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If are you here from the Sew, Mama, Sew! blog, welcome!  The loot (aka: giveaway) can be found here.

Today has been a whirl-wind kinda day here for me, so I thought that I would recap what I have learned from this whole giveaway experience:

1. People within this crafty little community I have found myself in are wonderful!  I have received so many encouraging and warm comments today about my little tree!  I can’t wait to show you what I have in store for the fabric.  Thank you all so much for stopping by and delurking!
2. People really like handmade gifts.  Most of the comments about your favorite handmade treasures have been related to the things that you have received as Christmas gifts (I realize this might be because of the time of year and all!).  And, I am in awe of all the wonderful stories that were shared today.  This really renews my pledge to give a handmade holiday this year.  I hope to make something that someone remembers like what has been shared today!
3. Nobody here really talked about the fact that they loved something handmade because it was perfect.   If you are thinking about trying something crafty, read through the comments and realize it really is the effort and thought that counts.  Just give it a shot.  It will be perfect to someone else even if you can see the flaws.  This is an important thing for me to remember too!
4. People really like free stuff!  And, I really like giving away what I make, so I definitely am going to do this again!

Thanks again for stopping by and sharing today with me!

A few weeks ago, I hit 100 blog posts.  Now, this isn’t an amazing feat for many, particularly since I have been blogging for three years, but I wanted to celebrate somehow anyway.  However, life got busy, and I didn’t really make the time to do anything when it came time, so I just kinda decided that I would wait to the next milestone.  And then, Sew, Mama, Sew! posted about a blogosphere-wide giveaway, so I thought that I would play along.  But, I wasn’t really sure what to give away.

During this time, I read about Ali Edwards fun holiday projects from 2007, and I really loved the button Christmas tree that she made with her son, so I decided to make a button tree of my own with the amazing new Basic Grey buttons I got.  This was a big step for me because when I love something as much as I love these buttons, I usually just hoard it away afraid to use it.  But, when I saw that tree, I knew it would be perfect.  I didn’t want to use styrofoam, so I went to Hobby Lobby and found a craft paper version of a Christmas tree..you really do have to love Hobby Lobby…and, I went to town with a little paint and some of those buttons!  This is what I came up with.

And, I have to say that I love it!  And, I know someone else will love it too, so I have decided to have it be my giveaway (don’t worry, I got another tree to make me one too!).  Without measuring at all, I can tell you that it is between 12-18 inches tall.  And, I think there are a few vintage buttons thrown in there too.

To enter, just leave a comment here about your favorite handmade holiday treasure, either given or received, or a handmade gift that you would like to receive or give.  To make things a little more interesting, if you mention this giveaway on your blog and drop me a note about your post in the comments, you will get an additional 5 chances to win.

The winner will be chosen randomly by my random number generator, the boy, and, you must have your entry in by this Sunday at 7pm CST to be entered into whatever crazy formula he works up (he is an engineering/math person, so there is no telling what he will come up with!).

As an added bonus, the winner will also receive another handmade goody from me made from these.

That’s all I can reveal right now, basically because I haven’t had a chance to make it yet, but the plans in my brain are fabulous!

Happy entries, good luck, and thanks for stopping by!

Over the last week, I played a little.  I got some work done too, but the week was really just about taking a few moments to relax before the craziness of the end of the semester kicks in.  As I posted about already, we didn’t do our big Thanksgiving meal on Thursday.  That will be next weekend.  I already have the menu all planned out.

So, in addition to getting some work done, I worked on some crafty things over the last week.  A few of which I can show you here.  Most of the things I worked on were inspired from people around the web.  As always, Ali Edwards inspired me with two of her projects from the 2007 holidays (one of which you will see again in just a few days).

But, what I can show you right now is our new advent calendar.

It is hanging in our kitchen, and I love it! You can’t really tell from this picture, but the boxes are mounted on a piece of wood framed in a black frame.  (Sorry for the picture quality.  It has been rainy and dark here for days, except for today when I was at work!)  This is my favorite box.

The plan is that the boy is going to do all the even days, and I am going to do all the odd ones!  We are off to a slow start, but just completing it was good enough for me for now.

In fact, I liked it so much, that I made one for my friend Jen for Christmas.  When she heard what I was going to do, she said she wanted to “commission” me to do one for her too.  And, when I asked her what she wanted it to look like, she just told me “like yours.”  Easy to do!  So, I made her this one!  So, I at least have one present completed and delivered!

And, I have to tell you that I have definitely made friends with my cricut!  This was such a wonderful project to actually figure out what this awesome little machine could do for me!

I was also inspired by maya from maya*made.  She posted about these lovely little blankets that she made for her little ones, and I had some extra flannel and fabric that was be perfect for this, so I decided to make a few for my brother’s soon-to-be little one.  I have two done now, and I would like to make a few more to send for Christmas.  I liked them so much (they are uber-easy to make, and I get to play with my stitches a little too) that I think I am going to try to make a few more for some of the other kids in my life.  The BGF and I already decided that we want some in grown-up size.  I just need to get some full-size flannel or piece something.  But, those will have to wait until after Christmas!

However, a new quilting project that I have started to be done by Christmas is saving this quilt from a fate worse than death!  As you can see, the black fabric has just disintegrated.  The problem is that it has been long-arm quilted with a repeating pattern throughout the quilt.  The back is also a solid piece of red that you can see in the second picture.

It is my brother-in-law’s quilt from his great grandmother.  The same woman who pieced the top of this one.  I have already started working on it, and I have a great plan for how to capture the original integrity of the quilt while fixing the black patches and adding a little touch of me in there.  I am pretty excited about this one and will share the results as soon as I am done!

For me, today isn’t Thanksgiving!    We have decided to hold off our Thanksgiving celebrations until the 6th of December.

Our good friend, Doug, has been in Iraq for the last 15 months.  He was supposed to be home to his family (my buddy Jen and their two adorable boys) the day before Thanksgiving, but as often does with this type of major movement, timelines don’t always work like you want them to.

We had been planning to share our Thanksgiving with them this year, particularly to give Jen a break from trying to cook a big dinner with Doug newly home.  So, Jen called me when she caught wind of what was going on because she wanted to let me know that plans might be minus one.  I, of course, just told her that we would hold off until Doug got home. I didn’t hesitate, and I knew the other people that were going to come wouldn’t have either.

This split second reminded me more than anything that Thanksgiving is about the people.  And, we can have Thanksgiving anytime we want to, whether or not the calendar agrees. Who knows, maybe I will start planning Thanksgiving meals throughout the year.  We need to celebrate each other and what we are grateful for more than one day a year in a carb-induced haze.

One year in a moment of self-absorbed stupidity, I talked to my wife on her birthday, and I didn’t even utter a happy!  I was mortified.   So much worse than not calling.  But, it has become something of a tradition that we have started celebrating unbirthdays.  So, maybe we need to celebrate thanks-again days!

So, I am excited about the dinner we have planned for the 6th!  It is will be our first thanks-again day in this next calendar year.  I will give you the low-down!

In the next few weeks (hopefully), the boy and I will find out where we could be moving next.  We are hoping that the choices are narrowed down to Ft. Belvoir in VA, where I am from and all my family lives, and Ft. Leavenworth, close to Kansas City which is close to where we live now.

Either choice would be fine with me, but I am pulling for going home.  My grandmother, who has really been another parent to me, turned eighty-nine a few weeks ago.  And, I would like to be close to her again in the time she has left.

The boy and I are at the stage of this process where we are trying to figure out where we would want to live, and what types of houses would fit our aesthetic.  To do this, we have often thought about what we like about the house we are in.

1. We love our kitchen.  It is big and open and has tons of storage.  It is really where we do everything at home: play, entertain, create.
2. We like having a yard for the dogs.
3. I love our master bedroom’s walk-in closet.  It is big enough that both of our dressers fit nicely while still giving us enough room for other clothes.
4. We feel good about the fact that the house is big enough for the two of us without being too big, particularly as we start to care more about the environment.

But, as I look around our house, I realize that the reason we like it so much is that we are at home here.  And, I know that the home part follows us with our many moves around the country.

We have decided that if we move to Northern VA again that we are going to try to buy another house and keep it as a rental property.  And, as you might already know, this is no small feat in Virginia.  Our house in Kansas was extremely reasonable in price, although when we bought we didn’t really think so.  And, while housing prices in Virginia have fallen, it is not an older suburb like Kansas City is.  Most of the cool old houses are often situated in less desirable neighborhoods, as seems to be the trend in areas where bigger and newer is, for most people, synonymous with better.  As I mentioned above, the boy and I aren’t necessarily feeling this.  Older homes in nicer areas are pricier than we could swing.

We have also been talking about what we would like in a new house.

1. We would like a little more space in the way of a basement or an office.  Right now, outside the main living area of the house, all we have are the bedrooms.  And, it is hard for us to both have our own space while still having a place for family to visit, which is a requirement as a military family and with two families half-way across the country from each other.
2. We would like to have a yard of some variety for the “kids.”  Cooper is an active dog, and we need to be able to let him out often.  And, it would be wonderful if we weren’t quite a close to our neighbors as we are here.
3. We would like to have a bigger bathroom.  Two sinks would be ideal.  That way we can both get ready in the morning without having to take turns.
4. And, finally a kitchen like ours now would be ideal.  (Or a price tag that would let me make that happen.)

At this point, the planner in me would just like to know one way or another.

Saw this here, and I thought that I would share!

Art by Tanya Davis

I wondered what would be the worth of my words in the world
if i write them and then recite them are they worth being heard
just because i like them does that mean i should mic them
and see what might unfurl

i think of the significance of my opinions here
is it significant to be giving them does anybody care
just because i’m into this does that mean i should live like it
and really do i dare

art, art i want you
art you make it pretty hard not too
and my heart is trying hard here to follow you
but i can’t always tell if i ought to

so i pondered the point of my art in this life
if i make it will someone take it and think it’s genuine
will they be glad that i did ’cause they got something good out of it
will they leave me and be any more inspired

i question the outcome of the outpouring of myself
if i tell everyone my stories will this keep me healthy and well
will it give me purpose, to this world some sort of service
is it worth it, how can i tell

art, art…

When I was learning to cook while I was growing up, my mom bought a cookbook that I used all the time.  It was from Campbells, and it was basically just a bunch of different recipes that used their soups.  Those were some of my first successful meals in the kitchen, so now, as you might imagine, I have a little brand loyalty going on.

Well, I think I have a new love this winter.  (I love soup, particularly in the winter.)  And, when I saw that V8 had a new line of healthy soups coming out, I was excited.  So, at the grocery store this week, I picked up the butternut squash to try.

The boy is gone, so I had it for dinner tonight. It was so good!  I didn’t even salt it, and I am kinda bad about salting my food.  I can’t wait to try the other flavors, particularly the sweet red pepper and the southwestern corn. And, they have recipes too!  I am going to have to check those out.

Now I just need to decide what to make!  So exciting!

Ever have a day when you have plans to get things done, and it just never really comes to fruition, despite your best intentions?  That was today for me.

A few hours got sucked into the conversation that the boy and I have been having the most lately.  Where do you want to live?  How much house do you think we should aim for the next place we go?  How much can we afford?  Should we look at this as a home or could it be an investment too?  How can we align what we want in our next house (which is coming up in a post I started this morning that started this whole round of deliberations) with our ideas about being as kind to the environment as possible?  Does that mean we buy new and look for the right builder or buy an existing property and make the necessary changes?  So many things to determine.

I did get the grocery shopping done for the BGF’s birthday dinner this Sunday and the next week, but beyond that, I have just been flitting around all day…working on tasks, but never really completing any one thing.

And, this afternoon was sucked up with other concerns as well.

What I should be doing is grading.  I have a good plan to get everything done before this weekend, so I can spend some time doing what I want, rather than what I have to do. And, what I would really like to be doing is sewing, trying to get some work done on the Christmas presents.  The list is long and a little daunting, and it doesn’t help that I keep getting more and more ideas.  There are some wicked smart people out there in blogland doing some uber-crafty, awesome things.  And, I would love to have the time to create the house I have in my head.

The problem with that is that the house in my head doesn’t have animal hair on all the beautiful stuff I have had the time to create, so we know that it isn’t really a reality possible for our crew!  But, I am determined to at least decorate this year!  Last year, the only thing that would give you any idea that it was Christmas was the wreath in our front foyer.  That is going to change this year.  Baby steps.

But, in order for it to change, I need to find some time to clean and organize and get a little crafty.  So, tomorrow I am going into school with the boy at 5:00am.  He has to help the ROTC kids with a PT test, and I am going to grade while the building is deserted and quiet.  I am hopeful that it will be a glorious few hours to get things done!

I can’t believe it, but this is my 100th post.  I started this blog back in 2005, and it was a slow start for me.  But, over the last year, I have taken more time sharing my words here, and I have to come to enjoy this place more than I ever thought that I would.

My little home in the universe.

A big part of me finding my home here though has been the tons of other women I have been reading over the last year.  They have helped me nestle in here in this space.  One of those women posted this video today.  Go check it out.

It is indeed a new day (for me, for our country, for our world), and I can’t wait to see what the next 100 posts reveal!