Wordless Wednesday-Ugh!

Please stop taking my picture!

This was taken on Christmas evening after opening poppers (that is where the crown came from) .  Lily was really annoyed because she wanted to open all of the presents that were around the tree at my friend's house.

Don't forget to check out my snow scene tutorial & enter my giveaway, here.

My New Curtain!

Yesterday I made this curtain for a window that is at the top of the stairs.  It took me a few hours...but I am SOOOOO happy with how it turned out.  Yes, I did a happy dance.

I have had this fabric FOREVER...ok it has only been about a year, but it seems like eons ago that I bought it.  I bought it on clearance at a local Joanne's that was going out of business.  I bought a ton of stuff really cheap that day.  SO anyway I finally got off my butt and made this NO-SEW curtain for myself.  Yeah, I could have had my mom sew it for me, but I kept forgetting the fabric and the curtain (the one in my bathroom) I was modeling it after.  No-Sew = hem tape.  YES, I made this whole curtain with hem tape, fabric, ribbon & my iron.

The curtain in the photo below is wrinkled at the bottom because I had it up and forgot I wanted a photo of it down.

On another note...
I am sooooo loving my woodwork painted.  I thought my husband was going to have a heart attack when I painted all the woodwork in the upstairs hallway.

I painted it because we..

1. added a wall (see #3), 
2. added 1/4 round (there was none because the previous owner had put carpet down & removed it) and 
3. added a new door for my daughter's room (her room was attached to mine)

After doing those things there was no way we could get all the woodwork to look right without painting it.  Shhhh...I have plans to paint the downstairs woodwork one day while he is at work.  I am NOT fond of the woodwork in this house.



Check out more DIY projects:
at A Soft Place to Land &

at Today's Creative Blog.





Don't forget to check out my snow scene tutorial & enter my giveaway, here.

Take Me Back Tuesday & Flashback Friday

Christmas Morning 1983

10 yrs old

My sister & I still have our Strawberry Shortcake Dolls.  I have not let my kids play with my old ones yet.

My mother would make my sister & I nightgowns every year (see more of what she made us here) and put them on our bed on Christmas eve. 

You can participate and/or check out other Take Me Back Tuesday posts at A Giveaway Addicted Mommy.

You can participate and/or check out other Flashback Friday posts at Christopher And Tia's blog.





Don't forget to check out my tutorial & enter my giveaway, here.

I ♥ Faces - Week 52

This week’s theme is: "Hilarious Outtakes"

When I was taking these photos...the kids acted a bit goofy between.

My friend's son looked so cute sitting there in all the paper playing with an ornament.  I grabbed my camera and he decided to get up...

This is what happens when you ask your daughter to smile.  We are in the goofy smile stage.

 

Check out more photos at i ♥ faces.

Sunday Citar

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. ~Burton Hillis

Every year we usually go to my parents house (3.5hrs away) before Christmas and stay there Christmas eve. This year we stayed home. It has just become to hard to secretly pack all of gifts (for 2 kids) in the trunk of our car. Not to mention the crazy weather we have encountered in the past driving down there. Hopefully we will have good weather to visit them later this week.


Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time. ~Laura Ingalls Wilder

We went over to our friend's house Christmas afternoon and had a fabulous time!!
So much food & laughter!


Thank you for stopping by Sunday Citar! This blog quote meme was created by Fresh Mommy. You can stop by her blog to see the quotes and photos that she and everyone else is loving right now.

Birdie's Resolution Contest

What you can win:

• A custom blog theme/template for selfhosted Wordpress or Blogger (no Wordpress.com, sorry, it’s not possible).
• With up to 15 credits in istockphoto images for the design (if you want more images, you’ll have to purchase them).
• And up to 3 revisions of the blog sketch!
• You will also get a 125 x 125 px banner for it!

Important Guidelines

• The design will include fonts that are free for commercial use (but you can choose to buy yourself a professional one, there’s some really cheap ones).
• The theme/template will include a credit link in the footer.
• The prize does not include plugin customization, or anything like that outside the theme itself. Uploading content to the blog is your responsibility.
• If you have images you want included in the design, you must own them, or have a license for them. Using images right out of Google or other places won’t be possible.

Go here to enter.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!!

I would like to thank everyone who reads my blog!! I have been blessed this year to make many bloggy friends. Have a safe & wonderful holiday!!

XOXOXO

Wordless Wednesday

On Sunday my husband's parents hosted Christmas. They always have Christmas the Sunday before Christmas. After I got the kids dressed in their pretty clothes I decided I should take some photos of them by the tree.



My favorite...

Only a few more days!! My presents are all made and wrapped. I can finally see my dining room table....the first time in a month all my clay is put away.




Don't forget to check out my tutorial & enter my giveaway, here.

Take Me Back Tuesday & Flashback Friday

December 1995
22 yrs old

My brother-in-law (best friend & co-worker at the time) & I decided we should go to our work Christmas Party dressed as Mr & Mrs Claus. We ended up chickening out though. I still have that costume. I had been dating my now husband for about 3mths when this was taken. This photo was taken in my first apartment in Buffalo. It was a 1bdrm basement apartment. Ahhh...the memories.



You can participate and/or check out other Take Me Back Tuesday posts at A Giveaway Addicted Mommy.

You can participate and/or check out other Flashback Friday posts at Christopher And Tia's blog.





Don't forget to check out my tutorial & enter my giveaway, here.

Snow Scene Tutorial & A Giveaway! {Giveaway Closed}

On Wednesday I posted photos of a prototype snow scene that I was going to make for Christmas presents this year.

Here is how I made it.

Gather your ingredients.
- foam (I reused foam I had from packaging)
- pins
- ribbon
- fray check for ribbon
- apothecary jar (the one I posted on Wed was from Hobby Lobby and the one in this tutorial is from Michaels)
- micro beans for bean bag. (I cut open a pillow I had no use for anymore. I bought the pillow at Target many years ago. I did find a bag of them at Hobby Lobby though, but free was better. I love being thrifty.)

First I made all of the polymer clay pins. (That is another tutorial for another day, sorry)
Then I cut the foam to fit the bottom of the jar. I hot glued it to the bottom so when you position the pins it doesn't lift up if you lift the pins up. Try and not have it touch the sides because you will see it, but with the size jar I am using here it touched in a couple spots...no one is going to notice but me.

Then fill around the foam with the micro beads.
Then position your pins in the foam the way you would like and add ribbon to the top of the jar. It tried adding the pins first before the micro foam and the foam stuck to the pins. Don't forget to fray check (or nail polish) the ends of the ribbon so it doesn't fray.

Wallah. You have a pretty little gift. So the possibilities are endless for this little gift. You can use colored sugar or salt instead of foam beads for a different look. I am thinking pink sugar and a cupcake cottage scene for Valentines Day...

***UPDATED - you can see the Valentine's Day one here and the Easter one here.****

Who would like a set of pins and a small baggy with some micro foam beads to make one for themselves? You are in luck, I am going to give away my prototype set of 3 pins, seen here, and a small baggy of micro beads so you can do just that. (Please note: You have to provide your own apothecary jar, ribbon, foam...and more foam beads if you are doing a larger jar)

To Enter:

• Leave me a comment below to enter telling me what your favorite item in my shop or my sold section.

Extra Entries (Please leave a comment for each item):

• Follow my blog (current followers count).
• Blog about this contest and link it back to this blog.
• Follow me on twitter and tweet about this giveaway.
• Become a fan of my shop on Facebook.
• Subscribe to my blog via e-mail or RSS.
  

Anyone can enter this contest (yep, I will ship worldwide). Please make sure you leave me an e-mail so I can contact you if you won.

The Giveaway ends Saturday, Jan 2nd at midnight EST.

Good Luck!!

Aloha Friday #9

It is Aloha Friday! In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that people take it easy and look forward to the weekend.


Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response. If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your comment below and link in Kailani’s blog. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

This weeks question is:
What size bed do you have? Do you sleep on the left or right (from the perspective of you being in the bed)?

We have a queen & I sleep on the left side of the bed. I rearranged my bedroom last weekend and my husband is trying to get me to switch sides of the bed with him. He says there is a huge light shinning through the window at him. We need to get new curtains.

The funny thing is my sister and mom both sleep on the left side, too.



I have a favor to ask of my blog readers. I entered my swirly santa ornament in the Michaels Handmade Holiday Contest. I would LOVE to win. (who wouldn't?) Would you please go here and give me 5 snowmen. No need to register...just click through and click 5 snowman (under the picture of my santa click on the last snowman). Thanks a bunch!!

Please note: You can vote once a day.



Hope you have a fabulous weekend!!

Salt Dough Ornaments

As a child I made salt dough ornaments with my mom. Last year she gave me the ornaments I made throughout the years to blog about. It is so fun to look back at how I changed over the years.


In 1984 we all made bears. If you add instant coffee to the salt dough recipe it will turn the dough brown. It also looks like the first year we added food coloring instead of painting the dough.
In 1992 I decided to make bears for everyone I worked with at Wendy's. I still have a bunch of those left.  (You can see me making these, here.)


After my niece was born (1996) I made more bears for my husband's (boyfriend at the time) family. My brother in law made me a dowel tree so I could hang them to dry after I dipped them in varnish. Ahhhhh...having to touch the drips every so often so there wasn't a drip bump on the bottom of the feet. I do not miss that part of making these ornaments. Definitely worth varnishing though so they do not mold over time.


I guess you could say I have been making sculpted ornaments since age 5.
WOW, 31 yrs!
Oh, now I feel old.


Here is a recipe for Salt Dough Ornaments:

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 cup water
(Substitute coffee for water - great for gingerbread people & bears. Add food coloring to make colored dough)

Directions:1. Mix salt and flour.
2. Add in half the water, then gradually add the remaining water.
3. Knead until the dough is smooth, this can take up to 10 minutes.

Baking: Time varies based on thickness of ornament
Temperature: 325 degrees
Time: 1 1/2 hours - or until dry

Coat with acrylic varnish when everything is dry.

Have fun!