sheppard girls

In the mail

All of these pretty items arrived at my house in the last few days.  Unfortunately most of them are sitting in a pile waiting for me.

 
Advent calendar from uusi, that no one will be allowed to touch.

 
2011 Calendar from Hello Handmade

 
United Stated print with a heart over Minnesota from January Jones

 
You are my Sunshine print for the little ones room redo, from The Wheatfield, and the Matthew Mead holiday magazine.

 
which, when I quickly paged through it at the mailbox, looked amazing!

A very Sheppard Girls Christmas

I agreed to make some holiday items for one of the stores that sells Sheppard Girls stuff.  I make things for our house and our friends all the time, so I don't know why I didn't do anything before, except that maybe starting holiday stuff at the beginning of November, for a mid-November deadline is a little crazy.

I really love what I have come up with so far. 

 

However hand-dyed pompoms take a ridiculous amount of time to dry

 

and my house is now covered with pans of damp pastel puffs.

 

Bus driver appreciation

Whoooo has the sweetest bus driver in the world?  We do.  This is the second year we have had Ms. Karen as our driver.  She paints little rocks for each holiday, hands out treats, and makes a special turn around the corner to drop off right in front of our house on cold days.  Last week she asked the little one if I made any bibs with owls because her new granddaughter's nursery was decorated with pink owls.  I didn't have any owl fabric, but I could definitely find some.

 
Added, the fabric Japanese with no selvage so I can't be sure who made it.  But it is adorable!

A series of hooks....

The biggest thing that our house needs is more storage.  Don't tell me to get rid of things.  More storage is the answer.  Two of our closets had really nice closet systems when we moved in.  The others have a bar and a shelf, including the front closet.

 

Now that the school carnival, which I co-chair is over, I can refocus on things like this.

 

Custom closet system from Twin Cities Closet.  Back wall painted Benjamin Moore Wyeth Blue, which I originally bought to repaint our bedroom.  I didn't really understand until last night, that if I wanted to do something like this, I would have to take out all the exisiting closet hardware and paint before the closet guys arrived this morning.  I managed to find the crowbar, the troublelight and the paint roller extension in record time.

Photograph is this one from our Christmas card photo shoot attempt.  It is my favorite.  Although one of my kids faces is completely covered up.