Best of 2009

I have seen so many of my blogger idols doing a post like this to end the year and LOVE it. So here are some my favorite posts of 2009. Wishing everyone a fantastic New Year!!

Candy Bouquets

Danish Tin Treats

Gift Giving

Tuxedo Scarf

 My First Apron

Repurposed Spice Rack

Photography Art 

Lets Play Twenty Questions

If you are like me your schedule this week is a little crazy but you will still find time to blog and blog hop. This is a fun “get to know you” game. All you have to do is copy and past the questions to your post and then obviously change the answers to your own :)

If you don’t want to have time to play along at least answer number twenty by leaving a comment with your new name ha ha.

1. What was your high school mascot? Eagle

2. What was your favorite music in Junior High? Mariah Carey everything!!

3. Name one thing many people don't know about you? I have never broken a bone (knock on wood right)

4. Where would your dream vacation be to? Fiji

5. Do you have any phobias? Dark parking lots

6. What was your favorite childhood toy? My cabbage patch doll named Molly

7. What TV shows did you grow up watching? Saved by the bell and Friends

8. Song or Artists you can't get enough of lately? Michael Buble

9. Favorite perfume? Brittany Spears Fantasy (I know your laughing but is smells so good)

10. Do you hang your toilet paper to unroll over or under? Over! Always!

11. What is the best concert you have attended? Black Eyed Peas and Carrie Underwood tie for first!!

12. Favorite TV show right now? Cougar Town

13. Can you drive a stick shift? Yes but it's not pretty :)

14. Favorite movie right now? The proposal (i can't get enough of it thanks alot Brandi lol)

15. What is your favorite cereal? Lucky charms duh

16. Favorite book right now? The Goose Girl

17. What is generally the first thing you notice about people? teeth

18. What are you listening to right now as you type this? hubby playing Mario kart

19. What word describes you best? routine

20. What would your stripper name be? (the name of the first childhood pet you can remember and the street name you grew up on) EbonyTower

Christmas Twine Tree

I saw these Christmas-y Cones (with a fantastic tutorial) while I was blog surfing the other day and I totally fell in love with them. My husband was a good sport and even made them with me (I know he must want something big from Santa huh?).

I think they turned out pretty good!! So if you need a project this week this one is super simple and it’s like a little surprise to see how they turn out.

The Best Snowman Dough (and a little bragging lol)

My son had a blast making this dough and I think it makes the prettiest snowmen because the salt makes it a little sparkly.

The recipe makes this much dough so if you want more than this make sure to double it :)

 

What you need:

1 cup salt
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
Food coloring or tempera paints (optional)

Directions:

Heat the salt and 1/3 cup of water over medium-high heat for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. (An adult should prepare this mixture, which gets quite hot and bubbly.) Remove from heat and add the cornstarch and 1/4 cup cold water. The mixture should now look like thick mashed potatoes; stir until it thickens, then let cool for a few minutes before kneading. If the dough feels too sticky at first, your child can work in some extra cornstarch as she kneads. Add food coloring, if desired.

This dough will dry and harden in one to four days depending how thick the project is.

It will keep unrefrigerated for up to 2 weeks when stored with a small bit of wet sponge in a plastic bag or sealed container.

Here are his snowmen, cute huh?

We are going to save them and let him use them as decoration in his gingerbread house landscaping!!

 

 

Ok and now for a little begging bragging.

My Christmas card was featured on Tip Junkie and is now part of their annual contest. So if you want to vote for me they make it super easy.

Anthropologie Inspired Tuxedo Scarf

One day I was blog surfing (gasp I know) and came across this fantastic tutorial for a tuxedo scarf at crafty habit. I ended up making two of these form the fabric suggested and I might even have enough for a third.

The first one I made seemed a little wide for my taste….

So I modified the width of the scarf and the ruffle by almost half and came up with this one that fits me perfectly. I love the purple and I love that it’s a little bit more dressy than the other styles I have!

  

What do you think? And what have you been sewing lately??

Cutest Gift Box Ever

I know I said I would show you my sewing project next but then this little project took over and I had to share it with you!! I found this fantastic idea and tutorial to for how to make your own gift box from Mrs. Jones. I hope I make her proud, here is my version.

 

 

I can’t tell you what I filled them with on the off chance that some of my friends actually read my blog lol. Happy crafting! Next episode sewing project, for real this time {wink wink}!

Pie Delivery

I know everyone is getting sick of my gift ideas but I promise after this one I will show you the sewing project I have been working on!! This is a fun way to deliver pie….

I brought a pumpkin pie with each of these goodie boxes. I filled them with fork, plates, napkins, a serving spoon, some little cookies (in case someone in the office didn’t like pie but who are those people right?), and a pumpkin spice candle. This was such a huge hit. I had cuter baskets for some of the other offices that these went to but somehow this is the one I ended up with the close up of….sorry lol.

Homemade Treat Tower

Here it is my gift idea this year for the Holidays!

The bottom layer is chocolate dipped cookies that look like this…

The wrapped layer is fudge mint cookies that look like this….

 

And it is topped with my favorite little Dutch treat called caramel wafers (and trust me they are so good) and I surrounded that with truffles like this………..

I used glue dots to secure the project all together and to attach the truffles. I love how it turned out and it seemed to go over well with the offices I delivered them to (I am in marketing in case you missed that in an older post lol).  So what are you giving neighbors and friends as a small treat this year??

Christmas Cards ‘09

This is the design I have come up with for my Christmas cards this year.  Enjoy!!

Feel free to copy the idea if you like it and send me a picture of what yours turns out like!! I will be posting my holiday gift idea late next week so come back and take a peak!

Christmas Cups

I am all about the homemade Christmas gifts. This is the gift I made last year.

It started out as this…..

 

and turned into this…….

I filled the cups with cider, coffee, tea, biscotti, candy canes, and of course chocolates. My hubby helped me come up with the fun way to assemble all the hot drink and treats. I wrapped the cups in some of my favorite Christmas paper and bought the main supplies at Costco.  I will soon post what my gifts for this year will look like, oh and I finally have a plan for my Christmas cards and will share those soon too. Happy crafting!!

Christmas Cards Already?

I know it seems super early to even be thinking about this but when you have to make as many Christmas cards and tags as I do you have to get a jump on it early. Here is a peek at what I did last year…….

 

To make the snowflake I used a Fiskar embossing plate and hand rubbed them all (I know what was I thinking lol). Do you have any Christmas card ideas posted or maybe a favorite place you go to look for paper crafting ideas?

Halloween Kids Projects

Are you trying to figure out what to do with your little ones all day today? I have some ideas…….

I made a promise to myself that I would post the good, bad, and ugly. To me that means I have to confess the attempts that I make that just plain flop ha ha. This was one of them. It started out as a great idea but did not end well.

I let my son cut all out several different colors of paper with punches and scissors and we made our own pile of confetti.

 

Then I wrote the words BOO in block letters on two pieces of paper (one for him and one for me woot woot). Then we painted inside the letters with white Elmer’s glue. I know you see where this is going right? The plan was to cover the glue with confetti then let it dry.

When the paper is dry you are supposed to be able to tap off the excess confetti and see the word boo. We still aren’t sure where we went wrong exactly lol. I think we will try again and make it bigger? Does anyone have suggestions on a way to make this work better???

 

One project that did work out was this cute little pumpkin we made using 1/2 inch strips of paper wrapped around a pencil (to get the circle shape) and glue dots to hold it all together!!

Happy Halloween!!

The Big 5

Last week we had a big day in our house the little man turned FIVE!! I know I can’t believe it and you see the problem with this right? If he is five then I have gotten five years older ugh can that be right? lol!! The party theme was “army men” and the kids seemed to have such a great time.

We made this cute little thank you cards and included a pic of all the kids in their army gear.

Happy Birthday big boy you are getting so big and we are so proud of you!!

What? Me? Featured?

Yes that is right my last post right here was chosen to be featured over at Healthy mom for junk food kids. Yeay this is so exciting to me so go check it out it is listed under crafty ideas!!

Little Guy Craft Roundup

I wanted to share the latest kid crafts we have been doing in our house!!

I do not have my son in a traditional preschool but we do our own little learning time everyday at home. The week we did this project we were learning about seasons. I found the tree picture on the internet and we made his favorite edible finger paint to make the leaves. All you need is Kayro syrup food coloring!! And I love that it dries all shiny.

We had so much fun together making this little paper pumpkin. Here are some directions:

1. Cut the toilet paper roll in half. Cut a strip of orange construction paper that will wrap around the toilet paper roll completely and tape the paper into place.
2. Cut the orange construction paper vertically into strips that are approximately 1 inch wide. You will need 8 to 10 strips. Cut approximately 1 inch off of the length of each strip.
3. Work with one end of the toilet paper roll at a time. Stick a piece of scotch tape onto the end of one of the paper strips and tape it inside an end of the tp roll. Repeat with three more pieces of paper, so you have strips at 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock.
4. Once you have the initial 4 strips down, add another 4 strips of paper so that they overlap the initial 4 diagonally (at 2, 5, 8, and 10 o'clock). See the picture at right.
5. Now you need to tape the other end of each strip into the other end of the tp roll. Do this just as you did before, only starting with the second set of strips first.

Once you have all of the orange strips of paper taped into place, cut a leaf out of green paper and tape it into the hole to complete your pumpkin.

And last but not least we gathered some leaves before they got all crunchy and cut the center out of a paper plate. Then you guessed it we busted out the hot glue gun and made this fun little wreath.

I love craft ideas for kids!! Do you have any family favorites??

Caramel Apple Bucket

For my marketing/gift delivery this month I had this great idea to fill a bucket with caramel flavored treats and apple flavored treats. Well needless to say on the budget I had for this it was harder than I had anticipated lol. It is hard to find bulk apple flavored treats that I didn’t have to have shipped and that didn’t cost a fortune. So I ended up with this instead……………….

Ok so not exactly what I had planned but not bad.

The Google Game

I was visiting one of my favorite blogs today HERE and Lisa had posted such a fun game. And because I found it so entertaining I get to bore you all with my version of the game lol.

The rules are to read the questions and then go to Google, do a search of images, and post the best image you see on the first page of images for these ten things:

(Aren’t you so excited ha ha!! Oh and as you can see I have a problem with committing to just one favorite lol)

1. My Favorite Beverage

2. My Hometown

3. My Favorite TV Show

    

4.My Occupation

5. My First Car

6. My Favorite Dish

7. Celebrity I have been told that I resemble

8. Celebrity Crush

9. Favorite Childhood Toy

10. Any Random Picture

So my challenge for you is to obviously play this game on your blog so that we can learn more about each other. And then come back and let me know you posted it so I can check it out. Now go and Google!!