Christmas Goin' On ...

Okay, so here are a couple of the things I have been working on for Christmas. This first little project is something I am making for my bestest girlfriends ... I found these AWESOME lemonade pitchers at Tai Pan Trading Company for a really GREAT price (not gonna say what, though, as some of those same friends read my blog!)!! Anywho ... I am going to give them the pitchers with four of the little gift cards and some Country Time lemonade. I think they are stinkin' cute!!

Actually, I may get my daughter to make the rest of the cards for me. I am running OUT of TIME!!! I need at least ONE more day! (On top of the one I have!) YEEEE-IKES!!

Stamps: Tart & Tangy, Botanical Blooms
Paper: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black, Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie, Always Artichoke, Old Olive
Accessories: 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches, black grosgrain ribbon, pop-up glue dots


And HERE is the Raggedy Ann Saga as it has unfolded over the past year. When my daughter was 5 years old, I made her a set of Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. Being that she has not really into dolls at ALL (which is just plain ol' WEIRD since I have always been such a doll FANATIC!!), I wasn't quite sure how they would go over. Needless to say, she fell head-over-heels in love with them!!

Fast forward to last Christmas ... we were doggie-sitting my friend's very darling but VERY naughty Golden Retriever - Beau. I was busily working on projects in my craft room when my daughter came in with tears just rolling down her cheeks and a BIG pile of torn fabric, yarn and batting in her arms. Seems Beau had found a new chew toy in our little Raggedy Ann!! We were SOOO heartbroken!! In looking over the mess we saw that the arms, legs, apron and bloomers were still intact. The doll's body, head and dress were TOAST, though (this picture shows SOME of what was left of poor little Annie!). I told my daughter I could just remake the head, body and dress and we would be back in business! Then she said something that tore my heart out ... "But Mom ... I really want her face! When I was sad when I was little I used to cry into her face and then wipe my tears with her hands!" OH MY GOODNESS!!! I knew I HAD to try and save her face!!! Needless to say, the doll then sat in a grocery bag hanging from the doorknob inside my closet for nearly a year. I went searching through the closet to find the pattern and found not ONLY some extra fabric to make her dress, but ALSO the same muslin I used to sew her body! HOORAY!!

The hardest part was the face transplant. It took me two-and-a-half hours to carefully pick the yarn hair off her face so that I didn't damage it any more than it already was. I re-sewed the body and attached the face (I had to iron the bottom edge up and hand tack it to the new face). It kinda has a "Frankenstein Monster" feel to it, but I don't care. I am happy with how it turned out! I also was able to salvage the "I love you" embroidered heart, which I stuffed inside Annie's new body (I embroidered a new "I love you" on her tummy). In the original Raggedy Ann stories, Ann has to have her stuffing replaced and a candy heart that says "I love you" is placed inside her ... kinda like what we have going on here ...

Sooooo ..... here she is! I got finished putting new hair on her last night. I am really pleased with how she turned out. Now that my daughter is 15, I hope that she doesn't think that it is too sappy!!

Have a happy Christmas ADAM (the day BEFORE Christmas EVE!!)!! Thanks to my friend Melissa for telling me that her kids call today Christmas Adam ... I LOVE it!!!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

With only 4 days left 'til Christmas (YIKES!), I am sure that I am like many of you ... rushing, rushing, rushing to try and get everything done!! (Not sure if it's gonna happen, but I AM making progress!!).

Yesterday was NUTSO!! Our family (immediate and extended) was heavily involved in doing music for not ONE but TWO different church meetings (both turned out great!). I made cookie dough for 60 dozen cookies; I packaged gifts for 24 girls and leaders that I teach and work with at church; had a meeting AFTER all the church meetings we went to; made dinner on the fly as we had company over (one of the girls I teach at church is doing a training program with Ballet West and lives alone - she is a senior in high school - we had her over for dinner and ended up using her as slave labor so we could BAKE the cookies I had made the dough for in the morning - don't worry, though, her family was due to come in from Texas late last night); as I mentioned, we BAKED 60 dozen cookies; I made tags for said cookies using my Cricut (at least THAT turned out relatively easy!); I packaged up, be-ribboned and tagged 59 bags of cookies (the last dozen cookies were eaten by my family ... along with the "mutant" cookies that were broken). Oh! And I forgot to mention that I finished making a dress for Raggedy Ann. That is a VERY crazy story ... I will tell you about it next time. I collapsed into bed around midnight, and here I am ... UP ... again ... getting ready to start another crazy day!! WHEW!!!

So ... that brings me to this card ... I used this as a sample for the Limited Supply Challenge I hostessed on SCS last Friday (LSC251). I called the challenge "Silver and Gold Decorations ..." The idea was to create a card or some other sort of lovely project that featured some sort of decoration in - you got it - either silver or gold (or both!). I love making little 3" x 3" cards ... they are so cute!

So there ya have it! Guess I gotta get back to the grindstone! I will be VERY glad when Friday is here and I can finally get some sleep!!

Happy Holidays!!

Stamps: Delightful Decorations
Paper: Brushed Silver, Whisper White, Handsome Hunter
Ink: Silver Encore
Accessories: Ornament Punch, Movers & Shapers Ornament Die, Martha Stewart Branch Punch, Doodlebug Jewel Stickers, Cuttlebug Christmas Ornaments embossing folder, silver embossing powder, silver cord, pop-up glue dots, white organza ribbon

Mom's Scrapbook

I have been trying for DAYS and DAYS to get this slideshow onto youtube ... well, the ONLY way I could get it to work was withOUT any music ... sigh ... sooooooo just hum a little song while you watch it. I think we are all going to be crying on Christmas day, in any event ...



AND, before I forget ... since the Freaks all seem to be a little more Freakishly busy than usual, we have decided to cancel our blog tour for this month and show you some AMAZINGLY COOL things for NEXT month!!!

Christmas Card 2009

Where HAVE I been??? Well .... after spending so many days in the hospital with Mom, then spending several additional days with her going to various doctors' appointments, hair appointments, and shopping, wrapping and running errands I am waaaaayyyy behind on getting Christmas stuff done!! Aaaack!!! Actually, though, I am just grateful to have her here and on the mend. It has kinda put everything in perspective for me, so I really am not too worried if I don't get everything done ...

BUT ... my Christmas cards are on the home stretch (HUZZAH!!). I FINALLY got everyone together and able to hold still for about 4 minutes so we could snap this photo for the card. Whew!!

AND, I KNEW that I would be one of those who were CERTIFIABLE enough to put the ding-dang pop-up Christmas tree die in the middle of my card!! Yup!! The first time I saw it I thought, "You would have to be NUTSO to attempt to put that dude in ALL your Christmas cards!!" (I knew deep down that I was probably going to be one of those NUTSO people!!)

Anywho .... there ya have it!! AND I also finished my mom's digital scrapbook. I have been trying IN VAIN since FRIDAY to upload it to youtube so I could share it with you .... seems youtube does NOT want me to have music with it. Not quite sure what is going on there. I DID successfully upload it a couple of times with no music, but it is just NOT the same when there is nothing playing in the background!! Sheesh!! I just may have to upload it for ya "musicless!!" I am going to give it a couple more tries, though, so wish me luck!!!

AND don't forget that we are nearly to the 20th ... which can ONLY mean ONE thing, right??? The FREAKS are comin' to town!! Mark your calendar ('cause I know y'all have NOTHING else to do in the next week, right?!?) and come back late Saturday night to see what we have in store for ya!!

Stamps: Medallion, Serene Snowflakes, Sincere Salutations
Paper: Kraft, Very Vanilla, Ruby Red, Chocolate Chip, Bordering Blue
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red
Accessories: Holly Ribbons embossing folder, Marvy Jumbo Snowflake punch, keytag punch, Bigz XL Christmas Tree die, Petals a Plenty impressions folder, 5/8" chocolate chip gingham ribbon

Ho-ho-ho!!!

More of the Same Colors!...

I liked the colors I used on my last post so well that I decided to make ANOTHER Christmas card with them (and, as I mentioned before, they WERE for a color challenge - CC248). There are also some layout similarities, but I also am loving the new SU scallop trim corner punch and couldn't resist using IT again, either!!

I just got these Quickutz embossing folders a couple of days ago, so I was really excited to put them to use. And, once again, I used the pinecone from Autumn Days with the Martha Stewart branch punch ... just LOVE how they look together!!

Today I decided that it would be a good idea for me to make a list of all the things I would LIKE to get done before Christmas (maybe that way I can actually REMEMBER what they all are, instead of letting them swim around inside of my brain where they seem to be colliding with one another all the time!)!!

Hope you have a great day and get LOTS of things accomplished on your own "to-do" lists!!

Stamps: Autumn Days, Small Script
Paper: Whisper White, Always Artichoke, Rich Razzleberry, Barely Banana
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Rich Razzleberry
Accessories: Scallop Trim Corner Punch, Martha Stewart Branch Punch, Large and Small Oval Punches, Quickutz Retro Diamonds and Christmas Embossing Folders, Doodlebug Sticker Jewels (Cotton Candy), Pop-Up Glue Dots

Piney Greetings

Well, I finally feel like I'm starting to get a bit of a grip on the Christmas season! The tree, lights and decorations are FINALLY up (the boxes were all over the place as I had started to put it up the day after Thanksgiving - which was the day Mom went into the hospital)!

A little update ... Mom came home last Wednesday, but she is gonna be wiped out for about a month (hopefully it won't be longer than that). I also ended up in the ER with my brother last Tuesday night (he had blood pressure through the roof!)!! Also, my husband had a small car accident on Thursday night and had some sinus surgery on Friday!!! I think I have had more than my share of hospitals and doctors this year!! I am SURE next year will be better!! (At least I plan on willing it to be that way!) Thanks so much for all the lovely comments, e-mails and well wishes! I really appreciate you!!

Sooooo, this is the first card I have been able to do "just for fun" in AGES!! I needed to do something to unwind and get myself in a Christmas-y mood! I also have about a bazillion Christmas cards to make (I am part-way done working on them, but I don't expect to be done 'til at least next weekend ... or later ... I really am not stressing about it this year!).

I got inspired to do this card from my good friend, Kathy Ostvig. You can see her beautiful works of art here. It also just, oddly enough, happens to fit in with this week's color challenge over on SCS (CC248). I hadn't even SEEN it ... in fact I added this comment the day AFTER I originally posted this card here ... WEIRD!!

I am TOTALLY LOVING the new Scallop Trim Corner punch from Stampin' Up (this is a bit of a sneaky peek ... these will be available in the Occasions Mini on January 5th!!). It also incorporates the Scallop Trim Border punch, which will be available for FREE if ya earn it during Sale-a-Bration!! I got my new stuff last Friday, but haven't had much time to play with anything ... yet!! I'm hoping to change that this week!!

Stamps: Autumn Days, Sincere Salutations, Yuletide Christmas
Paper: Always Artichoke, Rich Razzleberry, Barely Banana, Whisper White
Ink: Always Artichoke, Rich Razzleberry, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Scallop Trim Corner Punch, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Petals a Plenty impressions folder, Whisper White satin/organza ribbon, Martha Stewart branch punch, pop-up glue dots

Ta-ta for now!!