Kind Of Excited!

Imagine my surprise to click on My Heritage Fabric's blog to see this picture and read this, "Bobbi's skirts were featured this morning in the local paper "HERS". section"! I squinted my eyes and said right out loud, "What the heck? Those ARE my things! Get out!" I ran in the kitchen, grabbed the paper, and sure enough....there it was. Kinda cool!!! That cute little gal with them is Nikki Weeks, the master mind behind Mindy Mae's Market.

Inside was a spread all about Mindy Mae's Market and the resurgence of "handmade"! You can read the article here.

Kind of exciting!

Hibernation Station!

Our home has officially become the hibernation station..... a place to snuggle down in and enjoy the sweetest time of year with the best people I know! I'll be back after the holidays.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL

picture courtesy of CountryLiving Magazine

Who on earth would be afraid of Carmel's?
ME!

Somebody, somewhere along the way must have told me that carmel making was hard, because I have never dared try to make them. I have always left it to sweet Sister Brown, our little widow friend, to provide us with our favorite holiday treat.

Until....

I was thumbing through this months CountryLiving magazine and saw this recipe. I don't even think it's the "easy" one, but for some reason I thought, 'Hello? You can do that, it's just like sewing, all you have to do is try.' So I did and can I just say YUM!!!!! They are, by far, the best Carmel's I have ever tasted. So rich and melty in your mouth, salivating here just talking about it! I had to hurry and wrap them up in their little gift bags before I ate them all.

If you have any time left at all.....
YOU "GOTTA" TRY IT!

A Little Midnight Blog Cleaning

Couldn't sleep tonight (this morning?) so I thought I'd do a little cleaning up of my little bloggy place. If you're wondering where your buttons went, don't worry, they're still here. I just put them under titles in the sidebar. Eyes are getting droopy now, good thing too since I have to be up in 3 hours!

Fun Shops

Just moving buttons to titles in the side bar....pardon this and the next post.

Features

Brilliant Kelsey!

I know you know this already, but I love teenagers. Especially those who are brave enough to think a little bit outside of the box and be themselves. You've read about Erika's adventures in refashioning old clothes (when I see her heading to my closet with scissors in hand I know that the creative juices are flowing!).

Now I want to introduce you to a cute little gal who has found a use for her old Barbie shoes. Meet Kelsey McKay, daughter of my bloggy/facebook friend Kristine. Kristine is amazingly crafty (you will definitely want to check out her web site) and it looks as if there's a little "like mother, like daughter" thing going on. You can read the whole tale here.

NOTE TO KELSEY: I told your mom this once, but I want to tell you..... you keep being your funky little self. I love that you aren't afraid to be yourself (especially as a 7th grader). What you'll find is that kids will naturally gravitate towards you. If you are comfortable just being you and not having to "fit into the mold" then they will feel comfortable around you. I have two girls (boys too, but they don't count in this post), a senior and a 9th grader, their favorite place to shop is the DI! For non-Utah types, the D.I. is a thrift store. Last Monday Erika (she's the 9th grader, and an SBO, so kids must not think she's too weird, LOL) sent this text to everybody (not just her friends), "Ugly sweater Tuesday, see ya at the DI". Sure enough, the next day there were about 20 ugly sweater kids at school and more that told Erika, "oh man, I should have known you would really do it....I'm wearing one next week for sure". How fun is that? So, you just keep being you Miss Kelsey..... cuz you rock!

Deep Breath In....

.....and RELAX!!!!

Oh my goodness....they are done!!!!!

Remember when I was so excited to make these?

I think they turned out so cute, but I will never make them again!

I am way too impatient. There were too many pieces (cut 4 of each), too much adhering (iron on and spray adhesive), too much having to pay attention to the grain and way too much thinking involved.

Am I glad I did it? YES! I think they are so cute and will definitely be unique. I got to practice some sewing techniques that I don't usually do.... and some I used to hate (bias)! I think I may actually be a fan of bias tape now, imagine that.

SHOULD YOU TRY THEM?

If you are an experienced seamstress.....yes.
If you are patient....yes.

If you realize you won't finish them in one sitting....yes.

If you are new to sewing.....no.

If you are impatient.....at your own risk :)

If you need them tomorrow.......no.

I was right about one thing though. The girls will difinitely go GA-GA!

Fun Friend Gift For Kids

It snowed ALL day today and felt so Christmasy, I loved it! After a little Christmas shopping, sledding and hot cocoa, Nater Gater and I sat down to make his friend gifts. This is not a new idea, in fact every one of our older kids made this same gift for their friends when they were little. But maybe some of you haven't ever seen it, so I thought I would share.

How To Make Money Soap

You will need:

• Clear glycerin soap and soap dye (I got both at Michael's).
• Some sort of mold. I used a Christmas tree cupcake mold but you could use ice cube trays, muffin tins, really any small container.
• Coins.

The glycerin will come in a great big block. Cut it into small squares. It is soft enough that Nate could cut through it with a butter knife, otherwise I would have done the cutting.

Put glycerin cubes in a microwave safe bowl and melt according to directions on the box.

Add desired color and stir.

Carefully pour melted glycerin into molds. It is hot so you might want to do this part if your children are very little.

Slip coins into the soap before it begins to harden. If you have waited too long just skim the hardened top off and slip the coin in.

Nate used the left over soap to make himself a funky tie died bar in a condiment bowl. He put a couple of drops of blue into the green glycerin and swirled it around a little with a knife. You can't really tell in this picture, but it looked kind of cool.

The soap hardens up after about a half an hour. We'll slip them in cellophane bags with a wash cloth and call it good!

Tortellini Anyone?

I'm sure you all know that felt food is all the rage these days when it comes to toys. Angie over at Treasures For Tot's sent me a link to this tutorial she created. Now you can learn to make your own no sew felt tortellini!

For Jennifer

How To Make Vivian A Tutu :)

You will need:

• About 6 yards of tulle (netting). I like them super fluffy and end up using somewhere between 5 & 6 yards. If you have extra, just make a tutu for her baby.
• Non-roll elastic 1" wide. Cut a piece 1" smaller than her waist.

OR

• You could tie the tulle onto a long ribbon and tie the tutu around her waist. But I know you're dying to try out some mad sewing skills!

If you are going the elastic route, sew the ends of the elastic together. I sew a square so that it is really secure.

It's easier to cut if you do it as follows. Lay your tulle out as shown. One end is raw, the other end is a fold.

Cut a 6 inch strip.

Snip through the folded end, which would give you two pieces of tulle.

Fold the strip in half and lay it under the elastic (or ribbon), creating a loop at the top.

Pull the two ends up through the loop and pull taut.

There you go..... now just do it a zillion more times until you fill the elastic up!

Super Duper Easy!

Letting the house go to pot today while I figure these little puppies out....

WISH ME LUCK!

POST SCRIPT: 3 hours later.....almost time to pick up Jr. High carpool.....only half way done with one pair.....have to hide them.....must finish another day.....but at the rate their going I should say "finish after another 4 days".......GRRRRRRRR. My inner Grinch is showing!

Modern Essence Purse Giveaway $36.00 value

Offering giveaways is kind of a "pay it forward" thing for me. My etsy shop really took off when a couple of bloggers were interested enough in my skirts to feature them and offer a giveaway. So, in return, I surf etsy looking for shops that haven't had many sales yet and offer them some exposure, no strings attached.

You're going to LOVE this one.

Modern Essence is offering a free mini purse ($36.00 value) to one of my lucky readers. Check out how cute her work is.

To enter you must:

Visit her etsy shop and leave a comment here, telling me what your favorite item in her shop is.

For extra entries you can:

• Heart her shop
• Facebook or Twitter about this giveaway
• All of my followers get an extra entry

Make sure you leave a comment for your original entry and all extra entries. That way Random.org will count you. Also leave me your email address so that we can get in touch with you! Giveaway ends at 10:00 mst

GOOD LUCK!

Here's something festive and fun for you to do while I'm off to market....

Click here to Check out 30 of the best advent calendars over on Whipup.net

Mindy Mae's Market..... Friday night and all day Saturday in Clinton. If you plan on coming make sure you stop by and say hi. I'll be the girl with the door full of skirts! It's going to be a great show, 70 vendors, all super cute stuff. Click below for directions

Who Said Money Doesn't Grow On Trees???

Does your family help a needy family each Christmas? Looking for a creative way to share with others? How about a money tree? Wouldn't it be fun to find a family having a hard time, put a money tree on their porch, ring the doorbell and run?

This little tree was a graduation gift last May to a family friend. You can "winterfie" the idea by:

• choosing a bare branch and spray painting it red.
• filling the vase with red and green M&M's.
• wrapping a pretty red ribbon around it.
• You could get all crazy and fold the money origami style (I probably won't, but you could)!

My kids love getting money from Grandma and Grandpa each Christmas, this would be a fun way to give it. What about that starving college student you know? Bet they'd appreciate a money tree.

Now that I think of it..... I want a money tree! Saaaaantaaaaah!!!