ooo-la-la....

and Oh my goodness! I received, what could be, the most uh-mazing craft book ever today!!! I had some free points from my bank-card rewards and so I shuffled right over to Amazon to use 'em up......embroidery, needle-felting, and one of my most favorite books of all time, A Life that Says Welcome. I had ordered another book, but seems Amazon couldn't put their finger on it so they sent me a message asking if I'd like to cancel the order or be patient, and since it is- after all- a virtue, I decided waiting a bit longer would be the prudent and proper thing to do.

Well GLORY BE! She arrived today... Sew Darn Cute: 30 Sweet & Simple Projects to Sew & Embellish by Jenny Ryan of SewDarnCute.com.

Oh sweet Jiminy Cricket- how's a girl to choose????? I think I'm going to have to just start at the beginning and try every "darn" thing in there! Though I am especially excited because she has a very adorable doll quilt that I think I will try out for Abby's new "Sarah" rabbit she stuffed over the weekend as her handmade Christmas gift! (Cross your fingers for me, first quilting project!)

Sew go take a look...I'm sure you'll just LOVE it! Let me know what you think!

Have you ever seen.....

such a handsome little man? I just had to share! Mmm, mmm, mmm! Eat him with a spoon!

OCC with a side of eye (and tummy) candy

Well, at the time of my last post I was headed to Otium Sanctum which was absolutely fabulous! We were free to bring some of our handmade items to sell for Christmas gifts if we wanted to. There were beautiful aprons, ornaments, and some artwork to support a trip to Peru. Having a special tie with Peru (Andy having gone there to distribute shoeboxes-more on that to come-) I decided I absolutely had to have this beautifully perfect piece for my bedroom. I ask you, is it NOT absolutely fabulous? The colors, the bird, ahhhh fabulousness indeed! The secret? Transparencies. She uses transparencies. Mind blowing.......

"Shoeboxes? What is she talking about?", you may ask yourself. Well let me just tell you....Operation Christmas Child. This is a ministry run by Franklin Graham (yes, Billy's son) where you pack a shoebox full of little toys and hygene items and they send them ALL over the world. The gospel goes with them and it is a magnificent opportunity to be a missionary from your very own livingroom. We have been volunteers with this organization for 12 years and finally our dream was realized when Andy was given the opportunity to distribute boxes to children in Peru in February of 2008. (Andy is the Birmingham Metro Area Coordinator and I'm the Birmingham Community Relations Coordinator).

This is a meaningful chance for you to teach your children the blessing of having much. My children and I sat down this year to decorate, rather than wrap, our boxes, and I think they are little masterpieces! Click on that link up there and go check them out! This is National Collection Week and all boxes must be in by Monday!

And so to the tummy yummy......I love Gooseberry Patch, don't you? Well I checked out some of their Christmas books from the library and found this simple, yet ever so delectable, recipe for Victorian Jam Cake in their Christmas: Book 11. It is going to be a tea favorite, I just know it!

In other news, I am currently hard at work making Christmas gifts. It is so terrible that I can't share what I'm working on because some of the loves of my life actually look at my blog- and wouldn't THAT be a disaster??!! SO instead, I thought I would share some of my favorite "web-lings" of the week: Posie has a beautiful laceweight scarf that I actually dream about here, I want these to COVER my tree, and have you seen how BEAUTIFUL Lolly is?

Be blessed, my friends and family! I'm off to kiss my boy......it's been at least 10 minutes!

So much to post, so little time......

I wonder why I think of so many things and post so few? I think it is because I believe every great blog has great photos, and I just don't seem to constantly have the camera dangling around my neck like Posie. (And may I say how tickled I am that I finally learned how to make links!?!) I envy her photo taking abilities. However, with that being said, I have 2 poor quality photos to share with you of what I consider to be major things.

#1)Today marked the passing of an era. The Foundry came to take "the green car" away. Why so sad, you may ask? This was the first car that I actually got to pick out for myself. It was chosen for me, or a hand me down........I picked it! The color, the interior, the transmission even! Loved this car, until it started behaving like a Ford.

#2) Tonight is one of my most favorite and anticipated nights of the month, Otium Sanctum at my neighbor and friend's house. Otium Sanctum means "Holy Leisure". We meet at her house (we=women) and we discuss a book, currently Eat This Book by Eugene Peterson. After book-talk, we discuss other topics such as handmade crafts, natural remedies/cleaning, etc. One person each month brings a few of their "favorite things" and we pass them around as they tell us why they are so special to them. This is a real treat because I am fairly new to the group and it helps me to learn something intimate about each of the beautiful ladies. Well tonight is my night to share, so I though I would post a pic of my "favorites". Go ahead, ask me some ?s about the pic- I'd be glad to share!

hmmm......

Well I have lots to blog about but no pics to go along with my thoughts- and how interesting is that? I'll try to come back in just a little bit with something interesting....I have an idea....