Castle In The Air

I'm lucky enough to live near the East Bay because I finally made it to Castle In The Air in Berkeley! It was well worth the trip...


Huge paper vignettes in the window to draw people in!


I tried to get as many photos as possible, but as you can imagine I got distracted with shopping instead. There are also photos on their website.




The most magnificent display was centered in the store...a gnome castle of sorts surrounded by baskets of ornaments.
Tucked in the middle of a trunk is a family of gnomes having a feast (unfortunately you have to be there to see it).





I think the yarn angel is holding home-spun wool yarn, fabulous!


Please visit the store if you're around it is highly inspirational! Plus the store is on a chic street in Berkeley surrounded by many other artist owned shops! However if you can't make it in person they have an online shop!

"Adventure is worthwhile in itself."
- Amelia Earhart

Merry Christmas To You!

Happy Day to you and yours!
(image brought to you by PaPaya!)

"Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!"
~Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 1836

Clothespin Characters

As you can see from my previous post...I am a very lucky girl to be surrounded by clever and crafty friends and family!

A Bride, A Groom, Jack, Indiana Jones, "Just A Girl", Super Man

With that said...I was able to convince some of them to create clothespin characters! I made each of them watch a 5 minute segment of Martha Stewart making these and they dived into the project with no fear!

"You don’t get harmony when everybody sings the same note."
- Doug Floyd

Lights + Music + Pom Poms + Tassels...

No, not my next craft project, It's the details from our Ugly Holiday Sweater Party...well I guess you can call it a craft project!


L named his creation "Peace on Earth" Notice the bird detail perched on his shoulder and the glow his lights were throwing on the wall
Wow! Look at the lights!

K and Me. You should of seen the movement his tassels were making and my shoulders pads made me feel tough!

This is how we voted. We chose a sweater from the line, wrote the name of the person who we thought had the ugliest sweater and dropped it in the bag. Whoever got the most votes won!

The Winner!

"What do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus? Claustrophobic."
-Anonymous

Case of the Bah:Humbugs!

Has anyone else caught the Humbugs?

The banner above is a photo of last year's hand-made ornaments I created for my co-workers. This year I'm on a mushroom kick.



I started sewing them on the machine but realized it was much more relaxing to hand sew and they came out better!



“In the end we shall have had enough of cynicism and skepticism and humbug and we shall want to live more musically”
-Vincent van Gogh