Blog you next year!

Hello my lovelies! Yet another mini blog break for me. I can't wait to have a few days off with plenty of time to make whatever I want with no time crunch! I will be back next week with more craftiness for the new decade.

Happy New Year!

Love, Emma

New Years Classy Glasses

What a pretty idea from Martha Stewart - in Spain, it is a tradition to eat 12 grapes at the stroke of midnight to celebrate the new year. Just pop them on a skewer and you're ready to go.

Sweet Decorating Idea For Renters!

Check out this awesome idea for decorating your wall with fabric from Apartment Therapy. With just a little starch and water plus some cool lightweight fabric, you can make your own wallpaper that will stay up until you want to take it down - perfect for those renting their space, or the fickle. I so want to try this!

Starting Them Out Young

Check it out! Even people not related to me enjoy my handiwork! Children even! And those guys are honest you know. Here is a little friend of mine (and nephew of my friend Rebecca, a chef). His name is Gabi and here he is sporting his new handmade (by me) apron on Christmas morning.

Yay! I think he likes it!

Thanks Becca for the idea! And thank YOU, Gabi, for being such a delightful model.

I used this tutorial as a base and freehanded it from there, making it double sided and adding two pockets, because kids need pockets for their treasures. This was a fun (and fast) project - maybe I'll make my own tutorial of it - what do you think?

New Years Eve Eve Eve

Hmm. I wonder if I have time to make this by Thursday? With all of the Christmas hoopla I haven't even decided what I'm going to wear for New Years in a few short days!

I have a lot of formal wear but seeing as I've spent the past several New Years with the same group (happily!) I think they may have seen it all.

A lovely sparkly tiara headband would certainly add some needed panache, and maybe distract from my rerun of an outfit. I think I can do it, right?

(If you want to try it yourself, I found this post on Ucreate thanks to a tutorial by Cathie Filian.)

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas

to all of my readers and friends!

I'll be out playing in the snow and celebrating the season with my family so I won't be posting until next week. Have fun everyone!

Love, Emma

Crafty Homemade Cards by a Non-Crafter

I have the honor of guest-posting on Emmanem Handmade and am so excited! I've never blogged before, so be easy on me...

I wanted to share a small story of inspiration with you all. As the title of this post suggests, I am not a crafty person in any form of the word. Besides being a Daisy/Browie/Girl Scout two decades ago, I'm a complete mess when it comes to making crafts...that was until this year. Thanks to the genius behind the Emmanem Handmade blog, I made homemade Christmas cards this year for my friends and family, plus homemade (recycled) envelopes, too!

Check out some shots below of the cards/envelopes I crafted. Yes, they’re a bit over-the-top with the kitty references, but hey, I’m over-the-top about my boys!

I must say it was quite fun, and not as time-consuming as I thought it would be. I think this may be a new beginning for me! Thanks so much to Emma for helping me along the way and inspiring me to use my inner artist!

So, kick it into gear folks and start making cute, crafty pieces of beauty. No excuses...even if you're lost when it comes to arts and crafts, like I used to be. You never know what you'll come up with or who YOU'LL inspire!

Yippie Kay Yay!

This boot kicked my butt!

My cousin (whom I'm guessing won't be checking this blog over the next two days so it will still be a surprise. If not, hi Liam!) just bought a house in Texas so I thought he could definitely use a Cowboy boot shaped throw pillow. The final product came out OK but all those little corners were such hassle!

If you want to give it a shot, I found a free pattern here, on tipnut.com. Tipnut is a great resource for craft ideas and patterns, ways to save money and be green, and all sorts of fun stuff.

The vintage boot pattern is sourced from Women's' Household Handicraft from 1962 - I'm guessing ladies then had a little more patience than I do. I still have a giant bag of polyfill left some I have a few more pillows/stuffed animals in my future - hope I can find some nice simple patterns!

Cookie Monsters

Wow I wonder if I can stomach the sight of ever seeing another cookie again. Probably. This weekend Julie and I spent the snowstorm baking up a crap load of cookies - peanut butter blossoms, chocolate chip cookies with candy canes, peppermint patty chocolate cookies and classic sugar cookies.

Overall, a success! Our ingredients, assembled.

Our first (and best looking) batch. I totally want a silicone cookie sheet liner now! Works like a dream. A blue, plastic dream.

All of our delicious soldiers lined up in a row.

The final product all wrapped up and ready to go.

My nemesis. Rocky is a nice enough fellow but did try to thwart our baking attempts/steal my cookie cutters. But he couldn't stop delisciousness from happening! Overall, the peanut butter blossoms were best, and our sugar cookies were picture perfect (sort of.)

The candy cane chocolate chips were good, but problematic when the candy stuck to the pan. The peppermint patties tasted good but I wouldn't make them again cause they kind of look lame.

If anyone out there has had success with these cookies (or any others) let me know! Happy holidays!

Bag o Rama

Wow I was busy yesterday! I made a little assembly line and turned out three cute tote bags over the course of the afternoon (after baking until 1am the night before, and gearing up for tiling a table Sunday night - more on both later). They came out well and I can now cross three more items off of my Christmas to do list. I like the orange one the best, but the pink and green ones were selected with the intended recipients in mind. The fabrics are all so cool I don't have to wrap them in paper - I just tied a ribbon around them. Ta da!

I used this tutorial from Film in the Fridge - highly recommended. It has simple, easy to follow instructions and the final product is very cute. I've made several of these this fall for myself, presents and for fun and I always get complements. Try it yourself!

Back to the Craft

I took a night off after returning from vacation, and now I'm back in the game. I have so much to sew before Christmas next week - I hope I can get it all done!





First, I had to fulfill an order thanks to Divya and her mom (thanks, ladies!). I whipped up some little drawstring gift bags. A great way to decorate a gift or gift card, and they are reusable too. You can pass them on with a gift or use them yourself for a makeup bag, for tiny toys, jewelry, whatever.

Check out this previous post for more green wrapping ideas.

And here is another quilt patch for a group baby blanket effort. I finally got to do an Octopus, and got a little practice on sketching with thread which I want to try some more - Clutterpunk has a great tutorial about it to check out.

Tons more to do - its crunch time now!

It's Been a While, Crocodile!

I'm back from my cruise - it was a ton of fun, and I didn't get sunburned thanks to SPF 50.

I think I've stored up enough warmth and relaxation to get me through the winter. If not I will have to hitch a ride on my new friend to take me back to Mexico. Back to work, and to blogging for me!

Max the Croc

See you later, Alligator!

Hello! I will be away for a few days on a tropical birthday cruise so I'll post again next week.
Ta ta!

I just like this.

Isn't it pretty?

Social Darling Frock GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

Trash Crafts

Check out this article in the New York Times - it is truly astounding and awe inspiring to see what beautiful things can be made out of what others throw away.


This community of impoverished women in Cairo spend their days picking through garbage to find material to work with.

It really makes me feel lucky for what I have, and inspired to make do with less, especially during this hectic season.

Happy Holidays!

Whoooo is this treat for?

My latest handy work! I made this owl bag to check off one of my December to-dos. I'd been wanting to make it for months (thanks to a tutorial at A Wednesday Afternoon
via Craft Rookie).

I think it came out pretty well! Next time I might make it a little smaller but overall, a success! And owls are SO hot right now.