A different kind of snow

Piles of snowflakes:


I frantically spent most of the weekend working on an order of ornaments (20 ornaments, to be specific)to send to Jeff's mom. I was hoping to have them shipped out already, but I've been home sick with the stomach flu, and it just didn't happen...Thankfully, I could finally sit up yesterday, so I finished the last two. I soaked them in the wax last night and now they're drying. I'm hoping I can get them mailed today, but we'll see...the kids I nanny for have Kindermusic and I have to pick the other one up from preschool, so I'm not sure I'll have time.



I think these are my favorites:

I guess it's that time of year...

Goodbye fall, hello winter!



It's falling so perfectly that it almost looks like it's in a movie or a screensaver. *grins*

Every Monday should start like this...

I need to remember to start taking my camera when I take Jeff to work. I keep missing the best photos. On Friday, a pretty rainbow. Today, there were clouds pretty much covering the city and as the sun started to rise and bounce off of those clouds...it was just gorgeous. It looked like staring at the ocean, but that it was somehow inverted. Amazing. And yet, no camera. Grrr. And by the time I got home, the moment had passed.

But...it turned into this:



The sky is on fire!



I miss my photo editing software (it's on the dead computer). The colors aren't quite right. It was definitely bright like that, but with a little bit of red to it too. Pretty pretty.

Happy Friday!

We now interrupt your regular programming to bring you this random thought:

This is a silly one, but my gratitude Friday thought is: I love my grocery bags. To be completely honest, when I made them I figured it was completely possible that I'd use them twice and decide it was too much trouble. Thankfully, that has not been the case.

They hold so much more stuff than a plastic bag! For instance, these two little bags:


carried all this!


A plastic bag would've snapped in half. I frequently get compliments on them, and only once have I had them be a negative thing: there was an overzealous lady at the door who decided that I must be stealing a cart worth of groceries since I didn't have plastic bags. *crosses eyes*

Anyway...I want to make some more, but I have so many Christmas things to finish up first. Let the countdown begin! 5 days till my birthday....6 till Thanksgiving...and then it will be Christmas before we know it! Eek!

Happy Friday, everyone! :)

Because I have no children to post pictures of, you get my darling kitty instead. Please meet the beautiful Miss Nermal.

Who's a pretty kitty?

Nermal is!


Nermal is!

Halloween decorations and pumpkins!!

Happy belated Halloween, everyone!

We had a party on Friday for some of Jeff's coworkers and it was so much fun! I decided to make a little graveyard based off of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyworld. I also carved a haunted mansion themed pumpkin for the party and made a little Elmo pumpkin on Tuesday for the trick or treaters.

Anyway, on to the pictures!

Elmo pumpkin:
I was going to smooth out the shaded parts, but I kind of like it like this. It looks sort of furry, don't you think?


Aaaand my haunted mansion pumpkin:


And here's a little closer, with some slightly better detail. It looks better in person, but I didn't have time to get the lighting right for a picture.




The tombstones (which I think I'll post a little tutorial of later) are made entirely of foam insulation sheets (which are carved and then painted with latex paint):


A few more shots of the tombstones are here.

Overall, I'm quite proud of my Halloween craftiness! :D

Catching up...

Aaaand here we are a month later. Life has been crazy. I flew home at the beginning of the month for a 30th birthday party and then my dad ended up in the hospital for just over a week...and I've been planning a Halloween party, which has sadly occupied most of my life right now.

Here's my most recent project for the party:

Gravestones!! These are made of foam insulation sheets and carved with a WonderCutter hot tool and my old pottery tools, and they're modeled after the gravestones surrounding the Haunted Mansion at Disney World.



In progress:


Individual shots of a couple:




And stacked together:



I'm about half finished with the carving. I'm hoping to finish that today and then paint them and distress them tomorrow. *crosses fingers*

Beaded Snowflakes

I've also started making some beaded snowflakes this week. I still haven't figured out how to capture their sparkle...




The white one is iridescent seed beads and bugle beads, plus some random blue pearly lined beads. The blue ones are a mixture of silver lined seed beads and turquoise silver lined seed beads, plus some cobalt iridescent bugle beads.

My first raggedy doll!

She's not exactly traditional, but I was working with what I had and I love her! Please ignore the fact that her arms are a bit wonky and the stripes on her legs didn't quite line up. She was my "tester" doll, so I already know things I'll do differently next time.

(as always, you can click on the pics for a larger version)




Closeup:



She was made with my stash fabric, with hand painted socks and shoes (using fabric medium added to my paint) and hand embroidered face and heart:



Here's a closeup of her little heart:



She's not perfect, but I'm pretty darn proud :)

Gratitude Friday

I know...I'm behind in this. So, here we go again!

Anyway, today I'm thankful for:

Creative messes




Time to create




The little details in life that make my heart smile



Happy Friday, everyone! :)