Crafting Christmas

I enjoy "crafting" Christmas.

I love it when the little details of the season come together

and make our celebration a bit unique.

There's a good side and a bad side to this...

I tend to not want to even wrap a gift or send a card

unless I had some part in crafting the finished product.

Which means I should start prepping for Christmas in July.

But who does that?

Not me!

The good news is that as of yesterday

my living room craft table has been moved to the basement.

The dining room "every-thing-gets-piled-here" table

has been cleared.

The table cloth is on,

the little centerpiece jars are complete

and the penguins have made their annual appearance!

Now...we wait!

Linking up with Tamar today!

Sabbath?

"Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern;

it will come out a rose by and by.

Life is like that ~

one stitch at a time taken patiently

and the pattern will come out alright like the embroidery."

Oliver Wendell Holmes

After a long week, where a bad stomach bug left me with more cabin fever than all these weeks of winter combined, I was able to enjoy a very relaxing weekend. Saturday's sunshine and fresh air lured me to the pond, and Sunday was all about rest. Chosen rest, which is so much more pleasant than the forced-on-you kind of rest. Or rest of the I'm-just-being-lazy variety. I did some light housekeeping, lingered with the second season of  Call the Midwife....and picked up my needlepoint.

I finished all the light green stitching that fills in the outer border, and decided I'd choose the brightest color in the palate for my next stitches. Orange!  So cheerful and warm!

I think it's going to take a good long while to finish this piece ~ it's over a foot squared! But there is a soothing rhythm to the stitching...no deadlines, no goals. Just one pretty little stitch at a time ~ at my leisure.

At my leisure.

Awash in a sea of brilliant color

Floating along with the ups and downs of a lovely, televised tale, told so beautifully.

Finding my own rhythm.

I know there are many who don't have the luxury of a day like I had yesterday.

And I learned {a bit later than some} how to allow myself such a day. But I've learned.

All of which leaves me very grateful.

I don't suppose that true Sabbath keepers would consider my day of rest to have been restful enough.

But I'm growing. And choosing for myself.

And resting.

And thrilled to be enjoying life...one tiny stitch at a time.



Linking up with
The Good. The Random. The Fun.
and
Macro Monday

Two (very simple) Pinterest Success Stories!

If you're like me, you love Pinterest.

{and I'm sure we all Pin way more things than we try}

Well...this weekend, I actually used two ideas that I'd pinned from two of my favorite bloggers.

And both turned out to be 

SIMPLE

and 

LOVELY!

The first was a FIVE ingredient Pumpkin Spice Cake.

I mean, she had me at FIVE!

Even my non-cake eater loved this.

It was so moist and absolutely delicious!

{Link to Tabitha's Recipe}

And then I stumbled upon a

"kill two birds with one stone" craft!

First, I cleaned out my over-stuffed spice cabinet.

{on my to-do list for weeks...this craft got me motivated!}

Once the glass spice jars were cleaned out,

they became sweet bud vases

for my Thanksgiving table!

Blog post included printable tags and labels.

Once again...

SIMPLE

and

LOVELY!

{Link to Melissa's Bud Vase How To}

Both of these bloggers inspire me!

They keep it simple and they are so creative.

Our Thanksgiving was sweeter thanks to their Pinspiration!

Linking up with Project 52, Miscellany Monday, Weekend Shenanigans & Inspire Me Monday

Wedding Collection

Remember the Save the Dates and Invitations I made?

Well, this special wedding is this weekend!

The bride wanted burlap, birch and sunflowers as her primary decorative elements.

It was great fun to work with  her ideas!

Last week I finished her programs. 

Little booklets, bound with burlap and held together with some twine.

{my daughter's programs were just like these!}

As a wedding gift, I made her some thank you notes.

I revisited the birch theme by simply embossing the front of each card.

Kept them simple...I really like the way they turned out.

And I added the stamp as a "seal" for the envelopes.

Then...just for fun...I made her a frame!

Burlap mat, a few birch branches and their custom heart.

I think a wedding photo will look great there, don't you?!?

Linking up with

LIttle Things Thursdays and Thursday Favorite Things

{Come and Join in the Six Word Fridays Party HERE tomorrow!!}

Baby Shower Invitation

My daughter and I had the honor of making baby shower invitations 

for a very excited mom to be!

She's having a boy and wanted the theme of her shower to be

"love you to the moon and back."

So, we went hunting for some Pinspiration!!

And found THIS!!

My daughter worked up the text, choosing fonts and colors

and did the printing for us.

I got busy with the Cricut, and cut all the moons, stars and letters.

It's always fun to create with paper.

But it's extra-specially fun when I get to work on a project with my daughter!

Linking up with

Little Things Thursdays and Thursday Favorite Things

Hundreds of Pieces

I do love taking the hundreds of little pieces
and putting them all together to make something lovely.

There are few things, made of paper, twine and burlap, happier than a wedding invitation.

And I've made one hundred for the bride to be! Can't wait to give them to her ... she and her mom have address writing plans this weekend.

{a nice follow up to the Save the Dates, don't you think?!}

Joining Kim for

Little Things Thursdays
and linking up with
Random Hearts

10 {Little} Moments

8 am ~ quiet beginnings

9 am ~ rainy drive through

10 am ~ let's open the mail

11 am ~ let's process some invoices

noon ~ time for today's deposit

1 pm ~ grabbing lunch from Bruegger's

2 pm ~ watering the plants...this one's my favorite

3 pm ~ let's do some filing

4 pm ~ oh, my aching back....

5 pm ~ my time at the pond

{got a kick out of this guy....standing on one leg & stretching his wing}

6 pm ~ meeting a client to choose a wedding invitation design


Just a look at a very typical day in the life...
Full of little moments that added up to a pleasant and productive day!



Joining in with this month's Ten on Ten 
over at a bit of sunshine
and linking up with Little Things Thursdays
over at Little By Little

Notes

I'm a fan of the hand written note.

And of snail mail.

So I've been busy editing photos and making cards.
Some with sentiments, some with quotes.

Is there an Etsy shop in my future?

 Linking up with 

Little Things Thursdays

Black & White Wednesday: 50th

When your brother turns 50

and lives in Hawaii....

you make him a sentimental gift and send it via air-mail...

and try not to be too sad that you can't spend the day with him.

Enough about me.

My renaissance man of a brother
is a kind man.
He truly lives as he imagines
and follows his dreams
all around the world.
He inspires me,
teaches me
learns with me
and loves me.

Happy Birthday, baby brother.
I love you right back.

Home

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.

It turns what we have into enough,

and more.

It turns denial into acceptance,

chaos to order, confusion to clarity.

It can turn a meal into a feast,

a house into a home,

a stranger into a friend."

Melody Beattie

My week has been full of crafting. 

Wreath making, framing, card making....

I'm loving it!

These "leftovers" are lying on my dining room table...waiting to find their place.

{shot with a little bokeh in the background}

I cracked open my scrapbooks and found a few pages that are frame worthy.

I've been gathering prints, decorating mattes and frames to get something ready for my bedroom.

Don't you love the burlap behind the prints?! 

Thanks to #PROJECTdecor

(check it out on Instagram or HERE)

I was inspired to try this by @becky_stevens.

Thanks!!

One thing I've done as I'm fussing with my decor,

is to group objects of like color.

It's been great to take what I already have and, just by rearranging it, make our space more beautiful.

I love neutrals. So I feel bad saying this....

but here is an ordinary color grouping.

We are renters, not owners.

This stove was purchased in 1989. No joke. We got a copy of the owner's manual with our lease.

Three of the four burners work. And I have been known to complain about it.

However....in true makeover spirit...

I scrubbbbbbbeeed it clean, bought shiny new burner pans...

and am pretending that I've fallen in love with it!

{and, no....my pots were not purchased in 1989...at least I don't think they were!}

My workshop space is also getting lots of attention.

All my displays are getting updated.

Don't you love the graveyard fence with the friendly ghost?

Would be great for a Halloween layout!

I truly love devoting time to my home. 

Stay tuned for more completed projects this week!

Sharing a quote and some #PROJECTdecor love

with Tabitha

And enjoying Scavenger Hunt fun 

with Ashley

Sunday, Sunday....

This Sunday was a get-a-lot-done-day!
Started with some quiet, alone time &
Some blog reading and writing...


Once I'd had some coffee, the crafting began!

In between the craft projects...
some cleaning and laundry did get done...Some.
Even found time for a fresh coat of polish!

I really am a homebody ~
And when you grow up thinking that something's
not ok to be,
it takes a long time to realize that's really who you are!!

Crafts and Curls

Take some fabric, burlap, card stock and scissors...add some giggles and some bad television and what do you get?

Wedding Craft Night!

The first of many ~ we're gonna make some magic!

It's hard to believe that my sweet 'baby' is going to be a Mrs. in less than three months. We've got a lot to do, and we're going to have fun getting it all done! Every little piece and corner of this wedding is going to have Melissa's personal touch, and I can't wait to share her creativity and spirit with everyone who's coming!

In other news....my boring, straight, I've-been-wearing-it-like-this-for-years hair got a cut and perm last week. I'm still getting used to it ~ but the change felt really good!