Giving Thanks

As this is the month of Thanks, I felt the need to draft a post about some of the things I am thankful for.  This is totally off the cuff so I will  make my disclaimer now that this is by no means in any order of importance.  I am an equal opportunity thanker :) 

I am so very thankful to have my girls! Although being a mother can be trying at times, I wouldn't trade it for anything! There are days when I am just about to my breaking point with work, taking care of a home and them as well and I can take one look at them and it melts my hardening heart. I also consider myself to be blessed to have healthy children, some families are not as lucky and I honestly don't know how they can handle such heartbreak.

In this day and current economic hardship I am thankful to have a job. It may not be my dream job, but it keeps a roof over our heads and food in our stomachs so for that I am more than grateful. It seems as though even the jobs we believed to be the most stable are even at risk lately.  I have been at my job for 12 years and am also lucky enough to work with family.

Many people don't have the pleasure or even understand what it means to have a close knit family dynamic, I on the other hand, not only understand, but couldn't be more proud to be from such a crazy, mixed up sort of co-dependent set of relationships. I live down the street from my parents and less than 5 miles from my sister and her family and less than 30 miles away from my brother and his family as well.  I work for my aunt, and my mother and sister work for her also. I talk to my cousins all the time and we are of course all in each others business all the time.  It's just how we work. We all get angry at one another and then act like nothing has happened the very next day.  We have inside jokes, nicknames and embarrassing stories to tell and we don't mind sharing them with anyone. It's greatness! 

Last, but not least, I am thankful for being part of not just a crazy family, but also one that happens to be talented way beyond most in the creative department. My eldest daughter is an extremely talented artist. She spends hours with her head in her sketchbook drawing characters with these amazing details. She is also a writer and has a sense of humor in her writing that is unmistakably her. I have memories of my grandmother sewing doll clothes for me and my mom was blessed with her sewing skills as well. Most of the time, you just have to describe what you want sewn and she can figure out how to make it without even having a pattern.  My sister shares my love of paper crafting and just about anything we can dream up. My brother makes beautiful leather gun holsters and my father has even taken up woodworking. My nephew makes survival bracelets and paints shoes with popular characters as a way to make a few extra bucks.  Not only is my immediate family creative, but my extended family as well. My cousins both scrapbook and refinish furniture and enjoy thrifting just as much as I do. One of my other cousins even married a lovely girl that sews and is pretty handy with a hot glue gun. Even my second cousin bakes and her food is just as pretty as it is delicious. It gives me such a sense of pride to see them create something they are truly proud to show off and share with the world.  

Here are just a few of the projects I would love to brag about that my family has worked on.

A dresser my cousin JoJo refinished. It turned out beautiful!

Stocking my mom sewed for our craft show

the after!

The before pic of a camper my cousin glammed up

Apron my mom made

A holster my brother Charlie made

Some stockings my cousin's wife Jessie made

A farmhouse table my cousin's husband Steve made

some teacher gifts my cousin Lizzie made

Some shoes my nephew William painted

Strawberry cupcake my second cousin Hadleigh baked. Almost too pretty to eat!

Sign my sister Billie embellished. I love the aqua and red combination!

One of my daughter Britney's sketches

Craft Show Sisterly Collaboration

It's been a while since my last post and it feels like time has been flying by at the speed of light. A few months ago one of my sister's best friends brought something to my attention. She runs a creative retreat in Scurry Texas called Whitworth Ranch Retreat. She has an annual craft show and was looking for vendors. My sister and I had already agreed to teach a few workshops the last weekend of November and while working on ideas for that we just kept going with it and decided to participate in the craft fair as well. Since then we've been crafting at a fast and exhausting pace and loving every minute of it! Staying up past 2 A.M. on the weekends and giggling out of pure exhaustion and inside jokes only she and I would find even remotely funny. In the end we've came up with some great things and I'm excited to share them with you.

The first is a Nice List Declaration straight from the man himself! Each one packaged with a tag and glittered jingle bell and includes a return envelope addressed to Santa that your little one can write his Christmas wish list on. I have a ton of these.

The second is this Jingle bell garland.

We glittered the extra large bells ourselves and have them in several colors, white, silver, light green and rust but the rust ones aren't glittered of course. They may not look like much but just a few short minutes and some sections of ribbon and viola! Here is the result of just a little more effort

Aren't they the cutest? We also have smaller jingle bells as well so you get more on the 6 foot span of rope. We did even less to jazz this up but still adorbs!

The larger one my sister has the pleasure of keeping and I'll use the smaller one.
We're selling these as well. $20 for the large bells and $15 for the smaller ones. They don't include all the extra ribbons but we can add that for just a few dollars more in just about any color combination.
There's more to come so stay tuned! I'll be posting more often in the next few weeks! There are some exciting things floating around in our heads and we can't wait to share them!