Future Momo Jewelry

Friday Favorites - Christmas tabletop ideas and more

There have been so many great posts on Christmas crafts and inspiration in the past few days.  I can't believe Christmas is almost here again!  Here's a few of my favorite posts from the week.

Small gift ideas from Heather Bullard.  She puts even the simplest things together in the most amazing way.

Some cute Christmas crafts from My Little Mochi.  I love the reindeer gift card holders and made some in the past.  Very easy to whip up!

Some serious eye candy at Sweet Eye Candy Creations. 

Gorgeous Christmas tabletop ideas at Decor to Adore.   I don't host too many dinner parties, but I love looking at table setting ideas.

Brandywine Boutique posted her piece for a pink and aqua challenge.  I love the little deer!

Little snowmen tins from Inspire Co.   These are just too cute and a great little gift idea for coworkers, etc.

Some holiday makeup tips on SF Indie Fashion.  How to sparkle without overdoing it!

(Free image from Sweet Eye Candy Creations).

 

Friday Favorites - charm tutorial and more

I got very behind in reading my blog subscriptions thanks to the holiday craziness, but I am catching up and found some great inspiring posts!

Klompen on Resurrection Fern.  I absolutely adore this blog and I wish she would adopt me.  Every single post is eye candy.

Reminder charm tutorial by Ornamentea on International Charm Day.

A very cute ornament tutorial on Joli Paquet that would make a great last minute gift.

Photos of Cornwall in winter on Jane and the happy crow.  I've been intrigued by Cornwall for some time and have to admit that after watching Doc Martin and seeing pictures like these, I want to visit even more.

Scotty softie giveaway on allsorts.  Precious.

Christmas cookie recipes and inspiring cookie wrapping ideas on Decor to Adore.  I wish I could make sugar cookies that look like these!

Beautiful winter photos of winter in the UK and little needle cases on hens teeth.  I'd never thought about making a needle case before, but these make me want to.

Surprise snowballs on Speckled Egg.  A very cute idea for a child's gift.  I've done something similar with a skein of yarn called a magic yarn ball and it is always a lot of fun. 

Baby cheetahs and baby pandas on Zoo Borns.  Adorable!

Dala horse stocking pattern on allsorts.  I am crazy about dala horses and this stocking is fantastic.

A gigantic, 360 degree panoramic view of London.   This is a lot of fun and it's amazing how close you can zoom in.

Crepe paper tree tutorial on Creative Chaos.  I love all of the ways she has been decorating these.

Whew!   I guess I found a lot of posts I really liked!   There have just been so many amazing posts thanks to the holidays and winter.  I love this time of year!

 

 

Friday Favorites - felt garlands and more

It's been a crazy week, so my Friday Favorites are actually Saturday Favorites this week.  It turns out that when you lose your job, everyone wants to hang out with you and I have been super busy all week. Finally, things have slowed down.  Here's a few of my favorite blog posts from the past week or so.

Free downloadable paper trees from Jurianne Matter, found via allsorts.   These would make adorable cupcake toppers and I love that the colors are not in our traditional red and green.

A Mary Engelbreit inspired snowman tutorial on Bluebird Papercrafts.  Very cute!

A gorgeous necklace and reflection on winter and life on Ornamental.  Everything Nina does is magical and I love seeing all her gorgeous photos.

Simple yet lovely felt garlands on Pam Garrison's blog.  These look like they would be pretty fast to put together in all of your favorite color schemes!

 And way too many Silver Bella posts to list!  One day I will make it out there for what looks like an absolutely amazing event.

    

Friday favorites - free printables and more

Well, it has been a very crazy week for reasons that I won't get too into here.  Let's just say I suddenly found myself unemployed on Wednesday and five years of my life at a nonprofit is down the drain!  I've been refocusing and gathering supplies to make some Christmas ornaments.  Think of all the time I'll have to craft now!  Maybe I can make something more than once every two months!

In the meantime, here's a few of my favorite blog posts from the week.

A free holiday printable to do list from Allsorts.  I love her bright, cheery colors!  I'm a serious listmaker and this printable is just what I need to gather my thoughts for Christmas.

A tutorial for making a very sweet little sledding ornament on Bluebird Papercrafts.  I think I may give these a try!

A mercury glass ornament tutorial on Brandywine Designs.  Can you tell I'm obsessed with ornaments right now?  I love the look of mercury glass and this is a great idea to recreate the mercury glass look.

Some great packaging tips and examples on papernstitch in the Crafty Business Advice column.

Pam Garrison posted an update on a beautiful handmade journal quilt that she is making.  Gorgeous!

 

 

 

Friday Favorites - Queen Anne's Lace scarf and more

How is it Friday already?  This week flew by for me.  I have to admit that despite not really being too into baseball, I was completely caught up in the Giants World Series Fever for the past week.  I even went out to the parade on Wednesday, although it did get a little hectic with people fainting and things pretty quickly!

I didn't have much time to catch up on my blog feeds this week, but here's a couple of favorites from this week!  So happy Giants fever is over!

A wool throw tutorial on Design*Sponge - perfect for the approaching fall weather

A pattern for a gorgeous crocheted scarf called Queen Anne's Lace on Jeweled Elegance.  I'll definitely have to try this one out!

 Kim Caldwell's amazing craft room - totally inspirational!

Some pretty gift wrapping ideas on Pretty Petals

 A little quick pic from the parade craziness...  People were climbing lightpoles and things and this was about as close as I could get - about 100 people deep back from the street!  And it went way back behind me too.  They're estimating 1 milion people came out to the parade and it felt like it.  

 
 

 

 

 

 

Friday Favorites - Mary Engelbreit Halloween and more

A few of my favorite blog posts from this week!

A Mary Englbreit inspired Halloween on Bluebird Papercrafts.  I really miss Mary Engelbreit magazine.  As soon as I subscribed, it went out of business :(

A tutorial for soldered jump rings from HeArt Collective.   A really helpful technique that I'll have to practice.  My soldering is still a bit lumpy sometimes.

 Pretty pumpkin images and a pumpkin latte recipe on French Garden House.  Yum!

A sort of recipe for pink pasta on Hardaker and Pope.  Ive been wanting to try making my own pasta for awhile and this sounds like a fun recipe to try out.

Some free pretty postcard images on Little Pink Studio.  I love vintage postcards and the birthday one is adorable.

 
I'm not even really into baseball, but I am getting caught up in the Giants World Series fever here in San Francisco.  Lots of the buildings downtown and our city hall are lit up in orange in honor of the Giants and after last night's huge win, I'm hoping they win the series!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday Favorites - Halloween Crafts and more!

I can't believe Halloween will soon be here!  Where is this year going?

Here's some of my favorites blog posts that I've run across this week...

50 Halloween Crafts from The Long Thread - decorations, crafts and recipes for Halloween, including Halloween Cake Pops from Bakerella!

A spooky shadow box tutorial on Joli Paquet - a quick shadowbox project.  I love the "strange tree" image used.

A Halloweenie paper doll on Babalisme- adorable!

A Paris Party on Speckled Egg.   Even though it was a kid's party, I loved the Paris-themed bingo and cute little goodie bags.   And who could resist that candy buffet?

Lichen dyeing on Resurrection Fern.  I had never heard of dyeing fabrics with lichens or leaves before and Margaret's photos of the process are beautiful.

Okay, it's a bit older than this week, but this Photography Inspiration post on Go Holga is a great basic reminder to try new things in any art medium and keep at them until you get better.  I really need reminders like this because I get discouraged a bit too easily sometimes.

 

 

Friday Favorites - Gaga Over Gilt and more

Here's some of my favorites posts from the last week or so! 

French Garden House is Gaga Over Gilt.  Lovely!

Animal Woodcuts and Printable Book Plates - a pdf of bookplates from an antique German speller from Just Something I Made

DIY Canvas Calendar from Design*Sponge - perfect for holiday gifts

Deliciously realistic macaron place holders on paper n stitch

And a tutorial on making a polaroid magnet frame, also on paper n stitch.  Since Polaroid film is virtually impossible to get now, this is a fun project to replicate the Polaroid look

 Have a great weekend!

Calligraphy mosaic

This week's inspiration is calligraphy.  I love the flourishes and drama of it all.  Many years ago, I took a calligraphy class and would love to study it again.

 

1. Flourished Fraktur, 2. Copperplate Calligraphy, 3. bedtime sonata 612MMV, 4. Calligraphy for Anniversary, 5. 1800s Lettering Sketchbook, image 14, 6. vintage flourishes, 7. Calligraphy by Johann Schwandner, 8. Flourish Friday - Engrosser's Script, 9. For me..

 

Veggie Fest

Yesterday I went over to the annual World Veggie Fest with my new friend, Christina.  It's somewhat small, but I go mostly every year to check out the free food samples and the great speakers.  In the past I've seen Howard Lyman and John Robbins speak.  This year there were a bunch of interesting speakers, but we decided to check out Colleen Patrick Goudreau, who hosts a vegan podcast and does cookbooks and things.

I'm not a vegan and frankly, I have no desire to be, but she made some very well-reasoned points about going vegan, or as she calls it, "being compassionate".  The point I remember most is that most people say they could never be X because they can't give up Y - like you can't be vegan because you can't give up cheese.  She said if you can't do everything, that doesn't mean you have to do nothing.  You can go vegan for everything but cheese, or whatever your vice is.  It was an interesting thought.

We also saw Rory Freedman, co-author of the Skinny Bitch books.

I have to admit, I had heard of the books but never read them and I had no idea they talked about vegetarianism.  I had to leave partway through her talk, unfortunately, so I don't have much of an impression about her or the books, but I'm thinking of checking them out.  I think I avoided them because I was turned off by the title or something.

In between speakers, we wandered around the fair.  It was mostly vegan and veggie food products, as usual, plus the usual anti-cruelty booths.  We tried some good - and not so good - food samples.  The next time I make it to Whole Foods, I might pick up a couple of the things we tried.  There seemed to be a lot of fake meat vendors this time.  I don't really get the point of eating fake meat, but that is just me! 

As a bonus, my friend Roni of Daisy Wares was vending at the fair so I got to chat with her for a bit.

I also picked up some of her vegan shea butter in rose.

(Photo from Daisywares.etsy.com)

We also had lunch and I tried a tamale with soyrizo.  I'm still debating how I feel about that.  Like I said, fake meat isn't really on the top of my list of things to eat, but it didn't taste too bad.  All in all, it was a pretty good day except for being freezing!  I don't know how we went from 94 on Tuesday to 60 on Saturday!