Coming back full force in 2012!

So I just wanted to pop on to say I have not abandoned the blog, just taking time for myself at the end of this year. Can you believe by the end of tomorrow we’ve all just gone through another 365 days?  Crazy right?  Here’s to another 365!  Humm, there isn’t a leap year next year is there?  Well if there is, add one more day to my cheerful wish. 

But with that said, until I return I wanted to leave you with some entertainment.  The following video is an animated version of Wicked’s “Defying Gravity”.  The artist did it in an attempt to get the play done in animation instead of live action.  Seems it will be live action in the end, but I so wish I could see a full Wicked animation.  Oh and in case you were wondering, the artist who did this works for Disney.  It’s pretty awesome.  Take a look.

And on that note I will wish you all a Happy New Year, and I hope that this year ends on a good note for everyone.  See you in 2012!!!

Singing songs from famous Broadway plays,
Michelle

Merry Christmas everyone!

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I hope all of you had an awesome Christmas. Mine was ok. It ended up being mostly just another day for me.  I didn’t get my gifts done because I realized late in the game a lot of stuff had to be hand sewn and while I’m getting faster at it, one item can take one or more hours. So while its no sweat to have things be a few days late, I still feel bad about it.  But I am coming up with some cute things that I think they will like.  This whole process is giving me a lot to think about when it comes to making clothing for dolls.  As soon as gifts are done and given out I will be jumping right back in making stuff to sell finally.  I think I really needed to get over this fear of creating and making a mistake and wanting it perfect the first time out.  I made TONS of mistakes on the clothing I made and I’m learning two things.  One, it can usually be undone and redone again.  Two, it’s not the end of the world and usually the mistakes are only things I will see and I am being nitpicky about.  So yeah, this whole experience is turning out to be good for me.

And I know this place has become a ghost town but I will be back to blogging here really soon.  I’m going to be altering the focus of this blog a bit but I will tell you more about that in the new year.   Hey it’s only a couple of more days.  Can you believe that?  A couple of more days and that’s a wrap on 2011.  I don’t even know how to describe this year for me.  It’s had ups and downs, thankfully mostly ups.  I’m hoping next year will be a better year though.  I’m hoping everyone in my life gets into better health and that I can take BIG HUGE LARGE strides towards my future.  Fingers crossed tightly.

Silly thing, my mom is kind of sad that today was kind of a bust when it comes to Christmas.  She misses how it was and had planned an old fashioned Christmas but things just didn’t turn out that way. So she said she wants a do over and has chosen Valentine’s day to do it.  Don’t ask me why Valentine’s day, she just wants it.  So I guess I might have two Christmases next year.  Who knows.  She wants to pull out the top half of the tree and put presents under it and celebrate.  LOL!  So I guess we will see.

And well that’s all for now guys.  Blog posts will resume in the new year.  For now, for the next few days I will try to finish gifts, do some Winter Cleaning, and just close out the year on a hopefully good note.  So once again I hope you had a very Merry Christmas.  I’ll talk to you all soon.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Popping another piece of candy into her mouth,
Michelle

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you and yours are having a happy and safe Thanksgiving.  And if you are thinking of going out into that mess tomorrow please be extra careful and safe.  Talk to you all again soon.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Happily watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade,
Michelle

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum, wie treu sind deine Blätter?

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So I’m sure most of us learned as a child to sing a favorite Christmas carol, O Christmas Tree, I’ve heard it in both English and German many of times.  But it seems the years since that song was written that Christmas trees have been changing and getting quite, dare I say it, crafty.  As evident from the picture above of a crafty Christmas tree made out of Mountain Dew cans and topped with a Mountain Dew bottle, Christmas tress are a’changin’.  After seeing this picture I was curious what other crafty Christmas trees were out there so I googled Creative Christmas trees, and boy did I find some unique and creative ones.  And of course I had to come share my findings with you.    Have a look at these cool trees.  Click the “source” links under the pictures to go to the website these trees are hanging out on.

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Plywood tree.  I saw a miniature version of this tree as well.  Pretty cool, and you can actually hang ornaments on them or just leave them as is.

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Christmas ornaments hung on wall in the shape of a Christmas tree.  Love this idea.  Also made me think you could something like this with varying sizes of picture frames.

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This is more for outdoor decorating.  A Christmas tree made out of lighted balls.  Some of the trees made around the world will impress you.

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Get your kids in on the creative fun by having them make a tree and decorations out of Lego.

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A ladder dressed up as a Christmas tree.  Love the idea and even the look of it.  It just seems to fit for some weird reason.

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This is so cool.  It looks like an actual snow covered tree in a house.  Made easily with rolled cotton and snow glitter.

I do hope you’ve checked out the websites these pictures came from because these pictures are only scratching the surface of the cool stuff out there.  I hope, perhaps, that you have gotten some ideas on how to think outside of the…errr…um…tree box, and came up with some ideas on how to make your Christmas a little bit more unique this year.  I’m collecting these ideas to try out when I finally get a place of my own. 

And now that the Christmas season is in full swing, I’m hunting the web for unique and interesting items in the handmade community.  I will be sharing my cool finds with you in the coming days and weeks.  Hopefully you’ll find that thing you’ve always wanted from my searches and reveals.  Fingers crossed tight that you will.    For now I am off.  I’m wayyyy behind on Nanowrimo and I think I want to try typing some tonight.  *Looks at clock.*  Or maybe I’ll get some sleep instead and start catching up tomorrow.    Talk to you lovelies soon.  Be good and crafty until then.  Bye for now.

Yawning from looking at the little yawn emoticon,
Michelle

Black Friday Ad Scans

This post is for my USA readers.  But for those of you outside the USA who are curious, the day after Thanksgiving in the USA we have one of the biggest shopping days during the year, Black Friday.  If you are hoping to get a good deal Black Friday is the day to attempt to get it.  A couple of weeks before Thanksgiving some websites will share scans of Black Friday ads.  You can simply just Google Black Friday and find tons of websites dedicated to the day.  Granted it does further force the commercialism of the holiday, but hey a deals a deal, and if you are in the market for some craft items you are in luck this year.  Tons of sales, some starting on Thanksgiving, are centered crafty deals.  So be sure to get your newspaper on Thanksgiving morning because some of these good sales need a coupon from the news paper.  Humm, I wonder how much the newspaper companies lose out on because you know everyone will have a coupon on Black Friday but not all of them will have paid for the newspaper it came from.  Hummm.

For your ads sneak peek click on the picture above to be taken to be taken to the ads scan page and enjoy.  I found some crafty deals in the AC Moore, Michaels, and Jo Ann’s paper.  AC Moore has a 30 percent off your entire purchase coupon for Thanksgiving between 4 and 10 in the evening, along with some equally good coupons for Black Friday.  Let me know if you find any equally good sales, I’m still hunting around.  Oh and there are also some awesome sales on other stuff too, so make those lists people.  You’re welcome. 

And I’m off.  Must return the real life again, but had to let you guys in on some of the cool finds I found.  Talk to you again soon.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Window shopping the night away,
Michelle

Happy Veteran’s Day

Thank you for your bravery and thank you for my freedom.

Proud to be an American,
Michelle

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween to all of your freaks and ghouls out there!    I hope you are all playing it safe and having a fun time tonight.  I’m doing my usual Halloween thing of spending the night in.  It’s raining something horrible out there so I don’t think there were any trick-or-treaters out tonight.  My friend even took her kids to the mall because we got hit with one of the coldest and wettest Halloweens in a long time. I remember Halloweens just a few years back where you had to wear short sleeve shirts because it was hot an muggy.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the cold, but the wind and rain make it extra brrrrrrr.  So I hope you are staying warm tonight if your neck of the woods is unseasonably cold too tonight.

Right now I am currently counting down the hours to the start of Nanorwrimo.  I am being a Nano Rebel this year by not writing a novel.  I’m going to be finishing up a script for the photostory I’ve been trying to finish for a long time now.  I think my time of Nanowrimo is coming to an end.  I don’t know if I’ll be doing it next year.  I do cherish the crazed writing during November, I just think I want to start making that an everyday thing than just a one month thing, so I don’t know about future Nanos.  But this year is my first as a Rebel and I’m kind of excited about it.  I don’t want to write a novel just to write a novel and waste time on something I’ll hate, so I will write the script which will hopefully help me write my story and get it done so I can start taking pictures in December and start putting it up next year.  Fingers crossed.

As for other things I am doing right now, I’m focusing on my health right now.  There are a lot of things I need to get done by the end of the year.  I have something I am dreading coming up in 28 days, and I don’t really want to talk about it right now because I’m that nervous about it.  It’s really silly to be nervous about it, but when I explain it…on the 28th or 29th of next month, then I’m sure it will be clearer why I dreaded it.  I’m working on inventory for my shop.  I finally found a place to put my shop.  I think that was another problem for me, where to put my shop, but I found a nice place for it to be that a lot of other doll sellers are on so it works.  And well, I guess that’s about it right now.  So the goals for the end of the month is to work on the immediate health issues at hand, get through that situation I’m dreading at the end of next month, and get the shop open.  I know I won’t make the Christmas rush with my shop, but that’s ok, as long as I get it open.  Oh, and yes I am still working on emails, comments, etc., etc. etc., you get the point.  I’m working on all that.  Now that some stress has been taken off of me with my parents health either doing better or being looked at, my mom still worries me some with her heart issues, I’m getting a little more calmer and I can focus better.  I’m hoping this next month will be busy and productive for me.  I’m ending this year on a good note, no matter what.  And NO Michelle, that isn’t jinxing it for you by saying it aloud.   

And on that crazy note, I will bring this post to a close.  I will talk to you lovelies soon.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Realizing she needs to get up and exercise some of this candy off,
Michelle

This Is Halloween

As the creepy  and cool holiday of Halloween nears, a lot of people are letting their creepy and cool sides hang out.  From cool decorations and costumes to awesome…Halloween lights?  Humm, I understand lights for Christmas, but Halloween?  I’d never seen a big Halloween light display, until today that is.  Seems this family Riverside, CA really likes Halloween.  On their Youtube channel they have videos dating back to 2008 of their Halloween extravaganzas.  Here’s their light show for this year.  It’s pretty awesome.

Hey guys! Guess what?!

Halloween Countdowns at WiddlyTinks.com

Halloween will be here soon!  Just a little PSA from your friendly mousey gal.  Are you excited yet?!  I know I am. 

Can’t wait to go look at Halloween decorations,
Michelle

Happy Valentine’s Day.

For what it’s worth, hope you all had a Happy Valentine’s Day.

Loves ya,
Mouse