Gratitude Box

This time of year, feelings of gratitude abound, and it has become a traditional time to take stock, count blessings and appreciate life.  For the past three years I've done a little gratitude project for my family--everyone writes down their thoughts of thankfulness on Thanksgiving, and I match them up with snapshots from the day.  

Here is this year's:

I upcycled a box that held notecards and altered it with some patterned papers and a handmade flower.

The top opens up and the cards fit perfectly right inside:

The cards are just a word doc I created, printed on white cardstock and matted with colored cardstock.  

You can download the cards here.  The fonts I used are Times and Times Again and CK Becky, both free downloads.

On Thanksgiving Day, I will be sure to get snapshots of each family member, and then I can just print them out glue them to each card and trim to fit.  Easy!

I hope you will whip up one of these before the holiday to record your family's gratitudes.

Here is a pic of the other two I have done:

You can find details for the meander book (left) along with full directions here.  I will be back to add pics and deets for the little lunch box in the next day or two.

Crochet Ear Warmer

The cold weather is creeping in here in New England, and I keep seeing these headband style ear warmers popping up all over. 

Anthropologie

Isn't that cute?!  A quick search for a crochet pattern turned up this easy one.  It whipped up really quickly with an I-hook and some worsted weight yarn.

I embellished it with a clunky flower that I came up with, and I'm thrilled to share the pattern with you:

Petals:
With two strands of worsted weight yarn held together and a J-hook:
ch 6 and sl st in first ch to form a ring
Rnd 1: ch 6, dc in ring, *ch 3 dc in ring* repeat 3x, ch 3 and sl st in beginning of first ch of ch 6 (six ch 3 spaces created)
Rnd 2: (sc, hdc, 2 dc, hdc, sc) in each ch 3 space around; join with sl st in first sc (top petals made)
Rnd 3: sc around post of first dc in rnd 1; *ch 5, sc around post of next rnd 1 dc* repeat 4x and sl st in beginning of first ch of ch 5
Rnd 4: (sc, hdc, 3 dc, hdc, sc) in each ch 5 space around; join with sl st in first sc

Center:
With one strand of worsted weight yarn and an H-hook:
ch 4 sl st in first ch to form ring
ch 1, work 2 sc in each ch around - 8sc
without joining, work sc in each sc around three more times
stuff with fiberfill
sc in each sc around one more time
*sl st in next sc, skip next* repeat until 4sc remain
Fasten off leaving long tail and stitch to center of flower.

Happy Crocheting!

December Planner

A couple of weeks ago I talked about changing up my December Daily project this year since last year's is still in the WIP (work in progress) basket.  Well, I've started working on the divider pages for the album and I think it's going to work out great.  Here's a peek-a-boo at four of them:

For the album, I took a three ring photo album I had picked up a few years ago.

It was pretty darn cute already:

but I covered it with one of the papers from Crate Paper's Joyride line:

It was a tight fit on the 12" paper, so I covered the inside seam with a thin strip of coordinating paper:

The floral is part of the original album--perfect!

Each of the divided sections will hold assorted page protectors (5x7, 3.5 x 5, 4x6, trading cards, and any others I can scrounge up) that will be perfect for photos, memorabilia, journaling tags, etc.  Even as I am typing this, I am thinking of more dividers to make.  

Here's the text for the one's I have so far and a little description of what that section will hold:

The title font is Crystal Wilkerson's Playful; the subtitle is Pushkin

Calendar {the hustle and bustle of the holiday season}

     holiday parties, Christmas pageants, school parties

Traditions {the little things we do each year to make the season special}

     photos of any and all traditions: Santa visit, gingerbread house; music score, list of favorite holiday songs

Gifts to Give {making a list and checking it twice}

     storage for receipts (handy when needed, and fun to look back on), photos of gifts, wrapping paper    

     swatch

Wish Lists {Dear Santa, all I want for Christmas is...}

     copies of the lists the boys write, photos of them writing letters to Santa at the mall

Recipes {crisp apple streudel and schnitzel with noodles, these are a few of our favorite things}

     recipes from the holidays, cookie baking photos

Greetings {a little smile, a word of cheer, best wishes for the coming year}

     copy of our holiday card, holiday card list, cards from others

Decorations {deck the halls with boughs of holly}

     photos of our decorations, tree, and the process of putting them up.

I am super excited about this album.  I love the organized format, the amount of information it will hold, and that it is also a scrapbook of our memories.  And most of all, I love that I can capture it all and enjoy it without the lurking feeling of being "behind" on the daily entries.

Framed Butterflies

Played around with my new eCraft this morning and created this super quick and easy butterfly deco piece.

I simply used scraps backed with cardstock for stability.  I am amazed at the teeny detail this machine can cut (check out those antennae!).  I cut the butterflies at a size 2 and placed them in a 5x7" frame without the glass.  The wings bend up, but I didn't capture it well in the photo.

Inspire Co.

I just stumbled upon an absolutely amazing blog, and I want to share it with you.  It's been a little while since I spent some time just hopping along from place to place on the web, and I am so glad that I chose tonight to do it!  You must, must, must go check out this beautiful home of Amy Powers.  She's been blogging since 2005, so I am very well running the risk that I am the last crafty person on the planet to find her site.  It's a risk I'll take, because her online magazine is just too fantastic not to know about.

And this little project is moving to the top of my to do list: