Happy New Year!

I think the time between Christmas and just after New Year's Day is my favourite of the season.  Now I love, love, love Christmas, but there is something so lovely about the slow period after the big hustle and bustle is over.  We hang out in our pj's a lot; take advantage of post holiday sales, and generally just take it easy.  I even learned to make those picture mosaics, so I can join the fun of the year end blog review too!  You will have to bear with me as I include the Ice Storm one:

It was so pretty afterwards I took tons of photos.  It was awfully dangerous to be walking around though!

I created a Crafty Makes mosaic:

And of course a crochet one:

I didn't create one for cross stitch because of the few projects I had, the photos weren't that terrific.  One of my New Year's resolutions is to stitch more!

I was having so much fun I made a pretty skies mosaic:

And one for flowers too!

You're probably grateful I ran out of time, but I do have plans for a France mosaic and possibly one for all the great chateaux we saw there.

I have also been having fun setting crafty goals for the year.  More than likely I won't succeed in meeting them all, but it's so much fun to think I can right?
I am very excited to have joined the 'Stitch from Stash' group.  The object is to stitch from the charts we already have, using the threads and fabrics we already have.  You can spend up to $25 per month, but my goal is to keep the costs as low as I can.  I do confess to having bought some charts late on New Year's Eve before the challenge started though!  Funny how a spending deadline makes you question whether your stash is big enough, when the day before you realized you would never stitch all your charts in one year!

I would like to extend the challenge to include the lovely free charts I have downloaded from all sorts of talented designers.  I keep finding them and stashing them, but not stitching them!  Let's hope this year I can make a dent in those computer files.

Last night I started on two cross stitch projects from my stash, and am sad to report that one of them already has to be frogged.  Ugh!  Better luck tonight I'm hoping.
I also started a new crochet project with some yarn Mr. Crafty World got me for Christmas.  It's a little slow going, but it's going to be pretty I think.

Well that's it for today.  It is so cold outside so it's a perfect day for stitching.  I don't even mind if the dog sits on my lap because she keeps me warm!

The Last Bits

I so wanted to stitch up a bunch of ornaments this year - thinking way back in January that I could easily do one per month.  Sheer folly for me to think that, I know.  I only got one ornament made this year and this is it:  my Nordic reindeer.

This was more of a fly by the seat of my pants kind of project.  I borrowed some Scandinavian knitting design books from the library and stitched the motifs I liked.  I had plans for a few more, but you know...

Last week I finished up a couple of other projects.  I wanted to make My Favourite Girl a dream catcher using one of the doilies her great-Grammie had made many years ago.  I did a lot of hunting on Pinterest and Google images to figure out how to put it together.  I'm sorry the pictures are so terrible, but these things were impossible to photograph with any degree of success!

The feathers are made from felt and fabric that has been fused together.  I used some of my extremely coveted Liberty fabric pieces for some of the feathers, but I have to tell you it was really hard to cut into it!  Seriously, my hoarding instincts need to be overcome!

I hope she likes it: at 11 she does appreciate the work that goes into hand made things, and it does give those doilies another life outside the linen closet.  I didn't cut them or anything so they are still perfectly intact.  She will like knowing she has something of her great grandmother's, who sadly passed away in the spring time.

I've still got things in the works for Christmas:  today I'm giving a carved wooden dragon a "do-over" and I have some stockings to finish.  This is the kids last day of school before the break so therefore my last day of uninterrupted quiet.

I wish you all a very happy holiday and a creative and healthy New Year!!  Thanks so much for visiting and your sweet comments!

Jenn

Craft Party

We hosted a 'Holiday Crafternoon' here yesterday for some of My Favourite Girls' school mates.  I had done something like this before, way back when the kids were five and seven, but I was interested (and a little anxious, truth be told) to see how it would go over with 11 year old girls.

I spent a lot of time looking up fun crafts to make: something they would feel excited to make and proud to take home.  We had three tables of crafts, plus a good portion of the kitchen counter.  In the end it ended up being too much: not because they didn't have time to finish, but they were just crafted out.

The girls were all very enthusiastic about the crafts, but I think the cookie houses were the biggest hit.

The crafts available to make were cookie houses to decorate; hot chocolate cones; candy sleighs; chocolate covered spoons; bath salts; and a variety of ornaments.

I had a table of paper crafts to make as well, but the girls decided they wanted to watch a holiday movie instead.

I have to admit this was A LOT of work to put together.  It would have been a considerable expense too if I did not already have most of the supplies.

Mr Crafty World and My Favourite Boy were sent away from the house during the party, happily I believe.  After dinner My Favourite Boy decorated a cookie house with the left over candy and it was a joy to watch him happily piping on icing and deciding where things should go.  
Suddenly things felt so festive and fun again.  He then said he wanted to make all the crafts the girls did while he was out, so the kids and I sat around the table and crafted away the night.  It was wonderful, and it made me happier than I had been all day.  It was decided that next year it would be much more fun to have another crafting party, but just us.  I couldn't imagine anything better than doing my favourite thing, with my favourite people, at my favourite time of year.

Gifts

This year I finished my gift shopping early.  I wrapped everything too; made sure each child has the e*x*a*c*t same number of gifts and put them away where I will find them.  I can't tell you how liberating this has been.  Truly like a gift to myself.  Since then I have been able to do fun stuff - purely indulgent stuff that has no deadline and is just for me.  Things like: crocheting lacy things for my neck and a completely frivolous candle sleeve.

I made myself an earring holder from a thrifted frame and wall paper, plus a little chicken wire and stash trim.

I helped My Favourite Girl make a pillow for her Girl Guide gift exchange in a completely non-stressful way:  ie. not between me putting something in oven for dinner and setting the table, all the while watching the clock and kicking myself for not picking up something at the dollar store.  It was a hit, I hear.

The feather pattern is from magazine called  (I think) Make It .  She did all the hand stitching herself and even the machine sewing.  I must really be relaxed if I let her use my sewing machine!

I have a few gifts to make, but there is no pressure:  I am thoroughly enjoying the process and putting lots of good wishes into every stitch.  I should be done by the end of this week.

Now I'm drinking eggnog flavoured coffee ( one of the lovely hostess I received from our Christmas party last weekend); listening to my Dixieland Christmas CD and contemplating doing a little bit of card making.  Oh, life is good when your holiday shopping is done!

Thanks for visiting:)

Cosy Things

The weather took a cool turn last week, leaving no doubt that fall has come.  The kids went back to school and I have been nesting; doing all sorts of laundry and clearing out and cleaning.  At night my creative time has been spent crocheting cozy things; thick and soft yarn have been the preferred choice on my hook.

I made two more neck warmers with a lovely variegated yarn.  Funny how the colours are almost the same as the hydrangeas I picked a couple of days ago.

These are still waiting for some buttons: going through my button box to find the right ones usually takes a fair bit of time. ( Pattern can be found here.)

I also made Fiber Flux's Vanilla Bean scarf using some really soft and chunky Country Loom yarn.

 It only took two nights to work up so was a really nice project to work on.  I liked it so much I am making another in Homespun.  The scarf uses two skeins, so has been great for helping me "de-stash" a little bit.

I have done a lot of baking too.  Plum cake and jam squares, lemon loaf and muffins.  I guess I'm making up for all those times in the summer we craved something sweet but didn't want to turn the oven on.

The weekend was chilly and rainy so I put away my summer clothes and brought out the fall-winter ones.  It took me a whole day, but I tried on everything and purged quite a bit of it.  I was rather disappointed to see how much grey and black make up this wardrobe though; seeing them all hung up together makes for a sombre effect.  I think I may have to add some colour to perk things up.

Of course now that I have done that I see the forecast for the week is temperatures in the high twenties.  Cosy things will no longer be on the agenda but will be replaced with things like cleaning out the car and removing the last of the old baseboards from the living and dining rooms.  Bring back the chilly weather please!

Daisy Crazy

When we went on our West Coast vacation  a couple of weeks ago I wanted a quick, portable project.  I also wanted to use up some of the cotton yarn that I swear was reproducing on its own in the basement.  I started making these daisy dishcloths and got addicted like you wouldn't believe.  I even bought more cotton yarn just so I could make more.  I ended up making eighteen!

I gave one away; I will probably make three more; and no, these are not all for me.  After making the third or fourth one I decided I will donate these to our church bazaar in November.

The other portable project I took was an ornament kit I bought years ago.  I thought this would be the time to finish it off for good instead of donating a partially opened kit to Goodwill.  One night of movie watching and I had all these teeny tiny angels finished.

These really are tiny: each one is less than an inch long.

I will make some hangers for them and they will get added to the church bazaar pile along with the dishcloths.  Two more reasons to feel good about purging my crafting space!

Back To It

  As of yesterday summer holidays are officially over.  I wasn't so eager for the kids to get back to school this year: we had a g-r-e-a-t summer and I was sorry to see it end.

The last two weeks of our vacation were spent on the West Coast and it was so terrific nobody wanted to come home!

I kind of overdid it yesterday with all the back to routine busyness, so this morning I have been taking it easy and making myself a little memento of our trip.  On the last day of our vacation I saw a post done by Jacquie over at her blog, Bunny Mummy where she showed her sweet crocheted seagull.  I knew that was totally perfect so I made my own:

If only I could have stuffed him with the scent of sea water, blackberries and cedar.  I had to settle on lavender instead.  Thank you for the great idea Jacquie:)

Now that he is done it's back to purging and organizing for me.  It's almost become a little habit:  this morning while I was making breakfast I reorganized two cupboards.  That's a great start to the day!

Not everyone is so happy.

This is Libby wearing a long sleeved onesie.  The only time she isn't scratching all her hair off is when she is asleep.  I make her wear the onesie while she is inside to keep her from cutting her skin with her claws while scratching. We think she has some kind of allergies because the poor thing is itchy all over and has been most of the summer.  Tomorrow we go to the vet and hopefully get some relief for our poor pooch.