A New Year A New Start

Ah the proverbial New Year's Resolutions.  Some love them some hate them.  I love them.  I love fresh starts and new beginnings.  I guess it's the optimist in me.  All the Christmas festivities are over and all the family has gone back home.  The house is quiet and I sit here and think next year is going to be different it's going to be better.  I'm going to start earlier,  find gifts throughout the year so I'm not running around at the last minute buying whatever I can find just to have a gift.  I'm afraid to look and see how much I actually spent this year because I did not plan or budget.  Next year is going to be different.  And I'm starting today. I found a website that really breaks down all the planning and tasks into manageable bites throughout the year. The Rudolf Club at Organized Home  I can't wait to get started!

I also found a new blog to follow called A Slob Comes Clean I love how her blog started.  She just wrote from her heart about the struggles of keeping her home clean and organized.  She now has e-books on her discoveries and bought them both!  I've had my blog for almost two years but I don't feel like it has any true direction or purpose.  I'd like to change that.  So I thought I would adopt Dana's style and see how it works for me.

I'd like to use my blog as an accountability tool to get projects started and completed and also to get my home more of a haven of peace and not such a chaotic mess.

Dana wrote two posts a day, one was her checklist and the other her reflections on the day.  I'm going to try that and see if it works for me.  She is also doing a de-clutter challenge this week which I'm going to join. You can find it here  I'd like to start with purging some of my Christmas decorations.  There were quite  few I didn't even put out because I didn't have enough room.

So here's to a fresh start and a new beginning.

Caroling in the Mall

Oh the weather outside is frightful!  Here in Dallas, TX we are having our first ice storm of the season.  It's recorded a half inch of ice is out there!  The power is still on here but many are without.  I'm staying in where it's warm working in my craft room listening to Christmas carols and decided to make this page of my best friend's youngest on a field trip caroling in the mall.

Christmas Luncheon Favors

This time of year is full of Christmas parties and luncheons and this year I am responsible for my Shakespeare Club's Christmas luncheon.  I love pinterest!  I got so many ideas and decided to go with the trendy burlap and lace theme.  These are the favors I made for each guest and the programs.

 

 

I found these cute mason jar candles at the Dollar Store and with a little lace, twine and printable round stickers they become the cutest favors.  And I just printed up the programs using fun Christmas fonts and pasted them inside the folded cardstock.

 

 

 

May all your Christmas events this season be Merry and Bright! 

 

 

 

Apple Themed Holiday Luncheon

I belong to a wonderful Tuesday morning Ladies Bible Study.  I shared our Picnic Themed End of the Year Luncheon HERE and wanted to share this one with you too.

This apple tree was rather simple to make.  I used a large Styrofoam cone and green wooden picks from the floral department of the local craft store.  I layered the apples sticking the picks in the apple first then into the cone.  Then I filled in the gaps with cedar, juniper and rosemary from my yard.  I used the small 2 1/2 in diameter Lady apples and a Granny Smith on top.  It not only looked pretty it made the room smell very Christmasy!

Christmas Dinner Place Settings

I know it's a week into January but I wanted to share with you the cute Santa Sleighs I made after getting inspired on Pinterest.  I invited the family over for dinner and went all out.

The cute Santa sleighs are made from:

• Candy Canes
• Hershey Bars
•  Hershey Nuggets wrapped in tissue paper
• Krisp Kringle Santa

Using a hot glue gun attach Candy Cane runners to the Hershey Bar.  I tried Tacky Glue at first but they fell off the next day.

Next tie up 4 candies in a red tissue sack with gold ribbon and name tag

Hot glue sack to the back of the sleigh

Finally secure Santa.

I have pinned this post to my Pinterest for you to save and give you inspiration for next year.  Remember Christmas is only 350 days away!

A Quilt for my BFF

My best friend loves the colors of fall and so for her Christmas gift I made a simple lap quilt using a charm pack of the Phenomenal Fall by Sandy Gervais for Moda Fabrics.

 

After exchanging gifts we took her two girls to see Christmas lights. Sharing good times with good friends is one of my favorite things to do at Christmas.

 

 

Christmas Banners

Banners are so popular this year!  And with all my scrapbooking supplies I knew I could duplicate all adorable ones I saw on Pinterest!  So here are the two I made.  The "Santa" one is done with 400pt font called Rosewood STD Regular.  I printed the letters red on cream cardstock and mounted them on red cardstock. Then I used my lace border punch to add a decorative touch and strung them on a red satin ribbon.  The "Believe" was printed with 300pt Rosewood on light tan cardstock and cut to look like flags.  I used simple twine to string them together.  You should try it.  It makes the house so festive!

Commissioned Tree Skirt

It's fun being paid to be crafty!  The receptionist where I have my nails done asked me to make a tree skirt for her.  I brought in an assortment of ideas and she picked this one.  The directions were for a 25" diameter and I adjusted the measurements to make it 60" for her 9' tree.

Making a 60" diameter circle takes about 4 yards of fabric by sewing two 60" long pieces together then trimming the 88" width down making a 60" square. I then folded the square in half and then in half again the alternate way. I then folded it on the diagonal twice making it into a cone. I used a plate charger which gave me the scalloped look I was after.

 

For the ornaments I traced the design onto iron fusible interfacing. After ironing the the fusible interfacing to the fabric I cut out each piece then ironed in place.

 

 

Finally I embellished each ornament with gold trim and a red ribbon.

 

 

Before quilting I sewed the back fabric, batting and top together with top wrong side up.  I left a large enough gap to turn the skirt right side out. Then I machine quilted the edge and around each ornament.

 

Then I added red ribbon to tie the skirt around the tree and whola I was done!

 

 

Merry Christmas! and Happy Crafting!