PFATT Blog Christmas Giveaway is now underway!

Well, the PFATT Blog giveaway is now up and running. This large pinkeep is my handmade I donated (I made it using a Jenny Hoffman design)- there are 14 awesome handmades up for grabs, so be sure to stop by the PFATT Blog~ CLICK HERE~ to go have a peek! To enter the giveaway, you will need to visit the PFATT blog and leave a comment under the giveaway post. You have from December 1st until December 7th to enter. If you post it on your blog and let them know, they will enter you twice! Good luck to all!

I just had to share this! Sage had her kindergarten Christmas program last night and I got this cute pic of her and Chad all dressed up before we left. Of course the cat thought he had to be in the picture, too. LOL. I thought they looked so handsome! The program went well and all the little kindergarteners were so cute singing in their little voices. Then at the end, Santa himself showed up and handed out candy canes to all the kids and that was the highloght of the evening for them- you should have seen their little eyes light up!

I am working on a Santa for ebay, hoping to get him done in the next few days or so. Lately I have been working on Christmas gifts and putting up our Christmas decorations. Craig is off this coming weekend, so I think we are going to go cut a Christmas tree on the mountain, which is always fun. I should get back to work I suppose. I'll post when I get my Santa done.

PFATT Blog Christmas giveaway coming soon....

Be sure to check out the PFATT blog starting December 1st for the Christmas PFATT blog giveaway. Who doesn't love to win free stuff? I am donating a handmade this year, along with some other artists, but no sneek peeks! hee hee....you'll have to wait and visit the PFATT blog Dec 1st-Dec. 7th to see whats up for grabs and to sign up. So stay tuned! ;0)

-Jody

Twelve Days of Christmas 2009....

Just a quick note for the local girls that were asking about Twelve Days this year in Casper.....the grand opening is tonight at 5pm. This year they are located on the north end of the Sunrise Shopping Center in the old Flanigans store space (right next to the athletic club).
Twelve Days will be open on a daily basis from Nov. 20th-Dec. 23rd. Their hours are Monday through Saturday 10 am-5:30pm, Sunday Noon-4pm.

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things...

I thought I would share a little of what's been keeping me so busy lately...

I have been so busy, busy, busy making Christmas stuff for the Twelve Days of Christmas shoppe in town.

I made these five Santa's and I just love how they turned out! I used a pattern from Angel and the Crow. They are about 3 feet long with sculpted noses and mohair beards. After I got them all done, I decided one of them was going to have a permanent home at my house, which doesn't usually happen very often. Hee Hee. I usually sell most of the things I make and this time I decided I worked so hard on them, I deserved a treat! LOL.

I also made a little herd of ten reindeer- five small and five large. I used a pattern by Handmade With Love , the pattern calls for making them with faux fur, but I made mine from warm & natural and grunged it up good. They have glass bead eyes, stick legs and twig antlers. Some have holly wreaths and some have pine wreaths around their neck with rusty bells attatched.

I made these three Santa's from an Olde Country Cupboard pattern. I gave them each a different style of eyes. They were really easy to make.

Well, that's just a few of the things I have finished. I ended up making about two dozen dolls over the past few weeks, mostly raggedies and such.There were just too many to take pics of. I still have some snowmen to get done and about 70 plus ornaments waiting to be stuffed and finished. Whew! I hope I can get it all done by Thanksgiving weekend. I have been staying up way too late after I get the kids in bed because that's the only time I can get things accomplished. Chad got a touch of the flu last week and he's finally on the mend. Luckily (knock on wood!) the rest of us have managed to stay clear of it. I am hoping to get a few things done for ebay for the Holidays, I only made one Santa last year and I want it to be different this year. Well, I ahould get back to work. There are doll parts waiting on me and they won't stuff themselves (dang it!) LOL. Later! :0)

-Jody

Up to my ears in projects!

I have been staying pretty busy working on some new things for the shop I sell handmades at in town. I made 4 large pumpkins and 4 of the medium size. I made these signs also. They are huge (4 ft long x 8 inches tall), so they were too big to try and sell online I think- I don't even want to think what shipping would be! As of right now anyway I don't use the "premade" stencils. You know, the kind that already have the sayings, etc already perfectly spaced out and all? No, I use alphabet stencils and do each letter one by one....tedious sometimes, but then I can customize my signs to say whatever I want and the only thing I am limited to is the font. The Autumn Gatherings signs above took me three hours to stencil- am I crazy?? LOL. Hmmm....may have to look at doing things an easier way. Hee hee! I also made some candy corns and a pumpkin with a witch hat. I used a pattern by Fine Country Living Primitives for the candy corns and a freebie pattern from a while back from Tennessee Ridge Primitives for the witch hat pumpkin. (You should really go check out her site- she offers freebies all the time and changes them about once a month or so.) All these are going into town, but I am adding one set of the candy corns to my selling site if anyone is interested. These will probably be my last fall handmades as I am gearing up to finish some Christmas things I am making for the Twelve Days of Christmas shop in Casper again this year. It opens Thanksgiving weekend (Black Friday) and time doesn't stand still for me....especially when I'm running after two little ones. Hmmm....maybe I could duplicate myself? I should be careful what I wish for. LOL. I'll try and share the Christmas stuff in my next post......

Jody

My selling site is open....FINALLY!

This was yet another intention of mine before I was living la vida loca this summer...LOL. But finally I have my selling site all ready to go and looking the way I want it and it is now open. Click HERE to go visit and take a peek. I added the remainder of my pinkeeps and my owls I just made on there. I have a few dolls I made a few months back on there, too. Well, it's late and I should hit the bed. It's snowing here tonight (we're supposed to get 6 inches or so....we'll see) and I'll have to get up earlier to get Sage to school in the morning. Toodles!

Jody

Those pinkeeps I promised....

Sorry I didn't get a chance to share them with you yesterday. I couldn't get very good pictures- I played with a few displays and wasn't happy, so I decided to just take the darn picture just as they are! LOL.

I made them using a pattern from 1804 Primitives. They are all about 3 inches in diameter, all have been aged (some more than others) and the bottoms are a reproduction zinc canning jar lid. Actually the light blue ticking one (in the middle in the very front row) I used an old zinc Ball lid for that one- the material for the pincushion is actual ticking material- very thick- so it wouldn't fit in the other lids. Most of the pinkeeps have vintage buttons, though a few don't. They are $7.00 each, plus shipping. A few have already sold, but I just added the ones left on to my selling site. Well, I'm off to work on some more stuff. Gotta take advantage of the "extra" time I have now. (Knock on wood....) Ha!

Jody

Just Finished....

Aren't they a "hoot"? LOL. I just finished these guys last night and just in time for fall. I've actually had them all sewn, stuffed and painted for a few months, I just never got time to finish them up till now. I made them from a Chestnut Junction pattern- they are about 9 inches tall and 8 inches wide. They are painted and sanded muslin with sculpted beaks and separate stitched wings.

~All are SOLD!~

Jody

My Halloween girls......

Ok, here are the girls......I love how each turned out! It felt really good to make a doll again after such a long break!
I was playing around with my photo editing program and thought they looked cool in sephia tone. Hee hee. Click here to go to their ebay auctions and see them in color.

I want to make a scarecrow doll next, but I'm not going to hold my breath or count my chickens before they hatch. LOL. We'll just have to see.....Hugs!

-Jody

Just Catching Up......

No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth. LOL. Since my last post in July we have been so busy going everywhere at once it seemed. My life during the week was nothing but cleaning, cooking and laundry, then we were gone again the next weekend.One of the weekends we were gone in August fell on Chad's 3rd birthday. It was a lot of fun. He got to celebrate with my mom and dad, my brother, his wife and the cousins Codi and Garrett.
After he ate his cake he opened his presents- one of his favorites was this Transformers costume he wanted to wear right away. What a face! He was pretty excited!

That same weekend we drove up the road from our campsite to double cabin which is in the mountains north of Dubois. This is as far as you can get with a vehicle- from this point on there are trailheads you can hike or ride horseback to go even further into the backcountry. Very pretty country. I was glad to see we still have some bits of snow/glaciers in the high country. The last 5-10 years when it had been so hot and dry in the summers the snow didn't stay up there in the summertime.

And yes, Sage is officially a kindergartener now! She was really nervous- I think mostly because her best friend from preschool moved over the summer, so now she had to make new friends. She is doing very well. They go all day every day here and are reading before first grade. Boy things have changed since my school days! I remember half days and taking naps in Kindergarten- not aymore!
A few weeks ago we took the kids and my inlaws to Thermopolis (my hometown) for the weekend. We took them swimming in the warm mineral water and went to see the Wyoming Dinosaur Center. It has come a long way since I was in High School. They now have a supersaurus skeleton that is the size of the whole building. I made Craig pose next to a cast of one of its rib bones. Can you see its skeleton behind him?
Then this last weekend me and the kids went hunting with Craig. The kids wanted a picture taken with it- they thought it was pretty neat. I normally don't like Antelope meat- it is extremely gamey tasting, but it does make the best breakfast sausage! We make our own and it is tasty! :0)

So now that school is in full swing and I only have one kid at home I have finally been able to work on some things. I am trying to work on my supply for the 12 Days of Christmas show I have in Nov and Dec, but I did manage to squeeze in a few dolls for ebay which I did get listed on ebay last night. I have to go get Sage up and ready for school now, but I'll post them here in a few hours or so. Be back in a few..... :0) -Jody