My Favorite Time of Year

The holiday season is without a doubt my favorite time of year! Yes, I'm that annoying person that starts listening to Christmas music as soon as Halloween is over, and I'm not the least bit ashamed. I love the traditions that come with the holiday season. Here are a few of my favorites:

Spending Time with Family

(this picture was taken in Hawaii awhile ago, but it's still a cute shot of some of my favorite people)

Holiday Drinks from Starbucks (especially Gingerbread Lattes!)

Baking Cookies with my Family

(image via Sunflower Baking)

Enjoying Warm Holiday Drinks while Walking Down Christmas Tree Lane

(this is my brother-in-law Chase showing off how it's done)

Watching Holiday Movies

and a new tradition.... painting cute gifts!

I love this Peppermint Swirl project! Wouldn't it make the cutest hostess gift? Just add a few holiday cookies and you're good to go! I feel like I'm always struggling to find a festive, personalized gift for all the holiday parties I attend. And it looks so easy, even I could do it! Visit ilovetocreate.com for all the project details and instructions. You can also learn how to make a cute cake stand to display goodies at your own holiday party! Happy Holiday painting!

Sweet Baby Sophie!

In this post a few months back I shared with you the exciting news that I would soon be an aunt! I also showed off the super cute onesies we made at my sister Sarah's baby shower using Scribbles Dimensional Fabric Paint. Well, I'm now an auntie to sweet baby Sophie! She's tiny and precious, and I'm so in love with her. When she was a week old my sister decided to have a little photo shoot to show off the onesies everyone made. Sophie was a good sport and made it through quite a few of them!

And here she is on her four week birthday!

It's crazy to see how much bigger she looks after just three weeks. She's probably going to outgrow those onesies pretty fast, so I better tap into my creative side asap and whip her up some new ones! I'm thinkin' she'd like a cute tie-dye onesie, like the ones made by Kristina over at Diapers.Deadlines.DIY!

We Love to Create!

One of the best things about working at iLoveToCreate is that everyone once and awhile you get to let loose and just play! Friday was one of those days. At our monthly Sales & Marketing meeting we discussed a little business, and then we all got to paint our new Duncan Oh Four Bisque Travel Cup with Removable Silicone Sleeve & Lid! Not a bad way to finish off the work week, right?! Here's our entire team showing off their creative sides:

Here I am hard at work!

And here's a few of the finished pieces...

I can't wait to use my Travel Cup tomorrow! It will definitely spice up my boring morning coffee!

Ceramic Flashback

Last night I had dinner at my grandparent's house and for some reason we started looking at pictures that nobody had paid attention to for years. I was checking out a picture from my high school graduation when I heard Ammy (my grandma) say, "Oh look! Here's one of you being creative!". Clearly these pictures frames hadn't been updated in forever because this beauty dates all the way back to 1998:

Have you stopped laughing yet? OK good. Even though it's TOTALLY embarrassing, I just had to share. Obviously the picture's not great, but can you see what I'm painting with? For you Duncan die hards it's easy to tell those are Concepts underglazes! In fact if you look even closer, you can tell I'm painting THIS jumbo latte mug I blogged about over a year ago! All I can say is thank goodness we switched to this beautiful new label...

...and thank goodness I don't wear my hair like that anymore!

Sarah's Baby Shower

Some of you may remember this post about my older sister Sarah's wedding in May of 2009. Well, come October I'll have a beautiful niece! A few weekends ago my Mom, sister Libby, friend Valerie and I threw Sarah a baby shower. We were all so excited and loved celebrating with family, candy, cupcakes, good food, brightly colored poms, beautiful flowers, and of course, presents! Here are a few pictures from the day (isn't my sister the prettiest pregnant woman ever?!):

Valerie, Mom, Sarah, Libby, and Me

Libby and I with our cousins Lea and Vida

I was obsessed with these poms!

All pink Candy Bar

Instead of playing games, we had the crafty idea of having everyone decorate a onesie for Sarah. What did we decorate them with, you ask? Scribbles Dimensional Fabric Paint, of course! Here's all the goods sitting on my desk a few days before the shower:

I went a little overboard, but with so many fabulous colors to choose from, I really had no choice! Everyone had so much fun decorating their onesie. And who knew we had such a creative bunch?! Here are some of my favorites:


My cousin Lea with one of her many creations

My Aunt Veronica with her witty onesie

After everyone was done we hung the onesies up to dry on a clothesline outside. Doesn't it look cute?! I couldn't have been happier with how everything turned out. Now I just need it to be October already!!

Sprinkles, and Travel Mugs, and Ice Cream Dishes... Oh My!

These two projects have been my babies, and I'm so excited to finally share them with you! If you check out ilovetocreate.com you'll notice we've released 26 exciting new Duncan Oh Four Bisque designs!! I personally helped choose and design each of these pieces, so I hope you love them as much as I do. Check out the new Travel Collection and Tea Party Collection below. What's not to love, right?! People in the office have literally be camped outside my cube BEGGING for samples of these new pieces! Yes, I'm talking to you, Lauren. I had no idea the power that would come with this position!

This is just a sneak peak of the great new designs we have in stock! Visit ilovetocreate.com or click here to download the new bisque brochure and check them out for yourself.

Everyone knows how much I love cupcakes, so of course I had to develop a line called Concepts Sprinkles! We took 12 of our most popular Concepts underglazes and added sprinkles of fun to them! The 12 new colors are:

CN 514 Straw Sprinkles

CN 515 Neon Orange Sprinkles

CN 516 Really Red Sprinkles

CN 517 Purple Sprinkles

CN 518 Delft Sprinkles

CN 519 Aqua Sprinkles

CN 520 Caribbean Sprinkles

CN 521 Kiwi Sprinkles

CN 522 Really White Sprinkles

CN 523 Ginger Sprinkles

CN 524 Briarwood Sprinkles

CN 525 Black Sprinkles

I love how Concepts Sprinkles can spice up a boring project! And they're super easy to use! Check out this cute cupcake plate I made at CCSA:

Everyone at the show had a blast trying out our new product! For those of you that are a little more advanced than me (hello, that's all of you), visit ilovetocreate.com to learn how you can create other awesome projects with Concepts Sprinkles, like Dessert First.