My gift to you - a last minute gift!

My dear friends,

Thanks for a wonderful year! I've had such a great time talking to you and getting to know new people from around the world. I've been so very lucky this year!

To thank you, I've make a new little pattern that I think you'll really enjoy. I'm giving it to you early because it's always tortuous for me to wait until Christmas (substitute your favorite holiday as needed) to see the joy--and to show off my creations!

Plus, this new pattern will make a great last minute gift. You can stitch up a whole pile lickety-split and have gifts for everyone. So here you go--the Tiny Tote!




Download here. You'll need Adobe reader, available free here.

These guys are itty-bitty, perfect for ornaments,



or gift tags,



or a business card holder for your desk,



or tuck a gift card or other treat inside for a great gift.



Hope you enjoy this pattern! Wishing you and yours a very happy holiday!

Scrapperella - a fairy tale

Warning! This story contains a Christmas present reveal. If you gave birth to me, stop reading now!

Once upon a time there was a girl named Scrapperella. She was perfectly normal girl except for one thing - she hated scrapbooking. Scrapperella absolutely despised the craft, muttering under her breath about how all those scrapbooking supplies took up "valuable space for fabric" in the local craft store. She'd tell everyone how much she hated scrapbooking, but she never told anyone her secret...

She wished she could scrapbook.

See, Scrapperella had tried scrapbooking. She had a drawer full of fancy scissors, but every time she used them her rectangles turned out like trapazoids. There was a pile of fancy papers and a half finished book under her bed. Yet she couldn't get the motivation to finish because every time she pulled it out she ended up with glued fingers, paper cuts, and glitter in her hair. Not to mention the fact that she couldn't write in bubble letters to save her life.

But Scrappella now had a dilemma. She loved to take pictures with her digital camera, but then they just sat on her computer, unloved. Random prints would go into a cheesy album or a lonely box, only seeing the light of day once a year.

One day, Scrapperlla was reading her favorite blogs and, upon seeing a gorgeous scrapbook, wondered aloud, "Oh, how I wish I could scrapbook!"

Poof! Ding-ding!

All of a sudden there appeared, in a pop-up window, her Fairy God-friend, complete with his magic wand.

"Scraperella, girl, why so glum? We've gotta turn that frown upside-down before you get wrinkles," he exclaimed.

"Oh Fairy God-fairy, I'm a scrapbooking failure! And I have all these fun pics that I want to show off and no way to do it," she sobbed.

"Sugar, you're not a failure, you're fabulous! Now I know you've got some mad Photoshop skills and I know just how you can use them..."

With that he waived his magic wand (and his hips) and window started popping up left and right.

"First, you need a template. Then some fun papers and embellishments. And then you just layer them up in Photoshop, upload your pages, and they will print them off for you. You won't have to lift a finger, or break a nail!" Fairy God-friend jumped for joy in his window, then ordered a cocktail.

"Oh Fairy God-friend, you've done it again...Look what I did:"






"I told you that you were fabulous!" he exclaimed. "And besides, have I ever steered you wrong? I did find you that hottie hairdresser, didn't I?"

And with that, Fairy God-friend vanished, and Scrapperella didn't hate scrapbooking anymore!

Getting there...

The clock is ticking... I'm feeling the rush of "Gotta get this work done before everyone leaves for holiday," on top of my own holiday plans in various states of undone. Christmas presents are in progress, and every spare moment is devoted to finishing, wrapping, and finding shoes to wear to a wedding on the 20th (because it's all about the shoes!)

The kitties are rebelling due to lack of attention. One has determined that she needs to sit in between me and whatever I'm working on, which is especially useful when her tail adds keystrokes and turns "science" into "sgjehskt." The other is so excited by the Christmas spirit that he's bound to take down the tree by running circles around it. At least we got our Christmas card out of his antics:


Awww! I wish I could just curl up under the tree for a nap.

I know I say this every year, but is any one else dangerously close to not finishing everything on time? Maybe it's time to just step back and take in the joy of the season...

Bamboo-zled

You know what is a great feeling? It's the feeling that you get after you've been working on a home improvement project, with your house in disarray and your daily schedule in shambles, and everything is dirty and out of place, and it drags on three times longer than you thought it would, and you are wondering if it was a good idea in the first place and then....ahhh, completion! And it's wonderful and life is good.

That's where I am right now.

We took on the task of replacing the carpeting in the upstairs bonus area. This has been on our to-do list for a while due to an unfortunate incident involving unsupervised cat introductions and a smelly boy cat. You can never get that smell out...ewww. Not wanting to invite more cat mischief, as well as avoiding the foot-meets-pin scenarios which are all too common with sewing on carpet, we went with bamboo. Sounded easy at the start, but turned out to be a wee bit trickier.

Before:


Icky carpet, uninspiring color...oh, and clutter (my bad!)

It's a small space, so it should be a snap, right?


Boxes of flooring................. Bye, bye carpet


Painted! ...........................................Boards going in...

Fast forward a whole week and a half, which includes two more trips to Lowes for supplies. Apparently old houses don't have level floors (go figure) and we had to do some impromptu leveling of the subfloor in order to have un-wavy bamboo!

Oh, and the whole time there was an air compressor sitting in living room at the bottom of the stairs so we could run the nailer. Previously mentioned boy cat LOVED that noise (but fortunately controlled his bladder!).

And so (drumroll, please)....


Beautiful!

Still working on the organization of the rest of the room, but here's some up close pictures of the beautiful floor for ya:


Yummy. Definitely worth the time, hassle, banged fingers, choice words, and overall dysfunction. I'm feeling inspired.... :)