sock monster overload!!

You may have noticed that my poor blog has been completely neglected as of late. With Christmas quickly approaching I have been SUPER SWAMPED trying to get orders made and shipped out. The Lens Pets have had to make a little room on the desk as I've also been spending MANY hours making sock monsters! 

this was my favorite of all the recent sock monsters. I LOVE how cartoon-y his cute little face is! He even has hooves. ;) MOOOOOOOO!

MONKEYS! These have been crazy popular. I tried out two new designs for the ears. Which is your favorite? I love for the ears to be BIG! The goofy look it gives them just makes me giggle. ;)

some people might mistake him for a mouse with those big perfectly round ears! lol

I went just a *smidge* smaller and more oval as opposed to circle the second time, so we hopefully avoid the whole mouse issue. ;)

then there were the doggies...

this guy has a removable treasure map and pirate hat. :) I love how the hat turned out (completely pieced from felt) and the treasure map fabric that I found was just perfect!

there were a few small sock monsters

one of them with a very BIG expression ;)

a fun stripey kitty cat (and that turquoise blob looking thing behind his head is actually the end of his tail in a little curl)

while I've made lots of small penguins, this was my first big one!! I can totally picture this guy as part of a penguin bowling set, lol. maybe I'll make that for my shop in the new year, each penguin could have a number on his belly. ;)

check out the comparison in sizes...

last two... just a couple group shots of the monsters that went off to live together with their new families. :)

In the new year once I'm more caught up on Lens Pet orders I hope to start listing more sock monsters in my shop. :) I have plenty of socks and LOTS of ideas. All the monster sewing over the last couple weeks has really kicked my creativity into gear. Not to mention there will be VALENTINE designs coming soon (of the Lens Pet AND sock monster varieties)!

Christmas Sale!

ONE WEEK ONLY - free shipping on all **READY TO SHIP** items in my shop!!! Sock monsters and Lens Pets! Everything will ship same day! If you live in the US, all packages mailed by the 20th should arrive in time for Christmas (according to the USPS website)

Does someone you know love owls???

or penguins???

Maybe you know a little boy (or girl) that might like to snuggle up with a slithery sock snake?! ;)

OR maybe you want a Lens Pet for taking pictures at your family Christmas party? This snowman is sure to get everyone smiling! :)

Sale runs for one week only! All in stock items already reflect the free shipping discount so just check out as usual.

Happy Holidays!

Holiday Decorations

I am SO in love with my tree this year and that is such a huge change from the last 5 Christmases. Long story short, the tree I *had* was putting a big damper on the holidays for me. It was just too big for my tiny place and too heavy for me to put up by myself. It was so frustrating that I didn't even put it up every year, substituting instead with a tiny tabletop tree some years. 

BUT NOW!!! Now I have a wonderful, fabulous, AMAZING tree!!! It's SO light I can put it up all by myself (with one hand if I wanted to) and it takes up almost NO floor space. It could not be more perfect! For the first year in a long time I was totally excited to get the tree up and decorate it and now that it's done I just LOVE IT! :) BONUS: because we downsized, we now have an abundance of ornaments...as in, I'm pretty sure not a single branch is undecorated! ;)

I was sharing my love for my new tree and all my pretty ornaments with some friends last night and they wanted to see pictures... so I figured I'd share with everyone. You may have seen me mention before how much I LOVE color. So beware, you'll be getting a hefty dose of it as you look at the photos below. ;)

I have these sparkly snowflakes in five colors and two sizes. :) I *heart* them!

these stars were a new addition this year, also in five colors. so pretty! 

another new addition. these were Carter's pick. I wasn't wild about them when we first saw them in the store but I went back and decided to buy them anyway since Carter liked them so much. they're growing on me. I do love the glitter!

lucky find at Michael's a few days ago, on sale. there were only two unfortunately but I snagged 'em both up.

another of Carter's picks with a few other ornaments in the background... I'm just now realizing, there is A LOT of glitter on this tree! lol I also have pearlescent and shiny ornaments too so it's not ALL glittery. ;)

this one came out kinda blurry but I still like it. the other sale ornament from Michael's and a snowflake in the background.

I LOVE the ones that have stripes or polka dots in a different color than the body of the ornament.

one more for Carter ;)

it was a lot harder to get a shot of the whole tree than I thought it would be. just not a very photographic corner I guess...

and a close up of my angel... the boys ask me every year to get something new for the top of the tree and even though I'd love to have something that matches, I can't bear to part with my pop can angel. ;) My oldest son (who is now 15 1/2) made that angel in second grade! I've had it on top of the tree every year since. I *heart* that angel!

I have had a really hard time finding any actual decorations outside of things to hang on the tree... so I improvised and tossed a bunch of ornaments in a glass bowl as a centerpiece on the coffee table. puuuuurrrrty!!

This Santa is something I've had since I was little. I *used to* have a snowman too that I just LOVED but when I was about 12 or so I used him as a nightlight (IN my bed, not a smart move). He fell over in the middle of the night and the lightbulb inside melted through the plastic. *OOPS* Maybe I should see if I can find another on Ebay or something! ;) The tree skirt *I BELIEVE* used to belong to my grandma. It's actually intended for a table top tree but fits my 6.5' pencil tree pretty well.

The stockings that we've been using for years seem to have gone missing somehow, I couldn't find them anywhere when I was unpacking all the decorations. So I picked these up at Target the other day. Even though I have three boys and sequins might not be very manly, I LOVE how sparkly they are and how the tree lights reflect off of them. Plus I figured the boys really only care about what Santa will be leaving INSIDE of those sparkly stockings. ;)

I made this advent calendar for the boys a few years ago (Sassafras Lass papers) and they look forward to pulling it out every year. :) They take turns opening one little drawer every night until Christmas, each drawer has one little piece of gum or candy inside.

these adorable little snowmen came from Artwerx on Etsy and I just LOVE them! Their little hats are in the same colors as the boys stockings so I thought they would be perfect on the shelf right above where the stockings are hanging. They're tiny, only a couple inches high, but so adorable!

I'm still searching for some more inside decorations, probably some snowmen of some sort (though bigger than the ones above) so they can stay out throughout the Winter. I swear I've looked EVERYWHERE though!! Pottery Barn, Wal Mart, Target, Kohl's, Bronner's (online... still thinking about making a trip to the actual store though). I can't find ANYTHING! I have a bunch of cute little candle holders and such for Halloween, but nothing for Christmas! If you know of someone who sells cute stuff leave me a link!! 

 There is one thing that I found (thanks to a FB friend), and I am just dying for a set (or two or three) of these {pillar} candle holders! Crossing my fingers I can catch them on sale after Christmas because they're a little too pricey for my single mom/right before Christmas budget right now. :p But how stinkin' CUTE are they?!

Four chances to win and THREE WINNERS!

Check out Angie Arthur Photography, she's currently hosting a giveaway and the prize is your very own Lens Pet! :) Don't miss out! Enter by December 12th!

http://www.thearthurclan.com/2010/12/mandee-franee-lens-pet-giveaway.html

Craft Show...

Yesterday I participated in my first craft show. It was interesting... a LONG day (especially for two of my boys who had to tag along). Though I didn't sell much, I did make enough to cover my costs plus a little profit so I suppose it was worth it. I definitely don't think it will become a regular occurrence. As I watched the people at the tables around me I wondered how they do it all the time! I'm sure not every show is the same but what I saw were a lot of people browsing, not many people buying. Some tables sat most of the day with very few people even stopping to look! 

As I am super swamped with orders I didn't have a ton of stuff to take, but here are some shots of my little table...

the Lens Pet side of the table looks a little bare, but oh well. I did end up adding a few more to the cake plate in front because I sat and sewed for the entire show. I think the four cameras there showing what their intended use was really helped because A LOT of people came by thinking they were for your hair. ;)

and the sock monster side... I found that little shelf at the thrift shop for $5... the night before the show I slapped a little paint on the front side edges and glued some scrapbook paper to the inside. Not bad for $5 and about 10 minutes. :) the little pots with monsters in them also came from the thrift shop, 99¢ each. kinda hard to tell in the pic but they each had a different little raised design on them :) I had no plan for their use when I bought them but I liked them so I got them anyway ;) the photo album was sort of like a catalog, had a bunch of pictures of sock monsters and lens pets. lots of people flipped through it, ooo-ing and ahh-ing :)

last but not least, the whole shebang! the flower bowl in the center also came from the thrift shop (99¢) and holds a handful of paper pinecone ornaments that I made LAST year. I found them when I was packing up for the show and thought I'd take em along just for the heck of it. I even sold one. lol I'm debating whether or not to list the rest in my shop now...

I listed everything that came home with me in the shop today as 'ready to ship' so hopefully a few people will be able to squeeze in some last minute gifts. ;)

how can it be December?!?!

I seriously CANNOT believe it's already December!! 24 days until Christmas!! Where did the year go?!?

Well, I officially made it through the entire month of November with a blog post (and a gratitude) every single day, save for one. I'm shocked to tell the truth. When I started this blog I had no idea what I would post about other than shop news! Now I have a list of ideas and even a plan for a YEARLY feature. CRAZY! 

Now that my month of daily posts is over my plan was to take a couple days off from  the blog, but apparently I am insane. Because here I am again today to tell you I have decided to try and tackle a December Daily album this year. eek! I've watched with awe and envy every year when Ali Edwards creates an amazing album start to finish in a single month. And every year I wanted to put together one of my own. It's been more than a year since I've even had the urge to look at my supplies, let alone touched a piece of scrapbook paper. And this year, just ONE DAY before the end of November, I decided to go for it. Lord knows I am way too busy for real scrapbooking right now (especially considering I am just about the slowest scrapper on the planet), but I thought this just might feed the urge without taking too much time away from all the orders I am working on. So yesterday I bought Ali's 6x8 templates from Designer Digitals, ventured into my scrap space for about 20 minutes and came out with a small stack of papers and embellishments, then ordered a couple small things to add to the pile. While I was digging through the paper I found a really thick clear transparency so I chopped it down and ta da... front and back album covers. I took about 10 minutes to cut down a bunch of papers for the inside pages and then set everything aside in a pile for later. Since the pages will be done mostly digitally it won't take me very long and slapping on a couple brads and tags and whatnot should fill the desire I have to play with paper and embellishments again. At some point I'll take a few minutes to put together some sort of cover page but for now I'm set. I even managed to get a photo for today already!! When we woke up this morning everyone was excited (ok, maybe I was the only one who was actually excited) to see that it was SNOWING for the very first time this season. YAY! It's officially Winter! I went out and snapped a couple pictures and I'm not sure which one I'll be using yet, but just as a test run I put this together...

I may or may not do the number in color... and I don't know if I'll hand write some journaling or if I'll just add it in PSE so the whole thing can be printed out all together. But I think this is going to be a really fun project. And believe me, with the amount of work/sewing I've been doing for the last six months... a project that I can do just for fun is definitely a bright spot to look forward to! :)

I'll probably save up my daily pages and post them in a couple small groups over the course of the month. I don't have a printer at home so I'll need to upload and order the pages before I can add whatever embellishments I decide on. But I'll definitely share at some point! 

So... anyone else out there doing their own December Daily album??? Maybe we can encourage each other to keep it up and not fall behind. :)

12 Days of Christmas - day twelve

Today is my last '12 Days of Christmas' find. I hope you've enjoyed the feature... I think I might plan to do it again next year. I had a lot of fun searching for camera and photography related goodies (even picked up a few things for Santa to leave under the tree for me this year) In fact I think I may just have to launch similar features for a couple other holidays in the new year. :) But on to today's find... 

This adorable little case by CB Sew can  hold business cards, debit/credit cards and cash too!

mini retro camera business card case - fits credit and debit cards too

Super cute little accessory perfect for anyone who likes to take pictures, whether they do it for a living or not. :) Toss it in your purse, stuff in a pocket or even keep it in your apron at a craft show. It's the perfect little size to fit just about anywhere! (and if the camera design doesn't float your boat she's got a million other designs... she's got a classic NES controller, one that looks like a cassette tape and an old school Gameboy, a calculator, a pop tart! SO many cool choices available!)

Today's gratitude: today I am thankful to be back home after a fun 5 day visit with family in Ohio. though there's still a car to be unpacked, laundry to be done and million other things to catch up on, it's always nice coming home again. :)

12 Days of Christmas - day eleven

This is an AWESOME find by Focal Length Designs! I've never seen anything like this before and I just think these pieces so amazing!

camera lens bracelets

This seller creates totally unique jewelry pieces using old camera lenses and broken camera parts. The ultimate in recycling, perfect for ANYONE even remotely interested in photography! Each bracelet is a conversation piece all on it's own.  And depending on the lens used, there are sizes that should fit both men and women. Super fun!! I seriously LOVE these!!

Today's gratitude: the weather today is beautiful outside and though we're sad to be going home, today it will be nice to have pleasant weather to drive home in. now if I can just manage to get out of here before dark comes and the expected storm hits!

12 Days of Christmas - day ten

I've shared two different sizes of camera strap over the last couple weeks, it's only fair that I also show two different sizes of camera bag as well! This adorable little case for your point and shoot is by Jack and Bee Designs.

camera case cover padded (chocolate)

SO many people these days have the super small pocket sizes cameras, but I know a lot of pro photographers like to keep a smaller camera on hand as well. Something they can just throw in the bag or keep in the car, something perfect for catching the every day memories without having to lug around a huge camera. And like it's bigger counterpart, sure they sell lots of basic point and shoot cases in the stores, but this is so much more unique. I love the image in the little window on the front of the pouch. Super cute little stocking stuffer, perfect for anyone that loves to take pictures.  

Today's gratitude:  today I am thankful for the flexibility in my life that allows me to bring my kids out of state for five fun days spent with family. They've been having a super time with their cousins the last few days, even my 15 year old who is the oldest of the bunch. He usually tends to hang out more with my dad or my sister's boyfriend, but last night he was playing games with his cousin and brother, and judging by the amount of laughter coming out of that room, it sounded like a  pretty good time. :) I am so glad that they're all so close and I hope that continues to be the case as they get older.

12 Days of Christmas - day nine

Today's find is this fun print by Little Types. I've seen a lot of these done using different combinations of words but I really like this one.

photography fine art print

I love the different words she chose for this print and the way they gradually get smaller and smaller as you move towards the bottom of the page. The shape beneath the last row of words that looks like the open shutter on a camera, that's just a little bit genius! I can just see this matted and hanging in a nice frame. Perfect for the photographer on your list. :)

Today's gratitude: As corny as it sounds, today I am thankful for Chick-fil-A!! :) I grew up in Colorado and there was a Chick-fil-A at the local mall, anytime we were there shopping I would get a regular Chick-fil-A sandwhich, waffle fries and a lemonade. After getting married I lived in Washington state for eight years where there was no Chick-fil-A. Now I'm living in Michigan and we don't have one here either. But my family lives in Ohio, so a few times a year when I visit I always hope to make it over to Chick-fil-A just once! But they're not open on Sundays... and between my sister and I, with eight kids, it's not easy to sneak away. So I rarely make it there before it's time to head home. But this weekend we're here for  FIVE whole days. One of them a holiday and one of them a Sunday, that's still THREE chances for Chick-fil-A! Last night we had to run to the store and we were able to swing by and I had my first Chick-fil-A sandwich and lemonade (though I skipped the fries) in a VERY long time. OMGosh it was SO good! I hope I'm able to get back there again before we leave, but if not it was so totally worth the wait! ;)

12 Days of Christmas - day eight

A few days ago I shared an awesome camera strap cover for all the DSLR owners out there. But what about everyone with smaller digital cameras? Lucky Straps has you covered...

lottie dottie point and shoot camera strap with minky lining

This wrist strap is perfect for smaller cameras. The polka dots are super fun and the inside is covered with that AMAZING incredible super soft minky fabric. I love that stuff! This would make a perfect stocking stuffer for anyone with a pocket size camera.

Today's gratitude:today I am thankful for... banana cream pie at 3am! ;)

12 Days of Christmas - day seven

Today's super fun find is this adorable necklace by Heather Kent.

hip polaroid camera hand painted necklace

 

camera hand painted necklace

I cannot believe those cute little cameras are hand painted!!  How cool would is it to be able to wear an original work of art around your neck?!? That's not something that many people can boast! This is from the artists description: 

Original hand painted watercolor masterpiece necklaces by Heather Kent to adorn your body! Are you sick of being kicked out of art museums for drooling on the paintings? Become a walking work of art: Each pendant is a unique, signed watercolor painting, sealed with a clear protective resin(drool all you like!).

LOVE! :) Become a walking work of art... or turn your photographer friend into one by making this a gift. ;)

Today's gratitude: today I am thankful for too much food, eight loud kids, and the fact that I live close enough to my family so that we're able to spend almost every holiday together.

12 Days of Christmas - day six

Today I'm sharing this GORGEOUS camera bag by XcessRize Designs. THIS is an awesome bag!

small camera purse

 

I see all those boring look alike black camera bags in the stores and wonder who would buy those when you could have something fabulous like this?! Why doesn't everyone shop on Etsy?! I LOVE the fabric used for this bag and the shape is so fantastic! Definitely unique. What photographer wouldn't LOVE this bag?! I know I would... are you listening Santa?? lol 

The shop has loads more fabric styles to choose from and a bunch of equally awesome and unique bag designs. That talented photographer that YOU know, she would LOVE to find this under the tree! So get to shopping, you don't have much time left!

Found em on Facebook, check it out ---> XcessRize Designs

Today's gratitude: today I am thankful for LONG WEEKENDS! YAY! My kids are off school for the next five days and we're heading to Ohio to spend Thanksgiving with my parents, my sister and my 5 nieces/nephew. Good times will be had, much food will be eaten! ;) Hope everyone else has a great Thanksgiving!!