it's january 1st... time to start on CHRISTMAS CARDS!!! :)

ok, yeah, admittedly that sounds like a CRAZY statement, and maybe it is; but it seems like i, personally, can only manage *two* ways of achieving enough hand-made christmas cards for everyone on my (50+) christmas card list, and those are:

1. spend the weeks between thanksgiving and mid-december engaged in a frenzy of rushed and repetitive holiday card-making... ugh. (this is crazy and also stressful!!!)

OR

2. start on new year's day and make one unique holiday card per week with my lovely and amazing friend stephanie, not to mention the wonderful company of my fellow ♥JINGLE BELLES♥! (this is perhaps equally crazy... but totally inspiring and FUN!!!)

having spent more decembers than i care to admit in pursuit of method one, in 2011 and 2012 i opted for the relative sanity of method two, and i am here to state publicly: i NEVER want to go back!!! :) if  you can relate to any of the above, or even just find yourself at a loose end on this new year's day, why not come along with us and give it a try? we usually think up and post a new inspiration every other friday, and then stef and i "remind" you what the prompt was on the following week so you still have time to play along if you haven't yet... or play again if you're trying for 48 cards at the end of november. we invite some lovely guest stars to join us throughout the year, and occasionally even have a fun sponsor or little prize of crafty goodies! so whaddaya say, are you in? awesome! let's go!

for our inaugural outing of 2013, we're tossing you an extra-easy prompt AND extra time to accomplish it; that's right, for "look what santa brought me!" all you need to do is create a holiday card using any kind of crafty goodness--tools, paper, stickers, etc-- you received over the holidays... and i know you got swag galore, so there's NO excuse not to play! here's my card:

(NEW stuff: gorgeous almost-real candy cane from ros; color copied page scan of vintage "night before xmas" book from gina; basic grey "kissing booth" papers from stephanie; xmassy mulberry paper from prima's "12 days of xmas card" prize; plus not-so-new: webster's pages fabric ribbons (from leslie, last spring!); crate (non-xmas) paper; prima flower spray (cut down); fancy pants border sticker; red silky ribbon from a holiday package; inks: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, hot glue, sewing machine)

i have to say i'm pretty pleased with this one, but then, it's got LOADS of new stuff from loads of lovely friends, so how could i *not* love it, eh?! the centerpiece is a (slightly reduced) scan of a page from one of the two new-to-me vintage copies of "the night before christmas" that gina gave me! i think this might be my FAVORITE version in my collection-- i have about a dozen different copies of the clement c. moore book, which has been a favorite of mine since childhood, but the illustrations in this one are just soooooooooooooo irresistible, don't you think? i really wanted the picture to be the centerpiece of the card, so i didn't add in too many embellishments... but ros shared some of her gorgeous i-can't-believe-i-can't-eat-them candy canes with me, too, so i had to sneak in one of those!

and now i really think you should head over to  ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and see what miss stephanie made, because i assure you it is well worth the trip! while you're there, you can also check out the prize that's on offer for one lucky (random!) cardmaker who links up with us, so grab your new goodies from under the tree and get CRAFTY, darlings!!! ♥

everything's coming up... RAINBOWS??!

yepper. christmas was all about rainbows this year, specifically ones made of yarn. like this:

the amazin' stephanie saw this awesome "rainy day scarf" pattern on a super-creative blog called walker whimsy and sent me a link. of course i fell in love with it immediately, and then happily realized that our eldest niece, jessica, would also fall in ♥LOVE♥ with it immediately, so i made her one, immediately. :) and then i made stef one, too, because... well... just because! i should probably mention that this took place right around halloween, whilst we were without electricity for eleven days after hurricane sandy, and anything accomplished in the hours past dusk (around 5pm) had to take place by candlelight. so designing much of anything was what the adventurous crafter might call "challenging"; but the simple double-crochet construction made these totally DO-able; and the lusciously bright colors of cascade 220 really brightened up those dark nights!

it didn't take me long to realize that ALL of the nieces would enjoy wearing similarly fun scarves this winter, but i wasn't sure i could manage four more before christmas. and then it hit me: the littler nieces have been wanting to learn how to crochet, and in fact, we had some lessons over the summer. maybe they could make THEIR OWN rainbow scarves?! ok, the swirly clouds are perhaps slightly beyond a beginner, but i could mass-produce those. and afterall, the colorful part is only seven rows of perfectly straight-forward double crochet. and if practice makes perfect, they should all be DC *experts* at the end! i re-read the pattern, checking for flaws in my plan. i found one. in the very first line, the foundation for all the rows to come: "chain 240." hmmmm... i don't think 8-10 year olds are gonna quite be up to that kind of commitment. ok, nevermind.

but wait! the girls are all still reallllllllllllly into their american girl dolls, and LOVED the ponchos i made for them last year. in fact, that was a big part of why they all asked to be taught about yarn, because of the rich potential for DIY doll clothes! what if i devised a pared-down, doll-sized, child-friendly version of the scarf, and gave them "kits" containing all the colors of yarn and pre-fabbed clouds, for christmas, along with a few more lessons during the school holiday? yeah. that could work. i fiddled about a bit, making protypes. i went with single crochet instead of double, and settled for five rows rather than seven.

the first one was teeeeeeny. the second one was not quite right in terms of color. they were both swirly because that's what single crochet does when you make it into long, narrow rows. i decided the swirly-ness made it even cuter. i fiddled some more. i managed to cut the pattern down to an absolute bare minimum, "chain 75" and decided that it was probably a good thing american girl dolls don't actually require scarves for WARMTH, or need to wear them loose enough to not be strangled to death. but finally, i had something prettttty cute.

then i just had to make a whoooooooooooole lotta clouds. so i did. i made nice, bright, white, easy-to-see-by-candle-light clouds. yeah. lots of them. after a while even the fact that the yarn had a bit of sparkly thread running through it did not excite me. not even a little bit. i was sick of clouds. but it was totally worth it because finally i had four awesome "rainbow scarf kits" to bestow upon four awesome american girl doll-moms, on christmas day!

despite the not-very-enthusiastic look on kanani's face, the kits were a big hit. so much so that whilst the adults were still opening presents, the nieces and , at their request, were up in lindsay's room reviewing slip-knots and chaining! we're all getting together again this weekend for an intensive scarf-making workshop, and i can't wait-- let the crocheting commence!!! ♥♥♥

welcome to matthewville, please drive carefully!

as promised, here i am to show you what was in nephew matthew's BIG... (and somewhat lumpy!) ...package, which i showed in the gift-wrap wrap-up yesterday: one super-deluxe, custom-made bulletin board, on which to hang all of his important school papers: 

i should mention that the creation of a bulletin board was a special request* from my sister amie, who, coincidentally, is also matthew's mom! :) a couple of years ago, frustrated by the fact that there were just not enough cool and decorative bulletin boards available for less than a million dollars, she asked if i could make one for madeline; always game for a new challenge i said, "sure"! of course, something i only realized when i started this second assignment, is that GIRL-themed bulletin boards are actually quite a bit easier to make than BOY-themed ones. at least, they are if you are *ME*... which i am, lol! so i feel quite justified in linking up the results at the fabulous anything but a card blog, where this fortnight's challenge is to show off one's favorite (non card!) "make" of the year!

i mused for quite a while about the design, considering first a dinosaur theme, and then pirates (two of matthew's most current passions) before settling for something i thought might "age" a bit better: cars and trucks! as often happens when i've been pondering something for a bit, when the idea finally came, it turned out that my subconscious had done most of the work. all i had to do was sketch it (in the back of my datebook) when it arrived fully formed, while i was sitting in a restaurant one day with lovely husband jeff. (the curvy bits of road i imagined proved difficult to achieve, irl, so we skipped those!)

i had hoped to find a pre-made board with the right size and shape of frame, which i could paint black to create the "road" around the edges. when that didn't happen, we "frankensteined" a nice big corkboard from one source and an inexpensive (already BLACK!) poster frame from another. where i really lucked out was in wooden shapes to make the "town" at the top: all but the pine trees were pre-finished bits from michaels, which only needed a bit of tweaking!

i painted the (plain wood- also from michael's) pine trees and letters with acrylic craft paint, then outlined them with an ordinary sharpie-- this works wonderfully, btw, but eventually kills felt tips, so have a couple extra pens on hand!!! everything which is attached to the top and bottom of the board was done with a combination of hot glue, and, in the case of the higher layers, some stacks of foam tape to make a better connection between the lumpy pieces. i drew the "passing" lines on road with a white paint pen, and then finally it was time for my FAVORITE bit: i attached a bunch of little metal racing cars to the "road" with black sticky-back velcro, so they can be taken down, moved around, re-arranged, or even-- because it turns out most of them have enough clearance-- even RACED, assuming one is on a hard smooth floor!!!

ok, i believe i mis-spoke a moment ago, when i said the velcro-ed cars were my favorite part; actually THIS was my very favorite part:

matthew immediately NOTICING the velcro-ed cars on christmas day, and taking them down, right away, to RACE!!! welcome to matthewville, little man... please drive carefully! ♥♥♥

*i absolutely LOVE IT when my sister or brother give me a "hint" towards something one of the kids needs or wants; especially when it is something like a bulletin board, which frankly, a non-parent such as myself would never have thought of making! it's always fun to try new things, and all the more so when one can still see the gift in question, happily in use in the child's bedroom, years later! awesome! ♥

2012 xmas gift wrap wrap-up! :)

hello, darlings! i hope you had a ♥FABULOUS♥ christmas if you were celebrating this week, or alternately, just an especially nice tuesday! we had a blast... and got to see ALL but one of our nieces and nephews, in three different states, over the course of several days! it was wonderful, but admittedly a little tiring. i actually think lovely husband jeff was somewhat relieved to get back to work on wednesday, just for a day of comparative restfulness, and a bit less driving, lol!

something which i find restful, or at least soothingly pleasant, is, as you know, wrapping gifts; especially if i can think up a cool or unusual way to do it. this year i used quite a few store bought gift bags-- mostly because target had AWESOME stuff for .50 to .99 cents each, which is kinda hard to beat, right? so i just personalized some of those, using foam thickers:

these red bags are from the same source; i added a digi-collage (composed of ornaments from vera lim's "joyful xmas" and a bit of rhonna farrer snowflake paper) printed on photo paper for maximum dimension and glossiness (thus the light bounce, sorry!) as well as some glitter chip letters, machine stitching, and real lace:

another use of digital images (this time mindy terasawa's "jolly little friends" from designer digitals) on a not quiiiiiiite 12x12 paper base adorns nephew matthew's BIG present... because when you are five, you want THE BIGGEST present, lol!

you *know* i love vintage xmas cards and have been lucky enough, over the years, to have been given the "collections" of more than one older friend who had saved them. i often cut out motifs to use on cards, but sometimes i can't bear to trim 'em and then i do this:

these next couple were from the december round of birthdays, and aren't xmassy at all, but this seemed like a good time to show them off. first up, papaya art glitter giftwrap plus vintage lace. i kinda didn't want to give this away, but i did!

this one combines a gloriously illustrated page from an actual vintage (though seriously damaged!) children's science encyclopedia with some paper source gift wrap that features penguin classic editions; plus some very funky hand-dyed ribbon:

i'm not sure how lindsay marie's birthday bag got lost in the shuffle, but i only just found the picture! i used a sketch for the placement, and about 17 pounds of embellies, including vintage eyelet lace that i hot-glued around the top edge. it was a BIG HIT with the birthday girl, and i have to say i was touched to see it in her room the other day, holding a few "treasures"! :)

tomorrow i'll show you what's INSIDE matthew's "big present", so do drop by then if you have a minute! ♥

coincidentally, this is *EXACTLY* like my dad used to read it!!!

from the LOLcats sister site, ROFLrazzi

happy christmas eve, darlings!

♥♥♥

the last xmas cards of 2012

actually, they are not christmas cards as such, but money enclosures, which we're giving our eldest niece and nephew; so i wanted them to be the same and yet different! and they are, see?

(patterned paper--mostly scraps: echo park, basic grey, sei, mme; kraft cardstock: hobby lobby; ink: colorbox; ribbon: making memories: pen for faux stitching: copic multiliner; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape)

for the layout i used the current mojo monday sketch, which i think you'll agree is quite fabulous...

...i even included the little bow.  in my version, it's the thing that holds the flap closed, so the money will stay in! :)

i happened to have a couple of very cool stripey airmail envelopes that i thought would be perfect for these; they're either vintage or vintage-style, i'm not sure which, but it doesn't particularly matter to me, they are just FUN! i also had some boxes of xmas candy, so i stuffed everything into store-bought bags (wouldja believe 50 cents at target??!) which i personalized with alphabet stickers. et voila!

we are now officially ready for our day trip to maryland for an early "christmas" with jeff's family. can everybody pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease cross their fingers that it will not snow today on the I-95 corridor? ta v much! ciao, darlings! ♥

longwood at christmas

being fortunate enough to live only ninety minutes away from lovely longwood gardens in kennett square, pennsylvania, we've visited many times over the years, and have never, ever, been disappointed. this week we finally got to spend a day during the holiday season, and i don't think we'd even been there fifteen minutes before jeff, his parents, and myself had all decided to make it a annual tradition! so please consider this my first installment of christmas photos from longwood gardens!

longwood has recently instituted a timed ticket system for festivals and other particularly busy times, including the entire holiday season. it's quick and easy to purchase online, and ensures that you will not arrive on a day when they are fully booked with tours and cannot accommodate you. as with most tourist destinations, weekdays are less crowded than weekends; and morning is generally less crowded than afternoon and evening. on the other hand, the rather famous display of outdoor christmas lights does not begin until 3:30pm.

don't worry too much about the weather. we happened to arrive on a december day which was unseasonably warm (almost 60F!) and were thus able to do a bit of strolling through the grounds; but even when it's bitter cold or rainy, the two main conservatories are "the big show" christmas-wise, and can easily fill several happy hours; more if you are even a little bit into photography. (had i been in possession of the car keys, we might, even now, STILL be taking pictures in the orchid room ... three days after our arrival, lol!) (which is why i am never allowed to drive on these occasions!)

speaking of photography, yet another thing to ♥LOVE♥ about i-phone is the fact that my husband, who has never had any particular interest in wielding our "real" digital camera, suddenly enjoys taking pictures! this is quite a recent development, and i am really excited about it. as i edited the shots from this trip, i actually had the luxury of TWO totally different viewpoints! it amuses me that probably close to half the shots we took "overlap"  (each of us having shot similar subjects) but the other half are completely different, and it's so interesting to see which things we each choose to record. for example, while i was taking this picture of the cactus room with a cool "xmas tree" built out of potted succulents...

...jeff was taking THIS photo of me taking that photo! :)

even if one is only planning to visit the conservatories, there is quite a bit of ground to cover at longwood. my mother-in-law is no longer able to do a great deal of walking, and we've had mixed results as to accessibility when visiting other public sites; but the longwood folks are BRILLIANTLY well-prepared to assist anyone who needs help!

there are enclosed golf-cart-style "shuttles" from the visitor center to the conservatories, in case of bad weather, or even for those who would just like to save the half-mile, gently-uphill walk. for those with their own wheelchairs, scooters, or strollers, the christmas displays are almost 100% accessible, and easy to navigate.

there are also wheelchairs and scooters available on-site for an inexpensive fee ($4 and $15, respectively, for the day) and that's what we chose. the motorized scooter we rented for mom was easy to operate, and she was able to manoeuvre it nearly everywhere that we were able to walk, with the exception of the dupont house, and inside the building which holds the restaurants; luckily there was "scooter parking" right outside, and neither required much of a walk!

speaking of restaurants, there are three on-site: the cafeteria, an informal cafe, and a fancier proper restaurant; they are all located in a building called "the terrace". i believe the two latter venues offer beer and wine as part of their menu; but we almost always choose the cafeteria, since it offers plenty of tasty selections and gets one in and out the most quickly. there are hot and cold sandwiches, entrees that vary each day, and some great choices for vegetarians; as well as many beverages, sweets, and side dishes. 

no matter where you dine at longwood, you will be able to order some of their superb mushroom soup, and if you even vaguely care for such things i highly recommend it! it's quite rich, but if you pair it with one of the excellent fresh salads, your meal will not be too ruinous, plus, you're doing all that walking, so you can afford to splurge! :) but seriously, if you like mushrooms, you have to at least try it! (ultimate proof of its surpassing awesomeness: in a choice between it and dessert, i always choose the soup!!! this is not something a rabid sweet-tooth type like myself does every day!)

finally, save a little time at the end of your visit for the wonderful gift shop! it's not cheap, but the quality and selection of items is impressive, and (also true of the restaurants) the proceeds help support this wonderful non-profit organization. if you happen to like gardening, or christmas decorations, (or both!) you will definitely not be disappointed!

i hope you've enjoyed this little tour, especially since i think you may well be destined to get one EVERY year at christmas now, lol! again, i highly recommend the gardens at any time of year as being a fun day out, and if you're going to be in the area any time soon, be sure to check it out! ♥