Well, 2010 is almost done. I, for one, am glad for it to be over. This time last year I had such high hopes for 2010, and it all pretty much went downhill from the start. This time last year I did know that Rabbit photo was closing and that myself and many others would be out of jobs, but at that time I tried to see it as a good thing for me. Time for change and all that. I made plans that when my job finished up in March that I would try and make a real go of my crafting and try to make an actual living out of it. Then we had to have China put down. I was devastated, I was working too hard at that time and my health was suffering for it.
When my job ended, I ended up in hospital and trying to get myself back on track. Then Max got sick. I've found it hard to express just how much this upset me as I sometimes feel a little silly saying how much his loss has affected me, I mean, it's not like he was a person. But since Max died, I have not been the same. I lost a lot of my passion for things. I had lost my little man. After losing Max, again I ended up in hospital with my doctors starting to worry. Which of course made me worry. Which is something I try very hard not to do. And by this stage, it was only June. So for the second half of the year I spent a lot of it grieving and trying hard to move forward. On several occasions I almost shut the blog completely down, I was just finding it too hard to keep everything together. But then I reminded myself of all that I've gained from having this blog, the friendships, the connections with like minded people, and I kept on chugging along.
When the clock ticks over tonight to 2011, I'm hoping I will feel like a bit of a weight will be lifted, and I can then look forward to all the good things that are coming my way. I'm working on my health and fitness. I've made some decisions about where I want my crafty endevours to head. I've settled into my new job and am really starting to enjoy it and even make some new friends. I want to get my passion back for photography, and have started a photography blog for this. And the most exciting thing of all, my long awaited trip to France in April. Yes, 2011 is looking a little brighter indeed.
Thanks for sticking with me this year. Thanks for all your kind words. Thanks for the encouragement when I needed it. Thanks for being awesome. Here's to 2011!
A little while ago I bought myself a little crafty Christmas gift. From the Queen of Craft herself, Jodie. Isn't my little message-bot cute?!
The other gift I tried to buy for myself turned into a sneaky little gift from another Supercrafter, CurlyPops. I'd got myself a tiny ipod for Christmas to get myself motivated to exercise, so I asked Cam to make me a custom gadget case. Well, being the gorgeously generous person she is, she made it, and then sent it to me as a gift. How wonderful is she?!
I managed to snag quite a few beautiful gifts this year, (including a mixmaster, woohoo!) I hope you all scored well too!
Merry Christmas everyone! Eat, drink, be merry, but remember to stay safe, we want to see you all back here after Christmas in one piece.
Much love,
Selina xx
I haven't really been keeping up with this years blog-a-long now have I?
Anyway, today was the first day I have actually done any Christmas related craft. I have had an idea for a vintage style Christmas wreath after seeing all of the gorgeous ones on flickr. But with limited funds, I wanted a more minimalist version of one, and it took me forever to find white tinsel! So here it is. Do you like? This took me all of 5 minutes and I'm really quite happy with how it turned out. I was going to hot glue everything down then changed my mind, so everything is just tied on. Except for the little toadstools. They are little wire picks so the wire is wrapped around the wreath. That way then if I change my mind, I can take it all apart and start again!
Seems someone is a little eager to start Christmas proceedings. Funny thing is, that present actually is for her.
The storms have certainly put a dampener on my hurried last minute Christmas preparations. Should teach me a lesson about not leaving things until the last minute (it should, but it probably won't!). For days now we've had intermittent power, then we've had power and no phone line (no phone line = no internets, arrrrgh!) and out here on acreage we have tank water, so no power also = no water, so nothing is getting done around here at all! And there are more storms predicted every afternoon until Sunday!
Anyway, on a lighter note, I have reduced the prices of my Christmas stock in Handmade Heaven. All my stockings are now only $18, and my Christmas bears are only $60, down from $80. So you'd better be quick!
Sorry about that rather long unscheduled bloggy break there. It wasn't like I've been that super busy or anything, just felt like I needed the time off. Haven't been doing much crafting either, must be the weather! I very briefly even had the idea of just completely shutting the blog down, don't really know what I was thinking there!
Anyway, I hope to be back on board tomorrow continuing with the advent blog-a-long. And if you're one of the few people waiting on things from me, they're coming, I promise!
Oh, and the picture, not really related to the post in any way, just pretty darn cute!
All this procrastinating on housework has seen me spend a lot of time on the internets hunting down Christmassy inspiration. When Car mentioned the other day about wrapping presents it got me thinking about gift tags. So I got searching and have come across a few free printables you could use for gift tags, that I thought I'd share.
First are these gorgeous little gnomes from Happy Zombie. Go here for the full size pdf link to print. The colours are just beautiful.
Check out these super cute vintage style reindeer printables. Go here for the full size link to print.
There is always the Martha Stewart website where you will find heaps of free gift tag printables.
And this site has some really cute tags for stuff made lovingly from your kitchen. Check them out here.
I hope these will help some of you out there, and if you do use them in your giftwrapping, please let me know, I'd love to see what you do with them. Personally, I'm a little smitten with those reindeer!
1.
Christmas wreath with vintage decorations, 2.
Vintage Ornament Wreath, 3.
vintage haberdashery wreath, 4.
Vintage Ornament Wreath 2010, 5.
White iridescent Christmas wreath, 6.
Petit Four Yarn Wreath, 7.
gumdrop wreath, 8.
Christmas candy wreath, 9.
My Gumdrop WreathI'm becoming a little obsessed with Christmas wreaths at the moment. I was looking around flickr for some wreath inspiration and I think I've made it worse! I now want to make all of these! Gumdrop wreaths, vintage ornaments wreaths, they're all so sweet! Oh how I love procrastinating on the (ahem) Spring cleaning.
Miss 13 and I wanted a little rainy day, no real skill involved kind of project this morning. We're meant to be cleaning. Oh well.
I came across this flickr image the other day and absolutely fell in love. So we whipped out the button stash, a polystyrene cone, some pins and some green felt and got making. It was actually a lot of fun. One more Christmas tree to add to the collection.
Have you all got your decorations up yet? Traditionally we put ours up on the 1st of December every year, so ours were up Wednesday. Starting to feel Christmassy now!
In some blog surfing I came across this tutorial from crazymomquilts to make a gorgeous Christmas tree skirt that hopefully I can get done before Christmas actually gets here, but I did put together this little tree skirt from a vintage tablecloth I found in my op shopping travels awhile back. Do you like it? I've decided to put it up for sale in my shop with free postage in Australia.
There is also a little sale happening today over on the Handmade Heaven facebook page where if you purchase one of my bears or a bunny today you'll get your choice of my handmade Christmas stocking (that is currently in stock) for free! Go and check it out here.
Advent blog-a-long #2
Hoping I can get this kinder boy done in super fast time and express posted down to Pip for Softies for Mirabel. Wish me luck!
More creative spaces here. Check them all out, the last for the year!
1.
christmas 09 red light tree, 2.
tinsel tree, 3.
First Etsy Listing!!!!, 4.
Red Christmas Trees, 5.
Vintage Christmas ornaments, 6.
Christmas07, 7.
MAD Trees (Check it out vic-cyn!), 8.
LittleTrees: pink, 9.
finished recycled trees, 10.
Vintage Napco Miniature christmas girl, 11.
Bottlebrush Trees, 12.
Gifties under the Tree, 13.
bleached bottle brush trees two, 14.
some 'whatnot tree' glee..., 15.
Christmas tree, 16.
vintage haberdashery christmas treesWow. December already. I usually look forward to Christmas for months, but this year.....not so much. It really hasn't been the best year for me. But then, just yesterday, I walked into my local $2 shop and spotted the sweetest little silver Christmas tree, just 30cm high, $3.50, and I was sold. Sold on the little tree, and sold on Christmas 2010. So I'm going to move forward, I have so many things to be grateful for and so many things to look forward to, how can I not get excited about Christmas this year.I'm going to join in again this year with Car and her advent blog-a-long. I've got a few Christmas themed posts planned and hopefully a tutorial or two (if I can manage it!), why not head over to Car's blog and let her know you're blogging along too!
