Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope your day is filled with love, laughter, delicious food, and surrounded by those you love!  Theresa  xoxo

Sending it out pretty...

 So I was looking at my large amount of wool scraps and a lot of them are pretty good size,  some still full sweaters, and not wanting to keep a metal trash can full of wool just getting dusty I decided to start wrapping my etsy sales in wool!  pretty lightweight, economical, wraps easy, and truth be told I will do anything to not fight with tape!  I even hot glue my presents shut if I need to!  yup, I said hot glue!  I have been sending out my sales in pattern paper, and I will still continue to do that, but maybe for the fragile, smaller items, this will work even better.

 Plus my sewing machine is always out so this was really easier than wrapping in paper!

 The photo above is the little ceramic bear I sold, all wrapped snuggly in bubble wrap, and sealed with ,gulp, one piece of tape... I could not let you think I DON'T use it at all, I just prefer to use what I'm more compatible with!

Here is said sweater sleeve...

I turned it inside out and sewed the bottom shut, then I pinched the corners and sewed them so that the bag would be able to stand up.

Here is what the corners look like pinched and sewn.

Turn the bag right side out... here are the corners now, pretty, right?

Now, here is the little bag to put the bear into, I even ran the sewing machine over the twine a few times to hold it in place.  I promise it took way longer to write this post than it did to make this bag!

I placed the bear in the bag, wrapped the twine a couple of times, tied a bow, poked twine through the gift tag and tied a knot, then on the other side, I did the same with one of my cards.  Place the whole thing in a shipping box, TAPED that shut (the post office frowns on me bringing the machine in there!)  One down and two to go!
With the holidays fast approaching, I am listing lots of goodies on etsy, see my stores links on the sidebar, and well, I know that I like getting a special package in the mail so I'm sure my customers do too!  How do you package your goods?  Inquiring minds want to know...
So I've been sitting here trying to play with blogger this morning, giving 612 a face lift.  Right now I'm at moderate frustration level, but earlier... oh my gosh, off the charts!  It's a good thing I was doing this stuff while little people were still sleeping!  I'm just saying...
(with the new changes, I realized that I REALLY need to work on my camera skills!) geesh.

Thanks so much everyone for all of you love and support from the last post, it was truly overwhelming and I am so incredibly grateful for each and every one of you!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Theresa xoxo

THIS JUST IN... DID YOU KNOW THAT TODAY IS WEDNESDAY?  somehow it slipped my mind that it is WW... I'm heading on over to link up with Kathleen over @ Faded Charm, come join the party!

THANK~FULL

Thank~FULL. Yup, that's what I am. FULL OF THANKS. Why you may ask? well let's see...
I married a wonderful man who believes in me and knows that everyday even though I am far from perfect, I am a good human being. period.
I have 5 incredible kids. truly. I love them more than life itself and the best part is... they love me in return. truly. and you know what? they believe in me too.
I have been blessed with the gift of creativity. It's by far my favorite gift from above. (besides family) I have been given many, mind you, like the ability to snort when I laugh, the gift of
being able to create something from almost nothing, the gift of my mothers looks, along with the ability to recognize a mood swing (she had them too) and put myself in a time-out when I do, knowing that time-outs are a GOOD thing, the gift of compassion, the gift of tolerance, the gift of a quick wit... which supports the snort, the gift of good health and the ability to take care of myself and those people I mentioned above, a roof over our heads, and a fire in the fireplace.
This year has brought me even more blessings, the courage to overcome my fear of the computer, and because of overcoming this fear I have met some really wonderful friends on here. I have been encouraged, and supported by some of the most amazing women, I have never had the honor of ever really 'meeting' in person and yet they reach out to me when I find that I need them most. You have given me the creative outlet that I needed to really showcase the art that I love to do. You have listened when I rambled and oooh and aaaahed when I showed a new creation and that has been a huge blessing to me. It filled me with more and more inspiration. So I am sending the biggest bear hugs out to all of you right now to say THANK YOU for your friendship and love!

Now not to take away from this mushy thank you but I have had some yuck thrown my way this week here on the blog and I need to clear the air so I can move on...
If I have ever confused you into thinking that I came up with the pumpkin construction of all the the pumpkins that I made and showed you then well I'm sorry... the first time I posted them I put a link to the tutorial here. and then a couple posts after that I sent you back to that post. I have been informed by the person who wrote the tutorial that she was not pleased that I did not include a link every time I showed a pumpkin. I did not know that it was expected. Quite honestly I assume the same people come here time after time so they already saw the link, I am sorry for the oversite. There is now a link in the comments section of those posts and you can find it there. I did not 'create' the original idea of the pumpkin made this way, however, over the years of doing shows with my sister we used to make wool pumpkins and they were pretty similar but not as easy to create. I mean who doesn't like the no-sew tutorials on here? Anyway... ours were almost identical to the ones I made this year, only this year I added the rosettes, thanks to the many tutorials out there for them, and the bling, because when we did shows we were making lots of primitives. So the idea for the construction and the original tutorial were not mine, it is here. Now that being said, I was offended by the fact that I was called a copycat and not creative enough to come up with ideas on my own. I was offended that I was considered beneath a person who 'made a living doing this' while apparently me making and selling things to help with our bills was less important because my income doing it was not as large and so was referred to as a hobby. Just to set the record straight, this is not a hobby to me, I am doing everything I know how to and have the time for to create a business for myself. All in all here's what I want to say, if you visit here on a regular basis than I hope you KNOW who I am. I hope that I have been able to convey to you that I am an honest, hardworking and upstanding individual, I am kindhearted ( I swear) and live by the golden rule, something else my mom blessed me with, I get my feelings hurt pretty easily (more of a curse than a blessing) but when I have made a mistake I apologize. I have done that and I guess the one last offense is not being forgiven after apologizing. I am a person of faith and in that faith I know where my heart is and so does HE, so I'm going to take comfort in that.
In the big scheme of things, this is trivial. Max's best friend has leukemia. that is not trivial. people are hungry. that is not trivial. people are lonely. that is not trivial. soldiers are dying. that is not trivial. people cannot afford health care. that is not trivial. I get what this is... but I really needed to get this off my chest so that I can move on. Today was my first day to get creating again and it was good to be covered in glitter.

Thanks for listening... I'm getting off of the couch now. do you charge by the hour?

I want to give credit to Jessica over at Craftily Ever After for the thanksgiving definition on my chalkboard. She has a wonderful download of the definition printed on burlap to share with you. It is actually longer than what you see, but I couldn't fit it all. Thanks for sharing Jessica!

I'm linking this up to the Give Thanks party over at the Vintage Nest, what a great idea for a party! Thank you Lynn xoxo

Thanks everyone! Theresa xoxo

THANK YOU...

THANK YOU TO ALL OF THOSE WHO HAVE SERVED OR ARE SERVING NOW. XOXO