Holiday card time, Minted style

It's that time of year again - Christmas card time. Every single year I am scrambling by the first of November to organize ours. What will the kids wear? Background? Is it still warm enough to use natural light? Will I have it together in time for all the card discounts when they are start coming?

I used to just order super cheap postcards when it was just Jack. And then one year I got some free cards and they were so.lovely. And I was hooked on pretty cards from then on.

I love the stuff at Minted. Independent designers, on trend and GORGEOUS. When they contacted me this year they mentioned their Buy now, personalize later program. Say WHAT!? I can use the coupon I am always scrambling to be ready for before I am ready? Sign me up!

I didn't choose this Holiday card, but I LOVE this idea so much. Kids drawings are so sweet and let's be honest here - this is way easier than trying to wrangle three rowdy kids while the light is rapidly fading.

My kids are goofy as always. I'm okay with it. It's what they are.

 

 I love these ornament cards too. This is an awesome way for grandma and grandpa to be able to put all the Christmas cards to use every year.

 I usually gift my parents some kind of photo gift of the kids. Calendars, ornaments, you name it. The Silhouette Art adds a totally different dimension to that. Every mom had these in the 70s right? Why not have them of the grandkids too?  Heck, for me too! I finally got a set of our kids made last year.

 

 

 I ADORE this Heart snapshot mix. As soon as this post is done I am so making one of these with my instagram snapshots.

 

 

 There was so much good Foil stamped art too. I loved the state ones but then I saw this under the microscope one. Hello? Miss Biologist needs one of these stat.

 

 Minted is so good I always have the hardest time choosing when I am on their website.

 

Their black Friday sale is still going right now, you can get 15% off any order of holiday cards & gifts through tomorrow. And I have it on good authority that the cyber Monday sale will be awesome too! Go get those Christmas cards ordered!

 

*This post is sponsored by Minted.com. I have received compensation for making this post, but all opinions are my own. As always I never tell you to buy anything I don't buy myself and accept very limited advertising on Makin' Projiks.

 

 

Gobble, gobble

We have some family issues that are not our own this year that have upset the turkey wagon cart a little bit, but I am still plowing ahead. Pies in the oven, sick kids napping, onward and upward. 

"Mama, does it 

"Mama, does it look like a cat now? "

Happy thanksgiving from our family to yours!

Thanksgiving mantle

I have to say this has turned out to be my favorite mantle of the year since I started doing it last year. It's fuller than last year (I found turkey candles and added the pop of orange.)

By Friday I imagine I will start putting up the Christmas stuff.

If kids ever get well that is. Sam has had one thing after the other since Halloween, with fevers, puke, coughs and now a wicked ear infection. Grant is coughing again like mad too. On the way to the doctor yesterday he was trying so hard to say "hospital" and it kept coming out all jumbled. Adorable! I taught him to sound it out and now he says it very slow - hos.spit.al.

Flea market Sunday

This week was my chance at th only thing like a holiday show we have locally. I sort of gorged on vibrate Christmas.

German santas. There was a big one too, but I waffled and waffled and then once I decided I was an idiot he was gone. Oops.

Little sparklies.

Teeny, tiny pine cones.

Teeny, tiny houses/mangers.

 

Eek! I die.

 Been looking for these forever, too bad there were no canaries in the box.

Too cheap to pass up.

Somewhere I have more clips I hope will work with these. The candles are metal over a wood dowel. The tips were once very glittery.

Hello big Italian mouse.

Antique feather tree? Yes please!

The sweetest doll quilts ever. No really. Often doll quilts are just left over quilt pieces thrown together. These were made with so much care and thought. 

German Easter scrap.

These are totally ending up as patriotic ornaments.

This is the teeniest tree topper ever.

The Czech ornament group on the right is really awesome. A bird cage! A peacock! An elephant!

I am scrambling to get my sewing room put back together before thanksgiving dinner. Sam is sick again, we've visited Santa, taken turkey photos, had an orchestra concert and so much more. I better get on the blogging wagon this week!

Flea market Sunday

The flea market is all but dead. It's a little sad that it dies just when I start getting overwhelmed with obligations and could really use that mental break!

This is a doll quilt. It's actually white, but of course the sun is gone already.

And this is a crib quilt. Not very well made, but oh so charming, right?

Sweet.

Sammi made a shooting star chalk art while I was busy trying to sell off the remaining shop inventory on Instagram.

And these fabrics were the sum total of what I bought last week.

I am really trying to get the darn shop closed by thanksgiving, but ugh! It's so much work!

Mad for plaid vintage quilt finish

A few weeks ago I picked up a quilt top for $5 at a garage sale.

I nearly left it there because it was not super exciting fabric wise, but for $5 I couldn't leave it. While I was waiting for fabric for the leaf quilt to arrive I decided to actually quilt it. It was super wonky and I wasn't sure it would work it out.

But it turned out pretty fab! 

Bonus points for being such a quick project. Should I happen upon any more cheap but perhaps not collection worthy quilt tops I will be buying them. Easiest way to a finished quilt ever.

It had this one odd block in pink. The rest of the blocks are so masculine.

I am trying to bust my stash a bit so as I was digging around I found a huge amount of this vintage fsbric I bought thinking I might make curtains. It has awesome pink houses on it. I thought the pink houses were a fun nod to the lone pink block.

As soon as grant spotted the trains he decided this was his quilt. It was already for him anyway. :)

No quilt of mine is complete without polka dots!

Jack is asking for a new quilt (even though he never, ever uses his...hmmmm.) and I am chewing on a few ideas for another male. Maybe there are more masculine quilts to come before Christmas? First the tree skirt though!

Autumn maple leaf quilt

Woohoo! Another quilt finish for me.

I saw a maple leaf quilt on Instagram and couldn't start one of my own fast enough. There were several delays waiting on the polka dot field fabric, but otherwise this is all from my stash. (I'm working on using some of it up. So I can buy new fabric of course!)

Quilting on the diagonal was a bit challenging at first, but Pam helped me sort it out (also on Instagram.) 

It's left the end product sort of weirdly stretchy though, and I am not sure how I feel about that.

 I have run out of bamboo batting and had to use cotton. As it turns out bamboo is my favorite. I didn't actually know that until this quilt came out of the dryer. It's much lighter and makes for a thinner quilt, more like my beloved vintage quilts. 

Choosing the binding took a whole day. Partially because it had to work with the fabric on the back and partially because I added the unplanned orange border. Adding a print to the back made this all more complicated. It was a good stash buster, but not sure that's in my long range quilting plans again any time soon.

So, what now brown cow? I actually do NOT have another quilt in the works.

I'm thinking I might make a Christmas tree skirt, which is a good sit on my ass and hand sew project. Things are just so.busy. here all of the time. It's starting to wear on me a bit. 

Speaking of busy - the etsy shop will be permanently closing by thanksgiving.

 Buy it now, because out it all goes soon!

Sam in velvet

I thrifted an amazing little orange velvet swing coat for Sammi last week and it called for an immediate little photo shoot.