Today in the home office

Some shots from around the home office today. 

The view out my window today.

My colleague, the quiet writer, is tapping away contentedly on his keyboard.

Little did I know, just before I took this picture he was in the other room digging through the garbage.

And my administrative assistant is always busy.

It's shaping up to be a productive Wednesday around here.  We are excited to be receiving visitors soon for Christmas and New Year's!

My first tutorial, a Free Download & Print project for you: Snowflake Gift Tags

I always love a good "How-To" post.  Especially the easy ones that only require things that are already right on your desk or lying around the house!  I am excited to share this wonderfully simple tutorial for making snowflake-shaped gift tags that can also function as neat little ornaments.  I'm providing the snowflakes!

Gather your materials:

scissors, tape, yarn or ribbon, a pen, a printer, paper (something sturdy like cardstock is best), and

 a sidekick (sidekick is optional)

 

Download my snowflakes page HERE. Simply save to your desktop and then print it out.

 

Make sure you wait a few minutes for the ink to dry.  Otherwise you might end up with smudged snowflakes.

 

 

  Fold your printed page in half lengthwise right down the middle of the two columns of snowflakes.

 

 

 

  Grab your scissors and start cutting out each pair of snowflakes that match, one row at a time.   

 

 

 

Make sure you leave a good ½” of white space around the snowflake as you’re cutting.  This will guarantee that you’re not cutting off any tips of the snowflake on the other side.   

 

 

 

Make sure to leave a small space uncut along the fold where each half will meet. This is where you will punch a hole for your ornament or gift tag

 

 

  Using a hole puncher or scissors, make a small hole right near the fold.  This is how you will string the ribbon through your gift tag.

 

 

 

 

  Open up the folded snowflake and write your holiday message inside, then attach it to your gift by threading some ribbon or yarn through the hole you made.

 

 

Or, if you are making an ornament instead:

Fold up a small piece of tape, stick it on the inside (blank part) of the snowflake and close the two halves together.   

 

Thread a piece of ribbon or yarn through the top and tie it in a bow.  Hang it up somewhere and admire your hard work.  It’s an ornament now!

   

This download is for personal use only.  Please do not use or sell commercially. :)

 

 

Did you make this project?  If so, I would love to hear about it.  Feel free to post a link to your own DIY or holiday craft project below.  

New work to share with you: BunBun and Zipper

I am happy to introduce BunBun and Zipper, two curious cats whose adventures include building and racing air ships above the woods behind their house.

These two very smart little cats can now be yours.  Check them out here in the shop. 
Please stay tuned to the blog to find out about my new shop venue... coming spring 2012.

Winter Project Ideas

Well it's getting colder outside and it's really making me want to be working on projects.  Something that lets me sit in a comfy chair by the woodstove and preferably with some soft yarn. 

I've been thinking of a few ideas for the winter that sound really warm and cozy. I recently made myself a cowl from a really soft cotton variegated yarn and it is probably the perfect accessory.  Mainly because it's warm, but also because it stays out of the way (unlike the ends of a scarf) and it looks really sophisticated!  

Don't they all look so happy, wearing their pretty little cowls?  I think I'm going to try making the top left one.  It's from Red Heart.

I was also checking out the pattern for a soft and fluffy rug.  The one shown above is crocheted from recycled T-shirts.  I am hoping you somehow magically don't have to worry about the rug scooting, making you slip and fall when you step onto the rug... otherwise that's going to mean inventing some kind of non-slip texture on the back.  Which does not sound that fun.

This is an image of a "healthy" fudge recipe from Aida S Cuisine.  It sounds interesting.

Here's a project that for sure won't include a non-slip texture strategy: making homemade fudge.   I don't have a candy thermometer, and I don't use the mixer.  I just do it the easy way where you dump the ingredients in the pot kind of like this recipe.

Well I hope to be able to share some of these completed projects with you soon.  It's nice and cold outside now, so I'd better get started on one of these.

What projects are you working on or hoping to get started soon?

Tea Time is here

    I drew this sweet little scene with my favorite Micron artist pens.  It has been safely tucked away in my special sparkly dinosaur sketch book that my sister helped me pick out while we were in Michigan.
  

   Now this little deer is ready to serve tea in her cozy cabin in the woods!  She has finished crocheting her own sweater and has just put her new curtains up.  She is looking out her front window, anticipating the arrival of her dear sister, who is due any moment for an afternoon cup of hot tea.

Would you like to know how you can purchase one of these prints?

You can trot right over to my Etsy shop, {stay tuned to the blog for updates about my new shop venue, coming spring 2012}
or...

You can check out my new place over at Society 6!  At the Society 6 location, you will see the wonderful and exciting fact that you can purchase this little deer as a laptop or ipad decal.  Isn't that fun?

Winter is coming

It may be 70 degrees and rainy in our part of Kentucky today, but I can still feel winter coming as the nights turn colder.  I'm already getting in the mood for cutting out snow flakes!  Here are some really dazzling finds that are keeping me inspired today.

Winter Birch Trees project found here!

Isn't this a neat little project?  You can find out how to make this enchanting little scene step-by-step.  Just visit Kathy Barbro's blog Art Projects for Kids.  I love that Prussian Blue against the crisp white.  I think this would be fun for adults too!

Winter Textures by Grant MacDonald

The long shadows in this photo by Grant MacDonald remind me of our recent time spent in Northern Michigan, my birthplace.  Pretty much all day it looks like it's around 4:00 in the afternoon there during the winter.

How to make paper snowflake ornaments

This simple snowflake tutorial from Martha Stewart makes it very easy to create your own personal indoor blizzard.  I also like to make garland out of them.  I think I will go browse the rest of her neat craft ideas there.   

Snowflake Cake recipe

Isn't this cake pretty?  What an intricate design of white chocolate snowflakes on the top.  The cake is made from a yellow cake mix with pudding added for extra moisture.  Sounds good!


What are some of your winter inspirations or traditions?

Thrifty Finds

We went thrift shopping today and I found some sweet little trinkets.

Also found two nice sweaters.  Katie's Closet had the best sweaters, and they were giving away free apples too.  Here's what else we saw today:

What are you doing this weekend?

Things I wanted to get done:

{ paint my nails some pretty pink color } (Done!)

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{ go to the TC Makers Market } (exciting blog post forthcoming)

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{ catch up on some laundry } (Almost Done!)

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{ take some pictures } (Done!)

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{ catch up on Project Runway } (Done!)

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{ go for a walk } (Done!)

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{ work on getting new photography shop opened } (not done...)

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Things I didn't know I was going to do:

{ try a new restaurant } 

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{ go thrift shopping with my grandma and my partner } (found an interesting vintage crochet booklet)

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{ play a really hard hidden object computer game for way too long }

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And in case you were not already aware:

I learned this from my dad and my grandma at a very young age.  My older sister (working on her PhD) is aware of the magic of computer games as well.

What did you find yourself doing this weekend?

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