31 December 2009

3,2,1...


I hope that everyone has a special New Year's Eve tonight.
Make memories with people that you love.
I think I am officially old.
For New Year's Eve Adam, Catalina, and I are at my parent's house for dinner. We just watched Up together (I'm not sure how it's possible for that movie to get even more magical each time I see it, but it does).
I am going to be crocheting my way to 2010, those are my plans :)


Also, I am declaring 2010...The year of the sewing machine!!

At least for me it will be :)
I am hoping to experiment more with my machine and use it with all types of mediums to create beautiful things :) First, I have to get it fixed though!

I saw this picture on Chelsey's blog and I love it so much. I believe it for sure :)
Thank you all so much for an amazing year of friendship and love <3
2009...signing off!!
xoxo
janel
p.s. it's also going to be the year of the Polaroid too!!
p.s.s 2 more followers by midnight and a give-a-way will be here tomorrow!! we shall see :)

29 December 2009

back in business <3

Hello loves!!
I have officially opened up my etsy shop again :)
For this installment I am offering a few more pin-cushion rings,


some necklaces,

and

my one of a kind create ID bracelets!!!
I only have three of these left so you need to hurry if you would like to get one!!
Please hop over to my shop and check it out :)
Your support is amazing :)
Thanks so much!!
xoxo
janel

make things


Oh I love love that sign so much!
I think I need one for my house and another one for my classroom.
Being on break has really reminded me how much I love my job.
I mean, elementary art teacher, it doesn't get any better than that :)
Today I am going to get excited and make things.
I am challenging myself to create at least two things today.
Im not sure what they will be yet, but they will be awesome <3
I will be back tonight to share pics!!
xoxo
janel

28 December 2009

new banner!

Seriously, three blog posts in one day!?
I could not wait another day though to post about my new blog banner!!!

Seriously, google readers, click over and see it in full force!!!
I mean I keep going over to my blog just to stare at it myself :D
Russ, at http://artinstereo.wordpress.com, is the guy who created my new look.
The cool thing about him is that I seriously gave him no direction whatsoever and he said he read through my blog, checked out my etsy and flickr and did his research :)
Im glad that I didn't give him direction too because it turned out way cooler than I could have imagined.
I think he completely captured the essense of me and my blog.
What do you think??
He also made me a new blog button that you can add to your blog or switch it with my older one.

I can't get over how much I love it.
The best part is, Russ is offering custom blog headers and buttons over on his blog so check it out.
This is by far the cheapest I have seen blog make-overs going for.
Please please please jump over to Russ' blog and leave him so comment love.
While you are on his blog, you should find the link to his band too. They are super rad!!
Thank you again Russ for my awesome new look and for offering your services to others too.
Thank you to Katie, his wife, for offering the give-a-way :)
eeeeek!!!
Off to stare at it some more :)
xoxoxo
janel

*create*

Today was so much fun and exactly what the doctor ordered to get my creativity flowing again :)
My aunt was wanting my sister and I to teach her how to make stamped silver jewelry so that she could make a present.
My sister and I had taken some classes at a local jewelry store, Glasshopper, and were more than excited to go back and use the studio.
I'm not sure if you have ever heard of Beth Moore.
Our ladies group at church always does her Bible Studies. We love her.
Anyway, Beth Moore had a challenge on her blog where she challenged people to do 2 scripture memory verses a month for a year. I, unfortunately, failed the challenge but my aunt and Janet rocked it :)
Sooooo, my aunt wanted to make Beth a necklace with all of the verses that she memorized this year.
Here is the final product:

I l-o-v-e it soooo much!
I also made some really neat bracelets while I was there too!
1. First, I stamped a couple of stars in a corner and stamped the word create into a piece of sterling silver

2. Next, I punched holes on each side of the silver to create an ID bracelet look.

3. Step three required a lot of filing to get all of the edges rounded and smooth.
(My aunt and Nicole doing this with the necklace)

4. Next, I mixed up some liver of sulfur to soak the silver in. This gives the silver a patina look once it's polished.
After your rinse the pieces of silver, it leaves it looking black!

5. Finally, you buff, buff, buff with three different types of buffing pads...

I also made silver jump rings, and bought a really cute chain to finish off the ID bracelets. I have four of them and I am hoping to get these for sale soon.
I loooove mine!!!
In other news, I cleaned like a mad woman today, All Christmas decorations are officially down and put away. I also did a little re-arranging in the house today.
Here are a few pictures from some of my favorite spots in the house:

I think that everyone who has an instax mini should send me a pic of themselves so that I can add it to my polaroid garland here <3




Isn't my new welcome mat sooo cute!! My sister gave it to me for Christmas and it is completely made out of recycled flip-flops. How rad is that?!
I am just loving my Christmas break so much. The snow has melted already, and I am thankful for that :D Im sooo ready for Spring!!
Happy Monday
xoxo
janel

10 things I think are beautiful...

1. Cross stitch...a cluster of them is even better :)

2. colorful afghans. I need to re-start mine and get serious about it :D

3. this cute crocheted panda rug

4. buttons, buttons, and more buttons

5. whales

6. this alice in wonderland illustrations

7. this bed, this dress, this designer (Betsey Johnson)

8. crocheted spider webs :)

9. unicorns <3

10. peace...

Happy Monday...
What is something that you are finding super beautiful today? I want to see a post of 10 things you are finding extremely beautiful right now. If you decided to do a post, please leave me a message in my comments with a link so that I can check it out. (all of my images are from weheartit)
I love you!
xoxo
janel

27 December 2009

life is good

For real!!
Don't you just have an overly abundant feeling of blessed after holidays.
Blessed with our families
Blessed with our friends
Blessed with good fellowship
Blessed with cards and gifts
Blessed with love.
What an amazing feeling,
PTL!
I also won another awesome give-a-way
I won a new blog header (which is not the one you are seeing right now :D)
What a blessing
from a friend (who is such a blessing)
You should totally check out her blog), follow it and leave a comment :)

She was the one who I saw everyday at work (we used to work together) always positive happy and at peace, through struggles and all. She had it, and I wanted it :) She gave me a Bible for my birthday and the rest is history. I owe her more than she knows :)
Seriously her blog is awesome, her family is awesome, her "chocolate chip" (her and her husband adopted sweet little Elliot from Guatemala about 3 years ago) is the cutest thing ever, and her husband makes awesome music and really rad blog headers :) sweeet!!
Can you tell I am excited :)
Yesterday, my mom, my sister, and I headed out for after Christmas sales at 6:00 AM. My sister is for real when it comes to this my friends :) I love it!! I didn't come away with much but I got a bunch of little things that I needed for ridiculously loooow prices.
I also got a frame for my Rob Ryan.
I little Christmas tea party set
The cuuuuute Christmas nesting dolls from Target:

and like 8 boxes of Flad flex force trash bags that were a dollar because they were Christmas scented. Girl Please!!
Excited!!
And of course some other things too that I can't even remember.
I even went to a mall which I probably haven't done in over a year!! It was insane.
Anyway, we had a lot of fun and seriously I loooove watching my sister get so into it :)
Which leads me to today, after Christmas shopping Part 2.
I have no money to spend, again I am going for moral support and fun times with my mom and sister.
I also have toooons of organizing and putting away to do tonight. I am honestly also in the mood to take down Christmas trees. Just the trees though because I feel like everything else is just a wintery decoration so I can keep a lot of it up.
I am in dire need to do something creative. Four days in a row without creating a single thing is driving me crazy, and leaving me very un-motivated (hense the tweet about wanting to quit blogging).
I need to get some inspiration STAT!
Adam's heart seems to be acting up more than it's not so that puts a lot of stress on the both of us too :( I can not wait for the surgery and for things to get back to normal for him.
Ok, this post seems a little A-D-D so I better get off now and continue to get ready for another day at the mall. Yikes!!
love you all soooooo much.
You are a blessing to me :)
xoxo
janel

P.S. If I can get 10 more followers before the end of the year, a HUMUNGOUS give-a-way is a promise :) Love you!

25 December 2009

Christmas 2009

Merry Merry Christmas!!!

This morning we woke up to a white Christmas :) Although I don't like snow very much, it was nice and as long as it is all melted by tommorow, It will all be good :) ha!!
Last night we had the Barnholtz Family Christmas at my sister and her husband's house. They did such a great job hosting, as usual :) We had a wii tennis and bowling tournament which was really fun too. Here are some pictorial highlights from the night:






Did you see my brother-in-law's amazing wrap job? love it!
And here are some pics from Christmas Morning with our little family :)
We opened presents and stockings in front of the good 'ole Yule Log :)

**My sweetie pie, Catalina, got a new bed, (which I saw her sleeping in, with wrapping paper and a bow in it btw at 3 in the morning).


**Adam and some of his gifts:




Some of my pretty presents from Adam <3:





ummm YES that is a special edition Rob Ryan original laser cut!!
favorite :)
This is how much my man knows me...as I was opening my stocking I unwrapped a pack of Uniball Signo pens in black, bold tipped. I literally started crying. How neat is it that Adam knows that that is my favorite type of pen without me even ever telling him that. I love that he knows me so well. He couldn't believe that I cried over pens, neither can I really :)
** We were able to Skype with Adam's family this morning which was really nice :)

And now we are heading to my parents house to do one of our ONLY holiday traditions. Every year on Christmas day (well, only for the last 3 years really) we go to the movies with our whole family. Today it is Sherlock Holmes.
Merry Christmas Friends!!!
Happy Birthday Jesus :)
xoxo
janel