a light dusting

my sweet man says that he loves how I decorate for Christmas. That I put a light coating over the whole house. Isn't that sweet? I think it is sweet.
This week has been all about getting back to school, getting Christmas up and so forth and so on. The house is almost done, just a few spots that have not been given their fair dusting...I promise more pictures when I am finished. For now, here is this years bedroom tree. Notice the blue paint swatch behind the tree?

going postale

I have one more batch of Christmas banners to get glittered and mailed out and a few projects for a Holiday Market I am going to be selling at this weekend in Conway with Jeanetta before I can move on to Christmas projects for me and gift-making/buying.


My "shipping" table was getting a bit cluttered so I found these wire baskets in the garage and hung them on the wall above the table. Now I have all my shipping/packing supplies handy and a little more room on the table for actual work.

Of course it is still a cluttered mess. But it is my mess and I love it all - at least I love it when it is organized where I can see it all.


PS- If you are wanting to make the cute Christmas Cookie Cutter ornaments that I have posted about twice now (I am a little obsessed!) I have a tip: Hobby Lobby has a set (in their Christmas Crafting section) of 25 metal cookie cutters for $4.99 and this week they are 1/2 off that! Think of all the ornaments you could make as gifts, tags, party favors and for your own house!! You can sort of see my pile of cookie cutters behind the pink box on my shipping table.

Todays Mama Giveaway

So the other day, while I was attempting to catch up on my blog reading I found this fun post over on Alison's blog which led me to this GREAT giveaway at Today's Mama.
Can you believe all the amazing stuff they are giving away?
I HAD to enter!!

Look at all those amazing goodies!

OK, so here is my entry - a full on Christmas post, with all the trimmings!
Wish me luck (oh, and go enter yourself! You have time!)

1. What 5 items are on your holiday wish list this year?

this movie

this cd

this book

anything from this store

and a housekeeper in a pear tree

2. What is your favorite handmade gift you have received?
This is hard because my whole family has been doing "handmade Christmas" for years. I honestly don't know if I could choose.

3. What handmade gift have you always wanted to tackle?
I have always wanted to make candles in vintage tea cups.

4. What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?
I think it was the year we got a VCR and my dad had spent months recording movies for us in secret off of the TV. That year I got the movies Anne of Green Gables and White Christmas on VHS and both changed my life forever.

5. What items are on your kid’s wish list this year?
Miles wants a store that he can set out in the front yard and sell his wares. Wonder where he got that instinct from? He also wants all kinds of craft supplies, including lots of tape. Gotta love that kid. Wylie wants Beatles Rock Band which is probably not going to happen...At least not this year. He also wants an old fashioned wooden toy musket since Luci chewed up his other one. That one might be doable.

6. What is your favorite holiday food?
Cookies dough, hands down. Though I also do love pie. Lots of and lots of pie.

7. What will you be hand-crafting for the holidays?

Well I can't tell you because then you would know what you are getting. But I did find an amazing deal on Metal Cookie Cutters at Hobby Lobby. 25 cookie cutters for 4.99 and then they were 40% off of that! So this year everyone will be getting one of these Martha inspired ornaments on their gifts. That much I can reveal.

8. What is your favorite holiday movie?

The Family Stone.

But I also love White Christmas, Mixed Nuts, The Family Man, Love Actually, Elf, The Christmas Story, Miracle on 34th Street (both versions) It's a Wonderful Life, Little Women, Charlie Browns Christmas and The Bishops Wife.
I am a bit of a Christmas-aholic.

9. Favorite holiday song?

Oh this changes every year based on my mood... This year I am obsessed with a song called Winter Snow off of the Chris Tomlin Christmas Worship Album.
Oh Holy Night is one of my favorite Carols.

10. Favorite holiday pastime?
Um, all of it??
I am one of those people who likes it all, really I do. I love the crafting, the decorating, the parties, the baking, the gift wrapping, the shopping, the singing, the whole deal.
But my absolute favorite time of the Holidays is the week between Christmas and New Years. I love how calm that week seems to be. How new and fresh everything is. I love to just sit under my tree, drink hot chocolate (which stays up until Epiphany) and just take it all in - the whole past year, the coming year. All of it.

OK, so I answered all the questions now it is your turn!

today was a good day and I am now full

colorful weekend

This past weekend, my little church was full of life and celebration!
On Saturday we hosted a Craft Fair all day (some proceeds went to good causes)
and then Sunday after church we had our second annual "Advent Event" which is where we make things like Advent Garlands & Advent Wreaths (among other fun projects) to get ready for the season of Advent (which starts next Sunday!) and do work projects around the building, getting ready for the holiday season.

These are just a few snapshots from those activities...

a little craft fair

Storia HOME will be in the craft way tomorrow morning.
This is a wee craft fair at my little church & I will not be "fully" stocked up, but I will have some fun holiday treats to peddle.
Also there will be free cookies and coffee, so if you are near stop by

R Street Community Church from 9-5

pie-off

The time is coming to make some pies for Thanksgiving and Martha's 1st Annual Pie Off (I swear I will get off my Martha kick after this post - at least until the end of November!) I am extremely inspired. I made my first pie last Thanksgiving (using Martha's pie crust recipe - easy peasy!)


I think this year I want to make some sort of chocolate-pecan pie and maybe an apple pie? Or some other fruit perhaps?


Do you have a favorite pie recipe I should try? Do you make pies for Thanksgiving?

things I have learned about myself

as I have gotten older...

if I have to clean my house, it helps me to have cute tools.

Thanks to my pal Sara I now don't mind doing the pots and pans.
I never realized how much I HATED greasy dirty dishwater until these pink ladies came along.
Now I do the dishes without any fear or hesitation and now
thanks to Marfa (@ Macy's) I can now dust in style.