I Don't Feel 60!

      I am soooo soooo sorry that I tend to disappear at times. After working so hard to gain all of you wonderful followers I feel as if I let you all down. How on earth do you do it all? Some days I sure could use a magic wand.

The main reason I have been MIA is that my Etsy shop's holiday season started a lot earlier this year. Etsy shoppers are getting very smart,and are shopping earlier! So Needless to say I have struggled with finding time to sit down and write. All I've basically had time for lately are little comments on my Hopewell Creek facebook page. I would love for everyone to stop by my page and become a follower. It's certainly a quick and easy way to stay in touch these days.

Then this last weekend we celebrated my 60th birthday. The kids asked me what I wanted to do especially since it was such a big milestone. I told them I wanted to do what I love the most....crafting with friends and family. So that's what we did!
A dear friend of mine volunteered to come and teach us the basics of wood carving. She said the easiest way to start is to carve a Santa Claus face using sweet potatoes. Kathy is a great artist in woodcarving. She has been featured many times in Santa magazines as well as Christmas and holiday magazine issues. She has taught this technique in schools and nursing homes. I must admit I was a tad worried that someone would cut themselves,but she assured me that wouldn't happen, and it didn't!

She is currently selling in her online shop Scattered Seeds these beautiful doves. They are intended to be used as a comfort for anyone who may be going through some difficult times. They have been designed to fit in the palm of your hand and you pray. Stop by her shop and check them out they would certainly make a great gift this holiday season!

 Everyone was amazed when they saw a few samples of some she had done years ago. They had the look of a piece of driftwood.Young and not so young participated and no hurt themselves, not even a paper cut.

It was absolutely too much fun and a wonderful experience! We can't wait to see our creations after the drying process. Once dried they are ready to paint, or leave simply leave natural.

After the class with Kathy and all of the slivers of potatoes were swept out of the garage we moved on to other crafts. I tried to keep the crafts centered mostly around Christmas ornaments. My daughter in law brought the supplies to make an ornament that has been floating around on Pinterest. It's where you pour a tiny bit of floor wax inside of a clear glass ornament and than add glitter.
I am here to tell you that they look great! And you don't have to use the exact brand of floor cleaner/wax that the directions say you do. We didn't and they turned out fine.

Since we knew there would be a lot of small ones who probably wouldn't care anything about crafting we decided to rent a bouncy house to keep them busy. This is what two of my grandson's looked like at the end of the day! Yes they stayed very busy until the bitter end!

We played with paper clay,polymer clay,beads,stamps,stencils and paper....and etc!

On top of all of the crafting we all fought over holding the new baby. She is such a joy and everyone is so tickled to have a new baby, especially at the holiday's!

It was the best crafty birthday I could have ever imagined! Kinda took the sting out of turning that big milestone after all!