Where I've Been, Where I Plan To Be (long post)

I've had a long absence from the craft blog world, though not intentional.  Long story short...My son painted the family room for me.  I painted the kitchen, put Venetian plaster on the walls in the breakfast room, as a backsplash behind the stove, over the tile around the fireplace, and a different color in the powder room to replace the wallpaper that was in there.  Then Chuck and I pulled up all the carpet downstairs and spent two entire days on our hands and knees sanding and scraping the plaster and paint that the contractors figured would never be seen.  After all that, we stained the concrete and applied several layers of sealer.  It's gorgeous! Then I was suddenly and unexpectly laid off  from my job on October 4.  Was hired November 29 by a law firm and I'm still trying to fit in there.  I've always worked in the medical field in one capacity or another since I was 15, so a law firm is definitely a stretch for me!

Here are the house pix, should be able to click on them to make them bigger if you'd like. 

Breakfast room (before) Girls night in. :)  Can see where I'm in process of removing wallpaper, the vertical blinds and mini blinds we replaced. 



Living/Dining room. This was after we had been sanding for more than 12 hours

   

Family room. Gray tile around fireplace I covered with venetian plaster, you'll see in after shot



Breakfast area all put together. New French doors, valances I made, new window blinds

Powder room with Venetian Plaster

Family room. Venetian plaster over the gray tile around fireplace, valances up.

     

Living/dining room, from the front door

 

As far as crafting goes, here is a listing and pictures of what I have been up to.

Military Ball invitations for the JROTC program at my son's high school.  He is no longer in the program, but I have made the invitations for the last four years, they liked how I did them and they asked me to do them again.  This is my fifth and last year.  Their colors were purple and gold, theme was "Roman", so this is what I came up with.  I made 125 of these.

Beaded ornament covers. I did four different designs, five of each design in different colors. We had a Christmas party and I let the guests choose which ornament they wanted from the tree. They loved them!

Fleece jackets.  I made four of these, this is one for my daughter.  The other designs were Dallas Cowboys, Texas A&M and Black Watch plaid.

Mass Christmas Cards.  My mother and some of my friends depleted my stash of Christmas cards.  I never got around to making cards in time to send out to friends at Christmas but I did need a few for my family.  Also, a friend wanted quite a few clean and simple cards, so I did a mass production of these, there were 40 in the varied designs and colors

Christmas card I made for my mom.  Not a mistake on lower part of card, I forgot to take a picture before I signed it, so I "airbrushed" the words off the picture

 

Birthday card for my daughter, Shelbie

Birthday card for my niece

My daughter asked me to make a card for a friend of hers who got married New Years Eve.  She loved this card I made previously and asked that I make similar one in her friend's colors.

A friend of mine is a great salesperson but can't sew, so she asked if I would make microwave potato bags and she would sell them.  Pretty boring so I didn't include a picture...rectangular bag with patterned cotton exterior, layer of cotton batting, and white cotton inner layer.  I made 96 of them and she sold every one of them!  Then she asked me to design a wine tote bag that she could sell to the ladies in her bunco group.  They went over very well so she asked me to make more.  The pics above are what I designed. They have a little pocket for the corkscrew.  I also made some tags from shrink plastic on which I used a stamp from Crafty Secrets.  I attached some jump rings to a lobster claw which clips over the drawstring cord.  I made 72 wine bags and she sold all of those too!

So my plans for this year crafting wise are to participate in more card challenges, my first one being below.  Plan to re-start my personal challenge of making a Christmas card a week so I have enough cards by Christmas, and more varied designs.  Perhaps just a few 'mass' batches. :)  Also plan to do more beadwork in the form of ornaments and necklaces.  I have one major sewing project to finish by spring break, and I will post that when I can put it on my daughter to model. :)

If you're still reading this, thanks for hanging in there with me.  So now take a look at my first challenge this year in the post below.