Merry Christmas Eve Eve Eve!

I took a meal to a family with a new little one today. Oh my goodness… it is so easy to forget how teeny tiny babies are! And how fast they grow...

We are officially on break from homeschool (except The Professor who voluntarily chose to continue working on a few subjects) and everyone is having fun just decompressing. Last Friday, my oldest two attended a Jane Austen themed Costume Christmas Party/ Book Club. Their book club chose to discuss Emma and since it was close to Christmas, they decided to turn the book club into a costumed Christmas party.

It was so much fun to see all of those kids dressed up in their Regency finery and enjoying themselves together.

We have also been celebrating the O Antiphons every night with two new Wise Men books for our Christmas book collection (O Wisdom):

 

(I had not realized how lacking in Wise Men stories we were), tiny gingerbread house cookies which quite literally flopped (O Lord and Ruler of the House of Israel), root beer (O Root of Jesse), chocolate keys (O Key of David), Texas Sunrise mocktails (O Dayspring) , and crown cookies (O King of the Nations), much like years past.

The past couple of days, I've been doing some last minute Christmas gift making. These little beauties are going to a family we know with 5 girls. I hope you can tell which saints they are.

And the one below is for a special Mass friend of Cupcake's- they like to hunt for Itsy Bitsy Spiders together and practice going to Confession. These little dolls were really fun to paint and I can't wait to see the girls open them.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Etsy love… check out the new widget!

Psssssst… The widget? It's over there - - - - - - - - - -> My new Etsy store!

Spicy Miss Jessica was asking for favorite Etsy shops last week so I thought I would post some of mine here and see if anyone has more to add.

Please don't hate me when I say I'm done with my Christmas shopping. I am obsessive like that. Sorry. It's just the way God made me. There are maybe a few things to pick up locally but for the most part, the major stuff is taken care of. This year, I tried to find as much as I could first on Etsy. I LOVE ETSY! I know you do too. It's amazing the incredibly talented artists that you can find there.

First stop, The Fig and Thimble:

  

This is the shop run by Kimberlee's children, you know, when they are not publishing novels or professionally illustrating picture books. In their spare time, they make delightful little things like original watercolor bookmarks and medieval hoods to sell.

Next is this sweet little toy shop located in the hill country of Texas, Hill Country Woodcraft:

 

Beautiful toys, baby gifts and personalized too! Can I tell you how much I love their stick horses, especially the ones with colorful yarn hair?! Adorable! You know, the one thing that annoys me about Etsy is that sometimes you find something beautiful and then find out it ships from Lithuania or the Ukraine. Grrrrrr argh. Well, never fear, because Hill Country Woodcraft is located in the great state of Texas and ships, well… from the Texas Hill Country. If you don't know what that is, I'm sorry. So very, very sorry.

But then again, sometimes the Etsy gods show you something so beautiful that you drool over it and your eyes are so thankful to have lighted upon it that you don't care if it's in Ireland because it's so gorgeous you keep going back to look at it and try to study it to see if there is anyway you could even come close to reproducing something so exquisite (you can't)… In fact, you aren't even sure that you want to post a link to it for fear that someone will buy it and you won't be able to gaze upon it anymore. Sigh. Since this is the only listing Ailish has right now in her shop, I suggest you follow this talented lady from Cork, Ireland because when she posts more, you are gonna want to know!

And speaking of following people, if you follow this here little blog, you might also want to follow my brand spanking new Etsy shop that just opened, um… like yesterday. It's called Waltzing Matilda Makes…. So, what does Waltzing Matilda make? Not sure right now, just a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I have no big plans for it immediately. But I like the idea of having a place to offer some extras from the fun we have making over here (quilties, dolls, decorations) and maybe a place for Sunshine to offer some of her hand knitted creations eventually (she's totally stoked about that idea). There are only a couple of little items in there right now but I'm working on a few more. I'd love to know what you think of the shop and what things you might like to see offered there in the future. I make no promises!

Other wonderful Etsy places:
Time Machine Jewelry for your favorite Doctor Who fans!

And these cute little name puzzles by sugargliderwoodworks

Dadurdays

A few weeks ago, the lovely Dawn shared an idea that she did with her boys to celebrate her husband's birthday. I showed my kids and they loved it and immediately sat down and came up with ideas to go in a box for their Dad's birthday (which is today!). Funny how "a visit to the Apple store" ended up on both of our lists! (I get the feeling Bill and Sean would get along.) My kids called their dates "Dadurdays" because they are silly like that and like weird sounding words. Each of them also claimed a one-on-one date with Dad.

I didn't have a regular box, but I had this leftover book box from a St. Anne craft that I did a few years ago still stashed in my craft closet. (Happy Feast Day!) So, we painted it blue and green, the colors of his favorite football team. (Go Seahawks!)

While I was taking pictures in the kitchen, where I take almost all of my pictures, I noticed that the colors were the same as my favorite Polish tea for one set. He must be rubbing off on me! Except that he'd much prefer a steaming cup of Joe to my tension mint herbal tea.

 

The Wrath of Crust

Enterprise Pizza Cutter

I think I found the perfect birthday present for my Dad. (It's OK, he doesn't read my blog.) One of my fondest memories was bringing home extras from the hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant I worked in during the summers and watching The Next Generation with my Dad. Is someone you love a Trekkie? Are you?

Game Giveaway!

It might seem quieter around here in the next few weeks, then again, maybe not, you never can tell. We have lots to do and are trying to clean out some areas of our home in the process. I tackled the game cabinet today (aka...the dry bar, because a bar was a necessity for those wild and crazy 80's homeowners, I guess) and found a game that wasn't likely to be played anytime soon but was still in excellent condition. So I'd like to offer it here as a giveaway. I would really like for it to go to a home that will actually use it. It would be very sad to spend even more years collecting dust on a shelf. It's rated for Preschool, ages 3+, 2-4 players.

Eric Carle's ABC Game

If you don't think you will use it but know of someone who will, please feel free to send them over here or enter on their behalf. Just leave your name in the combox (with a link to somewhere I can find your email address or send me an email if you'd like and I will randomly draw a winner Friday at 7am Texas time. I'll cover the shipping charges to anywhere in the US. Local people are free to enter too! Bye!

Garden of the Good Shepherd ~ Give Away!

Sue is hosting a give away for two new Garden of the Good Shepherd Sticker Calendars. Check out the details at her site!

Paper Bead Tenners

These little paper beads are cute and somewhat addictive once you get started (maybe that's just the fumes from the glue) but they are awfully hard on the fingertips. I guess I need to build up some calluses there. So, the prospect of making 59 of these little things for one rosary made us rethink our game plan. This sweet Australian friend introduced me to the nickname "Tenner" for a single decade rosary. Tenners were more our speed. Here are the ones the children made. They had a hard time grasping the "tightly rolled" concept but I kind of like the chunkier look.

From left to right...The Professor's, Sunshine's, Shortcake's (who opted for a St. Francis medal), and BigBoy's (yeah, I helped).

This is mine. Husband gets to pick out his colors tonight. We found that since grownups have bigger hands, we needed spacers in between the beads.

This one is a treat for you. Inspired by Barbara's generosity and to celebrate the halfway point of 40 Days for Life which is coming up on October 13th (if my math is correct which it probably isn't but oh well!), I would like to give this tenner away to a good home. Just leave me a comment in this post if you would like it or know of someone who might and I will draw a name at random on Friday. I am hoping to get it in the mail to the winner in time for them to have it on the 13th. Have a great Wednesday!

Father's Day Gift Idea

Excuse me for just a minute.

Husband, if you are reading this...STOP!!! You already saw my sewing machine on in the spare room and came home unexpectedly at lunch today. You are making it very hard to keep a secret. So, please... do us a favor and go check your fantasy baseball. OK? Thanks sweetie!



Bye!



Go on now.



Have fun!



Sorry about that. I really do trust him not to peek. He is such a good sport.

So, Father's Day is this Sunday and I had an idea to share. I will warn you that this is totally an idea for the craftily minded. Yes, I'm making phrases up. Husband, doing his best to contribute to our Local Cooling Crisis (as opposed to the supposed Global Warming Crisis), fired up the grill for the summer season which meant dusting off those trusty tools that no self-respecting Grill Master would be without. The set he has was a gift from his mom and dad many years ago and came in a beautiful canvas pouch that rolled up and was secured with a strap. I am not sure what happened to that pouch, but the tools have long been lying unsheathed and I wanted to do something about that. We love it when Husband grills. He serves up yummy food and keeps us from having to turn on the oven during these scorching months.

So while thinking about these crayon pouches I was struck with the inspiration for this...
It is made out of heavy canvas and has a protective flap at the top to keep the spears and pitchforks protected. Totally necessary with these tools and a totally perfect place for the children to leave their mark...

A Housewarming Gift

To celebrate Memorial Day and a sweet little girl's birthday, we are going to visit some family in town who also moved into a new house this month. This is the first home that the couple have owned since they have been married so we thought we would bring our traditional housewarming gift of bread, wine and blessed salt (reminiscent of the basket given to George and Mary Bailey):

Bread~ that you may never know hunger
Salt ~ that life may always have flavor
Wine ~ that joy may reign forever!

Blessed salt serves the extra purpose as a sacramental of defending us from evil. The lemon and lime are just for color and the gardenia bush out front was just begging to be shared!

Funny story about this gift... I was picking out the wine and this one's label caught my eye so I grabbed it and never looked at it again until I got home. Then I saw the name... Big House Red. Cute for a housewarming gift... right! Oh wait. They meant "big house" as in The Big House. You know... jail.

Thank goodness they are family!

What housewarming gifts do you like to give (or have received)?

How-to

How to make a last minute Baptism gift.

1. Make sure you place the order for your desired gift well in advance of the momentous day and specify that you need the gift no later than the Friday before.
2. When the package doesn't arrive, call the company and get them to promise to Fed-Ex you another one. Don't forget to stress that the gift must be here in 6 days, no later!
3. Wait.
4. Repeat #3.
5. When the Fed-Ex truck passes your house Friday afternoon, press your nose to the glass and sigh as it rolls on by without even flashing the brake lights.
6. Wait till Husband comes home and make a mad dash to the craft store to pick up a frame with mat, some ribbon and a paint pen. It makes it more fun if you are also racing against the clouds threatening to drench you the minute you step out of your car. In this case, the clouds won!
   
7. Find a picture of the child's name saint and thank the dear Lord that the parents didn't choose some weird name like Zeverai Alera. (Although I guess you could always choose the baby's birthday saint or baptism day saint.)
8. Write the saint's name on the picture mat and "pray for me" underneath it. Be sure you don't center the name on the mat for a more hurried homemade feel!
9. Attach the ribbon to the inside of the frame using staples, glue, or a combination of both. (Don't forget to hope that the parents never try to remove the backing!)
10. Wrap in a pretty paper and be thankful that the parents waited to open the gifts after everyone had left. Whew!