Because I Said

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-30T22:48:17-08:00

Just wanted to take a few minutes to wish you all a wonderful New Year! I missed out on wishing you a Merry Christmas. Sadly I got sick on Christmas Eve. It hung around until yesterday. Today is the best I've felt since I got sick. With the chest cold and just not feeling good it just took forever to feel back to normal...whatever normal is! So now I'm catching up on things around the house and for the business for this New Year.

I took some time right before Christmas and got my kids together for a few photos. Glad I took the time it was fun spending time with them and watching them from behind the camera. It's still hard for me to believe yet another year has come and gone and that my kiddos are just getting bigger and older.

I think the thing I'm struggling most with lately is that my oldest is a Senior. I had such a hard time during football season knowing he wouldn't be playing again in HIgh School. Aaack does that mean I'm getting older or am I still twenty something?! I am grateful though that he is growing up to be a wonderful young man. He carries many traits that I need to work harder on having! This is definitely a time of year for reflection and remembering! We have had many ups this year as well as downs!

My oldest daughter has had her fair share of the downs! She sure has been a trooper through everything and she amazes me with what she's been through. I guess what we get through makes us stronger. She has been a huge example to me in her trials this year. I've also seen her grow and enjoy her friends and fun times in her first year of High School. This 2nd semester should be interesting since her and her brother will share one of their classes together.

And my last one is this little miss who keeps us on our toes! I never know what she's going to do or say! Kind of like in this photo. I didn't know I was getting this expression until I loaded the photos. Fits perfect with the sign next to her. Just today in the car Kels was listing all the things that she thought she could do when she graduates. Aliya said to her, "Kelsey do what you have passion for. If you have passion you will be happy. My passion is dance" I just love our little chats we have she has so much insight into so many things for her age. Love these kids and my hubby and family for everything we've been through this past year, good and bad! Wouldn't change a thing! Looking forward to another new year!

Also wanted to just say thanks to all of you that have supported me. Following my blog, my etsy, and my Facebook! I love what I do and am so happy to be able to share it with others. I appreciate your support, your friendships, and your business! It's been so much fun getting to know so many new people and continuing with the wonderful friendships that I've made through my blog. Can't wait to see what this next year has in store for us! Be safe and enjoy your holidays!

Oh quickly I wanted to let you know that the flower in Aliya's hair just happens to be the same flower I made in this tutorial. She was needing something so I just hot glued it onto a clip and added it to her hair. She loved it!

Easy Family Activity

2009-12-19T20:47:19-08:00

So one night last week as a family we watched Christmas movies and made snowflakes. My older kids enjoyed doing this when they were younger so I thought it would be fun to show my 6 year old how. Well it ended up that my two teens had just as much fun. I have to say that I think my son is the king of snowflake cutting! Sure he doesn't like hearing that, but his all turned out gorgeous!

These snowflakes are fun to make. All you need is a package of coffee filters and a pair of scissors. I'm not a coffee drinker so I had to pick some up while I was at the store, but they were only about $1. So it's a very inexpensive project.

All you do is fold the filters in half and in half again, and then one more time. Sometimes I will even fold them again. Then you cut out the little shapes. The coffee filters give you the cute round snowflakes! To get the neat shapes on the outer edge of the snowflake you just cut an interesting shape from about the middle of the filter to the outer edge. Hope this makes some sense. Play with them and have fun!

After all the snowflakes were done I ironed them flat. Yep I ironed them. Just with a medium hot iron to get out the creases on the filters. I wanted them to hang flat. After they were ironed I took them to the sewing machine and just stitched right over them. I stitched across 1 snowflake at a time and didn't cut the thread and continued onto the next snowflake. I did strands of 3 and 5. I guess depending on how tall your ceiling is you could make them longer. Or you could even stitch them all together and make a garland with them. (I did snip off the strings from the bottom after I took the photos.) Aliya wanted them hanging under the walkway to our kitchen.

Enjoy!

Tweaking a Tradition

2009-12-19T13:39:52-08:00

So every year for Christmas we buy the kids a book to read. Well sometimes I choose the right one and sometimes I don't! So this year we thought it would be fun to go to the church book store as a family and let the kids pick their book for themselves!

I have to say that in watching my kiddos browse the shelves and pick a book I could definitely see their personalities shining through!

Kameron my oldest had his book picked out within the first 5 minutes of being in the store! This is so true to his character! You have a job get it done the quickest way possible! And then he picked this book by Glenn Beck. I was kind of surprised at first, but as I thought about it, it seemed fitting for him and not a book I would have bought him for Christmas. He was glad to be going on a road trip and have something to keep him occupied!

Now Kelsey walked into the book store and the first book she picked up was a cook book. She turned and asked if it was okay for her to get it. I told her you can get any book you want. Well she continued to browse all books possible and took the longest to decide on her book. In fact she had to have input from all of us to help her decide. She finally decided on this novel. Now she left hers home...I think by accident. So if I have some spare time I might have to fit in some reading!

This is the book that Aliya decided upon. It was actually the first book she picked up. She new that she wanted a book with animals in it. Of course even though she had this one first she had to scour all the books with animals to make sure she was picking just the right one! She's been flipping through it non-stop and she read from it for me this morning.

It was so much fun watching the kids pick out books that they thought they would enjoy. The were also all adamant that my hubby and I each picked out something. My hubby went for a cd though. We listened to it on the way home. I on the other hand went for this.

I was in the mood for an inspirational kind of book. I'll let you know how it is! We ended the night with frozen yogurt and lots of chatting about the books on the way home.

I love family traditions and am looking forward to the others we do for Christmas!

Gingerbread Houses and Mini Tutorial

2009-12-17T10:39:37-08:00

So last month I asked the design team ladies if they had any young family members that would be interested in being an honorary member. I sent them each an extra gingerbread house for them to play with and had Aliya do one here as well. It was so fun to see what these kids came up with.

This cute house was made by Jenny's niece. Her name is Katharine and she's in 3rd grade. She lives in Pennsylvania. When she took the photo it had just snowed and you can see it in the background. I love how she used the windows for a little step for the door. Thanks Katharine! This turned out darling!

This wonderful pink house was done by Sierra. Sierra is the daughter of Melissa Phillips. Melissa said it's made up of all the things that Sierra loves. What a fun way to spend time with your kiddos! Thank you so much Sierra for making this cute house!

This gingerbread house was done by my daughter Aliya. She's 6 and loves to create. She has her own work space in the room and is often found going through my stash of stuff. So when I asked her if she would do this for me she was super excited and so I took her sopping for a few small things. Of course she had her own ideas of what she wanted! The little icicle's were found at Hobby Lobby in the miniature section. Not sure what they are meant for. Aliya had planned on using them for lollipops until she came up with another idea. Of course she wanted to add all kinds of things to her house. I mentioned to her that I didn't think we could glue all these things onto her house and where was she going to put them. She told me it was okay that I could just cut her a piece of wood to glue her house onto. So that's just what I did. We added some spackle to the base and glitter on top of that for the snow. She also wanted a walk way that she made with beads.

The mini tutorial is for the mini lollipops she made. I thought they turned out so cute and it was all her idea. I took some toothpicks and cut them in half and hot glued pom pomsonto the ends. Aliya then painted glue onto the pom poms and then dipped them in glitter. They turned out so cute and she had fun making them. She's informed me that she's not finished adding stuff. So it's a work in progress.

I hope you've enjoyed the projects by these honorary design team members! What talented girls they are!

Altered Flower Tutorial

2009-12-12T11:01:28-08:00

I've been wanting to add some different flowers to the Christmas tree this year. The tree isn't finished, but I was in the mood to play with these flowers finally and thought I would share it with you.

This is what I came up with. I really like how this one turned out and can't wait to finish the others. In doing this flower I wanted to see if I could take a very inexpensive flower and turn it into something pretty enough to use. So I was at the local $ store. Most of them around here are called the Dollar Tree.

I found these garlands and decided to give them a try. Their were 6 flowers on each garland for only $1. So I grabbed a few garlands and a package of the precut round tulle circles. I found the tulle circles in the wedding section. I believe there are 15 to a packag and they come in white.

I decided to dye the flowers and the tulle. To do this I added coffee and a bit of pink rit dye to my pot of water. Heat the water on the stove and let it get hot. To dye the flowers I just dropped them in the water and let them sit for a minute or so. The longer you let them stay in the darker they become. I then pulled them out and set them onto an old towel to dry. The tulle circles I just split the package into thirds and folded them up and using tongs I dunked them into the dye and pulled them right back out.

This is what the flowers looked like after they were dry. As they were drying I fluffed them a bit with my fingers. You can either use them like this or continue on.

Next I took one of the flowers and pulled it apart. They come apart very easy. I don't save the stuff that keeps them together. I just toss it.

It's hard to see in this photo, but I took some brown ink and stamped onto the petals with one of my background stamps. I then took the tulle and cut it in half to use as layers between the petals. I also tore the edges of it a bit. Just gathering it a bit with my fingers and layering it between the layers of petals. I also layered some vintage lace as well. You can layer whatever you like with the petals. I did this between each layer of petals and then used my trusty stapler to secure them all together. If you want them a bit more sparkly it would be fun to glitter the edges of the petals as well. After the flower was secure I just hot glued a vintage button to the center of it. Of course there are many different things you could put in the center of the flower to personalize it! Onto the back of the flower I glued a clothes pin. This makes it nice and easy to put onto the branch of the Christmas tree.

This is a closer look of the stamping and layering of the flower. These flowers would look beautiful on top of a package as well. I hope that you are enjoying your holidays and taking time to spend it with family and friends!

Hoping to share another quick tutorial tomorrow with you from my 6 year old. She came up with a cute idea for her gingerbread house that I will also be sharing.

Ornaments!!!

2009-12-10T08:52:34-08:00

Oh I love handmade ornaments! There is just something about them that makes me happy! If I had the time I think I would make a new set of them every year for my tree! I do have some wood shapes though that make cute ornaments.

This is one of my new angel ornaments. Her name is Amanda. I've been wanting to play with one and create something. I have a few ideas running through my head, but in the meantime I have inspiration for you from Jenny Morgan.

Didn't she turn out so cute?! I love how Jenny took a Charlotte face image and used it on the angel head. The stitching and lace add wonderful texture to this. These are already up in my Etsy shop for sale.

The next ornament I have in my shop is this cute little gingerbread man. Of course it could just as easily be made in to a Mrs. by adding a little skirt.

This sample was done by Melissa Phillips. Isn't he so cute?! Well I guess it could be a she with the cute little lace on her legs.

Love the candy cane and the little touches of glitter to this ornament as well!

The other ornament I wanted to share with you is yet another angel. She's a sister to the one I did in November just done on a much smaller scale.

I sent this ornament to Samantha Sibbet.

Samantha made these ornaments for her daughters. I love how they turned out! What a fun ornament to pull out every year or to give as a gift.

All the wood pieces for these are currently in the shop. I'm hoping to add others this weekend. I will also be showing you more inspiration on the gingerbread houses. Have a wonderful day!

More Design Team Projects

2009-12-09T21:39:39-08:00

Just wanted to take a few minutes again to share some more projects the design team did. Cute projects. Fun projects that will hopefully inspire you!

I sent this trio of stars to Samantha and she did such a wonderful job with them!

What a fun item to display on a shelf, table, or desk somewhere!

I have a set of these stars set off to the side waiting to be done up for our shelf! Hoping to get to them soon. Thanks for the inspiration Sam! I will be sharing some ornaments tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Projects

2009-12-09T08:17:01-08:00

Gosh I just checked and it's been a month since I last posted on my blog! Yikes! I think I post little snippets on my Facebook and then forget to take time to blog in the mean time! I need to work on that this coming up year! For now though I have some really cute projects to share with you from the design team! Every time I open up my emails and see a new one I'm so excited at what they've created!

When I was getting ready to send out stuff to the ladies I had a thought that it might be fun to come up with a little gingerbread house. What a fun project to do as a family or for your kids. This way when they are done with it you can add their name and year on the back and pull it out every year instead of tossing it. I know my kiddos love decorating the gingerbread houses, but I thought this might be a fun alternative.

I checked with the ladies and they thought it would be fun doing one and then also their kids or family members. So I will also be posting images of our honorary design team members! This one above is from Melissa Phillips.

I love how she layered the roof on the front of the house! What a fun look. Also loving the glitter and stitching she added!

How cute would this be sitting on a shelf or desk somewhere?!

This cute house was done by Samantha Sibbet. I love to see the different takes on the same piece. Love how Samantha just used 1 window and added the cute bow to the front!

Love the bells added here along with the glitter. You can't have too much glitter on fun projects like this. This project is a good way to use up some of your scraps that you might have left over as well! I know we all have them! You can purchase the gingerbread kits in my Etsy shop. If you need several you can email me or send me a convo through Etsy. The shipping will all be combined as well!

I will be uploading more projects the ladies did in a separate post as well as our honorary design team members take on the gingerbread house!

Thanks for Being Patient!

2009-11-03T12:04:51-08:00

Just wanted to pop in real quick and let you know I started loading my Etsy shop yesterday. I took some time to play and be with my family over the weekend so I'm a bit behind! Also working on a few deadlines so I will continue to add stuff on a daily basis! My plan is to add some more mini shapes later along with the large wood pumpkins and angels. If I have time I will add more if not it will go in tomorrow night.

Here are some photos of a few of the things I've added.

If you've shopped from me before you know I have a LOVE for trims and if they are vintage then it's even better! This is my current favorite trim card.

I love the fall colors and these are some fun trims! All 3 of these are vintage trims I found recently on one of my outings.

Yep more trims! The middle one is so cute with the tiny little flowers and would add the perfect touch to anything girlie and dainty!

I have a variety of mini shapes and will be adding some new ones today. Have some fall leaves, another pumpkin, and acorn, and a mushroom. Love how things look so cute when they are miniaturized!

Again with my vintage obsession I have put together 3 new mini embellishment packs. All 3 of them have a vintage label along with a few other goodies to use. This is just one of them.

Thanks for stopping in and I will be adding more later on today!

More Fall Projects!

2009-10-30T21:02:43-07:00

So I'm going to share with you the last 2 projects that the DT did for the fall. Both of these projects are wonderful and I'm hoping you enjoy them as much as I have!

This first project was done by Jenny Morgan. I supplied Jenny with the wood background shape and the wood leaf that sits on top. When I saw this I knew this would go on my list of things to do! I not only love the way she did this piece, but the whole concept behind the project!

Jenny made this board so that it can be used every year. Her thought behind it was to hang tags of things she is thankful for. She mentioned that it would be a fun idea to use and do as a family. Each member could make their own tag each year of what they are thankful for and then have the tags hang during the season. If each person wanted to make more then one tag you could put them onto rings to hang on the sign. You could even leave this out all year round to be a constant reminder! Collecting the tags at the end of the season and making a small tag album would also be a fun project as well!

It's always good to remember what we are thankful for and I know as a mom it's fun to see what your kids put down as their blessings!

This sweet project was done by Melissa Phillips. I love Melissa's shabby style that she adds to all her creations! The style goes wonderful with this hanging angel! When I was pulling things together to send the DT I already knew each of there unique styles! I love them all and adore how each one is different yet wonderful! I had the wood shapes all picked out for the 3 of them and then had something come up that I had to mail out Melissa's a bit later then planned. Well then I had an idea to make up this new pattern, because I thought it would be wonderful with her style.

I had asked Melissa to create her in a fall theme, but I can also picture her done up so sweetly for a little girls room as well! The precious collar and headband seem to add just the perfect touches.

While I was making up this new pattern I was on a roll and made another angel that you will see soon as well. For some reason the angels have just touched me this year so I think I will be adding a few more to the new shapes. I'm imagining ornaments and fun little mini ones I think!

Enjoy these wonderful pieces and check back tomorrow as I will be updating my Etsy site starting tomorrow and the next several days to follow. Hoping you will find something in there that will inspire you to create for this wonderful upcoming holiday season!