Christmas Crafting

some of my finds while searching for Christmas inspiration

 

 

 

adorable height chart from burlap ribbon...would be cute as a christmas countdown

 

Carlene from Organized Clutter has some good project ideas: Christmas tree made from book pages...she also has Christmas tree from yard sticks..

I am just loving all the natural colors, like this burlap ribbon ideas this season

these adorable snowman are made from baby food jars. top jars filled with mini marshmallows, middle with hot cocoa and bottom with mints for topping..they are super cute. I'm unable to find the source for these..I found them on pinterest

 

Happy Holiday Crafting

 

 

 

Harvest Gathering

 Cider Bar...homemade cider, cider donuts

 Carmel and whipped cream to top hot cider

 pie bar, apple, pumpkin, cherry, key lime, pecan, chocolate pudding

 my hubby requested a black walnut cake like his gramma made

peanut butter pie is in the cast iron pan..it's always a big hit

Halloween Party

 This is our first fully decorated party at Camp Shiloh. We've been working on Camp Shiloh for the past four years and are so excited to be able to have a celcelebration inside with heat!

 I created some oreo cookie pops

 I went with classic colors of black and orange. The milk bottles are wrapped with orange ribbon, topped with black tulle and orange bakers twine. I added black or orange paper straws to match

 The oreo pops really took some finessing. I topped them with sprinkles, then wrapped them individually so they would not stick together

 I liked these little spiders I added to the straws..but I know I will be finding these little guys in strange places for months

 I added a carmel dip to the pumpkin in the back, my mom came to help me set up the party and put the apple slices on pop sticks for easy handling

 chocolate dipped pretzels and marshmallows stand up in a bed of candy corn

 I found the printables on Pinterest

 Matching utensils and treat bags

the Trick or Treat banner was made by me

we really had a good time, just hanging out and enjoying friends

New Vintage Inspired Library & Flash Cards for my shop

 I've been using library cards in my journaling lately, well because they are cute. But for me the bright white paper on these new cards did not fit with my theme, so I distressed some...then I grabbed some old flash cards and aged them as well...you never know what will be next

I've got them both in my shop aged and not aged

check them out here

 library cards

flash cards

Day Twenty Three

Current Favorites

~ Journals - making them, sharing them, using them

~ recycled paper - for the journals of course

~vintage decor - since we are still in the process of building our house, I am always on the look out for goodies to decorate with

~ party decor - I love to plan a party and decorating is the best part, I tend to use my vintage goods to help and items I sell in my etsy store

~ hot love songs - these are mostly country right now, i have a friend getting married the end of Oct and i've been working on a love song CD for her - not your usual sappy love songs, but good Hot love songs

~ T-shirts - I wore nothing but t's in highschool, and none since then, but this year i find myself searching for them, they are my go to clothing item now

~Outlaw country - the old classics like Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, CDB

**it appears I have a thing for music right now, I have running lists of favs, road songs, water songs, love songs, and outlaw music**

~ Justified - since we don't have cable or satellite, I've been watching old seasons of Justified from Netflix

~ Alternative Building - our home will have a few styles of alternative building in it when done, so my hubby and I spend a good amount of time researching and trying out different possibilities.

Day Twenty Two

Favorite Pictures of myself

~ our honeymoon on Joy's (SIL) front porch, since we stayed close to hubby's family we stopped in for a quick visit

~Me & Larry all smiles and tanned up (we were 9 and 5)- we hadn't been in Fl long - just a few years - we stayed at the pool all summer, played with each 

other and friends

~Me & Chad - he was about a year old, we both had on turquoise shirts and we had our cheeks pressed together - the love you have for your children never dies it just grows stronger

**I'm not a picture taker, there are not many of me from the last ten years, so it was hard to come up with many at all**

My First ATC

I didn't hesitate to sign up for the swap, but then it took me forever to get any inspiration..this is my first ATC at all and my first swap, so I am pretty excited, not sure what others usually end up with, but i'm pleased with my first one..they've not gone out yet so I cannot post a full pic, but here is a little sneak peak

The theme was Halloween, can you tell?

Since i've never done one before I don't have a bunch of pieces at my access to use, so I had a hard time finding a witch that I wanted to use, I ended up finding a printable one online I printed her off and cut around her. Not 100% but it'll do...I'll show the complete card once we've finished the trade..I had to make 10

Day Twenty One

Everything I bought this week..
I thought would be great on an order ticket
~ Halloween stickers - for ATC cards, but I didn't end up using them
~ Pizza - Wednesday is pizza night at our house
~ French book and paper ephemera from a thrift store
~ postage - mailed out a few packages this week
~ saw blade - hubby had to cut concrete for drainage pipes at Camp Shiloh (the home we are building)
~ Fresh fruit - went to a baby shower and i was to bring a fruit tray, well not much fruit is in season, so I went to a local farm and bought muscadine and scuppernongs, watermelon, apples and a cantaloupe
~ gift card, gift bag and tissue - to put the bibs and burp cloths in I made for the shower.
~Halloween goodies - online from Oriental Trading
~ deal of the day - PickUrPlum
*this was really a good week for me, I stayed home most the week and didn't do alot of shopping...next week will look scary whoever, we have alot of car parts to buy

Day Twenty

Fictional Friends
~Hagrid - Harry Potter - who doesn't need a big teddy bear as a friend
~ Sally Owens - Practical Magic
~ Cassie Nightingale - The Good Witch
~ Penny - Witches of Eastwick, the TV show
~ Frances - Under the Tuscan Sun
~ Claire - Letters to Juliet - what a wonderful Grandmother figure
I'm not much of a fictional reader, I read informational books or true stories, so my fictional friends are mostly from movies
I know there are many more wonderful people I have 'met' in movies, but these are the few that come to mind now.
Ok, so this would just not leave my mind. To my list I would add
~Grizzly Adams
~ Caroline Ingalls - Little House on the Prairie
~ August - Secret Life of Bees

Day Nineteen

Events I'd like to attend
~ Sisters on the fly trip - vintage trailers - glamping
~ Brave Girls Camp - live
~ Burning Man - they have a local event in GA we thought of going to this year, but got too busy
~ Jeep Jamboree - dozens of jeeps riding trails together
~ World's Longest yard sale - this has been on my list for years now, just never seem to make it

Day Eighteen

Favorite Names for People
~Angelina
~Penelope
~Victoria
~Harley
~johah
~Zacharia
Animas-- these are very whimsy --I need a herd to use my animal name list, this isn't even a portion of what I have
~Lady Fettiplace
~Miss Pettigill
~Sir Pegasus
~Romey Nobel
~Fiona McDonald
~Tippy Hedron
~Whilemena
~Madem Duvet

Day Seventeen

Excuses
we all have them..here are some of mine
~ money - do you ever really have enough money
~ what if it doesn't work..the dreadfull what if
~ I don't have the talent
~ our house is too small...I use this one all the time, we don't invite people over or have parties because our house is soo small, hopefully that will be taken care of soon..we are getting close to being done with the home we are building
~ None..sometimes there are no excuses, sometimes I'm just too lazy

Day Sixteen

I want to learn
usually i have a huge list of things I want to learn during a year, but when prompted with this question I couldn't think of many
~ make homemade bread - i've made many loaves, just none of them turn out the way I want ( I picture the Amish loaves) even though my youngest says they taste real good even if they look like bricks - gotta love him
~ cook in a dutch oven, over a camp fire
~ photography - if your here you know why
~ pottery - the boys and I took a class a few years ago and I really enjoyed it, would love to do more

Treasury Time - Again

I can't believe my journal has been added to it's third treasury in a week!

I am super excited, since these journals take alot of thought and time to get them together..I'm thrilled to see my hard work get noticed

here are the treasuries..check out the other awesome Etsy shops featured

On The Road Treasury 

Day Fifteen

I know I am young at heart when

~ I still can't sleep the night before Christmas

~ I wrestle with my boys

Day Fourteen

I know I'm getting older when..
~ my knees creek, when I bend, walk down stairs
~ I sound like my mom, i will tell the boys something and then think, man my mom would have said that to me at that age
~ I have grandkids shug who is 2 1/2 and sweet pea 2
~ I can't remember things, I forget things easily

Day Thirteen

 Dinner Party Invitees
if i were to have a dinner party and could invite anyone I like and they would be there, it would be people i have things in common with, people that inspire me, mostly it would be women who followed there dreams
~Mary Jane Butters --her life story is just amazing
~ Mable White --inspiring and encouraging
~ Junk Gypsies --they've created an empire doing what they love
~Miranda Lambert --she's an outlaw country singer
they are all independent women who had a dream and followed it to the top