I joined my first swap!!!

For many months I have watched as many of you have ooh-ed and aah-ed over the wonderful goodies you received in the mail through a swap. And every time I would say to myself..."one of these days I will get in on one of those before it's too late. Well, I am happy to say, I have finally joined a fabulous swap. Cathy over at Treasured Heirlooms is hosting a Valentine box swap. We even get to choose our choice of color!!! Please go on over to see Cathy if you are interested. We will all be showing all the wonderful goodies we received on Valentine's Day, February 14. (Which just happens to be my birthday!) I can't wait to get started!!!!

The greatest gift

I had a few things I wanted to say to all of you. In this time of friends, family and giving, I wanted you all to know that during this past year you have all given me the greatest give I could ever have hoped for. The gift of yourselves. I never knew how much I would LOVE blogging when I started back in May. I have met so many women that I truly believe I can call my friends. You have all shared your stories with me, your creativity, your inspiration and probably most of all, your time. Thank you, Thank you , Thank you, To all of you who have left such sweet and wonderful comments for me. I sincerely apologize if I have failed to get back some of you. Life can get to be rather hectic at times, but I cherish each and every one. If you frequently come by, but don't leave me a note to let me know you've been here, thank you for spending part of your day with me. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas filled with lots of warmth and love, and SMILES!!!!! From myself and Jasmine and all the rest of my family...

Merry Christmas!!!!

Rebecca's having a giveaway!

Rebecca , from Rebecca for Vintage Living is one of my favorite bloggers. Her style is so amazing! Anyway, her birthday was this week, so to celebrate she is giving away 7 gorgeous handmade stars. I am crossing my fingers and saying a little prayer because these are little works of art and I REALLY want one!!!! Pop over to her blog say hi, and sign up. Maybe you will be a lucky winner!

Vintage style Snowgirl.

I wanted to share with you the snowman I finally finished. It only took me 2 Christmases to get it done! I started with the paper clay snowman last year. I used a Styrofoam cone and ball to make her. The proportions were all wrong though, so I put her in a drawer and forgot about her. This year I pulled her out and knew I wanted to do something with her. I added the arms that I made out of more paper clay, but her proportions were still wrong.... Then I had a vision of the lovely Santos girls with their wooden skirts. (Denise, you know what I mean.) So I got out some bamboo skewers and a round box bottom and viola! She was so much fun to make. She is covered in mica flake. Her hat is made from chipboard and covered in German glass glitter and the sheet music covered base has very fine clear glitter on it. I love her and now feel the need to give her a brother! Maybe next year.....

My new garland and a big heartfelt Thanks!!!

I've been working on this garland for a couple of weeks now and finally feel like I love it. This is thanks to two very talented women who gave me inspiration. Karoline from Cherished Vintage did a tutorial on how to make these paper snowflakes. They are so amazing and easy to make. You can find that tutorial here.






Then, while blog hopping I came upon Miss Sandy's blog, Quill Cottage. Sandy makes the most gorgeous snowflake ornaments. I knew I just had to make some for myself. Sandy has graciously allowed me to "borrow"some of her designs and post about them here. Please go on over to her blog and check out her amazing work. After seeing her stuff the creativity just started flowing out of me and I was making my own designs as well!!!


I'm so thrilled with the finished garland. It's so "me". Thank you ladies for sharing your talent with all of us and giving me a fabulous new garland for my room!

Christmas Home Tour

Well tomorrow is the kick off to all the fabulous home tour parties that I thought I would link up to. They are all listed on the left sidebar along with the dates. Southern Hospitality, Hooked on Houses, and The Nesting Place are just a few of the many home tour parties that are out there and I know the ooh's and aaah's will be flying!

My decorating scheme for Christmas this year was a little different from years past. Because I redecorated this room over the summer, the previous colors just didn't work for me. So this year I went with a mostly neutral palette with green. I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

I'm sorry if the photo's are a little grainey. When I use the flash on my camera the pics look awful. So I went with warm and cozy instead of merry and BRIGHT!!!!! LOL.


I found these bottle brush trees on ebay. I know that in the rest of the country, these beauties are easily found...but not here!!!!


Here is the finished mantle and garland, although I'm still working on more ornaments.

Crystal bead garlands and silver finials drip from the whole thing.



I made these stockings almost 10 years ago. Please don't laugh at the ridiculously small toe area! (I do enough of that for all of us) I tried making new ones but my husband likes these and changing everything all at once would give him a heart attack!!!

I got this wreath and the garland at Big Lots. I walked in there on a whim, just to see what they had and couldn't believe it when they had these cute wreaths.




I made this runner out of an old table cloth.


This is the first year that I made a centerpiece like this. It works out really well because it's easy to move when my sweetie takes over the table with work stuff.




This was the first year I added snow to the tree. I used quilt batting and then spray glue and a chunky glitter called Diamond Dust. Then I just laid the pieces onto the branches. You may not be able to tell from the photos but the effect is really cool.
This tree has a bird/garden theme.

Silk Paperwhites in pots are a little unexpected.


Glass and crystal snowflakes cover the tree.



It's kind of hard to tell in the pictures, but there are tons of snowflakes of all kinds hanging from the garland.

This picture is for you Dawn!

And last but not least... the kitchen.


I made the curtains and the table cloth. I think I'll use them all through winter.


Well that's it! I guess I'm a woman of few words. I hope the photo's spoke for me. I hope you all enjoyed the tour of my little desert cottage. I'm off now to make a cup of cocoa!

Another Fab Givaway!

Dawn, over at The Feathered Nest is one of my favorite bloggers. She is so sweet and kind and does so much to promote new bloggers. She was the one to "announce" my blog back in March.

Dawn is celebrating another blogging milestone. She is approaching 1200 posts and 400 followers. So she is having another giveaway, and this time I am drooling over her gift. It is one of her wonderful fairies in a jar. Please go on over to visit Dawn, say hi and congratulate her on her blogging success!!!

It's Party Time!

Okay... I'm gonna be honest. I had my party pictures all ready to go. And in the eleventh hour what did I decide to do??? Change the whole Christmas theme in my family room!!! It just wasn't working for me this year. Since the room re-do's this summer, the predominately red color scheme just didn't work. So, I changed it. Yes, I know I'm a little nuts. (At least Mr. Desert Cottage thinks so.) So as a result my party post is a little different than I had planned.

So above is the new mantle as it is, as of... well...just now. I've been working on new ornaments for the garland which I will unveil in its entirety at a later date. (Sorry, you'll just have to wait... tee hee) But in the mean time, here are some of the ornaments I've been creating for myself and for friends.


These ornaments were all made using old music sheets and old book pages.






This one was made with a crepe paper streamer that was sprayed with walnut ink. I takes forever to dry but looks cool when it does.




This one was a rusty tin star from Michael's that I covered with vintage Santas printed from my computer.





I buy garlands of all kinds that are left after Christmas and are deeply discounted. Then I cut them up to use in Christmas craft projects.




I hope you enjoyed looking at these ornaments and maybe gained some inspiration. I know I will be soaking it all up from all of you!!! Please make sure you head over to Denise's blog, Bella Dreams and Kate's blog Centsational Girl (on December 8th) for all the rest of the fabulous blogs who are participating in their parties.