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18
Dec 11

Christmas Tree Skirt!

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Thanks to thundymac for the inspiration — I was looking for a good Christmas project and this was perfect! Also thanks to Hancock Fabrics for having the best selection of Christmas fabrics in town! (and for having them on sale for 50% off) I checked at least three other places, and ended up getting all these prints from Hancock.

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Also thanks to Leah Day for her binding tutorial. It was super-helpful and the binding was done right this time! I almost decided to make this into a circle skirt for Nola, but I think next year I’ll rework it into a skirt for her and make another tree skirt from some fantastic Michael Miller Christmas prints.

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10
Dec 11

The Awesomeness of Today

Picked up our freshly laminated posters from Staples.
Soooo shiiiiiinnyyyyy…

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Why haven’t I laminated all posters ever?! This is just about the greatest decision a person could make. No more tack holes. No more poster damage. Posters forever!! Pure awesome.

Then the mail arrived, including a very special calendar swap package from Emily of cute little life. It is a gorgeous letterpress calendar made by Old School Stationers, and I could not be happier! Thank you so much, Emily!

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My order from Sally J Shim’s tag sale (which ended yesterday) also arrived. It’s fantastic, of course! I wouldn’t normally buy a blind-item fabric box, but I just could not resist this destash opportunity. I’ve got so much sewing to do!

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07
Dec 11

Printable Holiday Activity Pages

When I was a young girl, our local newspaper included “The Mini Page” with its Sunday edition. It had word finds, connect the dots, find-the-picture, trivia, jokes, even some science experiments. It kept me busy for a couple hours every Sunday after lunch, and I looked forward to it every weekend. Unfortunately, that paper hasn’t syndicated “The Mini Page” for years, so my kids will probably never have that same experience. I’ve ordered a subscription to Highlights Magazine for my 6.5-year-old son (another publication of fond childhood memory) but that won’t start arriving until January 2012.

I decided to hunt for some activity sheets online, to give him something to do while he waited patiently for me to clean up the kitchen and clear a space to put up the Christmas tree.  It took me a good half-hour to find all these great printable pages! Turns out it was a good time-investment, as these activities have come in very handy in the last couple days that he’s been home sick from school.

Activity Pages Preview

Well, to save YOU some time, I’ve combined these printable activity pages into a single downloadable PDF file! A nice, curated collection of mostly holiday-themed activities (there are three “off-season” pages at the end, but they were too cute not to include). All you have to do is click “print” for 16 pages of fun! Print resolution for these is set for 100 dpi, so some may appear slightly choppy/grainy, but my son didn’t seem to mind.

Click here to view/download the PDF

NOTE: When printing, in the print dialog box be sure to select the formatting option “Page Scaling: None” for best results.

Sources:

http://www.allkidsnetwork.com/color-by-numbers/images/gingerbread-man-color-by-numbers.jpg

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03
Dec 11

Christmas Tutu! Falalalala

Finished up Nola’s Christmas tutu this morning! And might I say, what a pain in the butt. But what a wonderful result!

Christmas Tutu!

Next time I think I’ll try the tie-method, as it seems a lot more simple. I went all old-school (à la le ballet), sewing together two continuous yards in four layers of each color, and bunching it with an elastic waist. It was less than dramatic at first, looking more like a netted circle skirt than a tutu. Then I used what I can only think to call the couture method to fluff it up: kind of a separating-rolling-smashing-twisting motion. After about 30 minutes of that, it is now puffy and fabulous!

I’ll hopefully get some pics of Nola modeling her Christmas tutu to post here in the next week-or-so. I tried to take a photo holding it up a little bit so you could see more of the underside layer, but I couldn’t hold my arm still enough.

Shaky Christmas Tutu

Thank goodness for the low-light setting on my camera. Considering this is what it looks like outside today:

the weather outside is frightful

Now I’m off to do more holiday house-cleaning!

Hooray.

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03
Dec 11

Christmas Tulle

Oh-so busy crafting some holiday cheer.
(in between frantic bouts of housecleaning)

Christmas Tulle

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Music
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27
Nov 11

Mike Patton. John Zorn. Christmas.

I have been waiting SO LONG for this.

And, it is AWESOME (just as I suspected it would be).

John Zorn - Dreamers Christmas

I knew deep down in my heart that soon enough Mike Patton would be crooning out some holiday tunes.

Thank you, John Zorn.

Christmas is now complete.

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20
Nov 11

Wooly Wooly Winner!

Wooly Wooly Youth Fingerless Gloves

The winner of the Wooly Wooly fingerless gloves is:

Random.org 11/20/2011

Comment #40

Elaine of clothedmuch.com

She also has a wonderful blog — you should pop over and check it out!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway!

Stay tuned for another giveaway coming in December!

This giveaway brought to you by:

Adel Zeller Handmade

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Crafts / Etsy / Giveaways
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01
Nov 11

Local Iowa Seller GIVEAWAY! Youth Fingerless Gloves from Wooly Wooly

Youth Fingerless Gloves by Wooly Wooly

A word from the crafters: “Wooly Wooly Company is a cottage industry run by sisters and their daughters. Together we create one-of-a-kind pieces from recycled wool sweaters that we felt and shape into purses and accessories. Felted wool is an artistic, durable medium and our unique approach to pattern-making enables us to create a 100% original design for each piece. We also recycle vintage findings, including old buttons, silk scarves, blouses and leather. Our product is not only the perfect combination of style and functionality, it is also eco-friendly.”

Wooly Wooly Company

You can find Wooly Wooly items for purchase on Etsy, as well as at some seasonal venues and locally-owned brick-and-mortar shops around Eastern Iowa!

Youth Fingerless Gloves by Wooly Wooly

Giveaway Prize: One pair of felted wool fingerless gloves from Etsy seller Wooly Wooly. Approximate “Youth” size, or maybe Adult Small. My 6.5-year-old son is the “hand model” in the photo, he wears Youth Medium (8/10) clothing, but has larger hands for his age group (measure 7″ circumference around knuckles, open-palmed).

Entry period ends on Saturday, November 19th, 11:59 pm CST (any comments posted after that time will not be eligible). Contest is open to residents of the United States and Canada ages 18 and older.

Winner will be chosen on Sunday, November 20th using the random number generator. I will notify the winner via the email address provided with the winning comment entry. Winner will have 48 hours to respond, and if I don’t hear back within that time, a different winner will be selected.

There are plenty of opportunities to enter! For each entry option you should post a separate comment (each comment is one entry). Comments are the entries; so if you don’t comment, I won’t know about your entry activities! Also, be sure to leave your email with each comment! You do not need to post your email in the comments section, but you must enter your VALID email address in the “Email” field of the comment form (it will be hidden from public view for privacy).

Comments on this blog are moderated (thanks, spambots), so your comment(s) may not show up instantly, but only after being approved. I will be notified about comments throughout the days and will get them posted as they qualify.

Easy Peasy! one-time entries

• Leave a Comment! (one entry)
Everybody gets one “free” entry — all you have to do is post a comment!

• Blog This Giveaway (five entries)
If you have a blog, post an article about/including this giveaway with a link back here. Be sure to leave five comments for your five entries for this option, and include a link to your blog post. Note: You’ll need to change one small detail for each comment, or WordPress will not post duplicate comments (maybe add numbers 1,2,3,4,5, to distinguish each comment).

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Include your Etsy username in the comment for this entry.

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Leave a comment for each day that you share this link on your Facebook page. (status link optional but encouraged)

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Leave a comment for each day that you tweet this giveaway.
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Thanks and good luck to everyone!!

This giveaway brought to you by:

Adel Zeller Handmade

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31
Oct 11

Happy Halloween 2011

Pumpkins carved

Jack-O-Lanterns in the dark

I made the costumes for both kids this year and actually finished them. Several stuffed animals (and one leather handbag) were sacrificed to make Nola’s barbarian costume. Her boots were the cutest part, but you can’t really see them in any of the pictures. Nola the Destroyer!

Nola the Destroyer

Gunner was a viking warrior — quite fitting with his Norwegian heritage. He also had awesome boots, and a sweet “fur” cloak with a wicked medallion clasp, of which I’m totally jealous!

Both kids won 1st places in their age groups at our local Halloween party costume contest! (I really had to futz with this next picture; Nola’s face was totally washed-out for some reason)

I have to thank my mom for working so hard making all my awesome Halloween costumes when I was growing up, and thusly inspiring me to work hard to make my kids’ costumes. The torch has been passed!

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20
Oct 11

tokidoki® Tattooed Barbie® Doll

So an indie company had the audacity to commission, produce, and sell a Barbie® Doll sporting permanent tattoos. (As opposed to the similarly available Barbie® with temporary tattoos.) Let the fur fly! as sensationalism sets in, and the dissenting opinions of the very loud minority overshadow reason and sensibility (yet again, go figure).

tokidoki® Barbie® Doll

A lot of people are saying that a tattooed Barbie® is inappropriate for children, and I admit they are probably right — seeing as you have to be at least 18-years-old to legally get a tattoo. But this particular tokidoki® Barbie® Doll costs fifty dollars (and is apparently sold out, by the way), so I doubt that anyone is actually giving this to a child to play with. It is more likely to be kept in its box on a shelf as a collector’s item.

Unfortunately, there are many “trolls” out there, using this as an opportunity to get out the ol’ soapbox and shake fists at the sky about the degredation of society as a direct result of self-expression through the act of body modification. Comments like, “Get full sleeve tattoos and tattoos all over your face and try to get a professional job to prove me wrong” and blah blah blah. Thankfully, I’m seeing a lot of intelligent replies from teachers, doctors, white-collar professionals from nearly every spectrum, telling their own stories of being (many times heavily) tattooed and getting along just fine in both the workplace and society-in-general.

I stumbled upon this “controversy” this morning via my local TV news channel’s Facebook page, which posted “MORNING BUZZ: Some parents are upset over a new, tattooed Barbie doll. What do you think?” and so I added a few of my own comments to the fray.

THIS IS AWESOME! I used to draw “tattoos” on my Barbies myself, lol. And I love the pink hair (also used to “dye” my Barbies hair, with markers). But… why is there a cactus on a chain?

Also, you’d be surprised who you’re working with and around and coming into contact with every day, who have tattoos that you don’t even know about or ever see! I was having blood drawn once and the tech saw my inner forearm tattoos and complimented them and we started talking about it and after he was done drawing blood he took off his lab coat and rolled up his shirt cuffs and he had FULL SLEEVES (that’s total tattoo coverage) ON BOTH ARMS! It was sweet!

There’s a lot more tattoo acceptance now-a-days — in case you couldn’t already tell by the mainstream release of a tattooed Barbie. It’s not the 60s anymore, when only sailors and Hell’s Angels had tattoos. I’ve never had anyone make a negative comment when they see that I have tattoos, in fact quite the opposite; people are interested and give compliments and ask questions. Personally, I see tattoos as more of a gateway to conversations with people, rather than a social blockade. And a lot of tattoos are easy to cover up for job interviews and other working situations, if needed.

Easiest solution: IF YOU DON’T WANT YOUR KID TO HAVE A TATTOOED BARBIE, THEN DON’T BUY THEM ONE! How about some parental discretion?

I don’t have time to follow this thread today (I have Halloween costumes to make!) so hopefully I won’t get railed-on by trolls!

Needless to say, I would have no problem if my daughter wanted to get a Barbie® with tattoos or brightly-colored hair. It wouldn’t surprise me at all, in fact, considering that both myself and my husband have visible tattoos, as do many of our friends and relatives. I do, however, have a problem with paying $50 for any Barbie® Doll! She’ll just have to draw tattoos on her $10 Barbie®s and color their hair herself!

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