Oh the Cuteness!

Well, I sure had a nice Christmas, as I hope everyone else did. A lot of traveling this year, but that's okay because it made it super special! On Saturday we drove 3 hours south to my parent's house, stayed the night, then drove another 3 hours south to my aunt's house to see my dad's side of the family. My boyfriend and I have been going out for nearly 3 1/2 years and he's met my mom's side but not my dad's, so he came too and everyone absolutely loved him (bien sur!). We had a lovely time doing a gift exchange, opening presents, sitting and catching up with family. (I never get to go down south, so I had a lot of catching up to do!) Not to mention all the wonderful food! We stayed the night there and had breakfast and stockings the next morning (Christmas day), and then we were off again on another 3 hour drive, north this time. We opened more presents at my parent's house and had more yummy food, then went to my bf's parent's house for yet mo...

I make this soup so often that I know the recipe by heart - not that it's terribly hard to remember. I love it because you can add or leave out any ingrediets you like, and it helps use up vegetables that have been sitting around with nothing to do. Also, you can make it vegan, vegetarian, or with meat and it's just as good. And since it makes a huge pot, it freezes very well and keeps for a long time if you don't use meat. Here's the recipe: Special Cold Day Soup 2 tablespoons olive oil 6 potatos, quartered and thinly sliced 1 large onion, chopped 3 stalks celery, sliced 4 carrots, sliced 2 bay leaves 1 teaspoon dried thyme 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning Coarse salt and ground pepper 3 cans (14.5 ounces each) vegetable or chicken broth 1 can (28 ounces) diced tomatoes, with juice 8 cups mixed fresh, canned, or frozen vegetables such as corn, green beans, lima beans, peas, cabbage, and zucchini, chopped or sliced (my favorite combination is corn, green beans, mushrooms, ...

I'm sorry for the posting drought, but I have been soooo uber busy trying to stock up the store for the holidays, and it's going fairly well. I've listed 25 odd things since the begining of November and I've sold 9 of them thus far, and I'm super-duper excited! But etsy is tough cause there's sooo much cool stuff to buy, I couldn't resist... Grrr. Oh well, check out this deliciously smunchy handspun yarn I bought from Feral Feminine: It's called "Fire and Ice". Only thing is, there's about 108 yards of it and I have no idea what to make. It's enough for a good beanie, I'm sure, but suggestions would be greatly appreciated. It's about worsted weight, thinner and thicker in some places which totaly makes me looove it. Any ideas?

A few weeks ago I sold my first item on my Etsy shop - a bad-ass owl pincushion named James. Shortly after, I recieved good feedback from the buyer, and then they sent me an e-mail. It makes me so happy to know what people think of my little creations, especially if they really love them. I can tell that James has gone to a good home because contained in this e-mail was a photo and a simple message: I love this place, I am so happy in Ohio. And I just thought that was the most wonderful thing in the world, until they sent me another one: It snowed last night. Isn't it pretty? How awesome is that that they love little James enough to take him out to play in the snow, and thay gave him such a lovely home! It just makes me feel all warm and squishy inside, and I hope this is a sign of good things to come for my crafting career *crosses fingers*!

Ta da! I've finally signed up for my own etsy shop! It's called http://ohthecuteness.etsy.com and I even bought my own website, www.ohthecuteness.com , but don't go there just yet, cause it's brand new and not much is there yet. But please visit my shop, I've only got a couple things on there right now, one of which is this: but I'm working overtime to get some more up. And now if you have questions about custom orders or anything having to do with purchasing one of my creations, you can e-mail me at ohthecuteness@hotmail.com . I'll be posting pics of my Halloween party soon, so keep a look out! (I'm soooo excited!)

I took a painting class at the CSU last year, and I have been painting for a while but it's just so messy I hardly ever do it because I end up ruining my favorite jeans. Just felt like showing off my favorites, and I may add another on here later. The one of the house is on a huge canvas, one of those four foot tall ones I think. I didn't use any tape to do the strait lines, I had the darn thing on my lap with my face a few inches away. LOL. And the flash makes it look funny in the middle, but it's got almost no texture and just flat, bold colors. I like it because on the wall it looks almost like a window. The other one is an older painting I did in my first year of college, and it's a self-portrait on a 24x36 canvas, I think. I have a tryptic I have yet to take pictures of, but I'll post it later. Oh, and in my sculpture class I welded/cut out this. It's rather large, at least 3 or 3 1/2 feet across, cut from sheet metal. It's hanging on my firepl...

Out of boredom and a strong will to procrastinate, I found myself wanting to make something random to fill up a couple hours of my time that I should have been using to do something constructive. So I decided to try to figure out how to make one of the cute little milk stuffies from My Paper Crane , because I'm short on cash but I crave the cuteness. I just made a small one, no where near as cute or well-made as hers, but he's fun to throw at my boyfriend. Hehehe. I hope she's not offended, but as they say, immitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And I really want to immitate her tampon dolls next. Anywho, here's hers: And here's mine: Not too shabby, but I'm definately saving up to get one of hers (Probably the strawberry milk!). And on another note, our entrepreneurship class challenge is over and we made about $150 net from selling our doggy bandanas and carob covered dog bones. We did better than a lot of the groups in class, but one group beat us by...