Catching up . . .

I have not been posting regularly due to my office moving, crazy work schedule and trying to prepare for our holiday visit with my family in Balitimore. Since my mother's computer has crashed I'm not sure if I'll be able to post again until we return to New York in January. So today I'll play catch up . . .

I am way late in posting about the WONDERFUL Apron ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) I received in a swap arranged by the infamous Apron Thrift Girl. And like I said before, I thought I took pictures of the cards I made but for some reason they are no where to be found. :( Anyway, here are the ones I received:



Everyone of them is gorgeous and finely crafted! When I was making my own, I felt I could go on and on making tons of them.



The brown one on the top left was made by Selena herself. The blue green one is made from fabric and sequins. Divine!



When I first read about the swap I knew nothing about ATCs but I'm so glad I participated. It's so nice to see everyone's interpretation of the apron! My cards are now proudly displayed on a ribbon board in my craft room.

Also this week I tried my hand at making one of these paper houses from Better Homes & Gardens:



It was so easy to make and I just love the glitter but I wish I had chosen better colors for the house and the doors and windows. Since this was a spur of the moment thing I didn't have anything to make a wreath or trees from so my house is kind of bare. I am hoping to make more of these next year including some larger ones for a glittery little village. :) I briefly entertained trying to figure out how to make these as favor boxes for my wedding but then realized that while making a few paper houses may be fun, making a hundred might not be.

I've had a good amount of responses to the Pink & Brown swap. We'll officially get started in January once all of the holiday fun and games are over. I'm really looking forward to it! I'm also looking forward to picking all of your crafty brains for ideas on how to make some special things for my wedding.

Have a safe and happy holiday. I'll be thinking of you all as I enjoy the time spent with family and friends and being grateful for all the wonderful things in my life.

Peace . . .

Rebecca

Alive & Kicking!

Whew! What a weekend. Friday we packed up an office of 200 people and moved two blocks away. Only in New York City. Saturday, I put Luis to work cleaning the house for our annual early Christmas with his family and a few special friends. We had a wonderful time and Joolz came over early and helped me get the food together. (THANK YOU!) I had a bit too much wine so if Joolz says I said something silly, it's probably true. ;) Sunday I was lazy but did get the house cleaned and some knitting done.

Since I'm so behind everyone else, I thoght I'd share some of my Christmas crafts today and save the Apron ATC cards for tomorrow.

First up, some fingerless mitts I made for Sara.



They are a lovely bright orange and very soft. They are based on this 2 needle mitten pattern but with modifications. Obviously I didn't do the shaping for the top of the mitten or thumb but I also added a fancy cuff:



I am thinking of trying to write up the pattern if anyone is interested. The complete package:



I also FINALLY whipped up some of those Sculpey Penguins I've been babbling about for weeks.



If you go check out the pattern you will see that my penguins are larger and wingless. I thought they were cuter that way. :) Here is one "in action" on a gift of cookies and candy for a coworker:



I forgot how much I enjoy working with Sculpey. Here are two of the snowmen Mom and I made last year:





They are based on this project.

I've got a few more things in the works, hoping to try some of those little paper house ornaments and to actually finishing some knitting before I leave for my vacation on Friday. I hope to be around more this week!

cheers!
Rebecca

Quick Update . . .

Hi there! I am up to my neck in office supplies. My office is moving to a new location and I'm one of the coordinators so of course that means I end up with everyone's crap. Grumble . . .

Anyway, just wanted to stop by and say HELLO and that I'll be back in full force once I get through the move and an early Christmas with Luis' family on Saturday. :)

Seems like Lucy and I have had a good response regarding the Pink and Brown swap! Yeah! Since we'll really get started in January (we are all crazy now) we will have the last day to sign up be January 8th but you can start sending your official emails (or comments) to me or Miss Lucy anytime. Spread the word! Pink and Brown Rule.

** I am thinking we will do one crafted thing of pink and brown, a pink and brown themed craft supply (like ribbon, fabric, stickers, etc.) and a pink and brown thrifted item. Let's shoot for pink and brown being the main theme but I know with thrifting it will be tough. You guys are uber creative though and I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with! You'll have plenty of time and I'm thrilled to get in the Pink and brown mood for my wedding.**

Have a fabulous weekend! I'll be sneaking around your blogs when I break for lunch . . .

xoxoxo
Rebecca

Seven Hour Bake-a-Thon

And so it began . . .



On Saturday, Lizzy and I baked. And baked. And so on. Some things worked well, like these Chocolate Espresso Snowcaps from the Everyday Food Holiday Cookies edition:



Don't you love when they look just like the picture?? Some things we tried were not worth the effort like our truffles. (I have no pictures of things gone wrong.) One batch came out quite well but only yielded a few truffles. The other . . . well we won't go there.

I also made Lucy's pepermint bark!



Easy, yummy and so festive! We also made enough gingerbread to sink a ship, several kinds of short bread, oatmeal Craisin cookies and tried our hand at spritz cookies in the cookie press!



I didn't count all how many dozens we made, we just set to and cranked out dough. I still have some in my freezer waiting for my energy level to go up again. It was definately fun and exhausting!

In other news, I have been knitting and making a few crafty things but not much to share at the moment. I also received my Apron ATC cards from the swap set up by Selena! I will share them tomorrow, they are so gorgeous that they deserve their own post. I thought I took pictures of the ones I sent but I can't seem to find them. :( If you go here you can see one of mine, it's in the top right corner one and says "thrift." (go figure)

I'll leave you with a little tinsel tree I found at Target for $2.50 to hold my new favorite ornaments. I wanted gold but the price was right. I'll search for a gold one for next year. I made a tiny tree skirt from sparkly pink material. How very girlie of me. ;)



cheers!
Rebecca

PS - I also wanted to thank everyone for leaving such wonderful comments! I get so excited when I open my email box and see both old friends and new! I'm planning to organize a swap in January (with the help of the lovely Lucy) and hope everyone will want to join in. We know the theme - Pink & Brown (those are my wedding colors and it's coming up fast so what better way to get in the mood??) - and are working on the details of what we think should be included. Let me know your interest!

SPLURGE

Last night, Luis and I took a walk through the holiday shops in Bryant Park. I had hit the bank machine in preparation for picking up a few unique gifts for family and friends. Well, while I did get two gifts, I managed to spend most of my money on myself. Shameless I tell you! But seriously, I couldn't resist and I even went to dinner and then went BACK for these:



Small handpainted wooden ornaments from Russia. Sigh . . . I LOVE THEM. They were a bit more than I really wanted to spend but when I started babbling about them at dinner Luis convinced me to go back and treat myself. (He's a bit of an enabler himself.) So I bought these two sets and I have taken them out of their tissue wrapped boxes and fingered them quite a few times already.



Come on, are you lightheaded from the cuteness or what? They are each about 2 inches tall and painted so lovingly. I am considering giving a few as gifts but I'm having a hard time convincing myself that I don't NEED them all.



My mother, an enabler in her own right, told me they will be wonderful keepsakes I can pass onto my children some day. :) You see, I get it from her. The justifying of spending money that is.



Look at that sweet face! So should I keep them ALL or share the wealth? There are ten total, two sets of 5, one gold and one pink. I'm thinking a tinsel tree for ALL of them to hang on . . . silver perhaps? or gold?



And I could get small glass balls in pink and blue to go with them! Have I gushed enough for you to agree with me that I need them all to stay with me? LOL I'm killing me.

I also picked up this little guy . . .



whom I also love but is intended to be a gift. However, he was not very expensive so I COULD go get one for me, too. :)

I'm hoping to visit the holiday shops at St. Barts either today or tomorrow. Maybe I'll actually find some gifts there. ;)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . .


Rebecca

Four Corners of My Craft Room

TOOT! TOOT! That would be me tooting my own horn. I wrote another article for the National Thrifter and I'm pretty proud of it! Check it our here. And just who is the Thrifter of the Month? Why Apron Thrift Girl, naturally!

Now about my title. This weekend I started several projects that I hope (fingers crossed) to finish before Christmas. I consider myself a relatively organized person. I balance my check book religiously, put the cap back on the tooth paste and neatly fold underwear and socks. On Sunday afternoon when I decided to hang up my craft hat for the day I took a look around my space and couldn't help from cracking up. It was like a tornado hit a Michael's. Geesh. And of course I thought you'd all like to see the mayhem. :)

So here they are, the Four Corners of My Craft Room:

CORNER #1 - Yarn Central



Joolz & I recently hit Smiley's Manhattan Yarn Blowout and I stocked up. Not as much as Julie "Two Garbage Bags" McGee over there but still, I bought several bag lots of yarn including the 6 skeins of turquoise Homespun you see in the front. Oh and that basket in the top right cubby? Full of buttons. Yeah. Highlights? My crocheted bag from Vaxgirl just waiting for a WIP to fill it up and trash bags on the bottom left to prove that I really do throw some things away.

CORNER #2 Futon Workspace



I would like to say that normally the futon is clear of all crafting stuff but that would be a lie. I'd love to get rid of the futon and get another work table but I'm worried that relegating my overnight guests to the living room pull out isn't as nice as having a their own room with a door. Regardless of the God awful hardness that is a $49 Ikea futon mattress. Highlights? That's an entire 3 ring binder FILLED with stickers on the left and I see Luis' Homer Simpson flip flops on the bottom right. Makes me wonder what he was doing in there sans shoes . . .

CORNER #3 Craft Desk Mania



This is the crux of the craft room, the Mecca, the ooey gooey chocolately center. And boy is it a MESS. Highlights . . . hmmm . . . there is my Sizzix machine which has seen quite a bit of action lately and an in-progress scrapbook for a friend to be named later (don't want to spoil the surprise!) and a large pile-o-crap on the right there that consists of lord knows what.

CORNER #4 Home of Sewing Machine that Hates My Guts



Yes, there she is. In all her non-sewing glory. I even gave her a nice blankey yet she STILL gathers all the thread down around the bobbin case. GRRR. Highlights - my bulletin board which doesn't look nearly as crowded as it could be and the jar near the lamp is filled with my favorite buttons. Yes I said FAVORITE buttons further more proving my dorkiness.

So that's it, the grand tour. I'm not always this much of a slob but when the creativity bug bites, the neatness bug goes out the window.


xoxoxo
Rebecca

For the Love of Rummaging . . .

Wow. I had a GREAT thrifting Saturday! Way back when I would have told you that thrifting in New York was crap. I take that back.

Saturday morning I met up with Vaxgirl aka Catherine at her home on Long Island. She greeted me with a gift! Gotta love that.



A crocheted tote bag, some yummy sachets and three Fire King Peach Lustre (righht Heidi?) custard cups to match a baking dish I thrifted in October! Thank you! I've already used them. :)

We putzed around a bit, I got to see her wonderful home and and the sweet Puff and then we were off to the rummage sale! There was quite a lot of mayhem and we were wishing we had arrived earlier and brought bigger bags but $9 later I was a happy camper with all my scavanged goods. She also took me to a few thrift stores I'd never been to and they were WAY better than the Saver's. So what did I get? Here's the haul:



Um yeah, all that. I only spent about $34 and that includes a $10 splurge on two of the items. Highlights: rooster curtains, cookie tins, wooden spools, ribbon, some fabric, a few table cloths, three cast iron trivets, a Ralph Lauren pillow sham and other odds and ends. Some of my favorites:



Bacardi & Coke pitcher - $1 - these heavy glass pitchers are always a favorite of mine. :)

Shiny Brite ornaments - $1 for 10 - they are inside the pitcher. I dug them out of a 10 for a dollar bag! Now that I'm Shiny Brite saavy I checked the caps for the makers mark. ;)

silver rimmed glasses - 50 cents each - I found 6 of these and can now ditch my mis-matched others.



Holiday Glasses - these are from the rummage sale so I'm not sure of the price but I love them!

So all in all a good day! I had such a wonderful time thrifting with Catherine. We are such enablers! You definately don't want to thrift with us.

Thanks again for a great weekend!

What did everyone else get into??

xoxoxo

And they called her . . . The Felt Queen

Yes. I like felt. And I like blanket stitch. I like them because I can sew stuff by hand in front of the TV while drinking copious amount of Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi. That is my kind of crafting.

Vaxgirl put it into my head that I needed to make these sewing kits in a jar ala Martha. I had the same problem as she did in that it was damn hard to get the freakin' lids to go back on the jars once you made the pin cusion tops. Well I solved that problem with a lot of cursing and by removing the actual metal lid part, replacing it with a piece of heavy cardstock and shoving it down in there with a knitting needle. More proof that all that "easy" stuff done by Martha is really done by demons on loan from her deal with you-know-who. Just kidding Martha, I really love you, I do.



I found the jars yesterday at the dollar store. I will probably try to pick up a few more today. The fabric I used for the pin cusion top is actually upolstry fabric and it would probably be easier with something a little lighter. Inside, so far, I have some red and white buttons, white thread, safety pins and these felt needle books I made:





I need to get some needles, thimbles and those little gold bird scissors. Great gift! :)

As I mentioned before, I'm enjoying making felt items because I can locate myself in the living room and catch up on my soap opera, I mean THE NEWS. Ahem. This is a very portable craft. I took a thrifted picnic hamper and turned it into the felt station:



The loops on the lid, meant for utensils, make great scissor holders. There are pockets all around the lining for thread, buttons, etc. and all my lovely felt and fabric fits inside along with a circle template (for making yo-yos) and my favorite pin cusion made for me by Sara. *big grin*

I'm so glad it's Friday! Tomorrow I get to meet Vaxgirl and thrift the day away. Fun! Sunday I'm making Luis go shopping with me. Not so fun. I also hope to make my own version of these adorable dress ornaments by Posey. Out of, you guessed it, FELT.

ciao mi dulci bellas . . . may the felt be plentiful in your homes.

Rebecca

Festive Baubles & The Christmas Puppy

Oh how I love the glass ornaments . . .



holiday tray - $2 - Mom took this home with her :(

glass ornaments - $2 - I know most of you out there gather these bad boys up when you see them. I also realized that I had two other boxes of thrifted ornaments stashed from last year so I displayed some of them in my new hurricane from the Pottery Barn Outlet:




*that's my new Babuska from Dept 56 that I found at the Lenox outlet for $3! I love her.

I also loaded up my cocktail shakers with ornaments:



I'm tempted to leave these out year round. I love the sparkle. By the way, all of these shakers were either thrifted or given to me by a friend. The ornament oil light was also thrifted. It had two others to match but somebody's big fluffy tail wiped them away last Christmas. :(

Needless to say, I love the festive baubles that come with this time of year. I also feel the need to share some pictures of Kaiser. Seems he is as much of a fan of the Christmas tree as I am. This first shot is from last year with Kaiser Peanut was a wee pup of 6 months:



Honestly I think he's hiding from the big dog. Now this year, at 18 months:



I think he realized that the tree skirt is some awfully squishy goodness.

Ho Ho Ho

The Thrift Heard Round the World

I have a new friend. Well, a new acquaintance BUT I can tell we will be friends. Want to know why? Because anyone who can whip up a poodle cake HAS to be my friend. Oh yeah, and she thrifts, too. AND she crafts. AND she sews. So anyway, go visit her blog and often. She sent me a lovely email about how she's been reading mine and honestly, her stuff is WAY better. :) Plus, she lives in New Zealand. Ahhhh New Zealand . . .

I'm in a blathering mood today so please pardon if I go on and on. When Mom was in town, we did some thrifting. We hit the regular old Savers, of course, but we also got to visit The Church Attic in Amityville which Vaxgirl told me about. It is only open during the week and the first Saturday of each month. It's in an old house and each room is filled with treasures. Plus the prices are pretty good! I'm hoping to stop by there again this Saturday when I FINALLY get to met Vaxgirl live and in person. Anyway, the booty:



red checkered table cloth - $3 - this is small which is great because my table is ridiculously small. My cloths usually overwhelm it. Plus, it's classic picnic style!

floral vintage cloth - 99 cents - funny enough, I looked at this at Savers some time ago and it was $6! It had a multitude of stains and I certainly wasn't shellin' out 6 bones for it. Well when Mom and I were there the special was that all items with a purple tag were 99 cents and guess what? It was purple! So 99 cents and a load of Oxy Clean later and this is one gorgeous cloth!



napkins - 59 cents each - all from Savers. The gold one has a crown in the center and it's probably some kind of brand. I'll get a better picture of it eventually. The others are from Bloomingdales and I couldn't resist the color combo! Of course they match nothing I own.


This is all from The Church Attic and mostly went home with Mom:



barware - since Mom picked it all up I wasn't paying much attention to the prices but it must have been around 50 cents to $1 for each piece.

scoop - 75 cents - dog food scoop!

trivet - $1 - this was the first thing we found when we walked in. Mom has a bit of a collection of these small trivets.



aruba paper mache plate - $2 - this goes nicely on my beach themed sun porch (Savers)

blue/white garland - $2 - also will go nicely on the porch and these things are so expensive at the craft store for some reason (Savers)

blue felt - 25 cents - This is what I made the stocking from that I shared yesterday. (Church Attic)

Tomorrow I'll share the thrifted Christmas items we picked up. I think between the two of us we spent around $40 combined. Not so bad for our haul!

xoxoxo
R

And So It Begins . . .

Wow I feel out of the loop. My vacation was wonderful! I had a lovely visit with my parents, a quiet Thanksgiving and a lot of crafting time. It was nice but I am having a hard time getting back to reality. I find my mind wandering a lot, thinking about all my crafty blog friends and wondering what everyone was up to over the long holiday weekend.

The Christmas bomb went off on Friday at my house:



Damn. I have a lot of stuff. So much that there is a whole bin of things I decided NOT to put out this year. You see, last year I had minimal furniture. Only a sofa, TV cabinet, side bar and table in a very large living room/dining room area. So my Christmas decorations really filled in the gaps. In fact, I was very sad when I put everything away last year because it looked so bare! Now this year I have LOADS more furniture and all my decorations are making the place look . . . cluttered. So I have my work cut out for me. I'll share more pictures of my decorations as I get them perfected over the next few weeks. I hope you will be doing the same on your blogs, I'd love to see what everyone comes up with in the way of holiday sparkle.

Did I mention that I crafted? I did. Mom and I turned out LOADS of paper rosette ornaments:



They came out very cute and will be nice to tie on packages or the tree. They are really easy to make and I got to use some gift tags and holiday cards I saved from last year as embellishments. You know I love to repurpose!

I also went a little crazy with the felt. This is definately the year of felt for me. This stocking is probably my favorite of the felt ornaments I've done so far:



In fact, I'm keeping this one. It's already on the tree. (By the way, I have two artificial trees in my house. The one on the porch is all blue, silver and white. I love live trees but we travel for Christmas and coming home to a dead tree sounds terrible to me.) I do love how this turned out and have a template cut out to make more.

I also made these:



The hand puppet came out wonderfully! I think he's just adorable. The ornament isn't so bad either (despite his one floppy antler). I may try to make a Santa puppet to go with the reindeer. It is definately the year of felt.

Today I plan to hit ALL of my favorite blogs to see what everyone is up to. Expect multiple comments in your inboxes with my name on them! Tomorrow I'll share some goodies Mom and I thrifted during her visit. Oh, and maybe more felty goodness.

cheers!
Rebecca

Ideas Abounding!

I was chatting with Lucy about all the wonderful things I (we) want to do for the holidays. Many were inspired by blogs (of course) and many others by magazines (also a no brainer.) So I thought I'd share some things I've seen around that I'd love to try myself or that I just admire for it's craftiness:

clothespin dolls - oh the cuteness! Amy does wonderful things!

pom-pom garland - I do want to make this, how easy right? Especially for me little tree in the kitchen. (YES a kitchen tree) But my pom-pom making skills are not great. Thanks to Pink Trees I read this tutorial and am willing to try it again.

Merry Christmas Banner - oh how I covet this. I may try to copy cat it.

ribbon garland - made by Heidi and I love it! She sure has a way with ribbons. I have already started gathering spools to make both the garland and the topiaries she's done.

name banner - love these! I want one that says Buon Natale.

TRUFFLES!



I have big plans for these. The picture is from the new Martha Holiday Gifts magazine and how cute to put the little notes underneath? Hopefully my Mom remembered to hit The Cake Cottage for me and picked up boxes and those puffy gold sheets fo separating the layers.

LOOK AT THIS! That Sara, I'll tell you, she knows how to maximize her time. Do you know she's in her last year of law school??

Wow, does the babble never end around here? I could go on and on about all the stuff I want to do but I'm sure you've all heard it before.

I will do my best to post tomorrow but if not, I won't be online for about 5 days while my parents invade Queens. I plan to sneak on at night but only to check up on what all of you are doing. *stalk stalk*

take care, princesses!

R

Happy Christmas!

I know, I've got my holidays all screwed up around here but I'm in a jolly mood. I have been day dreaming about the Friday after Thanksgiving and how I'll drag all my plastic bins up from the basement and start digging through my Christmas goodies. You see, during the week after Christmas every year I hit the sales. My favorite place to stalk is Target. On the 26th (if tradition holds) all of the hoiliday stuff at Target goes on sale for 50% off. My suggestion to you would be to buy whatever it is you lusted over before the holidays right away. (I'll be hunting down these white feather trees since I can't seem to bring myself to spend $40 on them now but maybe $20. We'll see.) Usually a few days later the discount will become deeper yet in my experience, you never find what you hoped would be there.

Now what was my point? Oh yeah, I'm particularly excited to open up my bins and see what I bought after Christmas last year at the sales. It's like getting brand new stuff! And we all love stuff, right? I also tend to buy Christmas ornaments through out the year as well. I guess I collect them. (I know, what a dork.)

Since I was in a Christmas mood I thought I'd share some of the ornaments I've made. You've already seen the felt mitten, star and circle but there are some new things, take a look:



See my scottie dogs in the back? I love them. And that weird apple/tomato plaid thing? Love that, too. Don't know what you do with it, but I love it anyway. Yeah Christmas. :)

I also thrift for Christmas though I have to say I'm not that lucky with finding decorations. I do find some gifts but my thrifted decorations are few and far between.



napkins - 49 cents each - you can never have enough linen napkins. Though I did buy these with the intent of turning them into yo yo trees.

festive goose cross stitch kit - $3 - I always buy these. I have like 5 stacked up. I'll start them next year. Yeah.

small quilted stocking - 70 cents - I thought it would be good for stashing a little gift in for someone.

gold pineapple spreaders - $1 - while these aren't Christmas specifically they sure are festive. Plus pineapples mean "welcome." That's goodness right there.



snowman stackable boxes - $2 - yeah, he's real cute.

reeaaallly tall snowman - $2 - I just had to have him. I had to.

and I probably shared this before . . .



Christmas pillow - $2 - I have a few of these for my sofa.

stitchable stocking - $2 - yet another cross stitch project. I do intend to put my friend's name on this and gift it this year. Check back soon to see if I follow through.

Are you in a holiday mood yet? I am. You just wait until after Thanksgiving, all of my posts will be holiday related I fear. I have a feeling that most of you are the same way so I know I'm in good company.

Tomorrow, to try to get away from my holiday craziness, I'll post about some other cards I've made in the past. I find them a great creative outlet and a good way to use up my mountains of scrapbook supplies.

ta!

Rebecca