Crafting & Creating

Thanks to Deb for inspiring me to make some of those great potholders she made! I got a few sets done for gifts but I totally cheated!! I came to the realization that there is NO way Im going to have time to crochet all the washclothes for them, so I picked up a 6 pack of good quality terry towel dishclothes and made them with those instead. I used the silver thermal liner inside to keep food warm, and used only 2 colors, quilted it & used co-ordinating ribbon loops. Not too bad for 20 minutes a pair!

I cant believe its almost December already! Time is just flying by lately. Quick Shop update:

anyone looking for a beautiful Vintage Christmas tablecloth & runner? I just updated the Etsy shop with this fantastic simple clean design one above. It fits a rectangular table & I just love it! Also the vintage crewelwork poinsettia wallhanging below (sorry for bad lighting buts its major winter here) will be up for sale over at www.glitterandgrunge.com on December 1st. Im featured under "Glitter" artists.

Working on a couple more projects, if I can get some energy, I seem to be fighting a real yucky cold. I should probably get some major Holiday baking done today...but im running out of room in my outdoor deepfreeze. I might have to get another one, mines all jam-packed with veggies from the garden that I cant get to anyways! Its -23 degrees today!!! I just run out there, lift the lid, squeal in pain, slam it down, run back in & curl up in front of the fireplace! Yikes its nippy-sunny & beautiful though!

And out this weekend- The Nativity Story!!! Yes! Im definiatly taking the kids at some point this weekend, talk about a good family movie & perfect for getting into that holiday spirit!

Vintage Inspired Holiday pocket Hearts

It snowed a ton last night! It was like waking up to a soft blanket of down, until the kids ran out to the bus stop & ran all over it all!

I decided that if I wasn't going to hit the town and do all those really important errands I better get productive. These huge wool pocket hearts are finally listed in the shop in sets of 2.
I put some little bottlebrush trees & wreaths and handmade grungy candycanes that I twisted from pipe cleaners, & then sprayed with glitter & aged them with a "aged "colord ink pad. Added a little old button, and thats it.....and since they are all red & white.......if they don't sell I will use them to decorate my house this holiday season.

I found this great Eco friendly yarn made thats made entirely from recycled fibers. I thought it would make fantastic washclothes, and become a gorgeous potholder after, like Deb's over here!

More later- must get productive

Oh yes-Do go visit Danielle over at Princess Nimble Thimble & look at some darling farm animals!! With all these creative blog ladies, who needs to shop in a store this Christmas!! Im going to Etsy to shop! ***Except for the doll. I must find a "babyalive" if anyone's heard of her you know how hard she is to find. I found her on Ebay but the prices are outrageous! All this because she poops! LOL. Thanks to Jackie who invited me to participate in a recipe swap. I made that "Easy Cheezy chicken" last night & it was fantasic...even the picky ones ate dinner!!!

~cheers~

Holiday treasures

Oh my, December is coming so fast around the corner! So I said I found a few treasures thrifting last week. This great box of vintage ornaments was only 2.00, and even in its original box!!! And this fabulous glass tree topper was only 1.00! I was so excited when I found these.

5 more fun vintage aprons, that I just listed for sale in the shop . There are actually 3 sets of 5 apron sets to choose from right now.

I really love the orange hand smocked apron with the ricrac,as well as my other fav-the avacodo green holiday apron which would be so fun to wear cooking Christmas dinner!!

And I finally finishes my circles decorative mat. I backed it with a co-ordinating fabric. So happy as I also finished 2 of those spiral scarves, in green & white. They are so easy and really addicting. I might have to make more for Christmas gifts. And I can crochet them while Im watching my favorite t.v shows while lying in bed. I realized that thats probably a major factor in that Im not getting my huge stack of books read. Oh well, theres always January for reading!

Reminding myself this week:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against all things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22-23

~cheers~

Advent Calender

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the positve feedback on my photo! Wow- you girls never cease to amaze me. You are truly so uplifting & encouraging, and trust me it took alot for me to through that photo on here! Im so appreciative to each & every one of you who left me a kind, encouraging comments . It gives me some greatly needed confidence! Im probably my worst critic anyways. So I'd love to share with you my advent calender I made last fall when I was pregnant & testing out my new sewing machine. This is a Moda panel from Art-to-Heart. Its free motion quilted in an irredesent thread by sulky.
All theseguys are the little ornaments that hang off of the button tree. They are backed in wool-felt together with heat-N-Bond, and a ribbon loop.

And here's a little close up of Santa's face and the free motion quilting. It took awhile to do the entire thing but it turned out quite nice , & I think it was worth the effort. Im not a big fan of panels but when I saw this one I just loved it! The holidays are here so Im pumped to dig in! I found some AMAZING treasures thrifting...lots of goodies to show you soon!!!

~cherish every moment~

Fun Stuff

It's about time...posting a picture of myself that is! Very scary, its so funny because I always really want to see everyone's faces soooooooo bad, because I feel like our little blogging community is so great & sharing, and generous..shall I go on? Anyways, as hard & self- consious as I am I've went for it! Inspired actually by Selena who risked it & just went for it anyways! Thanks Selena. I just dont like looking at myself otherwise I'm always critical of my flaws, or worrying about being judged. So to everyone who reads - Thank you for your kindness & great ideas over the last year, this has truly been a real portal of inspiration .

Fun stuff:

Can't wait to finish this super easy spiraling scarf free pattern found here,

Papercrafters, and moms can use these amazing paper butterflies you can print out & be crafty with here at this cute blog,

Or you could go bake some fudgey brownies with a nice recipe I found over here

or try a chocolate cherry fruitcake that sounds fabulous found over at Clarice's adorable blog,

Or if you want to get really creative you can make an amazing handmade joural- instructions here that I read Dawn made some time ago!

I hope you have a relaxing and happy Sunday on this glorious Rememberance day weekend!

More holiday blunder..

I found some fun little things at the thrift store, including this great vintage linen all hand embroidered! When I saw it I snatched it up so fast and looked around thinking someone was going to rip it out of my hands...a little to excited in my mind I suppose? I cant believe people give this stuff away! Thank goodness everyones tastes are different & we vintage lovers can still actually find great stuff out there!
Working on this oval wool circles tablemat, its almost finished & then I can decide to sell it or keep it? I just love the colors!
My favorite find is this old skating rink, with magnetic people! Loving the bottlebrush trees ,lamp posts ,and I cut them off in the picture but you can kind of see the cute little birch trees that are just made of striped paper & wire.

Must do:

***Make holiday craft "to do" list

*** Go through fridge & cupboards & make detail grocery list(hubbys coming home)

***Finish projects first that are already cut out

*** Clean out travel trailer & winterize

***Make Christmas shopping list & take inventory of already purchase stuff.

*** I would love to get in some reading time..

Im taking my son to the naturalopath today for his ADHD, and hoping to find some other way to control this without all these expensive meds. Wish me luck! Its going to be a huge challenge to convert him over & a really wild upturned household Im sure , yikes!

Tea Towel Swap

Thank you so much to everyone who left super tips on moving the photos around, I really,really appreciate it! Im hoping to figure this out today. Yeah! Today I recieved my tea Towel from my wonderful swap partner Kristin! She sent me tons more great stuff too , more pictures will be over at Flikr soon!

I just love this vintage kitchen towel with the flowers, fork & knife on it! I'm using it to line a basket of vintage cookbooks on my pantry. She even included this great old cookbook (below) that is an old southern cooking treasury, what a great color! I hope you have recieved your package, thanks again for being so generous!

I found this great vintage Christmas tablecloth the other day while out thrifting. It's just perfect for my red & white color scheme this Christmas. It's so fun to have a real change in my home this year. The last few years I have had such dark greens, and "rustic" colors & stuff because we lived in an old 1944 farmhouse, that just didn't suit and bright modern colors. So thats it . My new boring home will be bright & cheery this year ! I don't by much "new" things anyways because I like to recycle lod things, so its great fun decorating with "old" goods, making them new again. My Grama gave me these fenton ware milk glass candle holders for my birthday, Im in love with them! In the middle is my bowl of red & white ornaments I made for my tree using the scottie dog pattern from Allsorts.
The sun is beaming in the window, melting all the fresh snow. It's just fantastic, except when the sun shines so bright it shows you how much dust you actually have all over your house! Must go get some well needed dusting done!

***

Simple Ragged Garland Tutorial

Can you tell Im a Christmas addict? For all us scrap savers: I dug through some old decorations & had this handmade rag garland I made from last year when my Christmas theme was "gingerbread". My colors this year I think are white & bright red ,so new handmade garland will be needed. Im going to make more but pink, white,red & maybe blue in it. Wanna make your own? This terrific for using up great scraps. I will post my new one when I finish it!

Rag Garland:

*Just make lots of 2" strips of assorted fabrics in your choice of colors, as long as possible.

*Sew ends together to make 2 super long peices(mine was 9 meters)for a 5 foot tree.

* lay your 2 strips on top of each other and zigzag down center of entire strip.

*Snip with sharp shears side by side every 1/2 " along entire strip & up other side.

*Through in the washer & dryer until raggy and fluffed up & your done!

Let me know if anyone trys it!

On the table- I dont have a mantle:( My favorite vintage looking tall santas , they open up and are cute little containers. And all that snow in the background...just came last night! Beautiful , but the snow shovel needs to get busy. No these are not up already! Heres the 2 new shabby stockings I made from a wool blend super soft material with bow, & vintage buttons. They are going to my etsy shop soon,or maybe to someone special, not sure yet! Must go work on a special item for this great gal!

Warning*** Early Christmas Post!

Im sooooooooooo in love with Christmas!! I start decorating on November 15th & put my tree up on December 1st. I know to some that sounds crazy, but why not enjoy the festivities as long as possible! Actually I went to value village yesterday and they were playing Christmas music already!!! And I thought I was early. Im so happy because Im out on the hunt for vintage goodies to send away to some fellow swappers for the elves & vintage Christmas swap! I found some great treasures including this amazing vintage tray & snow globe:
And this folky guy is for sale in the shop:

Here's his primitive little (well big) embroidered tummy, different lenghth twiggy arms, and scarf. He is a great little guy to make multiples of for craft fairs. Oh yes, I found the most fabulous way of doing a super east quilt binding & would love to do a tutorial...but..as you know you blogger users our pictures never load in the order we put them in , its very sporatic. Hence above photos. So does anyone know a way of making sure they are in order? Cant really do any tutorials unless I figure it out!
The air is crisp, holidays are coming, kids aren't fighting , it's a great day!