Craftiness explotes.

I have recently been feeling rather crafty. I always do around the holidays. It has something to do with Christmas cookies. Probably one of my fondest memories of my girlfriends from high school would have to be our epic cookie decorating:

Notice the ginger bread man with his arm ripped off...or the "christmas" duck...

What we lacked in skill we made up for in spades and spades of irony....

Anyway, not much has changed in the past (ten years(!!!)) and I still enjoy myself some powdered sugar food coloring combo-the only thing is that now I try my hardest to make my cookies look good...sadly, I learned recently that one should never attempt craftiness while in a really bad mood. This year I did not have a good birthday. I mean, by now I should know that adults don't get birthdays in the traditional sense...but when your birthday is all but ignored and crowned off by a trip to the pediatrician...well, pouty Abigail enters. But, I tried to rally and around 9:30pm I decided to make Thanksgiving cookies for Brett's men. Something about me being a cookie martyr or something. Anyway....

I don't even think the picture does my icing disaster justice.

Yes, I did take a picture...I knew I'd want to blog about this...

The best part, however, is that once the bad icing was finished and I'd completely given up. I packed all the cookies into a tupperware container and placed it on the kitchen counter ( out of sight, out of mind). The next morning ( and yes, I didn't see Brett at all on my birthday, and he left before I could get up the next day...) Brett took said cookies to work without knowing that they were "duds". When asked about it later ( Abigail: Did the guys comment on how ugly the cookies where?! Brett: Ummm....no?! What are you talking about?! They looked fine! They were eaten really fast, I don't think anyone looked at them...) my icing skills were both appreciated and unappreciated all at the same time.

So, lessons were learned: Don't do crafts with upset. Don't do crafts if you want them appreciated by hungry dudes. Maybe move forward from cookies for a while...

And so I decided to do a new project last night ( have you noticed I'm left alone a lot with a ton of time on my hands?! hahaha!)

I made this little Count Down to Christmas platter/sign last night using:
One IKEA tray that cost $3 ( seriously! Why can't I live near an IKEA!?!?), some chalk board paint ( whoever invented this stuff deserves some sort of Craft Crown), some leftover white paint from when I made Ransom's mobile  way back in the day, and a little red nail polish ( yup! That's how I roll.)

Anyway, the green numbers are in chalk and I think it turned out relatively cute considering I'm the one who made it. Luckily I have a kid now and in a few years people will just assume that he made it and will think that its adorable.