Merry Merry Merry!

While enjoying a wonderful day with my family I wanted to take a moment to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and remind us all of the promise that is fulfilled through the most wonderful gift of ever given. I can think of no better expression than these words from my favorite Christmas Hymn: O Come O Come Emmanule.

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.

Fashion Show, Fashion Show, Fashion Show at Lunch - Christmas Party

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Every once in a while I like to pull together outfit posts where I do things like imagine things like what I would wear if I was redoing my first day of college. When I saw this sweet vintage Christmas card pop up over on Pinterest I knew it was just the thing for an outfit up dating.

Happy Holidays! by elizabethfink featuring gold plated earrings

I'm certainly thinking I'll make my Christmas party get up red, white and polka dotted!

A very pinterest Christmas

I have been pinning Christmas-y things over on Pinterest for, well, ever, I think a Christmas idea might have been my very first pin. For almost as long I've had this Pinterest Christmas idea rolling around in my head. So friends today I share with you three Pinterest inspired Christmas projects I've been working on over the last month. To get things started I found this picture of a glittered village with custom dyed bottle brush trees (originally from here).
Then I added some "pinspiration" from this image (found here). I loved the jars so much that a complete idea was formed.

I started by bleaching, dying and spray painting some craft store bottle brush trees. I used this post as my guide to tree dying.

For my little houses I used the great template from Little Glitter Houses four via this post from A Field Journal.
And here they are all mixed together with jars, that I had around the house and my large collection of vintage Readers Digest books (I have never read a single story from one of these books, but they have such great colors and patterns on their covers that I find myself pulling them out over and over again).
For my last project I used this picture of Anthro bobbles as my jumping off point. I'm going to go ahead right now and let you know I'm not all together happy with how they turned out.
I picked up a six pack of clear glass bulbs at the craft store (I broke one so I ended up with five), for one, I just emptied a two packages of sequins and for another I stuffed it full of the Highligh fake snow stuff (it is really more like Easter grass). For the other three I coated the inside with paint and here is my problem; I used glitter paint and it did not coat very nicely, but I'm sure they will be fine hung on a tree.
Finally if you just can't get enough, you can check out my Holiday Ideas board.

Have you been working on any Christmas projects? Inspired by Pinterest or not I'd love to take a look so leave me a link and I'll check 'em out.

P.S. sorry my pictures are so crummy, it is just so dark in my house these days. I can't wait until we are on the other side of the Winter equinox and coming into the light.

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

We have had our first real snow of the season, it was the perfect kind of snow, you know those big beautiful flakes that stick to tree branches and make the whole world look a little more magical. Love that, just love it. Meanwhile things are starting to look fairly Christmas-y around my little house I've put up my new white tree (squeal! so cute!) I'm going to share a few other Christmas project this week - for real I finally feel like I'm coming out the other side of this cold from hell two and a half weeks later so I think I can finally get my act together to take photos when the light is still good (so hard when it gets dark at about 5 o'clock). But to hold you over I thought today I'd pull together a little list of fun Christmas things.

1. Remember when I was all: "I'm putting together gift guides for guys" and then did nothing? You don't oh good, but incase you do remember and are still hoping for a little shopping insterpation, I'm hoping to meet you halfway. I'm not going to pull together the gift guides, but I will share the Pinterest boards I was using to organize things. So here, here, here and here you go.

2. While we are on the topics of gifts I wanted to point you to a wonderful gift idea, one that is so great I only wish I had someone on my list that I could buy one for. Not only are these Hearts4Hearts girls dolls very cute a portion of the sale of each doll goes to work that World Vision is doing the country that the doll's character is from.

3. And you know while we are on the topic of World Vision, if you are stumped on what to get that person who has everything maybe the gift of an animal, an education or clean water to a child in need. I receive the World Vision catalog every year, but this is the first year I have gifted anything. (And for a gift that would be good anytime of year, my cousin Lydia and I were just talking about how this little goat stuffed animal and the gift of a goat to a child in the babies name would be a great baby shower gift.)

4. The Girls with Glasses Show has put out another Chirstmas song/video this year, it is cute, but I still really love this one from last year:

5. Later this week I'm going to post my 12 favorite Christmas movies. The Flight Before Christmas will not be on the list, after helping my mom decorate and clean on Saturday my sister and I watched this movie, because we were just to tired to find something else. It is the worst ever!

Read Something Good: The Hunger Games

Well I have been hit with one killer cold, you know the kind that makes breathing a chore and makes you start inventing a throat scraping device. Yeah that kind. So my brother gift guides will be up over the weekend, but for today a Read Something Good post will have to do. I know I am so far behind on the whole Hunger Games thing, so very far, but now I'm on board and unlike all you early adopters I get to read all three books in one big binge. And that is just what I intend to do for this months reading pick. So there you have it the last month of Read Something Good and I'm going out with a bang!

P.S. All my other read something good posts can be found right here! And I'm working on a little round up/review sorta thing for the end of this month as well, so keep on the look out for that!

Lets Hear it for the Boys

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This time of year there are gift guides popping up all over the place. I love them, they are always full of wonderful ideas, but as the sister to four brothers I've noticed that they tend to be a little on the light side when it come for gifts for guys. So this week I thought I'd put together my own little guide for giving gifts to guys, because I have four brothers I have spent years looking for the perfect gifts for boys. For the next four days I'll have a round up a gifts inspired by each of my brothers, ranging from my Tech-y brother to my Sport-y Camping loving brother.

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Lately it seem that every time I turn around I'm being told or reading a sad, devastating or heart ache inducing story. They are stories about the unexpected happening, about things falling apart, about the things that make you wonder if your life is going anywhere. At time like these I fall back on this verse over and over. Knowing that even when I can't see it, understand it or really want it, God has a plan is the best comfort I can have.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11

Flowers in Her Hair

If you remember in September I slipped away for the weekend with a few of my closest gal pals. Craft Cabin wasn't just a chance to spend some quality time with my nearest and dearest it was the kick off to four years worth of 30th birthdays. That's right our little quartet will all be thirty by the end (well really middle) of 2014 and the next birthday is coming up fast. My beautiful cousin Hannah will be thirty on the 1st day of 2012. With her birthday being smack dab in the middle of all the holiday frenzy there will not be any January trips to lakes or long walks on the beach with best friends, but that doesn't mean that a low key little bit o' birthday love can't have some festive touches. So I knew when I saw these amazing flower "party hats" over on Oh Happy Day that they would be the perfect addition to a little Thai dinner party. Don't you agree. I'll be sure and post a few pictures of my creations in action when the big day comes. Do you have any fun celebrations coming up? Any plans to force your friends to eat dinner with huge blooms flopping a top their brow?

P.S. I have been working away on a bunch of Christmas crafts, my dining room table has turned into Santa's little workshop!

I smile because it's worth it

Marcel is back and cute as ever - "all he cares about is treats and snoozing, snoozing and treats".

What a Pair

The other day I stopped by Homegoods to pick up a little Christmas surprise when I spotted these cuties. It might be a little hard to tell from the picture, but they are covered in the most lovely velvety stripes and while not exactly the colors that I'm going for in my living room, they have given me a great idea for how I can recover my beloved, but very shabby looking, pink plaid chairs. There just might be a set of stripy chairs in my decorating future.

Shiny Happy Music

Yeah, I'll love any song that has hand claps!

For Today

Things around here have been a little quite the last few weeks, but that is all about to change. I have a few fun posts coming up, some gift guides, my favorite Thanksgiving sides, my very pinterest Christmas and oh so much more!

In "Stitches"

Ooooh bonus post because I forgot about up dating you on my Pinterest Challenge. Well I've finished and I'm 95% happy with the out come of my little interpretation.
In case you forgot here is my inspiration image. This cute "cross stitched" bedroom wall.
And here is my finished project. I'm not ready to commit to painting hundreds of little Xs all over my wall (yet), so on a canvas was the way to go. To begin, after much trial and error I ended up drawing a 1/2 inch grid out in pencil (I wanted to use a while colored pencil, but (perhaps as a sign that I am getting older) I could not see the lines well enough (or at all) so I gave up on that idea and just went with the regular pencil (warning if you do this, you will end up with a hand, wrist and arm covered in pencil). I then just painted bunches of little Xs by following half of this cross stitch pattern. I went with a wild rose because I knew that for now I was going to hang the painting in my living room and my new rug (I should show you a picture of my new rug, shouldn't I?) has a more traditional rose print on it.
And and action shot. I need to hang it a little higher and I think I might go back and "erase" the grid with white paint and maybe add a little gold around the edge.

So have you ever made anything from pinterest? Let me know I'd love to check it out!

Read Something Good: Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

I'm sure this is no surprise after I squealed about Mindy's return to blogging. This month I'll be reading Mindy Kaling's newly released book and you should too!

P. S. can you believe there is only one more book selection for 2011? It is crazy town, next month in addition to introducing my last pick, I will also give you the low down on what I thought of the monthly books and confess to the one I didn't finish reading.

Happy Halloween

A few crummy pictures of my little house in all her Halloween semi-glory. I really did try, but I waited until it was to dark out so everything just kinda looks orange, thanks to the orange twinkle lights.
I'm going to take a few more tonight, when the actual trick-or-treaters are around, but then Halloween will be over, oh well. Better luck next year, hu?

Martha Stewart Yarn

You guys I am way to excited about Lion Brand's new collaboration with Martha. I actually saw some a few weeks ago while at the craft store, but didn't really have a chance to check it out, so when I got my weekly email from Lion Brand I made a point of poking around their website. Is this the greatest yarn I've ever seen? No. Are they the best colors out there? Well not the best ever, but the color is what has my excited, with the exception of going to my local yarn shop (and spending way to much on the most lovely wool), it is really hard to find wool yarn in "good colors". Just ask cousin Lydia (my partner in yarn buying crime!), all the yarn that you find in your regular craft/fabric store is going to be either baby or granny (not that I'm not a fan of the granny, I think you have to be a little bit of a granny fan to be a crocheter, but I'm not really into the colors that they think grannies want to work with). And say what you will about Ms. Stewart, lady knows color. And say what you will about me, but I know an impulse yarn buy and this is the kinda stuff those are made of. Check out the whole collection right here, and please tell me someone is going to make those super cute sheep!

I'll take on that challenge

There are a few lovely bloggers who have put together a little Pinterest challenge. This is actually the second challenge they have done, but I found myself a little to busy to join in last time, this time however I am ready and already have my inspiration all picked out.
I have been lovingly gazing at this paint treatment for a while now. I'm not going to be painting a cross stitch roses on my walls, but I am going to be using this idea as a starting point for my project. Check back next week for the finished product.

If you love the pinning as much as me and want to join in on the fun, you can find all the deets over on Young House Love.

Wrap it Up

Now that the temps have started to drop for good my thoughts have turned to cozy wear for cold days. That mean coats and jackets, tights and sweaters, and gloves and scarves. Now I was not a scarf wearer until college (much like my feelings about turtlenecks, I couldn't get over the feeling that I wasn't able to breath), maybe it is because of that fact that I don't really know how to wear scarfs. Sure I can wrap one around my neck or slip the ends through the folded over middle, but really nothing great and believe me I have some lovely scarves that I am not doing right by. So I was thrilled to run across this video over on Pinterest, it has been kicking around the internet for a while, but I still think it is worth sharing with you here today. Enjoy!

Blog Vacation

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This week I'm taking an unplanned blog vacation. I've been spending all my "free" time working on projects around the house so look for some house-y posts to start popping up!

Totally awesome girl alert!

You guys I'm way to happy about this news: Mindy Kaling (aka Kelly from The Office) has started blogging again. Many moons ago Mindy was writing the funny and fun: "Things I've Bought That I Love" while that blog is still debunked she is back with: "The Concerns of Mindy Kaling". Oh and bonus share Mindy has also written a book, so look for that too!

P.S. I seem to have messed up auto posting this week, so lunch time post today and no post yesterday. I think I'll save yesterday's for a day next week.

Eat 'em up Tigers!

I was way to busy watching the Tigers play last night to write a real post. Here's to a win at home tonight!

Nephews and Nieces are Fun Fun Fun

Well I didn't really get as much done this weekend as I had hoped, but I think spending time with these folks was worth the dirty dishes! Are his cheeks squishy or what?!
Oh and this little gal, so cute! Bonus she is wearing a sweater made by Aunt Libby! I'm so happy that they are here for another week. Love it!

This week - I'm in love

Image from Craft Cabin that has nothing to do with this post!

Friends, I am totally falling in love with this Michigan fall! This happens to me every year about this time, October washes away all the ill will of cold snowy winters and hot sticky summers. I'm telling you I can not get enough time out side gazing at sun kissed trees and listening to the crunch of leafs. Loving it, loving it, loving it! Okay anyway onto this week's round up:

• Is it bad that I want an iPhone this week, not because of Apple's big announcement about whatever new things their phones are doing that I never knew I needed a phone to do, but because I really want to have a phone with a cross stitched case?
• What is your favorite animal? Clearly I love the elephants!
• You know that I'm a crocheter and I love it, but I'm not the best teacher so I was super happy to find that Craftyminx was running a Crochet School that I can point everyone who wants to learn to.
• Hey are you on Pinterest? No! Why not? This week I rounded up my fave pins!
• I've started a new book of the month. So far loving it!

So do you have big plans for the weekend? I'm planning on spending lots more time snuggling with a fat little friend. Yep the worlds chubbiest nephew has come to Ypsi for a little visit (oh and he brought his mom and sister along too!)!

Read Something Good: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

I'm still waiting on my copy of this month's book, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children to arrive so I haven't gotten the head start that I usually have by the time I write these posts, but I'm really looking forward to this one. Here is what Amazon has to say (sounds good right!):

As a kid, Jacob formed a special bond with his grandfather over his bizarre tales and photos of levitating girls and invisible boys. Now at 16, he is reeling from the old man's unexpected death. Then Jacob is given a mysterious letter that propels him on a journey to the remote Welsh island where his grandfather grew up. There, he finds the children from the photographs--alive and well--despite the islanders’ assertion that all were killed decades ago. As Jacob begins to unravel more about his grandfather’s childhood, he suspects he is being trailed by a monster only he can see. A haunting and out-of-the-ordinary read, debut author Ransom Rigg’s first-person narration is convincing and absorbing, and every detail he draws our eye to is deftly woven into an unforgettable whole. Interspersed with photos throughout, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is a truly atmospheric novel with plot twists, turns, and surprises that will delight readers of any age.

Pinterest Faves: Autumn

Pinterest just gets better and better as more and more people join so I thought it might be fun to add a new post series highlighting my current faves from the site. Today's faves are all about autumn and they are really making want to have a harvest themed party. What do you say? Wanna come over and sip hot apple cider and snack on pumpkin cake?!






You can find all the info about these pins right here on my Pinterest page and if you are a pinner, leave me a comment with a link to your page I'd love to follow your boards!

Mug for the Camera

Before Craft Cabin is just a wonderful memory in the distant past I wanted to share one last thing. My wonderful cousin Hannah had these super cute mugs made up for us crafters! Aren't they great?! I think she had them made up at cafepress. Isn't this just the best idea to leave us all with a lasting way to remember our fun weekend away? I think so!

My little animal family

The other day I was going from room to room in my house and noticing how big my elephant heard is getting. Here are just a few of my favorites!
Can you spot the elephant tea pot?
Sadly this little guy is fake jade, but he still looks cute along with my books!
Hummm he must be waiting on a few dinner guests.
And finally my all time faves this gathering of teeny tiny pachyderms.

So do you have any faux four legged (or more legged!) friends around your place? I always love finding out about other peoples collections.