i have to say...

before i start with christmas stuff...

...I have a little baby gift to get done. 

A friend of mine is gearing up to be a grandma, so special goodies are in order!  She wants to be the quilt maker, so bibs and a cozy blanket will be my offering.  A bit of patchwork fun for the upcoming bundle of joy.

At this point I don't have much on the work table,  but a ton of plans in my head.  And it is that time of the year when showing completed projects will be tricky.  I may have to creatively post some goodies, but show everything in full after Christmas passes.  We will see on that one.

You can check Lee's blog for more WIP fun!

shop notes: echo

My shipment of Echo finally arrived today, and it's just beautiful!  The prints are modern and useful for so many of your crafty projects!

Have a great day!

christmas mode

I am in Christmas mode.  Are you?

My list is in process, and my thoughts are turned toward red and green crafting.  This is such a fun time of the year.

A few goals for myself: no gain of 5 unwanted holiday pounds, no stressing over gifts (it's supposed to stay fun, remember?), no worrying about $ (that's not what it's about!) and finding some new holiday traditions.

This year is going to be enjoyable, relaxing and all about making memories.  Period.

One of our favorite traditions is our annual gingerbread house making party.  We make these simple way: milk cartons, graham crackers, frosting and lots of candy.  We invite a few families and let everyone do their thing.  It's great fun to see what everyone comes up with!

A few movies we always watch: Elf, Christmas Vacation, Jingle All the Way, Fred Claus, Home Alone and Christmas with the Kranks. Obviously we like the funny stuff!

As far as gifts for friends we like to  make homemade chocolate covered caramels and salt-water taffy (which really comes out like hard candy, but my kids love it!).

What about you?  What traditions do you have?

saving money this christmas season--written by luke

***Today's post is written by my son-in-law, Luke. He wrote it for one of his college classes and part of the assignment was to post it on someone's blog.  Feel free to read through it and comment.  I am sure he would love the feedback!  Enjoy!

Saving Money In The Christmas Season

In my opinion, Christmas is the best time of year. Everyone just seems to be a little more happy then they were a month ago. Of course, there are always things that can get stressful during this season, such as what gifts to buy who and how much. But all this can be easily avoided with a little good planning, so you can fully focus on what is good about Christmas. So here are a couple tips that can help you spend wisely and save money.

Figure Out What Gifts You Want To Get For A Person

One of the best ways to save money is to make a list of everyone that you want to get gifts for, and then make a list of what you want to get them. Some work may need to be put into this, because you have to figure out what everyone wants.  But, as soon as you have your list together, it makes shopping for these things a lot simpler. A lot of good deals are online right now, such as coupon sites that can help you cut some cost off. Many of these are hard to navigate, with deals that do not really leave you any better off in the end. However, after some research, I found a site that helps you find the best coupon site out there. http://www.smartmoney.com/spend/family-money/5-best-coupon-clipping-web-sites-23634/. They have a list of what they rate as the top five coupon sites to find what you need. My favorite from the list was www.couponcabin.com, which regularly tests to make sure each coupon works, and shows you when the coupon last worked.

Stay Away From Credit Cards

It is easy to pay with a credit card now, saying that you will go ahead and pay it off after Christmas, but unexpected things come up, and even with the best intention you could end up paying more then the original purchase cost. Personally, I would much rather know that my family is in a good financial position then receive a gift from them that they cannot afford. Sure, it may be a little disappointing, but staying financially safe is better then running up a credit card to buy gifts for people. And you can always start putting a little bit of money away each month or paycheck for next Christmas, so you will have the cash to buy everything. The economy is not in the greatest condition, and spending on a credit card is always a risky move unless you have the cash already to back it up.

Relax.

This is the biggest thing you can do to save money. Just relax. Take your time, nobody is rushing you. Stop and smell the evergreens. This will give you time to think about if you really want to spend money in a certain way, or if it is an impulse buy, which are very common around this time. I always like to walk into a store with a plan of what I am going to get. Then, I go to the Christmas decoration aisle, and smile at all the decorations and the wonderful smell. If I still remember what I came to get after that, then I go and get it. If I forgot what it was, it wasn’t that important and I go grab some eggnog. You can never have too much of that.

So in conclusion, there are several ways to save money, and you may want to find what is best for you personally. But the goal of Christmas is not to worry about which gift, or how much, or even anything related to that. It is to realize the importance of each and every person, and just simply relax and be happy. So start there.

shop notes: it's sale time!

I just want to say thank you to all of you who stop by my  blog and visit my store!  You truly are a blessing to me!

As a "thank you" I am jumping into the madness that is Black Friday Weekend, and everything in my shop is 20% off with discount code "christmashop20".  You can enter the code at checkout.  This code is good through Sunday.

As always with sales like this, I will answer convos and relist ASAP, but sometimes the volume of sales slows me down a bit.  I will get back to you as soon as I can, I promise!

Have a lovely weekend!

have a lovely thanksgiving day!

it's a pinteresting day!

Today seems like a good day to share some links, don't you think?

***This is a cute idea for re-using food cans. 

***If you have been wanting to make tinted lip balm, here is a how-to.

***I love the ric-rac edge on this simple blanket.

***I like this table runner tutorial.

***Isn't this re-purposed window the cutest?

***Do you like Kombucha Tea?  You can make your own.

***Pretzel Bread. Yum.

***My friend, Marti has started a blog called 52 quilts in 52 weeks.  And guess what?  She is going to make 52 quilts in 52 weeks!  She did it this year, and decided to start a blog to document next year's progress doing the same thing.  I can't wait to see what she comes up with!

Have a great day!

 

better late than never, right?

It was nice to sit down and cut and sew some binding yesterday, which is funny since I generally dislike this step in quilting.  Because it was a voluntary time of sewing, it seemed very nice and relaxing.

I made a mini-quilt for the retreat that I attended a couple of weeks ago, and in my busy-ness totally forgot to bind it. 

Quite silly, don't you think?

Well, the sweet recipient said she didn't mind being patient.  My hope is to get this in the mail by Friday. I figure it won't be hard to do some hand-sewing on Thanksgiving day.

So, what about you?  What are you working on?

craft fair re-cap

The craft fair is over and I am breathing a sigh of relief. 

No more "work" sewing for this girl for a while!

The fair turned out lovely.  We had a decent amount of traffic, and all of the booths were nice.  It was a fun group of people to work with for a day.

Sales were on the low-ish side, but I think that next year we will have the fair the weekend after Thanksgiving.  The Saturday following black Friday sounds good, but I am not sure if people would be out of town, which would leave us with not many customers. 

Any suggestions about timing for a Christmas craft fair?

As you can see, Aubry has started a little business called TINY TINKER INDUSTRIES (left side of the table), which I think is the perfect name for her.  When she is making something she is so committed and industrious, and it always surprises me how dedicated she is.  Somehow she has talked me into starting an Etsy shop for her after the first of the year.  She makes the cutest little clay miniatures and I think she could sell a few.  We will see...

I hope you all have a lovely day!

shop notes: sale of the week!

All patterns in my shop are on sale at 40% off!  There is so much to choose from: bags, quilts, girl's clothes, and home decor.

Enjoy!