Some new Lil Dumplins

These are little 5 x 7 acrylic paintings on watercolor paper. I didn't paint much over the weekend but I did play around with sketching some new little ones. Last night I tried to recreate them on watercolor paper and paint them up. There was something so peaceful and calming about painting these little cuties. Maybe the stress of Christmas being gone is what helped too, I don't know.

I hope to make greeting cards from them :)

Have a great Tuesday!

Uninvited Blog?

I know the blogs I'm following and now I'm getting blog updates from The Wonderful World of Mortgage!
I have NOT subscribed to this.........is anyone else having this issue?

Christmas and a blizzard!

Look who popped in on Christmas Eve!! Yes, it's Santa and the Mrs. and of course, Buddy~the elf! We so enjoyed their visit!!


Cailee looks just a LITTLE happy here! Cailee knows the scoop on Santa but she still had fun. Especially since Santa is her 5th grade teacher! *wink*


Nora loved the visit too! She knows Santa exists but was still curious who this guy 'really' was that stopped by :)

And then it was Cutler's turn! He watched quietly as the girls got their turn on Santa's lap and we weren't quite sure if he'd dare when it was his turn, but no problem! When Santa called his name, he RAN and jumped into his lap! So cute!


This is my oldest son, Derek and my friend, Dale. I need to request that people pose for pictures more often instead of trying to catch candid shots like this. Dale has a death grip on his wine and looks as if he's concerned someone might just come and take it away from him!



My middle son Ryan holding his nephew Cutler. Cailee and her mom, Jeni are also pictured here.

My youngest son, Josh :)


My Dad, Ordell. He just turned 75!

And now for a few of the 2009 Blizzard Alvin that dumped about 20 inches of snow in our area over the holiday weekend!


This is my shrub outside the window.

Mieko is sitting by the window here longing to go play (sink) in the new white stuff!


My wonderful son (Ryan) drove to my Dad's house and loaded up his snowblower so he could clean a walkway from the house to the street and the driveway. My boss stopped over with the company payloader and cleaned out the driveway.

This storm was a doozy! On Saturday morning my furnace quit so I got bundled up and went to the south side of the house and sure enough......6' snow drifts covering my vents! I had to stand in snow up to my privates :) and start shoveling a drift that was taller than me! I got the snow away from the vents and the furnace returned to it's normal duties and all was well again in my world.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas surrounded by family and friends and the love they bring! I'm excited for the New Year! My head is full of new goals and challenges! I always get excited about the new possibilities that await!

Wishing you all the very best!!
Hugs,
darla

Easy gift tags and a huge THANK YOU

I wanted to share with you a quick gift tag/ornament idea. I know it's late but you can whip them up too! I rolled out polymer clay with my pasta machine and then used a cookie cutter to create these disks. A little 'floral' shaped but I had no idea what I'd do with them when I first made them. I found this buck image and printed small versions of it off my laser printer at work and used gel medium to transfer the image onto the disks. So easy!

Then........look what I got in the mail yesterday!!! I was the super lucky winner of Michelle's giveaway! OMG, this 'Bottle of Believe' is just incredible!!

If you've never visited The Studio at Crow Haven Farm please, PLEASE do so! Michelle is extremely talented and SO professional! This arrived with a special certificate of authenticity too! WOW!

Look at this face!!!!!!!!!! Too cute!

Thank you again Michelle! I will treasure my 'Bottle of Believe' forever and ever!!♥

I'm only working a half day today so I can go home and prepare more for tomorrow. CHRISTMAS!!!!! We're due to get quite a bit of snow here in the midwest. Lots of travel plans, flights, etc. are going to probably be canceled :(
I pray everybody makes it to their destination safely and can enjoy the holiday with their family and friends. PLEASE drive safely!!

Santa smoochies to you all :)
Darla

It's a wonderful life!

The day started out with a trip to Gran Lutheran to attend Cailee & Nora's Christmas program. We had gotten an inch of new fluffy white stuff and it was a beautiful morning to head out to a country church! They did a great job! I tried to get pictures of them but my battery died :(


Cailee came over to spend the afternoon making goodies with me. Here she is dipping pretzel rods! We dipped them in chocolate almond bark and then put sprinkles on some and drizzled white chocolate on others. So pretty!


Here she is, stirring one of our favorites: Popcorn, M&M's, peanuts with melted white almond bark. She came all prepared....with her own apron! I love it!

We also made candied nuts and oreo balls. Jury is still out on the oreo balls......Not sure if I like them or not but after an afternoon of sugar up to my eyeballs, it was hard to tell! Ha!

Thank you so much Cailee, love you bunches!

I've been a busy elf!

More ornaments :) I ended up giving away the others and I still have a few bottles of wine to deliver for the holidays. These are so cute when hung around the bottle neck. Great gift tags too. Target has SO many different colors of these glittery snowflakes. 4 for a $1. You know what that means.....4 for 50 cents next week :) It's hard to see the colors here, but they're glittery shades of teal, purple and pink.

I also stitched up 12 camo neck warmers :) This photo is from Cabela's and if you click on it, you'll be taken to their site. I wrapped mine up already so I wasn't able to take a photo. My hope is to get everyone to put them on once they open their package and get a group photo for you all :)

Then....to top off my day, I made my first batch of Norwegian Lefse....SOLO! I've always made it with my Dad but this year I purchased my owned lefse grill and all the other equipment and tried it on my own. Of course, it's all packaged up and in the freezer so this photo (again) is not mine, but if you click on it, it will transport you to a page that explains what lefse is!

Today I'm going to attend one final Christmas program. This is my grandchildren's church program in a little country church about 6 miles out. It always is a joy to see them sing in their special Sunday clothes♥

After lunch, my oldest granddaughter would like to come and help me make some Christmas goodies. My baking consists of lots of quickies. Dipped pretzel rods, candied nuts and this year, we might try Oreo Balls!

Click on photo for recipe. A friend just made them and she used Mint Oreos....YUM! I love chocolate mint~

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone!!!
Darla

Holiday Hustle and Bustle!

Hello everyone! I've been a bad blogger again lately. I'm trying to get little things wrapped up before Christmas. Toss in a funeral, a couple fundraisers, Christmas parties, Christmas programs and a full-time job and I start slacking in other areas :) So sorry!

I've made a few of these coffee cozies for stocking stuffers. They're kind of fun and pretty simple, especially for me, the girl who has a sewing machine but rarely uses it :) The pic isn't very good, but you get the idea. I used wool on the inside and flannel on the outside and an old vintage button.
You can find the instructions here:
Coffee Cozy

I also completed two of these 17 lb. cement stepping stones for a holiday order.

Obviously gifts for the avid golfer!

The Christmas cards I ordered finally arrived so now I'll get busy addressing them and send them on their merry way. Hoping to catch up with many of you soon. I miss having the time to visit your blogs!

Darla

Homemade Gift Tags

So I'm watching the DIY network again the other morning and Jennifer Perkins (from Craft Lab) showed a fun technique that I tried and would like to share with you!

I took cardstock paper and stamped it with bleach! I then spattered it with a little gold and then some white. I sprayed it with clear satin acrylic spray and sprinkled it with glamour dust (super fine glitter)

I cut them up and rounded the corners.


I LOVE how the stars look shaded on one side! Not sure how that works, but it does and it's awesome :)
I don't make cards or keep a scrapbook so this was a new and fun technique for me. It may be old news to the paper wizards out there, but I wanted to share in case somebody would like to try.


Here is a blue one on a little hand sewn gift bag. I printed out the snowman I painted last week onto printable fabric and then stitched it onto some wool fabric. I think these would make great Gift Card packages too! Since they're tied with a ribbon, they can easily be used over and over again!

Well, I better jump in the shower. I'm off to fight the crowds and get extremely irritable today. God be with me :)

Have a wonderful weekend friends!
Darla

What I did last night!

I made some more snowman ornaments!


I found a wonderful Tutorial at a cute blog called 'Chocolate on my Cranium' to make crayon rolls. I thought it would be fun to make one for my 3 year old grandson, Cutler. I also wanted to make larger ones for markers for my two granddaughters, Cailee & Nora. I practiced last night making one for my own colored pencils. I made a few mistakes, but that's how I learn :)


It calls for 3 colors of fabric and fuseable interfacing (I didn't have that!) so I used batting instead. It also called for ribbon to tie it but I used a hair band and a large button.

My spacing is way off but I hope to do better next time. I'm going to pick up a sewing marker so I can actually measure things out! haha

It will be a nice way to store my pencils! It was kind of fun!

Happy Friday to you all!

Darla

The cutest Babka tutorial EVER!

I found this little girl on youtube today and she really is sweet! I wanna sew a babka doll now!!
Enjoy!



Part Two:

Good grief!

This morning when my boss arrived to work he had forgotten his keys to his office. He politely asked if he could borrow mine. I reach into my purse, open the zipped compartment where I keep the special 'DO NOT LOSE' items and retrieved them for him, ever so promptly, I might add!


This what happened! I about died!
I just said, 'well, I suppose you don't need that!'


(This is a reenactment photo of course! But I just had to show you since you couldn't be there!)

Christmas stockings are complete!

Here are the stockings I've been working on :) I'm happy with them considering I don't really sew that often :) They are made of a soft, off white wool fabric with a deep red suede cuff. I painted each snowman on tea stained muslin and then hand stitched them on. I WISH I knew how to embroider their names on top but I don't so I had to go with putting each of their names on the individual snowman.



Here's one for Cutler



And one for Nora



And one for Cailee.

Merry Christmas sweethearts! I sure hope you enjoy them♥

Polymer clay ornies

Trying something new for the kiddies! I purchased little plastic snowflakes at Michaels and then made little snowman heads wearing ear muffs and attached them. Each year I make ornaments for the little ones that we share Christmas with. I just realized I'm one short! ha Better now than on Christmas.


The sweet and generous Marie Segal from Art from my Heart awarded this cute little polymer clay book to all entrants in her recent giveaway! Isn't that fantastic!??
Mine just arrived and it's so adorable! It is filled with the most adorable little clay creations from the talented Shelley Comiskey



It gave me the courage to try these and I want to thank her! I also worked yesterday on 3 Christmas stockings for my grandchildren. I'm hoping to finish them up tonight so I can share them with you♥

I need to spend time today visiting you all! The weekend was so full of places to be and other obligations and I just didn't get the time to browse like I should have. Thank you all for your kind comments on my snowman design too! It means so much!!
Hugs,
Darla

New snowman design

This is the little guy I sketched in the weeeeeeee hours of the morning. I know it's a meno thing, but I wake up at odd hours and can't get back to sleep. Of course about 1 pm my neck can barely hold my tired head up but I muddle through. haha

My hope is to try shrink this down and make small prints onto fabric, stuff and embellish a little to make ornaments. I'm hoping to personalize them for some of the little ones this year.

Off to bed.....4:15 comes too early. I pray I can hold off until 5:15 tomorrow. That extra hour will help :)

G'nite,
Darla

Ho Ho Ho!

I thought I'd share with you a primitive santa that I painted a couple of years ago. This is a 10 x 10 x 1.5 canvas with cinnamon tea stained muslin for his beard. Lots of mica flakes sprinkled and some metallic buttons.
This is Terrye French inspired Santa! If you like primitive, you probably already know of her, but if you're just now finding yourself drawn to the magic, please visit her lovely blog♥



I'm going to work on a snowman tonight that I designed this morning. (I was up at 4:30 again!) ugh

I'm 'hoping' to do one painting and possibly print out the design on fabric to create a few little ornaments. Wish me luck! :)

Amazing!

This incredible machine was built at the University of Iowa .
Amazingly, 97% of the machines components came from John Deere Industries and
Irrigation Equipment of Bancroft, Iowa. Yes, farm equipment.

It took the team a combined 13,029 hours of set-up, alignment, calibration, and tuning before filming this video but as you can see, it was WELL worth the effort.

It is now on display in the Matthew Gerhard Alumni Hall at the University and is already
slated to be donated to the Smithsonian.

Journal pg 15,16 and a snowman plate

"Follow your heart~Follow your dreams"

A design by Margo Wightman on a wooden plate. I painted this up for a possible gift exchange, but the decision hasn't really been made IF we will even do this yet. For once, I'm prepared if necessary :) It's a great feeling!





Believe it or not, I'm scheduled for a slight 'TRIM' today and after the last haircut, you can bet I'll be paying more attention to the clip, clip, clipping going on :) The length is just where I want it now after almost 7 weeks, but it does need to be shaped up a bit.


One last thing I wanted to share with you! I tried this recipe the other night. It was SO good and takes 'comfort food' to a whole new level! I made a smaller recipe of this and I'll warn you, it's hard to stop eating it. NOT good, but sooooo good.........make sense? :) Thought I'd share!

Sketches and a dream

I did manage to sketch a little over the weekend and play with colored pencils and some pan pastels. Nothing fancy, but that's all I could muster up the energy to do!

Plain old pencil sketch




A little colored pencil applied



More colored pencil



Some pan pastels applied

These sketches are in my sketch journal so whenever I do the back page, smudges appear on the previous page. I really should take the time to put a blank piece of paper between them when I doodle.

My Dream? I'd love to make cute dolls!

This morning I caught an episode of Craft Lab on the DIY network. Jessica Acosta was on demonstrating this Epoxy Layered Doll. I just loved watching this and I really want to try one!

Of course they don't have the episode on their site yet (as they promised :) but I was able to find out her name and find her flickr site. She also makes the most adorable little clothespin dolls!

It's December 1st and that means I need to close out November here at work. My laser printer needs a new cartridge. No warning.......just quit printing! So until I get a new cartridge, I can do nothing. Well, maybe I can check out some blogs :)

Darla