my button.

Just a note to anyone who subscribes to, checks in on occasionally, or even links to this blog through theirs. First of all- THANK YOU!! Second of all- sorry that so many of you have been taken to a random shoe website lately. Because I was low on money and lazy I didn't renew my domain name and web-hosting account for the website I created awhile back. I still have my fresh designs blog (obviously I suppose:), but my website is no longer and someone else bought my domain name (darn it!!!). So if you have been directed to a shoe website by clicking on my fresh designs button, I apologize (and am so glad it isn't anything worse!).

I have updated my buttons now and if you happen to display a button of mine (again, THANK YOU!!!!!!), if you could update the html to read 'freshdesignsstudio.blogspot.com' rather than 'freshdesignsstudio.com' I would REALLY appreciate it. Or just do this- go to edit my button, erase what's there, and copy this:

<a href="http://www.freshdesignsstudio.blogspot.com">

<img src="http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z57/Kaelars/button.png"/></a>

Then click save and it should be fixed! So sorry for the hassle!!! I've learned my lesson on being lazy with domain names!! Hope this makes sense! Please let me know if you are still confused and/or need help updating buttons and I will get back to you asap. Thanks again!!!!

organizing 2011

Remember this post on organizing jewelry? I'm guessing no, but I want to update it a little. We've moved from an apartment to our first home in the last year and I've found a better way to store my earrings and jewelry and thought I would share.

I store my earrings in this now and LOVE it:

The rest of my jewelry now goes in a standing mirror jewelry armoire. You can see a teeny bit of it in the picture below.

Another storage solution I came up with and love (I think I came up with it... maybe my sister gave me the idea... but I don't think I have seen it anywhere) is this one for some of my hair stuff:

The upper two pictures are mainly what I wanted to show you- just two old oatmeal containers store all my headbands (I have a lot I know). What a great way to store headbands etc. though, right?! You could make them a lot more visually appealing by modge-podging some pretty paper on them I'm sure, but I just never seem to get around to it. I'm not that motivated because nobody ever sees them really but me.

The lower two pictures I thought I would show you because that is where I store all my getting ready stuff and I get ready there each morning. We only have one bathroom in this little home of ours for now, so it comes in pretty handy. It's just a sofa table (hand-me-down) we painted, then put shoe storage shelves (garage sale find) underneath it for storage. I used fabric from curtains I got at a garage sale (10 for $10!!) and tailor-made them to cover up my stuff down there. I made side panels for the bottom too, but put them on after I took this picture.

Oh, and the mirror above it? I got it for $1 at a yard sale and painted it to match too:) I love me some good deals!!

Hope these have inspired you in some small way...

I hesitate to post house pics, because my house is never how I want it really, but I've decided recently to be proud of what I have done and be okay that it is all a works in progress. So expect to see more house pics and let me know what you think.

isn't he cute?!

This was my first attempt at a glove-stuffed animal. I made a couple of mistakes but all in all I thought he turned out pretty cute!

I got the gloves on clearance for $2 and everything else I had around the house. I sewed his eyes with embroidery thread and I made his mane out of scrap felt. I realized in posting these pics that he still needs a tail. I think I will braid him a tail out of yarn and sew it on.

I also think he needs a little heart sewn on to his chest. Then I can give him to my 18 month old and see if he likes him enough to make more to add to my little glove-aminal family!

i know.

I am not as attentive to this blog as I should be. But life... well you know. It just keeps on rolling and sometimes this blog suffers because of it. I am sorry for that. But I will try to make it up to you.

That being said, I have an announcement to make. I suppose it isn't that big of a deal, but I have decided to make 2011 my year of sewing! And I plan to share what I do on here. I've got house projects to sew and I've got toys to make (I've decided next year 70% of my boys toys will be homemade- 100% of their toys from ME and I figure Santa can do what he wants for the other 30%).

Here are some of the toys that I hope to create this year:

Lots of sock and glove stuffed animals kinda like these from here.

-play dough like this.

-felt story board stories like this.

-a boy doll like using this pattern.

-felt food like this.

-feed the monster toss game kind of like this.

-felt fishing set like this.

-house or farm pack and go set like this.

-dress up clothes, pajamas, robe, hooded towel, quilt... the list goes ON... we'll see what I can get to:)

As far as other projects go, I have pillows to sew, cushions to recover, clothes to alter. Stay tuned! (And please be patient- I will try to put other fun seasonal and holiday info, projects, recipes, and anything else I find interesting on here to share also:) )

stocking stuffers, etc.

I love stockings! I am usually the first one up every Christmas. Even to this day I wake up before my kids and can't wait for them to wake up. When I was younger I would always wake up another one of my sisters and we would proceed to sneak out into the living room, take out everything in our stocking, then try to put it all back ever so carefully so there was no sign of mischief. My mom was a good stocking stuffer too. She put such special and fun things in them and I have always looked forward to opening my stocking as much as I did any present. So, I have tried to follow in her tradition of putting similar things in my kids stockings. Hopefully they will like the ones I make for them as much as I always liked mine.

Image and stocking can be found here.

These, to me, are some things that a good stocking might entail:

I love me a good new toothbrush. Mints. Gum. CANDY (must include one candy cane for traditions sake). An orange- it's tradition! For me the holy grail of oranges is a nice satsuma orange. Books (personalized ones are especially fun for Christmas so you can tell your kids Santa made it especially for them). Dvds. Jewelry. Socks. Hair Stuff. Fun art supplies. Magazines. And Gift Cards.

You could tailor the stuff on the above list for any gender and for any age. The important thing with stocking stuffers is to have fun and keep the person you are buying for in mind. I generally like to leave buying stocking stuffers for last as kind of a last minute shopping detail to look forward to, but some things are fun to buy in advance, especially if you need to special order it.

Here are a couple more ideas:

Marta has some stocking stuffers great ideas.

And I absolutely loved the stocking stuffer ideas from Restoration Hardware this year!!

What do you like in your stockings?

Also, does your family pile up in the car to see Christmas lights every year like mine does? How about sprucing that tradition up a little? A friend emailed me this week with this adorable idea from this blog. I am going to have to do something like that this year to jazz up our annual "Christmas Lights Drive." Will be purchasing these for next year!

teacher gift

I realize I promised I would share stocking stuffer ideas next, but I just finished a teacher gift craft so I thought I would share. I made it with stuff I had around the house and it was pretty fast and easy.

Here is the finished product:

To make it I used these that I bought at a craft store a couple of years ago.

I bought them because they were so cheap and I could think of a ton of ways to use them.

Then I whipped up some quick and cute teacher designs for them to make them into a jewelry set using this digital scrapbooking kit (I made the card using the kit too).

Then I had my husband drill some tiny holes into the top of them.

Next I glued the little designs I had printed and cut out on using diamond glaze and put a glaze finish on them. You could probably also just modge podge them.

After that it was just a matter of putting some jump rings in them and putting them on a necklace and earring set I had in my stash of beading stuff. Easy fast and cute!! My kind of project:)

I also included this for fun:

Hope my little guy's teacher likes them, and I hope you find these ideas useful:)

holiday cheer

Two more weeks until Christmas! I planned on doing lots more gift guides, but am feeling a little uninspired in that department. I do have a few other things for you though- here are some things to (hopefully) inspire you for these last couple of weeks leading up to the big day!!

CJane's Chup shared some great ideas on gift ideas for your man today!

Here are lots of gift ideas I posted last year: Catch all gift guide 2009.

West Elm has the best free downloads for gift tags, dinner parties and the likes here.

Click here for wrapping inspiration.

Click here for neighbor gift inspiration.

Want another idea for a fun neighbor/friend gift? Copy some of your favorite recipes onto these cute and free recipe cards from Shabby princess.

Click here and here for my favorite holiday treat recipes. No holidays are complete without them for me!!

Hope these ideas help!

*Next up: Favorite stocking stuffer ideas.