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