Christmas Planner

About a week ago mom made herself a delightful Christmas Planner for herself based on this lovely tutorial by Dawn McVey at her blog http://www.dawnmcvey.typepad.com/
She punched the holes wrong at first, so she doesn't think hers is picture worthy, but maybe she'll let me sneak it one little picture of it! :) I decided I wanted to be more organized this year - the last week before Christmas usually finds me scrambling to buy or make all my Christmas gifts, so I made one for myself, with the help of my lovely mother.

I have three dividing sections in mine - gifts, shopping lists, and a list of people I need to send out my Christmas cards to. Mom's has these sections as well as a misc. section, a baking list, and a cute envelope to keep her receipts safe.

The front cover


Gifts - I absolutely loved making this one, with all the cute gift boxes and phrases, and best of all polka dots! :)



Shopping lists... I just thought the 5 cent candy canes was perfect, since my planner is candy themed :)


And finally the Christmas card section! I love little little red reindeer, isn't he so sweet?


I'm not sure where the candy cane paper came from, but I believe it was hobby lobby. The pages between the dividers are printing paper, and the rest of the papers and stamps and the dies I used to cut some of the shapes are from Papertreyink.com

I hope you enjoyed a look at my recent project! It really came in handy this weekend as I planned out my gifts and when mom and I went on a big Christmas shopping trip yesterday. It's helped me get organized, and I have way more acomplished this year than I ever have at this point. I have all but one gift bought, and all I have left are the handmade gifts, which are actually the bulk of my gifts this year, especially for my friends.

Since I do have so many handmade gifts left to finish it might be a week or so until my next post, but I hope you enjoy the posts that are up right now.

If you love this planner but don't want to make one, I am accepting custom orders for these until the beginning of December. If you would like to order one, you can leave a comment here, or more preferably send me a conversation (convo) on etsy. You can do this by going to http://delightfulhands.etsy.com and click "contact" on the lefthand side of the page.


Have a lovely week and a wonderful Thanksgiving!
~Elissa

Don't forget to visit the shop on Friday!

An Etsy Christmas!

Okay, this isn't the Christmas project post I promised, but that is coming. I promise!

I wanted to share something with y'all that no one else has seen and will not be displayed in the shop until Thanksgiving day! My new shop header/banner! I would really like your feedback on this... thought and suggestions please! :)
I designed this a few days ago, and all the graphics - snowflakes, snow and penguin are my own original designs. My graphics program is ancient and isn't handling text so well anymore, so I used picnik.com to do the text. They have such fun fonts anyway, much better than the ones I have, so I'm quite pleased. The transfer from picnik to my computer did leave a lot to be desired, as it has compressed the quality, but overall I am quite pleased with the finished product.
This is the one that will be up in the shop before and during my black Friday Sale (10% off everything in the shop!)



And this is the one that will be up through the rest of the year and possibly January.



So, if you have anything thoughts, leave a comment!

I also wanted to share some adorable Christmas items from my favorites and from a friend's shop
If you are looking for beautiful handmade Christmas items or gifts, etsy is a great place to go!


Pretty Wit is a shop shared by a lovely group of sisters, and their shop is so fun, whimsical and colorful, and just love to sit and browse. You can their shop's blog right here: http://prettywit.blogspot.com/

Isn't this lacy stocking adorable? Too cute! I sure wish I had an excuse to buy a stocking!
Doily Snowflake Christmas Stocking by PrettyWit



And this lovely bracelet has been on my wishlist for a very long time... as you can see, it's even the colors of this blog and our shop! :) (Girls if you see that I just recently hearted it, it's actually been in my favorites for a long long time, but I un and re hearted so it would be nearer the front, and maybe my mom will get a "hint hint" :D)
Free Shipping Cherry Blues Bracelet by Pretty Wit



And just one more from these pretty ladies. Isn't it adorable?
I heart Christmas Patchwork Ornament by Prettywit


I would also like to share this adorable bunting from heidiadnum. She has a lovely shop filled with beautiful photography and bunting! You can view her shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/heidiadnum
Isn't the name of the bunting adorable? Too cute! I would love to hang this on my window, which currently is curtainless. It would be so cute hanging there, with my little tree that will be sitting under the window.

Candy Cane Christmas Handmade Good Will Bunting by Heidiadnum



One last thing I wanted to share was the treasury I made last night. I bought an adorable christmas mug for my ever growing collection yesterday, the colors are red and green and aqua and pink and it has sweet wintry and christmasy words and phrases all over it.... it was so pretty I made this treasury inspired by it. Enjoy!

Eggnog and Misteltoe
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4ce8b01d0b4d8eeff85be530/eggnog-and-mistletoe


Well, that's all for now.

Right now I'm downloading pictures of my project that I'll be sharing, and I should have that post up tomorrow.

~Elissa

Etsy and Christmasy stuff

Well stats show we still have an occasional person pop in here from time to time, goodness knows why. We haven't posted in over a year! Gracious! We've had a hard year though. Hopefully now that I plan to be posting a bit more readership will go up a bit!
I'm reopening this blog because I am finally going to try and keep my etsy shop steadily stocked and open for business, with an occasional sale here and there maybe! Speaking of sales, one of the reasons for this post is to alert you all that we are having a Black Friday sale on November 26 from Midnight to Midnight! We'll be offering everything in the store for 10% off! (and shh... maybe even a free gift tag thrown in an occasional package!)
The discount code is " HAPPYFRIDAY10 " just punch it in at checkout and your 10% will be taken off!
While we're talking of Etsy, I thought I'd share with you a few new things in the shop. I'll be adding a bunch of new tags, a few cozies, and maybe a few Christmas cards over the next few days, so keep your eyes peeled!

Here a some pictures of the tag sets I've recently posted:















You can click this cute little badge here to visit my shop and see all the pictures for these tag sets, or you can click on the etsy mini at the bottom of the post!




One of my tag sets has been featured in a beautiful treasury, alongside many beautiful items from fellow etsians!
http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4ce47b6cb5d66d91703fab01/red-christmas?index=1




Well, that's all I have for now. I'll probably be posting pictures of one of my Christmas projects Sunday or Monday.

Be sure to visit the shop on November 26 for lovely new items and a black friday sale!






Thanks for reading
~Elissa

More Autumn stitching...

Welcome to the Pumpkin Patch by Little River Designs.


Pumpkins by Little House Needleworks.


Here are the other two pictures I stitched this year for my Autumn wall. I started another one, but didn't finish it for this Autumn. I have moved on to Christmas stitching. ;o)

Love, Heather

Autumn stitching

Leaf Party by Crab Apple Hill

I finished this banner at the end of last Autumn. I had ran out of my favourite fabric and made it with a green fabric instead and I just was not happy with it. When Joann's started putting out their Autumn fabric they had my favourite fabric again so I bought some more and remade this banner. I am so much happier with it!


Autumn is in the Air by Brittercup Designs

I finished this one recently and just picked up from the framers last week. I have two more being framed right now. I will show you as soon as they are finished. This pattern came with a bonus scissor fob pattern that I made. They also have one for each season that I will be making.

Autumn is in the Air scissor fob

The back of my scissor fob.

~Heather

Cross~stitch pictures

Ladybugs and Bumblebees by Country Cottage Needleworks

(All the pictures are clickable)

These are few pictures that I have finished over the last little while. One of them I finished in 2003 but I just had framed this summer. I really enjoy cross stitching. It is very relaxing to me. I started cross stitching in 1989. Steve was TDY and I was staying with my mom and she taught me. I really like to stitch gifts for friends. I have taught Elissa how to stitch and we enjoy stitching together.


A House that Love Built by Paula Vaughan. This is the one I finished in 2003. I love the name of this one! I have several of her porch scenes that I am planning to stitch.



Summer Garden by Country Cottage Needleworks

Cottage Garden by Country Cottage Needleworks

~Heather

Sewing caddy

I recently made these sewing caddies for me and Elissa. They were super easy and they have been so nice to have.

This one is mine.

This one is Elissa's.

Heather

Of Pincushions and cozies...

Well, I haven't posted my projects in a while, so I figured now would be a good time. I've been on a major Pin cushion binge lately, I've made a ton. I had a giveaway on my blog, and gave three of them away.
I prefer hand-sewing over machine sewing, so All of these are hand-sewn.
This one is my absolute favorite, I actually cut it out in a square, but it turned out to be a rectangle and I ended up loving the shape and size.


A little sachet I made for my writing desk. tied with teeny vintage ric-rac.




These are the three pincushions I made for my giveaway, they all turned out so adorable!!!!





This is a cute little strawberry emery cushion that I made for a sewing kit in my give-away. I used the Martha Stewart tutorial, but I was having trouble with the felt, so I sort of cheated and put a fabric flower on top instead :D


This apron was also for my giveaway, it's just a regangle piece of white fabric, with some calico for a pocket, big bias binding for the top and ties, and I put some of my vintage ric-rac at the bottom.


This is one of the ones I made for my Etsy shop, you can find it here


Another one I made for the shop, I LOVE this one, and I'll have trouble parting with it if I sell it :)
Listing can be found here

My mom got me addicted to making fabric-covered buttons. Here are few I made for my Etsy shop. Here's the listing


The other day I saw a really cute mug cozy like this one, and I decided to try my hand at making one. It turned out fabulously, and I've already made several more as you'll see below. :)
The color is kind of distorted in the picture, the button does actually match the cozy :)


This is the one I made for my Grandmother for Mother's day.



And last but not least, the one I made this afternoon for Mom. I LOVE the way the Hunca-Munca buttons look on this one, and I'm making one for myself just like this one, only with Jemima Puddleduck buttons on it. My dad has already put in an order for a dark green cozy like mine, and then I'll be making some for the shop, if you want one, I can custom-make one for you! :D






~Elissa