LET IT SNOWman...

OK, so last year I made a ton of personalized glass plates with snowmen and Christmas these, I also made 14 sets of wine glasses in various holiday themes and just plain grape things. I made them for a craft sale at school. I sent them all to work with Matt, since he is a photographer, so he could take nice pictures of them. He took them and kept them in his car for a week and then brought them home having never took pictures of them! Well I just happened to snap pics with my iphone of a couple of the plates I made at school, so the quality of the picture is not real good. The one with the polka dotted border and the snowman holding the stars were just a couple of them. Fast forward to this year and a lady I worked with loved them so much she ordered one for her husband to give to his classroom paraproffessional and she chose the snow family since I had a pic of it on my phone, so I recreated it and I think I made it look better than the original. Unfortunately since these are clear plates I put them on white paper to photograph so you cannot see the snowflakes I had painted on the clear part. But Oh well. I think I really like painting snowmen, there are so many types of snowmen, just like real people. I also painted a wine decanter and beaded a cuff to go on it and a set of wine glasses. I have pictures of the decanter that I will post later and Matt took the wine glasses with the beaded stems to work to photograph, let's see if he does it this year. I painted the glasses for an auction they are having at his work and I told his coworker that she could not accept them until he took the pictures.....OH OH OH! Stop the presses! Matt just walked in with a disc with the pictures he took. OK well here these are, I 'm off to view these pics and then post them! Cheers!

Ho Ho Ho And Joy!

Ok, So I have been working on a few Christmas items. Mom gave me these really cute frames that she got for free, well I know why, they were crappy, on one the leg that makes it stand up was broken and the other the little prongs that held the backing on were warped as well as the wood. I did a little magic on them and got them to work, but then I added too many embellishments that I could put the glass back in them. But I think they did turn out super cute. I found this new website called www.scrapnfonts.com and each month you can down load some free fonts for your computer, and someone on their team makes a page of sayings for that month, all laid put nicely for cards or gifts AND they have a gallery of things other people have made using the fonts and my newest addiction...DINGBATS! They are like stamped images, except you print them out on your computer, so my HO HO HO, the O's were made with the CK Ornaments dingbats, I did buy that font.

So...Anyway I wanted to make a few Christmas decorations, and I had these frames and I found some old scrapbook paper from last years Stampin' Up Christmas Bundle and and a few little embellishments and a snowflake I re-beaded 3 times to get it to fit exactly, you have these!

This weekend I have been working on wine glasses, a decanter and a plate, they are all drying while I try to figure out how to bead a cluster of grapes, I am about to give up on that one, no amount of directions I find is helping me out, I need a step by step video so they may go without grapes stem wraps. I should have pics soon to follow. Until then, enjoy the season and HO HO HO!

RELAX....Ahhhhhhhh

SO I have had this stamp set forever, and it is retired, it is the Bubble Queen set, but I love bubble baths and am determined to host a Spa Party some day and use this set for the invites. SO I made this sign last Christmas to go in my bathroom, but never put it in there fro fear Matt would say NO WAY! He likes that I craft and can express myself but I can't clutter up the house too much with my stuff so I sell it or give it away. So I showed this black and red set to a few ladies, but no takers BUT I did have another lady say she wanted it but in Burgandy and Sage and Viola! I have the second one of these. IT is cute, the picture does not do it justice because it looks pink. SO I made a sale, but I still have the red and Black one up for grabs, someone better take it fast before I put it up in the bathroom the next time I get mad at Matt because he decided to play video games and not empty the dishwasher :)

Pottery

Did I ever tell you I like to paint pottery too? I actually did this last year, but I am not sure I ever showed anybody, but I was thinking about taking the boys to Killin' Time to let them paint an ornament the day Santa comes to visit and painting a snowman platter myself and went, you know what, I bet some of you have not seen this platter, as I got it then put it away and forgot about it until about a month ago when I pulled it out to use it. I made it to put pasta on and I was so proud of my scrolling carvy type thingys in the paint on the green. I think I could get addicted to pottery and could get really good at it, but, alas, it is just WAAAAY too expensive to do more than just a couple of times a year but I would love to go and paint for people :) Oh well, Enjoy and I hope to have lots of Christmas stuff to show you soon!

Carte Postale

WOW! SO much has happened since I was last on. Right after Halloween I had the flu which knocked me out of commission for a little over a week, then once I began feeling better a Very Dear Friend was killed in a car accident coming home from vacation in Florida, so I have spent the past 2 weekends at my Parents house, consoling and grieving with them and visiting with family. His funeral is this Friday so a long chapter in my life with this man who seemed like my Uncle, has been closed. I originally was not going to post these 2 cards, I liked them but they were made for 2 sad occassions, the second one I am posting I made for Cole's teacher who lost her brother a month ago, but I found it very fitting for my friend LJ as well, so I am posting these in his honor. BUT I must tell you the script on the second card I made all by myself in photoshop, I am so excited that I am branching out on my own and not constantly running to other places for inspiration, I am becoming inspired on my own! I also found this great site, so if you a re a scrapper or card maker, you need to visit. It is called www.scrapnfonts.com I orginally went to this site because I found it in a magazine and I got 3 free fonts from it, but I signed up and found out you can free fonts and ding bats each month. I though, I will NEVER buy from them when I can get them for free and even better they offer a monthly, really cute sayings page all done up in cute fonts and clip art that I could download for free to put in my cards. I have to say I have gotten all the free things, but did wind up buying a couple a of fonts and Christmas dingbat sets and have made some adorable CHRISTmas signs for auctions and crafts fairs, I will post pics probably after Thanksgiving since 2 of them are almost complete but NEED somethng, what that something is, I am not sure but I am sure it will come to me over the holidays, I feel my crafty mojo returning and I think if we pull out Christmas stuff early this weekend I might figure out what it is. Enjoy! ANd if you can remember LJ's Family and my family in your prayers, although it was a tragic event I feel that it might be a moving experience for my parents, especially my Dad. LJ was a great man, now it is time for my Dad to find out that he is a great man too.

Oh yes, if you want the script I used on the second card for anything, let me know I would be happy to send it to you in a .jpg file.

7th Annual Halloween Party

SO I began this tradition 7 years ago, because I could not stand going to our churchs' Fall festival, there were too many people there, my boys had to wait in really long lines to play games they did not like and they really wanted to go Trick or Treating. SO I began this to invite the neighbors kids so we could keep a reign on how scary Halloween was and to emphasize the fun. I normally plan many games and activities, but unfortunately I came down with the flu this year an really wanted to cancel Halloween, but in the the true fashion of Martha Stewart, and to prevent a bunch of kids from being sad, the show went on, minus all the games except the pinata and the costume contest. Luckily for me, The boys love to make this their party, so they made most of the food with my direction, and Peyton set the table under my direction.

This is why they call me Ms. Martha, I could not just put regular candles out, I had to cover them with some papers I had so they fit the theme

COLE


PEYTON

ME , your ghost hostest with the mostests :)


The Boys acting out their costume


The dinner table and place settings courtesy of Peyton, the mug was for the Spider leg soup.


NEighbor girl in the clown costume

Peyton and Neighbor boy did this all on their own, this is King Arthur knighting him.
The kids had a blast and I crashed and have not moved from my bed except to go to the doctor on Saturday morning, Matt has cleaned up a little but I have lot to clean up later this week once I feel better. Hope you enjoy the pics.

Monster Cakes and Mummy Heads OH MY!

So the boys have decided they really love helping prepare for their party and I hope they stay that way because it has been a huge help to me and gives them such a sense of accomplishment when everyone likes what they have done. SO this is the only dish I prepared for the party completely on my own and that was Mummy cakes and Monster heads made with real monster blood. Actually it was cupcakes that I made and instead of using the water called for in the recipe I used pineapple juice then the blood being Strawberry Jello that I put on after they had cooled, I poked holes in them and the jello went down and looked like blood drips in it. I usually put green cream filling in them, but in the past the little girls have gotten grossed out by the green cream, so I also normally do dirt graveyard cups but I cut way back on food this year since I normally make too much since they don't really want to eat, they just want to go trick or treating. Our menu this year was as follows:

Mummy Toes with Dragon Dipping Blood
Spider Soup with a side if crispy spider legs
Bat wings and Ghost chips with Alien dipping pus
Mummy cakes and Monster Heads with real monster blood
and to drink we had Witches potions and Vampire's blood.

I got hit with the flu this week ( one of the first cases in Denton county this year, I am honored), of course I did not know this until today so I was really run down and felt so bad last night I almost wanted to cancel Halloween, but in the honor of trying to be better than MARTHA, I held my party anyway, and after having done this for 7 years it went off without a hitch and I had done so much prep work ahead of time that not much had to be done yesterday. Another blog will follow later with pictures from the party.