Happy New Year!

Happy almost 2012! 

www.BizarroComics.com

Peace, Joy, and Soap!

It all started while searching Pinterest for co-worker gift ideas... I liked the idea of taking something practical like hand soap and crafting it into something gift-worthy.  I started out with the idea of something simple, maybe with a little silver bell bling.  Then I found the most brilliant idea yet--transparency film inside the soap bottle!  For those of you who know me well, you understand how hard it was to use MarthaStewart.com for anything, but she had the best free monograms I could find for this project.  Add a cheesy little saying in a homemade card and PRESTO!  Co-worker Christmas presents are done!

Clear hand soap $0.89 each, Snowflake stickers $1.29,
Silver ribbon $0.74, Decorative bells $1.00

Transparency copy $0.10,
Labor to remove soap labels FREE (but my poor fingernails!)

Cutting the transparency to the right size for a circular bottle was a pain.
Next time I'll find rectangular soap bottles!

These bells were the best find at Dollar Tree!
I just had to restring them onto silver ribbon.

The stickers were originally going on the soap bottles, but they made cute
cards instead with the added bling from leftover wedding craft supplies!

All bagged up to go to work--I love the snowflake stickers on top!

And the biggest compliment? My boss thought I'd bought them somewhere!

Sister Scarves

My oldest nieces are almost 3- and almost 5-years-old. They are sisters, and at their age, they (or at least the younger of the two) want to have everything the other has. So when knitting scarves for them for Christmas, I used the exact same pink/purple/turquoise eyelash yarn for both and made sure they were just about the exact same length (sorry, I'm not double-checking by counting rows with furry yarn!)  These will accompany t-shirts from the Disney store.  I know, they're not the same shirt, but there were no Perry the Platypus shirts in a 3T, and I *had* to get a Perry shirt for at least one of them!

Crafty Card Display

I combined a couple of Pinterest ideas to come up with a way to display all of our family and friends' photo Christmas cards this year.

Cute ribbon plus coordinating paints and naked clothespins

Dave mocked me for taking the time to paint clothespin pieces

I debated adding bling to the pins, but decided I prefer the simple look

The finished product!

How Long?

How long does it take to turn this... 

... into a scarf?

Roughly two hours when you're doing ticket sales for a wrestling match at work!

Not Actual Size

My BFF saw the beautiful holiday centerpiece below on Pinterest and loved it so much that I knew I had to get her something like it for Christmas.  My wonderful baby sister pointed me toward Target.com, where I even got to choose between a couple different sizes of apothecary jars!  Of course I had to get some ornaments to go with it, and that's where I should have paid more attention because size *does* matter when it comes to filling jars...

The ideal centerpiece from Pinterest

The actual gift in Heather's winter decor colors

But another idea from Pinterest can make everything right!

What she may do with the jumbo-sized ornaments instead...

Early Christmas

My BFF got an early start to her Christmas shopping.  Before Thanksgiving, she gave me a gift certificate to spend at erincondren.com and steered me toward the personalized planners.  I ordered the Monthly Planning Notebook in "candy lace" print.

Such a pretty box!  And it's wrapped inside, too!

I even reused the box and inside wrapping for Dave's gift... hehe!

Matches my new purse perfectly!

Half of Heather's present arrived on her doorstep Monday, and the other half is scheduled to be delivered today. I can't wait for her to open it!