Brighter Days Comin'

Whew... the past 7 days have been rough, and I'm glad to be past them. Exactly a week ago, I broke a tooth that resulted in a root canal, a temporary crown, and one outrageous dental bill.  I tell ya, not having dental insurance really stinks.  The pain from the dental work really wasn't so bad, but the stomach flu that followed was plenty painful enough to make up for it.  yay. I suppose I could say that losing a few pounds and getting caught-up on daytime t.v. would be a silver lining? Maybe? There's certainly no worry of putting on any weight during Thanksgiving... anything sugary, crunch, or chewy is off the menu. damnit.

I did say that brighter days are comin', though, and they are.  The stomach flu seems to have pretty well run its course.  And would you believe that the little one has not gotten it?!  That alone is reason to be thankful. Today I'm playing catch-up with my etsy shop and getting some custom orders taken care of. 

p.s.  Glad you guys like my little box trick.... it's not a fancy tutorial, but that's a darn handy thing to know.

My Favorite Gift-wrap Trick

Since the holidays are approaching, I thought I'd share one of my favorite grift-wrapping tricks. I learned this when I worked retail... a real budget saver when you offer free gift wrap because you can use half as many boxes! I am much better at showing than explaining so you can find lots of pictures with instructions here. You'll see how I can turn one half of a shirt box (because I'm always losing or ruining half) into a usable gift box with a little bit of folding and a couple of snips. This is my first go at a sort of tutorial, so if the instructions aren't clear just let me know.

Go from:

To this:

1 Down...

2 more to go!  I posted a while back about a set of floor cushions that I'm making and I wanted to post an update.  I got the first one finished!  Yay!  The picture is dark so it's hard to tell that the sides (and the bottom) are dark brown linen.  I'm pretty pleased with it, but it is far from perfect.  Putting all the pieces together went really smoothly until it came to putting on the bottom piece, then getting everything straight was a challenge.  I had to fudge a little bit, but it's not too noticeable.   I also left off the handle from the tutorial because they are pretty much going to stay parked in my living room.  They are also bigger - 19" square x 4" deep.  Taylor says the next one must have more pink. ;)  

Yes We Did!!!!

The past 6 weeks of so have been so incredibly rewarding.  I am so proud to be able to say that I  worked to elect our first African-American president!  What a proud day for our country!

I sincerely hope that keep the enthusiasm and the momentum going so that we can make our country the very best that it can be!

(Now, after standing, sign-waiving, and cheering at the polls for seven hours and then staying up to see it all pay off, I'm exhausted.  I think I'll take a nap today.... then it's back to the crafty business already in progress.)