Easy Gift from a Cardmaker :)

This time of the year is when we stop to think about who we like to say "thank you" to in the form of a little something.  Folks like teachers, postal workers, newspaper delivery folks, and all those people who make life run easier than we can imagine.  Last year I made a few sets of cards with matching memo pads for my fellow teachers to give as a "Christmas thanks" to their room moms and to their own child's teacher.  This year is gift set 2.0.

First up is a Christmasy style decorated box.  I had fun adding some bling in the form of a glittery lime green BB chipboard sticker, some yummy MB paper, and two ribbons.  The thank you card you see is part of the 8 card variety pack included in this box.

This is the back view.  I wanted something cute to peek out the back and, rather than the embellied envie, I went with a Christmas card.  I thought it would also hint to the recipient that this is a variety pack. :)  If you have visited me here before, some of these cards will look a little familiar. LOL! :)  There were two of these Christmasy card sets, but when I downloaded the pics I realized I forgot to take shots of the other one before I delivered it to the buyer!!! (U-G-H!)  For a better pic of the St. Lucia rabbit click here.

This one has a decidedly less Christmas feel, but it's good for all occasion inspiration. :)  Went with good ole BB glittery lime swirly chipboard stickers, some designer ppr, and two ribbons for this one too.

Version 2 of this design- I remembered to take pics of this one. LOL!

Here's the back of both of these.  Eye candy from all angles. :)  For a better look at the MFT birthday girl click here and for the birthday daisy click here.

I've boxed these up for delivery here:
craft ENvy- Holly Bloggy Christmas
The Creative Crate- Christmas Party
Top Tip Tuesday- Christmas Inspired
Creative Friday #32- Gift Box
Todays Creative Blog- Get Your Craft On!

Christmas Gifts and Thanks

I'm sending this thanks to a former student and her parents.  The whole family is uber artistic and talented!  Both parents are artists/teachers and they invited me to their Christmas pottery sale. :)  I *heart* pottery and this stuff is "the stuff".

Here's a kinda sketchy pic of one of the chip/dip platters I bought.  Better pics of pottery goodness can be found here.

On to Top Tip Tuesday!!!!  This week Vee is hosting a cool tut showing how to make this cutie-patootie gift box from coasters. 

Sponsors for TTT this week:
Digital Delights

Creative Treasures
Sunshine and Giggle Stamps

There are lots of ways to win, so hop on over to find out more!

I'm "tweeting" this card here:
The Artistic Stamper- Christmas
Dutch Dare- Christmas Card/Tag/Ornament
Sundays with Crissy- Christmas is Coming
Crafty Cardmakers- Lastest AND Oldest (the oldest part was painful!)
Raise the Bar- SNOW (silver- the button have silver glitter, no ribbon- it's string, one designer paper- the other pattern is the actual base, wording- just a Christmas note. :)
Sugar Bee- Take a Look Tuesday

My Gal Martha

As if, but a gal can wish. :)  I told you earlier this week that I had been to the Martha Stewart Holiday Craft Fair.  Here are some pic's from the day.  Only a few.  We're hosting my husbands office party at our place this weekend and I really need to get this place cleaned up! LOL! (Actually it's more like crying out loud- I really hate cleaning)

After getting up at 5:15 am (or as I refer to it "the time God hasn't turned on the lights yet, so I shouldn't be up) to catch my very first ever train at 7:20 (also in the a-period-m-period) my friend Lynn and I got to the line outside the MSLO offices at 11:15.  Within 10 minutes the line had tripled!  No kidding.  I can tell you it was WICKED COLD OUTSIDE!!!  We waited the 45 minutes and were number 99 and 100 to get in the door. :)

Moments later it was shoppers delight!  Most of the folks selling wears were employees, but we met some wonderful vendors who had won the chance to take part in the fair.

This gal was one of them!  She sold some great felted baskets that looked like acorns and some of the cutest little felt acorn ornaments.  Of course I had to get a few of those precious ornaments.  My friend Lynn got one of the acorn baskets for a friend and it is so stinking cute!!!  The card I picked up from this gal lists her website as Baskets At Home and she was simply lovely in spite of my terrible photo. (It was a hopping place people!  I had to snap quick.)

I'm probably remembering/spelling this wrong but Sullivan Street Bakery was there selling bomboloni and they were AMA-wait-for-it-ZING!  Lighter than a doughnut and vanilla creme filled goodness. YUM!

I snapped this shot of some homemade jam for the Jammin Crew at my church (BTW they had The Holiday Bazaar this past Saturday and the gals sold $4,100 worth of jams and goods.  Whoo-hooo!)

Lest you think I only took photos of food... This is my friend Lynn holding Bad To The Bone, a stuffed animal made of knit gloves.  He's the creation of Anduin (an Emmy winning employee of MSLO).  I got BTTB's stinkin cute reindeer brother Fitz (photo coming soon).  Lynn got fingerless gloves made by Anduin.  We spent the train ride back being little kids excited that the hands that touched an Emmy made our goodies. :)

There was a make-your-own booth hosted by Martha gals too!  We were afraid of breaking anything we made so would took a pass and just watched the goodies folks were creating.

When we left at 1:30 pm the line to get in looked like this.  You see that goldish colored boxy thing sort of at the base of the street light?  The line went FURTHER than that.  But wait there's more!  Let's look back at the building I just left...

The line went to that Just 4 truck and wrapped back toward the door.  Holy moly!  It was like getting into a night club!  There were only so many folks let in at a time.  I've never seen that for a craft fair before.  It was kinda neat. :)

I'll post some pic's of the Macy*s windows this weekend.  Before I go, I want to give a great shout out to some of the FANTASTIC folks who were there, I *heart*, and was so distracted admiring/buying their wears I forgot to get a photo of their booth.  In no particular order...

Blondies Southern Sweets and Savories (in spite of the fact she is an Auburn Tiger and not a Clemson Tiger, I adored her tasty goods and she was a true southern gem. LOL!)
The Feisty Redhead (great scarves and shoulder shrugs)
little alouette (awesome teething rings! I'm getting a custom one for a friend as a shower gift!)
handmade stuffed PET PORTRAITS (exactly what they look like and AWESOME!)
LaLa Laurie (her card reads crafter, writer, kitten wrangler- nothing more to say.  I'm in! BTW she posted some great shots of craft day on her blog.  Whatta gal!)

I'm already thinking about

My Halls are mostly DECKED! :)

 

Welcome to my "Decked Halls"!  Susan over at Between Naps on the Porch is hosting a tree trimming party blogland style. :)  I thought I'd share what my husband, his family, and I did on Black Friday to get ready for the holidays.

Help yourself to a cuppa, it's gonna be a heavy pic post. :)

 Wash up if you like while I make your cuppa and we'll start in the dining room.  DH just finished the wainscoting and chair rail in there.  I was supposed to paint the walls above, but I really want to get the rest of those cardinal wall clings up DSIL gave me!  Painting will have to wait to after the holidays.  ;)

These are the "Little People my mom made when I was a kid.  Remember when ceramics was big and everyone was creating something in a ceramics class?  I have almost all the Christmas creations of my mom.  See if you can spot more as we wander around.  When it get's dark we'll stop back here to see everything all lit up. :)

DH cleaned up his office so he could put up his tree.  This is the one he had when we were first dating. :)  He's a white lights and simple decor kinda guy.  Good thing I've convinced him "more is better" when it comes to Christmas decor or one of us would be very sad right now. LOL!

Rest a bit before we head upstairs.  This tree is our "First Christmas" tree.  We held a voting contest with all of our friends and family for our first married Christmas.  Folks had to vote for colored or white lights.  Lucky for this "color gal" and her "white lights guy" it was a tie!  So there's a strand of each on this tree along with some old school bubble lights.  Those were my moms favorite.  You can sit here by the tree...

or over here by the fire.

 

Oh dear!  I haven't a fire going yet!  We did manage to get my stocking, DH's stocking, and the fur crew socks up though.  Since there's no fire maybe we should head upstairs. :) 

 If you need a rest stop you could use our guest bath, or

the master bath.  We've wandering for a bit and you've had a lot of coffee. :)  You're all set?  Okay then...

Here's our master bedroom tree.  Gram was getting rid of this tree, so I took it off her hands.  My mom's collection of blow glass ornaments, along with some of my own, reside here away from the dangers of little hands and bodies. :)

Here's the very first glass ornament I got mom for Christmas when I was a kid (okay really Gram bought it for me to give her. ;) )  It's starting to get dark.  Why don't you help me turn on the trees in the other bedrooms.

Love those colorful lights. :)

Pretty little bird lights to brighten the night. :)  Let's head back to the dining room to see the tree all lit up. That on is on a timer so it's already casting it's soft glow!

Oh DH must have come home and lit the candles for us!  I ADORE candlelit dinners.

I also adore snow!  This whole tree is dedicated to my snowflake, snowman, snowwoman, snow-whatever ornaments.  Gram gave us this when we got married.  Cute couple aren't they?  DH and I are looking more and more like them everyday! LOL!

Well thanks for stopping by!  It was wonderful to have you!  I'll be sure to pass along all your compliments to DH and the rest of the family.  They worked hard to help me put this all together.  Stop by again later this week and I'll share my pictures from the Martha Stewart Holiday Craft Fair in NYC this weekend and the Macy*s windows. :)

Hop over here to see even more decked abodes! :)

Teapot Reveal!

Hi Folks!  So I've been MIA since Wednesday, well there's a good reason.  I was busy getting that teapot basket ready, making a second basket, AND I went to the Martha Stewart Holiday Craft Sale!!!!!  But more on that in a bit.  First I want to show you the baskets! :)

 the before shot :)

First, I want to say a HUGE thanks to all of you for your ideas!  I especially want to thank Pink Sandra for her wicked awesome suggestions.  Email me hun!  I'd love to send you some crafty goodies to say thanks for giving me those great ideas. :)

So I went with the fig and apple spread...

I added some tea, a creamer pitcher, a sugar bowl, napkins, cinnamon sticks, and of course the teapot. :)

Here it is all bundled up and ready for a good home. :) I got so jazzed making this basket, I went to town and made a mini basket too!

Alas, in my excitement to finish this basket I only took this mediocre photo.  Sorry about that folks. :(  I hope these baskets were fun and inspiring for you in spite of the sketchy pics. LOL!

So back to my Martha experience!  I'm in the process of going through all the shots and I'll post them later this week. :)  I also got some (I hope) great shots of the windows at Macy*s.  Stop by later on Monday (around 9pm) when I "Deck the Halls" and don't forget we'll be hosting a new tutorial & challenge at Top Tip Tuesday.  (Challenge Hint- think about what every package needs to make it pop!)

Thanks again folks for stopping by and I promise to catch up on returning all that blog love! :)

White (Wednesday) Christmas

Happy Wednesday everyone!  A couple weeks ago my DH and I went to the Methuen Tree Festival.  There are hundreds of decked out trees and all of them are up for grabs!!!  All the trees are raffled off to raise money for the historical society.  I thought I'd share a few of the stunning white trees for inspiration...

I swoon over tree festivals.  Looking at all the themed trees, the crazy trees, the beautiful trees and the simply trees all in one place is inspiring.

 

My mom and I used to go to a tree festival held at one of the art museums in the town I grew up in, but you couldn't get any of those trees.  These trees are all up for grabs!!!  That little white pole with the coin slot on top is for raffle tickets. :)  How fun is that?!?

Fun frosty tree topper on this one!  I especially adore the feather headdress.  Very early Cher don'cha think? :)

This little table topper tree uses a punch bowl for the base!  Cool idea and seriously when was the last time you had your bowl out anywho?

Close up shot of the punch bowl tree stand.  Love those glittered fruit on the punch bowl plate and the ornaments in the cups.  Dust off those punch bowls folks.  I see a centerpiece in the works. :)

Aaahhh isn't this one so luscious!  The feathers and the lights make this one glow beautifully. 

Last tree for today.  Seemed like a good one to end this post.  Peace is something we could all use this season.  Take time to remember what it was like to be a kid at this time of the year.  The wonder, the joy, and the excitement are what we all need to let ourselves feel.

Stop by again.  I'll be posting more shots to inspire over the next few days. :)  In the meantime, hop over to Faded Charm to check out more White Wednesday inspiration.