Happy ho ho...

Well I've been a busy little beaver getting ready for the holidays... okay... I started decorating a couple weeks ago but only took pictures of stuff today...
I also made a swarovski snowflake sterling silver necklace (lots of S's there :) for a friend's birthday gift and I liked it so much I will be making a couple more of them and of course one for myself... the picture didn't turn out very well but as I'm sure most people know - swarovski always looks better in person anyways.

Lists...

I like to make lists of things... all sorts of things... sometimes randomly (if something's been on my mind and I just need to get it out) and sometimes on purpose (to-do's, shopping lists, books i want to read)... and I have them ALL OVER THE PLACE... on scraps of paper crumpled up in my purse and wallet... in whichever notebooks that I currently have on the go (for some reason I always end up with at least two at a time)... in my day-planner thingy... in my make-up drawer... in my jewellery box... in my desk at work... you name it. Here is one of them:

Favourite Winter-y/Christmas-y Stuff
craft shows
candy canes
digging out all the xmas decorations and ornaments
making xmas gift and card lists :)
watching friends/family unwrap presents
turkey dinner
the nutcracker
waking up to lots of fresh snow
long letters/cards from far-away relatives
eggnog lattes
scarves
mittens
sweaters
flipping through holiday-issue magazines
xmas music
a fully decorated and lit up xmas tree
get-togethers with friends
gingerbread
early boxing day shopping with my sister
the fireplace tv channel (which i must remember to buy on dvd one of these days... i'm sure that's on a list somewehere)

Not so crafty...

I don't know what my problem is lately... could be the cold weather... but I am just so damn lazy these days! I've hardly made anything at all - so now I'm not even doing my little Christmas Craft Show anymore. :( I just have too much other crap going on right now to even think about it. I'm still making stuff for Christmas presents and things like that, but I haven't touched my lonely little sewing machine in a couple weeks. Although... that hasn't stopped me from buying fabric and a bunch of other things for it. *Sigh*
That being said... I did manage to post one new piece onto my little shop today:
Hopefully I will get around to posting a few more this week. My goal is to have at least 10 new items posted by December 1st!
Today I get to go to my sister's little Grey Cup party - go Bombers go! I usually hate football but I'll make this one small exception because Winnipeg is going for The Cup. We'll be having dry ribs, nachos, hot wings 'n beer... a buffet of artery-clogging goodness... a perfect fit for this kind of occasion really. I'm bringing some of the chocolate fudge cupcakes I made yesterday - instead of crafting.

So far so good...

Well my little open house last weekend was a success! For my first one anyways. Unfortunately I was a big fat stress-case most of the day and completely forgot about taking any pictures of my little set-up. But take my word for it that it looked pretty cute, if I do say so myself. Thank god my sister came over to help me out, otherwise it could have been a disaster - let's just say taking pictures wasn't the only thing I forgot about... like, um, price tags?! Oopsies...
I meant to get everything all set up the night before, so that all I had to do was a little cleaning on the morning of, however... a good friend of mine was having a girl's night/housewarming party at her new condo the night before and I went... I only meant to stay for an hour or two max... but then out came the red wine... and the jello shots (yes, that's right) and... well, I didn't get much accomplished that night other than preparations for a great headache for the next morning.
That all being said - it went pretty well (considering) and I am already planning on my first little Christmas Craft Show! I have learned my lesson(s) now and will be much better off for my second one, I am sure. I have all sorts of little crafts I am cooking up for this one - not just jewellery... and whatever I don't sell will become Christmas present for friends and family. I did take the Handmade Pledge after all :)

Yet another new hobby to obsess about...

I finally got my birthday present from Brian on the weekend - a sewing machine! I've had the gift card for a while (as my b-day was in August) but finally cashed it in the other day. These are a couple pictures of my first sewing project. Okay, not my VERY first, but I the only other item that I have sewn was a crappy skirt in Home-Ec class, in grade 9 I think (a million years ago). Anyways, I'm pretty excited about it! Even if it is just a little make-up bag... or pencil case... I'm not sure what I'll use it for - maybe even a wallet? The patches are just iron-ons that I can't decide between... but I am leaning more towards the owl, I think. I stayed up WAY past my bedtime sewing it - I'm sure the first of many to come :D

Now I just need to make about 20 more of them before November 3rd to sell at my little craft show/open house. Eek!

It's been a while...

Oopsies! I didn't realize I had been away from blogland for as long as I have... time sure flies!
I've been working on a few new pieces which I really should add the shop, and am also planning my first annual Fall Open House!

I'm pretty excited about everything right now. I FREAKING LOVE this time of year - the cooler weather, the smoky scent in the air, pretty colours, pumpkin-spice everything, the sound walking through dried leaves on the sidewalk, searching for fallen acorns on the ground... yup, I love Autumn!
I made some yummy pumpkin-spice cupcakes with creamcheese icing over the weekend, but unfortunately my kitty licked off most of the icing overnight so we had to throw most of them out before I could take a picture of them (never mind eat them)! :(
Bad Josie! (But how could I stay mad at that adorable face?)

Something about the start of football season makes me want to be productive again...

Hubby is busy watching football so guess what I've been up to???
I was a little productive today and actually uploaded some new pieces to my Etsy shop!

Also, I made a couple of necklaces but I still haven't decided if I will part with them or not... this is my only problem with making jewellery - I want to keep it all for myself.

Ooh, and here's some yummy pictures of what I made when my sister and I had a "Baking Day" on our day off together.
I just love chocolate chip mini-cookies (my grandma's recipe) and a latte on a lazy Sunday afternoon :D

I need some inspiration... or motivation...

I'm kind of having crafter's-block right now, so instead I decided to take a few pictures of some things around my "house" that make me smile when I look at them....

I was pretty excited about these little babushkas because they reminded me of the set my sister has had since we were really young, and I always admired them. I got these nesting dolls in Winnipeg a couple years ago, on a glorious Fall day when I took the bus to The Forks and wandered around by myself looking at all the little goodies, and then I met up with my dad for coffee, after which he took me for a drive through some of the old/best parts of downtown Winnipeg.

The little buddha bank my sister found for me at a funky Granville Island store in Vancouver, when we went on a mini-roadtrip last spring and visited my mom for her birthday/Mother's Day. We took the sea-bus on a really sunny morning to Granville Island and shopped for a while, then went out for a drink where I had a yummy lychee martini. On our way home, walking from the sea-bus to my mom's place, we got SOAKED from the pouring rain despite the fact that we had umbrellas - they don't work so well when the rain comes in sideways.

This awesome wooden box for - you guessed it - potatoes and onions. It was Brian's grandmother's. I remember it in her house on the two "American" Thanksgivings I was able to spend with her, and the rest of Brian's family - where I was lucky enough to discover Brian's favourite dish: cheesy broccoli rice casserole, and of course my favourite: sweet-potato pie. When Brian's parents came up to visit us this summer, they shipped this box to us before they left Texas, and it arrived while they were here. Brian was really excited when he got it because it was the one thing he hoped to get from his grandmother's place after she passed away, and it was a total surprise when it came in the mail.

I'm in love with my new camera phone...

It's so rad! It has all these fun settings... I am looking forward to using it a lot!

Fancy Pink Stuff

Well I have finally got around to starting to make some new tags for my jewellery. I got to use the cute new hole-punchers that I got at Michael's a few weeks ago... but all I had to print them out on was pink cardstock... however, I still think they're pretty cute:


The above tags will be used for necklaces and bracelets. The tags below are for earrings - not quite as cute but I had to punch each and every little hole with a tiny pin so I figured the all the effort was worth a picture too (although the pic was pre-holes, just with marker dots for where I was about to pin through them):


Oooooh, and speaking of fancy pink stuff -
I have found my new favourite drink!


Delicious sparkling wine in an adorable little pink can with a fun little bendy pink straw AND named after one of my favourite movie directors... what's not to love?

There's no place like home...

I have to say, I am now "officially" happy to be back home. Yesterday I still had some sad feelings left over from leaving my family on Wednesday. But now that I am settled back into my normal routines a bit, not to mention away from the stifling heat & humidity, I feel quite a bit better. Plus, having these great shoes to prance around in doesn't hurt either.
And having the person who is attached to the red shoes (my newly-engaged lil sis) finally back in town on Sunday will just make everything complete :D

I'm baaaaack....

Well I'm back from my "vacation" and feel like I still need a vacation! Whew boy was it ever a busy one. And hot!!!! It made me wish it was Fall already... and I found some fun charms & beads whilst on holidays... so I felt inspired to make this Autumn-inspired pendant:

(Yes, I realize the pix are crappy - but I'm too tired to fiddle around with my crappy camera to take better ones.)
I just haven't decided what kind of chain I want to make, to hang it on, and I may decide to use one of my few precious owl charms to add to it as well... maybe... I think I'll keep this one for myself.

I was actually a little productive tonight...

I shocked myself and have actually got some more of my little crafts posted to my little online boutique-in progress. Yay!

Hopefully this period of productivity will last :D

Pay It Forward!

What an excellent idea... which I got from the "Maggie Grace Creates" blog... which I happened upon through the "Black Apple" blog... which... I don't even remember how I found that one... anyways:

“PAY IT FORWARD. The first three people that leave a comment and pledge to pay it forward to three others on their blog will receive a handmade gift from me within one year (July 20, 2008) of this posting. I will read your blog and get the essence of who you are to come up with an idea.”

Sweet!

A list of 10 things... about my hubby

In an effort to try and post here on a regular basis, so it becomes a habit (which I want to do as soon as my little jewellery business is fully up and running) and since I can't always come up with interesting things to say, I thought I would just post some random lists - since I never seem to have a problem writing those. So, in honour of our 4th wedding anniversary, which was yesterday, here is a list of 10 things about my hubby:
1. He hates mushrooms and shellfish (but loves fish).
2. Speaking of fish, he's recently become mildly obsessed with fishing.
3. He is an awesome photographer.
4. One of his ex-girlfriends looks like Robert Plant and another looks like one of The Three Stooges - I can't remember his name. (I like to think his taste in women has improved since then.)
5. He can cook a mean steak quesedilla!
6. He is basically a music-encyclopedia. (AKA King of Rock 'n Roll Trivia Night!)
7. As a child he wanted to be a salamander when he grew up.
8. He loves chocolate more than most women do.
9. He has a nifty collection of beer coasters, beer mugs, unique beer bottles... um, beer, beer and more beer.
10. He is the most wonderful, thoughtful, funny, sweet, cute and caring hubby in the world...
I never even wanted a hubby, until I met him.

Happy day-after-our-4th anniversary Honey!

hubby's are funny

when he tries to take my picture and i run away he gets all pissy... but when i try to take his picture while he's eating a PB&J he hides his face behind his hand... what's up with that?
on another note... i am working on some stuff FINALLY:

testing testing 1 2 3

just tryin this out for the first time
hopefully next time i'll be able to come up with something more interesting to say
chow for now
xoxoxo