Book for my Mother

I love my Mom so much and I'm so grateful that our adult relationship has turned out exactly how I hoped it would be. She is amazing! I made her this book to let her know.

Christmas Gifts I received

Alec and I exchanged gifts early because we'll be out of town for Christmas. These are the fantastic things he got me.

An embossing heat gun and embossing powder! Now I need to come up with some projects for these. I had something in mind when I added these to my wishlist...but since I didn't' write it down... poof! Any ideas?




Biscuit/cookie cutters so I can make TONS of yummy things. I've been wanting to make a recipe for ricotta dill bisquits and now I will!


A Jenny Hart, Sublime Stitching, book full of magic. I can't wait!

Things I Made This Week

I got quite a bit done this week in spite of not feeling super well. The first project was spray painting this little metal basket to hold keys, wallets, sunglasses etc. at our by-the-door landing place. The basket came as the base of a gift basket, but red was a little more my style.



I finished both Alec's and my stockings this week. I forgot to take a photo before I stuffed his full of stuff so the ankle looks a little wonky. He has mine hidden away somewhere so you'll just have to appreciate his and know that mine is a variation on this theme. They're made of fleece so they'll stand up to all of the heavy gifts inside!



I had seen a wreath like this awhile back on someone's blog, but I don't remember where. I thought it looked pretty easy to do. I used my old streetfinder map that is obsolete with the advent of GPS. That makes me a little sad because I bought streetfinders shortly after learing to drive so I could find my way anyhwere. Now it seems too easy. Working to find things was part of the fun! I cut the map into strips and applied them to the wreath form using mod podge. What a fun craft! You get to have glue all over your fingers just like elementary school!




I wanted more room than what I had for hanging Christmas cards so I chain stitched two colors of yarn together to make a pretty chain. I hadn't chain stitched since i was about 8 years old and luckily it came back, just like riding a bicycle. Back then I chain stitched an entire skein of yarn and never learned how to go back and forth to make it into a blanket. Did anybody else do that?




Hopefully more crafts to come after Christmas!

Jewelry Tree

So now that school is out for 5 whole precious weeks I have some time for crafty things again. My friend Laura helped me make this jewelry Christmas tree two years ago. I used jewelry I had been saving for years to put it together. There is some of my mom's old jewelry that I used to play with in her jewelry box when I was little as well as some of my grandmother's old broken clip-on earrings. Almost everything on it has some sentimental reason for being there so the tree makes me very happy to put out every year.

Amazing Speech on Marriage in America

It's too bad her speech did not lead to change at this time in New York State, but hearing politicians speak in this way gives me hope that eventually America will do the right thing and grant equal right to ALL of our citizens.

Senator Diane Savino words are spoken with good purpose but she includes humor, remarking on the "sacred institution" of marriage that brought us such shows as "Bridezillas" and "The Littlest Groom" where 30 desperate women competed for the hand of a dwarf.