On the 1st Day...

On the first day of Christmas SEI gave to you one amazing wreath idea! Pia made this beautiful holiday wreath using WinterSong's starlight paper. First she cut 12" x 3" strips of paper. Then she folded them accordion style (like a paper fan). Last, she overlapped them a little, pinned them onto a styrofoam wreath, and voila!

Time to Decorate

It is crazy to think that Christmas is less than a month away. For many people the day after Thanksgiving means it's time to decorate for the holidays. If you are Jenny Chesnick it means you have been preparing for a while. Jenny sent us images of these wreaths she made using our WinterSong and Christmas Mint collections back in October. Way to be on the ball! To see more of Jenny's creations, check out her blog (we especially like her house using WinterSong). Thanks, Jenny. Keep submitting your projects to us at seiblog(at)shopsei(dot)com. We love it!

For those of you who are not quite as ready for Christmas as Jenny, be sure to check back next week for our annual 12 Days of Christmas. We will have a different wreath idea and so much more. Don't miss it!

Thankful for You

Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you will have a wonderful day full of family & food. What are you thankful for? We are thankful for you. The blog wouldn't be the same without you. We appreciate all of your encouraging comments and e-mails.





Today we are featuring a few of Monika Wright's projects. Monika is a busy mom of three. She graciously thanked us for the products she won from one of our giveaways and even sent us images of what she created and here they are! Above is an album she made using the oasis collection. Below is a 2009 December Daily album and Santa's list envelope embellished with our Christmas Mint collection. Thank you, Monika!





We love to see your creations. Just send them to our e-mail at seiblog(at)shopsei(dot)com. We will feature some more reader's projects soon!

Fall Family Tree

Although the first official day of winter is not until December 21, in my mind fall is over after Thanksgiving or the end of November. So, I thought we should show you some of the beautiful autumn creations that have been submitted to us by our readers before it is too late. This one would be a lovely Thanksgiving decoration. It was submitted by Laurie Cinotto, a crafter and craft writer. She created this project, using the Moravia paper collection, for the wedding blog, The Bride's Cafe. For complete instructions follow this link or the link on her blog. Thanks for sharing, Laurie!



We love to see your creations. Just send them to our e-mail at seiblog(at)shopsei(dot)com. We will feature some more reader's projects soon!

Watch For The Chicken Move!

Caitlin shared this with me, knowing how much I would appreciate it - now I share it with you! Unfortunately I think she is deadly serious - Enjoy.

Oh My....

MELBOURNE'S property record has been smashed after a Hawthorn house sold for a price believed to be $25 million.





And my favourite part of the house!!!!

Bad Excuse Krissa

Recently a friend of mine tried to blame her lack of blogging on her cat! Apparently the cat was asleep on the keyboard and she was too scared to move her. Now I will admit that this cat is renowned for her psycho tendencies, but seriously! How hard could it be?

(this is a reenactment)

Invasion

Surfer Boy found this lovely lady in the back yard today - not happy!!

Suffice to say, I have googled 'What the F--k do you do if you get bitten by a red back'. Apparently they can be deadly to children and the elderly! GREAT.

Step One - don't freak out

Step 2 - Ring ambulance

Step 3 - put ice on it

Step 4 - take panadol or equivalent

Bite Me

Surfer Boy is away all week so I think I might print this out and put it on my wall in case I get lonely! Hmmmm Yum!

SKY HIGH SURFER BOY

My husband is gorgeous but sometimes I just don't want to know about his day at work. Photos like these remind me what he does every day and quite frankly I think I'm better off not knowing.

Orlando's Secret

Just in case you were in any doubt as to whether Miranda Kerr has a great arse!

This is not going to end well

3rd Thursday - Christmas Mint

Club SEI's December kit will feature Christmas Mint. This collection has a charming combination of traditional holiday colors and sweet candy colors. The papers are treated with elegant pearl, mint foil, and varnish accents. Click here to see what club members can make with this kit. Every month Club SEI does something new and this time it is this gingerbread house designed especially for club members! If you aren't a club member, you can still sign-up and receive this kit.

This bread gift box was made using the December kit leftovers. We got our instructions here. Happy 3rd Thursday!

Think Outside the Box

This is such a lovely simple layout that we hope will inspire you to think outside the box. Here are two things that this layout inspired me to think about. First, don't be fooled by the name of a line. WinterSong's crystal arabesque paper is perfect for a wedding or try the back of flurry kisses or starlight for a summer picnic! Who would have thought? The second thing that I noticed is this layout design could be perfect for any season. In the summer, use bright papers and replace the snowflakes with flowers. In the fall use rich fall colors and replace the snowflakes with leaves. How does this layout inspire you to think outside the box?

Maria

Emma Rocks My World

Many conversations have been had about Glee recently. What a fabulous show. The singing, the dancing, the quirky characters, but so far I haven't discussed my very favourite part of the show - Emma's outfits!

This girl is amazing. She is sweetly insane and manages to make the most buttoned up outfits look superb. I watch in awe every week to see what delight she'll be wearing. Never have I seem such an amazing collection of broches, bows, and cardigans. She puts the girls of Gossip Girl to shame.

You are my new style icon Emma Pillsbury.

Giveaway Winner + Blog Schedule

Thank you for all your comments on Melissa's blog posts last week. It was neat to see where she gets her inspiration from! The giveaway winner as selected by random.org is:



Congratulations Ahuerta! Now all you need to do is send your mailing address to us at seiblog(at)shopsei(dot)com before November 23rd.



If you remember, for the last giveaway we had we asked for your input on the blog. Since then we have done a lot of planning and decided to make a blog schedule for you. This new schedule includes some exciting new opportunities for you to be involved in the blog including challenges and features! To be eligible for the features please continue to e-mail us images of your projects at seiblog(at)shopsei(dot)com. We are still researching and idea making for a way to display your projects, but for now this is our venue. More information on the challenges and features will be given as they come up.

Another thing to look forward to is our annual 12 Days of Christmas. Click here to see last year's wonderful Holiday ideas and get excited for this year! We'll start November 30 and as a result, next month's schedule will be a little different (but still great!).


Thanks for all of your support and love, and thanks again to Melissa Phillips; we loved having her talent here!

ONESIES

Check out Onesies for some fabulous baby gifts. Lots of great specials for Christmas.

Kooky Caitlin

My invitation to Halloween this year specified that costumes were expected - and by that I was meaning the adults specifically. No surprise that it was largely ignored.

The stand out and therefore the winner of the first ever Costume Prize goes to Caitlin - with not only one fabulous costume, but two! First up 'Westie' then a quick change to 'Wuthering Heights'. SUPERB!!

Bye ROVE

I can not believe tonight's announcement that this will be Rove's last show. Shocked and sad as he has been a part of my Sunday nights for the past 10 years. Hopefully he won't leave us for long.

Good luck Rove and thanks.

Halloween

The kids favourite day of the year has been and gone and everyone had a fantastic time. The street embraced it and dozens of kids trick or treated their hearts out. The weather was perfect, food only covered one main food group - sugar - as it should and judging by the fact that our two hour party lasted long into the night suggests that the parents all had a good time too.

Just lovely, Blair

I am usually much more of a Serena fan when it comes to Gossip Girl fashion but I must say I'm loving these 'Blair' outfits. Oh for an unlimited bank account and the body of a 20 year old! I think the first one is my favourite.