The Husband Who Thinks of Everything

First off let me say that this was a wonderful Christmas. The best part wast the time spent with family. I had both of my kids home for the holidays which made it perfect!

Now onto perfect...my husband! Yes, he's as close as one can get. Not only did he spoil me with gifts (like a new sewing machine among several others), he also came up with the perfect gift on his own. He is fascinated with the fact that I sell to so many different countries in my Etsy shop and from my website, he decided to get me a map. It's on a foam backing and trimmed with wood, and it's gigantic. It comes with little tacks with little round heads that I can stick into all the different places that I sell to. For now he hung it in our home office but it will eventually end up in the craft room that he is building building me, to my specifications..

Did I mention that he was perfect?

Rest In Peace Howard

It was a sad day at the clinic today. Howard, our great horned owl that we raised, passed away. The poor little guy had a seizure that he just couldn't recover from. We are devastated! The staff and the clients all fell in love with him. I remember the day I checked him in. He was a little ball of grey fluff.

Howard was never right. He couldn't fly, wouldn't learn how to hunt, and he had seizures. When you find a baby animal on the ground and you think that they fell from their nest, more than likely Mom kicked them out because she knew that something was wrong with it. That is probably the case here.

We gave Howard almost two years of love, and I spent as much time with him as I do my own pets. I'll miss you Howard!

There are more stories about Howard here if you want to read them. Just look for the label, Howard. There is also a little video at the bottom of this page.

Ribbon Candy & Mimosas

This post is about Christmas traditions. One I've been doing for years and the other, I decided this year to bring back.

Since I was a little girl Christmas breakfast was always the big celebration for my family. And that celebration always included Mimosas. That delicious orange juice and champagne mix went so good with all our favorite egg dishes and fruits. I carried that tradition with my own kids who are now in their mid twenties.

As I was putting together my sweet shop tree I was remembering the ribbon candy my mom always put out at Christmas. It was the thin ribbon, not the thick stuff. This it the candy that is so delicate that it will break easily. Well, I found it at Amazon and I bought some. It's so pretty too! That will be my next Christmas tradition to carry on.

There are other traditions that I have but those are some that give me fond memories.

Do you have any traditions that you have carried on from years ago?

Short and Sweet

It's been a long week, and next week is Christmas! Need I say more?

Quality Time / Red Tail Boa

What do you do when you have a slow day at work?

We play with the animals! We probably have over 60 snakes at the clinic and today the snakes got the quality time. Howard was not happy. We had this snake on the floor and Howard stood about 5 feet away just watching. We don't know if he liked the snake or he was jealous that he wasn't getting all the attention for a change. If he were a normal owl he would have wanted to eat this sweet little snake. This snake was found in an abandoned house and brought to us by Animal Control. It will have a new home this week with one of our vet techs who will be taking it home for her son.

This particular snake, a Red Tail Boa is actually a nice snake, as is a Ball Python. So if you are planning to give a snake as a Christmas gift this year, those would be my recommendations. I would like one myself, but my husband is not fond of the idea.

It's not often that we have even a slow minute but Doc is leaving town and that means quieter times for us, and extra days off work for me. Loving this!!!

Earring Card Free Download for You!

Today I have a gift for you. I designed some holiday earring cards for your handmade earrings. You can even use them for your store bought earrings because, they're just cute!

They are in two different formats. If you want them in JPEG format, I designed them two up on a 4 x 6 sized graphic. That way if you want to have them printed at your photo processing center, you can easily do that. I also formatted them on a PDF file, four on a page. They also have a green border around them so you can make them bigger without losing resolution. You can include a portion of the border on your card. You can of course adjust the size of your print out as well for any size you want. They fit perfectly in those little ziplock bags that are usually found in the beading section at craft stores, or you can use them in a gift box.

You can pick them up at my Craftsy Printable Shop (PDF Format) or Here (JPEG Format). Enjoy!

Felt Gingerbread Ornament Tutorial

To make one boy and one girl:
9" x 12" piece of felt, light brown
Matching embroidery floss
3-Dimensional Paint (white & black)
5 Buttons, green
2 - 12" pieces of 1/4" red ribbon
Small amount of fiberfill
Heavy thread for hanger
Craft glue or a hot glue gun

Misc items:
Scissors, needles, paper, pins　

1. Print out patterns. Be sure the printed line on the pattern piece measures 3" so that your ornament will be the proper size. Click on the images below. Make sure they are enlarged (do this by clicking on them), print out.

2. Cut out the boy and girl pattern pieces. Fold your felt in half, pin the patterns to the felt and cut out cutting through both layers of fabric. Remove the paper pattern and pin the two pieces of felt back together.

3. You will notice that your floss has six strands. Cut your floss into 18" pieces. Separate the strands so that you have 2 - 3 strand pieces. Beginning at the side of the head, stitch around the gingerbread person and stop (don't tie off) at the other side of the head. You will need to leave the top open for stuffing. I like to use a blanket stitch but you can use any stitch you are comfortable with. Small stitches look much nicer. Stuff very lightly and then stitch the top of the head closed. A pencil with the eraser end is a great tool for pushing your stuffing into the gingerbread person.

4. Apply the buttons to the front of the gingerbread guys (2 for the boy, 3 for the girl). Instead of sewing them on like you would a button, I like to run the thread down into the first hole, all the way through, then back up through the second hole. Tie a knot pulling slightly to form an indentation. Cut about 1/2" away from button then "scruff" up the floss by separating after the knot. This is a cute effect.

5. Thread your hanging thread through the top of the head and tie off leaving about 3" for hanging. Trim thread about 1/2" from knot.

6. Using the 3-Dimensional black paint, make two little eyes and a smile. Make the wavy icing on the head, hands, feet, and bottom of the girl's dress using the white 3-Dimensional paint. I love the way this paint looks like frosting!

7. Make bows from the 2 pieces of red ribbon, glue to neck and let ornaments dry.

Do you like free embroidery designs and tutorials?

Be sure to sign up for the weekly newsletter to get a free design every weekend (unless I'm running a sale). Sign up for Sher's Creative News

Angels All Year Long

My friend Della created a beautiful shell angel and wrote an inspirational blog post where she showed it. She asked if we believe in angels. It reminded me of a story of something that happened years ago.

It was the day after Christmas and Elyse, who was about 13 at the time, and I went shopping. We bought all kinds of things, one being a Boyd's Bear Angel. I collected them back then. We were driving home in an ice storm and my car broke down on the highway. I was lucky enough to make it to the exit ramp which was just steps away from a McDonald's. We got out of the car and I went to my trunk to get my packages. We started walking to McDonald's to call for help.

As we enter the parking lot, three women ran over and hugged us saying, "Thank God you are OK!". OK? Of course we were OK, my car broke down, I wasn't even in an accident. Apparently they could tell we didn't know what they were talking about so one of them pointed to my car and said, "Look at your car. We were screaming for you to get out of the way but you couldn't hear us." I looked at my car and there was another car that had slided sideways into the rear end of mine. They said that they could see the man losing control of his car and that's when they started screaming, but luckily we stepped away just in time!

I'm sure we never heard the car coming toward us or the impact because it was so loud on the highway. Between the trucks, the winds, and the ice storm, we couldn't hear anything.

I remember standing in the shower that night and crying. Not only did I come that close to being crushed to death but the thought of my daughter seeing it happen!

So Della, yes, I do believe there had to be an angel sitting on my shoulder that day.

Photo Above: A favorite Christmas ornament that I've had for many years.

Unfair Santa

There is sits, in the corner of the bedroom. I walk past it, dust near it, and move it when I want to get into one of my drawers. But I can't open it! It's the new sewing machine I'm getting from Santa which arrived over a week ago. I want to get it out and play with all the decorative stitches and see what changes Singer has made in 20 years since buying mine. But I can't! I must just look at the box. Kinda reminds me of a story.

And the box on top, yep, for me too. But I have no idea what it is. My husband tortures me!

Years ago when the kids were little they bought me one of those counter top apple peelers. Well, actually I bought it and they wrapped it and put my name on it. I was making three apple pies for a party and I realized that was a lot of apples to peel. No one was home so I went over to the tree, unwrapped the apple peeler and used it for the many, many apples. I washed it up and re-wrapped it. It would have taken forever to peel all those apples by hand! I did however confess many years down the road.

OK, well I'm off for now. I'm planning a productive day. I'll visit you all at some point today when I take my little breaks. Hope you are all having a great weekend.

BUSY!

Along with holiday stuff I decided to finish up my website so I can get it launched. I'll still be busy but at least that task won't be hanging over my head. Man was it a lot of work! If you want to check it out you can click the link at the bottom of this post or you can access it in the menu above. The reason I wanted to create a website was so that I could have instant downloads. I love Etsy and will stay there too, but I wanted to offer this as well.

I'd appreciate any feedback also. And I've looked it over a gazillion times but if you happen to see any broken links or errors, please let me know.

During all this I've been a bad blogger. I've neglected my blog so bad. But I think I'm finally at a point now where I can create that "balance" that I love so much. And I can't wait for Christmas so I can get my new sewing machine and I can make some potholders for myself! I know I can make them with my old sewing machine but I can't wait to experemint with my new one. I'm also going to try all the cool embroidery stitches! I feel like a kid getting a new toy!!!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season! I'm off to visit some blogs now.

Here's the site:
http://www.sherscreativespace.com

Photo Above: Just one of my favorite Christmas decorations that I made years ago. I used to put candy in it when the kids were little but now I put my napkin rings and spreaders inside.