Thanks to everyone for playing along with last week’s giveaway (and for clicking through to find out how to Save Handmade!), I used the trusty random number picker, and came up with our winner…

And the fourth comment was from my friend over at Blueberry and the Bean (and Sprout, too!). I’ve been reading about her little Bean (which I am partial to, since my childhood nickname was also Bean!) for a long time. I can still remember when the little Sprout was born, and I am just so very excited that she won.  So watch Crafty Tuesday in the next few weeks to see what I can come up with for her.

Besides the contest, there hasn’t been much craftiness going on around our digs. I have a Valentine that I’m supposed to be pimping out (secretly) to send for Emma during their class party this week. But since it is a secret, I haven’t really had much time to work on it. I started it on the Craft Nite we did last Friday, but didn’t manage to even finish the one little card. In my defense, the Craft Nite was totally fun but more than anything it was mostly just gossip hour(s) with some friends and drinks.

But it did inspire me to clean out/up my scrapbook corner! It is lookin’ so good, but still needs a leee-ttle bit of work. I’ll post some photos when it gets there.

So, instead? Let’s discuss some other crazy crafty cuteness! Have you seen Jen’s amazing stuff over at the New Green Mama? Her stuff is just pure sweetness. I saw an owl there awhile ago and had it in mind for somebody for a birthday present. And so last week she posted a new one to her Etsy store and I popped over and snapped it up.

And then the owl arrived on our doorstop.

Oh.My.Peas!

Me thinks that the little owl might not leave ever leave my house. It is so…so…cute!

And she looks so great on her perch on top of my desk, too…

And…AND! She also sent along a little coffee cozy. Which has been in use nearly every single day since I received it. Gah, I love it!

I adore the little tweet bird. Have you noticed that these little birds seem to be popping up everywhere? I’m so in love with all the little bird stuff right now.

So anyhow…if you haven’t been by Jen’s go visit her now and give her a little love. Her stuff is fantastic – and as an added bonus it is all made from reclaimed, up-cycled products! Great stuff for you, and good for the environment too. You can’t beat it.

And I’m sure that you all have more craft cuteness for us today too…right?

No, I didn’t forget, exactly…and it IS still Tuesday, it just really feels like Monday to me.

I had asked J. last week if he got MLK day off and he said, “Pshaw…no!” But then later he called me and said, “Hey, guess what? We do get Monday off!”

And since he is going to be a bit busy and traveling the next two weeks (that little thing called the SuperBowl, you know…) we decided to do a little impromptu mini-vacation. We took the girls down to Disneyland for the weekend and stayed overnight at a hotel with an indoor pool, which is almost as exciting to the girls as Disney…almost! We had a great time, and I’ll put up some photos and stories later. (Thanks for all of your help, Uncle Jeff!!)

And yesterday we just had a lovely day at home. It was what weekends are supposed to be like, I think. Relaxing and fun and just a little bit productive.

So…that is why I woke up feeling like it was Monday. And why I did not even think of Crafty Tuesday until a few moments ago.

But both girls are at school, and President Obama was just inaugurated, so I think it is indeed Tuesday.

I unfortunately only have two measly cards to show today. I have a stack of fun stuff to use and I’m feeling very creative – so I expect that I’ll get some stuff done while J. is away this upcoming few weeks.

These are the cards I made for my parents last week for their birthdays.

Again with those tri-fold, cross cut envelopes. I do like doing those. And I included my two favorite quotes:

God could not be everywhere, so he created Mothers. ~Jewish proverb

Any man can be a father, it takes someone special to be a Dad. ~Anonymous

So happy TUESDAY to all of you! Do you have anything good to show?

I’ve got a whole lot of “should’ve – would’ve – could’ve” today.

I should’ve had at least four or five new bags to show, but my sewing machine has been quiet for the past two-ish weeks. My list of promised bags continues to grow.

I would’ve shown you the birthday cards I created today, but since I sent them off late – they will not be to their intended recipients for a few days, so I can’t show them either.

And then I remembered that I never got to show my scrapbook weekend project since it was a Christmas gift. But it has been delivered to my mom-in-law, so I could’ve shown that. But…yeah. I apparently did not take any photos of my layouts. Bah. The only photo I got of my hard work was this one…you can kind of see some layouts if you squint a little.

I told you my weekend was productive! I finished the entire scrapbook in one weekend – maybe someday I’ll get to photograph it for the archives.

I did get some great scrapbooking stuff for Christmas (Thanks Mom & Dad, Kimmer and Jeff!) so I am jonesing to get in there and scrap, maybe after I whittle down my sewing pile a little bit this week.

How about all of you? I know Stacy has something over at her place. Anyone else have some good stuff to show?

Crafty Tuesday will resume next week. Sorry, but we are trying to get acclimated and back into “life” after arriving home at midnight last night.

Next week…for sure. But leave a comment if you have something for today!

Are you sick of seeing these bags yet?

Sorry, it is all I’ve got again this week.

I tried to adapt the pattern a bit to make a reusable shopping bag for our friend Wendy, but unfortunately the proportions got a little out-of-whack. So it looks a little too long, and a little too skinny – but it might hold a gallon of milk and a loaf of long french bread? I just love the pear fabric, though. It is so cool. It is a prototype, I’m definitely going to work on a version 2.0.

I also put together a few bags for my nieces for their playroom. It wasn’t quite the color scheme I was thinking of doing, but then I saw this fabric.

A little french girl sitting at a cafe. It instantly reminded me of my Paris trip with my sister, and I fell in love with it. So this was the starting fabric for the project.

And I happened to have Wendy with me when I saw the fabric and she helped find some good coordinating fabrics (I’m not so good with that – but thankfully she really is!) and…Voila! Trois kidlets pour mon nieces!

So that is what I’ve got. I’m not expecting a whole lot since everyone is slowly ramping back up after Christmas, but if you did post something be sure to leave a little comment love…

Surely everyone has been creating some amazing Christmas crafts, baking…the works, right? Although finding the time to photograph and write about it, that may be another story.

I have three more kidlets to add to my creative portfolio. These ones were made last week for my best friend Kimmer’s cuties – her oldest, who happens to be my godchild turned 9 today (Monday). If finding another gray hair last week didn’t make me feel old enough – that fact definitely does! At any rate I hope you had a great birthday, Shealyn!

These were actually for Christmas gifts. Each one of them has a different flaw, but I also learned something new from each of them as well. I have 5 more to make as Christmas gifts tomorrow. I figure by the time I get around to making ones for Em and Ad I should have all the kinks worked out. Possibly.

My sewing machine has been humming along non-stop today. I also fixed a bunch of costumes for our Christmas pageant. Mary and the Star-bearer both needed alterations, I had to re-structure and re-elasticize 15 sets of angel wings, and make a new cow costume. I should have had J. take a photo while I modeled the cow getup for him earlier. Or I should have taken a photo of him when I asked “Hey, do I look like a cow?”

The sheer terror on his face. I think he said something to the effect of, “Um…I am not exactly sure how to answer that.” (He then said that it was a good cow costume, although Addie keeps saying it looks like a dalmatian puppy, “like the 3001 Dalmatians, Mama!”)

Anyhow, the costumes are in a heap in my dining room, but I’m too exhausted to even go photograph them. Usually I have to post-date my posts for the next morning, but unfortunately…it is just about the “next” morning. So I’m going to go fall into bed, I can’t wait to see what goodies you all post tomorrow morning.

Well, a little birdie told me that our Christmas cards have made it to Michigan, at least, so I think it is safe to show them for today’s Crafty Tuesday.

Here is this year’s card…

(Do you see the J-O-Y?) And the inside….

So now you know the rest of the story behind the red pajama-looking outfits in all of the previously posted photos.

I’m also trying to finish up all the kidlets that I want to make for Christmas presents. So back to the sewing machine for me….what about you? Anything for CT today?