Friday Feature: a turquoise / red New Year's celebration

I always enjoy putting together a New Year's feature. This year I thought what better color combination to celebrate the new year than turquoise and red? Enjoy!

25 Red and Aqua Mix Paper Straws, Retro straw mix, 1950s, Vintage style, carnival, party, kids party, birthday, shower, wedding by PinkPickerParty

Screen Printed Cloth Napkins - Red Poppies on Dusty Aqua - set of 4 by MichelleBrusegaard

Holiday Little Red Bird Party Invitation by Tulaloo

 

Red, Turquoise, and White Polka Dot Rag Tie Banner Ready To Shop Garland / Banner / Bunting Photo Prop by StuffSoSimple

Turquoise and Red Fabric Fortune Cookie. Gift or favor. Personalized. by relaine

Turquoise and Red Hair Clip - OOAK Hair Bow - Turquoise Shabby Chic Hair Clip - Shabby Chic Hair Bow - Bow for Girls by ZZHairAccessories

Tiffany and red gift box, personalized boxes, personalized gift wrapping, bridesmaids gifts, jewelry box, favors, wedding favors, bridal party by CocoDoro

Do you have any New Year's Eve / Day plans this year?

the arrival of the gods

Happy New Year's Eve!

We're taking a break from the Scavenger Hunt this week for the holidays. As I normally reserve Mondays here for the hunt, this seemed like a good opportunity to break some huge news.

Jake and I adopted these two little brothers from the Wisconsin Humane Society a little over a week ago. We've named them Apollo (left) and Ares (right). This is something that we've wanted to do for...a long time. The specific amount of time really isn't important. It didn't seem justifiable with our schedules and living space for many years. We've also been nervous about Angel's reaction, as she's always been the only cat in the house. But we've had a couple offers for slightly older kitties in the past few months (that we did not take because we thought that Angel would acclimate better with babies), and it seemed like a sign to finally take the plunge.

 

The brothers are already fast friends and have taken amazingly well to a new environment and introductions to a lot of new people the past week. I know that they will be warmly welcomed here, too. Angel has also done amazingly well, all things considered. Change is always tough, but she is quite good at adapting to new situations.

Be safe tonight and come back tomorrow for my 2012 goal wrap up post.

New article:

40th Birthday Party Ideas: Themes, Supplies, Decorations, Gifts, and More
Medical School Graduation Ideas: Announcements, Party Themes, Cakes, Gifts, and More

Saturday Link List: the New Year's Eve edition

Happy Christmas Eve!  Welcome to the final holiday edition of my weekly link list for 2011.  Since I started working on my New Year's Eve Pintrest board last week, it has had a ton of interest so clearly I haven't been the only one thinking about this topic.  I don't have any of my own articles or other resources for New Year's Eve, but I found a lot of great decoration ideas, printables, recipes, and more.

You can check out the entire board here.  Here are a few of my favorites.

The Practical Mommy on HubPages wrote a great article about things to do with children of all different ages on New Year's Eve.  She breaks down her ideas for different age groups.  There is nothing wrong with letting kids stay up for the holiday, but you should structure the evening so that they have fun.

Source: thepracticalmommy.hubpages.com via Rose on Pinterest

The Fiskar's company has several fun New Year's craft ideas, all of which are very inexpensive and many of which require on hand materials.  Aren't those little corks with the star punched numbers cute?

Source: fiskars.com via Rose on Pinterest

Here's a fun tutorial for New Year's poppers.  Bookmark this one if you ever want to make poppers for other occasions, too, such as birthday parties.

Source: makeandtakes.com via Rose on Pinterest

This was repinned 8 times within the first couple hours of me pinning it on my board so I figured it would do pretty well here, too!  This isn't actually a tutorial for this cute cookies, just a lovely picture of them, but those with some crafty initiative shouldn't have too much trouble creating something similar.

Source: beeinourbonnet.com via Rose on Pinterest

The author of this post explains how she and her family put together a "best of" list/collection for the year on New Year's and create some sort of scrapbook or envelope to preserve it.  I love this idea!  You can customize it any way you like.

Source: kojodesigns.blogspot.com via Rose on Pinterest

Again, you can check out the board for the complete set.  Have fun with all of your crafty New Year's Eve endeavors this year!

Did you use one of the resources, tutorials, or recipes from my link list?  Leave me a link in the comments or send me an e-mail (randomcreative28@gmail.com) with your photos and stories.  I would love to post them here! 

Facebook Etsy page, new Flickr group, new listing

Happy New Year's Eve! :)

A fellow members posted this awesome tutorial on the Facebook Etsy Sellers group yesterday. Thanks to that tutorial, I now have my own Facebook Page for my Etsy shop! You can check it out by CLICKING HERE . If any of you have facebook, I encourage you to make your own page. Please let me know if you do! The link for my page is also on my sidebar under a new section for my non-Etsy links like my flickr photostream.

One of the group admins from the Flickr group Alternative Material Jewelry invited me to include two of my button bracelets in the group pool. This is the first time I've been invited to add photos to a Flickr group so I was pretty excited about that. I'll be adding more pictures of button bracelets there in the future.

My new listing for today is an idea that I've been tossing around for quite a while. I had an all black cat for 14 years growing up that I named Sky because she reminded me of the Night Sky. I have always had a soft spot for all things having to do with the night sky since then. I made a simple strung beads bracelet similar to this listing back in college. I like the current listing so much that I made one for myself, too. I hope you enjoy it. :)