a simple gift

I made my sister Mer a crocheted circle cowl scarf for christmas and my little sis saw it and begged me to make one for her too. She picked out the yarn she wanted and mailed it to me the other day. I made it a  little different than Merrilee's (which I never did get a photo of). This one is made with a shell stitch and Merrilee's is a basic double crochet. I am mailing it off asap so be sure to check the mail in a few days little sis. :)

greatest form of flattery

Today we woke up to find that the delivery man had dropped off a great big package filled with yarn from my mom and sister-in-law (it was part of a family fund-raiser). In the package of yarn were a few after-Christmas presents, including a cute little toy digital camera. Lizzy immediately seized the opportunity, and continued taking photos for at least an hour; these are a few of the photos she shot. Without any prompting or suggestions, she took some very familiar-looking photos of things in my craft room. (Interestingly, the lower quality of the images kind of makes for a neat vintage-y Polaroid-esque feel).

Getting organized

My guest bedroom / craft room has just received a much needed cleaning and reorganizing. Maybe it's because I spent every night in there during the week leading up to Christmas. I practically sewed my fingers off in that room and got frustrated when I couldn't find something I really needed time after time.
 I probably should have taken some before pictures to show what this room looked like. It always looks the worst when I'm in the middle of a project, and I was working on at least 5 Christmas sewing projects simultaneously, and don't get me started on how many presents I wrapped in there! The shelving unit was a mess, the floor was covered with thread, wrapping paper and a little of this and that strewn about everywhere! Now I feel at peace when I'm in there, and I can actually find and reach everything I need! :)

My craft room has moved around a-lot through the years. Lets hop in a time machine and look at all its different stages.

In 2006 it was in a little corner of the TV room 

 Then in 2008 when we moved the kids room upstairs I moved my craft stuff into its own room.

 

In 2010, when Trent was getting ready for a big show and our house was quite literally overflowing with frames and shipping boxes, I donated my craft room to storing his paintings and frames, and my craft space was back in the corner of the TV room again. But I tried to make it feel new by adding an inspiration board. This desk is still there but is now used only for homeschooling and computer time (AKA netflix).

This spring Trent built a shed to store his frames and such, so I had my craft room back! It was a big mess and was pretty much begging to get reorganized.

I don't know if its nesting or the starting of a new year but I have spent the past weekend cleaning and organizing this room and I am determined to get my whole house organized and de-cluttered before this baby girl comes in March!

Here's to a new year full of clean organized spaces!

Pin It

Featured in Molly Makes

A few months a go I was asked if my crochet nesting cups could be featured in the January issue of Molly Makes magazine. It was the first I'd heard of the magazine because it is published in the UK but once I saw a little of what they were all about I was totally on board! Serious eye candy!! :) Even though its just a little blurb it is still super exciting!!

If you are interested you can subscribe to Mollie Makes through this link: 

http://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/stitch-craft/mollie-makes-magazine-subscription/

and download the iPad version here:

http://goo.gl/qzprk

Christmas cookies

I baked cookies all day yesterday and folded origami boxes all day today and here is the result.

We're planning on going caroling tonight and these are the treat boxes we're giving away. I made 13 boxes and each box has 13 goodies inside! I guess 13 is a lucky number as long as cookies are involved! I made Chocolate Peppermint Marshmallow Bark, raspberry and orange jam filled Thumbprints, and our family's favorite cookies, Chocolate Dipped Orange Logs! I am over on Dana's blog today sharing the recipe for chocolate dipped orange logs so go check it out!

Pin It

Featured on : elleadore.com

 I am happy to let you all know about a french online magazine called Elle Adore that featured my packaging today! I am flattered to have my packages showcased with so many other beautiful and creative ones.

If you can read french here is the link to the article on creative Christmas packaging.

To go to the other pages of the article and see the images larger, just click the button at the bottom right of the article that says "Suivant".

Made by you : Origami advent

Check out the advent calendar Delia made using my origami advent tutorial. I really love how she lined everything up and framed it! :) Awesome!
Have you make something using one of my tutorials? Send me a photo or a link to your blog post where the photo is and I'd love to share it here on my blog! :) Just e-mail me.