Spring Knit Place Mats

I finally completed my first crafty goal for January - and I am less than impressed!  I found this project on the JoAnn Fabrics website and it looked so easy and cute.  Let me tell you ladies - it was not as easy as I thought!

I ripped out the stitches and started over four times.  Apparently I cannot concentrate very well on knitting while two little girls are running around, lol!  After dropping many stitches and losing my place in the pattern, I finally got the hang of it.

Time-wise this project took me approximately 8 hours.  I only worked on it at night after the girls were in bed, so it felt as though it took forever to finish it!  The yarn I selected seemed happy and springy, however once it was knitted into the place mat it just looks like a mess of color.  Next time I will likely choose a simple color combination, like the example on the Joann's website! 

Materials:
1 skein of Sugar & Cream yarn
Size 8 knitting needles

Directions:
Cast on 47 stitches. First row, knit one - then purl one, knit one until the end.  Continue knitting in pattern until piece measures 17".  Cast off in the pattern.

Happy Crafting!

January Weddings - A Fresh Beginning

I'm excited to start this new series, dedicated strictly to helping you plan the perfect wedding for the season!  Each month I will give some tips and suggestions one how to have the picture perfect flowers with just the right theme. When it comes to planning for the big day - I recommend selecting a theme and building from there.

In Roman mythology, January comes from Janus - the god of the doorway.  With this being the first month of the year, January is seen as the door to the year.  I see this month as being a start to fresh beginnings - which is a wonderful theme for January weddings! 


For most of us, January is an extremely cold and gray month.  Traditionally, winter weddings have been associated with red and white flowers; roses, calla lilies, orchids or ranoculous.  I think we are all still in the holiday spirit in January and automically want to decorate in deep red's and winter white's.  Let's start a new tradition!  Let's embrace the cold gray skies and have a fresh beginning with a winter fantasy wedding! Aside from the bitter cold temperatures, Mother Nature has created a breathtaking landscape during the winter months. 


What I am envisioning for a winter fantasy wedding is elegant gray and white, accented with pink and purple. The pink and purple represent my interpretation of the winter sky at sunset. I created a bouqet using white roses, pink hydrangea and small purple flowers.  When set against the perfect gray dress, this selection of flowers is also an excellent choice for your bridesmaids!  By embracing the season and utilizing non-traditional colors, you can create a one of a kind wedding fit for a princess!

January Crafting Goals

Happy New Year!


Well, it's that time of the year when most people make a New Year's resolution.  According to http://www.businessnewsdaily.com; by January 2013 88% of resolutions made for this year will have been broken.  That's way too many!!!   Instead of making a resolution for the entire year, I decided to make monthly goals and resolutions.  This seems like a more attainable method to be successful - for me anyways! 


For the month of January I created Household resolutions, Personal resolutions, Business resolutions and Crafting resolutions. I tend to put too much on my plate and get frustrated it I don't accomplish everything, so I started small for this month.


 

Business Goals * List 10 items on Etsy Shop Crafting Goals *Let Madailein paint canvas for bathroom *Make fabric covered bin from diaper box *Knit Spring place mats

I have been wanting to have Madailein paint a picture for the girls bathroom for over a year now! It's time to get it done. 
I came across the diaper box bin idea at www.positivelysplendid.com. What a fabulous way to reuse diaper boxes - and I sure do have a lot those! 

Photo from www.positivelysplendid.com

Aren't these awesome?!!  You would never know it was a diaper box!

The last craft I will be trying this month was found at www.joann.com.  They have many projects on their website for all types of skill levels.  The knitted place mats seem fairly simple!

Photo from www.joann.com

3 crafts - definitely doable!  Happy crafting everyone and enjoy your day!



Frugal Christmas Finds!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!  This year was just perfect with my two beautiful angels opening their gifts under the tree.  With two little ones, I made the conscience effort this year to have a modest and frugal Christmas.  In the years past, my husband and I went a tad overboard on the presents - which just overwhelms our 4 year old to tears.

My goal for this year was to have a nice Christmas for less and with less!

My adventure into having a frugal Christmas enabled me to get the following items for free:

 - Walgreens.com was offering a free 8*10 photo collage.  I had an extra frame in the basement and had my 4 year old decorate it for my parents

- $20.00 to Fanny May / Harry London chocolates.  The newspaper had a free $10.00 coupon, so I used mine and the coupon that came in my parent's newspaper.  I was able to get 4 boxes of chocolates, 2 chocolate suckers and 2 chocolate Santa's.

- $10.00 to JC Penney. Coupon came in the mail for $10.00 off your purchase of $10.00 or more!  I used this to get a holiday snowglobe priced at $9.99 before tax - free with coupon!

- $20.00 to www.personalcreations.com.  I received this gift card in the mail from the website as a thank you for an order I placed a few years ago; I believe they were trying to get more business for this holiday season.  I used the gift card to buy a personalized baby doll for our 1 year old.

- Speedway reward points.  Over the past year we have accumulated 47,000 points on our Speedway rewards card.  I used the reward points to get a $25.00 Speedway gas gift card, a $10.00 Speedway gas gift card and a $15.00 Itunes gift card!

Overall I was able to get about $100.00 worth of gifts for free!

I was very pleased with my first attempt at frugal gift shopping! This definitely motivated me to continue the frugal adventure into next year - all with the goal of being able to quit my full time job and stay home with my girls. We'll see where frugality takes me in 2012!

Winter Wonderland

Old man winter has finally made his way to my neck of the woods (or so I thought! A look at the window and I see rain now, not snow!)  I don't particularly care to be cold, but to look out the window and see the snow always brings a smile to my face.  Seeing the sun sparkle on the snow and snow-covered branches is quite picturesque.


These scenes always reminds me of Currier & Ives winter prints.  I have a collection of Currier & Ives Christmas villages that bring their lovely prints to life.  Though - I failed to display them this year!

American Winter Scene

For those of you unfamiliar with the works of Currier & Ives, they were the Thomas Kinkade of the 19th century.  The partnership was founded by Nathaniel Currier and James Ives in 1857.  The company specialized in lithographs and employed artists, lithographers and colorists.  Currier & Ives described their business as "publishers of cheap and popular prints".  By 1907. the firm created over 7500 titles and over one million prints in a wide range of categories, including sentimental images, sports, humor, religion, city and rural scenes.



A Ride to School



American Homestead Winter

Enjoy the day!

Re-Purposed Christmas Decor

My goal for the craft show this year was to re-purpose as much as possible.  This seemed quite impossible at first because I had no inspiration whatsoever!   I headed down to the basement to dig through my craft bins to see what could inspire me and possibly be turned into a masterpiece. First round I came back up with some old Christmas wreaths and a set of decorative boxes a gift came in a few years back.

Apparently that was all I needed to get the creative juices flowing!  I cut apart the wreaths and made each decorative box into an arrangement.  Second trip to the basement and I found some Christmas flowers and small decor I had purchased at a garage sale earlier this year.  Voila!  I had 3 cute arrangements ready to go without having to buy any new materials.  Perfect!

Since the muse was now at work, I headed back to the basement to see what other treasures I could find.  On a shelf was an angel candle holder that has been collecting dust over the years.  I tried to sell the candle holder in several garage sales with no luck.  Maybe it will serve a better purpose as a beautiful winter centerpiece!  The old Christmas wreaths were cut up some more and added to the candle holder, along with some pinecones and red hydrangea.  So far, this is my favorite piece I made and is sitting on my living room end table. 

Overall I created 12 repurposed arrangements from random material found in my basement.  I sold about half of them at the craft show, kept 2 for myself, donated one to a church and will give some as gifts!  Not a bad start to frugal crafting.

Enjoy your day!

December - month of the Poinsettia

Here we are in December already!  Christmas lights, family traditions and the exchange of gifts abound.  Poinsettia's are one of the most common plants used during this season.  These beautiful plants have been associated with the Christmas holiday for centuries.

During the 16th century in Mexico, a legand began of a young girl who was too poor to provide a gift for Jesus' birthday celebration.  An angel inspired the young girl to make a bouquet of weeds found on the side of the road and place them in front of the church altar.  Beautiful dark red blossoms sprouted from the weeds and became poinsettias - causing the congregation to believe they witnessed a Christmas miracle.  Today in Mexico the poinsettia is known as "Noche Buena", meaning Christmas Eve.  The star-shaped pattern of the leaves is symbolic of the Star of Bethlehem and the crimson color represents the blood sacrifice through Jesus' crucifixion.

This cheerful plant is available in a variety of colors, with red being the most popular.  Blooms can also be found in cream, lemon, peach, pink and white.  Being native to Mexico and Central America, this plant is really a tree.  Over the years it was cultivated into smaller plants for more commerical and home purposes. 

The ancient Aztecs also prized this wonderful plant and considered it to be a symbol of purity.  They utilized the sap to control fevers and the leaves were used to make a red dye.  The Aztec king, Montezuma, had hundreds of poinsettias brought to the highlands since they did not grow there naturally. 

May the Peace of Christmas

Fill your heart from day to day

May the Love of Christmas

Show in all you do and say

May the Hope of Christmas

Now and always light your way