Pages

Pages

Monday, November 23, 2015

Bags and tags

I'm proud to say that Crafty Club has been going strong for over two years now! I had the duty of hosting this month's club. This was the 4th time I've hosted.

I must admit, I wasn't super excited or happy about the craft that I picked out this month, but I think the drinks and snacks and great conversation between us ladies made up for the just-okay craft :)

Since the month of December is rapidly approaching, I thought it'd be nice to do a craft that could help us ladies be a teensy bit 'ahead of the game' with something in preparation for Christmas. It was too early to make cutout cookies or gingerbread houses, but it wasn't too early to decorate some crafty little gift bags. 

We decorated three plain brown paper bags each. Ones that you can just throw a gift into quickly, for a teacher or neighbor or friend. And the tag and tissue paper are ready to go too.

Some photos from the evening:



100% true



I made home-made cranberry orange margaritas -- recipe taken from here  -- and they were a big hit!


I also made apple nachos -- recipe adapted from here
Step 1 - slice up 2-3 apples and display them on a tray
Step 2 - drizzle with caramel sauce
Step 3 - drizzle with melted white chocolate candy coating

Step 4 - sprinkle with Heath candy bar bits
Step 5 - sprinkle with mini milk chocolate chips

I set up three bag-decorating stations


We used paint to stamp little deer and attached red fussy noses...


used daubers to apply gold paint dots on these...


and washi tape trees on these.


Snacking and crafting.



Joy's accidental 'blob deer'


And the next morning Liam loved decorating some bags of his own :)

Have a nice week,
Erin

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Thrifting

I've been a long time fan of thrift stores. 

When I was younger, like as in grade school, I occasionally went to one with my mom or grandma. We usually looked at clothes and knick knacks. 

In high school my artsy friend Connie and I started taking evening 'trips' to thrift stores in different towns (whoa) in search of retro shirts & dresses. We went through a phase where we thought wearing old patterned polyester men's shirts in art class was super cool!

Then when Matt and I lived in Florida we started going to every thrift store we could find (no kids! tons of free time!) in search of awesome vinyl records and mid century/vintage type furniture. It was a fun pastime for us. We'd go to the beach, stop at a beach bar for a drink, check out a thrift store, and head home to peace and quiet. So rough it was!

When we moved back to Wisconsin I'd say the thrift store trips got put on hold a bit. We worked on our home, had two kids and now we're pretty darn busy. But lately I've been sneaking out to some thrift stores with Chloe, while Liam is at 3K, in search of some long lost treasures.

I truly believe that one person's 'trash' can become another person's 'treasure.'

I thought I'd share with you the few & very inexpensive 'treasures' that Chloe and I found earlier this week at our local St. Vincent de Paul store.


So I saw this little minty deer and fell instantly in love! He had a broken neck at some point (poor little guy) but he's mended and I just love his vintage vibe. He will look great somewhere in  my kitchen.

And he's multi purpose! He can be used as a little planter. He was .99 cents. 

A cute new hat for Chloe. Only .50 cents. And guess what? We already lost the hat while out for a stroller walk today! So it goes to show you that it's worth getting a cheap brand new hat at a thrift store for your kid, because more than likely they'll lose it the next day anyways :)

I'm trying to think ahead this year a bit in terms of shopping for the kiddos for Christmas. The store had an entire book shelf dedicated to kids' holiday books. So I found a few that were basically brand new and they'll probably be getting them from us St. Nicholas. This one was .79 cents (instead of $9.99 brand new).

This one was .39 cents. Chloe will love it.

 This one was .99 cents (instead of $13.99). Liam will love it.

And these were a total of $1.47. These kept Chloe busy in the shopping cart while at the store.

Grand total spent at this thrift store run: $5.13

Not too bad for 6 books, an Erin-fabulous decor item and a hat that's already lost :)