Happy Holidays

Knitting the teeny tiny sweaters for hanging on the tree.. taking care not to impale any offspring..

Really, how cute is that?!

Some inspiration for some new crafty ideas ...

And a wintry vista. Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

No photos yet, just relaxing and lazing and some afternoon snoozing.. will post more crafty things soon, now that most of my craftiness has found its recipient!

Hope you and yours are having a lovely holiday, and Happy New Year!

Temporary Greens

See? No tree skirt. Pathetic. No presents either (tucked safely in the closet, the less to tempt the little ones).


Will it bloom by Christmas?

Christmas Quiting

So this is beautiful on Cluck Cluck Sew. A WIP I haven't posted up here because it is, oh, ZERO percent done is a tree skirt. I was thinking of crocheting a really big doily to felt and then needle felt designs into it, but I could be talked into this quilt. What do you want to bet next December finds the tree skirt remaining at zero percent?!

Big Snow! Crochet Tree Light Garland and a Prezzie from Australia

The WIP from a ways back. I'm extending the ends so it will cover the whole bannister. I love how this turned out, especially for a pattern I just made up and all the acrylic yarn I had no idea what to do with = perfect project. And I needed something festive but not actual lights, given that there is no outlet near the stairs.

Thank you Gina! This aboriginal design probably never imagined it would be photographed in 12"+ of snow! Now, what to make of it...

Quilting

Yeah, but not for Christmas ... this year! So this is not a good tip if you are looking for a quick to craft item for next week, in which case I'd try a scarf out of bulky yarn (there are some ideas on Purl Bee)

My quilting skills are minimal, in fact consist of a lot of looking at other quilting blogs and loving the color combinations and thinking I wish I had the time to spend on a big project like that. Not to mention the long overdue quilt project that is already on deck (sorry, sis!)

I liked this post "how to calculate quilt math" because it is thorough, does the math, but is not hard to follow. And check out her colors and quilts - yum.

Crazy Mom Quilts

Three Little Trees and Some Tea

After seeing Maya's burlap trees I adapted the idea to - yes, the silver lamé from the robots costumes! I rolled cones from lightweight cardboard - granola bar boxes I think - then sewed cones from the lamé and snugged them over the top. I trimmed the cones to stand reasonably straight and traced disks of cardboard for the bottoms, then hotglued the cardboard to the fabric around the base. They haven't been roughly played with but they haven't disintegrated either. I have plans for a whole village of carboard fabric and hotglue houses... maybe a few per year until the village takes shape. Maya has lovely gingerbread house boxes from milk cartons -

After all that work, some refreshments were in order. Peppermint tea and fennel-lemon biscotti.

Holiday Crafting - There is Still Time!

Here is a sweet little sweater ornament - so cute! And it only takes an hour or so and about 10 yards of yarn!

Sweater ornaments with cables!

Some mini mittens ornaments from Pink Argyle

And a knitted wreath of leaves - very sweet. All these patterns are free, so not only can you use up bits of stash, you won't need any cash.

Wednesday WIP - Garland, Shelf, and One Finished Wreath!

I learned with this project that hot glue gets quite brittle in the cold (uh .. duh) so this is more fragile than I expected. I think if I made another one I'd try to figure out how to hotglue the containers onto a wreath rather than just to each other. But it fit my requirements of a) something to do with those old yogurt cups and b) something super cheap (I did break down and buy the bow ($1.50) since though I racked my brains I couldn't think of something I needed to recycle that was essentially a red plastic bow...)

Ta Dah!!

So, I have a BAG full of old acrylic yarn, and a bannister that needs some garlanding for little or no $$ ...


Funky thriftstore drought ended - $5! Not loving the sun-tanned Barbie skin "color" on this bookshelf - hard to see in the photo but believe me, beyond ugly - but what retro legs! I was thinking powder blue paint, but a request has been made for apple green.

Monday Round the Blogs - Stitch Craft, Calendars, Skirts and Scarves

Another new blog, Stitch/Craft with a few advent calendar ideas - too late for this year, but perhaps for next? I especially like the paperchain made from red white and green fabrics - with a snap closing and a special activity printed inside for each day.

And Chez Beeper Bebe led me to this shop in Etsy - the cutest calendar I've seen in a while. Jack and I have been sewing up animals printed out from CBB, I would never have thought to look but Etsy is just brimming with downloadable calendars - so save your money and put that "Pug Puppies 2010" calendar down - $5 is the going rate (and you can print and assemble as many as you want for presents too!). And when the month has passed, many of these prints are suitable for framing or you could turn them into note cards. Go handmade!!

I also try to recreate somethings I like from the store - in fact, I often talk myself out of buying something saying "I could make it, and cuter, and cheaper" forgetting the end of that sentence "about 3 years from now when I have a moment" Anyway, I have some stash plaid that this scarf idea could work on, and it would make a nice present, no? Not for anyone reading this ...

Cluck Cluck Sew scarf

A new blog I'm following - Country Girl Couture. How totally cute is this skirt, with fussy-cut and lovingly stitched applique? I'm a sucker for pincords in the winter. But wait ... I don't even wear skirts!

Country Girl Couture Corduroy Skirt

Stash Bag

This photo makes me think of summer, maybe its all my orange yarns and the sunny window light. The pattern was from the Purl Bee and went really fast in some recycled denim yarn from my favorite yarn store, Homespun Boutique in Ithaca NY. As I may have mentioned, most of my crafts right now can't be posted until after Christmas, so I thought a post about (one of) my stash bags - all those dreamed-of projects, ideas, lonely skeins - would match my mood of anticipation!

Wednesday WIP - More Curtains

I've been told we can't have any wine and cheese parties until I fix the temporary curtains from almost 8 months ago. These wonky Ikea curtains look lovely and neutral but are terrible to sew, press, and hang, fix, press, and hang, fix again, press, and hang...