So Much to Post... Too tired

The brain is full of so much to write, the camera full of photos to download. If I'm rested up and caught up enough I will post more tomorrow!

Plus I need to figure out if I'm going to do a give-away for "Rocks in my Dryer"



If I do, should I give away a tote from my shop, the handbag I made from the Vintage Handbag book, a boudoir pillow or one of my paper scrapbooks?

If you don't mind, please vote, then maybe I don't need to think anymore this week. Believe me, I'm too tired to think much more! If I'm going to do the give away, I'd like to put it up sometime tomorrow.

THANKS!

Halloween Cards!

Card Swap with Junie Moon!

Well I am super busy today and just taking a breather, so pardon me, but I'm going to use a photo from Junie Moon's blog of the card she sent me that arrived yesterday! The moon! How appropriate, don't you think? We agreed to exchange Halloween cards a while back. It was so nice to get such a gorgeous card from my sweet sweet blog friend. :-) You can also go to her blog to see the one I sent to her. I think she is a little too hard on herself for the card she sent. I love it and more than that I love that it came from her, such a special woman! It also feels nice to be referred to in an entire entry on her blog. blush...

Here's how she did it (in her words):

I printed the card front and back on my computer and enhanced with just a touch of glitter and glue from Martha Stewart. The back is all black and has a quote written in white from John Kendrick Bangs:

Bring forth the raisins and the nuts—
Tonight All-Hallows' Spectre struts
Along the moonlit way.

It's still amazing, I don't get how she got the white moon on the black paper, or did she print the black background on white paper? And if so, why doesn't it smear? It's an enigma! :-)

I don't consider myself any kind of expert in paper crafts, but I hope to improve my skills in that area. For now I'm off to sew up some witches hat table decorations from a pattern by Miss June herself!

THANKS JUNE!

Operation Christmas Child

During our garage sale this weekend, my friend who was hosting the sale gave me a pamphlet for "Operation Christmas Child" a project of the organization Samaritan's Purse. In this program boxes of gifts are sent to children around the world living in difficult circumstances. It is a way to share the Good News of God's love with hurting children.

1. What you can do is use a normal sized shoe box (which you can leave as is or wrap the lid), or you can use a small plastic box.

2. Determine if your gift will be for a boy or girl and ages 2-4, 5-9 or 10-14.

3. Fill the box with a variety of gifts for the child.

4. Include a $7 donation to help cover shipping and other costs.


Some gift ideas are:

School Supplies

Toys

Hygiene Items

Other (hard candies, mints, gum, T-shirts, socks, ball caps, sunglasses, hair clips, toy jewelry, watches, flashlights with extra batteries)

A Personal Note - You can include photos and an address in the box. The child MIGHT write back to you if you do!

If you are interested, please go to Samaritan's Purse to find out the details! I think this would be a fun opportunity to make some handmade items for a cause! (toys, knit washcloths, jewelry, clothes or embellished clothes...)

So please, if it is in your heart, take a look and take action or at least pray for these children...

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14, NIV

(A) Blog(s) You Might Want to Follow...

I have a friend named Faith who I met through another friend Christine who frequently invited both of us (and others) to her house for play dates, lunch and conversations of new mommies. Faith has two boys, Brennan and Ryan, and one new baby girl, Kathryn. I've never met her daughter though, she is only 7 months old. In the midst of getting to know her and her boys and her husband Nate, they announced that God was calling them to do His work in Spain. They're plan was to start a Hostel and maybe a cafe for those traveling through the area and to spread God's word to those who may not know Him. They have recently arrived in La Coruña, Spain and are currently acclimating to the customs and language. Their church building in La Coruña was shut down by the police and they were forced to evacuate. It seems people in Spain are quite nervous around these "new" churches. Now they are holding their services outside of the building. It seems that God has something marvelous in store. But you must read her blog in order to find out. What is even better is that her husband is keeping a blog as well, so you can find out more about what is going on with them and see different perspectives.

So I give to you Faith's Blog, and Nate's Blog. Enjoy reading about their journey and God's work in their lives and in the lives of others!

3 Cute Things Ella Said This Weekend

1. After being watched by Grandma and Grandpa for two days while mom worked at a garage sale she said, when I got home, "Mommy, Grandma gives me things even when I don't say 'please'."

2. After waking up from a nap and jumping around she told her dad she was happy. When he asked why she said "because you love me."

3. During a discussion about when her birthday is in relation to other holidays, she "discovered" that Christmas is right after it and said with stars twinkling in her eyes "So, I get presents twice!"

Pure Joy

It has become a yearly tradition to "throw" the kids into a pile of leaves in the fall. Without fail, they always end up with smiles on their faces and lots of giggles and belly laughs fill the air. Today turned out to be the day and this year no throwing was necessary. The kids were ready to jump in on their own.

To see the genuine joyous smiles on your children's faces is enough to make all your troubles melt away if only for a few minutes. Today was no exception. That ear to ear grin on Miles' face can only be described by a photo, or perhaps if you were to hear his laughter, you could imagine it. I wonder if this is the first year he actually understands how much fun he is having at leaf pile time.

I'm sure Ella remembers at least back to last year. She has an amazing memory! Regardless, it is clear she had a wonderful time today.

You can be sure each moment watching the children is treasured. I am so thankful we can capture some elements of these moments on camera. I am constantly thinking this is the last time they'll be this age. Soak it in.

May you also have your own amazing fall moments!

Poorly Made Hole Punch

It is what is holding up me finishing my little scrapbooks for Ella's party and the extra I was going to try to sell on Etsy, or give as gifts. This crazy little thing just fell apart. Looks like a piece is missing now, or something came unsodered. In desperation, I went on a hunt for the hole punch I knew I had somewhere. I re-looking in places I've already looked and finally found them in a place I hadn't looked yet. Phew... I don't like being on a role and then having to stop. So I'd better get back to it!

On a side note, Ella's been sick with a fever, sore throat and stomach ache. I hope she feels better soon.

This weekend I am also doing a garage sale with some friend and have been super busy labeling and organizing things to sell. I'm just so tickled with how uncluttered the storage area of our basement is that I said to hubby, anything we don't sell, let's just give away to charity. Also I think we should offer whatever is left at half of on Saturday. Should be fun!

Back to crafting...

Goodies in the Mail!

Today I received a package from my Sweet Goodness Holiday Swap Sister Andrea! YAY!!!!!!

In the package was a cute handmade card with a sweet note, two animal print decorative scotch tape rolls (leopard AND zebra!), a jack-o-lantern print chinese takeout box filled with a bag of Halloween M&Ms, another bag of jack-o-lantern Lindor chocolates (these are yummy - never had them), a cute tin filled with hair clips and a Halloween bracelet for my daughter which says "BOO", and a wrapped box... what can it be?? (see my next photo for what's inside the box and a close-up of the other handmade goodies!) BTW, the apples were not from the package. :-)

In the box (see other photo) was a darling Halloween bracelet for me! It has black, orange, green and purple beads and silver embellishments and a dangley glass pumpkin hanging near the clasp. Also you can see a closer view of the bracelet Andrea made for my daughter and the hair clips for her too! Notice the black and orange clips, she's all set for Halloween!

THANK-YOU ANDREA!

Bandanna Bag (with Portable Feltboard)

The woman who runs the music class that I have had both kids in since birth, asked if I could make some bags to hold the kits they put together to sell. I was looking into a mesh bag order for her, but they had to get the bags right away and just got lingerie bags. To be honest I actually found that it would be cheaper to order them from the place I order the mesh fabric than for me to make them, so I will pass that info on to them.

Now they are looking for fun but inexpensive bags for their January kits. One idea was to somehow incorporate a mini felt board into the bag for the felts that go with the book. So this is what I came up with.



The felt on the front unfolds and looks like this:

Note, the material for the bag is from a bandanna I bought at a craft store. You could make two bags (approx 10"x10") this size from one bandanna. Since the bandanna is pre-finished on four side, you can just cut it in half, fold it up and sew on each side. The top is finished, so no more sewing is necessary there. The felt is cheap but the strap is 99 cents a yard. I use just under a yard for both handles. I could make straps from fabric, but I had to choose between labor cost and material cost. Plus these handles are really really sturdy for kids.

The closure not only closes the bag to keep the contents secure, it also keeps the folded up felt in place. The way the felt is sewn, you can use the space behind it for storage for perhaps the felts.

I hope they like them! I don't feel like making another prototype right now, I have to go price items for a garage sale this weekend!

Food Drive Results

I forgot to take a picture of the loaded CRV, but I was so moved by the number of people who gave food and personal items for the food drive I did throughout my street. We passed out 50 bags and got back 24! That a pretty good turnout! I brought all the bags over to the church (drop off point) and all the volunteers there were so excited to get such a big load. I tried to use this as a learning opportunity for the kids. I would like to continue doing little things like this so it just becomes second nature to the kids!

YAY!

Somethings Missing

It's been strangely quiet around our town lately. It is a little spooky, like something has been deleted from our environment.

What is it?

It is the trains. Grayslake has a few train lines running through it close to residential areas. I don't know the details, but they have been working on getting laws passed to silenced the train horns at crossings in town. I now see "no horn" signs up at the crossings. The mandate must have gone through.

It is weird. I'd think I'd be excited. I used to hate it. But now I feel a little sad. At least we still have the trains. The kids love them and I have learned a little about the different types of cars through their books. When we used to hear the horn the kids would perk up and inform me there was a train going through.

Well, I guess I could get used to it. I will probably sleep better.

Cute Creations by Surprise!

I am thinking ahead to my daughter's birthday party in December. I wanted to have a scrapbooking party (which she is excited about) and she wants a Hello Kitty theme. I bought the Hello Kitty party supplies yesterday when she was at pre-school. I really didn't want to deal with all the "But I really really want that" stuff.

I was pondering how I would do the scrapbook portion. I didn't really think it would be fair to just provide some random sized pages and let everyone go out and buy their own book, but all the options added up to quite an expense as far as buying books for everyone. Even small ones. So I decided to try my hand at making some.




Wow, I think they are cute. I still need to get a normal hole punch to finish the rest (we only have a star shaped hole punch for some reason). But I am really pleased. I have more than enough of the double sided card stock which I used for the covers. I wonder if these would sell on Etsy? I think $5 would be reasonable?

I just bought a pad (36 papers) of 12x12 double sided Designer cardstock papers for the covers and 2 packs (25 papers per pack) of 12x12 white cardstock. Maybe I'll do a tutorial here on how to make them later.



Too bad they don't quite match the Hello Kitty theme. Since this will be a coed party, I made sure there were a couple masculine looking books in there.

Which one is your favorite?

Handbag done a while back, just posting a pic!

I finished this handbag and purse a few weeks ago but just got around to posting a pic. This is from the Making Vintage Bags book by Emma Brennan. The zipper on the pouch purse is terrible, so it really can't be used. The handbag could be used though.

Cute Little Girl Clothes

If you or anyone you know are looking for girls clothes sizes 12 month - 2T, I have some up on EBay! I hope to add more soon. Look here for what I've got:

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZsparkling_twirler

Ella's FIRST Haircut!

Hair's all wet and ready to go.

A little off the front.

Looking good so far.

A little off the back.

Blowing it dry.

How do I look?

The result (the main part anyway).

Ella's hair is certainly not long (yet), but it was getting quite scraggly. I think what tipped me over the edge to do something about it was a question to me "Did she cut her own hair?" Accompanied by a not so pleasant look.

So we did it. (Miles got his cut too and interestingly his took about 3 times as long). It was about his 5th cut.

Sick, but still yearning to learn

I've been sick for several days now. It was challenging over the weekend as hubby was away on a camp trip and I was home sick with two little ones. Now they are both sick. Anyway, amongst the chaos this weekend I got to watch a girl movie "Georgia Rule". Not sure if I liked it or not. It was a dark movie. But sometimes we have to face those not so fun issues. I also got the itch to learn to knit. I don't know what is up with me lately but I seem to jump around to different crafts wanting to learn new techniques. This is from a "Learn to Knit" kit that my mom got me as a gift a couple of years ago. So I can cast on and knit as you can see. I've also practiced pearl(ing) and knitting off. It will be interesting when I get to the part of this scarf where I have to alternate knitting and pearling. I'm not sure I can keep track!

For now I need to go take care of my kiddos. I'm going to give them baths. That always makes me feel a little better when I'm sick.

Sweet Goodness Holiday Sister Swap - Part 1 SENT

I am excited and nervous as I have sent out the first of 3 packages out for this swap.

This package is suppose to include one hand made item with a Halloween theme (Halloween cone with treats inside, a trick or treat bag for your swap sister's kids, Halloween ATC, Halloween potholders, fall pincushion, note cards, a home decoration, etc.) and some sweet treats.

The funny thing is, I already have most of the 2nd package finished!

This should be a Tags & Swags Swap package! Tags could be any kind of holiday gift tags hand made by you for your sister to use in her holiday gift giving. And swags, why a banner of course! Make a banner/garland for your sister for Thanksgiving or one of the December holidays (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc.) to display in their home and show their holiday spirit.

I am so excited about my swag!!!! I was excited about the tags too, but I finished most of those (and those I haven't are more of the same of what I started) so they are "old news" to me. Plus the swag. I just think it is really neat and I think my swap sister will love it. I can't want to post photos after she receives it all!

I have looked at some other swaps thanks to Junie pointing me over to SwapDex. But I feel like most are out of my league. I guess I shouldn't think like that. I never backed down to a challenge when I was working. I guess for now I'll focus on this one (unless I find one that is irresistible) and take on another next year.

Either tonight or tomorrow I will be going out with the kids to put grocery bags on doors to collect food and personal items for "Sharefest 2007". I'm a little nervous, I hope none of the neighbors give me a hard time. Luckily I don't have to ring doorbells, there is a note on the bag and I will go around next weekend to pick up filled bags from folks who have chosen to participate.

Recipe

Sorry I didn't include the recipe. I've been sick and didn't feel like transcribing it at the time.


Lemon on Lemon Shortbread Cookies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons finely shredded lemon peel
1/2 cup butter
Lemon Icing (recipe follows)
Coarse decorating sugar (optional)

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, sugar and lemon. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs and starts to cling. Knead gently until dough forms a ball.
2. On an ungreased cookie sheet, pat dough into an 8-inch circle. Make a scalloped edge. Cut into 16 wedges. Leave wedges in circle (do not separate).
3. Bake in a 325 F oven about 25 minutes, or until edges start to brown and center is set. Recut circle into wedges while warm. Cool on cookie sheet 5 minutes. Remove and cool on wire rack.
4. Make lemon icing; drizzle over wedges. Sprinkle with coarse sugar, if you like. Makes 16.
Lemon Icing: In a small bowl, combine 1 cup of powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon lemon juice. Stir in additional lemon juice, 1 teaspoon at a time, until icing reaches a drizzling consistency.

From Midwest Living October 2007

Lemony Sunshine

Yesterday was a dreary day, not to mention I felt sick (still do). We had company coming over that night and I had to make some goodies. So I found a recipe for Lemon on Lemon Shortbread Cookies in the Sept/Oct issue of Midwest Living magazine. What really makes it is the lemon juice filled glaze. We are dieting, but I tasted a small piece from a broken one and it was DELICIOUS! They have several other yummy looking cookie recipes in this issue too.



No, I do not own a pastry blender.



Not sure why they have you make scallops, but they look pretty before you cut up the dough into wedges.



The presentation. I finally get to use this platter.



Baking makes for a happy kitchen.

Little People Parade

Sometimes I find the funniest things.

"Fall" Fun

We went to an Apple Orchard/Pumpkin Patch/Kids Fall Fun place called "Apple Holler" in Wisconsin on Saturday. It was HOT HOT HOT! Didn't feel like fall at all. But the kids still had fun. I think we may try a different place next time though.

"Nature Walk"

During a nice day last week I took the kids on a nature walk. This was basically walking around the yard and down a few houses to pick up leaves. Later we did some leaf rubbings.

Jason and the Chicago Marathon

For the last two years, Jason participated in the Chicago Marathon. Behind the participating is a whole lot of training. This year he agreed to give ME (yes me) a break and not do the marathon. It is really hard not having your husband around much of the time, for many different reasons. The last two years were especially hard due to the ages of the children. Anyway, he decided to volunteer at a water station during this year's marathon and his dad agreed to do this with him at the last minute.

It is a rush just to watch the marathon and I have done so twice (once when his brother ran). I did not go the year I was still nursing Miles. Last year I went and I FROZE my rear off!

As you may or may not know, the marathon was canceled for the first time in its 30 year history. Runners who had not reached the halfway point by 11:45 a.m. were rerouted towards Grant Park. This was due to the unusually HOT temps (88 F) and dangers of continuing. 35,867 people participated and 24,933 completed the race. At least 302 people were hospitalized with heat related ailments and unfortunately one man, Chad Schieber, a 35-year-old Michigan police officer died from mitral valve prolapse.

Jason took a ton of photos and if you are interested, you can view the best of the crop here.

Quick, Look!

My red toile bag on Etsy is featured in a Treasury! It expires tonight, so look fast!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=10254

It is in the last row in the middle column.

Diaper Bag Gifts - Finally!

I attended two showers this weekend and made diaper bags from the Craft Apple pattern for each new mom. Both were well received and stirred some interest in my sewing talents. So now that they have been seen by the recipients and I'm not planning on making another for a while, I have decided it is safe to post them.




I added a key/pacifier fob to each bag.