North Pole Days

Having attended my first craft fair with the Etsy craft fair this month, I'm not as terrified as I was. It was a lot of fun, so my hubby and I have decided to do another one before Christmas this year.

In our small town, we have a festival called North Pole Days.  For the month of December, our town is called North Pole, and if you mail anything to Krum,TX it will be stamped "North Pole."  Isn't that cute?


We have a festival with a tree lighting and parade and a chili dinner  and...a Craft Fair!  The TipToe Fairy will be at the craft fair this Saturday, December 1st from 9 am to 4 pm.  It will be held at the Early Education Center in Krum. 

We'll have lots of fun stuff - tutus, baby things, hair bows, American Girl fantasy wear like tutus and mermaid tails, and more.  Come see us!

Craftsy is having a SALE!

Happy Black Friday!  I can't believe it, but I already finished one of my three kidlets Xmas gifts (Thank you, Amazon.com!).  I'm halfway done with the second one, and by Sunday, the baby's Xmas will be done too!  I've never this fast.

But, this sale would be the perfect gift for your somebody who is "crafty." For Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I just found out Craftsy is having a sale!  All their classes are $19.99 and under through Monday, even the ones that are usually $39.99! There are just so many to choose from.  I'm really wanting to try the make your own monster class.  So cute!!

I've recently signed up for the class The Art of Cloth of Dyeing.  I can't wait to get started!  I love to dye things, and I'm hoping the advanced techniques will be new things I can learn.  I have to finish a few crafty things for an upcoming craft fair before I can get started, but I just can't wait.  I'll definitely be blogging my projects in the near future. 

If you're interested in finding out more about the classes, just click this link --  Online Sewing Classes .  It will take you to the entire list of classes they offer.  And, it's not just sewing and crafty things.   Gosh, there is so much I want to take...breadmaking, cheese making, cake decorating....the list just goes on and on.

Now I'm off to the kitchen because I'm starving after thinking about bread and cheese. 

The BEST gift I have ever received....like ever

Yesterday was my wedding anniversary.  We've been married 3 years.  Almost 4 years ago, we met in the midst of starting our lives over.  I had been married for almost 13 years, and he had been in a long term relationship that had just turned into a marriage.  But both our lives came crashing down, and we had to start over.  If you so desire, you can read my descent into madness at that point in this blog.  (I've considered deleting it off my blog, but I feel like this record of my life should stay, even though it is probably the lowest point I've ever been in my life.)

We met, fell in love, introduced my children into the mix, got married, had an adorable baby, and the rest is history.  This is the man I will grow old with, and I love that.  He is my soul mate, my rock, and my best friend.  I could live on the silliness he emits that bring me to a fit of giggles.  I feel so very lucky to have found someone like him.  Now, our family is a happy one, and I love that other people can see that, too.

This jar was what I woke up to yesterday.  His gift for me.  He spent all morning working on it.  I love that he was tooling around in my crafty things making something for me. He found an old jar I had been saving, painted the lid and glued a note to it.  Then tied ribbons around it.  But...the best part is what's inside.  He wrote countless little notes of why he loves me.  Gosh, I just tear up writing this.  He even folded each one into a tiny envelope.  Where did I find such a wonderful guy? I'm savoring opening them.  I've only looked at a few so far. 

And, we had a date night!  DH had taken the past couple days off.  He even cleaned the carpets today!  We got a little dressed up, and my mom came over to babysit, and we went to dinner at this wonderful Italian restaurant called Guiseppe's.  It's in a quaint old house right next to a bed & breakfast off the square in Denton.  It was delicious!  We had never been there before, but every time we've driven by we kept saying we needed to go.  So, we thought our anniversary was the perfect time.

It was a candle light dinner (with no kids!), and on a Tuesday there was hardly anyone in the entire restaurant.  We had the room we were in to ourselves.  The service was amazing.  I can't remember having such good service -- when the waiter is attentive, but knows just the perfect time to come back. I had this dish called Capellini Rustico, it's pasta in this delicious champagne marinara sauce.  It does not taste like typical marinara sauce.  Even my sweet husband liked it, and he's not a fan of tomato sauces.  Then, we shared a plate of canoli.  My meal tasted more and more delicious the more I ate.  It was such a wonderful night.  Then, we stopped for groceries (with no kids!), and topped the night off with a couple of episodes of Breaking Bad on Netflix before my hardworking hubby had to head to bed for a day of work tomorrow, while I attempt to get the ready-to-party toddler into bed. 

Yummilicious Thanksgiving Dressing

One of my favorite meals is turkey and dressing.  In fact, I made it Tuesday night. I actually cooked an entire turkey with homemade dressing plus gravy and veggies for a week night dinner.  Yes, I am crazy.

My family has a secret recipe for dressing that is to die for.  We are from Texas.  We like cornbread dressing in these parts, and we don't do the weird apples in the dressing thing.  In fact, we tend to put things like jalapenos in the dressing.  We also don't call it stuffing, it's dressing.  I don't know why these things are the way they are, but I just go with it.

If you love cornbread dressing, then you will love this recipe.  It actually comes from my aunt's sister in law, whose name is Honey.  So, we call it Honey's Dressing.  Everyone who comes over for Thanksgiving and tries it, LOVES this dressing.

When you put it in the oven, it's almost like a soup, but it comes out so wonderfully moist and delicious.  I even converted my husband who tends to prefer "Stove Top" to the real made from scratch thing.

It calls for lots of broth - more than you think is necessary, but it works.  I usually use 1 of those 32 oz chicken broth containers plus about 2 or so cups of drippings directly from the turkey.  You want it to look very soupy and runny when you put it in the oven. 

Honey's Dressing

1 tube of biscuits
2 pans of cornbread
1 onion
1 stalk of celery
1 tbs sage

1 stick of butter
3 eggs
lots and lots of broth

Chop onion and celery into tiny pieces, saute in butter.  Crumble breads.  Mix everything together until soupy.  Bake at 325 for 1 hour. 

Fairies and Mermaids, oh my!

I haven't been blogging regularly because I've been getting my house in order since the craft fair. I sewed a lot for 2 weeks before the fair, and my house just went downhill since all I did was sew, feed people, and do laundry.  I don't think my dear husband or my sweet children realized how much I do around here until I stopped doing it.

Today's post is in two parts.  Part 1 - my recent creative endeavors.  Part 2 - drama at the craft fair. 

Part 1 - Here are some new waldorf dolls I've recently made.  They are currently on Etsy, if you are interested in purchasing them.  Click on the individual pictures and it will take you to their listing.  I just love how they came out!  They are all about 10 inches in length, all stuffed with wonderful wool I purchase from an Amish farm, and all have wool hair.  

This first one is Nyxy, the night fairy.  She has a dark navy body made of super soft cotton velour.  Her hair is a pale green wool roving. Her petal skirt is an embroidered pieced batik, and her wings are blue sparkly print. 

The second one is Ivy, the forest fairy.  I love her lavender hair.  It's a soft wool roving as well. Her body is a bright green cotton velour.   She has purple wings to go with her purple hair.  She also has a petal skirt made from an aqua batik with lavender moons and stars.  I think that is my favorite batik fabric I've ever owned.

Lastly, I have two mermaids.  I'll have pictures of the other one soon.  But for now, this is Tallulah, which means leaping waters.  I love the meaning of that name!  My husband says this one most looks like me of all the dolls I've recently made.  She has a green velour tail with hot pink top and blonde hair.

I am also slowly adding things on Etsy.  In addition to these dolls, I have some of my super soft knotty style dolls, and I'm happy to take custom orders, just send me a conversation over there. I just recently had a custom order for knotty dolls that were other colors than I had offered. 

I'm also open to trades for my dolls for things for my children for Xmas/Yule.  My youngest dd is 2 and loves pretend play and babies.  My oldest dd is 13 (going on 30), and loves mustache stuff.  My middle ds is 8 and loves pretend play when it comes to swords and things like that.  Send me a convo at Etsy, and we can work something out.

Part 2 - The craft fair was fun, and we made about triple what we paid for the booth, so that was nice. I really want to do another one before Christmas, so we are looking for a good one that isn't too expensive for booths.  If you know of a good one in the DFW area, please post in the comments!

My dear sweet wonderful adoring husband never left my side, so I wasn't nearly as nervous as I thought I would be, except for one incident. Fairly close to the opening, we are standing there smiling, answering questions, when he gives me this look and is vigorously pointing with his head (as best as one can point with their head, lol).  All I see is this man standing there, and I'm thinking WTH is he trying to tell me.  I was partially blocked by this wire bookshelf on our table.  Then as I move around it, I see it....his ex-wife and her mother are oohing and awing over MY things.  They have yet to look up and see whose table this belongs to.  So my dear husband, as hilarious as he is, smiles the biggest smile he ever had and says rather excitedly, "Good Morning!"  At this point, I am in a fit of giggles.  His ex looks up and I swear she actually ran, physically ran, about 3 booths away, funniest thing ever.  Her mother then completely oblivious to what has just occurred, then proceeds to have a conversation with me about what I make.  My husband thinks his former mother-in-law didn't realize he was even there.

After that, the ex kept circling around the entire craft fair, trying to pretend we didn't exist, except I kept seeing her peek over at us.  The weird thing is I'm starting to wondering if she's facebook stalking me or something.  Three days after she's practically at our house for trick or treating (she's not a parent, nor does she live anywhere near our town), she ends up at the craft fair?  Both of which I blog about, which also shows up on my facebook page? This is not a tiny small town either, and there were at least three other craft fairs going on in the same town on that same day.  Weird. 

Etsy Handmade Harvest - this weekend

I'm going to have my first ever booth at a craft fair this weekend.  I'm excited and terrified at the same time.  Thankfully, my darling sweet husband is coming with me.  He's my secret weapon because he is such a flirt and loves talking to women, which make him a great salesman. 

If you're local to the DFW area, it's with Etsy Denton for the Handmade Harvest.  It's Saturday from 10-4 pm at the Center for Visual Arts. 

You can find all the info needed here. 

Halloween 2012

We were mostly zombies last night with a cute little skeleton thrown in to the mix.  Total cost of costumes and makeup was $1.99 as both older kids were zombies and picked out old clothes to bloody and rip up.  The toddler's glow in the dark skeleton pjs were a Gymboree thrift store score for $1.99.  Makeup was flour, toilet paper and school glue with cocoa powder, acrylic paint, red food coloring, and corn syrup - all on hand.

So, last night, my husband's ex wife shows up on our street trick-or-treating.  The kicker is....she doesn't have any kids nor does she live in our town.   There were two or three couples of parents with their kids trick-or-treating as a group and there she was in the middle of them.  Weird....