it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

The tree is up....

The house is filled with decors...

Our Advent Calendar of fun activities for December

The spot for Santa's cookies and milk is ready

And Santa is in town...

Telling Santa she's been good then asking him for the toys she wants

It sure is beginning to look a lot like Christmas here.

Every year, I promise myself to get all my holiday cards and tags done before fall so I can enjoy the holidays during December.  But every year, I find myself cramming during the last two weeks of November... just after my DD's birthday and before December rings in. 

So the past two weeks, I have been crafting like it's nobody's business and I am happy to say that I am almost done (I am down to my last couple of gifts to wrap).  I still have some treats to bake but that doesn't count since baking is one of the fun holiday traditions we have here.  I look forward to a relaxing December and lots of time to enjoy my favourite time of the year.

Here are the cards I am sending out this year. The sentiment is from Papertrey's Love Lives Here: Holiday and the inside is from Stylish Sentiments: Holiday, also from Papertrey. 

Here are some of them together...

Thanks for stopping by!

Finished Log Cabin Quilt

It took me almost 6 months, but I finally got around to finishing my log cabin quilt. You may remember from this post that I finished the quilt top back in June. Summer was busy and I had other projects to finish. I always seem to have an excuse and felt guilty every time I would see my half finished quilt. Well, I've had enough so I finally buckled down and started quilting and binding. I'm so glad I did because the end result was worth the effort.

And here's the back:

I just love the little square yellow patch. 

 I am on to my next quilt which is a patchwork quilt using vintage sheets. We'll see how long it will take me to finish it : )

Until next time... 

it's a circus celebration

After attending a day camp at the circus last summer, my DD developed a fascination for all things acrobatics.  She looked forward to jumping endlessly at the trampoline, braving a tightrope walk, practising her somersaults and swinging on the trapeze.  And of course, good ol’ hula hoops.  Soon after, we found ourselves a regular at a local gymnastics class and then, preparing for a circus-themed party.

Last weekend, we celebrated her fifth birthday under the big top.  And oh what fun everybody had!  Here are some photos from the happy occasion.

my little gymnast going all acrobatic 



fun with hula hoops



Craftmates was there to help bring to life another memorable dessert table. 

all the stuff you can find at the circus interpreted as desserts

those burgers are made of chocolate and vanilla cupcakes

pardon the wonky cake pops :)

 Here's a close up of what's at the table setting...

The invite and thank you card...

The kids' loot bags are my labor of love.  I sewed all 20 drawstring bags, handmade the girls’ hairclips and created pretty packaging for the chocolate goodies and the scarf set.

Judging by the smile of the celebrant, I think she had a blast!

fabulous cake from bebsy

Thanks for stopping by!

where did time go?

That is the question I ask myself every year around this time as my sweet little daughter celebrates her birthday.  Today, she turns five! Although some days may go by slowly, how come the years fly by so fast?  

Anyway, before we head out to spend the day doing the things she loves (gymnastics, movie, pizza, bookstore),  I will leave you with one of my favourite older (aka Cricut era) layouts I have of our sweetheart (as I fondly call her) when she was teeny tiny.

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend.  We have an exciting Sunday ahead as we continue her celebration with a circus-themed party.

Thanks for stopping by!

  

movie night

How are you dear friends?  It's been crazy around here lately as I craft away for a little someone's birthday party this weekend.  But it's been happy crazy.  I always enjoy crafting with a deadline, feeds my Type A soul.

Anyway, since I have not been scrapbooking lately, I have a layout to share with you from last summer.  This was my DD's first outdoor movie experience.  She is into princesses nowadays (shocker!) so the movie (Brave) kept her interested the whole time.

I love Fancy Pants' Down by the Shore collection.  It has the reds, navy blues and blacks that I am loving nowadays.  I also used some alpha stickers from Simple Stories and a date stamp from Papertrey's Calendar Basics.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you are having a fabulous week!

Cushion Covers

I recently had the urge to redecorate our guest bedroom so I decided to sew some cushion covers to bring some colour in the room. I used the vintage sheets that I have been hoarding and made three covers. Two of them were quilted using this tutorial from Fussy Cut.  

Quilted pillow cover

This one was made from an old pillowcase that fits the width of my pillow form. All I had to do was to shorten the length and add some plastic snaps. To jazz it up, I added some yoyo flowers, a huge button, and embroidered the word "hello". 

Close-up of the embroidery.

Here are all the pillows together

So there you go! A bedroom makeover without spending anything. Looking at the pillows just makes me happy.  

Bye for now. 

pwp #17 - pumpkin witch

How was your halloween?  It was raining here and I was a bit under the weather so my DD happily agreed to just stay home and give out treats instead.  And she was glad she did because she enjoyed waiting for trick or treaters (some of whom happened to be her classmates!) and giving out treats (after trying some of them first, of course!).

Here are some photos for this year...

I have not made a layout of that night yet but I realized I have not shared my layout of last year's halloween.  Here it is...

I used Papertrey's Halloween Tags and Postmarks sets and block alphabet dies.  I also used patterned papers from October Afternoon and Studio Calico.

I am also linking this to Leigh Penner's Pages with Papertrey Challenge #17 here which is to use a PTI Make It Monday challenge.  I am using stamping on a patterned paper technique for this.

Thanks for stopping by!