Sugar Cookies & a Snowy Day!

Yesterday I baked my traditional holiday sugar cookies. I, along with my little brother & big sis, used to help our mom make & decorate these cookies every Christmas. And now I do it with my girls. It's really an all day thing. Quite a job. And now I understand why mom so generously handed down the task to me. I love it though! I make a big production & celebration of it every year.

I must admit that while gathering the ingredients & preparing for the measuring, mixing, sifting & stirring, I noticed the family playing outdoors. In my snowboots & apron, I joined in on the snowy fun!

Mr. WhiMSy love was trying to build a snowman for the wee WhiMSy kidlets, but the snow was too powdery this time around. Not so swell for snowman building. Or snowball fights. But, he had a plan! He built a foundation using some boxes he got from work...

...& then somehow the snowman ate the boxes because it ended up looking like this. This is the weirdest snowman I have ever seen. Poor fella. He is kinda cute though, & the girls ADORE him!

Vintage button eyes....of course! And a red ribbon smile.

After our chilly fun, it was time for hot cocoa & then back to work on the cookies!

My 6 year old is proudly wearing her cupcake apron from Jeanetta of splendid designs. She baked with grandma the day before, so that apron is working over-time!

Sshhh! I snuck some dough.

Now it's frosting time!!

This year the cookies will have a psychedelic theme. I went kinda dark & crazy with the NEON food coloring.

This is my favorite cookie of the day. Compliments of my 4 year old.

This morning we put goodie plates together & will be delivering them to family & friends. (I'm also tucking some away in the freezer to save for Christmas afternoon at grandma's house!)

And I might as well mention now that WhiMSy love is officially closed for the holidays. I'll be honest & say it was kinda hard to do. I've never closed my shop before. So, if you see double or triple blog posts in ONE day, just know that this is my outlet while the shop takes a break!

Now the wee WhiMSy elves & I are off to deliver some tasty treats...

Holiday Bazaar Prep!

I thought it'd be fun to give you a sneak peek of my work-in-progress holiday bazaar prep! I have MOST of my merch set on this 4 foot table at home to get an idea of what I have. I'll actually have a 6ft table at the site. There are still several handmade items I have to figure out displays for. Here's some more detail....

My biz cards will be displayed in this thing-a-ma-jiggy I made. A candlestick & vintage bowl adhered with E6000. I have made a couple different styles of these to hold my stuff...such as this next mini-stand which is made from a vintage saucer & candlestick. Don't my new recipe cards look oh-so-adorable up top there?

This larger cake stand, made from a plate & some sort of vase/compote, shows off fork easels. You've seen this one before: A drawer from a vintage butler cart holds the paint swatch notebooks which will be 'Free Gift With Purchase'--or $1.

These tags were a last minute item I wanted to add. Made from office tags, circles of red/white/cream/green papers & vintage cream/white buttons, they've been stitched on the machine! Can you tell what they're displayed on?

It's a VERY old ruler....

...just folded up with the tags tucked into it!

And I can't remember who it is that gave me this awesome idea, but I've hung the owlies from branches. I still need to fill that metal bucket with rocks so I don't have an owlie avalanche.

And here's another pic of my vintage button ring display. I've added a tier since you last saw them.

Shutters are used to display both my hoop decor & Writing on the Wall book art. Those super tall shutters in the background will be leaning on the wall behind my display. I'm imagining it covered with several pieces of book art. We'll see if I can crank out more art.

I've had this metal dish for a while. I think it has something to do with bread? It's perfect for holding my 1" buttons!

I also just realized this will be my first public appearance selling my cupcake artwork. I'm only bringing a few prints & a few sets of cupcake postcards.

I'm very excited with how everything is coming along. There's just a handful of stuff to still make & then all that un-fun stuff of pricing & packing it all away. My little crafty heart beats faster & faster as the big day approaches! My partner in crafty crime on the last day of the two-day bazaar will be my bestest pally wally Tia! I'm so excited!

And of course I'll take LOADS of pics for you to see while I'm there!

I just received a link about a really cool Christmas card idea: When you're writing out your Christmas cards this year, make out an extra one & mail it here:

****UPDATE: I was just told that the address I gave is NOT correct!! The correct address follows:

"Holiday Mail for Heroes" campaign operated by the American Red Cross.
Holiday Mail for Heroes

P.O. Box 5456

Capitol Heights, MD. 20791-5456

**ALL mail must be postmarked no later than Dec 10.

And lastly, I've been enjoying holiday tunes every day since Thanksgiving. I LOVE 'em! And I thought I'd share my newest favorite holiday song. Click HERE to listen! (Listen to it all the way through. It's so good. It's the kind of song that makes ya feel good & give you goose pimples.)

WhiMSical Hanging Advent Calendar Tutorial

I was browsing through some Christmas-y mags the other day & admiring the lovely stitched advent calenders I saw. I'd always wanted a super fun advent calendar for my girls---a really nice one with pockets to hide treats & surprises---but never had one....UNTIL NOW!

Sitting in my art studio last week I glanced over at my hanging pocket organizer that holds all my glues nicely up off the ground---& high enough away from curious little fingers. "Hold on a sec!", I thought. "How many pockets does that organizer have?......24? 24!!!!! That's perfect for an advent calendar!" And do you know what that "pocket organizer" really is? A hanging shoe rack. Isn't that insanely awesome??? I got it last year for $2.99 at a thrift store.

So now the fun begins. This tutorial is not really a 'step-by-step' how-to, because all you do is grab your fabric & ribbon scraps, buttons, paints, crafty bits & doo-dads & go to crazy town on your soon-to-be advent calendar! It's the perfect project to do with your kids. Mine is quite eclectic & zany, but you can make it look however you want.

I only wish I'd thought of this a week ago, seeing as today is the actual day to start the advent! Hey, I can't always control when these random crafty thoughts get in my noggin.

I realize my decorating job doesn't scream "CHRISTMAS!" & it's rather un-holiday-ish in color, but create yours how YOU want.

Here's a quick rundown of how I made each number:

1- Circle of vintage fabric ironed on with adhesive & number glued on with Fabri-tac.

2-The word 'two' stitched onto a felt "speak" bubble, which was then stitched onto the pocket.

3-Vintage fabric number ironed on with adhesive.

4-A small patch from a Boy Scout-style Uniform glued on with Fabri-tac.

5-Traced my 4-year old's hand onto vintage fabric & ironed on with adhesive.

6- Stitched on.

7-Plastic letter 'beads' sewn on.

8- Painted with white acrylic paint.

9-Block of vintage fabric ironed on with adhesive, number cut from felt & glued on with Fabri-tac.

10- Painted on with mustard-colored acrylic paint.

11- Domino stitched on using "invisible" thread.

12- Letters cut from sponges & stamped on using light blue paint.

13- Circular office tag with stickers attached.

14- Numbers cut from vintage fabric & ironed on using adhesive.

15- Number stitched on felt pre-bought flower piece which was glued on using Fabri-tac.

16- Circle of vintage fabric ironed on with adhesive & felt numbers glued on using Fabri-tac.

17-Strips of ribbon glued on using Fabri-tac.

18- Button made using my button machine & a page from an old dictionary. Pinned on.

19- Acrylic green paint.

20- Alphabet transfers. (Ironed on.)

21- Applied Aleene's Clear Tacky glue & sprinkled with silver glitter.

22- Number cut from sponges & stamped using acrylic green paint.

23- Block of vintage fabric ironed on using adhesive & felt numbers glued on top using Fabri-tac.

24- Vintage white buttons stitched on.

Fill each pocket with little prizes & treats. Your kids will LOVE this. Totally.

Happy Christmas!