merry & bright.

momma's got her holiday groove back, i think. ask me later on this afternoon when i'm pulling my hair out & i might say otherwise. perhaps a trip to trader joe's for some el cheapo {but absolutely divine} vino is in order. why not, right?

anyways, and i'm ashamed to admit this, but i haven't made any more topiaries since this one. cranking out topiaries is on my list of things to do today...along with painting four wine glasses. should be easy enough. the kids are home & they can help me with the pup while i get crafty {they had BETTER help...it's still not too late for me to cancel christmas}.

even though i haven't accomplished my entire list, i am very proud of the few things i have completed - ornaments & shirts.

not all of my ornaments turned out absolutely fabulous. this always happens. but, even my "bad" ornaments turned out semi-decent. i think a little glitter on the outside will make it all better & soon they will have a permanent home as they will be added to our ornament collection.

however, let me share with you the successful ones. they turned out even better than the ornaments i painted last year. they are all decked out in red, green & white christmassy fabulousness. all but two of them were handed out to teachers yesterday...i hope they all liked them:

the last two photos are a bit on the dark side...whoops. the lighting in my kitchen isn't the greatest at o'dark thirty. i'm quite please with these lil' guys. i didn't adorn them with any additional ribbon & i think they turned out quite perfectly!

in addition to ornaments, i made three monogrammed shirts done in a reverse-applique style. the shirts were purchased from wal-mart & target and the fabric i used came from a contest i won over at lauren nicole gifts. all of the stitching was done by my own two hands with embroidery thread. i am making one more to give as a gift {another 'm' monogram because their daughter is named malia...just like mine!} and then i'll create two more for my malia. she already has one {made with scrap fabric from gussy}.

here are the three i made - one for my sister's niece & two for my little cousins - they turned out soooooo cute {if i do say so myself!}:

i'm actually thinking about opening an etsy store and possibly selling these shirts as well as my topiary items. i'm not 100% certain just yet, but it's one of my goals for 2010. i'm doing what i love, i love what i'm doing...so why not try to make a buck or two, right?

anyways, if anyone IS interested in a shirt, just let me know what size you want, whether you want long or short sleeves and what the initial is. the price is $15. pretty reasonable, i think.

so this is the crafty side of me...the baker in me will appear in the next post. promise.

red & white swirls.

i participated in an ornament swap hosted by katherine at just lovely and i was paired up with a really fun gal, pammycakes.

she is a doll! if you're not already following her blog, please do so. she's gorgeous, she's sweet, she's a fashion inspiration {trust me, i'm a mom of two...i need all of the fashion inspiration i can get!}. just go visit her blog, you'll see.

anyways, pammycakes gifted me with a lovely glass ornament from pottery barn. swirls of red {my favorite color!} & white. it fits right in with our {very fake} tree. i love it...thank you, pammycakes!!

More ornaments!

And, hopefully this time one doesn't have a va-jay-jay mysteriously appear on it...damn paint has it's own mind!

So, here they are...12 more hand painted ornaments in all of their glory. These are smaller ornaments than the ones I previously painted and, again, the photo quality is crappy because I still haven't put batteries in my camera and my camera phone is obviously crap. Enjoy!

Decking the halls...

Well, just Christmas trees...this year I decided to make ornaments for friends, teachers, etc. After 12, yes TWELVE, failed attempts, I finally got it right and did NOT forget the key step of cleaning the glass (duh!). These pictures don't do the ornaments justice and this is only a small sampling of what I've done. But, I'm proud to say that the kids' teachers have all received one and I'm making more this weekend...handpainting ornaments my way (thank you, Google!) is a lot of fun. The pictures are not the best...I used my cell phone since both of my digital cameras were D-E-A-D...guess I need to plug in the charger for the batteries, huh??

Enjoy!