Happy Holidays

Happy Festivus, Christmas Eve, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, belated Happy Hanukkah, and any other holiday out there that anyone may celebrate!

Santa was very good to this chica this year! Very blessed for the family and friends in my life! I hope everyone is taking time to enjoy their time with family and friends.

Angie

My Coolest Handmade Gift Evah!

This year I did not take a whole lot of time to devote to cross stitching, my very first crafting love. So when we went on vacation at the end of September, I treated myself to the cutest little pattern ever by magpienight on Etsy. If you read my blog with any regularity, you know that I love all things Golden Girls. It would stand to reason that a few of my friends do as well. My friend Stacie and I can equate any situation in real life to an episode of the Golden Girls. (Drives our husbands cRaZy!) It made sense that she would be the recipient of this fab handmade Christmas gift. Now don't worry...I've already given her the gift so I'm not ruining any surprises!


The pic above shows magpienight's Little Golden Girls as charted stitched on 28ct. linen over 2 threads and framed in a 5-inch wooden hoop backed with cardboard.
I had to put a personal inscription on the back with one of Stacie's favorite quotes. For all the fans out there, this was actually Dorothy speaking for God.The companion pieces was a creation of my own. I found a fat quarter of a matching fabric, cut a small pieces and backed it with a fusible lightweight interfacing. I then wrote out my phrase on a plain piece of paper in my own handwriting. I taped the plain paper with the phrase to a bright window and taped the fabric over top, tracing the phrase with a water soluble fabric pen. I then used embroidery thread to stitch the phrase and framed it in a 4-inch wooden hoop as well.

Thanks for reading!
Angie

Bad Blogger in 2010

Yes, I will admit I have been a terrible blogger this year. On the flipside, I really put a lot of time and effort into my business, 15 Pieces of Flair. Not only did I list a ton of awesome things in my online shop at Etsy, I did my first 2 craft shows. Both were outdoors and both were longer than 1 day. That was one of my biggest goals for 2010 and both shows were a great success!
In addition to my crafting victories, there were some personal victories and sadly, some losses. And I also made a job change after 6 years at my old job. Granted my new job is doing the exact same thing as my old job, but I think any kind of job change can be stressful.

Ramona, our toothless dog that my husband has deemed a zombie-dog afflicted with the condition permafart (this is where her weakened B.H. constantly leaks smelly dog gas), is still plugging along.....barely. Charlie Murphy is becoming quite the distinguished gentleman with a bit of graying around his snout at the ripe old age of three. We also added a new member to our family this year in the form of a silver Subaru Outback that my husbands drives named "Big Sexy". If you haven't figured it out already, my husband can be a bit full of himself at times. ;) Love you honey!

Anyway, I am confined to home for these last few weeks of 2010 and have been looking around the web for "blogspiration" for my upcoming crafting season of 2011. I plan to post links to some of these fantabulous blogs as well as some great tutorials here in the next couple of weeks. There may also be some Christmas pictures sprinkled in for good measure!

Jubilee at Jackson's Mill

I have been noticeably absent from the blogging world lately, but I do have good reason. I have been busy working away in my studio (aka. spare bedroom in the basement with no windows and butt-ass ugly wallpaper) preparing to do a huge craft show on Labor Day weekend. After the smashing success of my first show in May, I decided that I was insane enough to go for another round this year. If I didn't have to work full time, I would really like to do more of this type of thing, but 2 weekend-long shows this year while working full time has proven challenging enough. My husband loses his wife for at least the last four weeks before the event for the final push to get everything done. He's been very supportive through it all. He thinks that I will bring him fame and fortune someday....ummmmm....is he serious?! So for anyone that will be in the Weston, WV area anytime during Fri, Sat, Sun of Labor Day weekend, please stop by The Jubilee at Jackson's Mill to do some shopping, eat some great food, and see some awesome demonstrations (the bee beard guy freaks me out every time we've visited!)

Possible Party Ideas

After planning many a party at the end of 2009, I couldn't imagine hosting anything at the beginning of this year. Now as the weather is improving and people are getting out and about, I am feeling more up to have some gatherings. There are a few party ideas that I've had in mind for a while. They aren't for specific events or holidays, just silly made up parties.

The first one was an idea concocted with some close friends of ours to have a "redneck" dinner party. The party would involve each couple invited to bring the most redneck dish they could imagine to have a totally trashy junk food buffet. It could include things like Slim Jims roasted over the grill/fire, Frito chili pies fixed right in the mini Frito bags (an old Wal*Mart snack bar favorite!), a giant jar of pickles or pickled eggs....the possibilities are endless! This is still a fledgling idea though and any input would be fantastic. So warm up your comment-typing fingers and let the ideas fly! Note: I actually found a page with some great ideas while searching for an image for my blog post.
The second idea for a fabulously fun party is to have a Golden Girls-themed party. It would be girls only, obviously, and include watching episodes of the Golden Girls, trivia, cheesecake, sparehooven krispies (I need to come up with a recipe for this one), and would be perfect if held on the lanai. People could even come dressed as their favorite Golden Girl. This could be especially hilarious if your friends' little girls were also invited. An afternoon of moms, daughters, and friends having fun...what could be better?

Both are still just tiny ideas, but things that could prove to be very fun! Anyone out there have any other kooky party ideas? I'd love to hear them.

Challenging Custom Order

One of my coworkers' children requested a sock monkey after seeing one of my previous orders. He decided that a drawing would be the best way to show me exactly how he imagined his monkey would look. I have included the drawing and what I came up with based on that. I think I came pretty close. I just hope it meets his expectations. I hear a 10-year-old can be hard to please! ;)

Diary Entry in Pencil Drawing. Enjoy!

Click image to enlarge to view exquisite detail!