Happy Thanksgiving!

After cooking all day, I finally am able to rest a bit and write. We started the day with Belgian waffles with walnuts. Had some queso dip around 1pm and Dinner was served at 4. This was the first year that I correctly estimated how long the Turkey would take to cook. I always go by the charts, but it usually takes an hour longer than the charts say. Perhaps after three years, I'm finally getting the hang of my quirky 1970's oven. I took the pecan pie out a little while ago, which everybody will enjoy later I'm sure.

This year I made three stuffings. Vegetarian for my In-Laws, inside the turkey for my brother-in-laws and myself, and just from the box for my husband. I made two types of mashed potatoes: regular and a small batch using Lactaid milk for one of my brother-in-laws. Everything else was only one version, thankfully. Other than burning the roasted garlic, everything turned out great.

I still have to run out to the convenience store and grab a paper to see what good deals there are tomorrow. My husband has his eyes set on a HD camcorder. I plan on buying tons of craft stuff I don't really need (but really want) at JoAnn's or Michael's. I hope you all had a wonderful day and good luck if you're shopping tomorrow!

Paper Dolls Anyone?

I made a jointed paper doll tutorial years ago when I was part of an online stamping community. I still get occasional emails about it, so I decided to put it back up.

It's a very easy project, and perfect for children. Especially if you use brads to connect the parts instead of using wire like I mention in the tutorial. These would also make great ornaments for the Christmas tree. You can make color copies of people and glue their faces on the doll's head.

If you are really into paper dolls and want this doll as a set of rubber stamps, visit my friend's store, Time To Stamp. She has a lot of great other stamps as well.

Not much else going on here. Just getting my ClinkIts 101 tutorial up for anyone who wants to know how to rubber stamp and emboss on the ClinkIts glass.

I also have a few more tutorials to put back up. They include a knotted bead necklace, stamped glass christmas ornaments, and a simple strung bracelet. I expect these to be up before the end of the year.

Here is a mosaic of paper doll related listings on eBay:

I'm glad I wasn't in any of the photos I took today.

I'm so glad my shirt was tagless today. I wore it the entire day (well at least until 9pm) inside out! That means the hour and a half at the park as well as the pharmacy! Maybe I'm back in style, is it retro-in-style to wear tshirts inside out?? I vaguely remember something like that when I was in school. Late 80's or early 90's perhaps? At any rate, I doubt anybody noticed. I was successful taking some photos at the park today. I actually had to break out a jacket. It was a nice 59 degrees when we got there. I love this weather!

Aren't these colors perfect for fall? This bracelet is made with wire wrapped ClinkIts, glass beads and plated findings. Now available in my Etsy shop.

Happy Early Halloween

I took my kids to The Avenues East Cobb for an afternoon of trick or treating today. They were dressed as pirates. At 3 1/2 and 2, I'm not sure if I'm going to take them out Halloween night, so this provides a safe daytime alternative. I've gone three years in a row now and this year it was totally packed. They really go all out for the kids and it's totally free. Jugglers, photo ops, music and games. I was supposed to be meeting people from my Moms Meetup Group, but we got there late and it was crowded, so I never did bump into any of them. I hope they had fun too!

I submitted stuff for the November Sampler. I'm going to try to submit for December too, but we'll see. Until four days ago I was plagued with migraines and/or severe headaches daily for nearly two months. I still have no idea why but my Father-in-law (he's a Neurologist) has helped me make some changes in diet and lifestyle that has helped. Some new medicine for the migraines has also helped. I have to remember to take the medicine when the migraine first starts and not try to "tough it out", like I always do. Here is the photo of my samples from The Sampler's website.



That's about it for now, I hope things calm down over the next few weeks so I can make a few tutorials for you. In the meantime, check out my tutorial for wire wrapping my Clinkits here.

Think Pink!

As many of you are already aware, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. To find out more information about this type of cancer visit the Susan G. Komen website. This website is stuffed full of information, resources, and how you can help.

Casio has donated a pink digital camera to 5 Minutes for Mom. Pop over there, spread the word about breast cancer awareness and leave a comment to be entered to win.

As for me, I sent a few pink prizes over to Aimee of Aimeeroo.com. She's going to be giving away prizes all month, so make sure you stop by her website.

If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it.

Margaret Fuller (1810 - 1850)

I've been tagged!

My friend Amber Dawn has tagged me. I need to list 5 favorite childhood games and 2 favorite songs from my grade school years. I also need to tag 5 more people. Since I'm not sure who I'm going to tag, I'll go ahead and give you my lists.

Games:

1. Leap Frog
2. Hopscotch
3. Mousetrap
4. Superheroes (I liked to play Wonder Woman!)
5. Dungeons & Dragons

Songs:

1. Indigo Girls, "Galileo"
2. Madonna, "Vogue"

Also, I'd like to give a big THANKS to Blair for mentioning me on her Blog: Wise Craft!

I am going to take this class!

I have a great local (Marietta, GA) bead store, K Marie Beads (Bummer, the store is now closed!). She has an upcoming class that I definitely want to take. It's called Cold Connection. You get to make a custom stamped silver and copper pendant and you learn how to rivet! My Great Aunt was a riveter during WWII, so I figure this has to be in my genes! It is going to be scheduled sometime next month, I can't wait! Here is one of the class samples.

Another thing that I want to do is take a sewing class. A friend of mine got me started in learning to use my sewing machine, now I think I need to do more. Also, a nice evening out a few weeks in a row would be grand! I could always take a class at JoAnn's, but there are some smaller fabric stores and sewing stores that I need to look into. If you live in the Atlanta area and have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

Who doesn't love seeing their name on something?

When I was little I always loved finding things with my name on it. 20 plus years ago Alicia was not that common. So I LOVE to find my name on anything. Have you seen people spelling their names (and other things) using Flickr photos? found a place that does all of the hard work for you. It's called Spell with Flickr, from Erik Kastner. Here is what it made for me:



Other than refreshing that page a thousand times to see the different combination of photos, I did clean up the garage a bit today. I filled up 3 boxes with old books and outgrown toys and took them to Goodwill. I found it a bit uplifting to get rid of some clutter and donate at the same time. I think I will try to make it a goal to donate, recycle, or toss at least two bags of stuff a week. I also threw out two bags of trash from the garage and gathered up the tons of jackets and other articles of clothing that somehow got left on my workbench. At least my workbench is clear enough now to start a new batch of glass on friday. Now if I could only find the laundry room floor...

Something about green

I had dinner with a few friends at Doc Greens on Saturday night. I really enjoyed the Dr. Greek salad with grilled chicken. It had all of the right ingredients and the chicken was nice and moist. The mashed potatoes with gravy was good, not 'wow', but good. I will definitely be going back there.

It must have been all of the green that I ate that made me create this necklace. It is silver toned chain with a focal point of 3 wire wrapped ClinkIts in shades of green and blue green. I plan on making more of this style. I'm really into the new chain selection at Michael's. It makes it easy for everybody to make trendy jewelry. I will have to take a better picture of this when it's not cloudy out. Here is a close up of the center.


I also made a few other things which will show up here over the next week, and then eventually make their way into my shop. It felt great to be over my friend's crafting. I really think I need to craft more and get out of my habit of vegging in front of the TV every night.

I've also decided it's time to de-crapify the house. The clutter and crapola all over is getting to me. Today I bought stacking bins for the kids' toys. I also went through my craft stuff (in the dining room) and found a bunch of stuff to donate, move downstairs and toss. Next I have to tackle the guest room, which has become the laundry overflow room. I wash the clothes, but they never make it back upstairs and put away. Do any of you have this problem?

Where did I go?

I had all of the best intentions of posting while I was on my vacation, but somehow I just didn't want to be on the computer. I spent nearly a week (without kids) with my husband on Galveston Island. It was nice to go to the beach and spend the afternoon relaxing and watching a movie. I did not find any good beach glass, which was a bit of a disappointment. I suppose I might have had better luck on a beach in a less public area. I did find some great shells, though.

The week before I left down my ClinkIts store ( www.aliciag.com) crashed. I have now made a temporary site which should hold me over until I decide if I'm going to put the old one back up or not. PayPal has a great shopping cart now, and I think I would do better using their interface. If you have no idea what a ClinkIt is, see photo below.

I am also making some samples for The Sampler. If you have not visited this site and participated, I suggest you do! It's way cool and a great idea to get your name out there if you are selling handmade things! I submitted stuff for the August Sampler. Scroll down a bit on that page to see what I submitted. The new submissions will be wire wrapped ClinkIts pendants. Photo coming soon! Other than that, back to the normal routine here.

Small batch of hair stuff.

I finally got time to photograph my yo-yo flower hair clips and ponytail holders. The hair clips are the same kind that I made for my friend's new baby girl. You can also find all of these at my Etsy store.

The hair clips were made using pre-made yo-yo's that I got on clearance at Hobby Lobby. The ones on the ponytail holder were made with my new Clover Yo-Yo maker. I still want to get the flower and heart ones they have.

I also scored a deal at Wal-Mart yesterday. They had the small colored snap clips on clearance for 25 cents a card. That was a nice find.

This ponytail holder is made from quilting fabric that is cut using pinking shears. It's on a large sized strong elastic band. It makes for an adorable fringe around a ponytail. Here is a few more photos of some things I made.

Not much planned this weekend. I'm hoping to make some more stuff for my Etsy store.











Here is a list of Yo-Yo Makers on eBay:

Online Bead Classes

I came across a nice site today. Beaducation. I wish I had thought of this when I started teaching beading years ago! It's a site where you can take beading classes online. There are all sorts of skill levels and even a few free classes.

The videos are high quality and provide you with a clear and close view of all of the instruction. Also, you are able to start the video over and rewind when you need to, making sure you get every step of the project.

If you are new to beading, there are a few of the free classes that might be of interest to you. Especially the Basic Loops Class.

Getting ready to make more bracelets.

I'm getting ready to make another batch of my ClinkIts tile bracelets. These bracelets are made with small pieces of processed glass that I make. I call them ClinkIts. They are essentially man made sea glass. I use scrap stained glass in all sorts of colors. You can see more photos of ClinkIts here.


I make the bracelet by wire wrapping (using 20 gauge plated craft wire) the glass pieces leaving loops on opposite ends. I then make little links with glass beads. I link it all together and add clasp. I have a more detailed tutorial I will add soon.

New Banner

I uploaded my new banner today and I hope you like it. It took me way more time to finish it than I would have liked but I had a hard time deciding what look to go for. I tried to keep it simple and clean, yet fun. I'm hoping to be adding new items to my etsy shop soon. I really want to get back to selling my items now that my youngest is 2. I find that I can get more done around the house during the day (with them home), which leaves me time at night to craft a bit while my husband and I watch TV. When do you find time to craft?

Loving my Yo Yo Maker from Clover

I'm sure some of you have made fabric yo-yos. It's a great way to use up scraps. I recently purchased a Clover Yo Yo Maker off eBay and I am LOVING it! It makes cutting the fabric and sewing it very easy! If you haven't seen any of these yet I urge you to take a peek.

And if you're not entirely sure what a fabric yo-yo is, check out a beautiful tutorial by Heather Bailey. She started a garland craze which in turn created a great Flickr group for all sorts of garlands.

I'm mostly using my yo-yos for kids hair clips and pins. I'm also sewing a few onto some plain white newborn socks for my friend who just had a baby. I'm delivering those with a pot roast dinner to her tomorrow! I will take a few photos before I give them to her.