Peppernuts!!

Do you know how hard it is to find Anise Oil in the town of Bozeman, MT? Very. We even looked online, but had a hard time finding it in the quantities we wanted (read: less than $30 worth). We did find it at a natural market here, though, and Christmas was saved!!

Ah, the smell of peppernuts makes the holidays officially here!

Sneak Peek of the Christmas Cards!!

I am crafting again!! In fact, I even made Christmas Cards again this year!! Now, with 5 days to Christmas, we'll see if they get sent out, but they have been made!! Here's a sneak peek for you!

From My Inner Martha

Merry Christmas!!

Last Minute Baby Gift...

Friends of ours are having a baby and their shower was last night. I realized yesterday morning that I didn't yet have a gift. They aren't finding out if the baby is a boy or girl, and I hate generic baby gift shopping, so here's what I put together yesterday afternoon to give...

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Teacher Cookies

Eliana was excited to present the cookies we made to her teacher the first day of school. These are the ones we picked out to give her...

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We packaged them up in cellophane like so...

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and then put them in a popcorn container along side a cute card!

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I hope her teacher liked them! If not, I guess that's fine... We had fun making them together!

Feels like FALL!!

It's starting to feel like fall here in Montana, and the crafty crafter in me couldn't help but make some fall cookies to celebrate! We have some...

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Plump Pumpkins

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Wise Old Owls

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And Polka Dots and Plaid

Eliana is very excited to present some of these to her teacher on the first day of school. I guess that means I'll be coming up with some creative packaging, then! In the meantime, it sure was fun to play with frosting again!

This is why I don't sew...

I believe I have shared with you my guidelines for sewing in the past. If I...

1. Don't have to measure

2. Don't have to use a pattern

3. Don't have to use pins

... then I will consider making it. Of course, the real reason I don't sew is that my brother, Robert, can take a sheet of plywood and some fabric and do the sort of magic that turns this...

... into this.

Yep. That's why I don't sew. Because who is going to compete with that?? He made the bed skirt, comforter, pillows, and headboard, plus a matching window seat cushion. Eliana's room is now fit for a princess, all thanks to Uncle Robert. Best. Uncle. Ever.

New / Old Necklace

I played in my craft room a bit last night and came up with this fun asymmetrical necklace using a vintage necklace and some new beads. I've had all the components for a while, but it wasn't until Tuesday that my friend, Amber, and I decided that this is what I should do with it. And I love it!! I'm wearing it today, in fact!

I told you...

I told you I would make these cookies....

Then I couldn't find a snowglobe cookie cutter and I couldn't find any snowflake sprinkles... I finally found the snowflakes... and decided to make my own snowglobe cookie cutter! It really ended up being quite simple... just take a circle cookie cutter and bend it in 4 places to make a base. The top sort of adjusts itself, so it's easy to get the right shape!

I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe, though you can't fit too many on a cookie sheet!

Of course, the best part for Ellie was watching them bake. She just parked herself in front of the oven for a while!

Looking good, Mom!

The baked cookies...

This year I did something different than I've ever done before... I put my frosting in bottles instead of in decorator's bags. It was a great way to decorate quickly! I will definitely use this idea again if I'm working with color flow frosting!

One step at a time... first the base of the snowglobe, frosted and sugared immediately.

Then the top of the snowglobe, complete with gingerbread men, snowflakes, and course sugar snow!

Finish it off with some white frosting and non pareil snow and you have a very fun cookie!!

They were very fun to make, and pretty darn cute, too!!

The 2010 Snow Day Album

Last year I made a December Daily album. This year we are having a bit of a non-traditional Christmas, with almost no decorations, altered schedules, and the like. I didn't want to give up Christmas completely, but didn't see doing activities and taking pictures, etc, in my future, either. So I decided to make a little journal about what we do on the "snow days" - the days we're stuck inside the condo!

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It's a spring line, but I thought it was fun and festive for Christmas, too.

I have a new craft room!

Wanna see it??? Here you go...

What? It doesn't look like much of a craft room?? Well, it's what I've got right now, and it's keeping me sane! Here's a look inside...

It's kind of hard having the living room, dining room, two offices, and a craft room all crammed into one small living area. This has ended being a good solution, since it becomes my work space when I flip over the top, storage inside, and an ottoman / coffee table when not being used for crafting. =D And when we finally move out and into our new house, it will go in my new Mary Kay office!!

More Gummy Pops

One of the things we picked up when we were making our Gumdrop Pops was a container of gummy letters. I thought it might have some fun shapes in it. Turns out, P is the perfect shape for a scarf on a gumdrop snowman. =D

Because that was the only letter we used in our gumdrop pops, we had a few letters left over. I decided to use those to make more pops - festive words this time!

I used words like "Merry" and "Happy" and "Ho Ho Ho" and "Peace" and "Joy" and "Noel" - How much more festive can you get??

Christmas Cards

I bought a holiday stamp set a few months back in anticipation of making some fun Christmas cards for my Mary Kay clients. I thought maybe I'd get some Copic coloring in on these, but since I can't find my Copic markers after the recent move, I found an alternate idea.

I used a Martha Stewart anywhere punch to punch windows in the card, then went for a simple graphic card with a black image (strategically colored) and a sentiment stamped red paper strip inside behind the window. They were simple to put together, and I really like how they turned out! I managed to turn out 40 or so of them in an evening!

I'm feeling crafty

... but am really in no position for craftiness. I'm sitting in a little 2 bedroom condo, surrounded by boxes (only one of which contains craft things - and not the helpful sort!) and I want to craft. I believe tomorrow I am meeting up with Amber to make some pies, so that will help. But oh, how I want to craft!

And so, my attention is turned to the sort of crafting I have always wanted to do and never done... I want to use chocolate transfer sheets on truffles. Yes, I want to! I have Christmas goodies to make this year, so perhaps some finely made truffles with beautiful chocolate transfers will be in the making.

I'm also going to be making these cute snowglobe cookies this year! I've got almost all the decorations for it so far... all that's needed now is the little snowflakes! I've found them, I just have to order them...

Aren't they cute?!

Gumdrop Pops

I was inspired by Martha Stewart and these cuties, so Ellie and I sat down last night and decided to make our own gummy pops. We started with this:

and came up with things like these:

We had a lot of fun putting them together, and decided they'd make cute additions to Christmas gifts for Eliana's friends this year!