Goodbye 2012.

Oh 2012, you were a tricky year. A wonderfully hard year full of some difficult circumstances, but a faith-growing year, nonetheless. A year where my amazing hubby finished well a long and tiring 4-year Master's degree. A year where I was pregnant with our third sweet little one - and where we found ourselves with some serious complications and very unforeseen events surrounding this precious little one. Where our faith was mightily tested as it grew thin and weary. A year where I got sicker than I've ever been. And ended up hospitalized with the doctors very concerned about my health, as they didn't know what was wrong with me.

These few events stick out in my mind very vividly. But what also sticks out in my mind very vividly is God and His grace to my family. God's grace given through His Word, through my husband, through our amazing church family and friends, and through our family. How He never left our side through those hard circumstances. And how there were tons and tons of wonderful, joyful circumstances throughout the year also.

This year I grew in so many areas (and of course still have a lot of growing to do ;)). My sweet little (big!) family is healthy and well. Our sweet little girl is growing and thriving. And is absolutely adorable ;) My 5 year old is in school and loving it. My 22 month old is so incredibly cute with his daily antics ;) I have a wonderful marriage that is continuing to grow. My hubby has two great jobs.  I have a little online shop that I love to make things for. And a blog that I love to update here and there. We are beyond blessed in so many ways. And I am truly thankful.

As I write this post, I am overwhelmed with joy over my sweet almost 2 year old who is parading around in his Thomas the Train costume. For my 5 year old who is so excited to be playing with a little Matchbox truck that has real lights that turn on. For my sweet 4 month old who is peacefully asleep on my hubby's chest as he is getting some work done on his laptop.

I am excited for 2013. I am excited to see what God has for our family. For my hubby. For my sweet babies. For me. For this blog. For my shop.

Thank you for reading. I truly enjoy blogging here :) See you next year! ;)

merry christmas!

"In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, 'Don't be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: Today, a Savior, who is Messiah the Lord, was born for you in the city of David. This will be the sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in cloth and lying in a feeding trough.' Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: 'Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to all!' " - Luke 2:8-14

*Image is from a vintage Christmas card I purchased here.

Recap: A Very Merry Ornament Exchange

Happy Christmas Eve! Several weeks ago, I hosted a Very Merry Ornament Exchange via the blog. I was so excited when I got a ton of response (I must admit I was kind of afraid no one would want to do it ;))! Thank you to those who participated and took time during the busy holiday season to create two ornaments, pack and ship them off to someone they've never even met ;) 

It was such a fun little activity and I am happy to say that I definitely plan on doing this again next year! :) A few of the participants also sent me an ornament or a picture of the ornament - Thank you Amy, Cheryl, Julie, Claire, and Susan!! :)

I am also working on developing another type of exchange, a lovely paper exchange, if you will. Details in the next several weeks.

Have a wonderful Christmas Eve! We are busy making cookies, drinking wassail, singing, snuggling and reading the Christmas story at our home today :)

Food: Pecan Butter-Crunch Popcorn

I had this popcorn several years ago in a cooking class hosted by a very gifted cook at our church. It was amaaaazzzing. I was looking for a fun and yummy (and easy!) recipe to make for a few gifts and remembered this recipe the other day and made some. And then made some more. And more. ;) This popcorn is so good and is perfect to put in a tin and give as a gift :)

Pecan Butter-Crunch Popcorn - adapted slightly from Mary Kathryn's recipe

25 cups popped popcorn (1 cup of kernels)
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans, toasted
1-1/4 cups light brown sugar, packed
5 Tbsp. light corn syrup
10 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1-1/4 tsp. coarse salt (I use sea salt)
3/4 tsp. baking soda

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Put popcorn in a large bowl (I used two!). Cook butter, sugar, corn syrup and salt in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a gentle simmer, about four minutes. Stop stirring and continue cooking until mixture lightens in color. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda. Stir for about 2 minutes.

Pour sugar mixture over popcorn and stir to coat. Sprinkle in the toasted pecans as you are stirring to evenly distribute.

Transfer to rimmed baking sheets lined with parchment paper. I used two large baking sheets.  Pat popcorn mixture down so that it is in a single layer. Bake, stirring every 20 minutes, until almost dry - about 1 hour. Let cool. Break chunks apart and store in an airtight container (if you have any left to store ;)).

no words.

For the past several days, it's been quiet here on the blog. And on FB. I've been answering emails and posting a few random Instagrams. I'm still (like most everyone) very much at a loss for words over last week's tragic events in Newtown, Connecticut. 

I've been praying. A lot. Praying for the families and those affected by this. And hugging my precious little ones extra tight. Savoring each moment. Truly savoring even the difficulties this past week has brought, having three sick little ones at the same time. Savoring being up for several hours each night tending to these little ones. Knowing that these little ones are a gift from God, and being grateful that I can care for them.

Hug your loved ones extra tight. Love on and be kind to complete strangers you encounter during your day - because (not to be cliché), you never know what someone is going through, especially during the holiday season.

food: black bean salsa

I made this super yummy salsa the other night for a Christmas party. It's easy to make, and it makes a lot. Perfect for a get-together. Or if you are having a major bean and fresh veggie craving ;).

Black Bean Salsa

1 (14.5 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 (14.5 oz) can light red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 (14.5 oz) can whole kernel corn

1 can white shoepeg corn

1/2 red pepper, chopped

1/2 red onion, finely diced

2 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped

1 small bottle (12 oz.) Zesty Italian Dressing

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Toss to coat. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving. Serve with tortilla chips. Enjoy!

12.12.12

sending out some goodies.

Packaging up some more goodies from the shop :) I will be closing my shop later this week until after Christmas. Shop now and use coupon code holidaymerry30 at checkout to receive 30% off of your entire order! :)

working on: a rainbow quilt

I recently began this super fun rainbow quilt using these quilt squares. It's coming along quite nicely :) The quilt top itself is pretty much done (which is the easy part!), now onto layering it, actually quilting (will be machine quilting, not hand quilting. Ha!) it, and putting trim on :) Hoping to have it done soon to be able to snuggle under on chilly evenings (although it's been in the 70s here lately! ;)). 

a wedding book

I recently had the privilege to put together this custom wedding book for a person whose bestest friend is getting married at the end of this month. How sweet and thoughtful that she wanted to have a guest book made for her friend! I thoroughly enjoyed working on it and am super happy with how it turned out :)

currently.

an ornament exchange

Happy Monday! Happy Holiday Season! :) For those in the U.S., I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving last week. Our week was crazy busy with lots of traveling, seeing family and eating. A lot :) I will be wrapping up my 30 Days of Thankful this week - it was such a fun activity to write down (and sometimes photograph) the little (and big) things I'm thankful for.

So I've been brainstorming a fun little idea just in time for the Holiday Season. An Ornament Exchange. I have a sweet friend who, each year, creates and exchanges holiday ornaments with family. Love that idea! And after seeing this fabulous idea by Monika of I Love It All, I thought it'd be fun to put together a little Ornament Exchange via this blog :)

It's really simple - I'll be pairing up people who want to participate in groups of 3 (you and two other people) and then we make ornaments, and send them off to those who are on our list. So you will make 2 ornaments and send 1 ornament each to 2 different people, and you will then receive one ornament each from two different people.

Want to participate? I'm taking a limited number of people (since I've never done this before ;)). Email me at thecreativeplace(at)gmail(dot)com to participate. Please, please do NOT sign up if you are not 100% committed to following through and sending two ornaments. People will be putting time, effort and money into these and we need to all actively participate if we sign up :)

Please sign up by this Wednesday, November 28. I will send out partners no later than Friday, November 30. If the exchange fills up and there are no spots left when you email me, I will email you back to let you know. Ornaments must be mailed on or before December 10.

Requirements:

+ Create 2 handmade ornaments (they can be the same) - they don't have to be elaborate or overly complicated, but create something that you would like to receive - something that is festive, fun and uplifting - and sure to put a smile on someone's face! :) Here are a few ideas of DIY ornaments. Or do a search on pinterest for inspiration :) (You will pay for materials, etc. for your ornament).

+ Send your ornament to each of your partners on or before December 10. That way, it should get there in plenty of time for Christmas and be able to go on the Christmas tree and be enjoyed :) Include a quick little note with your ornament about it - maybe include something like why you made it, what inspired it, etc. and sign and date it :) It will be nice to look back year after year about the ornament's origins when unpacking them to go on the Christmas tree! (Thanks, Monika!) :) Be sure to pack your ornament very carefully, especially if it is fragile (You will pay for shipping your two ornaments.)

Subject your email: Ornament Exchange

In your email include:

1. Your email address you want your partners to contact you through.

2. Your mailing address.

3. If you are willing to ship international: Yes or No *Note: If you are international, you must be willing to ship international.

Yay! I already know what ornament I will be making. And it may or may not involve paper ;)

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In other news:

Happy Cyber Monday! Save 15% off your entire purchase in my shop. Use coupon code: creative26 at checkout :) Coupon good Monday, November 26 - Wednesday, November 28.

How to Easily Sell Items from your Blog or Facebook!

So, as you know I have an etsy shop where I sell a bunch of crafty odds and ends. And then recently, I started selling wood mounted rubber stamps via a page on my blog. Well. Let me tell you about a new and super incredibly easy (and attractive!) way to sell things directly on your website, blog or Facebook page - it's called ShopLocket.

Seriously, this is so incredibly easy and I will be posting different items for sale here and there because of how simple (and how cute the widget is)! And besides how easy it is, it's even nicer because you don't have to go through setting up an online shop if you are not wanting to do all of that at this time. You can sell as many or as few items as you want. You just sign in with your Facebook account, or simply your email address.

When you sign in, you are taken directly to this simple page. You can list an item by filling out the product name, description, and price, and by adding at least one photo.

Click on Advanced Options where you can track number of items in stock (so you don't sell out without you knowing! :)), add shipping costs or tax and other options.

Once you click Publish (or update if you are making changes like I was in the above photo ;)), you can easily share and promote your product through Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter or even email! To put it on your blog, just copy and paste the embed code into the HTML of your blog post. Super simple!

So, how much does this cost?! There’s no up-front or monthly fees, you only pay when you sell. When you sell a product, you’re charged 2.5% (plus any payment processing fees from PayPal or Stripe - which you would be incurring with an online marketplace anyways). So if you’re selling something that’s $20, you’d pocket $18.62

Seriously ya'll. You can be selling products in minutes. To sign up, just go to ShopLocket.com and you can be selling almost instantly :)

And a bonus giveaway! Go sign up for an account at ShopLocket today and then enter the giveaway below on Rafflecopter. Hurry! The giveaway ends tonight :) 

FIVE new signups will win a $100 Michael's giftcard! YAY! :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Disclosure: I wrote this post as part of a paid campaign with ShopLocket and Blueprint Social. The opinions in this post are my own.

stamps are here!

I am excited to say that wood mounted stamps are now available! Yay!! These little cuties are SO much fun :) I had so much fun designing and developing them to go along with memory keeping. These will be perfect for using in mini albums, journals, or Project Life! And what a great stocking stuffer for the upcoming holiday season :) Go here to purchase them through my blog - or I have a couple here in my etsy shop.

Also: Holiday Journal Kits are now shipping :) Grab one here and have plenty of time to play with the goodies and get it all customized before December begins :) Or, if you are looking for a basic album only, you can find one here :)

Yay for the Holiday Season! 

So excited about all of the upcoming festivities :)

30 Days of Thankful - November 3 - 9.

30 Days of Thankful. Loving this little challenge. Loving the simple reminder that I have so, so many things to be thankful for, each and every day.

November 3 - Thankful for the gorgeous changing leaves and the reminder of God's beautiful creation.

November 4 - Thankful for a family trip to Hilton Head to visit with Rob's parents - and a warm, sunny day at the beach.

November 5 - Thankful for palm trees. I know it's silly, but I seriously love palm trees. Maybe it's because I don't live near any - it was fun to see these in Hilton Head. They are so fun to me! :)

November 6 - Thankful for a visit to The Salty Dog Cafe - or "Salty Dog Town" as my sweet 5 year old would say. Our first time as a family of five :) Always fun to have a yummy meal, walk out on the pier and explore the shops.

November 7 - Thankful for a fun new line of products that will be available soon :) 

 November 8 - Thankful for how excited I get about paper. I love paper :)

November 9 - Thankful for taking the time to notice little things my children do that might otherwise go unnoticed. I found this milk truck on the steps the other night - My son had put blocks on either side of the truck as brakes - like he had seen on a firetruck out in town. 

Adorable. My heart flutters :)

30 Days of Thankful

A little challenge this month as we approach the holiday season. A challenge to specifically think of one thing that you are thankful for each day. I've seen a lot of friends posting on fb about things they are thankful for. I think it's such a great idea! Of course, it's great to always be thinking on these things - but what a fun challenge to record these thankfuls for a month - for the month of November - for the month when we celebrate Thanksgiving at the end :) I'm trying to decide if I will make a simple list, or put it in my Autumn Journal, or what. Not sure yet. But at this point, I am recording them each day.

Thankful.
Day 1 - For my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
Day 2 - For my wonderful little family. What a blessing my husband is! And my three sweet little ones. Love.

What about you? Are you writing down things you are thankful for this month? Want to join me in this fun little challenge?

hello, november.

hello, november. 

hello, almost end of the year.

hello, month filled with lots of fun things happening.

hello, month that i will begin planning for the holidays.

hello, month that we will be traveling a lot.

hello, month that we will be seeing lots of family!

hello, month that we will celebrate thanksgiving and everything we are grateful for.

hello, month that holiday journals will be mailed to their new homes!

hello, month that new wood mounted stamps will show up in my shop (thanks for all of the guesses! :))

hello, month that i will start a rainbow quilt with this gorgeous fabric.

hello, month that i may not finish the rainbow quilt, but that's ok ;)

happy november! what do you have going on this month? :)

halloween

Halloween 1985 with my older sister. She was Little Bo Peep and I was a ballerina or fairy or something. All I know was that the costume was pink and frilly and I loved it :) My mama still has this old costume up in their attic - maybe one day my sweet little one will want to wear it (if she likes pink and frilly ;)). I love, love, love looking at our old Halloween pictures - go here to see last year's post - my sisters and I were dressed as Crayola Crayons. What fun memories :) Happy Halloween :)

Food: Beer Bread

This past weekend was cold and dreary- perfect soup weather! We were at a pumpkin patch for a good part of the afternoon and I hadn't planned accordingly to get a loaf of bread in the breadmaker (it takes 3 hours!) to have with the soup (white chicken chili, super yummy). I needed a bread recipe. A fast one. I had made a bread like this before at a family gathering and quickly looked one up and found this one over at food.com. Super quick - it was ready in an hour! The recipe calls for beer, but you can also use sprite or ginger ale :)

Beer Bread - adapted from food.com

3 cups all purpose flour, sifted (don't have a sifter? spoon the flour into the measuring cup)

3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/4 cup sugar

1 (12 oz) can beer - or use ginger ale or sprite

1/4 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients together. Add beer (or ginger ale or sprite) and mix well. Pour (more like spoon) batter into a 9"x5" loaf pan. Pour melted butter over top of batter. Bake for 1 hour or until golden brown on top. Cool 15 minutes, then slice and serve. Enjoy!

P.S. More details on yesterday's post soon... If you follow me on Instagram, I posted more of a sneak peek yesterday ;)

guess what I'm working on...

Any guesses on what this little (big?) project could be? ;)

Giveaway Winner

Congratulations to #11, tberg! I will be emailing you shortly. Thanks to all for playing along :)

christmas goodies

Working on listing these holiday goodies in the shop today: preorders for the 2012 Holiday Journal Kit, an add-on paper pack, journaling cards and handmade epoxy embellishments :)

Giveaway: Hand in Hand by Jenny Doh

I am always on the lookout for fun and creative projects that I can do with my sweet kids. I was so excited to receive two copies of this fabulous book, Hand in Hand: Crafting with Kids by Jenny Doh. The book is full of fabulous and creative DIY ideas - ranging from fairly simple to do, to more complex. Ideas such as a "first quilt,"an ABC photobook, a family banner, tissue paper lanterns, and much more.

The book shares ideas from twenty top bloggers, including Ali Edwards, Amanda Blake Soule, Pam Garrison, and Dana Willard. Want your own copy? See below to enter the giveaway for a copy of this fabulous book! :) Even if you don't have kids, this book is full of fabulous ideas and great inspiration - to use yourself or with the children in your life - a niece or nephew, grandkids, or family friends! :)

One person will win a copy of the book Hand in Hand: Crafting with Kids by Jenny Doh. Giveaway will run until Tuesday, October 23. I will post a random winner some time on that day. International entries welcome.

To enter: 

+ Simply leave a comment. Please be sure to leave your email address in your comment so I can contact you if you are the winner.

+ For extra chances to win: Blog, FB or tweet about the giveaway (with a link to the giveaway). Leave a separate comment for each way you spread the word (leave one comment if you blog about it, leave another comment if you FB about it, leave yet another comment if you tweet about it :)).

Disclosure:

*I received two copies of this book free of charge from Lark Crafts - one for review and one to give away. All opinions expressed here are my  own.