Introducing my famous....

Snowman Earrings....

Now in my Etsy Shop....
I wanted to get them in the shop before Christmas but that didn't happen. So here they are now for a VERY resonable price only 6.60 plus 2.oo shipping that is $8.60 for a gorgeous pair of earrings. Surely you know someone whom needs a winter gifty, or you want to get something for that someone who surprised you over the holidays and you didn't have anything for them. I'll tell ya I gave these to Ashley's preschool teacher and she immediately took off her hoops and put these on! They were so nice looking on her!!! Cute and elegant at the same time. They are made with quality materials. Or you might know someone with a winter birthday coming up. If so go check them out in my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=19109628

Getting to know you Christmas Version...

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I usually wrap most of my gifts, however there are some gift bags that I used this year, depends on what the gift is, I used the bags for some of my smaller stuff. But the kids get all there stuff wrapped.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial, I'm allergic to real ones.

3. When do you put up the tree? It varies, we aim for the weekend after Thanksgiving, however this year we did it three weekends after...
4. When do you take the tree down? It varies, usually before Jan. 22 A's birthday
5. Do you like eggnog? Not really
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Cabbage Patch Doll, Barbie Bus and a stereo.

7. Hardest person to buy for? All the men in my life!
8. Easiest person to buy for? My Mom

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes I have my Grandmother's ceramic one that she made

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail

11 . Favorite Christmas Movie?

12. Don't know what happened to 12.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Black Friday

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Probably
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Christmas cookies, especially my Mom's nut balls
16. Lights on the tree? Yes, white, and this year they happen to have "random sparkle" built in.
17. Favorite Christmas song? wow there are so many great ones, see my blog music!
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and Rudolph.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Morning

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? John and I both have many ornaments from the years we were growing up. He has a Gumby!
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Health and happiness for everyone

Family at Christmas...

Allow me to introduce you to my Nephew, this kid has a personality that preceeds him. As I am sure you will be able to tell by the pics. He is definitely my brother's kid, literally and figuratively. Let's start with his outfit. He is a Baltimore Raven's fan, he sports his santa hat all day, he got new slippers from Santa which happen to be Bart Simpson and of course lets not leave out the shorts in 30 degree weather.

Now he is only in 5th grade and he plays the trumpet and he is actually REALLY GOOD!!! He treated us to some Christmas favs.
He has some of his songs memorized.

I think he is thanking Santa for his lucky gifts this Christmas.

The feet go in the mouth of the Simpson.
Luv you Drew!

Winter Storm and my new camera...

Last Friday we had a major winter storm, above John shoveling and below John finished shoveling. My new camera took these pics. My old camera totally stopped working and thanks to Nana and Grandpa's Christmas money I was able to get one before the Holidays!
Below, "I am gonna eat it Mom!" Crafty note: I made her hat on the Kniffy Knitter loom.

I had to show you this pic below! She has snow on her nose and snowflakes are falling down around her too.

Mmmm, Mmmmmm, good that is tasty snow!

Christmas

Christmas
Originally uploaded by craftyfamilyblog

This site called http://www.dumpr.net is really fun. I made this photo on there.

Not so crafty advent calendar....

I've wanted to make my DD an advent calendar but didn't really have a whole lot of time. SOOOO I bought teacher snowflakes, the ones that teachers use on their calendars at school. They cost me .49 cents at the Goodwill. So I put the numbers on the snowflakes and stuck them up backwards and DD will be able to take one down each day from now until Christmas, I am thinking about doing the same thing in Jan. for her birthday. Here is what I like about it, no candy and no toys, both of which she doesn't need extra of right now anyway.

The Winner is....

Mary Ann.... Mary Ann would you like to tell us about yourself? You are the new proud owner of a nice pair of snowman earrings and you may choose to keep them for yourself or give them to someone else. Congrats and enjoy!!!!!
Laura :-)

Give Away Post for my Blogoversary

Hi Blog Friends-

It has been a while since my last post-sorry about that-I didn't mean to leave ya hanging. I had some personal matters to take care of. I haven't forgotten about my free giveaway. I was deciding what it should be and I figured it out. I am going to give away a free pair of snowman earrings that I made. The hat and brim are made out of hematite beads, the red bead is made in the Czech Republic and the clear glass beads are called Aurora Borealis beads because of the shine. The ear wire is silver plated. I will also be putting some of these up for sale in my Etsy shop. The giveaway is in honor of my blogging seriously for one year now. The pair of earrings are really nice. In fact I recently sold about 17 pair at a craft sale, and I sold out of my inventory. So this in my opinion is a great giveaway and the pictures don't do the pair justice. Among other things not working in my favor lately is my digital camera is on the fritz - big time. So the pics are not up to snuff, but you get the idea.

Would you like to know how to win these? Here's how....

Leave a comment on this post...

Then I will randomly pick a winner on Saturday, December 13th. I will post the winner on Saturday. Good Luck!!

Fabric Card Tutorial

Holiday Cards made with fabric, tutorial:

My crafty chica friend Ramona, whose blog address is on the right side over there...came over to craft with me and we made fabric cards. She saw the idea at a craft show and figured out how to do it. So without further ado, she and I will share with you too...

Materials you will need:
Scissors,
Rotary cutter (optional),
Self healing cutting mat (optional),
Christmas material or any festive material you wish to use,
Heat and Bond fusible paper, (available at JoAnns)
Blank cards, (available at JoAnns)
An Iron

Step One: Cut out cute little pieces of fabric.

Step Two: Cut out the Heat and Bond fusible paper to match the back of the fabric - you want to be precise here, so that the paper doesn't stick to your iron.

Step Three: Take the fabric face up with the Heat and Bond on the bottom and stick your iron on it for TWO seconds (it doesn't take long!). IMPORTANT - In both iron steps you don't move your iron around you just hold it still.

Step Four: Peel off the back of the paper, you have now made what I like to think of as a "fabric sticker" and you are now ready to put it on a card.
Step Five: Then you iron it onto the card for about 10 seconds. Remember to hold the iron still.

Step Six: Go crazy embossing, decorating and embellishing :-)

Ramona made this one, the Snowflake in the middle is embossed.

I was having fun with some curvy fabric that I used my rotary cutter to cut out with. These are not yet finished, I plan to stamp and emboss some sayings on these as well.

Ramona made this one.

My "me time"

It has been an interesting week. I have been sick, DD has been sick and the snow has started to really fly!!!

Tonight I decided to head to the YMCA for some "me time". I wanted to do a light work out since I was down and out yesterday. So I arrive for my "me time" AND I find a FIVE YEAR OLD standing alone OUTSIDE the doors, saying "Mommy!!!" I look around and see a few people leaving but no one concerned about this little guy. He had tears in his eyes. I said to him, "Ok, buddy lets go back inside." Since the front desk is right there I took him over and told the lady I found him outside and Mom is not in sight. So we get his name, William and she looks him up on the computer and finds the pic of his Mom, so the lady was going to take William and go look for Mom and I said instead of taking him how bout I go look for her. So I studied her pic on computer screen and I went and found her. I explained that I found her son OUTSIDE (mind you it is 30 degrees and snowing here). She VERY NON CHALANTLY said "Oh, I thought he was playing right here." And then proceeds to walk to the front desk, SLOWLY. Oh boy, and mind you I have no idea where her six year old daughter was. Maybe she was playing in the right area. But she wasn't with us.

And to top that I heard a mom in Target say to her child,

Child Says: Mom this is only one dollar.
Mom: Stop reading! You might get smart by accident!!!!!!!!

Me thinking to self: WOW, WOW, WOW,

WHY ME????? :-)

Green Cleaning...

A long time ago I posted about this. I have an interest in green cleaning. I used to buy the Green Works and it is nice and works well, but when it ran out I decided to try my hand at green cleaning, so I bought a large bottle of white vinegar for just a few bucks. All you need is the white vinegar, an empty squirt bottle and water from your tap. To get started all you do is put in half water and half white vinegar a 1:1 ratio. And you have yourself an all purpose cleaner that will work on your kitchen table and counter tops. I have noticed that my counter tops look great, better than before I started using this. Plus it is saving me a ton of money on buying cleaning products. Here is a great site on using white vinegar as a cleaning agent: http://www.vinegarworkswonders.com/faqs.asp

My dear blog friends,

My dear blog friends,

It has been too long since my last post. Where does the time go? Honestly? I'll tell you my desktop computer has been dying a slow, death for the last six months or so, it has a virus or two, three or four, I don't know and yes that is with Virus protection software. Tonight I am blogging from my new laptop that I got a few months ago for my birthday. It is great. However we are still working on migrating EVERYTHING from old computer and trying to do so, in a manner that doesn't get the new laptop infected. My poor dear hubby the last thing he wanted to do tonight is work on my computer problems, but he did, I guess he loves me :-).

I do plan on celebrating my one year of serious blogging, so gear up because I am going to do a giveaway~~~~~stay tuned........

Laura

Trick or Treat weekend...

Miss A. wanted a scary face on her Jack 'O Lantern.

Miss A. as Minnie Mouse from Mickey Mouse Club House.

Crafty Note: My mom made the dress and we used some fabric that was on clearance at JoAnns. Plus I made the ears out of felt glued to a head band and my mom made the bow, I just fabric tacked it all to the head band.

Pictured here are Miss A's trick or treater friends, Word Girl and Dragon. Plus my friend was an M&M.

Minnie Mouse and Dragon, note Minnie's pink sparkly shoes!

Going,Going.....

Gone...Sold on my Etsy Shop for 6.00 plus one dollar shipping.

First Grade....

Ok I suppose I could post again.....

Here is the most interesting thing that happened to me today. I met my First Grade Teacher, at the school I was subbing at today. It has been 29 years! She looked pretty much the same to me! What's funny is she was only my first grade teacher for about 4 months because she then went out on maternity leave. I still had fond memories of her.

I have a TON to blog about. However next week I will be subbing Monday through Friday for a first grade class. So I'll try to blog more before that happens...

Fall at my house...LITERALLY

D.D. (which stands for dear daughter sometimes affectionately and other times kinda sorta sarcastically) decided that leaves should fall in our home as well, so she plucked them off of my banister garland and let them drop to the floor.

I decided to try Lisa's recipe for pumpkin bread. She has talked about it a lot on her blog and now I know why. Everyone who has tried it has loved it. We shared with A.'s preschool teacher today too.
The next picture I took this past weekend, couldn't resist! We had such great weather that A. was almost over dressed, unprecedented for this time of year.

Sign of fall in my backyard...OMG I didn't notice the rainbow in this picture until just now!!!! I have seen a rainbow in that same spot about 5 or six times now.
Another YUMMY Soup for ya....
My husband even likes it with all the healthy stuff in it I was surprised he liked it but he did!

Classic Minestrone this is from Allrecipes.com:
SUBMITTED BY: Michelle Chen "This famous Italian soup has been much imitated around the world with very different results. The homemade version is a delicious revelation and is also extremely healthy, as it has pasta, beans and fresh vegetables. Try to make the minestrone a day early and refrigerate as this improves the flavors. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese and chopped fresh parsley."

US
METRIC
INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 leek, sliced
2 carrots, chopped
1 zucchini, thinly sliced
4 ounces green beans, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
1 1/2 quarts vegetable stock
1 pound chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
1 (15 ounce) can cannellini beans, with liquid
1/4 cup elbow macaroni
salt and ground black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS
Heat olive oil in a large saucepan, over medium heat. Add leek, carrots, zucchini, green beans and celery. Cover, and reduce heat to low. Cook for 15 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally.
Stir in the stock, tomatoes and thyme. Bring to a boil, then replace the lid, and reduce heat to low; simmer gently for 30 minutes.
Stir in the cannellini beans with liquid and pasta. Simmer for an additional 10 minutes, or until pasta is al dente. Season with salt and pepper to taste before serving.

Metal Frame Tutorial

My MOPS group is going to decorate frames as part of the Adventures in Mothering theme, the Mom's are going to make a frame for themselves. The kiddos are going to make one too however theirs will be made out of the Foamies that are readily available at any craft store you visit.

I found these magnetic metal frames at Jo Ann's in the clearance section.
Buy paint that specifically says that it is for metal, this one did, if you read the bottle you can find out all sorts of nifty info on all of the different paints and same goes for the glues too. Buy some fashion jewels that have a flat back Learn from my mistake which is that my jewels are a bit too big for my frame and I actually have to go back to Hobby Lobby and buy the size down from 7mm, my 7mm only fit in the corners.
Take out the glass or plexiglass before you begin painting. Paint the metal frame and don't worry if you see lines in the paint it will dry nice.
Glue on your rhinestone jewels, mine isn't quite finished as I have to go pick up those smaller jewels I mentioned. And you will want to use a glue for metal to adhere the jewels such as E6000.

Culmination....

http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/finish

11 thesaurus results for: finish
Synonym Collection v1.1
Main Entry: finish
Part of Speech: adjective
Synonyms:
accomplished, au fait, consummated, consummatory, culminated, ending, finished, finishing, kaput, perfected, proficient, terminated

I am so happy to have this done, I had to rip out the whole neck line and re do the whole thing. I am happy with how it turned out and am looking forward to wearing it. It has more flare at the bottom than any of the others I have made which is interesting given that it is the same pattern. This material is comfy!!!

Culinary Post...

These tomatoes all came from our vegetable garden in our back yard. This was our first year doing a veggie garden and I am really looking forward to doing it again next year. It is SOOOO incredibly easy to do. We used starter plants from a local farm market. We even have a resident bunny that left our crop alone. We did zucchini (just one plant, it produced a lot) and 4 tomato plants which was about right. We also did three pepper plants. And one yellow squash which didn't make it. I had to give all of the below tomatoes to my mother to make sauce with because I couldn't keep up. She in turn gave me 4 frozen boxes of sauce, can't wait to try it!

I love a good hot soup in the fall. I love the fresh apples from the farm market. And I will share a No Clam Clam Chowder Soup that is fun to make and to die for!!!!



No Clam Clam Chowder:

1 medium onion
3 Tblsp butter or margarine
1.5 cups chopped peeled potatoes (or if you are feeling really lazy get the white small round potatoes like I used in the photo and leave the skin on, just clean well)
1/2 cup water (sometimes more to cover potatoes to cook in)
1 can cream style corn
2 c. milk (I use skim and it still tastes yummy)
1tsp salt
pepper to taste
5 slices crisp fried bacon (optional - or you can use bacon bits)

Saute onion in butter. Add potatoes and water, cook covered 15 - 30 min until potatoes are softened. Add corn and milk and just heat until hot. Add salt and pepper and bacon if using. Enjoy!!!!

My Etsy Shop is up and running....

again :-) I am very happy to announce this. And I hope to keep it up. I hope to offer very reasonable prices for gifts this holiday season.... stay tuned...in the meantime check out my Etsy shop to the right, just click on it, plus consider Etsy for any handmade thing you would like, just do a search.

Heroes

DH is watching Heroes right now, and I am blogging while watching too. However I am going to let you in on a little secret I am not a sci. fi. kinda gal. It is hard for me to watch it seriously. OK guy with flame thrower hands robs a bank, ummm yah ok. It is hard for me to not bust out laughing. My brain has trouble wrapping itself around people with science fiction abilities. Ok now we have guy with crossed eyes, not sure what that was all about. Now the bad guys are beating each other up. Now two guys are playing FBI agents. One needs coffee......

Making Something for Moi....

I found this material at JoAnn's and it is a microsuede material, I was able to get it on sale at 30 or 40 percent off per yard. I love the material and the look. If you look in the photo below it reminds me of a Skinner Blend - a term we use in the Polymer Clay world for when colors blend into each other. I started to make a Built By Wendy shirt, since I am comfortable with that pattern I didn't want to try anything new with this nice fabric, so I will have a short sleeve fall shirt. Which would have been perfect for this first week of fall in NY. But it is not done yet the neck seem line I made the casing a bit too small for my elastic....SOOOO seem ripper here you come. I like sewing on the thicker fabric - ALOT but wasn't prepared for the neckline area. It will be interesting to see how the thicker fabric gathers at the neckline. Skinner like blend picture