November 6, 2009

Gooseberry Patch

Several months ago I discovered Gooseberry Patch through my library's Christmas craft section. I'm sure you know all about them, but this year I tend to be a little late to everything. Anyway, I am so glad I found their craft books. They are full of country style crafts, which is just how my house is decorated.


I picked up their gigantic, and I mean gigantic (512 pages with over 600 recipes and crafts) Christmas craft/recipe book, Christmas All Through the Home, through ABC Distributing. I am sure you are familiar with them too. They are great place to shop for Christmas gifts.

One of the things I love the most about the book is its amazing pictures.




I also really love that it is a spiral book. It is super easy to flip through and lay flat on the counter if you are making one of the 400 recipes. I have been trying to decide which recipe to try first. Maybe their Rocky Road Fudge Brownies?


Gooseberry Patch has just released a brand new gigantic book, All Through the Seasons. This one is 480 pages and has 550 recipes and crafts for every season. You guessed it. It is at the top of my Christmas list!

November 4, 2009

Little Pink Houses, For You and Me

How ironic is it that the '80s internet station that I am listening to is actually playing Pink Houses by John Cougar Mellencamp as I type this post? Totally bizarre!

Have I told you lately how much I love felt? It is my favorite!!! Can you tell that I haven't worked with felt in quite some time? I've been spending all of my time working on my HPKCHC projects, which are all crocheted. By the way, I am way behind on my large project, only 10% done, and am really unsure I can even finish it by the 30th of this month. I am still going to try, but I've decided to mix a few felt projects in between hooking. :)

A few months back, I came across the cutest felt tutorial by a crafter named Melissa and her blog, Checkout Girl. Yay for another crafty Melissa. Are all Melissa's crafty? I like to think so! Anyway, she has some of the coolest felt items I've ever seen, and was so nice to post a felt tutorial to go along with one of them. Her Little Pink House tutorial is so cute and really easy to complete. I just had to make one.

I made the first, of what I foresee to be many felt houses, for my best friend who bought her first house several months ago. Yes, I am way behind on many things this year.


I absolutely love the way it turned out! I used all felt scraps, a piece of white fabric, and an embroidery hoop. I think I still might add a little bow to the top to hide the screw.

Not only did it not require a lot of craft supplies, it was completely finished in less than 2 hours! What a great last minute gift for someone.

November 2, 2009

Making a list and checking it twice


Are you as amazed as I am that it is the second day of November? I can't believe how fast this year has gone. Now the countdown begins for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I would not survive this time of the year if it weren't for my lists. I have lists for Christmas cards, Christmas presents, crafts, food to buy, and even weekly tasks. Whew! It is a chore to just make up my lists and keep track of them all. I am always losing one or two, since most of them are written on the back of receipts, napkins, or magazines. I even started one on the back of the Tidy Cat bag.

I'm not really sure how I found it, but I came across a truly amazing website that is helping me keep a level head with all of my lists. It is called Tada List and it is truly a lifesaver.

It is a super simple site to navigate and easy to locate all of your lists. Once you set up a free account you can immediately start making a list, or two, or three. Currently, I have seven, but as Christmas approaches I know there will be more. As you finish a task, you click the box next to your task and it gets checked, shrinks, and gets placed on the bottom of your list. I really like that since I sometimes need to refer back to my previous tasks. This way I can and it doesn't vanish into cyberspace.

I also like that you can keep the list private for only you to see or you can share it with family, friends, etc.

Let me know if you decide to give it a try. It has been helping me out a lot!

October 30, 2009

Ghost Stories - The little girl and the ghostly golfer


In the spirit of Halloween, Laurie of Indulge Your Shelf has put together a spooky blog event, Phantom Friday. As soon as I found out the event was all about ghost stories I knew I just had to play along.

I, personally, have never encountered any ghosts or ghost like activity, but my sister claims to have been visited by a ghost when we were kids.

Here is how the story goes. . .

My grandparents lived in Orlando, which was about 3 hours from where I grew up, so I used to visit them several times a year. When I would stay with them, my sister and I would sleep on the sofa bed in the living room. Across from the sofa bed were two lazy boy type chairs, a table, and a lamp.

One night, while my sister and I were asleep on the sofa bed, my sister woke up and felt someone staring at her. She looked around the room and sitting with his legs crossed on the arm of one of the lazy boy chairs was a man. At first she thought it might be my dad, uncle, or grandfather, but after her eyes adjusted to the dark room she realized she didn't recognize the man at all. He was dressed in old time, green golf clothes, green socks, and a green hat with a pom pom on the top.


She immediately turned to try to wake me up, but said the ghostly golfer must have put me in a ghost trance because no matter how hard she tried I would not wake up.

After trying unsuccessfully to wake me up, she threw the covers over her head and hid from the man. A few minutes later, she lifted the covers to try and wake me again but the man was gone!

In the morning, she told my parents the story of the golfer. They, of course, thought she had made up the story and dismissed it as a dream or a child's overactive imagination. But several years later we found out that my grandmother had also been visited by a ghost in the living room of her house. Though it wasn't the golfer, it was an American Indian.

Was my grandparent's house haunted? Maybe. Unfortunately, my grandmother died a few years later and the house was sold. I often wonder if the new owners of the house have had any ghostly encounters. Maybe they too have had a visit from the ghostly golfer.

Thanks, Laurie for putting together such a fun event. If you want to read some more ghost stories, visit Phantom Friday.

Happy Halloween!!!

October 20, 2009

Happy Halloween

I know I've been MIA lately. I have been battling some health issues, and am praying that they will be taken care of by the time November rolls around.

Having said that, I'm going to continue to take a break from blogging and crafting for the rest of the month. I hope to be back and feeling great in time to decorate and celebrate for Thanksgiving.

Daphne, Drusilla, and I wish everyone a fun and safe Halloween.

Halloween collage made with Picnic and Flickr.

We'll be spending the day celebrating Drusilla's sixth birthday with some Mylar toys and kitty Party Mix!

P-A-R-T-Y!!!