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

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

Knock, knock. Boo’s there???

Sorry, being my candy corn self again today.  Fall is officially in the air and with that comes the holidays.  Although technically Columbus Day is in October, I don’t really celebrate that for several reasons.  No, the kickoff to my holiday season starts with none other than Halloween.  Boooooooo…  And aren’t these leafy ghosts so cute?  It took me a second to realize they were actually silk leaves. Cool idea huh?

Halloween, for me at least, has been a hit or miss with me over the past couple of years.  At first I loved it because of trick-or-treating, but then my mom stopped taking us and would just buy us candy so it didn’t mean much to me then without the trick-or-treating.  Then we got to throw Halloween parties in our teens so it meant something again for me.  But after my brother passed away, 12 years ago on the 12th, it changed Halloween for us.  He really liked Halloween and he died so close to it.  Honestly the whole end of the year is a sad time for my family.  Seems a lot of beloved people and animals passed away in September, October, and November.  But with the death of my brother it kind of made me give up on the holidays.  But times passes.  Wounds heal.  And then you want to give it another go.  So I want to try to do a little something fun this year.  I’m thinking one or two scary movies, something I have not done in literally years.  Some Halloween treats that I whip up myself.  And spending time with a family friend I haven’t seen in about a year.

And speaking of whipping things up, one of the things I want to whip up is this.  A Chocolate Pumpkin Cake.  Doesn’t it look spooky as well as chocolaty?  I love the black cake stand, it just adds to the Halloween feel of it.  I don’t know if this cake will make it on the list of to-dos this year since I really want to make some homemade Butterfingers, but it’s certainly on a to-do list.  I’m already thinking of different colors to celebrate other holidays.  Like today it’s slightly warm, feels like a Spring day.  I’m picturing a pink cake with light green frosting dripping from the top.  Maybe some candy eggs decorating the sides of it.  It’s a thought.  Ohhh, or a slightly darker green, a slightly darker red, and then spots on the red to make it look kind of like a strawberry.  Ideasssss. 

Sadly my ideas are about as crafty as I’ve been getting as of late.  I’m trying to work my way through organizing my computer and my “haunts” online so I can better socialize and finally open my freaking shop that has been in a “coming soon” state for years now.  But I hope with this fall my life slowly going back to normal that I can start planning and achieving some goals.    I’m hoping that 2012 will be an awesome year.  Even if it ends being our last year, be sure to celebrate Christmas big this year seeing it that some people depict that it will be our last.    But seriously, I am ready to move forward with my life and see my goals start to come true.  Each day the goal list grows with things I want to try to achieve, but  I’m starting to logically see that I can’t reach them all, at least not in this lifetime, but I’m going to shoot for the stars and grab as many on my way by and be happy with my haul once I reach the end of the universe. 

And so I’m off peeps.  I needed this post to reenergize me and my quest for happiness.  I’ve got plans.  I’ve got goals.  And I’ve got determination.  A nice little arsenal to have if I do say so myself.    Ok, I will talk to you lovelies soon.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Planning her next big crafty caper,
Michelle