Bags and Rags Tips: December 2010

Time for A GIVEAWAY!!----Closed

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday! Since the New Year is this weekend and we are wanting to spend a little more time with families, we will be taking the week off, and be back to posting daily next Monday. In the meantime though we thought we would enter the new year with a giveaway!

Since A lil bird told me… has almost reached 100 followers we thought a nice way to say “Thanks for reading” would be to have a giveaway!!

My gracious friend Cierra has offered to giveaway ONE of her amazing 11x14 prints! Besides being super Mom, awesome crafter, and blog designer, Cierra is AMAZING at photography. I am super jealous of her talent and I love “ooing and ahhing” over her photos at her Yellow House blog. Check out her work, she is seriously talented, you don’t have to take my word for it though, her Save Ferris photo was recently featured over at Design Mom. If you live in Moscow, Idaho, she also does family and baby photography, which you can check out over at her Photograph: By Cierra blog. Once you have found your favorite print you can head on over to her Etsy shop to pick one up, and all the proceeds go paying for medical bills of her sweet Baby C.

Here are some of my faves...

On to the details for the giveaway….

Here is how to enter:

A: Become a follower of A lil bird told me…

B: Head over to Cierra’s Etsy shop and pick out which print you want if you win.

C: Leave a comment letting us know you have done the above two things!

Easy as 1, 2, 3!

If you want additional entries, here it is:

A: Post to Facebook, Twitter, or your blog about this giveaway. (1 entry for each)

B: Follow the Yellow House or Photograph: By Cierra blog. (1 entry for each)

C: Post a link or our button to your blog to share what a lil bird has told you! (1 entry)

Leave us the link to where you have posted the giveaway or that you are following the above blogs.

There you have it, 7 possible entries to win a beautiful 11x14 print from Cierra. This giveaway will be open until Monday 1/3/2011 12am MST. Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!! See you in 2011.

Merry Christmas!!

Wishing you a happy holidays from the lil birds!! We will be spending the rest of the week with our families and will see you next week! Hope you holiday is fabulous!!

One Dollar Wednesday...my snowman spoons

I'm late in posting this morning, but I'm late at everything this time of year. So much to do, so little time!

I found these great vintage spoons at a thrift store... they were 4/$1.00, so I thought they would be perfect to use for One Dollar Wednesday. Now, I am not suggesting that spoons bought at thrift stores are good for eating from...but they are perfect for crafting.

Out to the Spray Paint Place for a coat of metal primer, and a quick coat of "snow" white.

Add an orange carrot nose with a permanent marker...

and additional details with a fine point Sharpie.

Cut four rectangles from scrap fabric,

and fold up the very end of the fabric to form a little rim for the hat.

Attach to the spoon with a dot of glue.

Complete the hat by gluing it together in the back, and adding a little yarn tie to the top. Now bend back the spoon~ the hardest part of this entire craft!

Hang the happy little guy on the tree for a season of snowman smiles!

Around the Town Tuesday...featuring Ogden's Christmas Village

We took a trip up to Ogden this past week to visit the Christmas Village. It was my first time there, and it was a really fun experience. The kids LOVED looking into all the little houses to see the unique ways they were decorated, Each one was charming and original, and it was a great Christmas activity to enjoy.

Western Santa....

and little elves hard at work.

Nutcracker collections.

Vintage Christmas, my FAVORITE!

Look there's even a stocking hung just for me...

This past weekend was CRAZY busy for me, because I was sewing Christmas skirts for my girls. It was my first attempt to sew anything "nice", and it was really HARD. It would have been easier if I had used an actual skirt pattern, but I thought I'd wing it. They actually turned out okay, and I got a lot of compliments. Next time I will start WEEKS in advance.

Last Minute Neighbor Gift Idea: Homemade Candied Almonds

Even though I rack my brain and try to make a list of every neighbor/friend I want to give a small holiday goodie to, I still am bound to forget someone. Then my doorbell rings and it is my cute neighbor with a treat for me and I am scrambling to find something to give in return. It always happens this last week before Christmas too, so whip up a batch of these homemade candied almonds to have on hand for a quick exchange! I actually made these this year for some of my neighbors who have to have "gluten free" due to allergies. One of the BEST parts about making these is the smell, it will make your entire house smell like Christmas with the yummy cinnamon smell. These are way cheaper than the ones you buy in the mall, I get the 3 pound bag of almonds at Costco, I think it is around $10. This recipe requires a lot of stirring, I recruited my strong husband to help.

I got this recipe from allrecipes.com, I have included a TON of pictures, I wish I would have these, I had to learn how to do this recipe the hard way, by ruining a batch, boo. If you just keep stirring this recipe is SIMPLE.

Candied Almonds

1/2 Cup water

1 Cup white sugar

1 TSBP ground cinnamon

2 Cups whole raw almonds

Combine the water, sugar, and cinnamon in a saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil; add almonds. Cook and stir the mixture until the liquid evaporates and leaves a syrup like coating on the almonds. Pour the almonds onto a baking sheet, lined with wax paper. Separate the almonds using a fork. Allow to cool for 15 minutes.

****The "syrup like coating" is misleading, keep stirring, you want them to be dry and have a crystallized coating. Below is the recipe in photos.

Mix your ingredients and bring to a boil....

Add the almonds and keep stirring...

It will start to thicken a little, keep stirring....

More stirring....

This is what I thought is a syrup like coating would be, DO NOT STOP HERE, KEEP STIRRING...

The sugar will start to stick to the bottom of the pan, that is OK, you're not done yet, even when it looks like this, KEEP STIRRING....

When your almonds look like this, you are done!

Pour them onto your baking sheet and let them cool....

I had some decorating bags that I decided to put them in....

I think they worked well, I made sure to tie a bow over the logo, so you don't see it. I found some cute cone ornaments I had bought at IKEA last year to put them in.

I think they turned out cute, and they were yummy!!

Merry Christmas, 5 days left!!

Quite the Christmas Card: Weekend Website

I wish I was as creative and talented as the Foster family. Instead of making a Christmas card for their friends every year, the make a Christmas Video. I was perusing over at Design Mom the other day when I came across this fabulous video. The picture above is from behind the scenes, this scene took a lot of candy canes! Her children are ADORABLE and very good actors, I am super impressed. Check out the video in it's entirety HERE. Have a lovely weekend, only 7 days left until Christmas!!

Sew What?

Since I'm the new blogger on the block, I thought I'd share just a little bit about me. My name's Steph and my husband Skyler and I have been married for just about 5 years. We have a little girl who just turned the big 2 and another on the way due in May. Confession: I love to sew, but I love to sew even more when I have someone to do it for, like a new baby!

With my first, I sewed a few things that I will be recreating as soon as we find out what we're having (can December 30th come any sooner?!) Here are a few of my favorites:

A carseat canopy

A nursing cover

And saving the best for last, the carseat cover. I turned a carseat that I liked into something I loved.

As soon as we find out what we're having I will be hitting the sewing machine and cranking out my first ever tutorials for my creations. Stay tuned for my regular Sew What? ideas and tell me, what's your favorite thing to sew?

100 seems like a good number for a giveaway...

Since we are almost at 100 followers, we decided that 100 followers should warrant some attention. Once we hit 100, we will have a giveaway!! Tis' the season for giving right? I am super excited about this giveaway, it is going to be great. So spread the word, and tell your friends to follow, and a big THANK YOU to all of you who already do. We really appreciate each and every one of you who reads our blog.

One Dollar Wednesday....Christmas Countdown

Have you been counting down the days until Christmas? Or have you been enjoying your advent calendar? My One Dollar Wednesday craft today is a Christmas Countdown.

This is where I started: baking sheet, garage sale stickers~ Dollar tree; gingerbread cookie stickers~ Joann's; number stickers~Honk's dollar store. I pulled the spray paint from my ENORMOUS spray paint collection.