Frou Frou Gypsy in Combat Boots

I made this bag from 2 pair of recycled camo pants ....and lined it with some fabric leftover from another project. I just really love this bag. I hope the recipient loves it as much as i do. It was rather hard to make since the camo pants were rather well put together...disassembling and reassembling was a daunting task. i actually shattered one sewing needle on my new Bernina putting this little baby together. Once it was finished i felt it needed a little something so i hand embroidered this little rose and vine on the pocket flap. hope you all are wrapping up your holiday shopping and crafting! won't be long now!

my DD is modeling this scarf I made for a Christmas gift. It is made from three recycled Tee shirts. I just love it. It is so soft! two of the tee shirts were old faves....they just wore out. The third was pulled right from my drawer and sacrificed for the sake of the gift. I needed another Tee and it was the right color.

At least for me! my hub and mom chipped in to buy me this fantastic Bernina 230! yay! they were even kind enough to NOT make me wait til Christmas to get it! I am super happy about my new baby! I also wanted to share pics with you of this needlepoint rug I found while i was thrifting for $3.88!!! It is in perfect condition! It is sooo pretty! It had to come home with me!

I made a set of cards for my mom for Christmas. She send out a million cards a year and i thought it would be nice to give her some so she didn't have to buy so many..and we all know handmade cards are the best! this is the wedding/anniversary card, quite lovely! there were two of these... and this is a birthday card i think there were three or four..wait maybe only two. oh well. I'll show the rest later! always cyndi

We had a great Christmas, i hope you and yours did too! The kids got up at 5 a.m. Christmas morning...but it was worth it, they were so excited. We had three days of celebrations and now we are taking a breath before all the New Year's hoopla begins. I thought i would pause and share with you some of the things i like to allow myself to indulge in during the holidays..... Wearing Pajamas all day...and maybe even getting a new pair! Having several Christmas trees! all in one cozy house! apple cider, my mom always has it! New Calendars! yeah, i am a bit OCD and i love them!!! a whole new year to plan! watching Christmas movies!!! eating cookies for Breakfast!...or lunch...or snack...or anytime! baking pies and cookies and all sorts of yummy goodies! being lazy! SHOPPING! even better AFTER Christmas shopping!

Everyone in my family has a stocking. Me, DH, and both kids. Even my parents have stockings...they hang at their house, but we fill them up! I don't think you ever out grow stocking! Stockings are fun!!! We put a big combination of things in our stockings: food, silly things, fun things, anything that will fit, and sometimes things that don't! Growing up when i had pets, even they had stockings! Also i had a "special stocking" that would be on my door. When Santa came, he would slip a candy cane filled with M&Ms into it...so if i woke up during the night, i would know if he had been there or not yet! i had a BAD habit of getting up at 3 a.m. on Christmas morning! I know my parents loved that! My kids thankfully, don't get up so early! i usually beat them up in fact!

Dear Santa, All i want for Christmas this year is for my kids to enjoy the day and not get too wrapped up in all the presents. Help me, as well as them, to remember that we are celebrating Christ's birth even though we are the ones getting the presents. If there is room in your sleigh, i'd like a bone folder, and new blades for my paper trimmer. thanks cyndi These little goodies are what i sent to school with my kids for their classmates. I got the suckers at the Dollar Tree, 8 per package! I made the tags with SU! punches, ink and stamps. Added some glitter and ribbon! ta -dah! These are the gingerbread people i made for the playgroup kids. Here's a close up of the tags...SU! again as well as some stuff that's just been hanging around! hope you all are almost ready for the big day!

The perfect gift. How elusive? Have you ever given it? Received it? Do you even look for it, or do you stick with what's on the list and a sure bet? Honestly i have such a bad memory, i can't remember what i got..except for one year i got THE Barbie Dream House and it was totally amazing! I remember being so happy that Santa had brought me that! I would LOVE to find the perfect gift, but i don't think it is something you can stalk. I think it just happens when you least expect it. Like today, hub was showing me something online, and i found the perfect gift for the Duchess. Since we don't "do" Christmas gifts, it will have to wait until her B'day or until i just can't stand it and have to buy it for her. I'd tell you what it is, but she might read this!

As a kid, my Papaw always "played Santa" and handed out the gifts. He would always sit on the floor next to the tree and say a hearty "HO, HO, HO!" as he called out names and passed presents around. I guess i never really thought much about it; that is until now. Now he's gone and who passes out the gifts? who has the honor of filling his Santa boots? The answer really is, no one. Now it is more of a casual thing with most of the adults just passing out things from under the tree. We try and make the kids (no longer us...they're our kids now!) unwrap one by one so we can actually see what everyone gets! We typically go youngest to oldest..but they get antsy waiting on their turn. there are 9 of them! It's interesting to me how two people, my grandparents, got married, had three kids, who had 6 kids, who had 9 kids! so what use to be a family of 5, is now a family of 28, minus three who have passed, leaving us at 25 people! That in and of itself is a ...