Thanksgiving traditions

Here's my noodle roller in action... This year for Thanksgiving I decided to make my Granny's homemade noodles for the first time. My mom came over to make her batch and walk me through it and Gabe helped us both out. I was so excited that they tasted just like Granny's and plan to start making them every year.



Tonite we went to the festival of trees. We always try to go either the day or day after Thanksgiving. It's always interesting to see what the people decorating the trees will come up with. I think this one is my favorite-it was definately different! Would you concider this origami? It was all paper ornaments folded in really intricate ways. Amazing.



Just look at the tree topper...I'd never have the patience! lol



I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Cousins

I made this for my cousin's daughter who just had her 7th birthday. Hopefully she likes it. Chloe still gets tons of comments when she wears hers...I love making those little letter beads :)

Not much to gab about. I'm soooo sluggish today! Recently went through allergy testing and took Zyrtec today for the first time- it's been all I can do to keep my eyes open all afternoon! ugh.

Haven't made a single thing in the past week but do have a couple beads set aside to make pins with and a bunch of beads pulled out to put into groupings to list on etsy. Maybe I'll work on pictures, etc this weekend after Thanksgiving is over and the tree is up. Tomorrow is pie shell and noodle making day with my mom. I've got my list of handmade gifts I really need to get crackin on too. :)

I just love this little guy!

Gabe is my little buddy. He's just got the sweetest personality in the world. Even for how challenging 2 yr olds can be-he's pretty darned good. Here he is laying on our bed in the sunshine with his beloved froggie.


Been working on those silhouettes! Chloe's is finished (but may need to be tweaked) and here is a shot of Gabe's. I think it turned out pretty good!!! And it looks exactly like him which I think is so cool. :)


My friend Kim and I have been mulling around ideas for fun classes to take. We'd both really love to do some sort of sewing/knitting class but so far none to be found in my area. I think a digital photography class would be awesome and I have a feeler out hoping to track a class down........Anyone in Spfld know of any good places? hint*hint*

Took a walk today...

down memory lane. I'm not finished either.

My dad brought over a bunch of old boxes that had my name on them that he found in the attic. I love digging thru my old things finding goofy treasures I had forgotten about and remembering...Among the goodies- Rubber bracelets, swatch watch protectors, fingerless gloves, wedding planner/wedding notes/rsvp's, my fave stuffed animal, all of my cosmotology notes and tests, tons of old aveda bottle from the first salon I worked at (still smelled yummy) and photos.....

Here's senior year homecoming w/ a couple friends~don't laugh!

What kills me is Chloe wore a similar outfit to school the other day-although without the metal toed doc martins or hat-lol.

Handmade pledge

With all the talk out there about taking the handmade challenge I'm just curious if any of you have done this as well? I really really really wish that I could but with kids it's jut unrealistic right now with the plastic junk they want from Target.I do always try to make a little something for each person in some way at Christmastime. I am ALWAYS looking for new ideas! I know family members assume and expect something with glass beads and I like to shake it up a bit...

Now I saw this in a magazine and thought they were precious-these hairbands. I am envisioning a glass bead instead of a button in the center of coarse and different fabrics-but you get the idea. I also picture them as pins as well as hairbands. *sniff* since I just cut 13 inches of Chloe's hair off I guess she can't use anything like this-lol.

Now if there any immediate family members reading stop NOW! lol


So~
I've been thinking alot about those old silhouettes we all used to make back in the day. My dad still has mine hanging in their house from kindergarten. I look at it and remember how much it sucked to sit that still so the teacher could trace my shadow on the wall. There ain't NO way my kids would sit that still. Thankfully there are ways to digitally do this w/ profile pictures. I found the cutest little triple matted frames to do all 3 kids. The openings are about the size of a large wallet picture and have a double mat of black around each opening. This photo is an example from etsy but I left and didn't get the etsy address-sorry! Mine will be littler than this one-hope it's not too difficult to do as small as I want!!

I'd love to hear if anyone out there makes/buys handmade. I think it shows the person receiving that you cared to do something special just for them. :)

A gift...

I love making personalised jewelry-and I love that my neighbor Lindsey asks me to make it for her to give as gifts. It makes me feel great to know someone else out there appreciates the same style.

Here's the necklace I whipped up for her friend Leslie. I hope she likes it. I understand she also received a watch in gold/silver tones for her birthday. Funny coincidence. :)

Come see me...

I will be working in the gallery at the Holiday Hall on Sat. Dec 6th from 10am-12pm-drop by to see me!

*You're invited*

The invites have been sent and posters hung. Anyone in the Springfield area-come by to check out some great handmade works! Lots of great ideas for Christmas or if you'd like to spoil yourself....I can't wait for the artists' preview night to see who/what is there this year.

I will be signing up to work on a Saturday-once I get the date/time firmed up I'll let you all know so maybe you can come visit me...:)

Great friends...

We had a blast! Goes to show you it doesn't matter how much time is in between visits-we just pick up right where we left off. I can think of no one else I would feel comfortable with hanging out in my mis-matched pj's in the morning drinking coffee and hanging out with. The party was fun and the kids all got to go to Chuck e Cheese w/ the dads while we did our thing-then we all stayed up late gabbing while the kids played.

We ended their visit with eating mexican for lunch as we always seem to do. Funny how much of a comfort that can be. I can't wait until we can get together again. We really miss them.

I...must...eat...me...some...yummy...lookin...beads!

Oh well-I guess I'll just settle for rice cereal. First time for everything...Mom says glass doesn't taste too hot anyway. I reallllly wanted to eat that bead though! That was mom's first successful hollow bead and was so excited that it turned out and has been whipping them out now! :)

Just cleaning and waiting...

Been cooking and cleaning all day getting ready for a Tastefully Simple party here tonite. I guess it's what I had to do to get our friends Tim and Jolene and their kids down here to visit for the weekend-lol-she sells TS so I offered to do a party for her. They live bout 3 hrs away up close to Chicago. I'm so excited to see them! It's been about a yr and 1/2 since we've seen them-and even longer since Chloe has seen their kids-so she was sooo excited going to school today knowing when she got off the bus they'd most likely be here...Can't wait!

Happy (late) Halloween!!

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

I dressed them early and headed outside for pictures before Travis got home.

Here's the punk witch and horsie~



The toothless chef~



Witch, Elvis and Obi Wan~


As you can see we have a ton of kids on our block. I think there are actually 3 or 4 missing from that picture!~

Gabe's outfit was whipped together out of play clothes we had laying around-so easy but everyone made comments all night about how cute it was. We heard lots of "dough boy" and "Pierre" lol.

Making "ghosties"

as Gabe calls them. This was interesting to do w/ a 2 year old with all the Elmer's glue running down my arm...Turned out cute-although next time I may add starch or something to make them stiffer...

Here's a picture of what we used...(1/2 elmer's 1/2 water)


One balloon blower-upper


Drape over the balloons and let dry overnight-in a nasty basement or not-your choice.(this was before the teeth incident)


Chloe modeling the "after"-before we hung them from the porch.