Holiday Happenings...

I do hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas! I have had a wonderful visit with friends and family. My two boys are home right now which is always a treat for us. I hosted Christmas Eve. dinner in my home, the menu included Pork tenderloin drenched in an apricot sauce, a rice dish with apricots, mint and slivered almonds, fancy salad, baked potatoes and more! We can't forget the appetizers, I think there were 4 in all. It was so much fun!

In our family we eat dinner, do a gift exchange and then play bingo for prizes. All in all is was a success, yes I was very very tired from all the work to get this together, and Christmas day I was not feeling to well, but I have recovered as of today. The hard part is having all the hustle bustle and then everything winds down and there is a bit of a let down. Tomorrow my oldest son travels home and then the day after my youngest son will go.

Here is a peek at my table before everyone arrived for dinner. On the plates you see our traditional party poppers.

The view from the other side. You can see outside and the winter wonderland we have going on out there!

 

Here is what I woke up to awhile back, if you look at my roof you can kind of tell how much snow there is. I think when we walked out in the yard it was to our knees!

Here is the view off my front porch, this was crazy! Out in front you see my flower planter almost completely engulfed.

 

My guests have arrived and plates are loaded. As you can see everyone is wearing funny paper crowns. I know it is silly but it is tradition and we get them in our party poppers.

 

 Here are my boys, Mitch my oldest on the left and Tyler my youngest on the right.

 

 

This is Christmas morning. I must be nuts for posting this picture.... why? here we are fresh out of bed, no showers and out of it. The look on our faces comes from the typical Holiday busy schedule and yes sugar and food hangovers.

 

This is my hubby Dan giving our furry kids thier stockings, this is probably the funnest part of Christmas for us! The dogs truly love getting toys and snacks

 

I will make that my last picture so I don't bore you all to sleep. As far as patterns or handmade's, well that had to be put away until the holidays are over. I will work on finishing up my next pattern soon and look forward to designing many new ones in the new year.

 

Happy New Year!

Jody

 

 

And The Winner Is....

The lucky winner of the blog hop giveaway and all it's lovely ornaments is........Carol of Buttermilk Creek Farms! Congratulations Carol. This has truly been Carol's year for winning giveaways, she has been blessed and I could not be happier for her! Carol happens to be one of my good online buddies and truly she is one of the sweetest, most lovely person you will ever meet. I know every ornament will be loved and appreciated, not to mention they are going to a home where they will fit in perfectly! My reindeer pillow is coming your way my friend.....

 

Sneak Peek!

I suppose I should wait until the pattern is completely done to reveal it, but I just couldn't wait to give you a peek at this little reindeer! I just finished him up today. This next pattern will feature the reindeer you see here and who else but Santa! I have yet to design the Santa, but can see him in my head. Like I said in an earlier post, I am not going to worry about what season it is and just do the patterns as I get time for them. This little guy is painted, yes I do spend a lot of time on the painted part of my designs, but that is entirely up to you. He could be a quick and easy project if you omit the painting and make a simple face and no fur. Here he is....

His little antlers are so much fun to make, I'll tell you just how I did them in the pattern! 

If you haven't already, sign up for the blog hop giveaway going on right now! See my post below or click on the sidebar picture to get the rules for signing up. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Mulit - Artist Blog Hop --- Begins Now!

 

 

Carly Smith from Boggy Bottom Bayou is hosting this event and

I am so happy to be a part of it!

This blog hop will run from Monday, December 10th through Sunday, December 16th. A winner will be picked Sunday night and announced on our blogs on Monday, December 17th!

Here are the rules to be entered to WIN!! Please follow all 3 rules!

1. You must visit each of the 7 blogs. (They are listed below.)

2. Once there, you must sign up to be a follower. If you already follow the blog, please say "I'm already a follower." in your comment to enter ... see Rule #3.

3. After you sign up to be a follower of the blog, you must leave a comment in the comment section asking to be put into the giveaway.

That is it! We will enter your name in the giveaway!

One lucky person wins it ALL!!

SO LET'S GET STARTED!!! ---- There are 7 Artist's participating. The above pictures are numbered according to the Artists listed below. They are:

1. Carly Smith (our Host) from Boggy Bottom Bayou -Carly is giving away a gorgeous set of vintage, mercury glass and lamp work bead ornaments. Oh so pretty and very vintage! As a BONUS ... (If she get's 20 new followers on her blog), Carly is giving away a 10" Santa in an adorable quilted outfit! (See middle picture #1) Love him!!

Click on the link below to go to Carly's blog.

http://boggybottombayou.blogspot.com

2. LeeAnn Kress from Charmed Confections - I am giving away a cute set of six Charmed Confections Cupcakes in a holiday tin, along with 2 candy cane ornaments and 2 lollipop ornaments. All handmade! (See bigger pictures below!)

Click on the link below to go to my blog ( Hee Hee! You're already here!)

http://charmedconfections.blogspot.com

3. Jody Johnson from Sweet Bear Creek Whims - I am giving away a beautiful handmade reindeer pillow. (LeeAnn (above) loves her's .. she has one!) She says she won't want to part with it! I hope you think so too!

Click on the link below to go to my blog

http://sweetbearcreekwhims.blogspot.com

4. Brenda Griffith from The Rusty Thimble - Brenda is giving away the sweetest snowman ornament that will grace your tree! Can you say ..."too sweet!"

Click on the link below to go to Brenda's blog

http://therustythimble.blogspot.com

5. Mary Bell from The Mary Bell.com -Mary's giveaway is a knitty bitty knit couture Santa sweater set. It comes with hanging hardware underneath that is a poseable wyreman made from recycled cat-5 wire. So cute! Santa needs one of these for his tiny elves!

Click on the link below to go to Mary's blog

www.themarybell.com/blog

6. Nicoletta Farrauto from Niky's Creations -Niky is giving away an incredible cross stitched pocket keep with a darling cross stitched reindeer and tree on it. So pretty! Love that you can put fresh herbs or sprigs of evergreen in it! It will smell so wonderful!

Click on the link below to go to Niky's blog

http://niky-nikyscreations.blogspot.com

7. Hope Rayel from Hope Rayel Handmade Dolls - Hope is giving away a sweet, little angel doll ornament to fly around your Christmas tree this holiday season. Every tree needs a angel and this was is so sweet indeed!

Click on the link below to go to Hope's blog

http://hoperayel.blogspot.com

Here is the big picture of my offering! Thanks for stopping by and Merry Christmas!

 

 

Blog Hop Giveaway

I wanted to post a heads up for all of you who love get your name in on all the wonderful blog giveaways that happen this time of year. Carly of Boggy Bottom Bayou is hosting this newest giveaway. www.boggybottombayou.blogspot.com

The blog hop starts on Monday, December 10th and runs until Sunday, December 16th til 5pm pacific time. A winner will be picked that evening and announced on all the participating artist's blog sites Monday morning, December 17th!  
This will be another group effort .... one winner will take it all!! I should have all the rules for entering Monday, so hop on back here then to get yourself entered into this giveaway.  Here is my offering for this giveaway.

 

Have a great day!

Jody

Stuff I've been up to!

My poor little blog has been neglected lately I know! I just have not felt that I have had too much to blog about, or had anything worth telling. Sometimes though I wonder if even the mundane and seemingly boring things would be better than not posting! I do have a couple of tid bits to share so here goes.

First off I am excited to say that I was contacted by Jennifer of Prims Publication asking me if I had anything to share with them for the 2013 May publication! Well after picking my somewhat lifeless body up off the floor, I was able to process what just happened. This has been something I have wanted to be involved in for quite sometime so needless to say I am thrilled beyond words to be given this opportunity.

 This will be a first for me! Prims is a special publication that comes out three times a year, is full of prim eye candy so to speak! If you have never picked up this high quality, nicely done magazine you really should!

 I quickly got to work on a piece I thought was appropiate for Spring. After some emails back and forth we agreed I would send my bunny. This comes from my clover pattern except I made a completely different head for it. She is all packed up and ready to be sent to Prims tomorrow.

 

 

Now to be able to wait clear until May for this publication just may kill me!! Patience is not one of my virtues.

 

I also want to share the project my sweet hubby just got done for me. I do wish I had a before picture of the unorganized mess this wall was. I had all my things thrown in an open metal shelving sytem and it was just plain a headache and ugly. These upper and lower cabinets are a dream now because not only do they look good, they are functional. I can hide all the unsightly supplies behind cabinet doors now. Here they are.

 

I do feel bad that I had to stack stuff on the top of these cabinets, but frankly I just have too much STUFF! I have gourds that one day I hope to sculpt snowmen and santas on. On the right side I have antique store teapots that I one day hope to make into one-of-a-kind treasures. What this adventure has taught me is I have got to stop buying and start using up these supplies. I had no idea how bad it was until I tore into this. When your supplies start taking over everything and start driving you mental, it is time to re evaluate. I was so disorganized that I kept forgetting that in the mess I had things like glue sticks and spray finish. I would keep buying them thinking I was out. Do you know that I have enough glue sticks to supply the entire country with thier gluing needs for probably a year. LOL! I discovered that I will not have to worry about folk art matte finish for probably five years.

 

This antique cabinet is now housing my newly folded fabrics, this is an amazing site considering the piles of scrunched up and unorganized fabrics these recently were. It feels good now to gaze at this cabinet, I can actually see what fabrics I have and what colors they are! I just hope I can keep it this way. Do you know that I have close to 200 yards of fabric here.... no I am not kidding. Again here is an example of buying too much! I forget what I have and keep buying muslin and more homespun and I need it like a hole in the head.

 

The fact that I had the room torn apart and re-done, the prims surprise and other things, put a damper on my Christmas patterns and handmades. I am not sure now how much I will get done before Christmas. I do hope you all can find some organization if you need it, I know for me it holds my creativity back if I am drowning in my mess!

 

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share the recent happening here at Sweet Bear Creek Whims!