Last week the kids and I made snowflakes out of doilies, as seen on design sponge.  We just pinned them to the backside of our curtains.

Then I made a very quick scrap fabric garland.

We have secretly been making gifts all weekend.  Only a few days to get everything all done.  Plus I got a couple of commissioned art jobs that I am trying to finish up.  I will share soon.

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I have to say that I completely enjoyed reading everyone’s grandmother and mom stories in the comment section of this post.  They were so beautifully touching and sweet.  Thoughts of my grandma come flooding back to me.  My grandmother taught me how to crochet, sew and make tamales.  I have every intention of passing on the tamale tradition to my children and anything else my children want to learn.

Now for the winners…

Book….Samantha of Again Mommy Again

Ornament… Paula of A Latte Quilts

Prepping for a tamale dinner with our friends.  Vegetarian & vegan tamales. Some with cheese, some with mushrooms and some with zucchini.

Drinks: Cranberry Ginger Shrub cocktails, adapted from Vegan Knitting

Combine 1 cups cranberries, 1/2 cup coursely shopped and peeled ginger in sauce pan with 2 cups apple cider vinegar.  Bring to boil and then pour everything into glass bowl with lid.  Allow to sit for at least 24 hours.  Next day, strain mixture into saucepan with 1 1′2 cups sugar, juice and zest of one lemon and 1 orange.  Bring to boil then simmer for 5 minutes. Allow to cool and pour into bottle.

Mix with club soda 1:1 and add a shot of vodka for a nice yummy cocktail.

Cookies for dessert. They are mostly from Isa’s new book, but a couple of the recipes are available on her site. I made our favorite Anzac biscuits, Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles, Peanut Butter Chocolate Pillows (to die for!!), gingerbread snaps(not shown), and Kahlua BonBons.  All vegan of course. You can click on the links to see the recipes.

The bonbons I made myself, modified a recipe I saw in a magazine and had tucked away in my head. They were easy, no bakes dipped in chocolate and drizzled with coffee flavored icing. YUM!

Chocolate Kahlua Bonbons

20 chocolate sandwich cookies with cream filling (oreos or Jojo’s)
1 1/2 cup roasted pecans, walnuts & almonds
2-3 tablespoons Kahlua, coffee flavored liquor or strong coffee.
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp maple syrup

Pulse cookies & nuts in food processor to a fine crumb. Add everything else and pulse to combine.  Shape mixture into 1″ balls. Place on plate and pop into freezer for 1 hour.  After the 1 hours is complete, melt 1 cup chocolate chips with 2 tsp shortening.  Dip balls and place on plate.  Drizzle with a mixture of 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1-2 tsp strong coffee or Kahlua.

Enjoy!!

It’s cooold. Well, for me any way. So, I’m just trying to keep warm.  We decided to start up the fireplace for the first time ever.  It’s nice to have a toasty glow fill the room.  And, the kids aren’t as interested in it as I thought they would be.

The tree is up in all it’s glory. Twinkling lights and it’s sweet piney scent filling the room.  I just love it.

The birds are visiting in masses which is lovely. I’ve been trying to catch little shots of them, which is tricky.

And finally, I have completed the last update for my shop. A few more tea wallets. I had planned more, but I need to call it quits.

Now I will be tackling my list for this week, plus we have a good friend visiting.

* Tamales
* Cookies
* Paper snowflakes
* Dolls
* PJ pants

I am really looking forward to my list of projects, especially those dolls!!

I’ve been saving up my paper rolls in hopes of making something with them.  I decided to make these little ornaments after folding, bending, cutting and just messing around with the rolls.  My little guy helped me out.

Here’s what you need:
paper rolls
craft acrylic paint
ink marker (optional)
hole puncher
strips of fabric, ribbon, yarn, twine (whatever you like)
water-based, nontoxic satin varnish (optional)

1. Fold  paper roll as seen in first image.
2. Match points up and press together.
3. Repeat on other end.
4. Paint.
5. Decorate.  You can paint something directly onto the roll or glue images from books, fabric, wrapping paper, etc. Use small drawings that the kids have done on paper and glue them on, or a photo would work great too. Add a little glitter or stickers. Sky’s the limit.
6. Give a light coat of satin varnish (optional).

6. Punch holes into each point and tie together with twine, ribbon, strips of fabric or yarn. Repeat on other end.

fronts

backs

7. Add another string for hanging on your tree OR use as gift packaging for a small treasure (jewelry, small toy, money). Wrap the small gift in tissue paper and stuff inside.  Use a long piece of ribbon that you can tie the bottom ends together in a bow so it can easily be re-opened for a surprise inside.

8. Enjoy!

As per our advent calender, we found our tree, decorated it and have had some very yummy hot chocolate. We even played holiday music, which made everything really fun and festive. I pulled out the carefully wrapped gumdrop wreath from last year and it is a bit shriveled looking. Oh well, I’ll still hang it because the kids think it’s great.

The kids had a great time decorating and Super-E was even inspired to make a LEGO Santa. He is a self proclaimed LEGO master and I believe him. He has plans of putting his creation by the cookie plate for Santa to see. Sweet!

We went to the library today in search of some really good holiday, before bedtime reading.  Get you in the spirit stuff.  We were lucky.  I usually can’t find any good holiday books this time of the year.

Here is what we found for the kids:
Aunty Clause, Home for the Holidays by Elise Primavera
The Christmas Rose by Sepp Bauer
The Best Christmas Hunt Ever by John Speirs
Who Would Like A Christmas Tree by Ellen Bryan Obed
Who’s That Knocking on Christmas Eve? by Jan Brett
The Finest Christmas Tree by John and Ann Hassett
Christmas City by Michael Garland
Nutcracker by E.T.A Hoffman (pictures by Maurice Sendak)
Zelda & Ivy: One Christmas by Laura McGee Kvasnosky
When Santa Fell to Earth by Cornelia Funke
Christmas Bears by Chris Conover

And for me:
I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas by Anna Getty
Christmastime Treats by Sara Perry
Cute Stuff by Aranzi Aronzo

Others we had to get:
Thelonius Monster’s Ski-High Fly Pie: A revolting rhyme by Judy Sierra with delicious drawings by Edward Koren (perfectly gross and delightfully fun for two little guys – 4 stars)
Mind Boggling Teasers, Tricks, Puzzles & Games by Charles Barry Townsend
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (40th Anniversary Edition) We just had to get even though we own the small version already. Did you know Eric Carle is almost 80!!

I’ll be coming back to this post to rate these books as we read them.  It will help me to remember them for next year.  If you have any favorites, I’d love to know what they are.

I finally got around to making an advent calender. I have been wanting to make one for years, but would find  myself buying one of those chocolate ones at the last minute. Not this year.

I still really would like to make a fabric one like this or this. There is also this one that I was definitely going to do, but it turns out I don’t have as many paper rolls as I thought. This button tree is cute too, but I don’t need any more poky things on the floor. The LEGOs scattered every where are enough! It would sure be a nice one for my craft room though.

So this is what I came up with.  I found a old wooden plaque board in my collection of crap stuff that I painted, added string, then made paper pockets made from sheet music and a bit of scrapbook paper. It’s kinda like this one.  I had everything I needed.

There are little papers inside with small written messages like:
~ Look *here* for a hidden surprise (small erasers, mini pencils, tops, small toys, etc)
~ Give something to someone random, give to charity of choice.
~ This coupon good for a trip to the movies, dinner out, movie night at home with popcorn, hot chocolate, computer time.
~ Things to make together: cookies, ginger bread house, play dough, salt dough ornaments

It’s all going to be so fun. I love that when all the pockets are gone, there is a nice little message to look at,

“May all your days be Merry & Bright”

This was supposed to be for the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway, but I’m not on the list (am I? I couldn’t find myself) because I was running late as usual.  I knew at 11pm last night I wasn’t going to make it in time.

Oh well, it doesn’t matter because I love this time of year, don’t you? Giving is the best part.  So, here is my giveaway anyway.  I have for you: a hand-stamped holiday napkin set of 5 with 5 holiday gift tags (sorry, stamps NOT included).

These were so fun to make. I sat down in front of my computer watching free netflix movies and carved away.  I am planing on making gift bags and wrapping cloth like THIS, which was my inspiration.

My ink pads are getting a little dry, which is why they are a bit faded looking, but I love the crisp creaminess of the fabric and the soft imprints of the stamp. These are hand washable. The ink stays on nicely.

The five tags are an extra goody. I wanted to play with some new stamping stuff I’ve had for a while.

So here is the deal:
*Leave a comment by Friday night at midnight
*You’ll get 5 holiday napkins and 5 holiday gift tags (stamps not included).
*I’ll announce the winners on Saturday

Good Luck!!

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WINNER is …… Andrea of Escleali

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I’ve been tossing all of your great ideas from this post around in my head, making list and goals for the coming year.  They were all so wonderful and they have left me feeling rejuvenated and positively hopeful. Because of you, my art and goodies have been seen a bit more than usual and I thank you for that. I  thought I would compile some of the suggestions that I would like to look into…

* D0 a giveaways on another blog
* Share my Facebook Page (I had forgotten about this)
*  Join up the Sew Mama Sew giveaway (which I did– it’s tomorrow by the way)
* Sell locally, which I have been considering.
* Sign up for craft fairs, which my friend has been trying to get me to do, but my work schedule keeps getting in the way of that.

There is some other things that I learned from In the fish bowl, I just have to find my notes and get to business.

Thank so much for all the suggestions and also for the blog posts and shout outs. You guys are awesome.

The winner of the drawing is —–>Olivia of MooMama

Finally, because I can’t do a post without pictues, I thought I’d leave you with a mosaic of some stuff I made last year. You can see all of my holiday stuff from the last few years  HERE.

I couldn’t skip the last day of Art Every Day Month.  I still can’t believe how quickly November flew by.   Not everything I did this month was “art” per se, but I tried to keep with it as best as I could with a little bit of everything: photography, art, crafts, and some inspiration too in the way of links, zines, and flickr faves.  You can see everything I did here.

The above (top picture) pretty mule deer was the inspiration for this piece. I took that picture last January (at the AZ Desert Museum), and she has been on my mind as a painting ever since.  So, it feels really good to finally get her down on wood. I fancied her up making her quite festive for all the holiday hoopla.

I just want to thank Leah at Creative Every Day for a wonderful month of inspiration and support.  It has been so fun and I can’t wait for next year.