A new venture!

I am starting my bad habit again of neglecting my poor little blog! Sorry, just don't find or make the time to type a post everyday. I just think I get so wrapped up in everything else in my life that I forget to take a moment out and just type something...someone might be interested!

Anyway the last couple of weeks have been super busy for me. I think it started the week before Halloween, with costumes to make and parties to attend! Also I have started crocheting necklaces...thought I would be making a few for me and some gifts and it has turned into a new venture. I have been selling them. Actually I can't crochet them fast enough! Pictured below is an example of one.

I sell them for $8 a nceklace and they come in a multitude of colors. They have a bead on the necklace so they are able to extend from 24 inches to 34 inches. Free shipping(on US orders only) on the first necklace order, add .50 cents for every necklace after the first one ordered. Email me if at monica@thegoswicks.com if you would like to purchase one of these necklaces. Orders can be paid through paypal. Please allow 7 days to complete order.

These are the available colors:

Turquoise

Spring Bouquet

Pink/Grey

Black/Grey

Rainbow-jewel tones

Brown/Camel

Purple Haze

Saddle Brown/Blue

Rainbow-pastel tones

Red

Green

Silver

Pink

Fall Harvest

Blue Diamonds

So that is what I have been busy doing! I never expected to get this much response from the necklaces, but am so thankful I have!

Our costumes

Here we are all dressed up and ready for the Halloween Celebration! We went to a friends house for dinner and trick or treating! (thanks Julia) It was a blast, the only thing is Devon's loot bag was a little disappointing, but that was ok by me as he does not really need all that candy anyway! I did promise him that I would go out and buy him his own bag of his favorite candy, just call me a sucker!!!

Today we are off from school and really need a much needed relaxing day at home, no plans to get dressed, just need to take the Halloween decor down and get all those turkeys up! Maybe I will do a little laundry too, but no crafting time for me. I am going away this weekend to a scrapbook retreat, should be fun. So this week is all about getting my house back in order after several crazy days!

Here are some more photos from Halloween!

Happy Halloween 2010

My favorite holiday of the year! I am not sure if I like scary, but I sure think it is fun to dress up and be someone else for a day! I also love the weather and the relaxing feeling of this time of year. Just makes me smile! I made costumes for the family this year, was fun to get it all done a little early. Except for my hubby, as we are getting his done today before we head out to a friends(shout out to Julia) for a Halloween celebration!!! So here is a sneak peek of my costume and some photos of my son's too.

This is a photo of Bender, a work in progress. We were still adding the final touches to the costume but I wanted to make sure to get some photographs of it while we were making it. Now I just wish I would have taken more as the costume evolved. I don't have the photos we took of the finished costume on my camera, because we took some with my hubby's iphone and he has not uploaded them to me yet. Will post more when I get them!

I gotta get myself motivated, cause I gotta leave in the next 2 1/2 hours and I am not even dressed yet! Spent too much time this morning surfing the net!

Filling my time with Jewelry

So this will be another quick post from me, but it will be photo heavy. I have been trying my hand at bottle cap necklaces and are loving the results. Some are better than others but I just wanted to try it out and get an idea of how to make them then I will start getting more detailed. I found that using glossy accents is great to seal the image but sometimes it leaves air bubbles, so another product that was sitting in my scrap closet is 3d crystal lacquer. I must have got it from a stamp show in the area and never used it. Well it works perfectly, no air bubbles, dries quickly, crystal clear. Think I will use this from this point forward when making the necklaces. I also am experimenting with photoshop elements to make images...I thought about purchasing them but realized I could easily make my own and set forth doing that. Unfortunately I don't all that much time to play around so the only images I have created are the ones for my daughters matching sorority necklaces, seen the first image below. The others are a combination of scrapbook paper, rubons, or stickers.

Gotta go, this post ended up longer than I thought it would be!

I have no time for blogging!

Apparently I have been so busy that I have neglected my little blog for a month...sorry but October has been busy with so much going on, activitities, parties, etc. I will get back to a regular schedule soon...I promise! Here is a little photo of the card I made for October's monthly card swap. Below the card is a photo of some really cool flowers I made...the month's theme was to make handmade flowers. Both of these are from Marion Smith. She has youtube videos showing how to do the techniques. They were both fun to do , but the glitter ones were super messy! Be back soon!

My first baby themed card!

So excited about this card! I made this card for my monthly card swap group. It is baby themed this month, in honor of one of the ladies that is expecting. We were throwing a surprise shower for her this month and wanted all the cards to go along with the theme. Of course the shower is no longer a surprise because she wanted to dropout due to it being so close to her due date and we had to convince her to stay another month! Anyway my card was an inspiration from one of Julia's cards, she made a card with 6 squares of book paper that she chalked. When I saw her card I immediately thought quilt, so using that idea I made smaller squares of pattern paper, used my sewing machine to stitch around the squares, added the lace and the little animal button (all cards have different animals). Using my cricut I cut the squares, the ovals, and the title. I just loved the oh baby! My card is a little larger than an A2 size so I decided to make the envelope to match, took me watching a few videos on youtube to figure out the envelope I liked the best. In the end the envelope is really easy to make and made me decide that in the future I will probably make envelopes to match my cards. Just adds that something extra!

I am on vacation this week with no big plans, kind of nice having a break! I of course will be planning some crafty time, look for some blog updates! I hope to get a few posts in this week, since I have been a slacker for a while!

I got my crafty on!

So I have been busy doing crafts the past few weeks and really have not even thought about posting to my blog, sorry that I neglect it so much...just not really as committed to it as I thought I would be. I am finding that I have so much more free time now that my daughter is away at college. It is amazing how just one kid leaving the house frees up so much time. Of course since she is only about 40 minutes away she visits often, I think I have seen her at least 1 day out of the weekend the last 3 weeks. One time she didn't come home but I had a hair show about 10 minutes from her dorm so I went to visit. Another time she came home to go to a high school football game, she quickly realized that it was different going to a game after you graduate. Maybe she will finally get that high school is really overrated!!!! Once you have been there and done that there is no sense in going back!

Here is a project that I made for my daughter for her dorm room. I really enjoyed cutting all the ribbon and flowers out and then layering them on this wreath.

I bought a wire wreath from Hobby Lobby in the floral department, measuring 12 inches. I used my cricut to cut the flowers, cutting several different layers and using different pattern papers. The ribbons were cut at 7 inches and tied them around the outside and inside wire rings, leaving the center 2 empty so that I could layer the flowers on. After assembling the layers of flowers I went through my brad and button stash and found some matching ones to add more depth to the flowers. Glued it all on, added a ribbon to hang it, called it done. Really am pleased with how it turned out. The finished piece measures about 17 inches. The best part was my daughters reaction to it when I brought it to her. She was so excited...I have been planning to make small gifts for her on occasion this school year. I know she will like them and it is a great and easy way to decorate her dorm room.