Jingle Bells!

 With Venice seemingly giving up on naps altogether, I've had to find quick and easy crafts to keep those busy hands busy.

Luckily, Martha has a great kids craft section on her website! 

I tend to be a little on the controlling side when it comes to doing crafts with Venice, but this one went Ok, maybe I'm realizing that having fun is more important than them looking perfect. 

Freshly painted egg carton cups.

A tidy bundle of vintage yarn from the Sally Ann.

Staples of crafting (and life).

I did the glue and she glittered.

      

I don't have a picture of the finished project, but I threaded the yard through the tops of the egg cups and tied bells inside.

Venice hung the jingle bells in our laundry room so she'd hear when Daddy comes home from work.

On a completely different note, I had made some cotton rags from an old tea towel and wanted to make ringlets in her hair just like I used to when I was little girl.

Clearly you need really long hair and lots of it.

Venice had a huge blonde 'fro! This picture was before I picked through it!

Needless to say, she went to school with pigtails.

Glee Premier, Hoarding & the Unfamous Blanket

Hi All! 

Well, it's Glee season!! Woohooo! And for the season 2 premier, my friend Stacey had a few of of us over. And I literally mean a few, Glee fans in this small town seem to be few and  far between, there were four of us in total.

Stacey and her sister, Kelsey, made amazing thin crust pizza with all the trimmings, all fresh ingredients, including Camembert cheese and artichoke hearts, YUM!!

My other friend, Care, made strawberry Slurpee cupcakes with Nib straws, SO cute! 

So when I asked what I could contribute to our little gathering, she asked if I could bring a bottle of wine. Ummmm Yeah I can! So in true Glee fashion, I made a wine Slurpee.

One bottle of Rose', 1/2 bottle of sparkling wine, and about three or four cups of pomegranate juice. Pop that puppy in the freezer over night, stirring a couple of times the next day. 

When it was Glee time, I scooped a few spoonfuls into each glass and topped it with some sparkling pomegranate juice.

Glee napkins were a must as well as the famous 'hand carrying a threatening slurpee' shot.

Speaking of favorite TV shows of mine, there are some that I am too embarrassed to tell most anyone, but one that I'm not too ashamed to admit that I like, is Hoarders. 

Don't ask me what the fascination with it is, maybe its seeing someones house that's messier than mine.

Since I've started watching it though, I have these moments, when I'm sure I'm a hoarder. Mostly when I'm going through my daughters closets and sorting out clothes that they've out grown and searching through 6 gigantic Rubbermaid's for Venice's old clothes for some that might fit Giselle.  

I'm pretty sure that my hoarding all began when I started scrap booking. (I'm guessing that's when 90% of all hoarders started hoarding.)

I look in my basement craft room, PS worst place ever for a craft room, and I see all these little projects that never came to fruition. There are tons of them! Half done baby books, trip journals, homemade cards and the list goes on and on. 

I think my hoarding has gotten worse since I found this Handmade Home book. They talk about making projects from reclaimed or vintage fabric. Now I have a growing stack of old fabric that's on my dining room table (always a bad sign). I think the dining room is the first to go.

So friends, if you see me near a dollar store or Michael's or especially a Sally-Ann, please call A&E for me, I have a problem.

And now, the blanket that I've been talking about. I bought a wool blanket, seam cut the trim off and started sewing on felt flowers that I drew and cut out. I stitched on the flowers and sewed buttons in the center of the flowers. I'm in the process of stitching vines all over, connecting the flowers and leaves, but it's taking me forever! I'm more of a one sitting type crafter, so this is progress in my patience level.

After the stitching is all done, I have this super cute, stripey, fleece-backed, sweater material that will make the blanket cozy. Apparently wool isn't really that cozy, who knew?

And these pictures have nothing really to do with all the previous subjects, but they were just too darn cute to not post! 

Distractions = Glee, Felting & The Eiffel Tower

Lately these days I find myself mildly distracted from the everyday, ordinary tasks that keep life flowing smoothly. Things like, unpacking suitcases (8 days and counting), vacuuming, baking, etc. What are these things that are distracting me?

Well.... Where to start? OK, Glee. Thanks to a good friend of mine, I now have in my possession, season one of Glee. I've had this 4 disc set for about 4 weeks now. I have been putting off watching it because of it's musical-ness. How do I feel about musicals? I fast-forwarded through every song in Mama Mia. And I like ABBA! But much to my surprise, I found myself up till one in the morning, curled up with my laptop, ear buds in ear (as to not wake my husband), physically unable to press stop. So now I find myself sneaking every possible moment to finish the season. This is just distraction number 1, wait till you find out about the others. I am hanging my head in shame as I type.

Now, distraction number 2. Felting. Yes, I craft and I'm proud of it! I don't wear kitty vests and my craft room is NOT filled with teddy bears. But I have been found lately perusing second hand stores for the perfect shrunken wool sweater (one mans trash...) or vintage pillow cases.

But mostly its the wool sweaters. I have made an owl hat, (thanks to the craft section of Martha Stewart's website) mittens with owls on them, mittens with birds on them and a baby sling out of vintage fabric. I'm pretty sure this is only the beginning. And I'm pretty sure OCD runs in the family.

Distraction number 3. Now this is a new one, not to say that the thought is new. Actually I've been thinking about this one for a few months now, ever since my mom decided that her annual Garden Party would be a french theme (menu wise) and that my bestie, Christie, and I would be in charge of decorations. So, I have this ladder....No I know what you're thinking, that this possibly could not be going in a good direction, but read on, Oh-Ye-Of-Little-Faith-ers!

I proposed to my husband to let me spray paint our 18 ft neon yellow ladder, black. Much to my surprise, there were no objections! YAY for having an awesome man! Next, string up a few (or a dozen) strands of mini twinkle lights on said, soon to be painted ladder. And VOILA! a 18 ft, twinkle lit, Tour de Eiffel!

Now this hasn't actually happened yet, but this is how it goes in my head. So we'll see. I'll post pics of the final result. But for now, here are a few of the 2008 Garden Party.

Mussels, yum. French bread, yummier. Puff pastry wrapped Baked Brie, Yummiest!

Finger lickin' good!

I can't take credit for these decorations, my amazing mom created this outdoor, mediteranean oasis in her backyard gazebo, as well as create a culinary success, consisting of 6 courses!

I guess that this blog would also count as a distraction..

No more distractions today. Back to the girls and housekeeping, but those suitcases are going to have to wait.