Christmas Shopping From A Chair

An ice storm is predicted for our area, so that means I'll be staying in the house today. I'm feeling a little under the weather too, so it's probably just as well. Yukky stuff coming out of my nose and my throat is feeling scratchy ~ basically I'm a pathetic mess! Since I'm not going out to the stores I thought I'd share some things I purchased from the comfort of my chair along with a couple of catalog finds that caught my eye.
Isn't this ballerina shadowbox the sweetest? I love the pink glittered trees and the sentiment ~ Always Dream ~ is just so perfect. I special ordered her from Dale at Sea Dream Studio and she quickly put it together and shipped it out in the blink of an eye! How about that for great service? Then I just ordered this darling little snow church from Mary at Oh Merci. I love the aqua color and the darling little wreath above the door. And the bell in the steeple actually rings!
This darling little box and snow scene is from the Room Service catalog. It's one of my favorite catalogs for beautiful things for the home ever since a friend introduced me to a couple year's ago.

These little snow cottages, also from Room Service, look so yummy in these pastel colors.

I love the detail of the icicle trim hanging from the roof line and the snow piled high on the roof.
This white glittered trio is from a store called Jayson Home & Garden. I got on their mailing list (maybe from attending the Flower & Garden Show here last year) and they send me emails periodically filled with wonderful treats like this:

And this:

I'm going to use all of the eye candy above for inspiration in putting together the Sugar Shack Kit I ordered from Holly last month. These snow houses look the way my house will look by days end after the ice storm hits. Of course I don't have a house painted a pretty shebert color like these. Well I'm off to fill up on some decongestant now so I can breathe!

Borrowing a Cup of Ideas

OK, after reading Rebecca's post here about the Chilly Willys that Sandra made here, I decided to share an idea I "borrowed" from Kris's post here. Friday evening I went to a cookie exchange with a group of gals I used to work with. We all have gone our separate ways career-wise, but we still get together several times a year. I baked the cookies I posted about here and found some cute snowman containers at the dollar store which began my snowman theme for the packaging. After being inspired by Kris's whimsical snowman tags, I decided I would make a similar tag to tie on each of the cookie containers. However as I was making them, I realized that they were more involved than I had thought and was quickly running out of time to put together a little handmade giftie to give each of the gals in addition to the cookies. So I decided to turn the snowman tags into the gift by making them into a little shadowbox.
I liked him so much, that I made an extra one to keep for myself! Thanks so much for the idea and the inspiration Kris! Oh and by the way, the cookie exchange gals loved them too!

Christmas Organization

A while back I told you I won this beautiful Christmas Card Holder Kit in a giveaway on Charlotte Lyon's blog. Oh how excited I was to win one of her wonderful prizes because I do so admire all of her work. Well, this morning I had a bit of free time, so I put it together and this is how it turned out:
It's hard to believe that this started out as a Cherrio's box. Reuse and recycle is the name of the game! Now I can finally put my Christmas cards in a pretty place of honor.

More Craftiness

This idea for sparkley goodness comes to you from Teresa McFayden , who showed us how to add a little glitz and glam to our homes. I like how a just a touch of glitter can add a holiday touch to my everyday decor.
And a little journal to keep track of all your gift ideas. This one started out as a raw chipboard mini book from K & Company.

Fuzzy Mittens and Spoiler Alert!

It's still very cold and snowy here so I made this pair of warm, felt mittens last after reading Teresa McFayden's 5th Day of Comfort & Joy. I happen to have all the supplies already - my husband says my artroom looks like a craft supply store cause I have so much in it. I suppose he is just a tiny bit right about that.
I free-handed the snowflake embroidery and used the pattern below (which was part of an ad flyer I received in the mail - see I don't throw anything away!) as a guide for the stitches. I added a teensy-weensy pearl bead at the end of each arm of the snowflake to add more dimension and elegance.

And now for the

~ SPOILER ALERT! ~

Tamy, don't peek if your mailman hasn't delivered it yet!

This is the tree topper I made for Donna's Vintage Tree Topper Swap. Sorry the tree topper isn't being photographed on top of a tree, but I don't have mine up yet. It's kind of blah looking sitting on top of that urn. It looks better in person.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like. . .

WINTER! It's here! Last night we had the beginnings of our first big snow storm here in northeastern Illinois and what a lovely sight that first snowfall is. Of course after a while, we all become bored with the snow and later in the season we downright wish it would stop falling! But there's nothing quite like the look of the fresh, first snow that hasn't been disturbed by footprints or snowplows. Later today, the streets will become slushy and dirty and just plain yukky, but until then I am reveling at nature's beauty.

These are the 50-plus year old Austrian Pine trees in front of our house.

And this photo was taken last night out on our deck. See what I mean about snow that has not yet been walked on? Over the weekend my DH put the tiny white lights on all the trees and shrubs around the house and I love how they look glowing under the snow.

This morning I have to make a run to the post office to mail out some Etsy orders and also the tree topper I made for Tamy for our Under the Red Roof Tree Topper swap. Afterwards, I have to go into the office for a bit of boring paperwork and then hopefully tonight I can take some time to clean up the messes I have made everywhere from all my creative projects. I really have spread out this time - there's almost no room in the house that was safe from glitter and glue! Then I can start again, with a fresh slate, to make a few more things for the shop before Christmas.

Virtual Cookie Exchange Today

Prepare yourself for a Sugar High because Jessi Nagy is hosting a cookie exchange today! There are going to be all sorts of yummy cookies and recipes in blogland today, so check out Jessi's blog HERE for all the links. This recipe is one that I'm actually making this week because I have a real life cookie exchange party to go to on Friday. It's an easy peasy recipe which I thought would be good for this hectic time of the year. Besides the quicker we can bake 'em, the sooner we can eat 'em! RASPBERRY THUMBPRINT COOKIES

Makes 5-1/2 Dozen

1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix

1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted

1 egg

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/3 cup seedless raspberry jam

1 cup white vanilla baking chips

Heat oven to 375 (F) degrees. In a large bowl, stir cookie mix, melted butter, egg and flour until soft dough forms. Shape dough into 3/4-inch balls. On ungreased cookie sheets, place balls 2-inches apart. Using thumb, make an indentation in center of each cookie. Spoon about 1/4 teaspoon jam into each indentation. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 5 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to cooling racks. In a small microwavable bowl, microwave vanilla chips uncovered on high 1 to 2 minutes or until chips are melted; stir until smooth. Spoon melted chips into small zip-lock bag; cut small hole in corner of bag. Squeeze bag gently to drizzle melted chips over cookies.

A WInter Collage

I carved out a little time to be creative and put together this collage inspired by Teresa McFayden's second day of her 12 Days of Comfort & Joy e-zine workshop. I seem to have a "thing" lately for aqua and ice blues along with pink when creating wintery paper projects. That huge glass pebble is from Target. The metal border on top is an old one from Making Memories. I don't even think they still sell those, but Teresa said that she created some really cute ones for 7 Gypsies with scalloped edges. I'm going to have to get me some of those for sure! The weatherman is predicting 2 to 4 inches of snow for our area tomorrow evening, so this collage is going to fit right in. :)

And Another Swap. . .

Another swap has come home to roost. This one was a Vintage Holiday Recipe Book organized by Gina Armfeld of the Artjournalz Yahoo Group. Each participant was asked to create a recipe for the holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hannukah, New year's, etc.). Then on the reverse side of the recipe, we created a mixed media collage using a vintage holiday image. Each of us madeI think 16 or17, (it's been a while so I don't remember the exact count). Then we sent all our pages back to Gina and she bound them into the gorgeous keepsake recipe book shown above. And just look at how it arrived at my doorstep - all festively gift wrapped by Gina herself! Isn't she clever?

I chose a fall/Thanksgiving recipe for Colonial Pumpkin Bars pictured below. . .Mmmm, they are yummy! I've been making this recipe ever since my daughter was a little girl. The collaged page above is on the reverse side of my recipe.

Below are some of the other pages in the book. I can't wait to try a few of these recipes soon!

Winter Wishes - My Box & Book Cover

BLOGGING ALERT - You may want to pour yourself a cup of tea or your favorite beverage of choice, because this is a FOUR PART post with lots of pictures!

Several months ago, I posted some sneak peeks about one of the Round Robins I was participating in with two other fun and talented gals, Dawn (Artist Reborne) and Melissa (Little Melfie's World). Dawn had the idea of each of us creating a book and box set based on the theme of Winter Wishes. She had been inspired by the gorgeous Spring Secrets round robin posted about here. So we all went to work creating our books and boxes before sending them off to the next artist to work on. Above is the cover my box and below is a close up of the side view.
My book started out as a blank 6x6 binder from Bo Bunny which I embellished in cool aqua blue tones. I nestled the book inside the box in a bed of aqua tulle. I used 140 lb watercolor paper as the base for my pages instead of the thicker chipboard pages that are included with the binder.
On the binding I wrapped filmy aqua gingham ribbon embellished with "winter" and "wish" charms, glass beads, and a metal snowflake tag.
I love it when a finished book looks chunky like this when it's finished.

On the inside box cover, I attached a glassine envelope filled with little goodies and a crepe paper rosette along with some glitter for good measure.

Title Page

Sign-in page.

The snow scene on this page is actually the cover from some Winter Wonderland vintage sheet music I found in my grandmother's piano bench. I copied it and altered the colors a bit. The house and some of the skater's coats were originally red, but I digitally changed them to pink to fit in with the color scheme I wanted to use.