one shabby chick

Fun Mail

I ordered two Christmas presents from Back to Basics Toys on Nov. 26th but they've yet too arrived and I'm getting a little nervous. I've only gotten the kids 2 presents each (plus a book, I couldn't help myself!) so I really hope the box comes tomorrow or Monday. I've called the company but of course, because we live in Hawaii, they can't track the package. Which means they sent it parcel post and that always takes longer - ugh! There is nothing I can do and I've prepped the kids just in case. I really did want the sewing machine to get here though! I'm keeping my fingers crossed - in the grand scheme of things, a late Christmas gift is really no big deal.

I did however get some FUN mail today!!

An etsy order all the way from England (how she managed to fill orders and get married in the same time frame is beyond me! And did you see her invitations??!!) and a little orphan from Amanda (I won him!)...

I think they'll be life-long friends.

I was thinking Rusty was going to be a stocking gift for my younger son but he and Peanut have taken up residence in my sewing area so there they'll stay. They are both so cute - what talented ladies!! They were snacking on the Christmas pudding last I checked.

And hiding from this little creature...

I was planning on doing some sewing today but have come down with a sore throat and not feeling crafty! I picked up this wonderful movie at Costco yesterday and I have this one from Netflix so I may just spend the afternoon watching them instead. We have a progressive dinner tonight but I'm not sure how I'll feel. The progressive dinner won out over the other party since our kids are invited to it and the other is a fun, but adult-only, party.

I'm so glad I got all the Christmas shopping done...food and all. I picked up the pictures of the kids from Costco and some frames too and wrapped a couple to give my mom. And I found the perfect gift for my brother...at least I think it's the perfect gift. He's so hard to shop for and always seems to know what it is before he opens it. We DID actually used to open the gifts when we were younger and then tape them back up...but now he just has good guesses.
Well, hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. I have loved discovering "blogland" and have been so inspired by the wonderful women (and men) I have discovered here....can't wait to see what's in store for 2008!

Update:

***My finger-crossing must have worked because my wonderful postal carrier just came back with the box from Back to Basics!! She said it arrived on the latest truck and was wondering if it was the one I was waiting for! How sweet is she - I had already planned a gift for her so I wrapped it up to give her tomorrow...What a sweetheart!***

Feet

So there is a great contest going on at this blog...She takes AMAZING pictures and is having a little photo contest. It inspired me to take some pictures of my kids' feet. I really need to practice a lot more with my camera and Photoshop Elements. I have no idea what I am doing on Photoshop and am only slightly less informed on my camera.

So here's a feet photo from yesterday....

This one was taken right as I had just told them, "OK, we can be done now!". I love it :-)

And some potholders I made for myself and my sister...."two for me, two for you" kinda thing.

They came out a little wonky but oh well...I used that insul-bright stuff and batting so I think they'll be great for hot pans.

And last night was really fun...long leisurely dinner with no utensils..just our fingers. glasses of red wine and a night spent with family....good times. We got this photo taken with my sister-in-law's I-Phone (I totally want one now!) since everyone forgot to bring a camera.

C is for Cookie

So Sunday night was my cookie exchange party...some of the ladies couldn't make it due to sick kids, work, ect. but it was a fun group and my house is not that big so it didn't feel crowded at all.

I made these coconut macaroons on Saturday and dipped them in chocolate......

I used a recipe from Martha's Handmade Christmas.

During my Saturday morning blog reading, I found this post and these yummy cookies. So I had Hubby pick me up some maraschino cherries and made these on Sunday.

Picked up some flowers to add some cheeriness....

And cleaned the house...(this photo is pre-cleaning, in case you were wondering!)

But I forgot to take any pictures of the actual party!! There are some yummy remainders in the fridge though! I made 2 aprons for the winners (best-looking and most tasty cookies). I picked up a couple of journals from Ross and made 2 little tote bags and those were the second-place prizes. All in all, it was a fun night.

I cannot believe there is only one week left til Christmas. It seems like Thanksgiving was yesterday. Time sure does fly by! We have a couple of Christmas parties for Friday - need to pick one and find a babysitter. Tonight we are going to a fun restaurant for my sister-in-law's 30th birthday (she looks like she's a teenager - it's not fair!!).

I have been looking around my house at some of my Christmas decorations....

I have a few of my great-grandmother's creations.

They are very "vintage" and I'm awed by the work she put into each one.

Nothing is glued on...

everything is hand-sewn....tons of little sequins!

I never really thought about what treasures they are. And I guess that's where my crafting gene is from. I should have known. I mean, my father makes a living handcrafting knives.

I found this great gift idea on the Sew, Mama, Sew blog. Think I'll make a couple of these up for my parents and brother. Yesterday I started making some potholders using the pattern in Lotta's book. Made up a set for me and one for my sister (who will not be receiving them in time for Christmas since I already sent her box off). I'm procrastinating on the runner for my mom and the quilt for my son...by starting other crafts! ...sigh....There isn't really anything I have to do this week so I think sewing will be on the agenda. Just need to think of things to keep the kiddies entertained besides tv. We are off to a slow start these days...and it's not that we are waking up late, it's just taking forever to do things. I need to fit in some shopping this week too but there is NO way I am heading to the stores this weekend - it's going to be crazy I'm sure.

Ok off to see the disaster the kids have made in the kitchen. Serves me right for wasting WAY too much time on the computer this morning!

Christmas Parade

Last night was our town's annual Christmas parade. Our younger son didn't want to walk in the parade but the other ones did so my Hubby took the older two and the littlest (who was in fine form from a late night at our homeschool group's Christmas party the night before and no nap that day!!). She started crying the minute he got home and could not be separated from him so off she went in her stroller with Daddy. Since I only had one to watch we parked and got some coffee (and a Turkey wrap for him since he informed me he was starving!).

My family were dressed up as Bethlehem villagers and walked along with people from our church who were dressed as a live Nativity scene. It's a tiny little town - cute, quaint surf town. My camera was acting up really bad so I didn't get much at all! UGH!!

I did get a few shots of the girls dressed up in their Matilda Jane dresses before our trip to Costco yesterday....I called MJ at just the right time too - they were having the end of season sale! I have a couple pieces saved for Christmas too.

Oh - got some really fun mail yesterday!! Now I just need to do some thrift shopping to get colorful sweaters (kinda hard to find wool sweaters in Hawaii!!) but maybe I'll get lucky.

Baby girl is checkin out the Plush You book....

Another Post

Wow, two posts in one day! I'm ususally so bad about posting too. But we have somehow gotten into a big Christmas break (from school) and so we tried to do something crafty/schooly (I know this isn't really a word) today.

We made these....

which I saw on this blog, which is wonderful and full of ideas!

My daughter was amazed that she hadn't thought of it on her own (her being so crafty and all)....

As you can see they were concentrating very hard on making them look nice...

We glittered outside (and we, as I have complained many times on this blog, have no Target and therefore, no Martha, so we had to make do with Walmart glitter - how caveman-ish, I know) since I didn't want to clean up glitter for weeks.

They are really cute and I'm thinking we'll string them up somewhere in the house...maybe the kitchen.

Well, I better get going...I want to shave my legs and maybe paint my toe nails for tonight. It's fun and everyone always gets dressed up....and there are already tables set up for the craft fair so all you have to do is make your table look cute.....

Success

So the craft fair was great! It only sprinkled a couple of times but the night before was a downpour of rain - I had to load the car in the rain. I even told my husband that maybe I shouldn't even pack up the car since it was raining so hard and the news predicted thunderstorms for the next day too. I kept waking up in the night to hear if it was raining or not but it didn't. It was raining a little when I woke up but we live close to the mountains and as I drove to the craft fair (armed with my eggnog latte), I knew it was going to be ok...huge sigh of relief.

I have a little person on my lap as I'm typing who is using her little hands to fix my hair and put pretend makeup on me...She wants to type too but I just keep telling her no.

Anyway, about the craft fair. I sold a good mix of Christmas things and aprons and totes. My daughter had made her little sachets and sold all of them! People were SO nice to her...and it wasn't even people I knew who bought them! One lady even gave her $5 (she was selling them for $3..I had to talk her down, she had wanted to sell them for $6) and told her she'd have to keep the $5 since she didn't have any $1 bills...so sweet of her. Of course as soon as she sold anything, she had to go shopping and buy things at the craft fair. There was a lot of jewelry but not many sewn items. I think I'll work on my zippers and see if I can master them to sell some pouches next time. The other craft fair is tonight but it's not a large crowd but should be fun.

I am working on a table runner for my mom but not with Kathy's pattern. I had started (I always start things and don't finish) a throw for the couch but it has now morphed into a table runner. It's just long strips staggered...very easy...almost like this, but with longer strips. I need to attach batting and quilt it and then put some binding on it. I really like it and think I may have enough strips to put one together for me too..hmm, wonder if I can finish it by the cookie party this Sunday. Probably not!
I have a quilt for my son that I have put on the side for forever too that I think will end up under the tree.

Here is something that is under the tree already...a train.

My hubby and our oldest son are totally into it although it's quite sensitive and the little ones are always being told they can't touch it. I don't like that it doesn't fit perfectly on the tree skirt...hmm o.c.d. anyone?!

Here they are trying to put the train back on track....

Ok the little one is having a meltdown, but...here's some pics of ornaments on our tree...

These were so easy...

I bought those little wooden flower pots that are sold at craft stores, turned them upside, painted them like a Santa hat, attached a pom-pom on the top with some wire (or string) and added a name ...they are great for gift tags too.

I bought this at a craft fair....I just love it.

So she's calmed down but only because I've been singing songs from the Veggietales Christmas movie - I love that movie....it's too cute.

Well, I'm off to sew a little before the craft fair.

Rain, rain go away!

Man, it was like a hurricane hit here last night! Windy and rainy....our bedroom and living room flooded but not too bad. No major water damage. But we lost electricity around 3 a.m. and just got it back on around 8:30 p.m. And (which was kinda nice for me) hubby couldn't go to work since all the roads leading off the North Shore were closed due to downed power lines and flooding. Our kids didn't know what to do with themselves. Last night everyone (all the kids!) woke up after the lights went out and we set up makeshift beds in the living room and "sorta" slept. So it was a long day with kids working on not much sleep. They are all sleeping soundly now. It was slightly sad to get up and not be able to do my morning cruise on the internet...at least we have a french press and my mom has a gas stove and so we had coffee! We made lunch on the barbecue...tomorrow I'll have to check out the contents of the fridge and see how everything faired.
And because of all the "no electricity" and "road closures", our church's craft fair and Christmas dinner was cancelled - til next week. So no craft fair yet. I'm hoping for no rain on Sat. but it could be hopeless....

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

It's been raining for the past few days and I guess it's supposed to last the rest of the week. Not sure how the craft fair will be on Sat. but if it's pouring rain I'm thinking I may not even go...we'll see.

So I finally took some pics of everything I've been making lately. The wood things were just made this weekend and thank goodness I got them all painted before the rain came! I sprayed them with sealer today so I think they'll be fine for tomorrow.

Hopefully Hubby will get rained out and come home...more time to sew :-)....I want to try and make a table runner from this wonderful pattern for my mom...today's her birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!) and I got her some earrings and a gift certificate but really wanted to make her that for her birthday too. It's ok if it's a few days late too.

So here's the loot I'm hauling to the craft fairs....

totes and big girl aprons:

Little girl aprons and baby blanket....

Snowmen (which I am loving)....

Santa - I made a bunch of these a couple of years ago when my friend and I decided to do a really big (and expensive) craft fair, thinking I'd sell out. Well, they've helped fill my inventory the past two years..I only have three left. I made their clothes out of white chenille this year and they kinda look like Santas in jammies so I'll see how they do...

Ornaments and signs....

Baby Jesus ornaments....

Set of pillows (already had sewn them up a while ago and just discovered them..all I had to do was stuff them!)....

My handmade tags (will definitely be buying a stamp with name and email address!) - they were fun to make and I just happened to have that little chick stamp which totally matches my name.....

We finally have the tree up and now we need to set up our train...My grandpa sent us this train (we actually got another piece today - he signed up for some club I think that sends him a new train and track every couple of months - so sweet!). My husband was pretty excited about it - we just don't want Baby girl to destroy it since it's a very nice train.

Well, have a great week...I need to make those invites or no one will be coming to my cookie exchange!