Christmas Eye Candy :)

I am addicted to all the special Christmas edition magazines that start to appear this time of year. For me they are total eye candy, and I love to gaze at them and dream and get inspired!

I was just browsing at Target in the magazine aisle for some eye candy earlier this evening and came up empty handed...boo. But, I just happened to plop down with my laptop a little bit ago and stumbled across this little gem



Amy Powers who blogs at InspireCo just posted the holiday issue of her new ezine which is called Inspired Ideas. You can view the ezine HERE. It is FABULOUS and is just chalk full of holiday eye candy!!

I would recommend getting yourself a cup of tea, or maybe hot cocoa and giving yourself plenty of time to browse this little gem. I think you'll love what you see. I sure did...now I just need a printed version of it too! ;)

Boo 4 Me!

Recently my Hubby and I made a trip up North to do some house hunting. We knew it would be a very fast paced trip, as we would only be in town for about 24 hours.

That being said, my son decided he would rather stay home. So lucky for us, my parents offered to come down and stay with him while we were gone. My son was thrilled of course and they had a blast and he got all the love and spoiling that only grandparents can give! :)

But, when I arrived home I had the greatest surprise waiting for me! My Mom and Son made me an adorable Halloween art piece that I just LOVE!!!




It is made with felt and is stretched over wooden stretcher bars. My Son cut out all the letters and hand stitched it as well. It is so perfect for me and fits beautifully over our stove. I am so grateful to my Mom for working on this with him!!

Philly Favors

I love to make favors, for parties or as little gifts, surprises, or tokens etc. I just need an excuse and I am ready. So when my hubby started talking about the meeting he is hosting in Philadelphia and needing something to welcome each person attending, my mind smiled.



I decided to make candy bar sleeves, and picked Hershey bars in honor of Pennsylvania and went patriotic, Liberty Bell with my decor.



The great thing about these sleeves is when you pull the knotted ribbon, your candy bar slips right out. Super easy, super cute, and there are endless ways to decorate them.



My hubby also wrote a short welcome letter that I printed on parchment paper and wrapped around each candy bar before inserting them into the sleeve. I added some extra "Thank You" sleeves for him to give out, because when you host a big event you always feel grateful for any help you receive.

I had so much fun making these!! I plan to make them for Halloween as well as favors for my son's teachers and friends.

I found a wonderful blog You Can Stamp It! that has a great tutorial for making candy bar sleeves...you can find it HERE. What can I say, I'm too lazy to type the directions out myself ;) forgive me :) please :)

Sweet Fall Owl Wreath

My Mom sent me a link a few weeks back of an owl wreath she saw on the web. She knew I would love it, and she was right!! I saved a copy of the picture because I was soooo inspired to make my own. This is the inspiration wreath:

Look at that adorable owl!!
I cannot find the website it came from, my Mom thinks it was HGTV.com but I have been over that site with no luck. I thought it was from CountryLiving.com, no luck there either. Well, it's out there somewhere...sorry I can tell you where.
I hunted at Michael's for a sweet little owl, not much to choose from. But I found one I liked enough so off I went!
Here is my wreath:

Now for a closeup of my sweet little owl.

I love looking at this wreath everyday, sure makes me smile!

Ruffle Obsessed

I have been on a major ruffle kick lately...putting ruffles on everything I sew! There has been so much craziness in our lives lately, and much more to come, but my sewing has been a huge escape for me. When the craziness began, I decided I wasn't going to do any sewing until everything was settled. Okay, that lasted about one month. I couldn't stay away!! I guess sewing is just such a huge part of me that it can't be separated. :)

Of course the actual things I have been sewing are not things that I need...so I listed them in my poor, neglected Etsy shop. It had been so long since I had listed anything, some of the format had changed so I felt like I was completely new at it. :)

Here are some pics of my latest creations, I am really trying to improve my photos, taken with my cheapo camera.






In other sewing news, I am participating in a Sew-a-long on StacySews blog using Amy Butler's new book Style Stitches. Of course, the bag I chose to make has ruffles!! Big shocker there! It's called the Miss Maven, and here is a pic of it from the book:

I'll show you the fabrics I have chosen once I get my act together. It uses 2 sided fusible Peltex which I have never used before. I almost bought some on Ebay thinking I would never find any in my dinky town, but guess what?? The Walmart had it for $3.50 a yard!! Saved about $10 right there, yippee!

Okay ruffles, here I come!