomorrow because I have things to make for Crossroads upcoming Holiday Boutique (December 4th... don't forget!). So check back tomorrow for the finished version!

VOTE!

I'm back after a crazy week and weekend and here to give you a friendly reminder... VOTE!!! It will take you less time than it takes to check your facebook and email... and really, there are very few good reasons not to!