keeping busy

Even though I spent a good part of my Winter Break sleeping and relaxing, I was somewhat productive. I finished knitting the scarf I started on our summer trip to Ohio while watching the DVR-ed final season of The Shield. The scarf is bright and warm, but I have to say I'm glad I don't have to wear it just yet (this warm weather is so awesome!!)

Tim and I are slowly working our way through The Wire (we're at the beginning of season 2.) I've got another scarf I've been working on while watching that. I'm using the fine Alpaca yarn Dad got me in Peru, so it's a bit slow going. I'm hoping to finish by the time the series is done, but who knows.

We also spent a good part of the break rearranging the house and finishing off projects. My office has become Tim's office, and my craft room has become ... a studio? I'm not sure what it is, but I have stacks of stuff everywhere. And precious little time to organize everything. My goal is to have purged my unused crafting supplies (you know -- that stuff that looks really neat but just sits there gathering dust for years) by the end of the month. I'm looking forward to paring down. Pics to come when it's all finished.

happy easter, peeps

The Washington Post hosts a diorama contest involving the loved/reviled Easter Peeps. Check out last year's winners here. This year's selection just came out today. There are some cute ones this year, but last year's "Say Anything" diorama remains my favorite. Who doesn't love Lloyd Dobler in Peep form? Thanks to poppytalk for the cute link. The photos actually made me crave Peeps, which I normally dislike, so I bought a small pack at CVS yesterday. They were yummier than I remember, but so sugary that I probably won't grab more any time soon.

Happy Easter everyone. I'll be heading out of town (again!) tomorrow for Easter and a last gasp of spring training fun. Chocolate bunnies and baseball -- what could be better?

more valentine love

I made a quick trip to the grocery today and couldn't believe all the craziness! Maybe I've avoided big stores on Valentine's Day in the past (after an exhausting day in a classroom full of sugared-up eight year olds, shopping is not usually in the picture), but today seemed worse than Thanksgiving or Christmas prep. Flowers and chocolates were everywhere -- including a giant flower display next to the beer section that made me laugh. The place was packed. I gave in and bought some heart-shaped sugar cookies, which was funny in that I used to force these upon people just to get all the sugar out of my classroom.

Anyway, I promised more valentines. This is one of the little pillows I made as part of a set. It's just heart-shaped pieces of felt embroidered and sewn together. Each heart is sewn in a different way. I realized too late that I didn't have batting at the house so I just used cotton balls, which turned out great. Apparently the cheap cotton balls I use are just pieces of cotton rolled up into a ball. When you undo them they are a lot like rolled batting. Perfect for this project.

I also promised I'd share some of my favorites from elsewhere in blog-land. If I had thought ahead I might have been passing these ideas along sooner -- sorry. I love this message in a bottle idea from Derek & Lauren's DIY Wednesdays at Design*Sponge -- I'll definitely use this for something in the future. These mitten cards over at Two Straight Lines are adorable -- the perfect teacher valentine. Orange Beautiful's valentine boxes are great for candy or other tiny treats. They remind me of something similar I used to make with the kiddos. But it's the Glittergoods post about gocco valentines that was my favorite. I'd love to start working with printing, but I promised myself I'd finish several other projects before diving into something new. *sigh* Maybe this summer?

Happy Heart Day everyone!

in love with valentines

Happy Valentine's Day! This has always been one of my favorite holidays. I am always at my most creative when designing something for a significant other (aren't we all?) Most of those creations are for personal encouragement, milestones, or private jokes. I love that this holiday inspires me to bring the creative part of that significant-other energy to all my friends and family.

These are the valentines I whipped up yesterday. They're just traced hearts made of wax paper sewn together on my machine. About three quarters of the way through sewing I added the red hots. On the back I added a small label with a quick V-Day note. I saw something similar on one of my favorite inspiration websites, but I've forgotten which one. I made a bunch of small ones and a few large ones for my family and Tim. I'll say it took a few samples before I got the curve of the heart just right while machine sewing. Some ended up a bit wavy! They took hardly any time at all using minimal supplies -- they'd be perfect to whip up for a classroom of kids.

Check back for more valentine action later today, including a round-up of some of my favorites from blog-land.

sew, thank you

The nasty head-cold has finally said good-bye and I am feeling much, much better. I sat down Thursday evening to embroider some holiday thank you cards. Originally I wanted to embroider onto holiday fabric but decided the look was too busy. I grabbed a sheet of white felt instead and some shiny red thread. Normally when I embroider I write my words with a pencil first and follow the lines. Unfortunately felt and pencils don't mix. So I ended up sewing these thank you tags freestyle.



To keep these notes simple I sewed a thin piece of red ribbon to the card using the same bright red thread and placed the embroidered felt pieces on top. I was worried about putting white on white, but I think the different textures of card stock and felt create a visible difference. I thought about sewing them on or tacking them with little x's or knots in the corners and ended up simply gluing them to the ribbon to stick with the simplicity theme. I know they're really late, but a late thank you is better than none at all, right? Especially when it's hand-made.

*cough*

This has been what I've been up to for the past week. I've been sick with a sinus infection, which made for a lovely holiday with Tim's family. They were gracious and wonderful, but constant sneezing and coughing can not create great first impressions. I'm finally sleeping again, and the sore throat is gone, but the stuffed-up foggy-headedness just won't go away. Ugg! I've been itching to craft over the last few days but can barely sit up without foggy head pain. Here's hoping to be better by NYE!

favorite holiday decorations

My favorite new decoration this year:


It's been so much easier to hang these cards instead of setting them up on the dining room hutch, where they would inevitably fall or get lost behind a larger card. I put four picture nails in the dining room door frame and wound wire leaf garland around it. Then I used small clothespins to hang the cards, paper clipping any letters or pictures to the inside for safe keeping. This makes me smile every time I walk into the house.


The awesome turquoise tinsel tree was a Christmas gift last year from my Mom. I placed it in my kitchen last year, but since I finally finished the Florida room this summer, I thought it looked more appropriate in there. Mercury-glass balls and silver bells are interspersed amongst the branches.


This wreath was one of several handmade by my aunt in the 1970s. My mother always put ours on the dining room table during the holidays. When my grandmother downsized into an assisted living facility, I jumped at the chance to bring hers into my home. Comprised of at least 50 small boxes individually wrapped, decorated, and then pinned (!) to a foam wreath core, this had to take forever to put together. Check out that wild wrapping paper!












When I got my grandmother's wreath, it was quite loose and barely holding together in some spots. Forty-five minutes and some hot glue later, it's solid as a rock (well, almost anyway.) It's my favorite holiday decoration because of its history and overall awesome-ness.

holiday craft overload

My Mom commissioned me to create gifts for her coworkers this year. She's worked in the same office for 24 years now, so it was like making gifts for old friends since I grew up around many of her work-mates. I made two different things: 8 sets of four holiday coaster and 12 sets of four alligator pushpins (did I mention she works at the University of Florida?)



















I've made both things before, but not in large quantities -- not to mention I've never completed everything in one day! My biggest struggle was trying to figure out how to mount the pushpins for poke-free giving. I wandered around Jo-Ann's with a semi-idea (my preferred method of decision making.) I turned down the floral aisle and there it was -- a giant sheet of one-quarter-inch styrofoam! It was a lot easier to cut than I ever imagined it would be. I just used a straight edge and a sharp craft knife and made sure to score the styrofoam to help prevent ripping before cutting all the way through it. I designed and printed out sticker gift tags to cover the styrofoam completely. I created a smaller card stock version of the gift tags for the coaster sets.

I was so happy with the results that I quickly whipped up extra sets for Tim's family. His brother is a rabid Columbus Blue Jackets fan, so I colored some bee stamps dark blue instead of yellow. I'm not really sure they look like blue jackets, but I'll let you be the judge...


I finally delivered the coaster and pushpin sets to Mom's house at 1am Thursday morning -- yawn! But I feel great having all my holiday responsibilities taken care of. Actually, I'm waiting on one more. Mom wants me to make her a purse like the one she's worn to death, but she keeps forgetting to give me her old one to use as a template. So that will likely end up being an early 2008 gift.

cookies, cookies, cookies!

Friday night I had my annual cookie exchange party. I hadn't planned on doing one this year until Stephanie convinced me it would be fun. Last year's was nice but a lot of work. This year's really turned out to be a good event. I scheduled it for the weekend most people would be going to holiday parties so that they could bring some cookies along as gifts or potluck items (every little bit helps during the hectic holiday season, right?) I forgot to take pictures of the cookie table before we all started dividing them up, but here it is mid-grab.


Everyone made around 4 dozen cookies so that each of us could get 4 cookies of each kind. My newest idea was to have folks label their cookies and tell people how many to take (several of us had recipes that made 5-6 dozen cookies.) I always want to know the names of the cookies so that I know what I'm taking. Here are the tags. If any of those look good you can check out the recipes here.


I ended up making two kinds of cookies -- Orange-Sable and Lime Sugar -- so that I could collect two batches. My reasoning: By giving both sets of parents cookies this year I'm off the hook for nut rolls (which I love but are time consuming.) It sounded like a good idea at the time -- and Mom came to collect hers the next day -- but I've been stuck in the house with the cookies for Tim's parents for almost a week now. The temptation is going to kill me! I've had to saran wrap the container they're in and seal it with tape (pathetic!) With those measures in place I should be able to control myself until Monday -- I hope. Don't they look delicious?

christmas past

I've mentioned my Rockefeller Center Tree Christmas cards a couple of times on this blog, so I thought it was time to share them. I don't know when my obsession with the tree began -- not really too far from when I started making these cards in December 2000. I have a decent-sized collection of Rockefeller Center Tree images in various mediums (record album cover, photograph, watercolor, postcard, book, even an image on a record) that are displayed in my living room throughout the year. Christmas trees evoke such a warmth and happiness that you can't help but smile when you see one. And isn't that what this holiday is all about?

2000

Inside: Wishing You A Happy Holiday Season

The first attempt at card making was quick and simple, just using Photoshop to make this already cool 1937 image very graphic. It remains one of my favorite cards.







2001

Inside: Happy Holidays -- Best Wishes for a Happy New Year

For this card I got a bit more creative. I printed out black and white images of the 1964 tree and attached each one to the card using photo corners. That was labor intensive but it has a classic look that would be fine even today.






2002

Inside: Happy Holidays! Wishing You and Yours a Wonderful New Year

This one is unique. The three images, all from the 1990 tree, are simple and elegant. Photoshop was able to help me pull out the red and gold hues which really make these pictures pop.











2003

Inside: Happy Holidays! Wishing you and your a wonderful holiday season and a New Year filled with joy.

This card, although one of my favorites, took a long, long time to make. I printed another 1990 image onto vellum paper. Then I sewed the image onto card stock. The preciseness of each sewing pattern made this tricky for me. It must have worked pretty well though, since now almost all of my handmade cards have an element of sewing involved.








2004

Inside: "Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice." -- Barich Spinoza

This card went out the year the Iraq War started. Peace was a big message for me during that holiday season, so the card was a simple image of a recent tree (year unknown) during the brightness of day. This is also the year I started using quotations and sayings in my cards. This quote remains one of my favorites, and the one most friends and family have commented on.








2005

Inside: This Season ... Mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Write a love letter. Encourage youth. Keep a promise. Find the time. Listen. Apologize if you were wrong. Think first of someone else. Be kind and gentle. Laugh a little. Laugh a little more. Express your gratitude. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the Earth. Wishing you and yours a magical holiday season. Happy New Year!

I love, love, love this image. So sweet, it's from a children's book about the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. I cut the cover and inside separately, then sewed them together at the top. It was quick, unusual, and memorable. This is the card I've gotten the most comments about.







2006

Inside: A good conscience is a continual Christmas -- Benjamin Franklin. May 2007 bring you & yours a year of excitement, joy, & continual Christmas.

This card is my favorite, hands down. My friend Lisa brought me some awesome tree pictures from her visit to NYC in 2005. I wanted to use pieces of them in a graphic manner. I had cut up the photo into pieces already and had been playing around with them for quite a while when the idea popped into my head to use a triangle as an anchor. This card was also cut into two separate pages and attached with a small diamond brad in the top left-hand corner.







Well, those are the cards from the last seven years. I'll put this year's card up once I mail them -- nope, not one has been sent yet! I usually have these finished Thanksgiving weekend, so I am behind!!

let there be lights

We went holiday light peeping last night. It's another of my favorite parts of December. Gainesville only has so many light displays and they often aren't near each other. The Tampa Bay area is all sorts of different. Not only do both daily papers offer online maps of area displays, they include brief descriptions of what can be found at each site, which is ultimately how I mapped out our route. We found that too many people decorate with only those blow-up lawn ornaments or icicle lights. But there are still plenty of classic decorators. Here are some of my favorite shots, taken of course with the crazy camera (so pardon the angles and color variation. We weren't even sure they would turn out at all.)

This was part of a multi-home display. The lights continued throughout the backyard, and motion displays were everywhere.

What Santa really does to pass the time at the North Pole. Gainesville light display to follow sometime soon -- I'm sure of it.

holiday traditions

Even after the long out-of-the-way drive to get here and the recuperation time from my Freaky Friday (see previous post), I still managed to get some work done while here in Clearwater for the weekend. That's right, it's Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree card time!


I spent most of Sunday folding, addressing, and note writing my annual holiday cards. This is one of my favorite yearly traditions. It's a perfect time to reflect on the year I've had and share it with family and friends. Unfortunately, I've never been good with birthday greetings, phone calls, or the like (I know, that's terrible of me and I resolve to get better every year. I am getting much better with emails though, so I guess there may be hope?) This is what keeps me connected. Even more important than the cards I send are those I receive. My favorite part of December is going to the mailbox and pulling out holiday cards and letters (I LOVE the letters!) that detail the highlights of the previous year. Babies, weddings, trips taken, photos of grandchildren -- I eat all that stuff up. And if the sender is nice enough to add a website (a Flickr page or a blog about the new baby perhaps) I not only visit the site, but usually bookmark it to return to several times a year to stay in touch -- if only virtually. What would we do without the internet?

Once I get home I'll post my previous cards and the method used for making each one. I won't show this year's cards yet and ruin the surprise, but I'll put it up eventually. It was hard to top last year's card, which is my all-time favorite, but this one is definitely unique.

holiday wedding

My friends Candi and Andrew got married last weekend. Their wedding in the courtyard at the Thomas Center was simple and beautiful.
The ceremony was short but full of meaning. Our friend Amy officiated and Candi and Andrew read personally written vows. All of the guests had to stand and pledge to support their marriage -- a really sweet touch. But there was one part that really stood out to me: the beautiful song playing while the wedding party walked down the aisle. I can't seem to get it out of my head. The song, "Lullaby and Exile" by M. Ward, was graciously provided to guests as part of a wedding CD. I'm so glad it was so I can listen to it incessantly:



I will always think of them whenever I hear it. The reception was lots of fun as well, filled with numerous toasts to the bride and groom, good friends, yummy food, and the best music playlist I've ever heard at a wedding. Honestly, how often does one get to dance to Radon's "Kibbles & Bits" in a fancy dress and heels? If I had that mp3 to share, believe me I would (that record's been on the turntable lots since I got home. Oh, memories.) Congratulations Candi and Andrew. You two are amazing!

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

Although it certainly doesn't feel that way with tonight's low in the upper 60s. Phew! We got the tree up on Saturday and decorated the rest of the house. I love sitting in front of a lit Christmas tree at night -- there's something about that glow that makes me feel all sorts of happy. That and the yummy smell. I worked on my annual Rockefeller Center Tree card today too. It's always a fun challenge to come up with a new design. In the next few days I'll share some of the previous year's cards. Still on the to-do list: write my holiday letter that goes inside each card and finalize gifts. I think I'll end up doing more holiday coasters since they are quick, easy, and cute! Also in the works are a couple of purses and a hat possibly. Thanksgiving news to come soon, or whenever I figure out how to upload videos.

beagle on the beach

My family spent Thanksgiving at the beach this year. I actually got to bring Madeleine on a trip for a change instead of leaving her in a beagle hotel. She had a little trouble adjusting to the other dogs sharing the house (both my uncles brought their dogs), but she absolutely loved the beach. Here is a video of her first experience with the water. I loved the way my aunt was trying to get her to go in!





The beach house had a gorgeous view, and that's about the nicest thing I can say about it. The house was undergoing renovations by someone who didn't really have the skills to renovate (i.e. matte & gloss paint on the walls, uneven & unfinished flooring, uneven marble counters in the kitchen, etc.) And that kitchen! Wow, was it tiny -- and really hard to keep three dogs out of while cooking Thanksgiving dinner. But when it came time to sit down and eat I was thrilled and thankful to have a large part of my family together, regardless of where we were.

After Thanksgiving, we went through the giant 20-gallon tub of photos we collected after my grandmother's funeral. Talk about a walk down memory lane! It was fun to see silly pictures of my Dad as a child, pictures of my cousin and me was she was just a little girl (gosh, we look alike!), even a picture of me coming home from the hospital that I'd never seen before. I've been thrown into the role of family archivist now, so I plan to scan a bunch of these pictures into the computer before I attempt any restoration. I promise to share some of my favorites.

holiday harbinger

Look what came in the mail today! The November (read Thanksgiving) issue of Bon Appetit. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It isn't overtly religious or full of the commercialism so many other holidays have succumbed to. It is just about family and food -- two of my favorite things. Usually my parents host Thanksgiving and I cook 80% of the dishes. I love to spend hours planning the menu with a good balance of the traditional and new. I even have a Thanksgiving planner that contains previous years' menus (with recipes) along with recipe contenders for the current year's list. I put a lot of time into this, obviously. My paternal grandfather was a chef who passed his kitchen adventurousness onto his sons, which encourages unique dishes on the table whenever we gather.

This year the family rented a beach house in St. Augustine to celebrate both Thanksgiving and my grandfather's 90th birthday. My grandmother just passed in August, and this will be the first time my family has gathered since her funeral. I know it will be a bittersweet affair, since my grandmother was a woman who cherished family, food, and faith above all else. Holidays were very important to her, so I'm looking forward to planning this year's feast while helping to continue our family's traditions. I'll share some favorite recipes from Thanksgivings past when we get into the month of November, since I'm sure I'm the only person out there already planning.