it's been a good year 2009

these are a few of my favorite things i've made this year

here's to the next one.
see you soon

sytyc, etsy update, baptism, family, friends, gingerbread man and box tops...oh my

hi there!
first things first: go here to check out the projects for the new theme "gifts" for this week at sytyc. we're down to the wire. only 4 of us left, competition is fierce, (not really we all really like eachother and hope the other one wins and we've all become closer friends through the process.) but it is down to the wire. who will go home this round? yikes!!!

second, you can now purchase my argyle scarf pattern here (keep the pictures coming of your finished ones! they are turning out awesome!!!) and if things run super smooth and i somehow manage to get a few extra hours here and there this week i'll be updating my etsy shop with a few more things. but that's only if the stars, moons, and waste matter, all aligns right. if not this week then by next week i should have a few new things going on there.

third, YOU GUYS ROCK AND YOU MADE MY KID FEEL LIKE A ROCK STAR!!!
holy mother of all that is good!
when i asked you guys to see if you wanted to play and send in gingerbread sightings...i.had.no.idea of the response.
wow.
not only was he seen all over the united states, he went abroad as well.
i have to admit i was a little jealous that he was spotted on top of the Eiffel tower, or that he was seen surfing, or hanging out with ichiro of the seattle mariners, and then went to georgia tech to hang out with buzz. we even got an autographed photo.
nice.
my kid knew how cool he was when he came home with a back pack stuffed full of postcards, cards, envelopes, and pictures (some with photoshoped images of the little dude doing some fun stuff)
you guys are awesome. and we thank you. and the school kindergarten thanks you too!

and speaking of the school thanking you:
you guys also have sent in to help out our little school with box tops. last count the office gave me was close to 400 box tops.
the principle would like to thank you for your time and postage to send in them box tops to our little school.
seriously, not only that but i've gotten emails with suggestions of other programs, and some great fund raising ideas. THANK YOU.
we're hoping to to a community garage sale this coming spring where everyone in our community will donate garage sale item things and with the sales we make we hope to continue to increase our amount of money to go towards getting our school an updated, and up to code playground for the kids!
so please keep the box tops coming! and thank you!!!

okay so now it's off to prepare for friends and family coming and staying with us this coming weekend, for new years festivities and my 8 year old baptism.
we'll talk soon.

tell your children to "strike a pose"...

and this is what you get.

tell your children "i'm going to take AWAY one stinkin' present if you don't give me a "oh swear word" smile"...
and this is what you get.

finally just give up and let them get in the clothes they want to be in and beg them to just sit for a second so you can get just ONE picture...
and this is what you get.
(i have no idea what they were saying at the time the picture was taken but i have a sneaky suspicion that it had to do something with "eat snow".)

Merry Christmas
from our train wreck to yours.
we'll talk soon.

this will make you snort laugh...okay maybe

or maybe it will make you unsubscribe to my blog.
i don't know.
either way i HAD to write this down and document it.
(if you are one of those very impressionable young girls from my church that i teach on sunday's, please back away from the computer turn off your screen, ask your parents to turn on some nice church music, oh and i'll see you on sunday! :))
okay.
i was having one of those days, you know the kind that comes once a month add on a headache, a bag of choc chips later and some really mind blowing moments that you think to yourself "i can't believe this person has a job trying to help me AND GETTING PAID, when he doesn't even understand what he's saying himself." on the phone with the bank that ate up my other bank when they filed for bankruptcy because they were idiots. yeah YOU guys. how infuriating can you get? and please don't put me on the phone with some guy in who knows what country (no offense) who learned my language as a second language trying to fix a problem with my mortgage in "mortgage language" that i don't even understand in my own language. *DEEP BREATH*
please.
PLEASE.
just don't
see, that time of the month.

anywho, i digress.
during this time katie gets to enjoy a little more tv watching time, seeing that i'm a raging hormonal roller coaster, currently on the verge of tears because i just ate, yet again, frosting from the container.

as it also goes, always during this time of the month, i feel like the things i've put upon myself are too much and i don't know where to begin, i bring it all out, make a mess, and i walk around picking up and putting down half way worked on projects, start something only to remember that i have something else that needs attention only to go back to the first thing... you get what i'm putting down.
mess.ed.up.


anyways she's watching this episode

of ni hao ki lan in the back ground of my "i don't know the meaning of my life" moment...and i hear part of the show, i start to pay attention a little more and yup... "snow" in ni hao ki lan land sounds a lot like "oh swear word" if you get what i mean.
but also the way they use it in the sentences. i couldn't just let it go.

i sat there staring at the tv mouth gaping wide open.
no.way.
and then it started "heh...heh..hmmm.haha...HA! BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! uncontrollable laughter, the kind that makes you almost pee your pants, well, unless you've had 4+ kids like myself then it actually does make you pee your pants kind of laughter. i paused it, wiped away the tears, sighed and re-wound it.
maybe it's not as funny the second....NOPE STILL HILARIOUS!!!!!
katie laughed pretty hard too. not knowing why her mom was rolling on the floor looking like she was having a nervous breakdown, i guess she figured she might as well enjoy the "mommy you so crazy and funny moment"
i had to call my neighbor (the one with 6 kids) she found it mildly funny, somewhat disturbing that i would waste my time in calling and making her listen to it over the phone.
and then i realized there's a whole section in utube dedicated to this one episode. this one is one of my favorite reactions

it.made.my.day.
and i rewound it and recorded it so i could show mr v and co when he comes home from work.

good times.

oh and when i say "that time of the month" i'm not talking about my period. i'm talking about the insane period that comes the week right before the actual "time of the month".
yeah, that.
anyone else like that?
my husband would really like to know.

ps:i have updates on where the gingerman has been, and on box tops. all i have to say for now is that you guys are awesome! ;)
we'll talk soon.

sytc win: scarf tutorial

so last week the challenge was mittens.
i kind of went out on a limb and made "the perfect accessory for your mittens scarf"
you guys didn't care and voted for it anyways! thanks!
i asked my good friend to see if i could use her adorable daughter. i think she did a fantastic listening and being patient with me as i tried to "direct" a live model. i'm much more used to taking pictures of non moving things...or my kids which move way too much so i can blame the picture not coming out to that.
she didn't even complain as i toted her around in the cold! isn't she so cute? kind of wish skinny jeans looked like that on my thighs.
so introducing the flannel scarf
perfect to keep you warm, and keep you looking stylish doing it.
go can buy the tutorial here

easy last minute holiday decor

because my holiday season has gone by in a FLASH. i've had to try to incorporate some last minute holiday decor around the house...with things i have.

case and point this center piece was made of all thrift-ed finds of the past.
i've used this glass candle holder cupcake stands before. so i thought why not a bowl?
placing the bowl on top creates a cute holder of things
like say ornaments that were not placed on the over populated with kid ornaments hideous tree that inhabits my living room.

i think i could incorporate this idea for other seasons too! what would you put in it?

real pine wreath tutorial

this wreath, is inexpensive, and pretty fast to make.
first you will need a grape vine wreath (walmart around $2)
and then you will need some pine tree limbs (when we went to get our tree i cut some limbs off of surrounding trees)
then you will need some crafting wire, and some pruning shears.
gather up a few main branches that are going to be your base of your wreath (these should be medium sized branches)
with your crafting wire, secure your branch onto the wreath by tying down your branch in a few places.

keep doing so around your whole wreath, over lapping your branches.

with a little bit smaller branches fill in places that are bare.
make sure you fill in gaps with these smaller branches.
then you are going to cut smaller clusters.
these will fill in any small gaps you have in your wreath. i used the hot glue gun for these.
when you can't see the grape wreath underneath you are done.
this is my finished plain pine wreath.
i wanted to dress it up a little so i added some ornaments on it.
i cut some of the craft wire and used it to hook it on to my wreath.
i hung my wreath with a ribbon made out of muslin, cut to about 5 inches in width.
simple and perfect for the holiday season!

winners and stuff

nothing like skidding in at the last minute with hair singed and smoke billowing up off of it....
phew!
anyone else feel like they've been running a marathon?
i promised today...and well today it is:
okay so i got to meet and learn a little about 156ish (plus emails) of you. yes, i read each one of them!
NICE TO MEET YOU! so lovely to meet you!!!
for those of you who didn't want to step up, it's okay someday right? or never that's okay too.

so i went to random.org and here are the three #'s picked
131-danielle wins the gypsy rose charm pack
34-mindy wins one yard of lovely polka dot on green fabric by moda
91-mary on lake pulaski wins the roman holiday charm pack
thank you to all of you that shared a little about yourself!

if the winners could please contact me through email so you could give me your addresses and then i can mail out your winnings that would be swell!

when i started this blog 2 years ago (tomorrow!) jake was getting ready to deploy and never did i ever in my wildest dreams think that i would be able to look back at this 2 year long journey and have so many times that you have been there for me through deployment, through my hard parenting moments when we were trying to figure out what was going on with my eldest son, laughing at my stupid big city person living in the country issues, crafting my way into happiness, and to having my husband return from a year long deployment and have to get used to being a family again.
what a trip.
i can honestly say that i have some pretty great blog friends, some that i've met face to face(just because of blogging), and some that i plan to meet soon, some that have opened doors for me, and some that i will probably never meet but still consider people that i "talk to" on a weekly basis. so wether you've been here since the early days, just got here, or have been here somewhere in between, can i just tell you what a wonderful blessing you all have been at one point or another! and i thank you, my husband thanks you, and my family thanks you for your support and kindness, and love. hope i can keep up whatever it is that i'm doing to keep you here for a while longer.

CYBER GROUP HUG!!
:)
now on to the happenings:
this last weekend we celebrated with some clones a birthday. it was a smashing success if you consider boys running back and forth from one side of the house playing whatever it was that they played, and interlaced with some cake, video game playing (clones wars of course), and some gift giving.
we woke up to sunday morning to this site.
"oh swear word!" is RIGHT!
but as fast as it came in...quickly it left. we still have a ton of snow everywhere but the boys are in heaven. i refrain from saying too many bad grumbling words as to not to take away from their joy in the nasty white stuff.
and lastly... noise maker number 1 got glasses. as his aunt put it: "well, if he ever had doubt that he was a christenson, here's his proof that he is."

true dat, true dat...

we'll talk soon! ;)

winning tutorial: the snow ruffle pillow

hello! no, i haven't forgotten what i said the other day about giving something away for your time. i've decided to give a few things away, and i'll be picking later today i promise! but for now check this out:
a lot of you knew my project the minute it showed up.
i guess many of you, and others a like, liked it pretty well because it won this round over at sytyc!!! THANK YOU. :)

this tutorial will give you the basics on how to create your "snow" ruffle.
here are the steps i used to create my ruffles.

first cut strips that will be your ruffles. for this project i used flannel.
cut them at 1 inch width and the width of the fabric (usually 42 to 46 inches)
then cut them in half.
you will end up with two strips at 21 to 23 inches each by 1 inch.
next with your sewing machine set to a running stitch (largest stitch, mine is a 5)
sew all the way down and make sure you leave some thread at the ends.
take the end strings and lightly pull ONE thread , this will gather your fabric. if you pull too quickly or tug too hard on it, it might break the thread.
you should end up with your fabric looking like this.
do this to as many ruffled flowers you would like to have.
next to create the ruffled flower, start by taking one end and wrapping around it like so.
next you are going to hand sew your flower. with a needle you will go through from one side to the other, and back again. like the picture shown above. once you secure a few layers together, wind some more fabric around and continue the process of sewing through and securing a few layers at a time. your flower should stay formed once you are done winding all the fabric around, finish off your flower by tying a knot.
once your flower has been formed, you will want to secure it to your pillow top. this can be any size you desire. mine was roughly 14 by 10 inches for the small one and 15 by 15 inches for the large square one.
to secure your ruffled flower i started in the middle of each flower and hand sewed each one of them on, in the desired spot i wanted.
this is the picture of the larger pillow top. if you'd like to you could always secure it even more by hot glue-ing your already hand sewn on ruffles (i have three boys can you tell i have had somethings destroyed if i don't re-enforce things?)
once you have the design done and sewn on your pillow top. cut out the same size and shape for the back.
with right sides together, sew all four sides using a 1/4 inch seam allowance, leaving a hole at the bottom of your pillow.
pull inside out, stuff with poly fill and hand stitch closed.
here's what i did to create the "snow drift" if you will. make a wave and add a few extra flowers where the arrows are.
and there you have it!
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