I love the movie ELF!
I’m a cotton-headed ninny-muggins.
First we’ll make snow angels for a two hours, then we’ll go ice skating, then we’ll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse Cookiedough as fast as we can, and then we’ll snuggle.
Well I only have one more handmade gift to finish! Yes! I’m so excited about that! The picture above is of the pillows I made for my friend Lacey for Christmas. I really like they way they turned out and they look cute on her couch.
Really I do.
I am not showing you the before picture!
Because frankly my kitchen was 4 different colors. It was pure embarrassment!
When we moved in the kitchen was a sage green. Well I have fiestaware and I didn’t really think the sage went very well with it. So I painted it a pea/lime green. Decided that was a bit too green and thought I wanted a warmer color. Then came the Texas Longhorn orange. O did I mention in all of this that I never finished the entire kitchen while painting. So seriously all the colors were showing in different spots.
It was really, really, embarrassing.
Then this brings us to last night. I have had a gallon of “pottery glaze” paint for about a month now just waiting to have a kitchen all one color. We have company coming to see our new house for the first time so I knew that I had to get the kitchen one color at least.
Christmas is what…A WEEK AWAY? OMGoodness panic mode!
I started painting last night around 7 p.m. and like a champ I hung in there and got the job done!
Time to sit back and admire it now….well or finish other tasks that have been waiting even longer to be finished. It is a never ending process when you live with and OCD project started like me.
So lets just relax at work today and admire my new kitchen.
Now I need to fix the part of the little balls that didn’t get caught in the stitching!
I tell ya there is always something.
I will have some more pictures when I find some art for the kitchen. My theme is really coffee, brown and teal. The pears will go as soon as I have more coffee things.
…entirely too fast for me! I have so many things I need to get done before it gets here! Continuing with the handmade gifts here is a gift I put together for my SIL. Embroidered hand towels, an embroidered apron, strainer, cookbook and spatula set.
Off to go make some more gifts!
This year we are spending less on buying Christmas gifts and I am making the majority of our gifts. cough*We are saving to start a family!!!!!*cough SQUUUUUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEE!
So anyways I put these cute little musical trees together in one evening. They turned out so cute! I want a whole forest of them. I think they will make a perfect gift!
You can’t really tell in the picture but they also have glitter on them. I love glitter. It is amazing how such a small thing can add so much.
Also I got the music at the thrift store for 50 cents! Wooo hooo! Saving more money!
Constant use will not wear ragged the fabric of friendship. ~Dorothy Parker
One of lifes greatest blessing are the friends we make along the way. I have been friends with Holly since daycare. That is a really long time! Growing up we were inseparable. Always either together or chatting all night on the phone. We have made memories together that I will never forget. When I sit and think back to all our memories growing up it is all a blur of uncontrollable giggling.
Holly got married the month after we graduated high school. Of course I was her maid of honor. When the preacher started the ceremony I started crying uncontrollably. He stopped and got me tissue. That was so embarrassing but I was so sad that I was losing my best friend. I knew it wasn’t going to be the same after she got married. Her husband would have wondered about her if she was with me more than she was with him.
Time went by, she moved out of town….we grew a little more apart. She is back in the same town as me now and ironically we live 2 houses from each other. She is very busy between work and school and we don’t get to see each other as much as we would like. But when we do get together it feels like we never missed a beat. I have a feeling it will always be that way. Just pick up where we left off and move forward.
I just want to wish her a Happy Birthday and I hope we have many more years of giggly memories!
Here is the rag purse I made for her. I hope she enjoys it.
The above is a picture that was photo shopped for me to try and decide If I want to tea stain the new fabric I have for my kitchen curtains.
Have you ever tried tea staining?
I haven’t. I am about to try it on the left fabric above. I hope to achieve something a little lighter then the after picture on the right.
Here is what I plan to do…
Laurraine from Patchwork Pottery sent me this little how-to:
I would boil a bunch of water in a big pot on the stove and add a box of
orange pekoe and some vinegar ( about 1/2 – 1 cup). Make sure your fabric is
washed to remove the sizing so it will take the stain. Then take a couple
little fabric swatches and test out different lengths of time. You may want
to make the tea mixture stronger or weaker. Rinse in cold water and iron
tea see how it looks. Make sure to keep a swatch of the original fabric for
comparison. A couple more tips… Wet your fabric before you begin and have
enough liquid and a big enough pot so that your fabric is loose and not
scrunched up in the liquid. If it is too tight and you are squishing it in
then you will get uneven splotches (which could be as good thing!)
It is always better to stain it lighter at first because you can always
stain it darker but not the reverse!
If you have done any tea staining, tell me about your experience.
Well so maybe I was forced to try something new. I nervously agreed to a new order for a shopping cart cover. I had never made one of those before. Here is the part that made it more nerve wracking: SHE GAVE ME THE FABRIC TO USE! So basically if I mess up I can’t start over.
Well I am happy to say that it is finished and it turned out ok.
She said she wanted it really fluffy and I think I made it fluffy enough!
Crafts and Crap 