fab

I made these oven mitts from the pattern in Denyse Schmidts' book and happen to think they turned out pretty darn cute. So proud. . .

For the last couple years, my family has been exchanging hand-made gifts. It's been a wonderful tradition . . . both make the gifts and see what my talented family comes up with. The top pic is of Wind Chimes mad from old silverware by my sister, Missy. In the middle, is a fun "Date Night Kit" from my sister, Shannon. (Also notice the Date Night Mix CD from her husband, Matt.) And then on bottom, a Jingle Bell wreath made by my sister, Jenn. It was fun to be able to spend time with my family in Seattle this Christmas. I think at one point there were 18 people staying at my mom's and dad's house! Yikes! But again, it was just neat to be able to be there all together. My brother even made it from Guam for a couple weeks vacation. My sweet Gramma Gwen was there and all five of the Luke grandsons. They are constant entertainment, they're the ones pictured on the title page I posted a couple entries ago. Anyhow, I love them all.

My mom made each of us a beautiful Christmas Quilt, each one is slightly different. See how I developed my love of quilting? I inherited it!

Title Originally uploaded by juliannmarie . This is the title page for the book we put together for my family for Christmas. Hubby wrote it and I illustrated it. It was a fun project and took us about a week from start to finish under a tight deadline. It had to be ordered by the 17th in order to be printed, bound, shipped and received by Christmas . . . we made it, but just barely. Now why couldn't I have done that months ago and saved myself some stress? Maybe next year. I also vow to have Christmas cards and labels printed and ready by sometime next October. Visit flickr to see other images from the book. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. We printed it through Snapfish and the printing quality and resolution were terrific. It printed a little darker than I expected so I'll take that into account next time and the cover has a cut out square to reveal the image of the title page. It printed maybe a 1/4 or 1/8th of an inch closer to the binding than the preview ima...

We weren't very good about getting Christmas cards out this year, but we at least got them made! About half our list actually received them, oh well. My hubby actually designed these this year. I think they turned out fantastic . . . good job, Sweetie!

I had fun designing the posters and the invitations for church ladies' annual Christmas dinner. It's fairly formal the enrichment committee makes and serves a nice dinner to all the ladies. Different women sign up to decorate a table complete with centerpiece and linens and place settings for 8. They bring in stemware and china to make it feel nice and formal. Should be fun. . .

babyAddison , originally uploaded by juliannmarie .

babyAddisonCU , originally uploaded by juliannmarie .

babyRodriguez , originally uploaded by juliannmarie .

babySmith , originally uploaded by juliannmarie .

babySmithCU , originally uploaded by juliannmarie .

MagnoliaBakery2 , originally uploaded by juliannmarie . Trying this another way. . .

So what if I've totally fallen victim to the great cupcake craze going on? This pic is of Mike and I cramming our faces with cupcakes from the magnolia bakery during our trip to New York in May. Did I mention this cupcake blog is the most beautiful blog in the world? I want to systematically go through the recipes and try each and every one.

It's been too long. . . but I want to keep posting. Last year I fell in love with ugly dolls and tried to make some of my own as Christmas gifts to the nieces and nephews. It was such a fun project and I thought they turned out kind of cute. Jake, one nephew, still refuses to sleep with his but Jesse Luke loves his and calls it his "scary."

Ok, I spent an hour in JoAnn's and came out with these fabulous fabrics. . . they're for a little throw quilt for a friend's birthday. Trouble is, this one might be hard to give away, I love it so!

All wrapped up and ready for little Gabriel. . .

Based on "A Day at the Beach," this is actually a baby blanket rather than the full-size beach blanket (and without the brilliant stone-holding corners). It's only about 45 x 45", which of course made it pretty quick to do. I stayed close to Denyse's color choices (because I love them so!) but went with browns instead of blacks to make it a little gentler for my friend's new baby boy. (She's a hip architect who specializes in green building materials, so I had the challenge of making something eco friendly and not cutesy. . . this colorful, all-cotton quilt was perfect!) In fact, I can't tell you how much I love the way this blanket turned out. . . I make a lot of baby blankets for friends and this is probably my favorite. I have enough material to do another, so I'll start soon, but the next one will be opposite, lime green and brown on the front with the turquoise dip-dyed fabric on the back. And maybe I'll keep that one! My modern-asthete-h...

Just trying to get this up and running. I'll add fab photos and fun stuff soon!