{I'm so Blessed}

As a general rule, us women and mothers don't get a lot of special attention during the holidays. The holiday work generally gets piled onto our shoulders . . . I was feeling particularly burned out yesterday and having an "I want to quit" day. But my dear, dear ladies totally changed my attitude around when they all arrived with gifts and goodies for ME! Just look at my loot! I didn't get it in the pic, but I also received a beautiful crystal necklace from sweet Judy. And Mirriel made a delicious butterscotch slice for everyone to share.

I had a giggle when Tracy put shampoo and conditioner in that treat pouch for me! She's a gym fanatic, too. Those three cute boxes are full of goodies for my three angel daughters; I think maybe they have a few 'grandmas' in New Zealand after all.

Not only was I spoiled and appreciated, but didn't everyone do such nice work? I felt/feel very special and loved today. What a true blessing these sweet women are to me.

{Easy Easy Elegance Tile Coaster}

This was by far the most popular design I came up with, and probably the easiest as well! This uses an old favorite, French Script, and a new set from the Summer Mini Catalogue, Easy Elegance. Both are beautiful and the combination is great!

Easy Elegance features three beautiful flower images and a nice, scripted sentiment. Available only through March.

{Summer by the Sea Coaster}

I loved how these turned out! We stamped a set of four using Summer by the Sea and Seaside Sketches sets. (I just made up a tongue twister). These are so easy, my daughter made some by herself. The aged effect of the tiles just looks so cool with these images.

{My Offering}

My team had a Christmas gift exchange this month in lieu of a swap. Many of the gifts were hand-made with extra special effort put in. Sara from Titirangi received my gift - a set of four tile coasters made with a gorgeous, gorgeous set, Carte Postale. I do love how these turned out; I hope she loves them, too, because it was a teensy hard for me to give them away!

This set, Carte Postale, is available for a limited time. It's a set of eleven beautiful images for 58.95, a tremendous value to boot. It also has a matching wheel, paper, and background stamp. Please email or call me to order!

I was the lucky recipient of a Kiwi Christmas cookbook - quite an appropriate gift for me, I thought, considering I am not a native here and because I have no family here, the cooking is on my shoulders. Better mine than Jared's in any case.

{Gratitude Notes}

As many of you know, I am not a kiwi. And my family and myself do LOVE New Zealand. However, there are some traditions and memories that I want my children to have from my homeland, and one of those is Thanksgiving.

Each year we take a day to celebrate the harvest and to take pause to express gratitude for the blessings we enjoy. I made little notebooks for my guests - the one in the picture for the ladies and another design for the men. I didn't snag a photo of any of those before they left the house. I made some bright little pumpkin ones for the children; I'll add a photo of those shortly.

I just want to say thank you to all my wonderful friends, customers, team members, and supporters. I am a very lucky girl.

{A Paisley Notebook}

A $2 shop treasure. Add a little decorative paper, some beautiful images, ribbon, and a dash of glitter, and this $2 notebook becomes gorgeous! Now, how can I apply this principle to myself in each morning?

I think most of us already wear the glitter most days, though.

{Happy Bagalope}

We did this project last week in my classes here at home, and I also presented this a few weeks ago to the ladies in Tauranga. This is a COOL little project - a quick one making an adorable bag out of an envelope! My friend Joan commented that it went together so quickly and easily that she was sure she had done it wrong! Okay, Joan, sometimes I do make you do gymnastics with the ribbon . . . . but you keep coming back for more!

We've used the ever popular Polka Dots and Paisley set here, one of my favorites. I think many of my ladies are going to use these for their Christmas tables.