Boxer Puppy for Christmas and a few other dogs too!

This is my cousin's boxer puppy!
He's so cute!
Lets call him Steve!!!!

Look Steve has his own puppy teething ring!!!
You are too cute Steve!!!

Gussy found a girlfriend!
That's Maggie his favorite Puppy friend!
Um... and Blue no longer has ears...
actually he is no longer living at my house because he had to
move on to greener pastures after his stuffing was systematically removed by two crazy dogs!

This picture just makes me smile!

Enjoy the New Year Holiday and see you in 2009!
Best Wishes!

Last of the Christmas Items to Share

This was the handmade felt Christmas Tree Top that I ended up making for my tree. I couldn't figure out what to do for the top, but after looking online at different things I realized that a dove symbolizing peace was the perfect thing! I modified some ornaments and patterns from online and made my own tree top--it doesn't light up, but it does make me happy to see it!

This was a fun and creative wrapping job I did for my mom's Christmas present. I think she was actually more excited by the wrapping than by the gift. :o)

This was the ornament that I made for Lydia--she has a dachshund named Eddie and I made her a tiny felt version of Eddie. It was so hard to sew! Nothing that tiny again!

Hope everyone had a Happy Holiday!

Handmade Gifts from my cousins

For Christmas my cousins got together and made all sorts of fun handmade items. Here are a few of them:

Salt Dough Ornaments--the star is my favorite!

This is a mug filled with chocolate that the kids melted and poured--
they are peanut butter, white chocolate and milk chocolate
and there are some chocolate covered pretzels in the back too!

Thanks for the Christmas gifts kids! I loved them!

Steph and Michelle's Ornament Swap!

This year my friend Stephanie and I decided to do our own ornament swap at home. We asked every participant to bring six handmade ornaments which we traded with one another. Actually we chose to set them all out on the table and took turns choosing them. They were so fun! There were some really great ornaments and the party itself was a lot of fun to co-host as well!

This is a photo of my parents, Lydia, Stephanie, and myself. We were the ones who came early put everything together and then stayed late to clean it all up! You can tell us by our aprons--even my dad joined in the fun!

This was Stephanie before the party putting together her cookie tree creation!
It turned out lovely!

Here is Gussy waiting for the party to begin and hoping for snacks to fall from the heavens! He's dressed for the occasion too in his cheery little Christmas bandana

These were the ornaments sitting out on the table. We had pinecones, crocheted snowflakes, decorated glass bulbs, felt ornaments using all sorts of fun stitching, beaded ornaments, painted ornaments, and collage ornaments. Honestly it was a great mix and left me wishing that there was one of everything for me to take home!

These are some of the ladies making their choices.
See you all next year at the next ornament swap!!!

Online Ornament Swap (last one)

The last few ornaments from the online ornament swap:

Probably one of my favorites! This one is made from an altered domino!

Cute little handmade house!

Fuzzy little hand felted penguin--he got smushed,
but I think I basically got him back to normal.

There was one more ornament too--but unfortunately someone stole him!
I got the package in the mailbox, but it had been cut open and the ornament had carefully been removed. Someone probably thought they were stealing a gift card or something and not an ornament, hopefully though they at least gave him a place to live instead of just throwing him into the garbage!

Online Ornament Swap

Here are some more ornaments from the online Cake and Pie Ornament Swap that I did on swap-bot.com:

This one is totally creative and was done with a button maker!

This one was done in plastic canvas--it's making a comeback!

(This is a hand felted heart ornament!)

This ornament is my mom's favorite!
On this side it has a tiny glittery deer on it and on the back side
it's equally as cute and has a glittery M on it.
My mom loves it and points it out to me every time she sees the tree!

December 6th

It is currently December 6th, 2008 and I am going to list 6 things that I'm thankful for:

1. Being inside today since the weather is nice and snowy! It's so pretty to look at from the inside and it makes me thankful that I have a house and a nice warm place to be today instead of being without a home or heat--I'm really thankful for that!
2. Children who say the silliest things that make you laugh and smile! Like the kid who wanted to wash a real dinosaur so it wouldn't be "stinked" anymore and a kid at the library who is from another country and tried writting the words "I like you" but instead wrote "I live yes".
3. Subway! They have great cookies! And the sandwiches aren't bad either! Today I splurged and bought myself lunch since I had to work on the south side and the weather wasn't very nice--and it was worth it! It's so nice to treat yourself to something normal that makes the day feel better than normal!
4. Mail from friends or family! I am so excited when I get mail or email from people who I don't see every day--I'm also excited when I do get email from anyone but honestly snail mail is always much more fun to recieve!
5. Books. I work at a library--this should be a given. But I really have to say that I love reading!!! I'm so excited that tonight I'm going to go home and put on an apron, make dinner, bake some treats for my swap tomorrow and then read a book curled up on the couch with my dog. Should be perfect! I might even leave the window blinds open and turn on only the Christmas lights so that it's nice and dark and I can see the snow falling outside! Sounds heavenly to me!
6. New Recipes! I look forward to trying new recipes and tonight I have one set out to make for the party I'm cohosting tomorrow. I can't wait to try it. I hope it turns out fantastic!!! And I also can't wait to try another recipe that I found online recently for some Cranberry and Orange cookies. They sound great to me! So do scones--does anyone else just really want a scone sometimes? :o)

Best Wishes everyone who might see this! I wish you well and can't wait to come and post some pictures from the ornament swap next week!!! Woohoo!!!

Michelle