No Reply...No Email Address...Can't Respond Back

Hello everyone...hope you had a wonderful weekend.

I thinks it that time again where I do my little shout out to all the wonderful bloggers and commenters who are "No Reply". I've noticed hundreds lately on my blog.

What is No Reply you ask? Well, if someone leaves a comment on any blog that comment goes to the email inbox of the recipient. When the blogger tries to respond back to the comment, the return email address says "No Reply" which equals "no email address, which equals "no reply back" :(

You may think your blog profile is set to show your email address, but it just takes 2 seconds to double check. I get so sad when I know people are blogging all over the world and there isn't an email address attached to their account to enjoy the communication back and forth between bloggers.

Sew Darn Crafty Party...Theme Week 45 Last Minute Gift Ideas

Happy Sunday...the last weekend before Christmas. I know we all try to get our handmade gifts done long before this, but it never ceases to amazes me how much I proCRAFTinate this time of year!! LOL...

Today's linking party may help some of us out. Link any project that you have from your blog, no matter how old, that we might use for a last minute holiday gift idea.

Could be anything from...

• sewing
• crafting
• baking
• wrapping ideas

If you want to add the button to your blog...Click HERE for a tutorial for adding a button


If you're NEW to Sew Darn Crafty, then grab a cup of something tasty, sit back and join in on the fun (starts Sunday and lasts all week long at Sew Many Ways).

WHAT IS SEW DARN CRAFTY...

• "Sew" for anything to do with sewing,
• "Darn" for anything to do with knitting. I always think of darning to do with knitting, but in my case "darn" usually is similar to the word I say when I mess up crafting!!
• Let's not forget the word "crafty"...that can mean just about anything we do to create.

WHAT IS A LINKING PARTY...

So now we all know what Sew Darn Crafty means, let's explain a linking party again. I subscribe to a linking service, which provides the ability to link thumbnail pictures on my blog. The picture is a link that other bloggers provide to share their projects.

Two things can happen at a linking party...looking and/or linking

• you can be greatly inspired by wonderful projects, ideas or vacation pictures (looking) and/or
• you can share what you've been up to (linking)

If you want to be inspired by all the great ideas...just click on a picture and it will take you to that post from a wonderful blogger willing to share her thoughts and ideas.


HOW AND WHAT TO LINK TO THE PARTY...

Sew Darn Crafty is all about YOU!! Show off your projects, share a tutorial, show us your vacation pictures, share a family favorite recipe...share anything. Not only does linking inspire us all, it also brings lots of new people to your blog for a visit. Click here for past parties and lots of inspiration

Easy steps to join in on the fun...

• link up to the specific project post, not your whole blog. Makes it easier to link right to that post and not  search through all your entire blog. To find the http address to a specific post, just click on the Title of your post.
• link as many projects as you'd like...old or new
• anything goes...cooking, sewing, knitting, crafts, organizing, remodeling projects, vacations, parties etc...
• visit other links to share some blogging love! You know we all love comments!
• grab a Sew Darn Crafty button for your blog (on my right side bar) or just link to the party in your post.
• the more we share, the more people will join and then there's more inspiration to look at!
• linking is open til Saturday night, so plenty of time to join in
• just click the "click here to enter" button and follow the easy steps

Have fun linking up! Don't forget to come back and take a look at all the great projects during the week,

~Karen~

Christmas Home Tour 2011...Front Door To The Back

Welcome to my Christmas home tour for 2011. Grab a cup of hot chocolate or iced tea for my southern hemisphere friends and enjoy the pictures...oh by the way, there are over 130 of them. Sorry, couldn't help it!!

Before I begin, I want to share with you that 99% of all the things you see in these pictures were either hand made, bought in thrift stores, hand me downs or purchased during after Christmas sales. The only thing we paid full price for is the 12 foot Christmas tree in our family room. All the parts of the old 12 foot tree, that had seen better days, are used as greenery throughout the whole house.  I have been collecting Christmas decorations for over 25 years and save just about everything. I re-use things each year in different ways, so it seems new in a new way. 

Let's begin the tour at the front door...here's my snowman wreath I made last year from 3 artificial wreaths. Click HERE to go back to the original post for the tutorial.

Tool Time Tuesday...Sewing Christmas Tree

My mom had this tree in her kitchen at Christmas time for years and now it's in my sewing room for the holidays. It's a "half" tree...the kind that is flat on the back to hang on the wall. Well, I don't have one square inch of wall space left in my sewing room, so I hung it from a wreath hanger on the door.

Sew Darn Crafty Party...Week 44 Christmas/Holiday Cookie Party

So sorry I'm late...yikes! This weekend was so crazy, but so much fun. I had a ladies Christmas dessert party for 50 people and completely forgot to do this post.

This week's theme for Sew Darn Crafty is Cookie recipes or anything to do with cookies...baking, recipes, decorating, wrapping, storing. Anything goes!!

In December, the linking parties here at Sew Many Ways will have Christmas / Holiday Themes. See the list below or on the upper right side bar.

Here are the weeks and the theme for the weeks to come...so start putting all your great posts together!

December 11th...Cookie Recipes
December 18th...Last Minute gift ideas

If you want to add the button to your blog...Click HERE for a tutorial for adding a button


If you're NEW to Sew Darn Crafty, then grab a cup of something tasty, sit back and join in on the fun (starts Sunday and lasts all week long at Sew Many Ways).

WHAT IS SEW DARN CRAFTY...

• "Sew" for anything to do with sewing,
• "Darn" for anything to do with knitting. I always think of darning to do with knitting, but in my case "darn" usually is similar to the word I say when I mess up crafting!!
• Let's not forget the word "crafty"...that can mean just about anything we do to create.

WHAT IS A LINKING PARTY...

So now we all know what Sew Darn Crafty means, let's explain a linking party again. I subscribe to a linking service, which provides the ability to link thumbnail pictures on my blog. The picture is a link that other bloggers provide to share their projects.

Two things can happen at a linking party...looking and/or linking

• you can be greatly inspired by wonderful projects, ideas or vacation pictures (looking) and/or
• you can share what you've been up to (linking)

If you want to be inspired by all the great ideas...just click on a picture and it will take you to that post from a wonderful blogger willing to share her thoughts and ideas.


HOW AND WHAT TO LINK TO THE PARTY...

Sew Darn Crafty is all about YOU!! Show off your projects, share a tutorial, show us your vacation pictures, share a family favorite recipe...share anything. Not only does linking inspire us all, it also brings lots of new people to your blog for a visit. Click here for past parties and lots of inspiration

Easy steps to join in on the fun...

• link up to the specific project post, not your whole blog. Makes it easier to link right to that post and not  search through all your entire blog. To find the http address to a specific post, just click on the Title of your post.
• link as many projects as you'd like...old or new
• anything goes...cooking, sewing, knitting, crafts, organizing, remodeling projects, vacations, parties etc...
• visit other links to share some blogging love! You know we all love comments!
• grab a Sew Darn Crafty button for your blog (on my right side bar) or just link to the party in your post.
• the more we share, the more people will join and then there's more inspiration to look at!
• linking is open til Saturday night, so plenty of time to join in
• just click the "click here to enter" button and follow the easy steps

Have fun linking up! Don't forget to come back and take a look at all the great projects during the week,

~Karen~

Thoughts on Thursday...

Christmas traditions...they make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Everyone has traditions for the holidays, whether it's just one or many...they make this time of year extra special

We're the family that has many...

• Christmas eve mass
• wake up and read the note that Santa left for the girls. Still do this...and they're in college
• always open the stockings first
• cinnamon buns for breakfast
• Kelsie always has green wrapping paper...Courtney always has red. That way there were never any names written on the packages from Santa (wink wink)
• look for the hidden pickle on the tree (click here for history of the pickle lol )

There are lots more and each one means so much.

What are some of your Christmas or holiday traditions?

Thanks for sharing,
~Karen~