Christmas lists...

My oldest son Matthew is just about to celebrate his 17th birthday and the older he gets the tougher it gets to shop for his Christmas gifts so I ask that he make me a list each year. This year he was really dragging his feet with the list (and I usually like to have all my shopping done by Thanksgiving) so I had to give him a deadline...which was yesterday...and this is what was waiting for me on my desk.

I opened it up and found his list...his very creative list, even the boys at Best Buy commented on how fancy it was when they spotted me carrying it around. One of the boys even took it out of my hands and studied it well...perhaps he is going to make one like it for his mother? Matt used a variety of my Christmas stamps, some "vintage looking" cardstock (his words) and a fancy script font. I love that he went through all the trouble to make this...I also wanted to show you this wonderful calender/planner I found at Sam's club. It is the cutest thing I've ever seen...

My youngest child, Sebastian, likes to leave me little treasures (notes, little hearts and pumpkins cut out of paper and colored in with crayon, little pencil drawings, etc) and I thought in 2010 I'm going to start keeping a journal for his little goodies so I can look back and remember why I got that particular goodie and when (sometimes it's because I was mad at him for being "bad"...which doesn't happen often and sometimes it's just to tell me he loves me.) I'll tape, glue or clip the treasure in the journal on the date it was received and jot down a little something about it.

Here's pictures of the pages dividing the seasons...

I'm looking forward to filling it up!

My Debut in Sew Somerset!

I'm "Sew" excited...just ran out to the mailbox hoping my complimentary issue of Sew Somerset would be waiting for me...and it was! The funnest part is that Shelby is home from college for the Thanksgiving holiday so she got to see herself in the magazine firsthand...her response: "I can't believe I'm in a magazine!"... My layout features a paperbag/fabric album I made for Shelby for her 18th birthday to document all her big days, 1 through 18. Now I'm really looking forward to getting the actual album back...I miss it!

Here are pictures of my layout and if you get a chance buy the magazine...there are some truly talented and fabulous artists featured in the pages!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and now Shelby, Matt and I are off to do some antiquing in Hudson.

Shabby Sampler

Here's a little Pam Garrison inspired sampler I did last night while watching the football game. These are so fun to make and you can use all sorts of your little leftover bits and pieces that you'd otherwise throw away. I made this one to fit a frame I had that was part of a little blackboard hanging in our kitchen. I don't know about you but whenever the holidays come around I feel the need to do all the little home projects that I put off all year long. Incidentally, I got my two chairs re-stained and re-covered yesterday too! Now I have to dust the house...one project I hate doing!

Sugar & Spice

Yesterday I ran to a few estate sales (no Tom this time) that were really close to the house. One was in the most fabulous old farmhouse I've ever seen...most of the people there were more interested in house and the four out-buildings than in the estate sale, unfortunately the house had already been sold but I did find a few treasures! I hadn't realized that the sale started on Thursday so everything was half off but there wasn't really anything left. I got the two Santa mugs and the two vintage books at that sale...spent a whopping $2.25.

I'm not sure if the ledger book is actually "vintage" but the yellow-ish pages certainly make it look old...and I just can't seem to get enough of the old Christmas tags and seals.

My Santa mug collection is now up to 6 pieces...the one on my right is my favorite so far due to the cracks and crazing (doesn't show up in the pic)

And finally, I listed this little girly file-folder album in my shop this morning and promised to show pictures of the entire album here since pictures are limited on Etsy...

Now I'm onto my next project (after I run to Goodwill to do some treasure hunting). Tom found two old mahogony chairs FOR FREE on the curb in a surrounding neighborhood and knew I would love them so brought them home. They are in pretty bad shape so I'm determined to make them lovely again...and determined to get it done today!

O' Christmas Tree...

I love vintage buttons and have oodles and oodles of them so I'm always looking for projects in which I can use them. I'm also always looking for projects that I can do while catching up on some of my TV programs...so here's a quick little project that took me one (long) afternoon to to complete...
I've had this shadow box type frame for years so intentionally made my linen square the right size to fit the frame. (It's 7 x 7)

And I got to use a bunch of my white vintage buttons...
You can't see them very well in the picture but I tied little french knots randomly around the background both to "quilt" the piece and to make it look like snow falling...

So here's some quick instructions should you want to make your own.

1. Cut a piece of old white linen about 1/4 inch smaller than your frame. It should be 1/4 inch smaller on each side. (If your frame is 7 x 7 your linen should measure 6 1/2 x 6 1/2) Cut a piece of white felt (or other sturdy fabric) the exact size of your frame. When the stitching on the linen is complete, you will stitch that to the felt to give it some studiness.

2. Lightly draw a tiangle on the linen then draw horizontal lines within the triangle beginning at the top. Your top "branch" will be centered and short, the next branch (about an inch below the first branch) will get a little longer, the next a little longer and so on until your triangle tree has all it's branches.

3. Sew white buttoms haphazardly with red thread along each branch.

4. With green floss stitch in branches here and there to make it look like an evergreen. (I used three strands of green floss)

5. Lightly pencil the phrase "O Christmas Tree" along the bottom of your tree and stitch with red floss. (I used three strands of floss and a simple backstitch)

6. Use white floss and stitch the completed linen piece to your white felt piece then tie french knots randomly around the background to further secure it to the felt.

7. Put the finished piece in your frame and Viola! Since I was using a shadow box type frame I used Fabri-Tac and glued the felt to the inside of the frame to hold it in place.

Happy Stitching!

25 Days of Christmas Journal

I finally finished gathering all my papers, cards, chipboard shapes, etc. for my 25 Days of Christmas journal. Last year was my first year doing it and I liked it so much I'm doing it again this year. You can see that I leave my pages relatively empty as far as embellishments go because I'd rather decorate it based on the happenings of the day...I don't even add my day numbers ahead of time because sometimes I have more than one picture and may use multiple pages for one day. So here it is...I'm ready for December 1st...

This cover is actually a vintage Christmas luncheon plate. I picked up a bunch at an estate sale a few months ago and I'm so glad I found a use for them (or at least one of them).

I usually punch holes in one of the greeting cards we send out to our friends and relatives and use that as a page. I also like to add the little photo postcard type cards my brother and sister send every year so I have pictures of their kids in the journal too since we don't usually get to see them around the holidays...and, it's always fun to look back at that type of thing. If you haven't made one of these journals you should give it a try this year!

My Trinket Jar...refurbished

If you visit my blog regularly you know how much I like junking at my local Goodwill stores, you can really find some great vintage treasures if you hunt regularly. Well, a few weeks ago I stumbled upon this tiny little felt treasure and snatched it up. I love felt and what could be better than vintage felt? It measures about 5 1/2 x 6...the frame isn't the greatest but the felt work is so adorable that it makes up for the frame's lack of cuteness...


Last Sunday I found this old lidded jar...possibly used to hold cold cream? Sort of reminds me of my mother's old Avon jars full of perfumed creams. I've seen these in Antique shops so I know it's missing a floral glass insert for the lid but I knew it had possibilities so purchased it anyway.

It didn't take me long to figure out what I would do to replace the glass that was missing from the lid...I used my framed felt flowers as inspiration.

The hardest part was making a little flower pattern for the yellow flowers, I had to try a few times before I finally created one I was pleased with. I traced the lid on some plain white paper and used that to cut a circle out of white felt. I Cut all the flowers and leaves from yellow, green and turquoise felt and stitched it all into place. Added a few rhinestone centers to the flowers and glues it to the lid...the lid had a little lip around the inside so the felt tucked nicely underneath to give the edge a smooth look.

I love the way it turned out! Ok...now onto my next project, check back tomorrow to find out more.

My Shop is Restocked!

I got my Esty store restocked this morning with these five floral journals...
I also listed a few Christmas items and, as promised, pictures of all the pages of this fun Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly paper bag album...

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And I couldn't resist making one for myself...you never can have too many mini albums!