Pinterest Luv: Thanksgiving Pie Topper

7 months later, I have tackled another Pinterest project. Needless to say, crafts or decorating are not at the top of my priority list the way they used to be! I pinned this cute little pie topper 6 months ago to my Holiday board and was determined to remember it come Thanksgiving. And I did! I was ready to go for Saturday's Friendsgiving 2012 (Lorri and Carmen have been going to Friendsgiving at their friends' home for five years and this was the first year we were invited).

I stopped at Michaels Friday on my lunch break and picked up glue, two sheets of gray paper, and green and brown ribbon. At home we already had wooden skewers, alphabet pasta (I had to order it a few days ahead of time because I didn't see it any of our local grocery stores. I ordered from Soap.com because they ship so fast!) and paper birds that I printed (I literally googled "bird clip art" and browsed Google images for something appropriate.)

I thought it was going to be a quick project. However, gluing teeny tiny pasta pieces is a tedious affair! Especially because I had Dan do a test run to see if the glue dried clear (that's his project above) and as far as I could tell the first ten minutes, it was drying white. So I was sure to wipe and fix every little tiny bit of glue that showed around those letters. It actually DOES dry clear but I didn't know that until long after the painstaking project had ended. :) Another time consuming aspect is finding the right bird illustrations and sizing them to print correctly. But I would definitely say the hardest part was gluing the letters if you are a perfectionist like me. After that was done, I strayed from the instructions and threw out the glue and just started taping everything together. LOL. I was out of patience!

So mine didn't end up as durable as Oh Happy Day's version, but it worked for this event and so far has held up to work again on Thursday. I made it for my own store-bought pecan pies but at Friendsgiving, I took one look at Lorri's gorgeous handmade cherry pie and totally hijacked it with my banner. She was very gracious to let me. LOL!

A Birthday Gift for Nexus!

Saturday is a special day because it is the birthday of my dear friend, Tina, and her grand-daughter, Nexus! I can't believe a year has passed since Pax got himself a little sister, but wow... It has! And HOW CUTE IS SHE? Oh my goodness. Here are a few photos I stole from Jess' profile on Facebook. ;-)



I really wish we still lived close together, but I am used to watching my friends' children grow from afar. We were very spoiled to be a part of Pax's first year of life! I wanted to do something special, and because I actually had a little bit of energy and was feeling creative, I made some handmade envelopes for Tina and Nexus' birthday cards and Dan and I put together Nexus' First Year in Music, a music compilation like we did for Pax for his 1st birthday. Obviously it is something a little more sophisticated for her parents to enjoy, but hopefully it can be kept around (if at all, digitally!) and when she is older she can listen to it and appreciate it. It is surprisingly difficult to find albums released for each month of the year! We are lucky that Jess and Josh like the same kind of music that we do, and that in general they love all types of music! Here is what we came up with:

May 2010: "Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks" from High Violet by The National
June 2010: "Infinity Guitars" from Treats by Sleigh Bells
July 2010: "When I'm With You" from Crazy for You by Best Coast
Aug 2010: "Suburban War" from The Suburbs by Arcade Fire
Sept 2010: "Birds" from Buzzard by Margot and the Nuclear So and So's
Oct 2010: "Constellation" from The Falcon Lake Incident by Jim Bryson featuring The Weakerthans
Nov 2010: "Let It Out" from All Day by Girl Talk
Dec 2010: "Last Night at the Jetty" from Last Night at the Jetty by Panda Bear
Jan 2011: "June Hymn" from The King Is Dead by The Decemberists
Feb 2011: "Undamned" from The Long Surrender by Over the Rhine featuring Lucinda Williams
March 2011: "Under Cover of Darkness" from Angles by The Strokes
April 2011: "Postcard From 1952" from Take Care, Take Care, Take Care by Explosions in the Sky
May 2011: "Helplessness Blues" from Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes

And here is my pretty handmade packaging, with a birthday card by our favorite stationer, the very quirky Red Cap Cards:

Project: All My Relations

[Circa 1942. My father is the youngest, seated in my grandpa's lap!]

I've spent many a day unemployed gathering genealogy, photos, and family history to start my new blog, All My Relations. I have built it on Typepad in order to take full advantage of the photo albums, and so far I'm happy with the results. My goal is for the blog to be a source of sharing and research into my lineage...Hodel (my father's surname), Hendricks (my mother's maiden name), and eventually Dan's family names: Herzing (his father's surname) and Karpiak (his mother's maiden name.) I also set up an account with Ancestry.com for further research.

You're more than welcome to visit the blog, however I'm not sure how interesting it will be to friends or followers of this blog?! At least check out a few of the old photos! Maybe it will spur your own interest in your lineage.

Project #3: Gingerbread Cookies

I baked gingerbread cookies tonight, making the mistake of letting Dan help:

I'm too pooped to type out the recipe and add the photos of the final gift (it involves a lovely little box with ribbon...) So I'll post again later. Gifts are also wrapped and ready to be shipped tomorrow. Yippee! Merry Almost Christmas!

Project #1: Stationery Tins

Update: Success! The girls loved their tins so much that they immediately sat down and started writing thank you notes to send to Dan and I. ;-) (Even though it was WAY past their bedtime!)

[Sleepy April & Faith :: Ally & Bel hard at work.]

Dan let me loose in the craft store...Look out!!!

My first Christmas project that I have completed is a stationery set, one for each of April's daughters. I found plain tins at The Container Store, decorated them with paper I had lying around waiting to be used: 1 small band around the outside, 1 band across the top, and a circle for the bottom of the tin. The paper sheet is by Dewey Howard, Inc., picked up at my local Oblation Papers. I filled each tin with a selection of envelopes, cards, notes, embellishments, 3 pens, 1 glue stick, and 8 stamps. The only pieces I bought were paper cutouts and embroidered pins from the Amy Butler craft collection distributed by K & Company at a local scrapbook store. They had a beautiful vintage look, made on recycled paper, and were extra-girly. I used many things from my own stationery collection, cut a few sheets of colorful cardstock, and added stickers and labels that I already had. The glue-sticks (found at the dollar store) were wrapped in Sukie labels as to avoid the ugly blue label that didn't match. ;-) I added the names on the paper strips across the lid using sticker transfers from Martha Stewart's collection at Michael's.

Altogether, a very simple project made from the heart! On the bottom of each tin, I wrote a special message and date. I know they aren't uber-cool with a High School Musical theme, but I hope they will enjoy them anyway!!!

Time Needed: 1/2 hr. per tin.
Total Cost: $10 per tin.