Thoughts of a Grasshopper

Now that we are in place that actually experiences cold weather, I am happy to make soups, stews and chili.  We actually had a couple of pipes freeze one night a week or so ago.  I had been running the taps at night but I fell asleep in the family room and never made it to bed.  My husband didn't think about it when he went.  Oddly, I expected it that the frozen pipes would have been in the storage room but it was the pipes running above the ceiling in the downstairs kitchen.  Our house has 2 kitchens, but only 1 stove.  I use that kitchen as my stamping/sewing room. I digress . . . I haven't made this chili in at least 5 years.  The last time I made it we lived in New Mexico and I came across the recipe in a Southern Living magazine.  I called my husband at work around lunch time and told him we were having this chili, salad and bread for dinner.  It worked, he made the effort to get home at a reasonable time. :) Smoky Chicken Chi...

Last spring I somehow came across Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, Celtic Solstice.  I saw that the instructions would soon come down and I downloaded them.  I ended up buying one of her books for the previous mystery quilt, which I also liked.  I made a mental note to do the mystery quilt this year. In October she posted the paint chips to use a guide for the colors of the material.  I was at Lowe's that day getting the colors.  I started buying material that weekend.  It was really hard to find the blue/aqua color and I didn't buy all that I needed.  It wasn't until I was doing the first clue that I realized I still needed 1/2 a yd.  I wrote on the paint chips how much material I bought of each color at what store.  I took pictures with the fabric and the receipt (or something that tied it to that store) so I could easily know where to go to if I wanted more of a material. Here's the thing, the first clue is posted the day after T...

Along with the other two cards I posted, I sent these out.  I think I mailed off 87 cards this year.  These can be found on Pinterest. Cheerful Christmas  Endless Wishes  Festival of Trees  Festival of Trees/Frosty  Festival of Trees  More Merry Messages  Ornamental Pine  Paper Pumpkin  White Christmas  White Christmas  Wondrous Wreath

I liked this stamp because it reminded me of the vintage ornaments that hung on our tree when I was a kid.  Of all the ornaments that hung the ones I thought were prettiest had the circle in the center that indented and shined with gold and perhaps had some glitter for sparkle. This picture doesn't show it, but I stamped the ornament twice, cutting out the center on the second.  I stamped an extra holly portion from the ornament as well.  The holly is in 3 layers and the ornament in 2. Stamps:  Christmas Bauble, Ornamental Pine CS:  Crumb Cake, Old Olive Ink:  Tuxedo Black, Old Olive Blendabilities:  Old Olive, Coastal Cabana, Rich Razzleberry, Daffodil Delight, Cherry Cobbler Markers:  Old Olive, Soft Suede Misc.:  Filigree Frame EF, Dazzling Diamonds, dimensionals, white pen, sponge

This weekend is the first time VC Rocks has held a blog hop in December!  So happy to have a chance to share one of the cards I've made for Christmas. I'll share another card later but this is my favorite of the two I plan to put on my blog.  I've made 80 cards out of 14 designs.  The card above is the 1 and only I'm making of this style. Stamps:  Wondrous Wreath Framelit:  Wonderful Wreath Embossing Folder:  Stylish Stripes CS:  Pool Party, WW, Island Indigo, Crumb Cake, Silver Foil, Silver Fancy Foil Vellum, All is Calm DP, Quatrefancy DP Ink:  Crumb Cake, Pool Party, Island Indigo Misc.:  Multipurpose Adhesive Sheets (for "Noel"), banner punch I stamped off the Crumb Cake before stamping on the CS for a lighter shade.  I did the same thing for the bow using Island Indigo.  I put a piece of Pool Party CS under the vellum banner strip. Now to clean up my stamp room and start addressing envelopes. :) T...

This ornament is one of the things I made to give the Young Women at church an idea.  I had a lot of these ornament halves and offered that they could make ornaments along with the cards and the baby hats they were knitting.  The cards and ornaments are going to go to an assisted living facility when they go caroling next month.  The baby hats are going to be an ongoing project to donated to a hospital later. I used Crystal Effects to attach the ornament to the background. Stamps:  Holiday Home, White Christmas CS:  Soft Sky, WW Ink:  Tuxedo Black Misc.:  Markers, 2-way glue pen, dazzling diamonds, crystal effects, dimensionals, snowflakes (from craft store)

This seems to be the year for me to re-create crafts that I did with my mom or that she made.  In the early 80's, a friend of my mother's had us over and we sat at her kitchen table each making a tree like this.  I always liked that tree and decided this would be the year I would make it again. All you need to make it is 30 feet of plush garland.  6 wire hangers.  Zip ties or twist ties.  A strand of lights.  I think we used a strand of 100 mini lights so many years ago.  I've been debating this in my mind though.  50 seemed like it would be enough and 100 perhaps too much.  I was at the hardware store today and saw a box of 70 lights and figured it was middle of the road . . . perfect.  The bulbs were a little bigger than the typical strand of lights, this could work too.  Having made the tree I have mixed thoughts on the lights.  I would opt for the 100 bulb strand to have more lights, but then, I like lights.  I like ...