Happy New Year

Here's hoping that your 2011 is filled with love and joy. I'm looking forward to another year of sharing my sewing projects with all of my blogging friends.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas. I hope all of your Christmas wishes come true!

Thank You ... and some easy Christmas Projects

Thank you for your comments on my previous post about ending this blog. After much thought, I think I will keep it going. I really love sewing and crafting, and I love sharing my projects!

With that said, here are some projects I have made recently, either as gifts or Christmas decor (hope you find something you can use Tootsie Marie!!).

This started out as a styrofoam tree and some garland from Dollar Tree; ended up like this:

My SIL has blues/browns in her living room and dining room, so I made her some holiday decorations, again using styrofoam:

This time I used glass marbles and hot-glued them on (be sure to use low-temp glue gun or you will melt the styrofoam!). I made more of the styrofoam balls with different marbles and things, but forgot to take pictures!

I wanted some holiday pillows, but did not want to pay the $20 most places want for one. Made some myself using Christmas placemats from Target ($3.99). Just opened up a spot big enough to fit my hand through using a seam ripper and added some fiberfill, then sewed it back up!

Reindeer shirts I made for my sister and my two great-nephews to wear at Christmas. They turned out so cute... easy to make using felt.

Every year I give some of the neighbors Christmas goodies I have baked. This year I made some pretty plates to put them on; after the goodies are gone, they can use them as Christmas decor!

I bought clear glass plates at Wal-mart for $1.50 each. Cut a circle of fabric about an inch bigger than the plate. Apply some Mod-Podge to the back of the plate and smooth on your fabric, getting rid of any wrinkles or air bubbles. Then trim the fabric around the rim of the plate and apply some Mod-Podge around the edges to seal it up well. Then add a couple layers of Mod-Podge over the whole thing (back of plate), allowing it to dry between layers. This can be hand-washed only.

I hope you enjoyed these... they were all easy to make and did not take a lot of time to complete.

Happy Holiday Crafting!

Gifts from Handmade Gift Exchange

Awhile back I signed up to participate in the Handmade Gift Exchange over at Craftaholics Anonymous. Here is what I received from Jessica, the person I was paired up with:

It is a beautiful headband that she made... isn't it gorgeous??  She used my favorite color of green and added lots of bling... and I LOVE bling! Thank you so much Jessica!

Jessica liked my pink flowered tote, so I sent her that, along with a zippered pouch to match:

This was so much fun. I will definitely do it again next year!

Coming to an End

I think I have pretty much decided that at the end of the year, I will stop updating this blog. I'm really not sure if anyone out there, besides my sister-in-law, is even reading it! I haven't gotten any comments in a long time, and my followers have not increased very much either.

I wanted to start it to share some beginning sewing projects, thinking that there would be others out there like me looking for some simple beginner projects. I guess that is not the case.

I will probably re-vamp my other blog and maybe call it something else; I haven't decided for sure yet. I will keep you posted in case you'd like to follow that one.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog, I really appreciate it. Have a great Holiday Season.

Christmas Already?

I can't believe that it will be Christmas in a few short weeks. It really crept up on me this year. Of course, being sick with pneumonia the last two weeks hasn't helped any!

I finally got the tree up and some decorations around the house this weekend, so at least it is finally starting to look like Christmas around our house.
Here are a few pictures:

Our still un-decorated tree

Stockings are hung. Everyone in our house, pets included, gets a stocking, so that's 2 adults, 2 birds and 5 cats!

Hope you are enjoying this Holiday Season!