i serve a creative GOD

I got a challenge for you all this year! Check it out by clicking the button on the left or up in the bar! I really truly hope you join me!

Merry Christmas

Tonight and tomorrow will be full of parties and fun! I'm glad it's finally here!





I sent out Christmas cards this year but didn't order quite enough to include everyone! So if you didn't get one in the mail, you can just look at it here:) Oh, and if you don't have one and you think you should, I didn't mail them out until the 23rd!

I will be back with lots of family pics and exciting Christmas morning pics too:)

the Stone family

This photo, to me, is the epitome of a Christmas card:) I'm sure his mother probably doesn't think so. I know if I were his mother I wouldn't think so.



oh! but I love it!

Thank you, Stones, for a great time!

all I want for Christmas...

is something like this...

Santa's...err...Slone's list

Slone wrote this the other night. He and his brother had been especially ornery with each other. Slone was hollering about how Santa is not going to bring Bo anything. That night as I was picking up, I found this written on the back of his art set.

You see Bo is in the "bad" column, while best friend and cousin Jack is in the "gud" column:) Don't look at me for the spelling!  His kindergarten teacher told us to have him sound out everything instead of telling him how to spell words.

I'm surprised he didn't write his on name on the "gud" side.

Fleece Blanket Tutorial

I know you all have seen these blankets a million times, but I absolutely love them! They are by far the warmest blankets, super soft and wash up like a dream.

I locked my keys in the car had some extra time to kill the other day and luckily Joann's was right across the parking lot. They had all of their fleece 50% off. I had just made one of these blankets for someone for Christmas and really wanted one for myself when I was done with it. I found this awesome gray houndstooth fleece. I love it! I thought about putting it with red, which I still think would look really good, but I went with a mustard yellow. It looks so good together.

I got two and a half yards though instead of the two yards that was suggested. I like my blankets up around my neck and still covering my feet. To me, this is the perfect size.

First things first, lay both of your fleece pieces out flat, one on top of the other. This way you can cut through both layers at the same time and everything will match up easily. You will need to cut a square out of the corner. I cut mine about 4x4 inches. You will need to cut it the same lengths that you will be cutting your strips.



I did one side at a time. I cut about one inch strips all the way down one side and then came back and knotted them all. Then I cut the next corner out, cut the strips on that side, then knotted them.





Do all four sides and you're done! The fleece ended up being around $3-5 a yard with the half off discount. So I got a great blanket for around $25!

Sorry these aren't in the greatest light. It was dark at 4:30:( Is it spring yet?

Slone's Lego Party

Well, we survived another party:) This time, Slone wanted a lego party. I don't really go all out on decorations but I try to make their cakes to go along with their theme. The lego man head is just a regular cake with a cupcake cut down to size on top, then frosted with yellow frosting.



He got an art set. He also got a book on how to draw 101 pets...BIG hit.



Of course, he got some legos!

Slone's own giant cookie

My friend, Evie, just started up her own cookie business ~ Too Little Time Cookies ~! I thought cookies would be fun instead of just cake this time. I was right. Four dozen cookies and not a single one left over! (Click on the link up there for her fb page. You can contact Evie there for your own cookies!)



 

We had a great time! Thanks to everyone that came! Love you!

the Rea family

I had a great time photographing this little family! They are soon to be one more! Tracy is a friend from my MOPS group, so it was a real treat to see her outside of the group!



Little M was such a sweetie.



Merry Christmas!

Christmas ornaments

I was in a Christmas ornament swap on flickr this past month. I know I've explained these swaps in the past. You should really check out flickr if you never have. There are tons of things to learn there.

Anyway, everyone had to do three ornaments. And you should receive three back. I have only received one back so far. I'm interested to see what else I get!

So for this swap, I did felt ornaments. For supplies you need: some felt, something to trace a circle, glue, sewing machine, some ricrac and sequins if you want.



You will also need just a little bit of stuffing for them too. I also used the fabri-tac for attaching the sequins.

Start by tracing a faint circle on your felt. Then lay out your felt strips. I sewed these onto one side of the ornament before I cut the circles out. I also used the sewing machine to stitch all the way around the ornament (don't forget to leave a little opening to put the stuffing in). Then I cut the whole thing out with my pinking shears.





Once the ornament is cut out, you can stuff it. I then took a little scrap felt and some ricrac to fashion a little hangtab. Then I sewed it shut.





PS - I did not think these up on my own. I saw a picture of some that a girl made on her blog. I cannot, for the life of me, find said blog! When I do, I will post it!

Hope you have a terrific Christmas season!!

wait, what? who's six?

Slone. Six. Today. I'm old.



He wants a lego birthday party. So I found some little legomen molds on Amazon. I melted some white chocolate chips, mixed in a little orange food coloring and piped it in the mold with a baggie. I froze them for just about 5 minutes to get the chocolate hard again and popped 'em out. Since the school only allows store-bought snacks, I bought these at Hy-Vee. They are actually really good. I just cannot stomach that much frosting though. But kids eat it up....like frosting.



We took them to school to share with his class. All the kids were pretty happy to see us, especially when we walked in with these.

I had to add one blue guy. An orange one didn't make it out of the mold with his head.

Here he is getting his box of legos. So stoked. I was the coolest mom for about 5 minutes til we fought about Bo playing too.





Happy Birthday, Slone! Love you!

Thanksgiving 2010 - Good Bye and God Bless

Well, Thanksgiving 2010 was a crazy one. I started it out in the ER. Yes, you read that right. I was having a horrible pain in my stomach and couldn't quit throwing up. They sent me home, telling me that I must have an ulcer. We went to Matt's family Thanksgiving/Christmas party. I ate a little bit...only the things that were on the list of foods I could eat. But when we got home, I threw up again and the pain came back, only worse. Matt ended up taking me back to the ER where they gave me fluids and meds, an xray, and a CT scan. Turns out, I had an inflamed small intestine. They think it was triggered from all the throwing up, that was probably triggered from some sort of flu to begin with.

{{ The title of this post is a little inside joke in our family. There was this lady who went to our church. Her name was Aunt Alice. I'm pretty sure "Aunt" wasn't her first name. And I'm pretty sure she had a last name, but I can't think of it! I never called her anything but Aunt Alice (she wasn't my aunt either). Well, one day I was in a car with her and there was a car in front of us going really slow. As soon as they turned, she hollered "Good bye and God bless!" Now we use that phrase all the time:) }}

Now I am doing better, but I do have to have a gallbladder sonogram sometime. What a disappointing Thanksgiving! But my sisters were both back from Iowa and South Carolina. I didn't get to eat my mom's stuffing, but I got to see my nephews!

Slone's driving, Sam's hanging on for dear life:)

Dad got the little fourwheeler running this year. He bought it for me and Charity when we were about 4 and 6. That's an old fourwheeler:) The boys loved it.

Bo was determined not to be left out. But Pa did a lot of pushing the gator around

Noah the deer hunter

Pretty Miss Calliegh

Laura and Taylor

my beautiful mother

Charity, me, Jake, Lyn, Laura with Dad and Mom.

 

 

I am quite thankful, that even with all the drama, I did still get to see my family. I did get to sit with them for a Thanksgiving feast. I did get to laugh with them, play with them, hug them, and just be with them. So thankful.

All you need is....

So I joined another flickr group! The Scrappy Hoop Swap! I love flickr! It's one of my favorite site to look at. There are tons of groups that you can join, photography, crafts, quilts, and I'm sure there are ones I don't even know about. I found out about this one because of Heather. She's an awesome blogger as well as quilter. I love checking out her blog.

So this is the hoop I did. My partner wanted "cutesy, japanese, bright, vintage, geometric" - her words exactly. Well, I had no idea what to do until I came across this satin fabric that I got from my Grandma Morey after she passed away. I have no idea why she had this fabric. She was so proper and surely didn't talk about kissing:)







So the deal is: you get a partner. You know them (what they like, what they don't), but they don't know you. It's a secret swap. You get about 4-6 weeks (depends on who is putting the swap on) to make your hoop (or quilt block or whatever). Mail it out and wait for your partner to send you one!

Here's the one I got!



Funny how they have the same fabrics, isn't it?! You can obviously tell what I like:) Hope you have a great Wednesday!

the note I sent my partner:)

carruts

I met a mother/daughter team at the last show I was set up at that sold some awesome hair accessories! Carruts is their name, well they are really Cassie and Robyn. And they have beautiful red hair. And they have beautiful things! There were hair accessories, belts, purses, and watches, all handmade.



I love this headband. It doesn't hurt my head like some of them do. And it's red!



I wore this clip yesterday to MOPS.



If you would like to get some for yourself, email them! carruts2010@gmail.com

Two shows coming up

If you're local to me, come see me tonight or Saturday!

One Stop Shop at the Elmwood Methodist Church tonight from 6-8 p.m. Come and support local, women owned businesses and get a jump start on your holiday shopping! Free babysitting and treats, plus a chance to win a $25 credit towards one of the feature vendors! See you there!

There will be a lot of different vendors there. 18 in all, I think. 

Then on Saturday I will be here:

Large Vendor Sale at Christ Alive! Church in Kickapoo. 9am-3pm. Bunches of different vendors. Breakfast and Lunch available.


Hope to see some of you!
 

the Sparks family

I want to introduce to you the Sparks family! I had such a fun time with these little boys! And Alicia is one of my very dearest friends! She has been such a support and encouragement to me. Here she is with her sweet family.



{Side note: This summer we did a Bible study together on Lysa TerKeurst's book Becoming More than a Good Bible Study Girl. You should really check her out. You can also follow her on Facebook.}

Alicia's boys are so cute. They both have great personalities too.




Thanks, Alicia!

Christmas Planner Tutorial

Ok, I've got another tutorial for you! Actually, this is just a redo of a tutorial that I saw here: http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/ I was actually really excited about this when I saw it. I've been becoming a list maker. If you knew me at all in school, you should be very surprised! But lists actually help get all my work done everyday....well, not all my work gets done everyday. But it's nice to know when you are almost done with it!

So here's what you need: a notebook (I scored a bunch of these at Walmart during back to school time for a quarter apiece.), some cute Christmas scrapbooking paper, ribbon, 2 5x7 manilla envelopes, and any scrapbooking supplies you want. I highly recommend the glue dots. It saves a lot of wait time for the glue drying. And some of the papers might bubble up if you use liquid glue.



First, you will need to glue down a yard long ribbon around your notebook. (sorry, no pic) The glue dots work fine for this too!

Then cut out your papers and glue dot them on.



Your design can be anything you want on the front. Be creative! Here's my mom working on her book.



We also used the lid from the ribbon jar for a template for the circles:)



This is how my table looked during the whole process. Sometimes you can't function if you can't see everything you have;)



You also need some 5x7 manilla envelopes. Glue dot them to the inside of your notebook. One to hold coupons, the other to hold receipts.





Then you are ready to add some tabs to your planner. I just used the scraps of my paper to fold little tabs and my stapler to attach them to my pages. There is a list tab, calendar tab, menu tab, and cards tab. I have everyone listed that I need to get gifts for. As I get the gifts, I write down what I get them and check their name off.



The calendar is some printed off pages from http://calendarlabs.com. I just glue dotted them too. This way I can keep track of all the parties and shopping days!



The menu tab is a place to keep any Christmas recipes that I find and want to take with me to the next party. You could also make a shopping list here too.

The cards tab is a place to list everyone you are sending cards too this year.

And there you have it! A Christmas Planner for your holidays!




Want to make one? You know it! We're going to make these at MOPS on Monday, November 8!

Here's our blog for MOPS:



Check it out! Hope you can come!