on the 11th day of Christmas

Today is Day 11 of Steph's 12 giveaways of Christmas and you can enter to win ...

... 2 personalized 5x7 silhouettes from my shop and a bunch of other fun and gorgeous things!


Merry Christmas!

Handmade Christmas, part II

This project was actually a Christmas present for me. :)

A while ago I saw this tutorial for sewing your own ironing board cover and saved it in my "ideas" folder. It looked so easy, and my ironing board definitely needed a face-lift! Then a few days later I found some really cute material on the remnants table at the fabric store. And now, several months later, I finally took the time to make it into this:

It turns out that the hardest part was getting everything together and taking the time to make it - so glad I did! :)

The ironing board cover takes 2 yards of fabric and about an hour to complete (or longer if you get interrupted;)). Basically, if you have a sewing machine, iron and ironing board and some basic sewing skills, you can make this!

Hmm, maybe I'll make a few more as Mother's Day gifts?

I'm posting a link to this on a few of these blogs.

I got featured :)

Make and Takes just featured the Tea Towel project! Kind of fun :)




And Moms By Heart did, too!




Thank you ladies!

handmade Christmas, part I

I made a dozen tea towels to give as gifts this year to, well, some of my loved ones (you know who you are already, so what am I trying to hide?). :)
They were so much fun to make, and so pretty that I'm thinking of keeping a few for myself!

I meant to post these and the tutorial right after I finished making them two weeks ago. Really, I did.
But you still have time to make some too, if you'd like!

To make them I used:

• 6 cotton "flour sack" towels, 30"x30"
• a bag full of ribbons and trims that I've been saving
• sewing scissors
• iron and ironing board
• my sewing machine

I cut the towels in half the long way to end up with 12 towels that were 15"x30".
Then I pressed them, ironing out a bunch of the wrinkles and pressing a hem on the raw edge.
Next I sewed the hem on the raw edge, making them finished on all four sides.

I have a bag full of short ribbons and miscellaneous trims that I've been saving and I spent an hour or so sorting through it looking for just the right combination of ribbon and trim for each of my loved ones (making them so cute and personal). That was the most fun out of the entire project!

The last step was sewing the trim on to the towels. Once that was done, all that was left was to wrap them up!

I'm linking this at these blogs - check them out for some terrific Christmas ideas!

Free Shipping Day

the Path Less Traveled is participating in Free Shipping Day!

Today is the last day that you can place an order and still get it by Christmas Eve. I'll still be mailing out orders as they come in after today, though, just can't guarantee when they'll get there. :)

Christmas is coming...

...and it's just around the corner! Seriously, how did it come up so quickly?
Steph over at Somewhat Simple is having an amazing Christmas giveaway event - the 12 Giveaways of Christmas:

She is offering 78 prizes in 12 days - pretty amazing!!! (But not nearly as amazing as the Gift we celebrate on Christmas Day)
And if you enter on the 11th day you'll have a chance to win two custom 5x7 silhouettes from my etsy shop. :)

funky DIY silhouettes

 Design*Sponge featured an article yesterday with a tutorial on how to make your own framed (and funky) silhouettes. The ones they pictured were of birds and so on, but the same process would look great as a personalized gift for a loved one - maybe of your kids or of theirs?

image source

goody goody goody!

a little red ribbon was having a giveaway for one of her zippered pouches, and I won!

Thank you Gret - I'm so excited (grin!)!

(images from a little red ribbon)

Another Giveaway!

A Little Nick Nack is hostessing a giveaway of a few little things from the shop!

Head on over to her blog and enter to win a Sky Blue Flower set and a White Scallop Garland (there might be a coupon code in it, too ;D).

<3

wall words

Have you seen some of the amazing things that people have been doing with vinyl stickers on their walls? I've been loving them and have so many ideas of ways that I could use them too. But, if you've been reading a while, you know that I am really really cheap  frugal, and would much rather make a knock off than pay for something.

I have been wanting to put a word or phrase in the little empty space in the middle of this picture grouping for a while and finally did it the other day.

I gathered:

• a pencil,
• soft erasure,
• watercolor paints (the really cheap dollar store kind that come with a plastic brush),
• cup of water and white saucer,
• and a moist rag,

all of which I already hand on hand - so this project cost absolutely nothing!

My first step, after determining what I wanted to write (and making sure that Emma was napping so she wouldn't see me writing on the wall), was to pencil in the lettering.
I'm not quite confident enough to just take a paint brush to the wall, even though I would have been able to wipe it clean and start fresh if if didn't turn out just right so the pencil allowed me to adjust the spacing and height of the letters a bit, and stand back and look before I comitted to using the paint. At this point you can erase the letters completely if you decide that it's not the look that you're going for.

The second step was to mix the paint. I used a sepia toned brown that I made by mixing a bit of black and brown in the white saucer. Once I was happy with the color I moved on to the third step which was start painting!
My hand shook a little at the beginning, but I used the damp cloth to ease out any squiggles and just kept moving.
I kept adjusting and adding paint here and there to darken it as I went, and then after a bit stood back to look. It turned out great!

I really love the way it looks, and especially love that it was free! Also, A Little Nick Nack is hostessing a giveaway of some of my things - you might like head on over and enter :)


I'm linking this over on some of these fun blogs - head over and check out what others are posting!

My Advent Blessings (so far)

I really didn't mean to take a week off from the blog. Really. But life gets busy. Amazing how that happens. :)

Since I posted last:

• we had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving with John's family
• I got most of the Christmas shopping done on Black Friday
• we got (most of) the Christmas decorations up, including the tree
• I got my hair cut - 11" taken off and donated to Locks of Love
• and a bunch of other stuff that I really can't recall at the moment

 the new hair :)

In the last few days I've also had a bunch of blessings! There has been at least one each day, and it's been kind of like my own special Advent celebration. All of them have been unexpected and made me feel so loved.

• a fresh wreath arrived on our doorstep (thanks Mom!)
• we were given a turkey
• my haircut was free! (I guess that's normal when you donate your hair, but I had no idea when I walked in and was fully expecting to pay for it)
• I found a dozen white roses on clearance for $2. They were already a few days old (hence the clearance) but I really love how they are open and blowsy looking :)
• got this in the mail (okay, I kind of did know about it since I had ordered it, but I forgot about it completely! it was so nice to open the mail box and find it there!)

 source

•  And it snowed this morning.

I'm really loving this Advent season so far. I used to think it was fun when I was little, but it's even more fun when you're an adult! Looking forward to what the rest of December - and my Heavenly Father - holds in store.