A bunch of goodies

Just wanted to share my very own roundup of crafty goodness, all from my own neck of the woods.  In other words, some people gave me some awesome handmade birthday presents and I want to show them off.  Plus you may be inspired by them.  So here you go.  

First off, My sister made me these AWESOME cuffs from thrifted belts.  Is that cool or what?  She talks about how she did it on her blog.

She also made me this little necklace, which is amazing.  It’s stained glass and soldered and impressive.  She’s got all the goods through her job as an art teacher, so you should see the stuff she comes up with.  Honestly.

Then my sister IL made me this beaded bracelet and matching earrings.  So amazing.  I can’t bead for the life of me, so I’m incredibly impressed.

I got a package in the mail from my BFF.  It was this incredible apron - to be used on my Monday Food Fests!  I am pretty sure she used the book “One Yard Wonders” to make it.  I love that book.  And now I can feel gorgeous even when I am running around in a sweaty frenzy.  Do you know what makes this gift even more amazing?  I just BARELY sent her HER birthday present.  And her birthday was in July.  I am seriously the worst best friend ever.  But she’s punctual regardless.  If I were her I’d harbor a grudge.

The following items are not exactly handmade, but cool nonetheless.  Here was what my mom got me:

Do you follow bakerella?  If not, you should.  Such great ideas, and this little cake pop book is going to make me very popular at holiday parties.  I know because I tried the cake balls already and they are scrumptious.  

AND this arrived for me just in time for my birthday, too - my custom spray paint that I won over on CSI after I entered some projects in the spray paint challenge!  Yea!  I love spray paint and all of these cans are already spoken for.  I’ll bet you can’t wait to see.

Speaking of birthday goodness, I wanted to show off these little goodies I made for my giveaway winners (not to make you jealous or anything...):

And if you haven’t opened the package yet, guys, sorry to spoil the surprise.  I’m really bad about that.  One time I totally spilled the entire plot of 6th Sense while standing in line for a different movie and made some people very upset.  Oops.

And not completely unrelated to presents and surprises:  On Friday I have some goodies for YOU.  You know, just paying all this wonderful birthday goodness forward.  It may or may not have something in common with this post.




On a completely UNrelated note:

I think I’ve mastered yo-yo’s (finally).  And by mastered I mean actually made a few decent ones.  Thanks goodness.  Of course, I can’t show you what I used these for yet, because I just sent the present in the mail today, and I don’t want to spoil a BIRTHDAY surprise.  That’s going to far.  (no matter how belated the birthday is, SORRY EL.)