 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
This Irish gal found a little green that lives on our counter and thought I'd try to mix it with my developing PS skills (thanks to Sarah's patient tutelage) to wish you and yours a Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Ed: I don't know what's gone wrong, but it appears that sometimes the photo is all black for some reason. If that's what you see, click on it and the photo should appear in it's proper light/color.
So far I've only sewed the felt hearts from last post in lines hanging up and down.
I then taped them to the bottom of one of our blinds so that they look like those beaded curtains from the 70's.
They make me so happy. Such simple materials, such a simple way of putting them together, but sooooo pretty.
I couldn't stop trying to capture a good photo to share here.
I'm glad I hand cut them without any stencils so they are all different. I'm going to stitch them this way too:
A lot of my felt is from Heather Bailey's shop found here. It's awesome quality and comes in so many pretty colors.
Just so fun, right?
I'm thinking these are going to go in my office/art room after Valentine's Day has come and gone. As for those that have asked for more pics of that...will do, whenever I get it done...it's still a mess!
More Valentine's Day decor in the works here.
Last night I started cutting hearts, just for fun. This is my instagram from then:
A little bit dark because it was late, but I was going with mostly pinks and creams with that one bit of mustard, but then, this morning, when I saw it, I thought I should look at my felt and see if there were any other colors I wanted to add. So off to find my fabrics I went. Next thing I knew, 3 hours had gone by...yes, I found some felts:
But not until after I had pulled out a lot of fabric and fabric related items and began a big sort. Here's just one pretty pile I grabbed a photo of before pressing on:
(It was a rainy day here in Southern California, as you can tell by my dark photos.)
I'm not sure where I'm going with this, surely a garland or two, but who knows what else. I love Valentine's Day decor, I love hearts, I love felt, I love colors.... such a happy place to spend some time. I can't wait to get back to it!
It's Friday, hooray!!!
Starting to feel some new valentine making coming on. Love love love valentines.
Last night I asked my husband to get the Valentine's Day tub down from the garage. Couldn't help but take a few favorites out, like this shoebox my daughter made as the Valentine party activity when I was room mom for her class. I think it was preschool. It's got a slit in the top for valentines and every year I love to look through some of the favorites we have received over the years.
Vintage honeycomb has my heart, vintage honeycomb combined with Valentine's decor that includes hearts and arrows? Heaven.
Amy came over and we began to tie down our class content for teaching in Italy in September of 2014. Here's an instagram I shared:
It's gonna be a fun week of creating and touring. We'll have more info next month.
I started making a doily table runner. More info, including inspiration link and photos of mine tomorrow, after I finish it tonight.
Hope you have a lovely evening. I plan on stitching by the fireplace after dinner and homework is done, that's my idea of a lovely evening!
Here's a super quick and easy Valentine's Day decor craft, a great one for the kids.
I bought these pre-cut paper hearts in the dollar bin at Target. With that, some baker's twine, and a sewing machine, you've got everything needed to make these little hanging hearts.
Simply sandwich the baker's twine between two of the hearts and zigzag stitch over the baker's twine to keep it in place. This way the hearts will hang straight, although tilted would be cute too.
Because I wanted my hearts to hang in a straight line down, I was sure to catch the twine in the zigzag all the way down to the point of the heart, then without cutting the twine, sew the next heart on a few inches down.
Of course, you can also cut your own hearts out of anything. I used some of the hearts as templates with paper I had already.
Be sure to leave extra twine at the top of your strand so you can wrap it around something to hang.
Catching your line horizontally vs. vertically will give you a different kind of garland:
Less than 15 minutes and $5.00, totally worth it:
I love Valentine's crafts! If you do too, here are some more posts from the past:
Today, on my Instagram feed, I posted a photo similar to the one above (cute tray from the dollar bins at Target). It's the washi tape that I've had out with my December Daily supplies and now that I'm danderously close to finishing my book (a few more photos to print out and include, a couple more notes to write), it's time to put away all the washi tape. So, I didn't keep up with regular December Daily photos here on the blog like I'd hoped. This post has most of the pages. I really learned a lot, which I'll tell you about after the photos (because I know photos are really what most all of us want most!).
I started doodling on the chipboard cover (there's more on the back)- I proably won't do any more at this point, as it's time to move on. I wrapped it closed with a ribbon that came on a blanket I purchased at Target, tied in a knot.
I couldn't resist putting some of the holiday fodder that came my way in the book, no date in particular, just an extra spread. Especially loved the Rifle Paper goods this holiday (you'll see it on other pages too.)
This tiny tag from West Elm fit perfectly in the little side part of the pocket page. Using these favorite bits of life was one motivator for participating in December Daily.
Early on in the month I added a paper bag from PaperSource to store receipts in (with a Target gift card snowman stuck on top.)
Vintage flash card 7, transparency from Meridith Tilton & Kinsey Wilson's Holiday Pop Up Shop.
This is my favorite page, this spread including the full page photo of my kids playing at the Christmas Tree lot. It was totally inspired by seeing Project Life spreads of Elise Blaha Cripe- how she cuts up a photo to fit it into the pockets. (I know lots of people do this, her blog is where I first saw it and felt inspired to do it myself.)
I used a part of the printed photo that was left over, put washi tape on the back (see above photo) and wrote a note on the front using my favorite white pen (above). It was right about here that I felt like I was starting to get the hang of how I was going to approach my documenting of December.
I made my own divided page protector from one large 12x12 that I sewed so I could put in tiny photos and the felt snowflake.
I finally remembered to use my own printables (duh, Pam!)
(I uploaded a photo to minted for our holiday greeting) The card is taped down on the left edge and it lifts up to reveal some personal writing I did regarding cards we receive and send in December.- Loved the birthday card on the left sent by a friend so much had to include it ;).
On the left side is the envelope my husband's birthday card was in, with glitter stickers. Letter stickers on the right are these.
(Need to finish this page by writing on the journal card in bottom right.)
Jenni Bowlin alpha stickers here.
So, there's a whole lot of my December Daily book...are you still with me?
Here's what I learned on what was basically my first ever scrapbooking project:
1. I liked it.
2. I'm thrilled I am 99% finished and know I will finish it- something I hoped when starting, but couldn't be sure.
3. I think it will be fun to do again next year.
4. Taking a work trip mid December made a project like this very difficult for me. I should have taken notes. Amy Tan suggested this app to me. It would have helped; I could have made notes on what my family was up to, as well as myself, so that when I got back home and back to the project I wouldn't be at a loss for what happened on those days.
5. I learned how to print my photos in different sizes. (I know, seriously? Sad, but true, I didn't really know how to do it correctly, so glad this project forced me to actually print some photos!)
6. I used it as an excuse to collect far more products than I needed. I'll have plenty for next year with the leftovers from this year.
6. I am grateful to Ali Edwards for originating this project and for placing the importance on telling the story, in any way you want, whatever works for you.
7. It made me sure I want to do Project Life this year. Oh boy...that's a much bigger committment than 25 days....
but more on that another day!
Happy New Year!!!!!
As December flies by, I've begun to think about the New Year. I LOVE fresh starts, especially New Years. They are rife with potential. Hopes and dreams. And thoughts about this past year and what I'd like to be different, what I'd like to do differently, in the New Year. Feeling ready for some big changes. And that leads me to two resources that I'm going to use, which I thought might interest you as well:
Susannah Conway's free 2013 workbook
Jessica Swift's goal setting workbook
Hope 2013 has great things in store for all of us!
See you in 2013, ready or not, here it comes!!!
xoxox
A favorite holiday tradition for us is to attend the Newport Harbor Boat Parade show.
I thought I'd share a few (less than focused at times) shots and a little video for those that haven't seen it and want to, or those that have, and are nostalgic for it (as I discovered when posting some photos on my instagram feed).
After the parade, we always walk around the island, taking in all the decorations. Just like the boats, the houses (and docks) go from simple to beyond "over the top"
why yes, Virginia, that IS a train on a track that goes in and out of the house!
And of course, no trip to Balboa is complete without this stop:
I love the sights of December, from the hustle and bustle out in the world, like the merry-go-round I couldn't resist snapping last night (above), to the simplest things like the red ribbons below.
The happiness that decorating brings is so contagious. My son loves holiday lights most of all.
This year, lighting the tree was a family affair, so much more fun that way (for me, anyway).
I also love unpacking Christmas and re-acquainting myself with crafts from Christmases past like all the garlands above. Here are the posts on them if you are interested in more info:
I think I'll add some of this sparkly felt found at JoAnn's to them.
The hand made stockings and tree skirt come out with the felt garlands too.
And the ornament boxes! I have never met a vintage ornament/Christmas box I didn't care for. But I also use new boxes like these candy boxes for storing ornaments year after year. I figure they will become true vintage boxes for my kids someday.
And when we are fortunate enough to be gifted with a Henry & David box, I save those too, because they package the fruit so carefully, it makes a wonderful box for special ornaments. If you don't like the cover, you can wrap it with your own vintage (or new) paper as I did here:
I guess that's my tip for the day: repurposing into ornament storage! What's yours? Have a good ornament storage solution to share? Inquiring minds want to know...
I'm off to continue working on our holiday cards. Late. Again. Maybe next year I'll get them to people before Christmas. One can hope. I used one of my iphone photos taken while searching for a Christmas tree and uploaded them to Minted. (Love this glue stick for sealing the envelope by the way-just in case someone out there is as late as I am.)
Hope you are enjoying this holiday season! xo
Jenny, Amy and I have been having fun preparing for our little Handmade Holiday Boutique happening this Saturday.
These photos are from when we got together to bring a little winter wonderland to Studio Crescendoh the other night.
And we've each been busy making things on our own. One of my favorite new things to make is these painted totes:
I don't think I've ever shown you the tote I painted for myself. (above)
I love it so much and have been working on painting a few for the sale tomorrow. Here's the back of mine:
It's fun having a one of a kind bag, and I get lots of compliments when using it too, which is always nice :).
Here are some more things that I've been gathering for tomorrow's sale:
an old optometrists test lens kit...
...vintage ornaments in fun containers like candy jars and boxes...
...and strands of vintage lights that work...
...inexpensive decorating props...
...Christmas tree paintings...
and supplies like bullion...
and vintage wallpaper...(even some of my precious flocked rolls!)
...and so much more...
We hope you'll join us tomorrow 10-4, rain or shine, indoors in the warm winter lights of Studio Crescendoh. Maybe you'll find just the treausre you need to wrap up your Christmas list...oh ya, we'll have a cute little wrapping station too!!!
My friends Jenny Doh, Amy Hanna and I are putting together a little Handmade Holiday Boutique that will be held at Studio Crescendoh on December 15th. Here's the flyer for it:
Hope that those of you that are relatively local will be able to join us!
We'll all be showing some sneak peeks of the new goods on our blogs, like these paintings I'm working on:
And Jenny has been making art like these:
And Amy has some new jewels coming:
And hey, did you see that Amy was a featured artist on One Kings Lane? Congratulations Amy, that's super cool!
Well, hopefully, those peeks wet your whistle, I'll be showing you more here on the blog over the next 2 weeks before the sale!
Hope those of you that live in the States had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend! We had a very relaxing and enjoyable holiday. Here are some of the few photos I captured (thank goodness for my phone, I swear, I hardly pick up my big camera anymore).
The best part of Thanksgiving every year is having our family in town and a house full of guests. There's nothing like cousin time on special holidays!
My daughter was totally into cooking this year, even more than last, and she basically took over all the planning and head chef duties. The day before, she corralled the kids and made those cute acorns you see all over pinterest:
I can't tell you how pleased I am that she is finally uses pinterest. After all my attempts at explaining why she would like it fell on deaf ears, her college dorm mates convinced her. (Of course, right?) She also pre-scooped the ice cream for the pie thanks to pinterest. :
She didn't seem to mind bossing me around too much:
And truthfully, I didn't mind it either, I love making pies (we made one pumpkin and 2 apple), and frankly, she did such an awesome job it was easy to give up control!
My neices went through an entire pad of art paper, making various signs and things like leaves and acorns to decorate the house (like in the first photo- you can see they loved my paper crimper too).
I can't tell you how much I love art made by kids! Love it! And look at those cute arrows, makes an arrow obsessed Aunt proud. Look at the faces and directional arms...and that squirrel!
As I mentioned when I posted this on my instagram, they were clearly fixated on the "asind seeting" ...{their mom explained to me that although they are twins, they are in separate classrooms and one has a teacher that is very focused on spelling correctly, the other does not, so one asks her mom for correct spelling...of course, I find the incorrect spelling so charming.}
Not too long before serving dinner, I popped in the dining room to do something and saw one of my nieces, ready and waiting at her place. How cute is that?!?
I was so glad she let me take her photo, and it didn't take long for her sister to find her:
It does make me sad that my brothers live in Nor Cal and my family and my Dad live in So Cal. When I look at these pictures, I miss being able to participate in each others' lives on a regular basis. I'd love to babysit (which would most likely mean them chasing my son around the house for much of the time, just like cousins do!)
Thanks to my daughter, we enjoyed a lovely feast, and our friend Gillian, who is English, informed us that the correct way to open party crackers is with the help of a friend, not all by yourself, like we'd been doing. In case you are the type to have holiday party crackers, now you know the proper English way too.
I'm happy to report that thanks to the signage, everyone was able to not only find their way to the dining room, but also to their correct seating! There were a couple very pleased 7 year olds. I will save my "Ant Pam" placecard forever.
After dinner there was the general lolling about, dish washing, pie baking, and apparently some ipad-ing too.
And just like every year, some dear friends stop by and we do even more lolling about, eating, visiting and always big group game playing. We seriously need Catch Phrase to come out with a new edition of replacement discs, we've been through the same words year after year. Luckily, we adults are forgetful, and the kids grow so much from year to year that they relate to the words differently each time, so, so far, so good.
The firepit is a favorite place to gather and hang out. I've still got to get the rocks to cover the ring (we all can't agree- some what glass marbles, some want sand and natural stone, I'll let you guess who wants what). But finished or not, everyone loves the fire pit- it's mesmerizing, and comfy, and perfect for s'more making and general stretching out the evening and the fun times. The new furniture around it and my sparkly shoes from TJMaxx were both big hits as well. Although, in all honesty, even though the shoes were flat, they did hurt my feet by the end of the night...a case of you get what you pay for maybe?
And then it was time to love on Papa and say goodnight.
The next day was more of the same, sans the big meal, without all the guests. More relaxing, more games, more eating and drinking, visiting and dishes, and walks to the park to play basketball and run (especially after cousins). No shopping, no working, no homework: a true "stay-cation" as they say, and it was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Thank you to all those that serve or have served our country, and the loved ones of those in our military for their sacrifices as well, especially the spouses and children. I thought I'd share a photo of my brother, CAPT C.R. Dugan, call sign Max (remember that movie? 'Max Dugan Returns' ? That's where the name came from I hear), a Navy fighter pilot. He was in the military long before he had his girls, my nieces Molly and Caitlin, but serving must have become more meaningful for him as a father, especially when seeing them celebrate our country. They are so cute, aren't they? May they always have the freedoms and rights that those that this day honors serve/served to provide. Something else to be thankfull for in November.
I may be a day late, but the sentiment's all the same!
I hope you are having the happiest of holidays! If you aren't done with all your wrapping and labeling, I've made some free downloadable tags for you to use if you'd like. I printed the one above and below on art paper, but any cardstock would do nicely. In the very top photo, you can see the art paper print on top of a print on regular thin printer paper. The pdf is below, with an added black and white version in case the kiddies (of all ages) want to color them to match your paper. Merry Merry! xo
Download Pam garrison gift tags
Download Pam garrison gift tags 2011 colored in
Here's a link to last year's tags for you: gift tags 2010
Hand stitching on top of felt hearts from Michael's craft store. Below, a super simple little garland made using sticky cut outs found there as well. (Great project to do with little ones)
A journal page showing some Valentine's made this year inspired by Thomas Campbell.
And the finished pillow from yesterday's post.
I love Valentine's Day crafts!
Pinning the adorable card made by new friend Jenny Sweeny to the seat back of a chair...
making a Valentine pillow for our bed out of fabric bought in Mexico...
and taking some of the watercolor and collage pieces made during Geninne's class and turning them into Valentine's too...
Happy to be home with my loved ones today. Happy Valentine's Day to you!! xop
Hi there. Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Day Embroidery PDF
$4.95
