helping haiti

I have a list of blogs I check out every day... mostly crafty. Through my bloggy travels today I came across The Rusted Chain. For every 'Blessed' necklace you buy from her Etsy store, she'll donate $10 of the purchase price to an organization that is helping people in Haiti.


I snapped one up! It's a beautiful piece and I love that part of the proceeds go to a great cause.

scrappy

I know I've talked about my sewing and crochet, but did you know I also scrapbook? Well... I have the supplies to scrapbook, anyway. I get around to using the stuff maybe once a year.

So, I needed to write some thank you notes for gifts I received at my birthday party... I whipped a couple up this morning. I like to keep my designs simple. The blue one is my favorite.

party!

We had a good time at my birthday party! People played Blackjack, Scattergories, Scene It, Sorry, and Apples to Apples. Everything went as planned! It seemed to go so fast, though... almost too fast. I went with a blue and white snowflake theme, so we hung snowflakes from the ceiling and had blue and white balloons at every table. The only thing I forgot to do was take a picture of my birthday cake before we ate it! Bummer.

Hubby had a good time playing the dealer for blackjack. That was the most popular game at the beginning of the party!

quick 'n dirty sewing

Well... it wasn't dirty, but it was definitely quick! I found this tutorial at about 8:15 tonight and by 11:00 (with breaks for TV and just plain laziness) I had a set of 5 letters. I printed out only the ones I needed to spell the name of a special little girl whose birthday is coming up soon. I used different fabrics for the tops, the same fabric for all of the backs, and sandwiched felt in between. I also trimmed them with pinking shears instead of regular scissors. This is my first official (completed) quilting project. Yay!

I still need to wash and dry them to get more of a "ragged" look. But that's for another day. Now I'm off to bed... tomorrow is our first day (with kids) back from Winter Break and I need to get some sleep.

Here's hoping my birthday tomorrow is better than last year's birthday!

cheese galore!

I'm riding the party planning train and nothing's gonna stop me! In the last two days, hubby and I have chosen decorations, worked on the menu, planned a playlist, and finished the invite. I found this cheesy poem on the internet and tweaked it a little, but I still roll my eyes every time I read it, haha.

Since I have a winter birthday, I went with a snowflake theme for decorations. There will be snowflakes hanging all over the place and, if I can find it, snowflake confetti on the tables.

happy new year and other fun stuff!

Happy New Year! Things in the real world have been hectic and weird and all kinds of emotions rolled up into December and Christmas. I'm ready for a fresh start in 2010! And on that note...

This is my 100th post! Yay! I'd like to celebrate with a crafty swap with any of you! Leave a comment with your email, or email me at seaschell AT gmail DOT com and we'll make it happen!

I did finish a few crafty gifts for Christmas. I've already posted about the coffee cozies I made for one of my sisters and a friend. I also painted a painting for my sis... we went to the Guggenheim in NYC in October and she loved all the abstract paintings with circles. I painted a circle painting just for her, as a gag. I negelected to take a picture of it, unfortunately.

I also finished the fabric dollhouse using the pattern from UK Lass in US. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the pattern was to follow and how cute it is! I bought a Fisher-Price King and Queen to go inside. I wanted to make little dolls but the recipient is barely two and I didn't want to present her with a choking hazard.

Sorry about the really bad photos. Make sure you ignore the garbage can in the first one and my snowflake pajama pant-clad knee in the second one, haha!

And finally... this week is my birthday! I'm having a fun party next Saturday and I'm super excited!