Christmas in July

You have no idea. I used to freak out when I heard that saying because I am a sunshine girl and to imply that we needed Christmas (which in Oregon means cold and wet) during our few dry months sent me over the edge. Mostly it annoyed me when car dealerships and other weird businesses did it. But when a crafter says it I totally understand! I started my Christmas projects in October last year and that was not. enough. time. Seriously.

So far this summer I've already purchased several Christmas gifts on etsy (doing my part to support handmade!) but I should probably get cracking on stuff I'm making. Thanks to Missie, I'm getting it done! This week is the Christmas in July blog party over at Crafting with Cat Hair!

See my project? Like it? What, you can't see it? Squint a bit. A little more. Now close the other eye. Get really close to the monitor.

Okay it's not here. But I'm working on a few and will have them up ASAP. I've been taking care of people's animals while they are all on vacation so I'm spending most of my time running around to different houses and scratching heads and bellies. But I will get my WIPs (works in progress) posted in time for the party. I think.

In the meantime, here are some projects I found over at Folding Trees last year and fell in love with and since they are all made out of paper they are totally affordable!

Origami Christmas Tree

Gift card box

Quilled snowflake

Poinsettia pinwheel

A jelly by other name would smell as sweet

The beauty and scent of a rose has been the poet's subject for ages, but have you ever tasted one? Candied rose petals, fresh rose petals or perhaps rose petal jelly?

Have you ever had one of those weeks where the same topic crops up enough times that you decide to take it as a sign that it's meant for you? That's what happened to me and rose petal jelly - I don't think I'd ever heard of it before and I kept hearing about it, so I decided to give it a try.

Collecting and washing my petals...

I have to say at this point I was a bit skeptical on what this was going to look like since I was using striped petals that were mostly white.
*Note: be sure to only use rose petals not treated with chemicals, pesticides or the like.*

Washing my jars...

Into the blender go the ingredients. Now I'm quite encouraged! Look at that lovely color!

Don't be alarmed if it appears to lose that lovely color in the saucepan. The petals will bleach out and look a bit like small bits of sauerkraut, but do not worry.

By the time you add the rest of your ingredients and pour them into their jars I still had this lovely shade of rose:

Doesn't that look divine?

The flavor is very subtle with a hint of tart from the lemon (at least with this recipe). Be sure to boil your jelly to the proper temperature or you will end up with rose petal syrup like I did in my first batch. :)

Other recipes you may enjoy:

Candied rose petals

Assorted rose recipes

The Jungle Gym

Whew that new gym I joined is a killer!

My favorite machine is:

It really works those arm and lower back muscles.

As does all the "toe-touching" weed pulls like here:

Can you spot the carrots in the photo below?

Me either! Surrounded by California poppies (which have almost the same. exact. leaf just in a slightly different shade of green), and other weeds that I couldn't pull until the wee carrot sprouts had established themselves a little better.

Ahhhh so much better! Feel the burn!

Believe it or not the following image depicts two rows of raspberry plants with a space for walking in between.

Haha. Yeah. Sure.

See? There's a path in there somewhere....


Much better! Weed repellent fabric covered in pea gravel should do the trick.

And this:

Is precisely why I now have this:

A completely enclosed garden complete with awesome gate.

(The sign says "Meet me in the garden.")


Here's a shot of my zinnias to show Kim.

My baby cantaloupe

And some photo edit fun:

Steals 'n deals

I have a lot of stuff at my house so I usually make what I have work and I don't do a whole bunch of shopping but I did get in some good thrifting lately! Check out my awesome finds:





I bought this for my friend's daughter - and does it matter she's only 7 weeks old? Ummm no. - it was $1.99. One ninety nine for this gorgeous hardback with beautiful pictures interspersed and those ruffled page edges that make it look old. Fabulous! I already knew the book was fabulous because I own this exact copy and although it was a gift I know it cost considerably more than two bucks because it came from The Hen's Tooth.



My next find was this lovely jar:

Which is funny considering this week's Trash to Treasure projects over at Reinvented have to do with this very thing. But I cannot lie...it came with the chalkboard section already on it. It was $3.99 and I did this with it:

Treats for the dog obviously! Not for people, or children...unless you are really hungry. I also learned that my handwriting skills with chalk needs some serious work.

My huge steal of the week was this sweater:

I know that buying a sweater in the middle of summer probably wasn't my most genius plan ever, but it does have shortish sleeves (they stop at the elbow) and I LOVE the color and it will be a great transition piece into fall. Plus it's really soft! And...

so how could I resist right? (and now you all know I like silly movies)

The best part? I paid:

And it still had the original tags on it.

Wanna see?

Come for the award, stay for the idea!

Thanks to everyone who blog-hopped to my Mad Tea Party! And a HUGE thank you to Vanessa for hosting - it was SO much fun!

I hope you will forgive me being so late in posting the giveaway winner but I spent a long weekend at my friend's house with her and her 6 week old baby. That's a pretty good excuse, hmm?

And the winner is....


Brittany!

Sneaky job Brittany! It was that second "already a follower" entry that got you the prize. So congratulations! Just send your address to mollythepirate@yahoo.com and I'll get your goodies in the mail!

I just love giveaways; so much fun. :)

On to the idea!

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For all of us Americans our 4th of July Independence Day celebration usually means a barbecue, a picnic, some kind of gathering in the sunny outdoors. I don't know about you, but my plastic utensils are all completely mismatched now. I refuse to buy new when these will do but I'd like it to look less like I ran around to camp or picnic sites stealing a knife here and a fork there. To add a little unification and to take some of the hassle out of the food line I bundled the utensil sets inside a napkin and bound it together with a festive paper flower in flag colors.




The flower I made using the same instructions from this post. Instead of leaving them white as I did there, I watered down some acrylic craft paint and applied it like I did in this post. Do you like how I'm making you run all over my old posts to get to the finish line? I promise I'm not just being mean. :)

When your flowers are ready this is how I wrapped them:

How cute is that?

If you'd like a little something to give to friends and neighbors you could try what I did, and just leave it as a bouquet. Just a little something to say "Happy 4th!"

And all it's going to cost is computer printer paper, paint, some floral wire and a little time.