Hand made Christmas gifts - hair jewelry

I finally finished my mixed media hair jewelry in time for Christmas!  Not just any hair jewelry, but sparkly star hair clips made with german glass glitter. German glass glitter is unique because it contains ground up glass and sterling silver which will tarnish over time and create a vintage look to the glitter. My small stars are about 1.5 inches and my large stars are approximately 2.5 inches in height and length. I used a die cut cardstock star as a template to cut wool felt, then I hand sewed the stars together. This project was time consuming because I had to let the glitter dry over a period of three days. I also had to do it at night after my children were asleep since they find the sparkly glitter so enchanting and would like to play with it.  It's all I can do to keep my two year old daughter from playing with the finished hair clips. I've promised her that I will make her some like mommies, but not with the glass glitter!

Silver stars on copper bobby pins given to one of my cousins

made this large star hair clip/brooch for my cousin who loves turquoise jewelry

and kept this one for myself...

Dallas Sample Sale

I spent this weekend, doing one of my favorite things: shopping!  The Dallas Sample Sale was this past weekend, and I found great bargains, one of a kind items, and some new designers.  I discovered several shops I wanted to share with others.

A Peace of Paper designed by desperate mom,  Jan Hurn. Her designer stationary has  straight to the point faith messages. Her Christmas cards  truly share the Christian gospel.  I was quite happy to find Christian Christmas cards at reasonable prices, her products can be found at www.peaceofpaper.com  

A yummy treasure at the Dallas Sample Sale this year was Texas Toffee, handmade in Garland daily. I bought a quarter pound small bag of almond toffee and one of pecan toffee yesterday and  scarfed it down. I did share it with my husband, so I didn't make a complete pig of myself. I will order more for his Christmas stocking, since I've already eaten the other two bags. I can really appreciate home made toffee after my almost disastrous caramel popcorn balls at Halloween.  check out www.texastoffee.com

If you're looking for precious baby gift items, look no further than the Three Marthas. They have everything from fabric photo frames, to burp cloths, monogrammed onesies, embellished baby blankets and more. I purchased a green monogrammed onesie for Emma and a burp cloth/drool bib decorated in cowboy fabric for a baby boy gift.  www.3marthas.com

Lastly, but certainly not the least, I discovered Whitney Elizabeth. She designs and her sister helps her make, Blossom Accessories.  Her creations are a must for every young at heart girl.  She makes blossom hair clips, brooches, headbands, baby crochet headbands, necklaces, etc. I stopped by her booth several times, unfortunately Emma was having an "I need a nap!" meltdown each time, and I was unable to have Emma model items without her screaming.  So much for the cuteness, but I would have loved to have purchased one of the baby crochet headbands or crocheted blossom hats, if I could have discerned which color for Emma.  Choices of pink, turquoise, red, ivory, purple with different colored fabric blossoms, I think it was too much for Miss Em.  Check out www.WhitneyElizabethDesigns.com for your favorite little girl.

I'm a bit exhausted from shopping; however, this week I'm going to start wrapping the gifts I purchased this weekend, so I will have them ready for my family's big Thanksgiving Dinner Reunion.  I like to have the majority of my Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving, so I can pass the gifts out to my out of town relatives, it cuts down on shipping expenses and saves my sanity for later in the season.

Please note, I did not receive compensation for my review of these wholesalers/shops.