Winter Soiree 2013

 I'm feeling much better so today it was over to The Paper Crown for Bobbie's Winter Soiree!

This is the class sample that Bobbie made to entice us - not that we need any encouraging when we know Bobbie is teaching.  In fact, she announced today her upcoming Valentine Soiree and we all signed up without hesitation.  We don't even know what the project will be yet, we just know that if you don't sign up early, you'll miss out!  And THAT would be unbearable!

Bobbie has an amazing eye for detail.  Of course, we couldn't get started without our cute name tags!

My collection is growing.  :)

And of course, the class kits - packaged so prettily!

My Snow Queen came out so sweet - I'm in love with her.  I haven't gotten a full length picture of her yet as the day got away from me,  but here she is riding shotgun on the way home.  How cute is she!?!

As a class bonus, we also made these adorable star ornaments:

It was another wonderful workshop with lots of delicious food, door prizes, fun and friendship.  I say it all the time but, we are so fortunate to have such talent here in Oklahoma and such a great group of ladies to spend an afternoon with.

After Christmas 2012

It's a cold, cold day here in Tulsa.  There are flurries flying outside and I'm soooo thankful that I'm home, inside where it is warm.  Out my back window, I have a whole bunch of cardinals and black-capped chicadees.

This time of year, the male cardinals are such a vibrant red. Just beautiful! 

 I've counted at least 7 males and a bunch of females too.  Although I'm inside where it is warm, I've taken these through the glass with my zoom lens.

 On a snowy theme, look at these adorable snow people that my sweet husband bought me for Christmas!  Don't you just love them?!?  I won't be putting these away when I put Christmas up for the year.

I'm going to add them to my small, but growing collection of snow people.  I found these at a craft fair earlier this month.

 I'm spoiled most of the time, but I really got spoiled this Christmas.
When I'm home, I love my slippers.  I never walk around barefoot or in socks - I *always* wear my slippers.  Douglas bought me three new pairs for Christmas.

 In addition to my snow people and my slippers, he also gave me gift certificates for a massage and facial, to Hobby Lobby, to Starbucks, to Sephora, and to Barnes & Noble!

I thought I would have my decorations down by now but I'm still enjoying looking at all the lights.  Plus, it's so cold that I can't even think about lugging the containers back up into the attic.  Maybe I'll do it over the weekend...

2012 White Christmas Tag Swap

This is the 3rd Year I have participated in Jane's White Christmas Tag Swap.  Click on the links to see my tag from 2011 and all the tags from  2010.
This years tags which are far more beautiful in person than I could capture in the late afternoon sun.  To get a closer look, remember to click on the picture for a larger image.
Here we go:
Kimberly Laws:

 Katrina Lynn:

 Liann Shultz:

 Chris:

 Dawn Tavela:

 Dawn:

 Garna Barker:

 Cheryl Bass:

 Unknown:

 Nora Neeley:

 Sherry:

 Jacqueline Reed:

 Laurie Jackson:

 Robin Weins:

 Tami Hacker:

 My tag:

 Tamatha Kaplan:

 Kathy:

2012 Christmas Tree and Ornaments

This year I went with a white tree with mulit-colored lights and lots of my favorite decorations.  I love it!

 A few weeks ago, Doug and I went to the Tulsa flea market and I found this sweet vintage little Christmas bird.  There was no way he was staying there so he had to come home with me!  I love his chippy paint and his precious eyes.

Of course, everyone remembers Precious Moments.  My mom bought this angel for me while I was in nursing school.  I had just gotten my own apartment, I was totally broke and had just started collecting Christmas decorations.  Most of what I had that year was homemade (which I still love!) but this ornament has special sentimental value to me. 

 Look at this squishy owl!  He is brand new to my collection this year.  Doug and I went to a local nursery to check out the decorations and Doug bought this sweet guy for me.

 Remember the island of misfit toys?  We joke that our home is that island and I love this sweet little doll.

 Isn't this cute - a little fawn kissing a snowman.

 And finally, a bunny on top of an icicle.

I love looking at all my Christmas things!

Christmas Ornament Swap

Last night, several of us girls met at PF Chang's in Utica Square to have dinner and participate in a Christmas Ornament Swap.  

 We had alot of fun and a delicious dinner!  Here is the cute ornament I received.

 This is the snowman ornament I made for the swap.  I think he turned out really cute.  In fact, I didn't really want to give him up. But at least he went to another crafty home.  ;)

We've got a busy weekend of parties coming up. Saturday is the Tulsa Dolling Dames Christmas party in the afternoon, then we travel to Oklahoma City for Doug's company party. Sunday, it's back to Oklahoma City for my investment group's Christmas Party.  Monday night is Bunco at my house (yikes - better get this mess cleaned up around here!) And on Tuesday is another Christmas Party with an ornament swap.  Gonna be busy...

I love snowmen!

I've been squeezing in some crafting despite the craziness around here.  It really is so therapeutic and puts my mind in such a better place.

In a conversation one day last week,  my sister January happened to mention that Karen, her baby's grandmother, loves snowmen. Karen is one of those ladies that always does so much for others all the time.  She takes such wonderful care of my nephew Garrett,  and always includes my other nephew Joao as if he was her grandson too.  She is just very thoughtful and very generous and I can't begin to express my appreciation at all that she does for my sweet little nephews.

I wanted to send her a little something to say "Thank you" and maybe put a little smile on her face.  It's nice to receive unexpected happy mail, isn't it?  

I hope she likes him - he was hard to part with!  ;)

One of my "friends" on Facebook put out a message that one of her friends is sick with cancer.  She too loves snowmen and has a snowman tree.  I made this sweet little snowman ornament for her to place on her tree and a little card with a message of hope. 

Speaking of hope, I *hope* to finish my Christmas decorating this weekend!  I pulled out all of my decorations last week and I have unorganized stuff everywhere. I took a break from cleaning and decorating to get my snowmen finished... It looks like a Christmas tornado around here at the moment.  Wish me luck!

Vintage Christmas ABC Book Swap page

So, in the middle of November I was invited to join a Vintage Christmas ABC Book Page swap. I was excited to be part of this swap because I had seen some other ABC book page swaps and had wanted to participate. However, I had NO IDEA how I was supposed to squeeze in making 27 pages in the midst of all the Christmas craziness. Thankfully, a few other people in the swap had fallen behind in getting their pages done and the hostess decided to extend the deadline until January 20, 2012.
I was given the letter "D", and part of the challenge was to use as many "D" elements we could come up with.Here is the front of my page:


The back of the page had to have some kind of decor on it and a list of all the "D" elements we came up with.

I was able to finish mine with a little time to spare and got them in the mail this week. Go me! Here they all are, packed up and ready to go. Whew, lots of labor and love went into these and a little bit of anxiety sending them off into the world.

Now, just to wait to see what everyone else came up with for their pages.
And just to add to my already full schedule, I've joined one more swap - a Valentine ornament swap. I'm so excited!

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

This time of year seems to fly by, doesn't it!?!
We had a very nice Christmas - quiet and low key which is how I like it. As much as I miss family, it's kind of nice to not have any where we have to be on Christmas Eve and Christmas day and it allows us to really enjoy our time together.
This is what I got for Christmas: A Babylock sewing machine!

I can't wait to have an afternoon to sit down and test it out. I'm hoping to take a sewing class in January but the wait list is almost 50 people long. Makes me wonder why they don't offer additional classes?
I'm working on my list of goals for 2012. I have a feeling it's going to be a very good year!

Gingerbread Men

So, I've wanted to make gingerbread man cookies for several years now. I went out and bought all the ingredients, looked up a recipe that had good reviews and set out to make my cookies. Let me just say that the recipe from allrecipies.com was a complete and utter disappointment. The dough was way too sticky, I had to add a ton more flour than the recipe called for and honestly, the cookies totally lack flavor. However, my cookie cutters made this flop kind of fun.

Each one is dismembered in some way in that it looks like a bite has been taken out of them.
Yeah, I'm sick - I colored some of the icing to look like blood.

If I wasn't laughing so hard at my sick humor, I'd be crying over the recipe flop. Oh well.