Busy, Busy, Busy!

How can a person who has no "job" be so darn busy??  Seriously!  I barely have time to think these days.  I used to (sort of) joke when I was working that I didn't have time to be at the office, and now I realize that it's a true fact.  I'm up before 7:00 to get myself and Miss Sassypants ready for the day, get her on the bus for school, and then my day begins.  Usually a little housework, and then "the shop" opens.  (I signify this by opening the blinds to the window in front of my work desk.)  I work on orders from about 8:00 until 11:00 (and text back and forth with my great friend Kelly; showing her my work and getting her opinion), then it's time to start lunch for the husband.  He works the 3-11 shift, so we eat an early lunch, which is more like a dinner, and then it's usually back to the shop.

After he leaves, I either have errands to run or more work around the house to do, then by 2:45, Sassy is home from school.  We do homework, and then it's either an after-school activity (Religious Education, Girl Scouts, etc.) or a trip to the store, or sometimes even, an afternoon at home!  Then dinner, getting her in the shower, bedtime routine, finishing up around the house, and then if I'm lucky, maybe by 9:00, ME TIME!

And this goes on for days.  Now, is Husband has a day off, we run, run, run.  (He has rotating days off with his job.)  But at least then, I usually don't have to make lunch.  Woot!  And strangely, I usually get to bed earlier on the days he has off...

But for these very reasons, there are certain "projects" that don't get done in a timely fashion around here.  Case in point, the icicle lights.  Yes, we took them down the week of New Year's, as not to offend the neighborhood, but they've been lined up along the inside of the garage ever since.  Now, being the anal-retentive person that I am, I can't just throw them in a tote and call it a day.  No, no!  I have to gather them up, Velcro-tie the icicles together, and THEN throw them in a tote.  Well, I managed to step on a bulb Thursday with the heel of my shoe, so that prompted me to get them the hell out of my garage!  As of this moment, they are DONE!  Now, there's the matter of the new TV stand...  it was delivered from Target.com on Wednesday, and the box is still unopened...  Oh, well.  Scarlett O'Hara said it best:  Tomorrow is another day!

But in the mean time, look at the precious creations that have been happening over here at The Crafty Insomniac...

This is my new line of Disney-inspired paper dolls.  

They were first requested by a certain customer, but they are proving to be quite popular!

 Alice in Wonderland

 Rapunzel

 Sofia the First

 Tinkerbell

 Cinderella

My good friend has recently taken up kayaking, and wanted something to put on a Mason jar to act as her "Kayak Fund" jar.  

She requested a purple and pink ninja duck in a canoe.  

I was more than happy to deliver...

And look at these adorable birthday invitations for a gumball-themed party!

It's A Holiday... Recipe!

Our family is not quite "normal."  I think we've established that already.  The holidays are no exception.  So when Mel and Michele prompted us once again, I couldn't resist sharing.

'KETCHUP WITH US' - PROMPT #7

SHARE A FAVORITE HOLIDAY RECIPE. THERE IS NO WORD LIMIT. 

(WELL, LET’S NOT GET CRAZY. HOW ABOUT NOTHING OVER 1000 WORDS?)

Christmas Eve is a Crocker Family tradition.  We take turns hosting, and it's always snackie foods...  dips, meatballs, shrimp, cookies, libations...

I usually bring a chicken wing or taco dip, nuts and a cookie tray.  Please let me share my favorite cookie recipe with you - passed down through at least six generations, Miss Sassypants being the latest.

Grandma Drew's Soft Sugar Cookies

½ c. shortening

1 c. sugar

2 eggs

2 T cream

1 t vanilla

Add to:

2 ½ c. flour

¼ t baking soda

½ t salt

Roll out and cut; bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Icing

Confectioners sugar

Shortening

Vanilla

Cream

Stick with this recipe, and Santa's cookie plate will look like this on Christmas Eve:

The Pixie Chart

So it's that time of year again... time for the Pixie Chart. 

What the heck is a Pixie Chart, you ask? What???? I thought everyone knew what they were... all the way up until I got to college. When I mentioned it, people looked at me like I had seven heads - that was my first clue. So here's the deal:

I thought this went back to my Gram, but I found out a few years ago that it was actually her father, Papa, who brought the tradition to the family. Pixie Joe is Santa's head elf; he comes around to everyone's house every night in December to check on all of the children for Santa. These days I guess he'd be considered Santa's personal assistant. Anyway, when Pixie Joe comes, he marks everyone's behavior on a Pixie Chart. You are awarded certain color stars based on how you acted that day. Gold stars mean that you were very good. (In the rare occasion that you were Excellent, you get two gold stars!!) Silver means good, green is so-so, red is bad and blue is very bad. Two blue stars? Forget it... you were rotten!!! For every bad star, one present less will be under the tree; two less for very bad! Pretty good bribery tool for the holidays, huh??? My grandparents... they were no dummies!

Now that you know the history, you're probably thinking, "Kelly, tell me now... how do you make a Pixie Chart? I need to know while there's still time!!" Well, here you go:

You'll need a poster board. Along the left side, you list everyone in your family... parents, kids, even pets! Then you make a grid with columns for every day in December up through the 24th. On the bottom goes your star "Key," like a legend. Buy foil stars and leave them near the chart, wherever you hang it, so Pixie Joe will be able to find them. Every morning, the kiddos rush to the chart to see what P.J. thought of your behavior the night before! Like I said, what a perfect form of bribery masked by a holiday tradition!

Here is our chart for this year... Being that I'm the Crafty Insomniac, I went a little overboard with ours. I fired up the Cricut and popped in the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge and went to town!

 Blank chart...  only the grid drawn!

 This little elf had a tragic sleighing accident.  We call him "Stumpy."

 The cast and crew are assembling in the craft room...

All of our supplies...   Ready to go!

We're almost there!  

Sassy was more interested in playing with the North Pole friends than helping me put things on the chart...

And Voila!  Here we are with the chart, ready for The Main Elf to make his visit tonight.

Of course, once I finally got Sass into bed, I had to add the finishing touches, a.k.a., GLITTER GLUE!

Incidentally, I've seen this "Elf on a Shelf." They're everywhere these days. I think it's the same principle as Pixie Joe, though it doesn't take it as far as the chart.  Personally, I think that those people totally ripped off our idea and commercialized it.  Bastards.

So there it is... in all its glory! Please tell me if you decide to try this out this year! I'm excited to see how many gold stars we all get this year. 

What an Awesome Card!

So Snowflake Holiday

Shutterfly has elegant holiday invitations for your party.

View the entire collection of cards.

Can You Tell Me How to Get...

It was so exciting to finally be on our way to our friends' house early Saturday morning! We had been waiting for this weekend for quite a while, and didn't even mind being up early on a weekend. Why? Because we were heading to Philadelphia! Why? To go to Sesame Place to see the Imagination Movers with our friends!!

We arrived at the Kikikells homestead a little after 8 a.m. and transferred all of our things into her van. Her friend Lori and her daughter L arrived, loaded up, and once we got all of the girls strapped in, we were ready to go! (Well, after the van windows were decorated, naturally...)

Thanks to the Age of Technology, the three-and-a-half-hour drive went rather smoothly. Movies, snacks and iPods did the trick!

We were running about a half hour behind what we had planned, so we opted for the first fast food joint we saw in town for lunch before hitting Sesame. It just so happened to be Chick-Fil-A, which I'd never been to before. Holy crowded, Batman!! There was not an empty seat to be found in the place! An older couple gave us their table when they left, though, so we were able to somewhat enjoy our food. I'll say, it was darn good!

We got to the park and back to the theater in time to see our friends Donna, Mel, Becky and Amy and their Minis, get our awesome new MM hoodies and find a seat before the first show started.

And what a show!

For this set of shows, Mover Smitty wasn't able to join the rest of the band. You see, he's a NOFD firefighter and wasn't able to secure the time off after the tour. We were, however, surprised to see Brian Coogan join them. Coogan is their road musician, and the last time they played Sesame he didn't join them.

The guys played three 30-minute sets that day, and we were there for all three. They combined their hits with their Christmas songs, as well as a few traditional Christmas songs and some great gags. It was a really great show, in spite of Smitty's absence.

After each show, the guys stayed out to meet fans. It's great that they do that... not many do. We made our rounds after the first show so Miss Sassypants could give each of the guys the paper Movers that we made (courtesy of The Crafty Insomniac, naturally!), and so she could give Dave his traditional bag of Goldfish. :-) He asked whether he was going to get a gift and a snack after each show. Smartass. Kiki knitted all of the guys red, blue & yellow scarves, so they were distributed then as well.

As we were about to leave the theater to get back in line to come back in for the next show, the SP staff told us that we could stay as part of Miss Donna's group, as she was on the VIP list. That was super nice of them to do!

The second show was just as awesome, maybe just a little more polished, and included an audience-induced impromptu popcorn confetti cannon... and afterwards, we all (as a group) hit the roller coaster. Ahh! The girls wanted to go in without us!! We let them, and I think they ended up going on three (??) times! By then we decided to head back to the theater, as the sun was starting to go down. Once we got in and got our seats, we pulled out the nighttime show gear: Christmas glow wands and necklaces! We has eleven Minis in our group at that show, and they were all so excited! Most of the Movers wore their scarves (which went perfectly with their suits), and they were very grateful for them once the sun set! We watched Kyle and Brian bundle up in theirs about 10 minutes into the show. The popcorn confetti made a comeback, and it was the highest-energy of the three shows that day. At one point, Kiki leaned over to me and said, "What the heck did Rich drink backstage?" Afterwards he told us that he was "high on caffeinated tea." LOL. He also thanked us for the confetti - told us that it really energized them. :-)

We all hung around after the last show chatting, and Rich suggested that we get a big group photo. Great idea, Richie!

After we left the park, the Mamas & Minis re-congregated at a local pizza shop to eat before saying our goodbyes (BOO!) and heading our separate ways, with our little group headed to our hotel for the night. It's OK, though... We drowned our sorrows in margaritas once we got there.  Incidentally, our room's window wasn't at the end of the room.  It messed me up royally.

So now we're home, and I miss my Mamas more than ever! One day just isn't enough, ladies... Christmas Break at kelbons's house!!!

Eeeeeee!

Tomorrow we'll be in Langhorne, Pennsylvania surrounded by friends and ready for a day filled with fun and (I'm sure) mischief.

I, for one, cannot wait!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Blastoff!

Well, I participated in my first Open House on Saturday, and while I didn't really sell that many things while I was there, I did take a few custom orders and handed out a lot of business cards.  In my opinion, it was time well spent.  Oh, and I managed to spend more than I made, thanks to the Thirty-One Gifts vendor.  

Ever since then, I've been busier than ever!  Today I finished the two orders from Saturday, and I have three huge orders behind those, waiting for my attention.  YAY!  I have to laugh, because when I first received these two Cricut cartridges ("Paper Doll Dress-Up" and "Everyday Paper Dolls"), I thought, "They're really cute, but I won't use them much!"  Boy, was I wrong!  I'm cranking out little paper bodies like a gingerbread cookie factory!  Just look at this adorable Thanksgiving set that I made for an order:

I also turned those same turkeys into customized place cards for a customer:

Before that - earlier in the week - these went out the door:

Imagination Movers!

(Scott, Smitty, Rich & Dave)

 Movers live-show bandmates Brian Coooooogan and Farmer Kyle

Gift Tags!

I am having so much fun with this stuff!  I wonder if they're getting sick of seeing me at Michael's, Hobby Lobby and Jo-Ann Fabrics?  Hmm...

Oh!  And did I mention that I got a brand-new cartridge for my birthday?  Heh heh heh...