That sure is crafty!

Since all of my loved ones have received their gifts for this holiday season, I have decided to post a few pictures of some of the things I did.  Me being horrible about taking pictures, I failed to get pictures of all of the baskets I put together.  Oh well, I guess you will have to use your imagination!

Hubby and I were doing mostly homemade gifts this year.  Most of our friends and family received canned jams and pickles, homemade bread, and homegrown crushed hot pepper.  I also tried my hand at some homemade ornaments and other crafty things. 


Here are a few of the wine cozies I made....I got the pattern from here

And some of the coffee cozies I made....I got the pattern from Erin over at House on Hill Road

And I also made some adorable bird ornaments, but forgot to take a picture before I gave them away :-)  You can check out the pattern and tutorial over at The Purl Bee  

All of these homemade gifts inspired me to redo our office to make it more functional for crafting and general use.  Plus, Hubby got awfully tired of seeing my sewing mess strewn around the dining room table!  So I spent the last two days painting our office and the last week or so, gathering various pieces of furniture.  I am so excited about my new craft room/functional office!  It is not complete yet, so I will post pictures when I am done.  In the meantime, I have to say I am very happy with the outcome of our homemade gifts and I look forward to coming up with some new ideas in the near future!  What better way to spend the cold winter days! What kinds of crafty stuff did you do for the holiday's?  

White Christmas

We just returned home from a Christmas weekend with Hubby's family in Western NC.  We love it up there, and had a wonderful time visiting with his brother and his folks. 

It seems though that lately when we visit in the Winter it snows like crazy.  We had a beautiful white Christmas!  The kind of White Christmas I always wished for as a kid...the kind where we went to bed on Christmas Eve to no snow and not a cloud in the sky and woke up Christmas morning to snow falling.  Snow that didn't stop falling ALL DAY LONG!  All in all by Christmas night there was a little over a foot of snow on the ground!

We headed home on Sunday as snow blanketed the entire state!  Up here in our neck of the woods we only got about 5 inches of snow, a lot for this area but nothing compared to what we had left on Sunday morning.  So we are back home, enjoying the snow.  Hubby has the week off and we are looking forward to relaxing at home, cozy as a bee in a hive...

Very Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas!

I hope your holidays are filled peace and love!

Wonderful, Wintry, Weekend

I have been buried in Christmas preparations.  Today I have spent my whole morning and expect the remainder of the afternoon doing secret Christmas presents :-)

Although Christmas is sneaking up quickly and I have been swamped I took a much need and break earlier this weekend to hang out with my beloved nephews!  My brother and sister needed time to do some last minute Santa's helper errands and Hubby and I offered to keep the kids.  We had the boys Friday, Friday night and most of the day Saturday.  We had a blast but...let's just say I have a great appreciation for my sister. An appreciation that was there before this weekend, but has tripled....no quadrupled after our few days together. 

Now, don't misinterpret my comment, my nephews are amazing, polite, and well behaved.  They were nothing short of great this weekend.  But two boys under the age 9 and 5 take a lot of energy and a lot of ingenious methods of keeping them busy (and out of trouble)!  Not to mention someone should follow them around with a dustbuster!  But so is having the boys around and I wouldn't trade it for the world!

Hubby and I did have a blast and we cherish every minute we can spend with them.  They offer a new perspective and they are too funny for words.  (I think I recall my brother saying that his kids must be really funny when you don't have to spend every day with them....and yes bro, yes they are hilarious!)  I have to laugh at how Lil'D (the 5 year old) snuggled up to my hubby on the couch while we watched a movie Friday night, my hubby who, bless his heart, doesn't generally do well with hugs and snuggling.


The boys and I spent some time at the Scrap Exchange on Friday afternoon.  A great place to get re-purposed materials for crafts.  Then we made these really cool Christmas Ornaments with some clear glass ornaments and re-purposed crayons.  A great cold day activity.  All in all, we had a great weekend and even had more snow on Saturday afternoon! 

So there is my quick update.  I hope to post lots of pictures of all the things I have been working on (after Christmas....I would hate to ruin any surprises!)  I hope you had a wonderful weekend too!  (I bet your weekend wasn't as good as my brother and sister's was :-)

This is where I have been....

With Christmas just around the corner I have been super busy with lots of Christmas activities...

We are not really decorating the house this year but I have been getting into the Christmas Spirit by doing some of this....

and some of this....

and other crafty things like this....

Handmade gift tags!  I can't take the credit for this great idea...check out the tutorial at Inchmark 

And to keep my sanity a lot of this....

What are you doing to get ready for the holidays?

December is here!

Boy, December sure did sneak up!  As I type this it is snowing heavily outside.  Yeah, snowing in December in NC!  Hubby just finished cleaning all of the leaves off the yard today.  What happened to Fall?  It is quite rare for us down here in the South to get snow in December!  It is nice and wintry.

I am snuggled up inside drinking a homemade latte and getting ready to do some crafty things!  Hoping to post pictures later, but some of the things I am working on are gifts!  Hope you are all staying warm today!