Tea and Cakes

A couple weeks ago my delightful friend Stacy and I co-hosted a Tea and Cupcake swap and it was sweet and scrumptious. It was so much fun to make yummy lemon cupcakes and share my Teavana Earl Grey tea at the party.
Each guest made their favorite cupcake recipe and brought their favorite tea and we all tasted and chatted. Needless to say, we were all bouncing from caffeine and sugar after the party, but it was totally worth it.I made this adorable cupcake apron for Stacy as a hostess gift. I found the super easy pattern in this book. It came out really well, especially since it was the first apron I've ever made!Stacy made these beautiful paper flowers. They were perfect decorations for the party.
It was a fabulous party and I look forward to hosting another swap with Stacy. I believe a soup swap is on the agenda for January!

I Am Determined...

...to get back to you wonderful blogging people. I have never been so busy in my life and it just kills me that I don't have time to read your wonderful blogs and update mine.

So for now, I'll leave you with this...
This is a pile of projects that are just waiting to get started/finished...and that's not even all of them! I have tons waiting for me in my studio and they all need to get finished before Christmas. Geez Louise!

Something for a Little One

Have you ever heard of Craft Hope? Well if you haven't, you must hop on over to their site right now and check out the amazing wonderful things they are doing in order to bring hope to those who need it with hand-made love. Back in May, I was able to participate by making adorable dolls for beautiful children in Nicaragua. And this month, I was able to participate by making a quilt for a child who will need something to keep them warm during the cold winter months in Michigan. The quilts are for Margaret's Hope Chest. You can find out more info here.

I used a hodge-podge of fabric from my stash, which was nice because I was able to actually use what I had. The squares are actually made out of a re-purposed cloth napkin that I bought from Pier One back in the summer because I liked the print on it. Thought I was going to use it for a purse, but when I stumbled upon 3 yards of this fabulous blue paisley fabric at an antique store, I just had to pair them together. I was very excited about how it turned out. I didn't have a pattern for the quilt. I just drew a couple of sketches and Voila! This is what came out!
What's that amazing bench the quilt is sitting on, you ask? Well, it's only a bench my Hubby made out of re-purposed bed frame rails. That's right, my friends. He got each rail for $2 and made a bench to go at the foot of our bed. It's absolutely wonderful...don't you think?!

A Squirrel's Dream

I'm working on a fabulous wreath made out of various nuts that my mom and I found while searching through the woods of Virginia. I was inspired by the wreath in the November issue of Martha Stewart Living.
Isn't this amazing? So festive and it's good for the Fall and Christmas season. So here is my lovely collection of nuts for my wreath. Sadly, I didn't have enough to make the entire wreath out of what I collected, so I had to buy some from the grocery, but at least half of them are straight from the woods.How's this for squirrel level? You can tell a squirrel has been nibbling on this one.My version is about 50% done and as soon as it's complete, you better believe I'll be sharing it! (Thanks for the idea Martha!)

Around the House Saturdays

A few weekends ago we ventured to Martinsville, Virginia for family time and NASCAR. (That's right - I'm a die-hard NASCAR fan, folks.) While we were there, we stayed in a fabulous cabin filled with perfect warmth and coziness. So I decided to feature The Cabin in this week's addition of "Around the House Saturdays."

Red & Yellow

Hope you aren't tired of my infatuation with beautiful Fall leaves. I just can't get enough of them! My camera just gravitates towards the colors. All of these are of the beautiful trees of the mountains of south western Virginia.

Happy November

Where in the world did October go?