Twilight

I haven't written about how much I LOVE the Twilight Saga. It's like I'm a crazed teenager! Good to know that there are lots of ladies my age who feel the same way though. There's a few of them I'm lucky to call my friends, and we got together last month to visit and do a Twilight craft. Well, the visiting and 2 bottles of Champagne made the crafting not happen (I didn't mind a bit!) so I made pendants for the girls and they finally got delivered yesterday!

First, the box I gave them to L in:

I found the valentine via one of the blogs (sorry I can't remember which one) and pasted it onto a BonTon jewelry box.
As you can see, we are a group of 7 (my own is in my jewelry box, the ones in the picture are for my friends) Two of the girls are actually Jacob fans- I love them anyway, even if they are slightly misguided! The wolf girls got the wolf pendants and the rest say "team edward". This was a fun little project, and really easy to do in my "spare" time. They are just like the ones that I made for the girls dance teachers, only Twilight themed- so fun!

Hope you are having a great day-

Christine

Crafty Fun

So, what do you do when your birthday girl (my oldest turned NINE yesterday!) is home with a fever and it's her BIRTHDAY?? Well, if you're me, you go into the basement and try to find a fun, relaxing craft to keep her mind off of it.

Make your own candles! I bought this "Candle Magic" candle wax in approximately 1996 from Michael's. I have no idea if they are still selling this stuff. I had this cute mold to make star shaped candles, you just melt the wax and put the wick in the center and voila, a handmade candle. Except that they were hard to make and they looked like a 2 yr. old had done them and if you were paying attention at the beginning my oldest just turned nine, so I didn't have any 2 year olds to blame for the cruddy looking candles. So the wax sat in my basement. Then it moved to my next house, the storage space and finally my new house. I really want to use up some of the ridiculous quantity of craft supplies that I own, so this was a perfect project for yesterday! In case you can't tell from the photo, the jars are from baby food. We didn't have to melt the wax, because we put it into the glass jar, and it melts as you use it. Both of the girls loved making the candles, and we are going to burn them at dinner every night per their request. I love a good crafty project that makes everyone happy and isn't even all that messy!

Hope your day is full of fun too!

PS- for those worried about my daughter, seems that the fever was a "24 hour" thing. She's just fine today, enjoying the extra vacation day from school!

Twice in one week???

Mommy, this one is for you, but anyone else can feel free to read on!

A couple of weeks ago there was a baby shower for my cousin, and these are the gifts from Mom and me:


A laundry basket filled with goodies!

3 pc pajama set

baby hooded towels with matching washcloths

Blanket #1 (made by yours truly) - a safari theme, complete with hand embroidered onesie to match....

Blanket #2: a train theme with another coordinating onesie...

and a burp cloth that matches the safari stuff...


I really missed my mom and sister at the shower... family functions aren't the same without them! However, I had a great visit with my other cousins, and that was very good. Plus they gave me cake. Any day with cake is a good day!

Photos- finally

Well, you thought you'd never get to see the gifts I made for Christmas this year, but it only took me a month to put the photos up!

For my middle daughters teachers, a bag
and a scarf

For my oldest's teachers a scarf

and a bag

For my sister in law (and best bud) a scarf

with matching cup cozy (shown with a starbucks cardboard cozy so you'd know what it was! Otherwise it looks like a weird spider-ish thing)

for the dance teachers- these are glass pendants and a pair of earrings. Unfortunately they did not photograph well. But, you get the idea. All I can say is that they are cuter in person!

I've got to find some photos for another post of the pj's that I made for one niece and nephew and the sweater/skirt combo I made for the other niece, and the mailman bag that I made for my nephew. Maybe my sister and sister in law will help me out with those....

Until next time- have a great day!

Also, if you want a gift like one of these for your upcoming birthday, now is a good time to comment on this post and request one :)

Happy New Year!

OK, the month is practically half over and I'm just now getting around to my new year post. Sad! So far in 2009, being a single mom is kicking my butt. I've tried to be as upbeat as possible, but I have to say that the past couple weeks, I'm just failing miserably. Today was the 3rd time since Christmas that the girls almost missed the bus. I've been late to work nearly every day since Christmas break... and the list goes on. Forgotten things, general unrest. My goal is to get my life in order by the end of January. I've made some progress this weekend, and I'm planning on working for 1 hour a day to get ORGANIZED. Later this week I'll be sure to post the photos, but this is what I made for Christmas projects this year:

For the dance teachers - pendants
For Miss Wendy at the dance studio - earrings
For the teachers at school- 2 crochet scarves and 2 tote bags
For my sister in law- a crochet scarf and matching cup cozy
For my niece and nephew- matching pj's
For my other niece- a crocheted sweater, a sewn skirt and some store bought tights
For my nephew- a mailman bag
For my own kids - matching pj's

It was a lot of fun making all those goodies, and I'm looking forward to making lots more! I've decided that I'm going to spend one hour a day on my own projects, just selfish "me" time. For January it's all about organizing. Then for the rest of the year, I'm all about the crafting! Especially sewing in my kick butt sewing room- after just one hour this weekend, I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, and I can picture how great it's going to be to have the huge sewing table cleared off and filled with actual sewing instead of boxes of junk. There's still 19 days in January- that's 19 HOURS of organizing. My house should be perfect after that!

Hope you are having a great day!

Blog break

OK, you've probably already noticed that I'm taking a blog break for the month of December. I just have too much to do, and really so should you. December is the most wonderful month of the year because you get to share joy and love with all of the important people in your life. Be an elf. Make cocoa. Even better- make cocoa with someone cute and small. Give handmade gifts to the grandparents & teachers. They'll appreciate them more than other stuff anyway. And find a way to squeeze in something for those in need. Today I made a gingerbread man for the United Way. It was a $2 donation, small & almost insignificant...except it was so significant because I did it for someone else. Even people like me, who are not in the best financial circumstances, can still do something for others.

OK, off my soapbox and back to the blog break.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Thankfulness

This week I'm especially thankful for:

- my children, and their good health
- my family- I had a wonderful party this weekend, and I had such fun being with them. My family is the best. So supportive and loving, and I couldn't be luckier there.
- my job- OK, it's not my dream job, but it's A job, and I'm thankful for the flexibility to work and still be home at almost the same time my kids hop off the bus.
- my sister in law- for letting me borrow Twilight & New Moon. By the way- I've finished New Moon already, so tell your friend with #3 to get moving on the reading :)
- my friend from Switzerland- my swap box arrived this weekend and I promise photos are coming soon but I totally made out! Wait till you see the lovely goodies that Kristin sent to me!

This time of year is so busy I sometimes forget to tell people how much I love them and how happy I am to have them be a part of my life- hopefully this post will remind me of my good fortune in the weeks to come!

Have a great day!