Christmas Swap Sign Up

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With Halloween behind us, it's time to start planning our Christmas Swap!


This swap will not be anonymous (mostly because it's too much work for me) and you will be required to have a Flickr account. If you are interested in signing up, email me at greenletterday at yahoo dot com with the subject line: CHRISTMAS SWAP. Include the following information in the EXACT FORMAT. I will be copying and pasting your information to your partner so make sure it is accurate!

Full Name

Address

City, State, Zip

Email address

Flickr Username

Any additional links (blog, FB, Pinterest) you'd like to include

And if you are willing to ship internationally

I will leave sign up open for about a week. Please spread the word to others who might be interested in participating. Once the sign up is closed, I will be assigning partners and you will then have about a month to send out your packages. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Snap Shots

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Oh how I've missed my little blog!
I know I've been MIA for awhile but I'm back. I haven't been sewing much lately, I've been consumed with the holidays, family visits, weekend trips and reading a new series (The Mortal Instruments).

I trust your Christmas was as merry as mine!



We have had a wonderful past couple of weeks with Adrian's birthday/party and Christmas. Adrian was able to get two straight weeks off of work, which is a first for us, and I loved every single minute of it! His family had come down from El Paso for his party on the weekend before Christmas and we all decided to head to San Antonio the next day.



We stayed on the Riverwalk at an amazing historic hotel, The St. Anthony. It was rumored to have been haunted on the 10th floor which I didn't really believe but was still freaked out by it. The inside of the hotel was incredible. I felt like we were in the Titanic.
And the Riverwalk was magical!









There were Cinderella-like horse drawn carriages all lit up like a fairy tale. Even the light drizzle added some charm to the night.







We drove to Austin the following Monday to visit a little fabric shop that I had been dying to see called The Stitch Lab. It is exactly what I would want my own fabric shop to look like. It was cozy and sweet and carried all my favorite designers including Echino and Melody Miller.







Wish I would've taken more pictures! I only had my phone on hand and it was suprisingly packed with early bird visitors so I was only able to get a few decent shots. But lucky for you, Dana from MADE had visited this shop before and she took A LOT of great pictures and wrote about it here.

We got to spend a beautiful Christmas at my mom's house upon our return. AJ and Morgane made a wonky gingerbread house, which they were so proud of!





Zooey joined us somewhere along the way. LOVE HER!!



And I must've been a reeeeally good girl this year because Santa was so good to me! I got lots of great goodies including a new sewing machine and an amazing new lens for my camera, which takes phenomenal close up photos. Observe.



I KNOW!! Can't wait to bring in the new year with some great projects and giveaways I have lined up. Tell me, how was your Christmas??

Bag Full O' Goodies Giveaway!!!

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***GIVEAWAY CLOSED***
It's no secret around here... Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year. I love decorating. I love Christmas carols. I love eggnog. I love wrapping gifts. And I especially love making people happy when I give presents!

I've been collecting a few of my favorite things for the past couple of weeks so I could compile a bag full of goodies to give away to you, my faithful readers!



This is what you will get if you win:

- A $10 Starbucks giftcard

- A Starbucks coffee ornament

- An OPI for Sephora nail polish in "And A Cherry On Top"

- A canister of Cranberry Joy Body Butter

- A double ruffle headband from {just.lovely.things}

- A bowband from {just.lovely.things}

- Two sweater ornaments

- A Martha Stewart paint sample in "Sea Glass", one of my favorite colors

- A cute reusable drawstring bag to put it all in!















***This is not a sponsored giveaway. Everything seen here was made or purchased by me! So you must be a public follower of Pink Stitches to participate in this giveaway!!***

So what do you have to do to win??

Mandatory Entry:

-Leave me a comment telling me your favorite Christmas memory. I have so many wonderful Christmas memories... getting my first bike, setting up our first Christmas tree as newlyweds, the first/only time I ever saw snow (if we could actually call it that!) & ofcourse, every year gets better watching my son enjoy it as much as I do!

Additional entries:

- Like Pink Stitches on Facebook (1 entry)

- Blog, facebook, or tweet about this giveaway (up to 3 entries)

Please leave a comment for each entry and don't forget to include your email address if it's not available on your profile. I'll announce the winner next Tuesday, Dec. 13th. Good luck!

Christmas Pillows

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It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmaaaaaas!

I put up my tree and decorations awhile back but haven't really posted anything about it yet. I thought I'd share a few Christmas pillows I made for my living room.



I made this one with a bunch of red and green scraps that I had. I just made a bunch of HST's and came up with this little guy.



For this one, I just made a simple star block & sashed it with some Kona Snow.



And my personal faaaavorite! I'm so in love with this bow pillow. The red fabric is a rich, dark linen that gives it a beautiful rustic look.







I bought some dark green linen with the intention of making a matching set but never quite got around to it. I might eventually end up making one but for now, my to do list is impossibly long.

I'm getting together with an old friend tonight and I'm so excited to spend some time with her. She recently got engaged and I just looove talking about wedding preparations! Looking forward to a relaxing evening. Have a great day!

Holiday Crayons Tutorial

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I had this last minute idea for holiday crayon sets to sell at the Christmas Market last week. They were so fun and easy to make, your toddler can help!

**If you have used this tutorial or any others by Pink Stitches, please post your pictures on the Pink Stitches Flickr Group! I'd love to see your beautiful creations and feature some of my favorite projects!**


All you need are some crayons and silicone cupcake trays in any shape you can find. I had gotten the heart shaped one at Target last February and I found the gingerbread man tray at Walmart.


Preheat your oven to 200 degrees while you peel all the wrappers off your crayons. Then break them into 1-2 inch pieces. Distribute them evenly into each mold in your trays. It's up to you how thick you want them. Bake them for 10-12 minutes until crayons are completely melted. Do not stir!


Carefully pull them out of the oven and let them cool for a few minutes. If you're impatient like me, you can pop them into the freezer for a couple of minutes before popping them out of the tray. Be especially careful removing the gingerbread men. I had a few arms and legs break off. It's ok though, you can use a lighter to "glue" them back together and then put them back in the freezer for a bit.


Aren't they adorable?? Your kids will love them!


Want to make some quick stocking stuffers? Just fold a piece of wax paper over a couple of crayons, stitch around the three open sides, and stick a gift tag sticker on it! Pair it with a mini coloring book and you're all set!


I hope you enjoy making these with your little munchkins this holiday season! AJ will be giving these out to all his cousins and friends on Christmas. Hopefully I can get him to write his name on them. He's in the process of learning his alphabet.

Christmas Market

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Well, the long anticipated Holly Jolly Christmas Market has come and gone. I literally feel jet-lagged right now. Even after taking a two hour nap with my 3 year old, I am exhausted! But I also feel relieved and happy.

This is what my table looked like on the first night.







I changed it up a bit on the second day to better display my remaining items.






I didn't get a chance to take my camera out very much. Most of these pictures were taken with my phone! Overall, it turned out to be a fun, rewarding and learning experience. I met some of my "online buddies" in person for the first time and made a lot of new friends! Plus, I walked out with a few hundred dollars. Not bad for my first craft fair!

I'm planning on listing all the items that I didn't sell on my Etsy shop sometime tomorrow. I am dedicating the rest of the week to my poor, neglected little house. It looks like Taz paid us a visit- an absolute mess! Looking forward to the storm settling down a bit around here before Thanksgiving and AJ's birthday. Good times ahead of us! Hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Progress

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Checking things off the list one by one! Now that my hubby is home for the entire week, I can go full throttle with this Christmas Market business. I don't wanna show you everything just yet but here are some teasers.

I've finished some pillows and I have more in the making.



I've also made some reusable gift bags.



And here is a glimpse of all the iPad cases and some 10" zipper pouches I've made.



I've still got a bajillion things I need to get done like pricing and display but I'm moving right along! I'm really nervous that I won't sell a single thing. I might just cry if that happens! Just make sure and send me happy thoughts next weekend lol. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Crochet Therapy

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AJ and I have been sporting colds for the past several days. That's the thing about living in south Texas. Our bodies get so used to the heat that they are totally thrown off track when we get a few cold days. Needless to say, I haven't really been wanting to be confined to my sewing machine but I couldn't just sit here and be idle. I only have one week and a half before the Christmas Market! So I picked up my crochet hooks and got to work.


Fringe Scarf


Ruffle Scarf


Colorblock Scarf

I've said this many times before but crochet is so therapeutic for me. And I love the portability of it. I can relax on the sofa and watch cartoons with my son. I can sit outside on the porch and watch him play. It's just so relaxing.

I will be offering these three styles of scarves at the Market and also through etsy (after the market) for custom orders. Please message me if you're interested. Apparently, it's already freezing in places outside of Texas. I've even heard that there's something called "snow" in many parts of the world. Haha! I hope you all are enjoying the weather, whatever it may be!

Oh and please come "like" my Facebook page if you haven't already. Thank you!

I'll be linking up at these fabulous parties.