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As long as they were around, the carpet freshly vacuumed, and the camera in my hand… photo shoot time! Dogs or kids – if you’ve got the lighting and the camera in hand? GO FOR IT! Ranger and Scrappy were highly compensated (cookies) for their patience. My note? Snap as fast as you can and about 30 more times than you think you need. Out of 80 photos (taken in about 4 minutes!) 6 had everything in focus, nothing wonky, no eyes half closed or ears funky or other stuff that takes photos from “Oh yes!” to “eh, ok I guess”

Would you guys like a peek at 28 Lilac Lane, my new embellishment line? (announcement here) Ranger and Scrappy told me I should share…

What you see here will all be found (and then some!) in the “paws” box inspired by my favorite pawed friends. Pearls to beads, sequins to felt hearts – this is definitely a favorite. You’ll get to see even more peeks of my new line next week! I just couldn’t help but share this before then though…

I hope you’re having a wonderful holiday season!

I have two recent tutorials up on the Buttons Galore & More blog. A button topped holiday box here, and also a button filled Christmas tree here. I do so love my buttons, and both of these were a lot of fun to create.

Speaking of Buttons Galore & More + creating… I have HUGE ENORMOUS OH MY GOSH NO WAY news to share.

For many months I’ve been developing my own line for them. I’ve been battling Pantone swatches, debating the merits of various designs, colors, textures, and finishes, and basically learning that there is nothing simple about it!!! Oh, but what a labor of love.

28 Lilac Lane is the name of my line, and I am so excited to share more with you. The good news? You won’t have to wait long to get some sneak peeks and see these products in action. Some elements are on the way to me now – I couldn’t be more excited about this, or all I will be able to share with you! If you’ll be at CHA in Anaheim next month, be sure to come see me at the booth! They made the official announcement here if you’d like to read it. More details coming soon – for today we’re just announcing the partnership and new line.

Thank you every one of you lovely blog readers who takes the time to visit me here on my little corner of the web. This has been a huge learning process, experience, and it is both thrilling and terrifying to finally take this idea we’ve been cultivating for many months now and share it with you.

Hey everyone hope you had a great weekend. Two things:

1. The Hazel & Ruby winner is: Sabrina Radican

2. Let’s talk for a moment about the holidays and what I call “homemade expectations”

Through my natural course of creating I made about sixteen Christmas (4 1/4 x 5 1/2″) cards this year. These will be mailed out, and those family members who get a photo of the kids (as well as anyone above/beyond that # that I happen to have of homemade) will have a store-bought card.

There is no shame in my game.

I do not tell myself I ‘MUST’ crank out 50 cards or whatever. I don’t tell myself I *have* to make all the cookies from scratch or make sure to learn to knit or only make my own decorations vs buy… no way. I don’t even worry about who gets what – I make a list start at the top and it is what it is. This is a season for great joy, magic, and fun – if you let it be.

No pressure. No letting anyone but me decide what works and doesn’t work for me. It’s a busy time of year and I know it can be oh so easy to slip into the madness of expectations and what things “should” look like. So one of my big decisions long ago was that sometimes things would be homemade… and sometimes they would not.

And that, as they say, is ok.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend! This week will be loaded with projects here on my blog- simple to some seriously cool mixed media fun. Stay tuned!

This time of year semi-homemade and custom details on stuff is my jam! The girls wanted the dogs to have their own stockings this year, and I agreed inexpensive plain stockings sounded just fine. What could make it better? Well I doodled their names, scanned them, and cut them out of some of the fabulous Brother iron-on material! I just love that this stuff works so easily and for so many things like this.

Here’s a link to my YouTube video.

And here’s the pups who have no concept that soon enough Santa Paws will be bringing treats…

As always I disclose that I do work with Brother, and that they provided me with the machine I used. Of course all opinions and ideas are my own!

Want to make some holiday craftiness of your own? Leave a comment here on my blog to be entered for a chance to win these three Crafternoon kits! Thank you to my friends at Hazel & Ruby for providing them, and allowing me to share some holiday love with one of you fabulous readers. What could be even better? These will be sent to the lucky winner on Monday (7th) – winner to be randomly drawn some time Sunday morning…

And stay tuned! The holiday give-away fun is just getting started…