Our Holiday

Here are a few pictures from our holiday. I know your thinking Christmas is soo over but I have a few aunties waiting to see some pictures.

Merry (belated) Christmas

I just took a look at my last post and cannot believe that it was on Dec. 6!!!!!! I had sooooo much to share with you, holiday DIY, party DIY, decorating tips, gift ideas, pictures from Rory's birthday party and so so much more. Sadly, two days before Rory's party my computer decided to take the holiday off. Yup, my 4 month old computer died....again. It took several attempts by Dell support to fix it but finally, 22 days later, my computer is working again. You may be wondering why I didn't just use TJ's computer, we are a two computer family, well because his died too! Luckily I can check my email on my phone so I wasn't completely shut off from the world ( I would have gone crazy otherwise) but was limited to short emails and only the basics as it is a huge pain in the ass to do much more than that from a little cell phone.

So now that it is all better, I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday. I will be putting the holiday DIY projects on file to share with you next year. In the next week or two I will try and post a few party projects and pictures from Rory's birthday. For now I want to thank the following people for including my jewelry in their holiday treasuries which can still be viewed if you find something you like.  Tomorrow I will share some of our holiday photos.

Twelve Beautiful Days of Christmas by Shaprink

Punctuation by The Pottery Syndicate

Twelve Days of Christmas a la Handmade by Gabsbags

Pretty Little Packages

I certainly love pretty little packages and this is what my holiday packages look like. I just got some new holiday tape in and can't wait to use it. I'll share when I have the chance to wrap up a few more items.

Twelve Days of Christmas Reinvented

Thank you and best holiday wishes to JuniperHouseStudio for including my "Two Turtle Doves" necklace in this lovely holiday treasury!

Twelve Days of Christmas Reinvented

Another big thank you to Cesart64 for including my "Scarlet" ring in this lovely treasury!

Two Turtle Doves...

Thank you, thank you to Stoutdg2 for including my "Two Turtle Doves" necklace in her wonderful holiday treasury!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Someone buy these...

cause I can't! As I was shopping for Rory's Christmas outfit I came across these goodies that either do not fit her or are just a little too much at this time. So someone buy them cause they are adorable!!!

Vintage FW Fischer Wool Coat from BluebirdLucys

Vintage Marshall Fields Crocheted Sweater Dress from fuzzymama

 

I know it's not Christmas but it is sooo cute! Vintage Polly Flinders Yellow Polka Dot Dress by BluebirdLucys

girls polka dot dress from lishyloo

Cable Knit Sweater Dress by Baby Gap

Oh my goodness I looooove this pea coat from Baby Gap. It is on my list of must buys!

This is what we got for her Christmas Day outfit. Yes, I am totally into sweater dresses. This dress is from baby gap with these cute red tights and her Uggs and there you have an adorable Christmas outfit that can also be worn all winter long. 



A Little bit of Holiday DIY

Well, we made it through another holiday. I hope yours was wonderful and yummy! Ours was very nice. It was great to see family and just relax for a couple of days. Rory and I were a little under the weather so it was helpful to have a few extra hands around to take care of the both of us.

We extended our holiday visit with family an extra day to hold a craft day together. It was a nice break from all of the birthday crafting maddness I have been surrounded by lately. So I will extend the birthday interuption to you and share a little holiday diy project we worked on. I tried taking pictures as we went along but it was nighttime and they just didn't come out. So I will explain the process the best I can. It was very simple and very affordable.

Semi-Homemade Advent Calendar

(please excuse the poor quality of the photos)

What you will need:

-1 1/4 yard of wool felt for the backing

-2 - 1/4 yards of wool felt in two different colors for the pockets

-felt decals to decorate each pocket

-glitter fabric paint (i used two different colors)

-embroidery thread

-1/2 inch thick wooden dowel

-2 yards of fabric cord of your liking

-glue gun

-sewing machine

Please keep in mind that the measurements I provide are rather large, many that I found online have much smaller pockets. It was sized this way so that we can fit gifts big enough for a baby in each pocket. Feel free to adjust measurments as you see fit.

Step 1

Cut the large piece of felt to size, 46 inches long by 28 inches wide (I did not cut the width but simply folded the yardage in half so that it was stronger once gifts were inserted). Sew a 1/4 inch seem around the entire rectangle. Fold the top 3 - 4 inches over to the back and sew to create a sleeve for the wooden dowel to slide through.

Step 2

Cut 24 - 5 x 5 inch squares. 12 in one color and 12 in the other. I chose blue and green cause I don't really like red all that much and snowflakes can be blue right!?

After cutting your squares go ahead and decorate them. I thought about sewing them on first but then i was worried that I would make a mistake while decorating and have to rip it off, so do what you please but I decorated first.

This is the semi-homemade part. We found these felt decorations in the $1 bin at JoAnn Fabrics. We grabbed 4 bags of them (we still have a ton left over) and I glued them on to each pocket. You can use fabric glue for this part or just use the glue gun since you already have that out. I used the glitter fabric paint (also got these in the $1 bin) to write on the numbers and add a little sparkle to each of the felt cutouts.

Step 3

Sew the pockets on to your backing. Don't forget to leave the top of each pocket open! hehe!

Step 4

This step is totally optional. I used embroidery thread to add a lovely stitch along the border of the calendar. I think it looks nice with or without it.

Step 5

Before you add your dowel make sure that it isn't too long. Mine is, I forgot to shorten it while I was at my family's and I don't own a saw. Take your cord and glue it to the dowel. I wrapped it around the dowel twice and then sprialed it up the loose peice of cord for a little prettiness.

Slip the dowel through the sleeve in the calendar and glue the cord to the other end the same way you did the first one.

Step 6

Add all of the presents and surprise a special little person (or a big person, adults can have advent calendars too!!).

I think we spent less than $30 on this project and we have enough supplies leftover to make another one when our family grows again.

Happy crafting!

A Little Thanksgiving Treat

With so many things that I am thankful for this year a list would simply be too long for me to write. But I must do a few shout outs.

I am most thankful for my sweet Rory coming into my life. We are celebrating our very first thanksgiving together and I have never had more to be thankful for, ever. She is my greatest joy, my greatest love and she gives the greatest meaning to my life.

TJ is a wonderful husband and works so hard that I must thank him for taking such great care of his family. We love him so very much and life would not be so easy and wholesome if it weren't for him. He takes very good care of us! Thank you for that and for putting up with all of my chaos.

To my readers and my customers, I am so very thankful that you read my musings. I truly enjoy having a creative outlet and when in doubt of what I do, I find solace in each and every one of your comments and emails. Thank you. My  customers, thank you so very much! You are the reason that I am able to stay home with my baby and watch her grow. You are also the reason I can be home and keep my creative needs satisfied. Making the jewelry that you love so much gives me great pleasure and provides me with a personal outlet. I love caring for Rory, but I need to have something to do for myself and making jewelry and other crafts fully satisfies that need. Thank you.

So as a thank you to everyone out there, I am offering FREE SHIPPING on all orders from now until Tuesday Nov. 30. And as a special thank you for those of you who read this I offer a 15% discount plus free shipping on your entire purchase just enter coupon code LOVELIES15 at checkout.

I hope you all have an amazing holiday and have as much to be thankful for as I do.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

the admirable ampersand

I totally meant to post this a couple of days ago..ooops. Rory and I have been a little bit under the weather, first her and now me and with my mind wrapped around her party and the holidays I'm just all over the place and stuck in bed.

Anyway, a big thank you to RameOttone for featuring my dainty ampersand necklace in this totally cool treasury!

I don't know why but I totally have a thing for ampersands! I even have a small collection of letterpress pieces, prints and a few others.



Mission Macaroon and yet, another homemade celebration

A certain little girls very first birthday is upon us and I've been a very busy mommy preparing for it. It took me a while to settle on a theme for her celebration. And after going back and forth, many times, we chose owls, which only makes sense cause we are slightly obsessed with owls in this family. So after checking out every party store online and several in our area, I realized that purchased party supplies are just a little too generic for our crafty family. Therefore, we have yet another homemade holiday celebration upon us.

I have been a little absent from the blogging world as of late and it is because I am up to my elbows in party preparation and decoration making. Some of it has been fun, some has been a flop but we keep trucking and over the next two weeks I will be sharing some of my homemade decorations and diy ideas for you crafty mommies/non-mommies out there.

My first homemade celebration post is one of many to come on the subject of Macaroons. This is a several part series for many reasons. Macaroons are super tricky to make! They are also a rather popular treat among bloggers and etsians and pretty much the rest of the world cause they are just sooooo yummy and pretty! I'm not very good at baking, it's just not my thing. You should see what I do to brownies, yes the kind in a box, I kill them everytime. So that being said, you may understand why trying to make such a difficult treat is a big deal to me.

I did so much reasearch to find the right recipe. I started at your general go-to spots for recipes like food network, recipes.com, cooks.com, etc. I just wasn't finding a recipe that jumped out at me. So next I moved on to the blogging world and other less mainstream websites. After hours and days of searching, I decided to go with this recipe that I found through this lovely blog and used these helpful tips to perfect it.

For my first try, I accidently added the powdered sugar and almond mix to the eggs instead of the granulated sugar which was a big mistake and forced me to start over. My second try was quickly ended when my room temperature egg whites landed on the floor (thank you darling husband). But the third try was a charm! Those of you who have tried their hands at baking macaroons will understand that I jumped for joy when they came out of the oven with feet. And by the last sheet pan, I wasn't even burning them anymore! We only got a few unburnt cookies out of this batch but I now know exactly how to set the oven and time them (every oven is different you know).

Being the perfectionist that I am, I brought my macaroons to the cafe' I work at and had the pastry chef's give them a try and provide some constructive critisism. With their tips and some expereince under my belt I am headed off to try the next round. This time pink and purple macaroons to match our pink and purple owls! 

I'll be back with some more handmade birthday decorations soon!



Giveaway Winner!



Gifts to Get for Her Who Desires Red

My sweet Scarlet ring was featured in a really fun treasury today. A big thank you to Whimsical Love for including my work in her treasures. I love this treasury because it is so different than the others my jewelry has been featured in, it's a little dark and seductive. I think that Scarlet fits in just perfectly don't you?

Gifts to Get for Her Who Desires Red

DON'T FORGET TO ENTER THE DIANTY AMPERSAND GIVEAWAY!

Dainty Ampersand Giveaway!

As promised, I am giving away a Dainty Ampersand necklace from Le Petite Pretty in celebration of 60 sales. I know it doesn't sound like many sales but I'm so very excited as I was not sure if my shop would even take off when I first opened it in March and it has.

When I opened, my goal was to sell 1 necklace a week (or rather 4 a month as I sold 2 some weeks and none others). I didn't want to shoot too high and be dissappointed but I knew I had to set a goal for myself. Almost every month since I opened shop I surpassed my goal and now that I have hit 60 sales I am setting a new goal for myself, I am doubling my last goal and now I would like to sell 8 necklaces every month. I'm a little nervous that I may not make that as I do not handle dissappointment well but there it is, for everyone to hold me to, my new goal.

Well, enough babbling on, here are the giveaway details and rules!

Simple, dainty little 1/2 inch brass charm hand stamped with the ampersand symbol dangles from a 16" antique brass chain.

To enter you can do any of the following things:
1. Become a follower (mandatory),
2. Take a peak at my shop and tell me what your favorite item is,
3. Tweet or Facebook about the giveaway,
4. Blog about the giveaway on your blog,
5. Fan me on Facebook,
6. Purchase anything from LePetitePretty and get 5 extra entries!


If you do everything above you can enter up to 11 times!!!! Isn't that fabulous!


Be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry.

Ex. Blogged about giveaway

Tweeted about giveaway

ALL ENTRIES MUST INCLUDE AN EMAIL ADDRESS. If you are selected and you did not post an email address, the prize will go to the next entry selected. Contest is open to everyone, overseas too!


Contest ends Monday, November 15th at midnight.

Winner will be announced on Tuesday, November 16th so check back to see if you won!
Good Luck!

My Little Bumble Bee

I love Halloween, and though I didn't dress up this year, the festivities certainly made up for the lack of costume. We decided to celebrate out in the Berkshires with our family. We celebrated with a special pumpkin patch Halloween cake from Bread Euphoria. We made decorations, carved pumpkins and took a whole bunch of pictures. Rory received a fun gift from her grandma and her grandpa, auntie and uncle came for a visit. It was a cold, long day but a fun one that is for sure.

Here are a few pictures from Rory's first Halloween. 

She loved the leaves

Until she finally realized how cold out it was

And she refused to keep her hat on

Trick-or-Treat began at 5 o'clock, which is exactly when Rory decided to take a nap

It was so cold last night that it actually snowed! Oh yes, I said snow! I took a picture to prove it but blogger won't upload it. Even blogger isn't happy to see snow yet. 

We had a great 1st Halloween celebration! I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween too! 

Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to Liz as you have won a $35 gift certificate to csnstores.com!  

Someone from csnstores will be in touch with you soon!

A big thanks to csnstores for giving one of my lovely readers a gift certificate to their store. Perfect timing with Christmas right around the corner too! Yes, I am already in Christmas mode.

Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween! I will share our holiday photos tomorrow.

I took a chance

As I mentioned (here), I thought I would take a chance and submit the pictures of Rory's nursery to Spearmint Baby since I got so much of my inspiration from their blog. I wasn't sure they would use the pictures, a lot of the nurseries they feature are amazing, but when I checked Spearmintbaby.com today I found Rory's nursery!

I'm so excited!!!! I put a lot of time and thought into the design and I am so happy that other people like it too! I'll have to share a few more pictures in the coming weeks cause I think I have finally found the fabric I will make her curtains out of.

More to come, thanks Spearmint Baby!!!!

And congratulations to my cousin who just had a baby boy!

GIVEAWAY

Have you ever heard of CSN stores? If you have, go ahead and skip this part and get right along to enter to win. If you have not, you should take a moment and go check out one (or all) of their 200+ stores which carry a wide array of items such as home decor, kitchen ware, bar stool, clothes, everything for children, major brand names too! I'll wait while you browse for a moment.


Okay, so have you found like 500 different things that you would just love to buy? Well here is a little helper, CSNstores.com is giving away a $35 gift certificate to use at any of their stores to one of my readers! Yay!


Here are a few of my favorite finds at csnstores.com:

Oh my I have to get this sweet little kitchen set for Rory! 

Tiny little bell jar terrarium

Who wouldn't want to serve tea in this sunny yellow teapot

Ahh, I want this quilt!

Ok, ok, I'll stop (though I could totally keep on going!) Here are the rules:

To enter you can do any of the following things:

1. Become a follower of my blog (mandatory to enter),

2. Follow me on Facebook,

3. Blog, tweet or Facebook about this giveaway,

If you do everything above you can enter up to 5 times!!!! Fantastic right!?!

Be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry.  
Ex. Blogged about giveaway entry #1
Tweeted about giveaway entry #2, etc.

ALL ENTRIES MUST INCLUDE AN EMAIL ADDRESS. If you are selected and you did not post an email address, the prize will go to the next entry selected. 

Contest is open to folks in the U.S. and Canada!

Contest ends Friday, Oct. 29th at 8pm.
Winner will be selected by a random number generator and announced on Saturday, Oct. 30th so check back to see if it's you!

Thank you  to CSNstores.com and thank you for entering and GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!

Rory's Nursery

Here are the long awaited pictures of Rory's nursery! I must warn you, it is a work in progress. I just cannot find curtains that I love enough to hang in there and I'm still hunting for a pretty mobile of some sort to hang in a rather naked corner above her growing chart. But other than that I'd say it is done enough to finally share. 

Here is the sweet little darling herself! She seems to really like her room.

I made both bunting and the circles which you can see better below.

Isn't this little chair darling? The blanket was knit by Rory's auntie and the my grandmother made the sweet little bunny for me when I was a child.

Oh, I still have to paint the large frame white, I changed my mind after I had already painted it off-white.

I would love to hear your thoughts!!!!

I'm even thinking about submitting the pictures to Spearmint Baby!