She's going to the chapel and she's totally gonna get married

We interrupt our regularly scheduled Christmas crafts programming for an important announcement.

See this?

It's a blingy ring.

And it's on her finger.

A boy put it there.

She's totally a fiance.

Yup.

That finger belongs to my seester.

She works at the University with Big AL.

The boy also works at the University.

This is the setting of their story.

Aren't they cute?

They wear lots of crimson and white.

And they smile a lot.

Because they are in luv.

I wrote about my seester and her boy when they went to the Derby.
You may recall that I made her fabulous hat.

Wedding planning will soon be in full swing.

Color me giddy.

Giddy, do you hear me?

So excited for these two.

Congrats to Mal and Chad-

and to Chad:

Welcome to the crazy.

Kidding.

And since this post is already about to make me veklempt,

I'd now like to share some pics of the seester and I when we looked,

ummmm,

unfortunate.

Growing up in the 80's and 90's, we not only had horrible clothes to contend with, but also, horrible hair.

And glasses.

Good gravy the glasses.

You might want to put on some Depends.

Family Picture- circa 1990

The little boy in the pic is my seester.

Isn't she cute?

Thanks go to Mum for giving her that haircut so that I could show the internets this picture 20 years later.

And nice socks Mum.

Of course, I am fully ready for a flood as well.

And I have bangs.

And sheesh at the glasses.

Just sheesh.

Easter- circa 1989

That's Mal before the great hair chop of '90.

And those are two of our cousins.

Thanks go to Amy for posting these pics on fb so that I could steal them.

Taylor's (cousin) Birthday- circa 1988

Seester is on the left.

In the sweatshirt with the deer painted on.

(or is that a bunny?)

Does it really matter?

It's painted on.

And sheesh at the glasses.

Family pic- circa 1993

Why am I sharing these?

They're actually more embarrassing for me.

Too many unfortunate things to list about this one.

Mal, you win the prize for being the least unfortunate-looking one of the bunch.

No, my Dad is not wearing socks.

And where are my boobs?

Someone please tell me.

And Mum?

Good heavens...

Family pic- circa 2000

Whew.

Getting better.

Now seester is in the glasses.

But they're cute ones and don't take up half her face.

Isn't this fun Mal?

Family pic- circa 2008

There we go.

Much better.

Don't mind the hubs,

he's been screwing up family pics since 2006.

 That's all I have time for today-

and you're welcome Mals.

I'll try and dig up some more memories so we can continue to reminisce.

Nice, isn't it?

I loves ya. 

And Chad,

I'm so glad you two found each other when we all had better hair.

And clothes.

And boobs.

Happy Thursday!

4 reasons to tear up a thrift store book

Hello friends! I'm back with more Christmas crafting-

are you ready?

Today is all about book pages. After seeing all the many gazillions of ways you can incorporate book pages into, say... party decor, I reckoned you could also make some pretty snazzy Christmas crafts as well.

Let's get started.

Grab a book, preferably one you won't want to read ever and also, the older the better. Brandspankin' new book pages just don't have the same flair as old ones do. Are ya with me? My book of choice happens to be the 1957 Collier's Encyclopedia Yearbook:

Next, you'll want to rip out some particularly dull pages, for example:

For my first project, I used the same ingredients as with my wool felt garland but substituted paper for the felt-

String together as many or as few as you like and that's IT.

You could place them close together as I've done, or spread them out on your ribbon/string/twine.

Project 2-

I grabbed a frame and some scrapbook paper I had on hand,

scissors,

a pencil,

and more boring book pages

Now- sketch something Christmasy-

an ornament,

a reindeer,

a star,

evah whatcha want.

I chose a tree.

Cut out whatever it is you drew (and be sure to draw it small enough to fit inside your frame), and then fold a tee-niny piece of tape backwards into an official roll, like this-

oh yeah...you'll need a tee-niny piece of tape.

Place it on the back of your tree (or whatever...) and then cut your pretty background paper to fit your frame. Stick your tree (or whatever...) on the pretty paper, throw it in the frame, and voila-

Book page Christmas art.

Fab.

Project 3-

grab your handydandy glue gun,

a styrofoam ball,

and cut a few book pages into 3/4 inch strips

Start by placing a dot of glue at the top and bottom of the first strip of boring book page-

and place it on your styrofoam, like so-

Work your way around the whole thing, gluing and sticking down those wordy paper strips-

When you've made it all the way around, you might end up with an odd tail-like thing on the bottom. (see above)

No biggie-

just cut the excess off with scissors.

I'm planning to make several of these babies, but until I have mucho, I stuck my one lil' cutie in a white pitcher.

And now that I look at that, I may have to let one live there.

Kinda like it.

Project 4-

No, you will NOT need any food products for this one.

Just wanted to show those of you that know me that I do, on occasion, make actual dinners for my family and whatnot.

On occasion.

Grab some scissors and boring book pages.

That's it.

And remember when you made snowflakes in the 3rd grade by folding your paper into a triangle and then another triangle and then another triangle, and then you cut shapes along the sides?

that's it.

Book page snowflakes.

Purty.

String them up with some twine and hang 'em from a chandy,

or you could hang them on the branches of your real-not-fake Christmas tree that you're getting on Thursday. Did I mention we're picking out our tree on Thursday?

We're picking out our tree on Thursday.

Lil' excited.

Now- there are WAY more than 4 things to make with book pages. I'm sure you've all seen the famous book page wreath, or small trees made from books, or stars, or....eegads...the possibilities are endless. Just type 'book page projects' into the search bar of Pinterest to see what I'm talking about.

So GO!

Buy an old book and have some fun ripping it up!

How many things can you come up with?

Hmmm??

And, totally forgot to mention that I paid a whopping 1.57 for my 1957 Encyclopedia. I've had it for a few years, so these projects cost me absolutely nothing.

Gotta love free craftin'.

I've linked this to:

Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts,

Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Design,Kate's Holiday Crafts linky at Centsational Girl,

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

That's right-
this year I've envisioned lovely vignettes of white pinecones, berries, ornaments, trees, and all things Christmasy. My hubs has talked me into having a real tree this year (with the agreement that HE cleans up needles off the floor each day) and I'm actually excited about it! We've always done a faux tree, but if you've seen pics of real ones, you know they're quite pretty. No...gawgeous.
They're gawgeous.
However, I don't want to junk it up with all of the hulabaloo that I usually put on our faux tree, so....
I'm going a more handmade, rustic route with everything this year.

While searching Pinterest for 'White Christmas' inspiration, I came across and fell in love with a white berry wreath so, naturally, I had to try and re-create it. This begins my 'Week of Christmas Crafts- 2011', and I'm starting out by saving a whopping $51 bucks.

Did you hear that internets?
I SAVED $51 dollaroonies by makin' this myself.
The one I found on etsy was $70 and I was able to pick up the supplies I needed for my own at a cool $19. While they aren't identical, I'm totally in love with my own now.
Totally.

Here's my version:

**updated**
I totally added a ribbon

and here's the one I pinned from etsy:

Source: etsy.com via Mary Kathryn on Pinterest

And yes, I could totally add a bow to make them even more twin-like...

Here's what I used to make it:

14 white berry stems from Michael's at 50% off= $14

1 wired wreath form= $2.99

1 spool of floral wire= $1.99

In short, all I did was attach each of the stems to the wreath form with the floral wire, and since the wreath form started out dark green, I also used some white acrylic paint I had on hand so it would blend in.

p.s. Do you like my manicure? I call it 'taupe-with-a-tip-of-white-acrylic'

and...that's the backside of the wreath form. See how that green sticks out like a sore thumb?

Thar she is with 2 stems attached.

By the way, you'll need some of these bad boys to clip the long stems off since they're not needed-

They're called wire-stem-remover thing-a-ma-bobs.

Forgot to mention that it may also be helpful to have a 2-year old who refuses to go to sleep because she just wants to 'help'.

Even before the 2-year old goes to sleep, the wreath will be done because it was just so darntootin' easy.

For now, it's in the foyer on the Narnia closet door. I'm thinkin' I may go back and make it a bit fuller by adding in more stems, but who knows. I could grow to love it in this skinny state. And speaking of NOT skinny, I'll be dieting until I get this turkeyhamdressingcasserolepie gut off of me. I'd love to say I'm kidding when someone asked yesterday when I was due, but I'm NOT.

Someone actually asked me when I was DUE.

I know this is neither here nor there in regards to the lovely wreath above but I felt like sharing.

Anywho....

I hope you have a most excellent Monday!

I'll be back tomorrow with something else I'm creating for my 'white, light, and bright' decor.

And yes-

extra bonus points if you immediately spotted the plastic Easter egg in the pic above. It just wouldn't be right if a random toy didn't make it into at least one of the shots.

**********

I've linked this post to:



Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog,

 The Crafty Lassy Linky at Sew Stylish Boutique,Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts,Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Design,Kate's Holiday Crafts linky at Centsational Girl,