Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!! I'm soo excited to be participating in this wonderful Christmas ! ://prettypetals.typepad.com/prettypetals/Visit here to check out all of the lovely blogs participating in this Christmas party
I've never done anything like this before so please bear with me if my pictures aren't up to snuff. I really tried very hard to show you how warm and inviting I try to make my home during the Holidays.

The Holidays are a very important time for me to make friends and family feel welcome. I love to entertain but, I have four kids who do a ton of extra curricular stuff (tumbling, piano, drums, dance, little league, soccer, cheer, newspaper, etc.) so needless to say, my house is always a mess. We basically use it as a place to stop by, change, eat, and run. Because of this I am always a little self conscious of my housekeeping. So, during the Holidays, I make a bigger effort to keep the house tidy and make it feel more inviting for family and friends to make up for the rest of the year. This is a wreath I recently reworked. It has always been a more traditional wreath with green, red, silver, etc. I absolutely love pink and vintage and just didn't have anything appropriate. Last year I didn't even hang the wreath. So, this year I took off all of the old ornaments, painted it light pink, sprinkled glitter all over it, and attached new ornaments. First, I scoured the flea market for vintage pink ornaments. I got only 6 full size ones, two ziplocks full of ligt blue and light pink really small ones (probably a garland in a past life), and one spray of reds that were already turning pink. Not enough for this wreath. So, I added new pink, white, silver, and clear irradescent ornaments. I even took a few of the plastic ugly ornaments from the old wreath and painted and glittered them (their the pink and silver glittered ones). I think it turned out fabulous. It is extremely difficult to photograph though. I tried 4 or 5 different times.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these candles. Boy were they easy to make. I went to the 99c store and got light pink tapers, then used modgepodge and a foam brush. I just painted the glue on lightly then sprinkled with Martha Stewart Glitter (any color you want) and poof!! Georgeous candles that perfectly match any decor. Everyone who seems them in person swoons.




Here is entire vingette. I think it looks alright in the picture but, at night when the lights are on on my little tree (the lights are pink) everything sparkles soo nicely. I don't think I could have been happier with the way it all turned out.














I adore snowmen!!
I did although have to tell my husband not to buy me anymore this year. There are 6 of us and our house is really small. I have pretty much run out of space (for now) When the kids get older, the more traditional decorations will be worn out (or I'll just say that they were) and I'll be able to decorate the entire house the way I want to. But, I can wait for that. I'd really rather have my kids home than the house decorated just for me.

I was really lucky this year. Our bookclub meeting was scheduled to be at my house this month. That meant I got to go all out. I made everyone do a gift exchange, I made a homemade chocolate chip cheesecake, I also made handmade chocolate truffles, and then put them into the cutest little gift bags as favors for all of the ladies. I lite the scented oil warmer that my bfff Jenny gave me, so the house smelled wonderful and I had Christmas music playing. I bought a bottle of wine but, the corkscrew broke. (oh well) It still turned out to be really fun !! When the ladies said that we don't normally do this stuff, I said "It's Christmas" if you can't go all out at Christmas, then when can you?
This has been soooooo much fun!! Thank you for inviting me.
P.S. If you are looking for the perfect movie to watch this season. I suggest YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU by Frank Cappra. You know the guy who made IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Jimmy Stewart is in it, and although it's not made during Christmas, it has such a lovely cast and such beautiful decor, and such a wonderful message.
Once again, HAPPY HOLIDAYS, I hope that all of your dreams come true.
Cari B

Beautiful Banners

I just found this link http://www.keepandshare.com/doc/view.php?u=283968. They have beautiful free banners that will work to help express my style until I can figure out how to do all of this myself. I am although, making GIANT strides. If I do say so myself.
Here is another example of their beautiful work. Let me know what you think of their banners.

Loving the Unique

I just read Pam garrisons blog about her coffee filter garland. (which is absolutely wonderful!!)
It struck me to the core because she is so amazingly wonderful and yet still concerned about whether her creations were appealing or not. It makes me feel a little better about my insecurities. (I mean, I'm no Pam Garrison or anything) but still.
Here's a garland I made last year, got the idea from a red, white, and blue garland.
It reminds me of a time when I was shopping for ornaments with my mom and at the bottom of a bin was a beat up old Santa ornament. He was all chipped and looked so vintage. My mom just couldn't understand why I would buy a broken ornament. All I could see was his charm.
I'm lucky that most of the time my family totally gets it. But, there are times where they kind of turn their head slightly and look puzzled when I show them something. It is a little disheartening. But, because of places like this, and all of these wonderful artists posting their beautiful thoughts, it gives us the determination to push past our own fears and create.
Thank you all!!
check out the link to http://pamgarrison.typepad.com/

The Secret of Life

I've figured it out! O.k. my husband helped.He has always said that the secret to life is "LOVE" well, of course it is! But, I have a few additional thoughts to add. O.K., first is

LOVE

Second is what we all tell our wonderful little children when they are learning to play any new sport, I think it works perfectly for grown ups in the real world too.

TRY YOUR BEST AND REMEMBER TO HAVE FUN

Finally,

NEVER INTENTIONALLY CAUSE PAIN

Right? I think that's a vital part of the secret. So, there you have it THE SECRET OF LIFE well, at least according to me. Maybe I forgot something. Let me know if you can think of anything else.

Creative Heaven

I feel like I have died and gone to heaven everytime I log on now!! Everytime Artful Blogging magazine comes out I buy it immediately. I love reading every article but I especially love going back over the beautiful pictures of my favorite bloggers. Well, I just realized (silly me) that I could store all of them HERE and check on them everyday with ease. I used to have to get my magazine out everytime, thumb through it and then go to each site individualy. WOW!! It's like my favorite parts of the magazine in super expanded versions. It is so nice to be able to have such beautiful creative images and inspiration just a click away. I can't wait to keep exploring this world of blogging and figure out what else I can do.

This Time of Year

Well, things are pretty tough out there right now. I am trying to keep our spirits up. I am bound and determined not to let the economy ruin the Holiday season. I mean, we never truly know if we are going to be around for the next Holiday season and should never waist the ones we have. But, it's sometimes hard to remember that during the daily struggles. So, I have a few suggestions. Just a few things that you can do that don't cost anything.

-Listen to Christmas music. (it's free!! Satellite T.V. already has it playing all day)

-Sit with your kids and watch an old movie and drink Hot Cocoa(even if it's hot outside).One of my all time favorite movies to remind you what is really important is YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU (Drew Barrymores grandfather is in it, so is Jimmy Stewart).

-Drive around with the kids and look at all the pretty lights. (try to go somewhere where a lot of the houses aren't empty, that might just make you feel worse.)

-Read a book. (librarys are free) This time of year, I try to only read uplifting Christmas books. Save the sad books for some other time, their not going anywhere.

Finally, remember what FDR said, "when you've reached the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."

Happy Holidays,

Cari

Confusion

I am so confused. I don't know how some of the people on etsy sell soo many things so quickly, and I struggle to get a sale a week. I know my pictures aren't that great. I am working on it.
I also feel so isolated with this whole blogging thing. I don't know how other people find your blogs to read them, and I don't know how to find other peoples blogs. I should probably ask my fifteen year old.
I am fighting off old insecurities, and trying to perservere. I believe in the things I create, I do though sometimes worry that instead of being true to myself and what inspires me, I try to think of what will sell instead.
Well, until I figure all of this out, I will just be using my blogspot as my own personal online journal.


I am excited about putting all of my Halloween stuff on my etsy site (www.luckygirlgifts.etsy.com) I am really excited about all of the stuff I created. I love Halloween, I know a lot of people don't but, I take it as just good fun. Last year I started a new tradition. Like a lot of people, I don't really like being the center of attention on my birthday, and since it is in October, I pushed the celebration back a couple of weeks and had a Huge Halloween Party!!! Everyone had so much fun, the house looked great, or should I say Ghoulish!! One of my guests said it looked better than the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland, I don't know about that. We had wonderfully scary food, and a Costume contest. I was a little worried that none of the guests would really get into it with their costumes, but when they arrived WOW did they go all out. Half of the people forgot it was for my birthday, which was perfect with me. I even made a spooky playlist on my Ipod for the occassion. Halloween is fast approaching and now I need to start decorating, and preparing new and scarier foods, and decor. I am a little nervous that it wont be as good as last year, but oh well, it will still be fun.

I haven't figured out the picture thing so well, so when I do I'll try to post some pictures just in case anyone is out there reading this.
If you are thanks, if not, that's ok too.

I forgot

I forgot to tell you guys about a wonderful find. French General now has a kit of the month club. It is called the une deux trois club. It's 600.00, but it breaks down to just 50.00 a month. You get the stuff to make a truly fabulous necklace, bracelet, and earrings. The price includes shipping. The kits even come with the signature little french general tag. I talked my husband into buying this for me on Valentines Day. I told him he wouldn't have to buy me anything else for the year. You know, Mothers day, Easter, etc. All of those holidays he never bought anything for me anyways. He likes it because every month I thank him and show him what a wonderful jewelry set he bought me that month. www.frenchgeneral.com Oh yeah! last time I went to L.A. to visit the French General store, Kaari Meng was there. She is soooo nice and extremely generous. She is quite an inspiration to all of us jewelry artists in progress.

Another favorite place of mine is Sallyjean Alexanders web site. She makes the most beautiful soldered charms. I bought all of the stuff from her to make my own, ugh!! Well, at least I haven't burnt myself (yet!!), Needless to say, mine don't look half as good as hers yet. www.sallyjean.com

Just thought I'd let you know a little more about me by seeing the things I love.
Cari

Lucky Girl Gifts

wow, this is scary! I don't know why it's scary, but it is. I think I should have named my blogspot the Insecure Artist. I felt inspired to do this because of the magazine Artful Blogging. All of those blogspots are so beautiful and inspiring. I can only hope that in the days, weeks, probably months to come mine will look as nice, and maybe inspire somebody. Wish me luck. I wish all of you luck in your endeavors.
Cari