A lot has been going on here... is it REALLY December already?

Hi,

Long time no blog here... I have been blogging over here, but it is mostly the nuts and bolts stuff about starting a group (Eugene Modern Quilt Guild). I was driving in the car today and thinking..."wow, our little guild has come so far" and "what was I thinking when I threw this together". We have had 2 meetings and 2 sew-in sessions... and I have met SO many great people, right here in my own back yard. It feels good. Oh yea, and I have also been getting ready for this. This year is my "building" year apparently, or "attempting" year at least. I have done a number of things that TOTALLY scare the poo out of me, and I have lived... and even liked it.

So in the interest of "attempting" things... I whipped up this SWEET advent calendar (if I may toot my own horn...) The best part was IT WAS ALL STUFF I HAD LYING AROUND! Oh my goodness, I have SO much crafting stuff. I like it all! PAPER... GLUE... STAMPS... ZIPPERS... AND THE FABRIC, "my [gosh] Putty" THE FABRIC! GLUTTONY THY NAME IS JESSICA (a.k.a. jmbmommy) I could go on and on, but what would the point be? Getting ready for the Cuppajoy sale has been a blessing, because I now have a better handle on how much stuff I have. I need to use it or lose it.

Using it:

To make this calendar I just did these few things,

1)Brainstormed with the boys about things they might like to do for the holiday season (I did write down "Go to Chucky Cheese" because I do love those boys.

2)After they went to bed, I punched out 24 circles and glued them to 24 tiny clothes pins (big ones would work too, but tiny things are so cute)

3)Wrote down 24 different things to do on little green papers. In years past, my OCD might have made me make these all the same size... but I am being CRAZY, and they are ALL different!! (I did try to plan some of the bigger activities for when they both are out of school. There were some small activities too, like "crazy hair day")

4)Assembled it all together on a piece of museum board that I had cut for a different project that never quite panned out... LUCKY ME!

5) The middle looked rather Large and Black and Blah (you know, LBB?!) So I just stuck a piece of fancy schmancy paper there. I even USED some of my fancy schmancy scrapbookery-type letter stickers (I can't be buried with them... they are 2 years old!) I added something simple and classic, kinda catchy.... Merry Christmas... on top of that and VOILA'!

Another advent calendar DONE! And I only started it a day late!

There was ANOTHER flickr swap... yes, My name is Jessica and I am a flickr swap addict. BUT, this one was small, just a mug rug (translation: smaller than a placemat, bigger than a coaster). I was stricken Thanksgiving week with a MOST HORRIBLE strep throat... I did not want THOSE cooties anywhere near my rug, so I finished it just in time AFTER I took the antibiotics. Phewwww...
You make... but also you receive.... here is my beautiful new afternoon coffee friend! I love it!!! The little deer is such a dear and it makes me smile when I look at those backwards letters. Thanks!! It was from this nice new friend.

That is the short wrap up... I have so much to share. I believe that if I just make a plan that I will be able to blog all the things that I want to... we will see if I can make that a reality too. Thanks for sticking with me... I was just thinking, if you too forgot to make an advent calendar this year, you could always adjust it and make it a "12 days of Christmas" calendar. Your kids will still like it.

Peace in this Season

JMB