Eggplant Leather Mini Cross Body Bag

 

 This color was made for this bag...when I made the first little cross body bag I dyed it red.  After I made it I thought it would be beautiful in a deep eggplant color...

 This color is gorgeous because it's so rich....

It looks really striking with the natural leather closure and strap.

 While we were trying to get some photos the chickens decided to visit...they are just sure you have food for them every time you come outside.....

 Very happy with this little beauty...it went to my niece as a Christmas gift.  She loves purple and I couldn't wait for her to have it.

I have another purse to share that is a different style.  It is done in the two tone, and I fell in love with it.  It was hard to let it go...I really like the colors and natural leather mixed together.

 

A new color to add to our Etsy selection for sure.

The chicken will NOT be on the Etsy shop...

We have some new ideas for bags to add...I like to carry small bags but I know most ladies like something larger so I think it's time to add some bigger options to our shop...

Double Sided Stampled Charm Bracelet

 Hard to believe it's 2014 already.  So much going on since my little son started school this fall...We weren't sure what to expect with our Etsy shop through the Holiday season and we were very busy right up until Christmas.  We feel so blessed that our customers choose to purchase our things out of all the many talented shop owners who are creating unique handmade items

 This bracelet is special...mostly because of who I made it for.  The charms are double sided and this is the first time I've stamped on the front and the back.  I think it works because it's 20 gauge sterling and anything thinner probably wouldn't handle that very well...

 When we switched our son to all day kindergarten I had to start driving him to and from school.  So I met another Momma while waiting with him in the mornings and afternoons...

 Every great once in awhile you meet someone and almost right away you just have a connection--

We just seem to have so much in common...
During one of our conversations our Etsy shop came up 

 Her husband bought her this bracelet over the Holidays...
and I was so excited to make it for her.  
It's always fun to make things for people that we know and especially people that you know will really appreciate it.

We had a wonderful Christmas this year and as usual I had some tools on my wish list.  My husband bought me a soldering kit so I can attempt to teach myself how to solder sterling, copper and brass.  My ultimate goal is to learn how to bezel set stones and to make my own closures for my jewelry...we'll see!

Homemade Caramel Candies

The end of last week I got to spend the day with some of the best girls in the world!  
My Mom and nieces and two sweet girls that are like sisters to me...we spent the whole day baking and making and it was such a great day.

We tried this for the first time...

Caramel Candy recipe from Martha Stewart
They are amazing!

These white and chocolate covered cherries from one of my mom's recipes...

These chocolate and toffee covered pretzels....
So much yummy stuff!!!

Letter Gift Tags

My big gift tag idea this year was to use my letter stencils and the fun new metallic sharpie markers in gold, silver and bronze....

My stencils are well used *translated* gunked up with acrylic paints...so I made the lines thicker to clean up all the jagged edges left after I traced them.

Doodlebugs real name starts with an "S" so of course he keeps insisting that all the "S" tags are his...how do you explain to a 5 year old at Christmas that other people's names start with "S" as well?!??!?!?

We have a few repeat letters so I added some other colors so I could tell whose gift was whose....

you could write the full name on the back as well...

Coke bottle Christmas Decorations

 My husband LOVES Coke in glass bottles...

 So any time he spies them we have to buy some...

 These are the Holiday bottles for this year

 I decided to wash them out and keep them in our window....

 Some clippings from our tree and some candy canes....

Simple and easy.

Handmade Christmas Tree Decorations

Made some trees:) After seeing some ideas on pinterest --

last year right after the Holidays I pinned the wire ones because I had just made a slew of wire stars...

See that post here....

I had thought about using cardboard cones then as forms to help make the wire ones.  My sister used them to make angels years ago recycling cereal boxes and pop boxes 

(or soda boxes whichever you prefer...)

The styrofoam ones are expensive--

Or maybe I'm just cheap

Then this morning I saw this post...
Time to make some trees!

At this point I decided to spray paint our little cones just in case the salts or whatever I put on them didn't cover completely 
we used silver and gold of course--

We colored some Epsom salts for the 3 small ones. Rolled the trees in Mod Podge and then the salts.... 

And that was probably a good idea since the salts don't really cover it solidly...glitter would probably have been a better choice.

The one on the far left is gold with lentils glued on...

They're a nice little handmade decoration to add to the ever growing collection at our house...

Clothespin Snowflake tutorial link

Last year when I finally caved and started on pinterest I pinned these from Stephanie over at Under the Table and Dreaming...
Here's a link to her tutorial 
Tutorial from Under the Table and Dreaming

This is my version that Doodlebug helped me make....there's ALOT of glue on these snowflakes!!!!    
I chose to paint ours silver but this is a nice fairly inexpensive Christmas ornament.  We already had a huge bag of clothespins but even if you had to buy them they aren't expensive....

After we made some of those Doodlebug started making a bunch of these little angels....(the star is a separate thing I made last year)
Smart boy!  

Christmas Decorations

Love these vintage ornaments my husband bought for me last year...especially the box and graphics...

Doodlebug found 4 pinecones at Mamaw and Papaw's house and insisted on bringing them home "momma will use these to decorate" 

oh yes she will!  So I added those to our bookcases after lining the glass with wrapping paper...

My pottery barn twig reindeer knockoffs....

He also wanted garland around our dining room doorway so we decided on a string of lights with cupcake papers.

  He picked the red and green polka dots and I chose the silver... Mighty chose snacks :)

Hanging stars this year over the mantel...

With lights of course....

And I did a post on these last year.  I used water balloons and paper mache to make these....

And our old sled by the front door....