Crafty/gifty

I have a lot of craft supplies around here. It's borderline insane.
So as a little gift to some of my galpals around here (some of you actually read this blog!), I've offered for 10 of them to come over on Tuesday night to get crafty, using my stuff.
I'm not planning on making anything myself, just being an extra set of hands and a little extra courage for them to make some fun gifts. I'm really looking forward to this and it sounds like they are too.

We're pulling out all the junk. It's going to be fabulous. (and messy)

oh - and here is one of my other pieces for the swap I did... I made these gift tags and had to share.
My favorite part is the sewing for the lines -something I did for the book about the caterpillar... it's such a fun little touch.

photo wreath

I really like those photo ornaments, but they were starting to take over our tree...so this year, I gave them their own wreath and I love it! This may turn into a little tradition.

Autumn in Los Angeles

Next time I complain that I miss Autumn in the Midwest, remind me to drive through Hancock Park (in LA, oh, only about 1 mile north of me!).... this felt so good this morning... (nevermind the guy in short sleeves)

quote of the day... inspiring...

I found this quote in the gutter of a blog I peeked in on tonight.


"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity....
It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events.
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow."
Melodie Beattie

Did I show you our Christmas card photo yet?

We had a lot of fun using Libby Dibby as our outfitter for our Christmas card photo this year.

Here are a few happy moments from our shoot with Josh.

the photos are not showing up big here, but if you click on them, you can see them up close.

Cyber Monday

Turning the lights off tonight on Cyber Monday... Packages at the door ready to go out tomorrow... Tree in the background. Quiet house. Everyone sleeping. Stockings hung. And a little leftover Thanksgiving chocolate pie in the fridge for a bite before bed.
All is well.

Black Friday Cyber Monday/White Stockings

I'm doing a Christmas swap through the Domestic Bliss blog and I have been scratching my head as to what I can make for my swap partner... who indicated she loves white and vintage things... White? (me?)
So I found some of Grammy's old stashes of lace that I have inherited and I used some to make these tonight... I'm excited about how they have turned out. They are sweet and a little yellowed with age. But lovely.
One we will keep here, but the other will be stuffed with other sweet handmade items... Some ornaments and hand hammered ornament hooks, some jewelry...etc... I'm trying to plug away at it a little every day. I like the deadline and I like the inspiration.
Now I'm off to bed, because I like sleep too.

15% off at Libby Dibby - 4 days only - last coupon code for a long time!

we sent out one last coupon code over email last night...
i know - we've only sent one email out, all year, and here we go with 2 in one week... but if you didn't get it and want it to be sent to you - it's 15% off everything on our website!
email me if you are interested - and I promise, we won't kill your inbox - this is just a special week!

Going back to the beginning... jewelry

I've been really meaning to get out my beads and jewelry tools lately and yesterday I was able to go pick up a few boxes of beads and spend a few hours cranking away on some ideas - just for the fun of it. When I last made jewelry, I was always "cranking it out" - trying to get enough to fill store displays or ship to some of my retailers. This was purely for fun. And I really had a lot of fun!I tried stuff I haven't ever done and I am really pleased with what came of it.

Now I just need to figure out what I am going to do with it.... I'm not even sure these are really anything I'd wear - even though I love to look at them. They may end up with friends and family, or maybe in the etsy shop eventually... not sure. For now, they're sparkling up my living room.

sample scrap skirts

the three sample scrap skirts are up in the etsy shop... they have elastic waistbands and are sized for gals sized 10-12...
=)