Happy Thanksgiving...

December Daily Album...

Val and I visited a couple antique shops in St. Paul on Saturday...they were having their holiday sale and offered 20% off everything (unless marked "firm"). We both had bags and bags of treasures...trims, fabrics, shoe forms, wooden hangers, vintage felt Christmas decorations, etc. but of all my loot, these three tiny little treasures are by far my favorites!

These old metal Christmas stars literally made my heart race, they were only $1.60 but I think I would have paid $10 for them...they are just magnificent!

After our morning of hunting I headed straight to my studio to get cracking on my December daily album. I decided to use an old bound ledger (found at an estate sale in Michigan for $.50) instead of making my usual ring bound journal. It went much faster and I finished all 31 days this morning...

I have gobs and gobs of vintage Christmas seals that I want to keep for myself so what better way to display them then put them in my journal...and the number tags are from Elle's Studio.

and look, I even remembered to use one of my newfound metal stars!

Christmas Tiny Books...

Two little Christmas tiny books just listed in my Etsy shop...

Many many thanks to all my faithful "customers" for your interest in the stuff I make. I really appreciate it!

Winter Wonderland...

We, here in Minnesota, have been under a winter weather advisory since last night. We woke up to this... ...and it's supposed to continue until 6:00 am Sunday morning. I don't know how much has accumulated so far (it looks to be at least 6 inches). We had about a three hour reprieve so
Tom and all our neighbors ran out clear the driveways after the plows made their first rounds. It's the really wet, heavy snow so all the branches of our trees are sagging under the weight. It also caused about a three hour power outage so the temps in the house dropped down to the high 50's...thank Goodness for the fireplace (not to mention three sweaters and two pairs of thick wool socks!)It sure is pretty (but I know what this means for us here in the Midwest). Oh well, it's inevitable! Hey...is it too early for Christmas carols?

Etsy Shop Update...

I have finally added more vintage goodies to my Etsy store...

...puts me in the mood to do some Christmas shopping!

Calling all Minnesota Crafters...

(photo found at secretaryofinnovation.com)
My dear friend Val Burgess and I are looking to form a group of Minnesota artsy-crafty women, preferrably women in the Eastern Suburbs of the Twin Cities and the Hudson, Wisconsin area (so nobody has to drive too far in the snow!) We would meet once a month at various locations in our area (and our homes if you'd like to host) to craft, share, eat and, of course, talk, talk, talk. We would like to keep the group somewhat small, 6 - 7 women, so if you're interested please email me at rrydel68@yahoo.com. Once we get a group together we can all meet to work out the details!

Senior Year...

My second-born is a senior in high school and now that we've finished the ACT's and the college applications I started thinking about what sort of book(s) I can make him as keepsakes. Afterall, Shelby has two prom books, an 18 Birthday's book and a high school memory book...so I figured I'd better make him a book or two so he doesn't feel left out (who am I kidding? He probably couldn't care less, right?) Anyway, he's super-jocky so what better keepsake then a book full of all his sporting pictures. I wanted a heavy baseball theme since he played for 12 years so here's what I came up with... I took apart one of his old baseballs that he initialed with black Sharpie...

Look at that little knobby-knee'd five year old.

This little glassine bag holds his "baseball card" that he autographed for my husband when he was 8 years old.

This is my favorite picture of him...I think because he looks the most like me at that particular moment in time.

Yes...bowling is a high school sport in Minnesota, strange but true...they even had team bowling shirts!

I was okay while making the book until I came to last photo in my pile...his cross country picture (on the left.) It was taken only a month ago so I found myself really studying the man he's grown into, then I found myself fighting back the tears. Look at that little 5 year old knobby-knee'd boy in the very first photograph and now look at this (handsome) grown man... I remember the day that first photograph with his T-Ball team was taken and I swear it was just yesterday, but it must not have been...damn, why do kids have to grow up? Matty, I love you more than you could ever know and I'm praying that you choose a college that's not too far away!