Welcome to our BLOG HOP!!!

We decided to have a surprise Blog Hop over at Magnolia-licious Challenge Blog and there is a great prize involved, Pop Up Box #2, from Farm to Market. This box is full of various stamps, dies and laces.  Woo hoo!!!  What a prize!

The best part…it is easy to win!

You will need to go to each design team members’ blog to get details of their projects, collect 1 red letter on each blog, and leave a comment. When you have finIshed looking at them all, Maya is the last stop, collect her 1 red letter and figure out what Christmas word we have scrambled and comment the answer on Maya’s post.  Here are the design teams’ blog links:

Ivy’s Blog, Kerri’s Blog, You are at Karen’s Blog, Rosette’s Blog, Rene’s Blog, and Maya’s Blog

The blog hop begins on Friday, December 15th and ends Sunday, December 17th at midnight (EST).  We will announce the winner on the Magnolia-licious Challenge Blog  on Monday, December 18, 2017.

Good Luck to everyone and have fun!!

Merry Christmas,

Love from,
Ivy, Kerri, Karen, Rosette, Rene, Maya, Shawn, and Kim

My Magnolia-licious Blog Hop project is a box to hold and display Christmas cards.  One year, I started taping all our Christmas cards on the door frame between the kitchen and family room.  When I took them down 6 weeks later, the tape took the paint with it!  Oh gosh, it was a mess.  Since then, I have collected all the cards in a bag and kept them to look through.  My dear friend Kim made a similar box to display a calendar each month.  I took the idea from her and here it is!

I got a plain wood box from Hobby Lobby and decorated it with items from Hobby Lobby: miscellaneous paper, pearl trim, Tim Holtz hardware and pearls, and Foamiran flowers.  Shawn has some Foamiran Flower Kits and individual sheets of Foamiran at Magnolia-licious.  The cards were spotlighted in our challenge but are made with mini Tildas.  Shawn has a great selection of mini Tildas.  I love them because they are small, quick to color, and put together.

I hope you enjoyed our Blog Hop and my Christmas card holder and display.  Have an amazing weekend and craft on!

Hello my craft friends!

I was messaging a dear friend of mine and she sent me a couple Pinterest pins about journaling.  When I was little I <tried> to keep a diary.  I ran across it not too long ago and I just laughed at myself.  The pages were dated and evidently I either forgot or did not “journal” that day.  So I wrote “see next page,” which just kept going.  The thing is I love to write…but not about myself.  It goes back to the creative insecurity.  I started looking for articles about journaling and I found out a few interesting things!

One interesting comment was for you scrapbookers.  I have seen many people put pictures in a book but don’t write anything down (journaling).  I have heard every excuse but one specifically, “I don’t like my handwriting.”  That is up there with “I don’t like my picture taken.”  I had to come to grips with that one.  After all, my friends, we look the same in a picture as we do in real life.  It would be a shame to not have pictures of ourselves for our children and grandchildren to treasure.  The same with journaling–your handwriting is you!  Your thoughts and memories of the occasion are important for your family to remember.  If you are really worried about it, type out what you want to say and add it to the scrapbook.  I have to admit, I am glad I wrote down the people and places in my pictures.  I look back now when my girls were little and I don’t recognize or remember half of the people!  Remember to write it down!

As a society, we are addicted to social media.  We focus on our friends and what they are doing and not on what we are doing.  Use your journal to list daily items to do, goals, and dreams.  When you accomplish one of these, pat yourself on your back and write it down.  Don’t make journaling hard…don’t worry if your entry is only a few sentences.  Unload your terrible day at work into your journal. After a few weeks, you may begin to see a pattern that was not apparent before…even a pattern of involving you!!!  Remember your goals!

Journaling is an exercise to relieve stress.  There is data shows there is a health benefit when you journal. Whether you think you are “moody” or not, journaling helps you to “get it out of your system.” Write down how you feel emotionally and how you feel about coworkers or your boss, all the while you are working on brain development and memory.  Not only that, you are recording your life…something that Ancestory.com will never have in their database. Remember your health!

Keeping a journal is a great way to build better habits because it forces you to be aware of your actions and behaviors. If you’re looking to watch what you eat, keeping a food diary is a great way to stay paying closer attention—one that’s been proven to help people eat more healthfully. Similarly, just writing down positive things that happened to you or tracking your mood can help you identify good patterns in your life that are repeatable that you should make time for—not to mention things that make you feel bad or throw you off your game that should be eliminated. Remember your actions!

There are online resources that will help you get started. Make it fun and creative! You can hand-write your journal entries or keep them online.  Some people send emails to a unique address and keep memories and stories of their family to pass on to their kids.  Look for resources that provide journaling prompts.  The prompts will get you started and then let your thoughts take you.  Remember the memories!

I hope you enjoyed today’s post.  I feel that having this blog is a forum for journaling and I look forward to logging on.  Why don’t you start a blog?  I have given you several good reasons to starting writing it all down–give it a try!  See you later.

Hello my crafty friends:

Boy, this time of year is a whirlwind isn’t it?  Midway through October, there seems to be an increase of invitations and events filling my calendar!  I love the craft shows that are in the fall–they get me energized and inspired!  Before I knew it, we are in December and had not shared anything!

Thanksgiving is always a wonderful holiday. I like it better than Christmas because you only have to eat a big dinner and have time to visit with the family.  At Christmas, you have to buy gifts, wrap gifts, ship gifts, open gifts, thank people for gifts, and of course, eat.  We had the whole family together this holiday including my brother and his family and my aunt and uncle.

It is a special time to reflect on our lives and spend time with our families.  Don’t take anything for granted…we are not assured another day.  I am extremely thankful for my family and my friends (some friends more than some family 🙂 ).  Take some time for yourself and make something beautiful.  Good friends never say goodbye…they say “see you soon”!

Hello crafty friends:

Here are my adorable challenge cards for December.  I am pulling out old treasures and using my stash!  We all need to make a promise to ourselves to use our stash more than we are now.  Right?  Oh come on…you are already doing it?  I find myself buying and using my most recent purchases and forgetting what I purchased last week!

Anyhow…I digress…these sweet girls are mini Magnolias, Tilda with Jolly Wreath and Tilda with Candy Cane and Presents.  Come on over to our Magnolia-licious December Challenge and share your creations!

I hope you create something beautiful today!