What I am going to do is this . . .

To do 11/22/10-11/28/10:
Be Thankful!
Make Paper Snowflakes
Sleep In
Complete 100's of Little Blanket Stitches
Sing Songs of Praise
Spend Time with my Lovely (Loud) Family
Hang Christmas Lights
Mop the Kitchen Floor
Watch a Movie (or two)
Sew

I love holidays! Don't you?

Paper Garden

About a month ago pictures of this beautiful wedding were floating around the Internet. And I like everyone else fell in love with the giant paper flowers they used for the garden theme. Well thanks to the ladies over at 100 Layer Cake you can now make some massive fauna for yourself!

You can get the instructions right here. I wish I had a bridal shower or little girls birthday party to plan, I would make a few dozen of these and one of those giant tea cups and we would all be like Alice.

I have been such a slacker this past week, but I promise to be back full force next week with; Christmassy projects, to do lists and so much that I am Thankful for!

Stocking

I so want to start Christmas decorating, maybe it is because I have this little house this year that I know will look so cute with snow on her roof and glittery colored lights and windows filled with paper snow flakes inviting friends to come in and spending a cozy evening. Alas due to a self imposed "no Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving" rule I am just plotting.


A few weeks ago my cousin Lydia posted about their family stockings. Which of course sent me off thinking of my own beloved stocking. Sometime in the 70's my mom's aunt started making stockings for her nieces and nephews, my mom's (second from the left) is one of the first ones she made and defiantly has a Victorian era through 1970's glasses look to it. Year after year she made more and more stockings, as those nieces and nephews grew married and started families of there own she just kept on sewing. I have no idea how many stocking she has made in the past 35 years or so, but I know it has been a lot. As far as I know each one is different (well I think that the set of twins that is out there in my family have the same design) and lovingly chosen for the recipient.


The year that my brother and sister in-law were engaged my mom and I thought that we would try and make things easier and make her stocking ourselves (fourth from the left). Let me tell you, it is going to be a long time before I take on another one. So for now we will wait as they come flying in from Vegas. Anyway most of what makes them so special is knowing that my Aunt Nadine has made them all. These stocking are made from kits, that you can get from most major craft stores around Christmas time (well that would be starting in like September), but I find that the best selection is online.

Winding around

Now that the days are getting shorter (am I the only one who is having a hard time adjusting?) and the nights are getting colder I have embarked on a new for me crochet project. This is just the start and I will need to make dozens more, but I hope to come out of the long winter with a new African Flower afghan.

Give a little bit . . .

Well as it turns out I am going to save the Stocking post for another day so we can talk about Operation Christmas Child. Each year in early November I put together a shoebox or two (or four) as part of the mission of Operation Christmas Child. I fill my boxes with gifts both practical (tooth brush and tooth paste, soap and a fancy washcloth, pens and note books) and fun (this year I found fun wood bead necklace kits and am kinda bummed I didn't pick one up for myself) toss in a little candy and a card with a Christmas greeting. It is so much fun and such and easy thing to do for an afternoon that can make a big statement to a child. See I look at it this way, I get to kick off my holiday season with a focus on giving, but more importantly a child some place far or near knows, on Christmas day, that they are valued and loved by someone they will never meet.

You still have time if you would like to join in on all the shoebox fun and really it is very fun! Collection starts this weekend, you can find out more about the program by following the link above and look up your local drop off places.

Gifted

Now that is is November I feel free to start talking about Christmas, if it isn't on you horizon yet it is time to start thinking about it. I am very behind this year. Most years by this time I am in the home stretch when it come to gift giving, but some how here we are November 3rd and I still have over half my shopping to do (can you hear the little gift giving part of me very quietly screaming from where you are?). While I am lamenting my lacks-a-daiseyness it has accrued to me that there is an up side, I can actually get some tips from all those great gift giving guides that Blogs and Magazines start doing at this time of year.

To get things started I encourage you to check out Gifted Magazine online for some ideas and some good diy Christmas decorations. The gift guides that have been pulled together remind me so much of the great guides that Bluepint would put out each year. I really love the books and calendar section (I have actually been cooking up a calendar round up of my own for a little closer to the new year).

Check it out and let me know if you are going to use anything (gift idea, dyi project, one of the super cute party dresses!) from the mag for your Holiday Celebration. And check back here every Wednesday for little bits of Christmas/Holiday readiness. On tap for next week Stockings! Man I love Christmas!

2/7 - Fail!

Lets not even talk about how poorly I did at accomplishing things last week. Uggg lets just move on to this weeks list:

• For real rake leaves and clean up the front yard
• Get Christmas gift stuff organized (more on the later this week)
• Finish closet mini makeover
• Be helpful
• Finish part of last weeks little birthday project
• Clean out food cupboard

1st place

It all started with this cute number from Anthro. Now there isn't much of a chance that I am going to be wearing that dress anytime soon, but it did get me thinking about ways to incorporate prize ribbons into my wardrobe and decor.

Coming soon mail from me with cute ribbon labels.

Cute ribbon headband.

I think this vintage horse ribbon from the 60's would look great hanging on the wall in my craftroom.

Or you could rock this screen printed version.

I love this sweet necklace.
Or you can just pick up some of your own here.
I think that a prize ribbon would be cool attached to a purse or even on a wedding bouquet.

All pictures are linking to the source (as long as I did the linking correctly!)

What I did and didn't do

Oh dear we have only just started and I am already late. A friend of mine passed away this weekend and I spent most of my extra time on Monday with family and friends in celebration of her life. But now I'm ready to look at what I did and didn't get done.

finish my ripple scarf - check you can see the finished project above!
make caramel apples - yes also accomplished
stop smelling like a dentists office (why does that smell just stick with you?) - kinda
spend a lot of time laughing with these girls! -check and check we had a great weekend together
do some Christmas shopping - fail, all I did was buy stuff for myself
clean up my front yard - again fail this week it must get done
make my house look a little less like I haven't done anything in a week - okay on this one
paint my toe nails - check
get started on a new book - started one at Karin's can't remember what it is now though

Okay now for this week:

• Rejoice



• Fix my porch light



• buy a new fridge



• Again start a new book



• make some progress on a special Birthday related project



• finally organize the craft room/office



• rake the leaves

Fashion show, fashion show, fashion show at lunch - Glee's Emma Pillsberry

From the first time I saw the show Glee I knew I was going to love two things, fun musical numbers and Emma Pillsberry's clothes.

Now that Glee is in its second season, I'm still on the fence with the show most weeks, but Emma's clothes rarely miss the mark. Case in point this cute Eiffel Tower sweater.

She does my favorite look, cardigan + skirt so well.

I very very much want a telephone broach like this one. I think that after Penelope Emma's is the closest to my personal style. I too start 90% of my outfits with a cardigan and build from there. I also where skirts most of the time. Plus I don't have any shoe shots, but she is a fan of the Mary Jane's my own personal favorite form of footwear!

I love the sweater with all the detailing, but I'm not really crazy about the big bow.

Her look 100 % inspired me to add sweater guards/chains into my wardrobe. I now have three and wear them all the time. I'm not much of a necklace wearer so I like the little bling they provide.

Ah the Marc Jacob dress I am so in love with.

I have got to try more purple.

She does the monocromantic thing so well. It makes me wish I had more skirts in a rainbow of colors. I think the top and bottom are the same skirt in different colors.

I just wanted to show some examples of how she works patterns into her look. (Though again with the bow)

Finally I'm going to leave you with a cute green coat - I love a green coat!

All images are from the very addictive WWEPW (what would emma pillsberry wear?) visit only if you have the time to be sucked into the blog world.

What I hope for is this . . .

• finish my ripple scarf
• make carmel apples
• stop smelling like a dentists office (why does that smell just stick with you?)
• spend a lot of time laughing with these girls!
• do some christmas shopping
• clean up my front yard
• make my house look a little less like I haven't done anything in a week
• paint my toe nails
• get started on a new book
  

My oh my two posts in one day what shall I do with myself? I am back again because I didn't wanted wait until next week to kick off my new weekly instalments of my list of goals. Each Monday I intend to post little list of hopes for the week and recap how I did on the last weeks list. I find that I do best when I lay out exactly what I want to get done in a period of time. Anyway here we go. Please leave a comment with something(s) you hope to get done this week.

Hey, what does that mean?

You know those phrases and words that sound totally awesome, but you don't exactly know what they mean. I've been trying to pull together a list of them, and I though hey maybe the blog world (Ha like the blog word even knows who I am!) would benefit from my newly expanded vocabulary. So here we go; I keep running into the phrase: "Mad Money" and of course I had to know what it meant.

With the help of good old google I found the definition:

Slang

A small sum of money for unlikely contingencies.

But the real question is how did it come to mean that? So back to googling I go. So apparently the term "Mad Money" first came into use in the early 20's and described money that a girl would carry in case she got into a row with her date and wanted to take herself home. Hence the "Mad". By the 40's a second meaning had come in to use, it was also used to describe a small amount of money kept by a girl/woman for small, frivolous or spur of the moment perches.

So now that you know go ahead and hid a twenty the coffee can not for a rainy day, but for when you just can't bring yourself to make dinner or get into a row and need to take a cab home!

(I wish I could tell you were the above image came from, but I don't remember - Sorry!)

Weekend Wonder

Even with my puffy cheek and all, I had a good weekend. And Happy 17th to my great brother Ike! Seen here with my niece earlier today.

Happy Friday

Well I seem to be on the mend, still a little puffy and I have a hole in my tooth, but I could sleep last night! I know this video popped up around the blog world last month, but I can't get enough of it I think it is great! (Plus I am feeling totally awesome that I figured out how to embed a video!)
I hope every ones weekends are filled with more ups than downs!

And then there is today

Things I didn't do today:
Go to work
Drink Coffee
Wash my hair
Shower for that matter
Wear real clothes
The dishes
Cry

Things I did do today:
Sleep
Watch the last three episodes to Brothers & Sisters
Eat soup
Take a lot of pain killers
Snuggle with a little friend
Watch the Electric Company
Get a root canal

So as you can see today was a win - oh yeah all kinds of awesome!

These are the days

Well folks I don't know what it is like where you are, but we could not have had a better weekend here. The sun was shining and the leaves were changing colors, perfectly fall.

I just had to get out and enjoy. With little persuading my cousin Lydia's two girls agreed to join me on a little trip to the park yesterday afternoon.

We had just a wonderful time. While most of the people in our neck of the woods watched Michigan and Michigan State run around with a football, we counted bridges (we crossed four in case you were wondering), we followed chipmunks around, we waved to people on boats and there was lots and lots of swinging.

You can't see it very well, but this was my favorite thing that we saw, a house peeking through the trees out at the river. In my mind there would be no place better to live. I hope your week will be just as beautiful as my weekend!

Cheater Cake

A few weeks ago at our little weekly Girls Night my we celebrated my lovely friend Mel's Birthday. I whipped up my now perfected (I think!) cheater cake (in my family we call this kinda thing/half cheating at something "The Johnny Way" after my cousin who taught us it was okay to pick the next card in war, you know if you are loosing). So anyway here is my "Johnny Way" surprise it's your birthday cake.
I start with a boxed cake from Trader Joe's - you can use any cake that you want, but if I am looking for the right time + quality mix I go with their cakes, real butter and milk make a big difference.
After baking the cake and letting it cool I put a layer of Raspberry Jam (again I think mine was from Trader Joe's, but any fancy or not so fancy jam will do).
Last I made up some easy frosting: powdered sugar, milk, butter and vanilla to taste and texture. You could frost the whole cake, but I don't really like frosting that much so I normally only frost the top of my cakes.
The whole thing takes less than an hour to make, bake and clean up from so this is a great way to have a little something to celebrate someone for whatever reason!
As a variation I have also used; lemon curd or a thin layer of Strawberry in place of the jam.

So do you have any quick "Johnny Way" tricks you could share with me?

Lazy Sunday

Today I had what can only be described as a Lazy Sunday. I went to church with my family last night and ended up staying the night at my mom and dad's that meant snuggling with me sister in the morning and eggs for breakfast.

I watched far to much junk on Hulu (Modern Family, Bones, The Middle and maybe something else I can't even remember) and drank way more coffee than I normally do.

There was a lot of laughing and talk of Nutcracker dances, old and new while Phoebe, Prisca and I made some "cup-pies".

I hope your weekend was relaxing and peaceful and you are ready to face the new week!

I can hear the bells

I so love this dress from Anthropologie, if I was getting married anytime soon I would absolutely have it on my list.

My oh my

Well goodness me where has the time gone. Is it really already October? I guess it is. Well here we find ourselves on a Friday night. I have had a really long week, full of things I will not relay here and now, but trust me not a great one.
But then there are warm fireplaces and snuggly people, and tips to the thrift store (see above photo) and if you are really down you can watch "Marcel the Shell" for the millionth time and it will still put a smile on your face.