Craftiva

I wanted to make homemade gifts this past holiday season.  I've just been waiting to share with you my Christmas craft ideas.  We finally had our last celebration, so without further ado, here they are! 

 

My first idea was to make a t-shirt vest.  I cut up a t-shirt according to the directions, and it looked like, well... I cut up a t-shirt.  It was pretty bad.  CRAFT FAIL

Fortunately, the next idea went better.  I made t-shirt scarves.  They didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped, but I did like them.  I thought about making little pins covered with beads to place on the part where it's gathered.  I might still do that.  The project was fun to make.  I saw a pic of Tullybird wearing hers, and it looked really good!

My version of t-shirt scarves

Next up, I made a Lemon Sugar Body Scrub.  I soon realized after I whipped this stuff up, that I really like this stuff.  My hands have been dry and itchy all winter.  Rubbing some of this on when I've been doing a lot of hand-washing really helps.



Warning:  you may fall on your ass if you use this on your feet while standing!
But man, do my paws need this stuff.

For my next project, I was only able to make a few of these this year.  I need to start earlier next year.  I love painting wine bottles.  My specialty is a snowman... because they are easy.  And this year, I made a female version who loves the tropics! 

My inspiration was when Tullybird mentioned that she keeps the first bottle on display all year around that I painted for her; it doesn't matter what season it is.  Snowman needed a girlfriend!




Aloha!

And for my very favorite project of all.  This was SO fun, but so time consuming.  I could only make one at a time.  I started out by growing sunflowers.  Giant, mammoth sunflowers.

Keystone in my giant sunflower forest

Then I added lots of love and cement. 

I used our existing plain, smooth birdbath as a mold.  I put a trash bag over it to protect it.  Then I poured on mixed up grout mix.  I smoothed it out and then pressed my huge sunflower leaf into the wet grout mix.  Let it sit for 24-48 hours, and viola!

 

This birdbath has magical powers

This is one of the special editions that I made.  I had the most fun telling Suzie's little girl that baby unicorns drank from this birdbath; that's why there is glitter.  Cause everyone knows that baby unicorn's have glitter on their tongues.  I think she really enjoyed the story.  I truly believed in unicorns when I was her age.  Remember the days of rainbows & unicorns and when stickers were special treats?

For Dawn's family, I put a nice rock towards the bottom of the bath.  This is to allow butterflies to rest on the rock while sipping their cool beverage.  Plus they have a bath-less butterfly garden.  Until now.

I can't tell you how badly I wanted to make Shelly one of these.  She likes birds has a bird obsession.  Next to my parents and my hubby, I don't know anyone else who feeds their wild birds as much as she does; and enjoys watching them too.  It about killed me not to be able to make her one and send, but the cost would have been astronomical to send a hunk of huge, heavy concrete across the country.

And I really wanted to make Tullybird one too.  She loves everything homemade that I make, and she would have loved to have had one in her yard under her apple trees.  But again, the shipment cross-country just wasn't going to work.  Not to mention that they would probably beak.

So, it was hand delivery only for the birdbaths.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my projects.  I had other ideas that I didn't get to.  Maybe I'll start much earlier this year.
 

2 Beautiful Ladies

They both look so young, don't they?  Abby used to never get on the couch.

Mrs. T, Can Shadow Come Out & Play?

You know how we inherited this wonderful fur bag named Shadow "with the house".  And how she used to be an outside dog only.  And how lucky we are that she has manners inside the house (some are newly acquired).

We discovered on Christmas day ... that ... she ... doesn't know how to ... PLAY.  Can you believe it?  It kind of makes sense.  It's not like she had a toy chest of furries at her disposal before us.  She never had more than an abandoned tennis ball found on the side of the road or a leftover deer leg bone (not kidding on that one).

Shelly sent Shadow a toy for Christmas!  Shadow was bewildered at how to "open" it.  Todd and Abby helped out a little with that part.  Then when she realized she had a new present all her own, she tried to play with it!  It was so funny watching this fully grown dog play like you'd expect an awkward puppy to act.  Check it out (try the link or the inserted video):

Shadow's first Christmas Present

It's so cute to see her get an energy spurt and run around the house playing with the toys.  She tosses them up like she does a mole freshly caught in the yard (hey, we live in the country).  She is such a hoot.  We just love her.

Here's another funny video from Christmas.  Isn't she a doll?!?

Shadow Playing

Good Times With Good Friends Make Life Fun

I enjoyed great food and great drinks in Vega$ with some great women. It was the perfect celebration of Shelly's 40th birthday!

It was a total blast of girl time, and just what I needed. We wore tiaras and pretty flower rings all weekend. We had tasty rum drinks at the rhumbar--the place we seemed to always gravitate towards regardless of the time of day or night. The tutanga drink was divine; complete with an orchid flower and a pineapple spear.

There was another drink with a wrinkly looking...well, I will let you decide what it looks like:

Thanks for modeling, Becky!

Thunder From Down Under was so hilarious that my voice was almost hoarse from laughing so hard. Initially, I was not crazy about the idea at all. However once we were there and I realized nobody was going to touch me, I relaxed and realized how funny the situation was. The women, oh the women, were SO loud and crazy that just people watching was the ultimate best! One boy dancing (I'm not referring to that male as a man since he was so young) thought he was so sexy pouring water over his head--I hysterically lost it when that happened, cause dude, that was a huge MISS on the whole sexy vibe. I remember that old lady sitting there and the kid took her glasses and mock-cleaned them with his wet shirt. OMG, can you hear me cackling at this very moment just remembering??? Oh, oh, and that one dance where the guy took that bride-to-be in the shiny silver dress on stage and danced around her to a ballad song. Cracked me UP!!! I was so happy it was not raunchy, and really funny. That was a highlight of the trip for me because I have never laughed so much in my entire life.

The other highlights for me were the food!

Crab bisque before:

And crab bisque after:

The Serendipity 3 waffle (Becky and I pretty much made this trip for two reasons: Shelly and this waffle):

The bananas foster (the bump in the middle inside the crepe is extra creamy vanilla ice cream, and the sauce is a homemade caramel I think I would walk over hot coals to eat):

The chicken & waffles the morning our happy group parted:

The other highlight was...Barry Manilow! Wow, who knew he still has it?!?

My one regret (besides committing drinking mistake 101 and mixing WAY too many kinds of alcohol on Saturday night because I swore each drink was the last one of the evening) was that Becky and I did not get our milkshakes at BLT. They had a beefy good juicy burger which is perfect for a hangover. I WOULD have had the Malibu Barbie milkshake (which included Malibu rum, vanilla ice cream, and toasted coconut). Next time...

That weekend just proves, tiaras make EVERYTHING better!  Donna, Shelly & Becky, Cheers to you!

An Ode To My Dear Old Friend, Shelly

I once found a dear friend named Shelly,

who has always had a tiny, flat belly*.

She talked me into riding the SCARIEST roller coaster,

and once she gave to me the rockin’-est NASCAR toaster**.

What a dear friend she will always be, she who loves DMB,

and created the insatiable beader that is me.

Ahhh, she is a hip looking 40-year-old with a very sassy wit,

she is family to me, and she even taught me to knit!

Happy 40^th birthday kiddo, love ya!

*except when she was preggers, man was she huuuuge.

**Ok, it was NOT a toaster, it was a crock pot, but hey, the crock pot can "toast" meat!