A thankful heart ~

As I thank the Lord each night in my prayers,

I am reminded of all the precious blessings He has given our family.

No, things are not always perfect around here,

and I don't share all that here....

but when you get down to the nitty gritty,

no matter how tough things get,

no matter how many trials and tribulations we have been through,

our family is truly blessed!!!

I created the image below just for you...

a quote straight from a Veggie Tales video

out little Noah (now almost 16 yrs old) used to watch!

I have to show you these beautiful elf shoes that

Beth of Gathering Dust created

using my little Elf/Fairy Shoe Ornament Tutorial....

she has a beautiful way of putting them together, don't you think?

I think they are just GORGEOUS!

And what have I been up to?

We had a precious house guest this past weekend...

Clara came to spend the night Saturday and helped me decorate our Christmas tree

and put out the Christmas village....we had the BEST time together!!!

I normally don't put the tree up before Thanksgiving but my parents

are coming into town this week and

next weekend will be so busy visiting with them ~ 

Here's the fruit of our labor!!!

Doesn't everyone have a Christmas village surrounding their TV???

It was the only available space I had and guess what?

Our precious granddaughter Clara didn't mind at all!!!!

She just loved helping me set it up and playing with it ~

These truly are the things that memories are made of.

I'm working on an order for ten rose petal sachets that has made the studio

smell like a beautiful garden!!!

And we're also working on TONS of soap orders as well ~

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!

I hope you are doing so good and
thank you so much for stopping by to see what I'm up to ~

Happy Monday precious friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn

I really am dreaming of a white Christmas ~

I know that Thanksgiving isn't even here yet (but it IS next week!) but I'm already thinking of Christmas. I love the elegance and the simplicity of a white Christmas. Not really snow, as we don't really get much snow here in Georgia, but white as in the decorations. Mixed with silver, gold and crystal ~ white has such an elegance to me.

I have this gorgeous book by Tricia Foley, White Christmas, and what's amazing is that the copyright is 1997 but the elegance inside is absolutely timeless. White is classic and beautiful ~

Some of these images are from the Country Living mag website too ~

I'm not just talking white either. Vanilla, creams and ecru are beautiful hues mixed in. It's soothing and relaxing, most of all, peaceful ~


I remembered that awhile back I bought some embossed wallpaper for a furniture project I was painting. This paper is so neat ~ you paste it on and then paint it too! Well, I had a kitchen cupboard that someone had wallpapered the panels of the doors and I just couldn't remove it. So I bought this and papered right over top and painted it all the same color. It turned out beautiful and sold really quickly too! The wallpaper has the look of old ceiling tiles to me, but on a much smaller scale.

How about I use this paper to wrap a few gifts this year? Accented by snippets of greenery and ribbon, I think it would look just beautiful ~ or even cones filled to the brim with candies...

I wonder how white feather boas from the craft store would look as garland?

White or cream hankies tucked inside cones hung on the tree ~


We'll see what our tree turns out looking like but I'm definitely dreaming white!







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I can't get the little crocheted hat off my mind. The one for our new granddaughter? I know I purchased one but still want to make her one as well. I dug out all of my crochet supplies and discovered I had purchased some yellow cotton yarn just like the beautiful white that I just bought the other day to make her a hat!!!



Plus I found a project that I'd started a while ago ~ I thought I'd make a scarf out of this amazing chenille yarn but don't really know now :) I do love this yarn though!




I've even printed out a few free instructions to help me but yikes, what language is this??

Oh well, we'll see ~ maybe I should stick to my other artwork. I just have this thing in me that wants to learn new things!!

Another little gathering of beautiful buttons in honor of International Button Week!!

Wishing you a wonderful Tuesday sweet friends ~

xxoo, Dawn

A mitten ornament tutorial ~

I thought that I'd share with you how I make these sweet little mitten ornaments. I love the look that they have, a little aged with a dusting of "snow".

First, I cut the mitten shape from a double layer of cotton batting - it has a beautiful creamy color to it. And then I sew around the outer edge with a 1/4" seam allowance leaving the end open. (You can even hand sew this!)

Clip the area between the thumb and the mitten close to the stitching. Then turn it right side out. I used pinking shears on the edge of the mitten, too.

For the next step, I threaded my needle and gathered across where the wrist would be and pulled slightly. Then I tied a knot to hold the gathering.





Next, I cut a small length of ribbon and wrapped it around the gathered wrist area and looped it through itself and took a small stitch through it to hold it.




Then I added a snippet of lace on top of the ribbon and took one stitch through it as well.



I added about three vintage buttons, stitching each one on . . .



And tied it off inside the mitten.





You may not choose to do this step, but as you know I love old things so I sprayed some instant coffee onto the mittens to give them an aged look. Don't worry, if you spray too much you can blot with a paper towel to absorb some of the coffee.




Next, I paint little wisps of glue here and there (Elmer's is just fine) and sprinkle clear glitter to give the look of snow.

And last but not least, I will sew on a little loop on the outer top edge of the mitten with button & carpet thread to hang on the Christmas tree!
(This step isn't pictured)


Here is the pattern...simply click on it to enlarge it.
Open it up in your photo editing program on your computer
and there you can size it whatever size you desire!

Well, I hope this was easy enough to understand
and please let me know if you make any,
I'd love to see them!

xxoo, Dawn