good music

Music like this just makes me happy!

Christmas Gifts Galore!!

So I promised to show you guys my gifts that I gave at Christmas so here goes! The first one is a hedgehog which I gave to my sister Jessica of Jessica Leigh La Lou. I love this little guy so much!! He is probably my favorite I made this year.

This was a gift to my brother on his birthday which is in December(oops! sorry Michael!!) and I forgot to post about it so I thought I would just throw it in with this post anyways... As you can see it is a wrestler who is very proud of his muscles.

This was Michael's Christmas gift: a guinnea pig made to look like his pet, complete with a ninja mask.

This panda was my sister Kaitlyn's gift since she has a love of them. I made him a little hat, which made Kaitlyn call him the party panda :D

This cowboy dachshund was a gift for my dad, which is kind of a tradition, in that every year I proceed to give him yet again another dachshund, since I know he loves them so.

And lastly my mom recieved the only non-doll gift of the year: a scarf. She likes it even though I accidently made the mistake of buying two color different skeins of yarn although luckily of the same wieght and texture...could you tell?

Well, this wraps up the gifts I gave for this Christmas, which was pretty splendid in my book. I enjoyed it so much!! I loved spending time with my family as well as getting some pretty good gifts, one that I have been wanting for a while: A CAMERA!!!! Of my very own!! I love it so..... I have been testing it out and trying to see what will work and what won't. How was everyone else's celebrations? Did you get what you have been wanting so desperately?

XOXO, Callie the magical bean

Dolls of Wintery Delight

Last summer I made these winter themed dolls for a magazine submission which didn't pan out...but I still love them very much :D, so much so that I can't part with them just yet.

The first one is probably my favorite and the one I did the most for, as you can probably tell since he has a little hat, scarf, lace up boots, removable mittens, a pouch, candy cane, pencil, and hand bound/hand painted book. The giraffe was one that my mom suggested I make for it and I especially love the long eye lashes I gave it, makes it so feminine don't you think? And lastly the dachshund which ended up looking rather like a granny, I think, in its snowflake embelished shawl...

All in all I am proud of them even if they didn't make the cut. Wishing each one of my lovely readers their own wintery delights in the coming holiday season... Merry Christmas!

XOXO Callie the magical bean

Holiday Gift Swap Recieved!

Oh my goodness! I just got my gift from Gabby of Gabby She Wrote (because of the Holiday Gift swap that Carly set up). I was so happy to see my gift which was wrapped up so carefully and it was all just so thoughtful! I absolutely love the yarn, it is so soft to the touch and I am already scheming up what to make with it :). The gingerbread man in the disguise as a shortbread cookie lasted up until the point where I finished taking photos and then he mysteriously disappeared (into my stomache *tasty*)!! The cards are wonderful too, so great for thank you notes :). Many thanks Gabby!

Also Michaela received her little gingerbread man and made a wonderful post about it so be sure to visit it here. I am so happy she liked it :D

Can you believe Christmas is almost here? I sure can't,not with all the gifts I am still trying to finish. I might have procrastinated jus a little this year and would show you progress of them but several people who read my blog are getting my gifts...so it will have to wait until after Christmas.

And the winner is...

...Carly from A Girl and Her Blog!!! Congratulations you won the giveaway!! Look for my email and once I get your address I will happily send off the little pair. Thanks so much to all of you who participated in all the past Not Your Average Ornaments giveaways! I am so glad you all enjoyed my ornaments...:)

In the meantime,I can't wait until Christmas! Can you?

Follow Your Bliss

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"When you follow your bliss...doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors, and where there wouldn't be a door for anyone else." -- Joseph Campbell

(P.S. Don't forget to enter the giveaway!)

Giveaway for two Not Your Average Ornaments!!!

Hello everyone... I realize I said come back later today and unfortunately as you can see four days later I am fianlly doing a post about it, so sorry about the delay...but here goes!

This giveaway will be for two mushroom ornaments (one green and one red) from my Not Your Average Ornaments series and will come in a nice little box with Santa Claus on it. The giveaway will start on Thursday December 17, 2009 and will end on Saturday December 19, 2009.This will be the last in a series of three giveaways for each of one of my ornaments, so be sure to come back on Sunday December 20, 2009 to see the winner of this giveaway.

Here is how you can enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post saying your name and email address

2. Leave a comment on this post telling your favorite holiday food

3. Become a follower to my blog, and leave a comment saying you are (if you already are a follower just say so)

4. Make a post about this giveaway and leave a comment saying you did

5. Tell me a what ranks the top of your gift list this year :)

Make sure to leave separate comments for each one of these (if you do all of these ways you should have five comments) and be sure that you leave a way for me to contact you if you win.

Good Luck!

Callie the magical bean

(Also do visit my shop for the rest of the Not Your Average Ornaments. Feel free to stop by.)The winner will be chosen at random from the random number generator website : http://www.random.org/I will ship anywhere in the world including overseas and APO addresses.
Also another big thank you to everyone you participated in the last giveaways, it really made my day to see so many people like my little ornaments :D

And the winner of the Second Not Your Average Ornament Giveaway is....

...Rhianne from For the Easily Distracted.

Congratulations you won the giveaway!! Look for my email and once I get your address I will happily send off the little candy cane. Thanks so much to all of you who participated!

Also I have decided to do three giveaways instead of four as originally planned just because the two mushrooms seem like such a pair I can't stand to break them up :). So the next giveaway will be for two of the mushroom ornaments: one green one and one red one. If you didn't win this giveaway come back later today to enter the last giveaway for two ornaments.

P.S. These aren't the two specific ornaments for the giveaway but I haven't had the chance to photograph the right ones yet.

...Or if you really still want any of the Not Your Average Ornaments , do visit my little etsy shop. Also be sure to stop by and visit the wonderful Rhianne's blog. :)

Have a great Sunday!

XOXO, Callie the magical bean

Just Relaxing

1. Untitled, 2. colorwheel rocks, 3. My Stella, 4. Wolf hat, 5. kusha kusha scarf, 6. The Saddest Place on Earth- Macau Exhibition, 7. each new day, 8. Drip Drop!, 9. Daddy, where do our hearts go when the Light turns off?, 10. Mamá Matrioshka, 11. bird 4, 12. Audrey Kawasaki Smitten Preview, 13. donna1, 14. Untitled, 15. The greatest mistake is trying to be more agreeable than you can be, 16. make light, 17. Mark Ryden Cover vol.11 Hi-Fructose, 18. otro, 19. Stare off, 20. The Woods, 21. Thumb Man, Bill Donovan, 22. Snow Queen, 23. Meet Jasna!, 24. caterpillars, 25. Elephant-Oh !

Thank goodness finals are done!!! :)

Yesterday I went out to eat with a great friend of mine, sewed like crazy, watched Anne of Avonlea with my sister Kaitlyn, mailed packages, and cooked up some peanut butter and chocolate squares. It was such a relaxing and leisurely day, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I have so much crafty goodness in store that I can't wait; not to mention making some handmade Christmas gifts for my family.

Also on Monday I had my second sale! I'm so proud... :D I was so pleased to be sending off one of my little ornaments. Don't forget to enter the giveaway as mentioned on this post here. I am looking forward to Christmas so much this year. Hope everyone's having a swell Friday!

xoxo,

Callie

the magical bean

Gem Award and Things I Love

Well, it has been a while since Rhianne from For the Easily Distracted gave me this award but now that I have finished with finals today, I finally have time to do a decent post about it :). First off I would like to thank Rhianne once again for giving me this award as well as for writing such sweet words about my gingerbread men. She was so sweet and lovely just like her blog is. I chose to write about things I loved for this award. So here goes...

I love...

...good pastries. I loved the bakery where we lived in Germany.

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...the rain. It is so relaxing to me :D

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...flowers and butterflies, both are small beauties that always leave me amazed.

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...bright socks! I wear some everyday because they make me smile :)

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...forests, especially during the changing of colors in fall.
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...dreaming. Dreams fill me up.

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...walking in the fields.

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...good advice.

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...and squirrels.

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And as for the nominations, I would like to nominate my wonderful sister Jessica of Jessica Leigh La Lou, Carly of A Girl and Her Blog, Stephanie of Belen , Tracy of Little T Jane, and Catherine of Jumbleberry Orchard!!

*Links for pictures used are underneath images.

PS: If you've been nominated for the award then make a post about things you love or just a random post! :) There are no specific guidelines...