Crafty People

I *love* crafty people. I am a crafty person & I love other people who get excited about the same crafty things I do. Like starting a new counted cross-stitch project or a bag full of new scrapbook goodies or perfectly lined up rows of holiday cookies. I love opening up my box of cross-stitching floss and seeing the rainbows of colored thread lined up like little soldiers {numerically of course}. I love taking butter & sugar & flour and a few other things, throwing it all into my Kitchenaid, and then poof! Twenty minutes later I have some awesome cookies. I love painting stuff. Seems like I don't know a lot of super-crafty people in real life. Either that or you've been holding out on me. If you're ever feeling a spike of creativity or want to develop your creative side, give me a call so we can get together & make something. Know what I'm going to be doing while I chill over the holidays? {Well besides planning the next 5-6 months of homeschooling, big UGH.} Reading craft blogs! I need some inspiration & really want to do more crafty things. The only problem is that it seems like I have to weed through quite a few crafty blogs until I find one that really fits me. If you have any crafty blogs I should check out, please send 'em along. I've been reading Diary of a Rather Crafty Girl for a short bit now & am crazy about these little onesie cookies. I want to get pregnant & have a baby shower for myself just so I can make these uber-cute cookies. {Well, that's a whole 'nother topic though, eh?} I came across Kiddley & it seems so fresh & cute all at the same time. So many fun great things to do with the kids. I especially like the Christmas idea jar & the gumdrop wreath. I am SO making one of those wreaths next year for Christmastime. Speaking of Christmas, I will be posting soon about my idea for Christmas in July.....

Here is a craft I recently did for a friend's son's school Christmas party. The deal was that I just needed to write each child's name on the ornament {I was thinking like 20 minutes TOPS for this} in the hand-writing style the PTO lady chose {yes, I did submit a writing sample}! PTO lady picked out the ornaments {totally wrong type for this project}, so I ended up having to painstakingly hand-paint each one:

I did a counted cross-stitch last year of a sleigh filled with gifts amidst snow falling & found it in my stash this year {sorry, too lazy to take a picture}. I just finished up some back-stitching on it & it looks so cute! I also started a new counted Christmas cross-stitch. It's a pattern from Mary Englebreit of a really cool embellished reindeer. I'll probably try & do most of it this winter or maybe set it aside to finish up next year. I really like counted cross-stitch {although I can get kinda perfectionistic about it & will take out a WHOLE lot of stitches if I made a tiny mistake}.

Here is a picture of the girls I took for my holiday cards. I ended up altering the picture & added a holiday border and message at the bottom using Photoshop. Wal-mart cut-off the outside border though, which is shame on me since I should've known better. Anyways, I think it makes for a cute photo {although Sienna does have food in her mouth *shocker*}:

And for my final crafty share, here is our finished Birthday Cake for Jesus. We started this holiday tradition about 2 years ago. I did the baking and the frosting, while Tatiana did all the decorating. We take this cake to our extended family celebration on Christmas Eve and the entire family sings Happy Birthday to Jesus with the little ones blowing out the candles:


Hope your Christmas was a merry & bright Birthday celebration!