Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!  I know that most people probably celebrated over the weekend since today is a Monday (boo!) but hopefully you have some fun today too.  Maybe some green beer or green mashed potatoes with dinner?  As I was looking at all the adorable St. Patty's pins on pinterest, it made me realize - I totally dropped the ball on the Shoebox Swap.  So, if you are interested in restarting and/or joining the shoebox swap (first one would be due in the mail by the end of April), let me know by Friday 3/21 and we'll get it going again.  Here's a few fun photos of past swaps to reminisce.

I was getting the mail the other day and was SO excited to get a box from my October swap partner - Ashley! Not me, LOL, we have a common name.  The picture on the left is the awesome wreath she made me.  The picture on the right is what I made and sent to her.  I think she's on vacation still so hopefully she won't see my post before she gets her box.  But if she does then she'll just have to contain her excitement until it gets there :)

 Happy Fourth of July!! For this year, I got a fourth of July pedicure and everyone's been commenting on my cute red, white and blue toes, heehee.  I wanted to do a manicure too but i just ran out of time.

We did a shoebox swap for 4th of July and I made a super cute pillow for Doreen.  It was pretty easy and it took me about 4 hours to make.  Here’s a mini-tutorial for how to make it - click the "Read More" button to get the full tutorial.

I hope everyone had fun making their Shoebox Swap Crafts!  I just finished up the wreath I was making for Doreen and it came out pretty cute.  And it actually is as soft as it looks!

This year, I decided to space out the swaps a little bit more because we all got too busy last year.  So we assigned the swap partners on 1/15 and then everyone had until the end of Feb to mail their boxes.  Hopefully everyone has mailed there's by now.  I'll admit I was running a little late myself - mine just went in the mail yesterday.  Although, to be fair, it took a little longer since I had to make stuff for two swap partners this month.  I always make some stuff for myself when I do the craft swaps too.  Sometimes I just make duplicates - one for me, one for my swap partner.  And sometimes I make something else for me that's still the same theme.  For myself, I made a wreath this year out of my tshirt fabric scraps and a few other accessories.

It seems like just yesterday that I was sitting at Nate and Kayla's New Year's Eve party, wondering what the year would bring.  Ryan had mentioned the possibility of a "secret vacation" and I was excited but trying to make sure I didn't expect him to propose on the trip.  As I started thinking more about it, I decided to look back and appreciate all that has happened this year.

I had a lot of fun with this month's shoebox swap crafts.  This month I wanted to do items that had more embellishing on them so here's what i did.

Shamrock Clips
I cut out heart shapes in varying size and in two colors of green felt.  Then I nested them and glued them all together to create a shamrock shape.  Finally, I glued a hair clip on the back and a few sequins on the front for glam factor.  I was originally thinking about just using them as hair clips but they would also be cute as shoe clips (to dress up some boring flats at work on St. Patty's day) or  to clip onto a purse or bag if you don't want to wear green on the big day, heehee.  I got my inspiration from the link below:http://www.sugarbeecrafts.com/2012/02/shamrock-heart-hairclips.html 

As part of my quest to stay continually busy with crafts and sewing throughout the year (in case I don't already commit to enough projects, lol), I decided to start a new project called "Shoebox Swap".  The goal of this swap is for each person involved to create a craft or handmade good of some sort that they are willing to give away.  In return, they will receive a box of handmade goods from another member.  The items made should be of approximate size to fit in a shoebox (should also limit the amount spent to a small amount).  On the first of the month, the names are given out and each person starts making their crafts themed to the appropriate month (Valentine's for February, St. Patrick's for March, etc). Then before the end of the month, you mail out your box to your designated recipient and patiently wait for your box to arrive.