Chicken, Pork & Beef Rubs

My daughter in law and I decided to put together some Chicken, Pork and Beef rubs to give as gifts for the Christmas season.  We did this because there is always that someone that you really want to know that you are thinking about them, but don't always have alot of money to spend.  We made these very economical and very practical gifts to give because who doesn't love to cook or eat?  We started out with the 3 oz square containers from Dollar Tree and then went to Winco to buy the bulk spices!  I of course added the vinyl of a cow, pig and chicken (rooster) to the containers and filled them with the rubs we made (You can find the recipes here), stacked them in cute little threes and then tied them together them with some pretty glittered ribbon.  We will add Christmas tags to them before giving them away!  What a useful, quick and easy gift to give that favorite someone.  If you want to expand on the idea, you could always give a gift card, to the person, for their favorite meat store.  TFL

 Close up of the containers

Stacked and ribboned. 

Persian Lights Bracelet

I watched a video on youtube about the persian lights bracelet and fell in love with how shimmery and sparkly it was.  I decided to try to make it with just what I had on hand.  The bicones along the outside should have been much smaller, but it's what I had so I made it work.  In the video, the instructor said that the first time would take quite a while to get the hang of it but subsequent bracelets would only take about two to three hours to complete.  This was my first try and I completed it in about an hour and twenty minutes.  Not bad, its pretty simple and very repetitive so it went pretty fast.  I think this would be beautiful using the black seed beads with silver glass beads and black bicones.  Think I will try that one next :)  TFL

Minecraft Shoes

I saw these shoes on "thegreenwife.com" and knew I had to make a pair for my grandson who will be turning 11 in September.  He is a huge minecraft fan!  I didnt have paint markers, but I did have brand new sharpie markers!  Ionly had two colors of green and a deep turquoise color that seemed to blend pretty good with the greens, so I thought I would try them out.  Here is the result.

 I hope he likes them!  TFL

Christmas for Barbie

Coby decided to turn the attic of the barbie house he made for his sisters into a Christmas setting.  A fantastic artist, seamstress and miniatures artisan gave Coby a Christmas tree that was in 1/6 scale (barbie's scale) along with several sets of clothes that she had made quite some time back.  Coby decided to make a bead garland for the tree and wrap the barbie clothes for the girls and place them under the tree so that when they open their present, each of them will have two more presents to open that contain 4 barbie outfits.  What a great idea, a present inside the present!  Am so excited for the girls to be able to open their gift on Christmas morning.  It's going to be a very exciting Christmas. You can't see it but there is a beautiful golden handmade Star of David that adorns the top of his beautiful little Christmas tree!  Thank you Cheryl Empson for helping to make Coby's gift to his sisters even more special!

On another note, I have so so many posts to make, but unfortunately they are all about the Christmas gifts that I handcrafted this year for my family, freinds and Davita Family.  Once they are all given out, I will have alot to blog about :)  Until then, Here's wishing you and your's a very Merry Christmas and an even bigger and Brighter New Year!

Kitchen Completed

Doll house is finished, and Coby and I finally got the kitchen done.  The bathroom pieces are in the oven baking as I write this... will blog about it after they are out, cooled and place in the bathroom.
We printed off a 3D stove and refrigerator onto some heavy yellow cardstock with black printing and placed them in the Kitchen.  We made the kitchen table from a bevel edged octagonal mirror glued (E6000) to a crystal candlestick for the base of the table.  It turned out quite pretty.  For the chairs, we used the ends of a wire hanger, snipped off and bent into the shape of a chair.  For the seat and chair back, we used heavy duty cardboard wrapped in white naugahyde. (fake leather)  They turned out so cute.  We liked the second pic because it caught the lights of our tree in the reflection.  Not may days left until Christmas, but I think we're going to make it!  TFL

Hand made Christmas - Updated

My grandchildren are all at an age where they love to craft with grammy.  Christmas is coming so I have decided that this year, they are going to get a chance to make presents for their sisters and brother.  Each weekend one of my grand chileren get to spend the entire weekend and craft their presents for Christmas. This is teaching them so much I think.  It is teaching them that you don't have to buy something for it to be fun.  It is teaching them to recycle, to use products we already have on hand and it is teaching them to think about what makes their siblings happy, but most importantly it is teaching them to take pride in their work as well as learning to love the spirit of giving!
LOL not sure what she was doing with the mouth...trying to smile I guess lol...anyway, look for more kids crafts in the coming weeks.  My ten year old grandson is building a Doll house for his three sisters..he is having a blast finding things around the house that we can turn into barbie furniture. :)   I'll post pics as it progresses.

This is a cute, fat little owl that she made for her brother.  We got the idea from Ephemera Ink Blog.  I think he turned out great for her first try at it.

another barbie dress 

Pants and Midriff...this one made Gia giggle because Barbie's tummy was showing..lol

They argued about who should get to stay first, so grammy put number 1 to 4 in a bowl and they drew for the order that they would get to stay first.  Gia, my 5 yr old grand daughter was first and she chose to make barbie clothes for her sisters...she only got one set done, but for a 5 year old and it being her first project, I think she did marvelous!  She did all the sewing, and the color designing, I cut the patterns out for her and pinned the hems so she could sew them, but she sewed every single stitch!   This is how they turned out. I am extremely proud of her!  tfl