12 Days of Handmade Holidays Giveaway

Visit Think Liz for a chance to win one of my handmade needle-felted ornaments!

Giveaway ends Tuesday, December 14th at 10pm.

Holiday Tea

Each year our church holds a holiday tea. This year I helped host a table with my friends Kelli and Kristin.  The hostesses are responsible for decorating their table with a holiday theme and providing party favors for their guests.

For the table linens, I made a burlap table cloth with fringed edges and cloth napkins in a purple snowflake pattern. We used shank buttons and purple ribbon for the napkin rings, wrapping the ribbon around the napkin and pulling it through either side of the loop in the back of the button.

For the table centerpiece, we used silver candlestick holders, topped with purple and gold ornaments. We placed the candlesticks on a silver tray and decorated it with holiday picks and gold buttons, like those used for the napkin rings. These are some of the same items I use for our dining room table centerpiece at home:

For party favors we filled small spice jars with different shades of purple M&Ms, complete with embroidered jar covers to serve as placecards.

I invited my friend Weihua from work- here we are in front of our table:

There was a choral performance and Speaker Tammy Maltby shared about "Christmas Kitchen Traditions" and provided a cooking demonstration, which we got to sample, yum!

Faccia di Vecchia

Faccia di vecchia, or sfinciuni, which means old woman's face, is an Italian bread made with anchovies. It's a family tradition to have sfinciuni at holiday meals, and this year I tried making it for the first time for Thanksgiving. I followed the "recipe" given to me by my uncle over the phone. Although sfinciuni is traditionally made with anchovies, you can top it with anything you like. I used italian sausage, anchovies, black olives, and mushrooms. I think it turned out pretty well!

Rockwell 22 pc SoniCrafter Holiday Giveaway

The carpenter extraordinaire and top notch blogger, Robert Robillard, is hosting a giveaway for two Rockwell SoniCrafters. These little tools are amazing at simple cuts, polishing, and sanding. Plus they can get into spots at angles you can't really achieve with any other tool.
Check out his giveaway here at his blog, A Concord Carpenter. I've followed his blog for about a year now and I enjoy it because his posts run the gamut of tool reviews, remodeling, house repairs, and solid advice on construction matters.

Our Garden

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When I think of gardening, I think of Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh...

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who apparently has OCD. Maybe that's why he's such a good gardener.


We started a vegetable garden back in August, and finally got around to picking some of the salad greens we planted. Aside from a few caterpillar holes (and the maker of those holes found crawling around in Zach's salad bowl) we really enjoyed our homegrown salad!

Journal Publication

My second publication, Impact of Asthma 101 Training on Level of Nursing Students’ Knowledge, is published in the Journal of Asthma & Allergy Educators!

Grandma Minnie

My grandmother passed away last week at the age of 92. She will be greatly missed!


Grandma and grandpa, 1946



Grandma and mom, 1955