Sunday, February 14, 2016

Catching up!

Hello out there!

It has been over a year since my last post...just one question...where in the world did the time go?

When you work full time, garden, can, craft and etc, it sure doesn't leave much time for blogging!

I think the biggest highlight for me came at the end of the year. I decided to ditch using Kraft brown paper to wrap presents and instead opted to sew cloth bags. I also came up with the idea to make permanent wood tags using some of my rubber stamps. It was a hit!

I loved the ease of wrapping, no paper to recycle and storage of the bags takes one drawer. Best of all, it is a "green" project. While I bought Christmas fabric on sale recycling any old clothing would have worked. You definitely could reuse men's striped oxfords, plaids etc. Our most popular size used were the smaller ones around 10-12 finished. But if you have children, you would need the larger ones for bigger items for sure. My largest were made to fit shirt boxes etc.













Darling little wooden tags. These were like potato chips...I couldn't stop with just one!







I framed a fun Christmas print and placed it on the mantle(freebie...and who doesn't like free?)



Decorating with galvanized items was big this year. I lucked up and found stars early on at Michael's and made a rustic garland. Next year I am going to get a wash tub for the bottom of my tree!



I made my traditional yearly ornaments this year embroidering felt ornies, made paper medallions and also of course did our seasonal goodie bags. We even included a dozen eggs as gifts to our immediate family(big hit).




And in fall I did a set of prints(also free) which I absolutely loved! The colors fit in perfectly with my Fall decorations. I also made the sunflower topiaries.













Of course the garden harvest in retrospect was great...we canned our usual Jalapeno's, froze greens and ate lots of cukes!

I would say the old homestead did pretty darn good last year.

Downloads for Fall prints here--->http://tatertotsandjello.com/2014/09/free-printable-fall-signs.html
Dowload for Christmas Jeep here-->http://www.craftberrybush.com/2015/11/free-christmas-printable.html

Take care,
Sandy