Back in the groove

First a nod to holiday decorating. In the slow process of unpacking my Christmas stuff this felt banner is my favorite thing I've found so far from last year's crafting. I think I made a similar one as a gift for my mom as well so hopefully she can find hers too. Really simple but so fun for the wall.



Making my mailbox happy:

My order from Giao's Walrus & The Carpenter site - she's so sweet and her cards are so awesome!


I can't resist adding to the general craftworld gushing about Hillary's fab card set. They are gorgeous in person! I am using one as a bookmark so that I can admire it often.


Beautiful felt things from Amsterdam. Kari Bombari and I had a little swap, I sent her an elephant and a bird softie, and she sent me this wonderfulness!


Crafting:

Etched two shot glasses tonight with plain star patterns for a friend.


And did my first shrink paper test run.


Lastly, about this poker craze that is sweeping the nation. . . do any of you know what I'm talking about?! A year ago Greg and some guys he works with started playing Texas Hold'em one night a week. Now they try to play every night they can get away with it, they throw mock tournaments, they go to the local casino, they watch poker on tv, and Greg even plays online when I've gone to bed! It's nuts and there seems to be no end in sight. He told me recently he wants to make it to a tournament in Vegas! I've realized I'm not going to win this battle so when I saw these beads for sale I knew I had to get them and just join in the fun. I do play with the guys every once in a while and have a good time, so next time I go I'll hopefully be sporting some kick-ass poker jewelry.

Recap

Quick trip recap before we return to our regularly scheduled programming in which I try to keep the crafting front and center and the other crap to a minimum. I know I still owe you a gourd tutorial, and who knows what else.

So, to start with we were in North Carolina which consisted mainly of this for 2 1/2 days:



Cutest kids ever! Our godson Zach was the best godson we've ever met and Greg and I loved seeing our sweet Karina who luckily still remembered us. We had one mishap when Greg played hide-and-seek with her which meant she laid down in the middle of the upstairs hallway peering through the rails while Greg snuck up behind her and said a quiet "boo!" which scared her so badly she slammed her head forward (yes, into the rails) and ended up with blood pouring into her eye from a cut right on her eyelid. She wouldn't go near him for a while after that one. But she was fine in the end and we did manage to leave the house briefly one day to do this:



It was so much fun Greg is now teasing me that he's going to join a go-kart racing team. So after a tearful goodbye with the kids there we headed down to sunny Flordia for a Thanksgiving with 80 degree weather and the air conditioning turned on.

We had a great visit with Greg's mom, and spent lots of time with another couple we're close with (you know, seeing the Tampa Bay aquarium, getting new tattoos, drinking ourselves silly - that sort of thing). The tattoo artist friend had this amazing aquarium in his shop (naturally now Greg and I are obsessed with getting one for our house) and the day we were there to get our new art his starfish had just created this little baby starfish, or at least that's what we assumed was happening? We still don't really know, and no one that walked in the shop that day knew the details of how starfish procreate. Later when we checked on it the little one was gone.



So it was a good trip. I'll post tat photos when they are fully healed. More kid photos on flickr.

In crafting news, I'm working on a winter wreath, holiday cards, a table runner, ornaments, glass etching, shrinky dink charms (I know, I'm the last one on earth to finally get some of this stuff to play with), more fabric transfer paper items, new felt stuffed thing, and well, that gives you enough of an idea for how crazy I'll be in December.

Back in black

Trip was perfect - spent every minute either relaxing or out having fun. Lots of photos to share that most of you won't be interested in since they're not craft-related, but don't worry, I do have bags and bags of crafty supplies my mom picked up in the post-Thanksgiving day sales while I was away so today I'm going through them and donning the holiday elf hat. With some eggnog all will be merry, just be sure not to remind me how few days I actually have to do my holiday projects!

Now I'm going back to bed so this post will be continued at a more reasonable hour. . .

Final moments before this trip

*Last night Greg asked if we could stay up late together (I usually go to bed way earlier than he does) and make hot cocoa with whipped cream. How cute is that?! So we drank hot cocoa while I made this little tote bag for a gift while he played games on his computer. I love that we have our desks right across from each other now so we both can do our thing and still be together. The pie I was just enjoying five minutes ago while taking a break from packing and tidying up the house. I took the day off from work even though our flight doesn't leave until late this evening since I hadn't had time all week to get anything done to the big work event (which turned out perfect luckily). So nice to be home alone on a beautiful day.

I'm going to really try and post wine country photos before we leave. If not though, then I'll see you the Monday after Thanksgiving, so have a great holiday everyone!

Fall package

Fall package that went out in the mail yesterday (to a certain someone who has her first craft fair coming up this weekend, and even though she's so nervous it's going to be great!).

I'm hoping to post some photos of my wine weekend later today, but am a little crazy right now with finishing touches for a big work event I've been organizing that's happening today at 4pm, so the post might not come till tomorrow. Luckily this year the event is a cocktail party so I'll at least be able to have a drink to calm my nerves as soon as I get there.

I was due for a felt critter

Greg and I leave Friday for a 10 day vacation (yay!) to visit friends in North Carolina and his mom and other friends in Flordia. The NC family moved there from San Francisco about a year ago and took their adorable little girl with them which we still are mad about; Greg and I wanted to keep her. Well, once in NC they went and had another child, a sweet baby boy, and asked Greg and I to be his godparents. Unfortunately we've yet to meet the lad and so that's the main focus of the first half of this trip. I've been buying clothes left and right for him, and when I brought home this little onsie with dogs printed all over it last week I immediately choose one of the pooches to turn into a stuffed critter to along with it.





Finished my mom's simple, but huge, tote bag. She picked out the fabrics and wanted it without interfacing so she could fold it up. I did use this mesh-like plastic stuff in the bottom to make it sturdier, but it's flexible so it still can be folded or smooshed into small spaces. I actually loved using it, a woman at the craft store suggested it, and I think I'll try it out on other bags to reinforce the bottoms.



The felt peace garland. It is so "blah" I almost don't like it. Any suggestions of what I can add to it to make it a little more interesting?


So this week I'll be busying getting ready for our trip. A lot of the glasses I etched on Friday have to be packaged for gifts we'll bring with us, and I need to get a few other things as well. My main task though is to work on finalizing designs for new tattoos for Greg and I. (!!!!) Talk about a rush, both of us have been on edge for weeks just thinking about it. Greg's best friend owns a shop in Tampa and he is the amazing artist who did the work on my back, and all of the work on Greg. We're both planning pretty decent sized pieces on our arms which we've been wanting for years. Very exciting stuff for us. So I'll hopefully turn out at least one craft this week before I go to share, but then will be absent for a short while.

Oh! Wine country was incredibly wonderful. I was with 4 girls that I work and am friends with and we had such a blast going to the wineries and then cooking a huge dinner and drinking about a third of the bottles we bought (completely unplanned, we'd have bought tons more if we knew how many bottles we'd open that night!). The weather was gorgeous, sunny and crisp, but warm in the sun. I'll post photos later this week.

On my way to the fountain of wine. . .

I'm about to leave for a girl's weekend in the glorious wine country (Glen Ellen/Sonoma to be exact) so I thought it only fair to leave you with a handful of new photos. Enjoy.








1. Cinnamon spice cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Made for a new mommy I was going to visit. 2. Discovered that those crazy yarns (I'm not a knitter) make really pretty ribbon for tying up packages! 3. Baby Michael - the cupcakes were for his mom, and the present was for him. 4. Another glass etching party at my house. These are some of my glasses in progress. 5. Some of my finishes glasses. I took my friend's idea from the last party and put "Cheers" in different languages on each glass. 6. Aren't these little peppers just the coolest? They're real! The gorgeous vase wasn't etched by my own hand (it's from Crate and Barrel).

I still have lots of things on their way to be posted: I finished the felt garland. My mom's tote is almost done. I am working on a new felt critter! And still the felt-covered barrettes and new sashes and other accessories I made a while back. All in time. So have a good weekend.

This and that

Walked into the living room the other night to find Bella and Pepper like this:




You know how sometimes you continue doing something that is frustrating or annoying and it would be easy to make it not so, but you just don't take the simple steps to make it better and it makes no sense why? Well, I have like 6 bobbin thread spools (is that what they are even called? see - still such a beginner!), and so all the time when I switch to a new color thread I actually take a filled spool and unwind all the thread just so I can fill it up again with the new color. It drives me nuts to do this! Yet I am in a craft store literally every single weekend and I never manage to pick up a pack of spools.



Last night I sat on the floor and pulled out all the fabric I have stuffed into a single plastic container and sorted and folded it into little piles. So satisfying, even though I then just crammed the piles back into the box!



Working on this garland made out of felt angel ornaments I had started a month or two ago. I'm thinking I'll buy some bias tape or ribbon to string them on. Too lazy to do great detail and embroidery like the lovely felt stockings at little birds but it hopefully will still look cute hanging over the fireplace or something.



Found a set of these great cards last week. They remind me so much of Hope's collage work! They even have some sparkle to them which I love. I'll try to make my own holiday cards for close friends, but always end up needing extras so these will be great. Although I did order some fantastic ones from Giao as well, so I'll have plenty this year, and most likely will want to keep them all for myself anyway!



I'm working on a large tote bag for my mom as well, to replace the one she bought this summer that is already fraying and falling apart. Hoping I can do a better job. And I have holiday lists literally piling up all around my desk at home - gift lists and wish lists and children's clothing sizes lists (for gifts) and crafty decorations I want to make lists, and supplies I'll need for holiday crafts lists, and on and on. I love this time of year but wish it was longer so I had more time.

I actually wore a dress

Self Portrait Tuesday

What the hell is this? No really, I'd like to know.

This is the third bug of this kind we have seen in or around our house since June (yes I am keeping track, you would too if you saw this thing) and I am extremely disturbed and want to at least know what the hell it is we're up against. So, please excuse the blurry photo, and PLEASE comment if you know what this is. Here's a photo of the one we saw in June. Gives me the creeps!

For some good news (if not crafting news which I promise to have soon) Greg and I decided to spend the holidays in Belgium, with a short Amseterdam visit thrown in! We were in the little town of Ghent in Belgium last year around Thanksgiving for Greg's work, and we feel in love with the place. We've been throwing around travel plans for New Year's Eve (Greg's not the going-out type so we usually like to go away for a few days) and somehow ended up booking a big trip instead! We'll be visiting Amsterdam and Ghent, but spending most of the time (including NYE) in Brugge. And I'm already giddy with excitement because the first website I read on Brugge had a whole section about spending the holidays there and how there are amazing Christmas Markets everyday and ice sculpture castles and live trees and so much holiday goodness I can't wait!

Also in one of those great internet coincidences, I happened to receive a lovely email from a woman in Belgium this morning about my website!

Mail makes me happy

I need to start finding out about some of the great swaps happening all the time in blogland (did I really just use that word?) because nothing makes me happier than coming home to a surprise package in the mail. And I've always loved the fun of collecting and making little things to send out as well.

So this is my new favorite accessory which I wore for the past two days in honor of Day of the Dead (I am pretty sad I didn't get to do more in the way of crafts and celebrating this year) - purchsed from the Addie Pearl Jewelry Design Shop on etsy, and linked by Kelly which is how I made the discovery. I love it so much I've written to Joey about making a custom one.



And this more evidence that Giao is the sweetest little gnome in the world! What's not even pictured is the awesome Halloween inspired chinese take-out box filled with candy. She also recently tagged me for my first meme, Sevens. I may or may not actually post a response one day.



So, about those swaps. . . does anyone know of an ongoing or upcoming one? Maybe a holiday one? Thanksgiving one? What about the ones I've read about like a color swap or regional foods swap? Or maybe there is a holiday card mailing list? Ornament swap? Anything, I just want to send and receive mail!

Even more Halloween. . .

Damn! Photos are all sideways but in flickr they right themselves. I may reload them later if I have time. Sorry!

Halloween at work - The place was overun with pirates! (And freaky parrots)





Halloween in the Castro part 1

Human Twister! This guy had made a custom spinning board and would let anyone take a spin (well actually two spins, "one for each hand") and then play.

Best grandma ever! This man had more perfect accessories than I could list.

Umm. . .

Sweet SPT

Yesterday: Mini cupcakes I made for Greg and I to bring to work (he did the sprinkles actually), and my witchy self/SPT. My hat was a huge hit and I wish it were next year already so I could make another one with a different look. Ended up spending Halloween in the Castro, which I swore I would never do again, except we stayed away from the main blocked-off streets (and therefore crowds of thousands all trying to squeeze by one another) which made it a lot of fun. Great costume photos coming tomorrow! Greg stayed home and handed out candy to the kiddies with Bella.