Day Eighteen - Party Favors

 It's almost time for my doll club to meet again and this month we're having a Christmas party complete with luncheon fun, good friends, hot coffee, dessert sweetness, holiday dolls, a gift swap, and party favors! Could be up to twenty in attendance this year so that means each of us might have a windfall of twenty surprises at our place setting....yippee!!!
On the other hand that also means I need to get busy!

 Now making up twenty favor goodies could be a bit stressful in the midst of the all the other holiday preparations going on but I had a secret weapon by the name of Susan Branch. She posted this great tutorial last year for a holiday banner which I thought was just the cutest.
Oh...and ever so easy too!!!
 

I added some red backing and a wee jingle bell but other than that

stuck to her delightful "you can do it" directions.

You should try one too! 

 

All that's left now is to tuck them in some nifty gifty envelopes and I'm good to go...

 



Junk Drawer

 Remember last year when I posted here nearly everyday? How in the world did I do that? I wonder and wish at the same time it could be so again. But alas, life seems to have dumped the junk drawer out on my lap. So what's to do but dig in and sort the minutiae piece by piece.

 

 The good news is, bit by bit tasks are being accomplished, meetings attended, appointments met, papers signed, funds dished out, and teenage drama subdued (fingers crossed on this one!)

Getting your ducks in a row can certainly be time consuming but also.....

 

 .....very rewarding. Once the big picture starts to reveal itself the light at the end of the tunnel begins to flicker.

 

 Currently I'm pinning down the final details...

 

 ...sending things off to appropriate recipients...

 

....and all the while keeping my fingers crossed that the "junk drawer" stays tidy long enough to get my hands really dirty with some serious crafting again!!!

  

Made a Production Line

With slightly more than 24 hours to go we are down to the wire which means Christmas has become very serious business all through the house! I've got two sewing machines humming.....one for paper wrapping such as you see above and one for fabric projects all of which are currently top secret. Dear hubby is in his cubby doing his art thing. Good thing it's a hop, skip, and a jump from the kitchen since he's also got a pot or two simmering away on the stove. Teen #1 and Teen #2 have both secreted themselves away to start wrapping their goodies which actually does not seem too out of the ordinary since, being teens, they spend a good majority of their time distancing themselves from us anyway. And last but not least our very own elf (aka child #3) collapsed on the couch several hours ago from the shear exhaustion of being excited.

 

I'm not exactly sure how the next 24 hours will play out but if I don't pop in tomorrow I've either sewn myself into a package or collapsed on the couch next to that little elf. Regardless of the scenario please know that I wish you all the merriest of holidays....

ENJOY!!!!

Made A Lie

 The sun did peek out enough to get some pictures taken, I did finish up the scallop work, and I did prepare a tutorial of sorts on how to make them but I'm afraid I lied when I promise to reveal all today. Granted, I didn't know I was lying when I said it. In fact I was totally ignorant in regards to the amount of kid taxi driving I had in store for me. Plus I forgot I had a meeting at the school tonight. All of which made time fly by and me too tired for scallops.

 Zig zags on the other hand I do believe I can handle as they are fairly zippy both to make and discuss. Complements of my pinking shears the zig zags are in fact nothing more than a decorative edge given to this gift tag concoction of mine you see above.

 

 So much fun were they that I made up a whole batch of the little gingham gift givers.

 

 They really weren't much of a craetive revolution. In fact, they're almost identical to some nametags I once made up only instead of sewing a pin backing to the underside I punched a hole along the edge and looped a string through it to hang them by.

 

Plan is to sell them as four tags sets...but not tonight...

Be back tomorrow!!!
 



Made it Brighter

It's been raining here.....raining a lot....raining all week long in fact. And I'm finding this misty, damp, dim world does nothing for my motivation. Still chugging away at the bedroom and now the nook as well, I'm finding little satisfaction with the results due to the fact that everything just seem so blah. The return of the sun will I'm sure do wonders but I'm also feeling the itch to paint...and not lilies or buttons mind you but walls. I went so far as to pick up some paint swatches along the lines of lighter and brighter. Names like "Summer Sonnet," "Beachside," "Linen," and White Cliffs" are extremely tempting but realistically I need to clean house (aka declutter and simplify) first and redecorate later.

In the meantime I found a way to brighten up my afternoon at least. It started with some happy strips of scrap booking paper and a hole punch.

Add to that a bit of brainstorming with a sharpie and before long I had a rainbow of crafty wishes.

Luckily a book ring was handy so all thirty-five wishes were easily rounded up....

.....and dangled from the nook's new bulletin board!

Why thirty-five you may ask? That's how many Sundays are left before the end of the year and since the Lily Tutorial is complete I thought it might be fun to have something else to look forward to on a weekly basis. Stay tuned for the reveal of crafty wish number one!

  

Made a Bowl of Memories

While putting away a pile of Mollie Makes magazines today (yes I am STILL working on cleaning up our room) I got a bit side tracked and started browsing through all the pages I'd previously bookmarked with sticky notes (which explains WHY I'm still working on the room!)

Anyway.....I was reminded of this great little project by Ashley Ann Campbell which can be found over at design Design Sponge. It's a rotating journal that accumulates day-specific memories over the years. The supplies were  pretty basic and so I thought it might be fun to make one up for my new desk which, arguably, could be considered working on the room.

My favorite part of the project was stamping the date on each of the index cards. I felt just like an old fashioned librarian which is what I  wanted to be when I grew up.....well that or a nurse or an oceanographer, but only one that stayed on land since I'm not too fond of the water.

The one thing I couldn't bear to do was to cut down the postcards so I kept them in their original state and think it works just as well. Finally, in place of the fruit box I substituted this old bowl.....I'd always thought it to be beautiful but now it has a use as well. Am thinking William Morris would be quite proud of me!



Made Some Bling

It's party time!

For a Tea Party that is! Yes it's time for the second annual literary doll tea party hosted by the Nellie W. Perkins Doll and Miniature Society. Last year I was lucky enough to attend the first one which was in celebration of Hitty. This year the fabulous Fancy Nancy is the featuered doll/book and I was lucky enough to put my hands to work at some name tags for the attendees. Yippee.....time to pull out a bit of razzle dazzle from the days of my own wee girlie's fascination with all things pink, purple, and sparkly. As of now I've got 1 down.....

.....and 14 more to go!