The Phantom Moon

WTH LOL

I made a few new hoops a few weeks back that debuted during Merry Making in early December.  I was so excited with them and thanks to my wonderful sister who made me a DIY lightbox, I was finally able to photograph them and place them on Etsy and not have to wait for a bright sunny day.  Without further ado, here are The Phantom Moon's Sign Language Hoops.

Each hand stands for a letter in sign language (I know you're going, "duh!").  Here they are in no particular order:

LOL
(aka Laugh Out Loud) 

WTF
(aka What The F**k) 

WTH
(aka What The Hell) 

OMG
(aka Oh My God or Oh My Gosh) 

They were a hit at the show by people who could sign and those who just plain appreciated sign language and embroidery!  It was fantastic debuting them there since so many teachers were in attendence, to see their eyes light up was plain awesome.

Honestly, I love them all but I think OMG would have to be my favorite.  I think I use this phrase way too much that my daughter has started saying "Oh My God" whenever anything big happens.  I'm trying to get used to saying "Oh My Gosh" so that we don't get the "stare" while we're in bible class on Sunday ...

I have all of these babies listed in the shop and also a listing for a Custom Hoop that can say whatever your little heart desires (as long as it fits in the hoop of course!).

Stay tuned because these little babies may be a part of my New Years giveaway coming soon ...

Andrews and Dickens

Before the hub-bub of Christmas is officially over, I wanted to share a few pictures of some Christmas related activities that I did with my second oldest niece.  I love her to death and she asked me a few months back to become her sponsor for Confirmation.  I was more than happy to oblige and my sweet niece was confirmed in November.  Her class was so well behaved that they were chosen to be a part of a set of video recordings for the Archdiocese to assist the deaf and hearing impaired.  Before the taping that day, I accompanied her class to Macy's to see the Macy's Light Show and Macy's Christmas / Dickens Village.

The last time I saw this show was at least 10+ years ago and it was just as enjoyable today, especially since Julie Andrews is now the narrator of this fantastic light show.  Her voice will always remind me of one of my favorite films, The Sound of Music, and as a bonus they even included some of the tunes from the movie in the light show.  How fun, right?

As you can see, each "show" really packed in a crowd and the people in attendance ranged from little kids, to kids on a field trip and even to people who had snuck out of work for some last minute shopping and squeezed in a peek of the light show before rushing back to work.

After that we all headed to the 3rd floor and visited the Christmas / Dickens village.  It was based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, of course.  

I'll be honest, other then remembering Scrooge and the three ghosts, I didn't really remember this tale so it was great to walk through the "village" and read the little signs near each vignette which explained parts of the original story.

This was definitely a classic worth revisiting.

All in all I think both attractions are a Christmas treat if you are in the Philadelphia area during the next Christmas season (and bonus: both were free!).  I'm glad that I got to enjoy both of these shows with my niece, plus spend some quality time with her that is sometimes few and far between since all of our lives are so hectic these days.  Hope you're all still enjoying a lazy post-holiday week.

One Million Mice

Merry belated Christmas, everyone!  Sorry for the quietness around these parts lately but the holidays are beating me up, plus I'm battling a nasty little winter cold that doesn't want to quit.  I hope you all had a fantastic holiday and are relaxing in front of a warm fire, enjoying the quiet before New Years.  Now on to the post! ...

Martha Stewart's Candy Cane Mice

Yes, 1,000,000 mice.  That's how many I made for the husband's friend's kids at work.  Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating here a little bit.  I made exactly 24 but it sure felt like 1,000,000 after working on them all day with my 4 year old helper.    I used Martha's template and instructions online and while I loved the colors in the online picture, I chose to use the traditional red and green theme for my mice.

I also used googly eyes and mini black pom pom noses too which the kids loved.  Cute, right?  Sorry for the less than stellar pictures but the two house shots were taken on my cell phone at 2am after a long day and the beginning of a cold that I'm still trying to shake.

I also managed to put up our Christmas tree that same night with BB's help.  She kind of lost interest after we got the ornaments out of the box and preferred to just play with them instead, but that was ok.  It was kind of meditative to just wrap the millions of lights around the tree, mantel and fire place.  Not bad for last minute work considering the tree and mice were completed 5 days before Christmas!  Just a wee bit late I'd say.  

FYI: I have a few shop announcements coming up in a few days, plus I'm going to share my new toy from Christmas that I'm in love with an there is going to be a beginning of the year giveaway celebration!  So stay tuned and enjoy a nice warm mug of cocoa on these (hopefully) slow days before the New Year.