Cute Kid Gift Tags

I can't believe I forgot something really important in my last post! The gift tags!

Since discovering all the wonderful gift tags that talented indie designers generously make available as free online downloads/printables, I have never again bought a mass-market store product. The gift tags I used on my children's end-of-year teacher thank you gifts were these super cute blank tags from The Small Object. I love how they feature little kids .. just perfect!

I have assembled a list of downloadable/printable holiday gifts tags that I love, but these cuties I found on this fabulous gift tag compilation site at Living Life As Art. It not only covers holiday themed tags, but a whole bunch of all-occasion tags too. The great thing about this site is that it shows images of the all gift cards, so you don't have to click through each link to see what they look like. It is image intensive and the page takes a while to load .. but it's worth it!

Twilight Quiz: Which Twilight Female Are You?

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

"You are thoughtful and care very deeply for your family. A loving home is of great importance to you and you always try to make people feel welcome. Although you have a great capacity to love, you also have a great capacity to hurt, so at times you can be sensitive. You're firm when you need to be, but people trust your judgment and appreciate the kind way you always handle things."

Who doesn't like a bit of online fun now and then? If you take the quiz, please share who you would be!

The Start of a Beautiful New Year!

It was so hard staying away from blogland for my break!! I kept straying over to the computer and then having to tell myself ...no... go back to the studio or..... go start getting out the cookie ingredients for when the kids wake up. LOL!! I missed you all terribly, but I had fantastic Christmas and New Years with my family and got spend some real quality time with my little ones.

I have so much to share! But today, lets start with some mail goodies. The sweet and lovely Gracie at Gracie Bella Buttefly held a giveaway and I won some of her fantastic cards! Look at how prettily they were wrapped! So pretty I felt bad about opening them :)And here are the beautiful notecards inside that pretty wrapping - complete with little envelopes and matching stickers! Sooo cute! She is such a talented paper artist and I can't wait to use these!! Thank you Gracie!!
I also had the incredible good fortune to win the holiday blog giveaway at ARTful Paper Dreams! I was a new reader of Jen's lovely blog and was just overjoyed to win some of her lovely creations. The level of detail and meticulous construction on her tags is amazing! So hard to use them on someone else's packages! :)
This one is long overdue being posted. I received these pretty pink earrings from Roxi a few months ago. I just started wearing them right away and forgot to take a photo ... but I saved her stunning earring card (handmade from start to finish and perfectly complimenting the earrings) and have reunited the earrings and card for this shot. They are beautiful Roxi!!


And now .. to start the new year, two gifts for you! I have eclectic tastes so these are a bit non-traditional, but maybe that will be good since they will be a little different! First, a gift of beauty. This new retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" with watercolors by Angela Barrett is worth a look for the beautiful, ethereal pictures alone. The occasional two page spreads are breathtakingly gorgeous!
And second, a gift of mystery. If you've ever seen the movie "Lost in Translation" and wondered what Bill Murray whispers to Scarlett in that final scene ... here it is revealed! Personally, I had a hard time making it out even after the tinkering, but what he says does make perfect sense. If you haven't seen the movie, it's very good and I highly recommend it.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday with your loved ones and that 2008 is off to a great start for you!!!

When Your Son Wants to be a Slytherin

Autumn weather is here at last! The rains have returned to Oregon and the relatively sudden transition from 90 to 50 degrees has made the trees just snap into the most glorious show of fall I think I've ever seen here.

Isn't this "Autumn" sign cool? You can make your own custom sign at Spell With Flickr. I saw this over at Pear Street Studios and had to share. Flipping the letters to see all the styles available is so addictive! :)

And fall means baking! Here are some super yummy pumpkin muffins (recipe courtesy of Natalea) the kids and I baked. They vanished quickly, but I managed to shoot this just before they were all devoured. We did a cream cheese frosting and it was delicious with the pumpkin spice cake.

If you are a Harry Potter fan you know there are four houses you can belong to at Hogwarts: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Harry Potter and his friends belong to Gryffindor. So, if you like Harry Potter, shopping for related Gryffindor gear is no problem. He is after all the hero of the story. But what if your son loves Malfoy, a member of Slytherin? What if your son wants to be a Slytherin??? Well, your shopping options, at least around here, just got a lot more limited. So.... with the colder weather and my little guy needing a scarf, I whipped up a Hogwarts style scarf in the Slytherin colors of green and silver. Now my son is super happy wearing his Slytherin gear, and so is Mom knowing her little Slytherin will be warm and toasty this fall! (Personally, I'm a Hermione girl :) but everyone has their own favorite)

For those that knit, it's a really simple pattern, its knits up super fast (mine took 2 days), and you can make it in any of the house color combinations. For a Slytherin scarf: Lion Brand Chenille yarn in Forest Green & Antique White (2 skeins each) knitted in garter stitch on size 17 needles. Use yarn doubled throughout. Cast on 12 stitches. Continue for 11 rows then switch to the other color. Repeat until you have 4 stripes of each color. Fringe with alternating colors (see pic).

There are more swap paper dresses to come! They still needed a little more time in the studio primping for their "fashion shoot" :)

It's Pumpkin Latte Time

The air here is starting to have that morning chill and Starbucks has pumpkin coffee lattes back on the menu -- fall is coming! This almost-fall week I went shopping for goodies. Look at these gorgeous lacy trims I found this weekend! Some pretty mini-flowers and a great strand of miniature faux pearls too (love this). I also bought some really cool victorianesque blacked silver & "diamond" buttons. Yum! I can't wait to try these out on the paper dresses I'm designing!

In addition to happily crafting paper dresses, I'm starting to amass stock for the Art & Antiques fair I'll be vending at in two weeks. And getting a bit stressed at all the preparations I need to make. Making LOTS of nests and bird tiles of course. Those new little painted bird earrings will be there. Also, these new little felt earrings I'm experimenting with. I'm calling them "flirty felts" and I think I will put them in the web boutique too.


Also, I have recently become aware of a fantastic resource for swaps. If you have ever just missed a swap sign-up, had trouble finding a swap to join, or hosted a swap and wanted to advertise it, this is a blog you will want to check out! I'm just in love with the idea of having a central location to check for cool swaps. Maybe I'm the last one in blogland to discover SwapDex, but if not, I wanted to share this awesome resource with you. Speaking of swaps, everyone who signed up for the paper dress swap should have received an Official Paper Dress Swap letter by now and know who your partner is. If not, please e-mail me ASAP. Thanks!

This last item may seem like it's coming out of left field in an arts/crafts blog, but it's not really given that my degree is partially in Japanese Art. I found this hilariously funny satirical commentary on learning the Japanese language. If you don't study Japanese, it probably won't mean much to you, but if you do or ever have, I thought it was funny and you might too :)
(A scene from "The Tale of Genji" courtesy of Wikipedia)