Homemade Christmas Project #5, Christmas Cards

I love making my own Christmas cards, but I always feel a little bit of pressure to turn out something cool so people don't look at my cards and think, "Isn't she supposed to be a graphic designer? Hmmmmmm . . ." I was so busy with clients cards this year, I almost forgot about my own, but I love how it turned out. It was a bit labor intensive so thanks Larry and Eva for your help! I couldn't decide on just one picture so I tried to come up with something that could fit a lot of pictures without being too, "Look how awesome my baby is!" so it had a rhinestone brad in the middle which allowed the wheel to turn and you could see these pictures below.

I borrowed the Christmas tree and swirl on the front from some free gift tag downloads from Rhonna Farrer, which you can find here. I just altered them a little bit.

Homemade Christmas Project #4, Cupcake Pincushions

I love the cupcake pincushions that Betz White sells in her Etsy shop. Her blog is one of my favorite craft blogs to check in on so I was really excited to hear that her book was coming out and the Cupcake Pincushion pattern is in it. I headed to my local thrift shop and picked up some wool sweaters to felt and got so excited that I actually ended up starting this project before I got the book so my pincushions turned out a little bit different than her directions.

If your going to felt some old clothing, some pointers that I learned about felting from her book that I didn't read in my online research are:

• The sweaters must be at least 80% wool, and the other 20% must be a natural fiber. One of the sweaters that I tried was 80% wool but the rest of it was synthetic and it did not felt.
• Even some 100% wool sweaters will not felt. Read the care labels and the more specific they are (ie-hand wash, lay flat to dry, or dry clean only) the more likely they will be to felt. Also the finer gauge knit, the better.

I sewed the bottom of the cupcake "paper" instead of gluing it so I didn't have any raw edges so none of the wool actually needed to be felted anyway, and heavy sweater could have worked. The top picture is my first attempt and the bottom picture was my second. I definitely improved over time.

You can get the directions for the cupcakes in Betz's book, Warm Fuzzies. I used directions from her appearance on Martha Stewart to make the "whipped topping". She made really cute teacup pincushions on the show that you might also want to check out.

A Peek into my reality that may scare you a tad!

So Larry and I are slowly working through the house, cleaning things out so the move this summer won't be quite as overwhelming, and I worked on my closet this week. I keep walking in my closet and thinking, "How can I own so much clothing and have absolutely nothing cute to wear!" I'm beginning to think that having a huge walk-in closet might be bad for me because I had some really awful clothing in there that I thought I got rid of ages ago! Yikes! Since our donations are being picked up in the morning, this is my last chance to air some of my dirty laundry (literally!) Proceed with caution and get ready to mock me.

Let us start off with the sparkly sequin purse: What was I thinking?I'm not sure if I should be happy or sad that the purse still has a tag on it; on one hand, I wasted money on something I never even used, but on the other, it means I never stepped out of the house with that monstrosity on my arm.

There were also sorts of really awful shoes. Remember these Chels? No, I wasn't holding onto them in case I someday need to dress as a pimp! These were only left in my closet because every time I go to throw them out, Larry says he loves them. This is where you can insert your support that they need to be sent far, far away. Maybe I need to mail them to Steve Madden with a little note that says something like, "Your past is back to haunt you!" No, that would be to cruel, huh? Or maybe I should hold onto them for days I need to get things off of high shelves? Oh, and let's not forget this lovely polyester blouse. At least I can say I just picked this up for my Dolores Umbridge Halloween costume, and now I am happy to release it back into the wild.

All of these beauties and more are waiting on my porch right now, and they could be yours if you make it there before the charity that's picking them up. This could be your lucky day!

Wanna come visit me or go somewhere fun?

Skybus is having some great New Year's deals. You can fly on a lot of their January and February flight for $20 each way. It's killing me that Larry has no time off for the next two months because who doesn't need to go to San Francisco or Seattle for $20?

New Years Eve

We had a really great New Years Eve. Even though Larry worked overnight, he still spent the rest of the day celebrating with us. We spent the afternoon with the Hudsons. Nikki and I went shopping while David and Larry took the kids to play at COSI. Nikki and I had quite the interesting experience and picked up some really cute clothes and The Emperor's Newest Clothes. Then we all met back up to eat at the North Market. Jeni's has some really good flavors right now so you should stop by one of their locations if you get a chance. Larry Loved his Creme Fraiche with Amarena Cherries and I enjoyed my spiceberry ice cream (I guess spiceberry is a local berry described and Appalachian nutmeg. Who knew?) Then later that night the Rice's came over for a relaxed New Year's Eve at our house. We celebrated with Mama Mimi's pizza and sparkling grape juice while we watched Bourne Ultimatum (which I also recommend). It was the perfect opportunity to pull out the wine glasses that we received as a wedding present that have been sitting in a box ever since (Who thought we needed wine glasses?)

Now I'm working on some new goals for the new year. What are your resolutions?

It's a blog eat blog world!

Lately I keep seeing my posts and ideas posted on other blogs, and while I like sharing my ideas, it makes me so sad when people post them as if they're their own and don't refer to their original source. Some people have even copied my exact text. It's happened a lot lately, which makes me wonder how many more instances are out there that I haven't seen.

For instance, remember this post on a piece of artwork that I wanted to try to make a quilt of? Well, lo and behold, one of the Pink Christmas girls did just make a fabric version of it, and she didn't mention that the idea was from me or that it was based on Isa's artwork. Not cool! I suppose it's possible that she also came across the same website, which wasn't even in English for awhile, and she also picked that particular piece out of everything on the site and she also came up with the idea to make a fabric version, and it's a mere coincidence that we share a mutual friend and are both a part of Pink Christmas, but it seems pretty unlikely, doesn't it? I almost posted a comment on the Pink Christmas blog, but then I figured nothing good would come of that, would it?

Maybe it's my background in editing, which required me to sit through many a lecture on what constitutes plagiarism, but it really bothers me when people copy me. I feel so discouraged that I haven't even gotten around to posting the rest of my homemade Christmas ideas, but I guess it's not fair to the rest of my lovely readers who would never do such a thing, is it?

PS- Can you tell that I have a headcold and am feeling a little crabby today? Sorry for the rant, but I had to complain to someone!

Pink Christmas

My Pink Christmas gift arrived a few days ago and I haven't had proper time to gush about it. First of all, it was from Jill, the Good Mail Queen, who sent it with plenty of time to arrive by Christmas, but due to some postal mixup, it just arrived a few days ago. I'm always a little sad once Christmas was over so I was glad that my gift was late so I still had something to look forward to, and boy was it worth the wait. It was a cute little suitcase full of stationary designed by Jill herself. There was all sorts of customized cards and labels and even stamps; everything that I need to send good mail to others. The perfect gift that keeps on giving!

Thank you Jill!

New Year's Eve Wishes

This year your wish for the New Year could be among thousands written on the confetti sprinkled down in Times Square to welcome the New Year. check here for more info.

Creed at Nine Months

They're a little bit late, but here are Creed's nine month pictures Check out those chubby cheeks!

I had Larry there helping me jolly Creed so we caught lots of smiles.

He's still chubby , but this has been a bit of a rough month for him so he seems to be thinning out a bit. He's had a cold, he's been teething, and his reflux is not improving so he's lost his appetite and had a few extremely crabby days. Who can blame him when we're torturing him with likes like barium swallows for upper GI scans? Poor guy!

He's also growing so quickly. The latest development is that he's been standing on his own. At first it was accidental, when he was absorbed in something that he was holding and forgot to hold himself up. Lately he's standing on purpose for longer periods.

He's also become a clapping machine! He never misses an opportunity to cheer for himself or someone else.

He STILL has not figured out sippy cups. Maybe it's his approach?

Here he is on his first wagon ride.

He was so excited and adorable! (and of course Wadsworth the duck had to come along for the ride)

Check out how long his hair has been getting. When Larry realized what a great mohawk Creed can have, he asked me why we haven't been doing this every day.This little guy makes us smile every day and we are just doing our best to enjoy him.

Signs that Creed has a cold

I'm used to having spit-up all over my shirt, but this time it's not spit-up. NICE!