I found another true love in my life this week. Anthropologie. I have heard of it. I have walked by it. I have seen these some stuff from there, but nothing that I really thought was all that fantastic. Then I walked into the store. Oh my goodness, so much "scope for the imagination!" (Thank you L.M. Montgomery for that phrase) The stuff there can be pricey, but they had a great sale on dinnerware. I bought this monogrammed plate for 50% off.

A little online shopping for you...

These alphabet hooks make me happy. A current obsession of mine is monograms. So attracted to them.

These knobs would make me want to cook dinner twice a day. At $16 each I think we need to win the lottery sometime soon, considering the fact that we need almost 30 knobs.

And this coat rack is exactly what I have in mind for my entryway.

There's more. So much more, but I'll stop there. Thank you, Anthropologie, for coming into my life.

Phew. That's all I have to say about the past 6 days. Phew.

Remember when I showed you the tutorial for super cute boxes that would work perfectly for neighbor gifts? Here are the results!




I filled them with caramel corn, Muddy Buddies, and peanut butter balls. Delish!

I helped my mom put together some boxes for her neighbors, as well. Actually, I had had enough of folding cardstock so I put my dad to work. Just call him M. Stewart.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and please have a safe New Year!

Wedding

The dress is done and made its debut at the wedding. Super poofy, super cute, and super stressful! A word of advice. If you plan on tweaking a pattern, plan the tweaking before you cut the material.

The bride and groom looked absolutely fantastic and still haven't stopped smiling. And the veil was lovely if I do say so myself.

The tux was a bit of a flop, I am sorry to say. The pants were super slim and just barely long enough, making his already chicken legs look like toothpick legs. The shirt was two sizes two small and had stains all over it. The jacket would have been alright, but there wasn't a cumberbund and since the shirt wouldn't stay tucked in it just wasn't wonderful. And to top it off, black shoes were not provided so we were scrambling to find some up right before the reception started. That's what you get from a small town tux shop, I suppose. It is a good thing the boy inside it is still as handsome as ever.

Brother and sister, looking pretty sharp, if you ask me.

On My Desk

I am making Baby Girl's dress for my sister-in-law's wedding reception. Technically she isn't part of the wedding party, but Busy Boy is going to be decked out in a tux, I couldn't leave the girl out on all the fun!

I knew exactly what I wanted and for the life of me couldn't find . However, I did find a blessing/christening dress pattern in my stash that will work with some tweaking and thankfully it is sized up to 24-27 pounds. Baby Girl is 25 pounds. Phew.

Last night I pieced it together with pins while the hubby and I discussed our to do list for the week. It is looking good, except I think I am going to need some more tulle.

Drum Roll Please …

   Let me start by saying that this giveaway stuff is harder than I thought. As any blogger does, I LOVED reading your comments and blog entries about your Christmas decorations. As I read them I found myself rooting for each and everyone of you to win the giveaway. I began contemplating how long it would take me to make one ornament for each one of you. Too long. Way too long. Just know that the thought crossed my mind and the saying does go, “It’s the thought that counts,” right? To appease my desires I decided to make two extra ornaments, so there are two winners today! Yippee!

 

 

 

   Winner #1:

Jill said, “Most of our ornaments are the same kind - those we received when Dave's dad cleared out his stash, the ornaments I was giving growing up, and those we've purchased each year since marriage. My favorites are those folksy one from Dave's dad. They remind me so much of those on my parents tree.”

 Winner #2: 

Stacie said, “I too have a box full with sentimental value. Those that were handmade or passed down through the years, and they have all adorned my tree for the past 8 years of my  married life. This year, though, I was feeling a little fancy…so we (or really, I) changed it up a bit (pics on the blog). We do have the same tradition in our family of letting the kids pick out a new ornament every year. I let the kiddos decorate with their ornaments first, then I fill in the rest. ;) At this point they are happy as long as their special ornament is within grabbing distance so they can rip it off the tree and show anyone who visits.”

 

You will notice that the second ornament isn’t quite finished because last night as I sat down to finish it at 10:00pm I realized that I needed to finish my sister-in-law’s veil for her wedding on Saturday. So, veil came first and is all finished, thank goodness. The finished ornaments will be on their way to both winners early next week! Thanks again everybody for giving a bit of holiday cheer to my December.

I'll be drawing names today during nap time, so if anyone reads this and still wants in on the mitten ornament giveaway, you have until 2:00pm MST. Yippee!

There’s Always Next Year

With only a couple of weeks until Christmas I am running out of time, but most certainly not running out of ideas. Is it a bad thing for me to already be making my list of Christmas projects for next year? I hope not because these two are at the top of my list. Maybe I will make them in June. Hey, it’s winter in Australia then.

Amy Butler’s tree forest. How is it that something so simple can look so deliciously elegant? Thanks Amy, my piano was just telling me the other day that it would like a tree forest atop it.

Thanks to Jill for directing me towards this lovely creation. Paper crafting is a bit more time consuming for me than sewing, so starting in June probably isn’t such a bad idea.

Neighbor Gifts

Thanks goes to Karlie for her tutorial on making these super cute boxes. I will be making a plethora of them to fill with something sweet for my neighbor gifts.

P.S. Karlie is a SUPER talented florist. Check out her website, Garden House Floral. Seriously, it makes me want to marry Brandon all over again just so that I can have her do my flowers.

Humor Me

Did you read the last paragraph of my last post? I’m doing a giveaway! It would just tickle me pink if lots of people entered. Go for it!

How lovely are thy branches!

I am a sentimental decorator when it comes to Christmas. It is a tradition in our family that we get an ornament every year for Christmas. When we get married my mom passes those ornaments on to us for our tree. I love pulling out each one and remembering the year it was given to me.

This lovely gem of an ornament was given to me the year I was born. Do you see what I mean? You would have to be sentimental to keep this. (The bad photography doesn’t help much, does it?)

The ornaments that remind me of what was going on in my life at the time always make me emotional. This was from my mom last year, in honor of our first Christmas in our new home. What a special memory.

These two ornaments aren’t gifts, but have equal sentimental value. I remember as a child I loved putting the ornaments on our tree that my parent’s had made for their first Christmas tree. So, after Brandon and I got married I was super excited to get some ornaments that we could remember as our first. Being in the thick of my first concert season ever as a music teacher, handmade didn’t happen. I love what we chose from Terry’s Village, though. The heart is one of 12 ornaments that are part of an old German tradition. I’m not German and didn’t even know about the tradition until I saw the ornaments in the catalog, but I thought it was pretty nifty, so I decided to join in on the fun! The snowmen are just cute. Busy Boy loved putting them on the tree this year.

What kind of tree decorator are you? Do you have any favorite ornaments?

Leave me a comment or write on your blog and leave me a link in the comments. I am making the cutest mitten ornaments for my kids (based on a pattern from Leisl at disdressed) and will have some extra fabric. Anyone that comments will get entered in a drawing for their very own mitten ornament. Also, if you link to my blog on your blog, you will get a second entry in the drawing. I will draw a name on Friday, December 12th. I can’t wait to hear what you have to say!