Still around...

It's been too long since I've posted on here yet again.  We've been BUSY!  Apple picking, fall festivals at our previous Waldorf school and our new school, making apple butter, trips to go visit friends, a trip to Williamsburg, trying to establish our autumn rhythm and in my case having one of the worst colds I can remember.  Of course, I've not managed to document most of this because my camera battery is dead and I haven't been able to locate my charger since our vacation out west ( I need to write more about that too, but not tonight).

Today was the fall festival at our new school.  It was a magical day for W and I.  It felt so good to be at the school, surrounded by such a beautiful, caring community, and engaged in lovely activities.  W got to make a bird feeder and a little sachet that he's keeping under his pillow.  He also dug for buried treasure, and played with a beautiful marble run.  We  watched a wonderful puppet play performed by his teacher.  He was also very excited because he was able to sit by her lovely assistant teacher during the performance.  His two favorite things though were a delightful children's musician who let W play the bongos while he sang (my boy LOVES drums) and shucking corn.  Seriously, my thumbs hurt because he wanted me to constantly be shucking the corn too.  We did this for hours at a time!  I wish I had my camera today.  He was just so happy and engaged in his work all day.  I'm thinking I need to be getting some of this corn so he can do this at home too.  His corn bin is getting sparse again and he clearly thinks this is a fantastic activity.

I'm also starting to think about Christmas.  I'd like to do all handmade again this year but I feel like I'm running terribly behind and I'm not totally sure what to do for everyone yet.  Most of my ideas seem to be for W and I'm working to balance them out between for his birthday and Christmas.  I did get one gift completed this week while I tried to rest and recover from this cold.  My mom the other day found a needle-felted nativity on Etsy and loved the idea so much she just could not stop talking about it.  Hint.  Hint.  So I set about starting one for her.  I have made the principal figures of Mary, Joseph and Jesus.  I'm fairly pleased with how these have come out.  I plan on working on additional pieces to add to it in the coming years.  I had initially planned to make the large set all this year, but I would like to have time to make gifts for other people too.

Another gift for W completed.

Okay, it seems I am off and running with this Christmas in July thing again this year.  Only 5 months left till Christmas and 4 months left till W's birthday.  I am starting to feel a little panicked over the whole thing, but that leads to progress right?  

Some of you may remember W's birthday sweater from last year.  Well, building on that idea, this year I decided to use the same technique to make a needle felted vest.  This turned out to essentially be a free project.  I used leftover yarn and roving and a wool thrift shop sweater that I purchased a long time ago for a different purpose.

I had felted this sweater a long time ago before we moved, thinking I was going to make it into a purse, and make W some wool pants out of the sleeves, but that never happened, so this week, I decided to make it into a cute little toadstool vest to give to him either for his birthday or Christmas.  (Because they are so close together, my plan is to make a few things and then sort out when I will give them to him later on).

In any case, The sweater had been a turtle neck and I was able to cut it up the middle and press the neck down to make a cute little collar.  I used wool yarn to blanket stitch around the edges.  The pockets were cut out of the sleeves that I went ahead and felted.  (I have plans for the left over bits of these too).  Somehow, hanging up in the picture they look a little wonky but i don't think they look that bad in real life.  If I decide they do, I'll have to remove them and re-stitch them on.  

In any case I very firmly needle-felted the toadstools onto the back and the pockets (before I attached them) and then sprayed them with water and used a hot steamy iron on both sides of the fabric to help set the design.

I need to get some more wool sweaters from some local thrift stores and try to make W  a few more of these jackets/vests.

Felt Toy Camera Tutorial and Pattern-my first completed Christmas gift for the year!

Today I finished my first completed Christmas gift for the year.  It is a felt toy camera for W.  W loves cameras.  DH and I both take a good many pictures, so he often wants to imitate what he sees.  For a while he played with one of  my old cameras, but I didn't like how he became obsessive with it.  I find that old cameras/phones etc do not make good toys at our house.  He also had a plastic one that his Nana gave him at Easter, but we don't really do plastic toys and it of course broke fairly quickly and was discarded.  This leaves him trying to take my camera of DH's camera when he wants to pretend to take pictures which is simply not allowed.  Yesterday, I came up with the idea to make a soft camera for him out of wool felt and wooden buttons and decided to create a pattern and tutorial.

Here is the pattern.

Supplies needed:   Three colors of wool felt
                              1-1 inch wood button
                              2- half inch wood buttons
                              a scrap of wool yarn
                              coordinating embroidery floss
                              wool batting or fleece

Step 1.  Cut out pieces of wool felt according to the pattern.


Step 2.  Blanket stitch three largest circles together to make lens piece.

Step 3.  Blanket stitch the two small rectangles to make flash.

Step 4.  Position and pin lens, flash and small circle to front of camera like this and blanket stitch into place.

Step 5.  Sew buttons onto lens and circle on the upper right corner.

Step 6.  Blanket stitch small circle of color A and other small wood button to the piece of Color B that will become the top. (sorry I didn't get any pictures for this step).

Step 7.  Blanket stitch the screen onto piece of Color A that will be the back of the camera slightly off center.

Step 8.  Pin and blanket stitch front, top, sides and back together to form a box.

Step 9.  Fill with wool batting or fleece. (I used bits from a wool fleece that I accidentally partially felted while trying to clean it a while back. Glad I held on to it. It worked great for this purpose.)

Step 10.  Finger knit a wrist strap out of wool yarn.  I think I made about a 8-10 inch piece with long tails.

Step 11.  Thread tails of finger knitting onto needle to push through side of camera.  Remove needle and repeat with other tail. Then tie the two tails together snugly on the inside of camera.

Step 12.  Pin and blanket stitch bottom piece onto camera.

Enjoy!

Christmas Cards and Gift Wrap

Christmas is going to be here before we know it!  I've been busy for months working on handmade presents for family and close friends. For details on the gifts we are giving this year, see my handmade holiday posts.  My goal is to get all of the presents done by the end of November so that I can focus on decorating, baking, celebrating, honoring old family traditions and starting some new ones as well.  Most of my knitting is completed. During December I may work on knitting a few gift items, but for the most part they are little things to supplement larger gifts.  If I get some of them done great, if not, they won't be missed all that much.  What I do need to get really busy with this week is sewing.  I have plans to sew several items for Daddy and W.

I'm thinking that means one of this week's tasks is going to be starting to draft this year's Christmas letter and and get our card address list updated.  Maybe I'll have Daddy start printing out some address labels this week too.  We always try to do a photo card.  The last two years have been of all three of us, but I'm thinking this year we should probably just feature the young man of the house.  His Grammy has purchased several nice holiday outfits for him, so once I have all of them, we will choose one and start taking some pictures.  Last year we used our Christmas tree as a backdrop, but I'd like to get the pictures done this year before it's time to put the tree up so, I'm debating what would make a good setting for his holiday pictures.  Also, last year we got a great deal on our photo cards from SeeHere.  I think we paid something like $2.00 for 50 cards (including shipping).  It was a fantastic deal.  I'm hoping there is a similar deal from them this year since I have already designed the card and just need to insert the picture of W.  I'm also including a picture of the winter scene needle felting I made this fall on the card.

By the way this 12x12 needle felted wall hanging is currently for sale in my etsy shop.

As for gift wrapping, we have decided to try to make reusable cloth gift bags for as many things as possible this year.  I have a few styles that I have collected over the years already.  My aunt always sends gifts to W in cotton drawstring bags with Christmas prints on them so I have quite a few of those at this point.  I also have one that I bought at a craft sale last year that has a contrasting piece of fabric at the top and an attached ribbon.  The benefit of this design is that it can be used to wrap a box similarly to how you would wrap with paper.  Over the past 6 months or so I've been trying to give gifts in cloth bags when possible and have usually just made a mitered bag with a very wide hem at the top and done with a decorative stitch.  I then have put in the present and tied a pretty bow around the bag.  My mom and I have been collecting some Christmas fabrics for a while now, so we need to start sewing on some of these bags pretty soon.  I anticipate still needing to use some boxes and wrapping paper this year to supplement the bags, but hopefully much less than we have in the past.  I figure we can add a few bags each year form now on and buy the fabrics we want to use on clearance after Christmas from now on.

Edit 11/18/10-

I ordered our Christmas cards from SeeHere  three days ago and they arrived today.  I used the best deal I could find this year which was 25 free cards ($4.95 s&h) and then ordered 10 more at regular price.  With tax our 35 cards came to just over $10.00 which isn't too bad.  Our Christmas letter is written and I am waiting for my mom to send me some extra pretty paper she has to print it on.  My hubby and I have also compiled our card list and are working on gathering up addresses.  We need to get stamps this week and print out our address labels (these are are the hubster's responsibility too) and we will be ready to send out our cards by sometime  in early December.

Handmade Holiday Monday...or..um...Saturday...

Okay, so I've not posted about our handmade holiday efforts in a while, but I do have some projects done and ready to share.

Again, the disclaimer, if you are a member of my family, please stop reading this blog till Christmas gifts are exchanged!

First a warm wool hat for my husband's cousin who lives in upstate New York.  It was my first Beanie #212 watch cap knitted flat and seamed together.

I then thought that my BIL who works out on a boat for a couple weeks at a time could also use some warm wool on his head and I used the same pattern but knitted in the round and added some cables.  I love how this hat turned out!

Remember my favorite scarf pattern for women?  Well, I made two more of them  A solid rosy color for MIL and a pretty pink and brown colorway for DH's aunt.

When I saw the wool handle cover at Moment to Moment, I knew I had to make my mom one to use with her cast iron skillet.  I ended up following the instructions to knit one from A Hand Made Life and felted some flowers on it.  I want a couple of these too.  Maybe if I get all the other projects finished, I'll find some in my stocking...

Except for a pair of socks that I started for my b-day and am not allowed to work on till all my Christmas gifts are complete, that is everything that I had cast on my needles finished.  I need to go get some more yarn so that I can cast on some slippers for W, and three more beanie # 212's for my hubby, father and FIL.  I also need to get busy on a few cat toys for the pets in our lives but those are super quick kits.

This week I felted down another sweater, unsure of what I was planning to do with it.  Later that evening, I remembered that I had wanted to make little tissue holder pouches for my mom and MIL from felt.  I decided to use this felted sweater instead.  I also needle felted designs on them and stitched up the sides with a blanket stitch.  I loosely based the idea on these.  The needle felting was a great way to add a little "red hat" to the gifts for MIL.

Over the summer, after receiving a batch of pictures of my son, my mom stated that she wanted to "wear a picture of W around her neck".  That became the inspiration for a Christmas gift of course!  I made one for my mom and one for MIL.  I found these little charm frames at Michaels several months ago for 75% off and printed out tiny little pictures of W to put in them.  I need to put the charms on jump rings and then  make them into necklaces, but the hard part of the project (selecting the picture, shrinking it and putting it in the little frame charms) is done.

Speaking of photo gifts, I also found pictures of FIL, DH and W all taken when they were between the ages of 18 months and 2 years old.  I've edited them to make them look fairly similar and will be framing them together as gifts for my hubby and FIL.  I was moved to tears when I put the three pictures together into a collage to see how they sit together.  I think the family resemblances between these three little boys is amazing!  I hope they like this gift as much as I do.

In our house we also allow a few purchased handmade items.  I mostly have used this get a few things for W's stocking so far.

At our Waldorf School Fest of Fall, I purchased these beautiful shooting stars from my table-mate L of Blue Iris Handcrafts.

On Etsy I purchased this cute little tub turtle for W from MamaMadeThem.  I also have purchased him one of her bathtub boats for him as we are trying to transition him away from plastic bath toys.

The other thing I bought for him on Etsy is this set of  creative wood play clips  from Creative Wood Toys.  I am sure that W and A are both going to enjoy these since they have been asking me to make them playsilk tents for the past week.  My plan is to dye a big playsilk to go with these clips as one of W's gifts.

Also at the Waldorf School Fest of Fall, I purchased this beautiful bar of lavender soap from Sweet Cheeks.  Her things are beautiful and I'm thinking there are a couple stocking-stuffers I need to order from her for the hubby!  This soap is going to go to my mom who has always loved all things lavender.

I have a couple more projects in the works here including more photo coasters, and some felted soaps which hopefully will be done for my next handmade holiday post.

More of Our Handmade Holiday Creations

WARNING:  If you are related to me, please stop reading this blog till sometime after Christmas...or you might not get a surprise!

I'm a day late in posting this, but, our handmade holiday creations continue.  I feel like I've been working on lots of other things over the past week (more on those in a later post) but I somehow have also made some real progress in terms of making Christmas gifts too.

I finished the first cute little women's scarf, and I made another one.

And, I have a third one on the needles now...

...but I changed to a different color yarn.  Let's just say, if you are a woman on my gift giving list....you have a fairly good chance of receiving one of these AND you should not be reading this blog till after Christmas!  ;-)

I also painted (with acrylics since the watercolors rolled right off) and polished these maracas with my beeswax polish for W's stocking.

I also made these decoupage coasters with photos of W and W with his Nana and Granddad for Daddy and Nana and Granddad respectively.

I also chose and edited photos to do the same project for Grammy and Boppy and Uncle S.  I used cork mats made for flower pots and outdoor Modge Podge.  I think I am going to have to find something else to coat them with however, since they have remained pretty sticky.  I think I will also just make the next ones with whatever seems to work to seal these.  They have been a pretty fun project so far!

This week I hope to finish at least one more scarf (maybe two) and get started on some hats for the big guys!  I also need to come up with a gift idea for Boppy (my dad).  He seems to be the one person on my list that I just can't figure out what I can make that he would enjoy.  In the past I have mostly given him DVD's but somehow that just doesn't fit into the spirit of the handmade holiday!  Anyone have any ideas for what to make for older gentlemen?

The Elves Are Still Busy At Our House...

Okay, let me start by saying, if you are a member of my family, please stop reading this blog until after Christmas if you want to be surprised!


I finally finished W's gnome hat!  It is really cute and I'm excited about how it came out!  It seems big enough that he should be able to get several years of wear out of it.  I can't wait to see him wear it!  It seems to be just the type of hat that he loves.

Here is the set I will be giving W for Christmas. Mama-made hat and mittens.  After Christmas, I will probably make an i-cord to attach the mittens to each other and  thread through his coat so that they don't get lost.

I have to say, as much as I enjoyed working on this hat, I felt like it took forever to get it done! I have lots of gifts to make for people, so I was starting to get worried that I might be working on this hat forever and not get to the other gifts that I have to make.  You can imagine my relief when I realized that this scarf is a cute, fun, easy and fairly quick knit!  I am working on one right now for my brother in-law's girlfriend and I plan on making more of them for the other women in the family. 

I have also have numerous other items to make.  Today I was thinking that I'd like to have all of my handcrafted items done before Thanksgiving so that I can focus my attention on baking and decorating the house.

Hope your holiday preparations are coming along well!

Christmas preparations continue...

I have been working steadily on Christmas gifts this week, though, I have not competed nearly as much as I had hoped over the course of the week.  I am starting to feel the crunch and worry about competing all of the gifts for our Handmade Holiday at this point.  My husband is teasing me about this, but since all of his gift buying will happen in November (hopefully from either local crafts people or etsy) he is much less stressed out about this than I am.  Of course, he's also trying to figure out everything that I'm making for him and driving me a little batty!  Since he is an occasional reader of my blog I may have to post about the things I am making for him sometime after Christmas.

I will admit, that towards the weekend I did get distracted with making an autumnal wreath for our front door.  I'm going to show you all a picture of it before I move on Christmas gifts, because I love it!

Okay, on to Christmas,  Last week I  mentioned knitting a hat for W. I had hoped to finish it this week, but did not quite finish it.  I'm still really excited it about it though and it has been a really fun project.  Here it is as a WIP.

The one Christmas gift project that I finished this week is a little stocking stuffer for W.  In this month's puzzles out of popsicle sticks.  It's such a cute idea, but I also know that it's beyond W's capabilities for this year so I decided to make a couple for his stocking myself and put my own twist on them.

First I laid out my popsicle sticks and taped them together.  

Then I painted them with watercolors, which made them expand and warp.

So, I flattened them under a large scrapbook while they dried.

I then penciled in a drawing on each one.  I traced a wood cut out of a snail (I frequently trace wood cut outs when I don't feel like I can draw something freehand) and drew in the details myself.  I did draw the bee freehand.

I then traced and filled the pictures in with a black marker.

I removed the tape and polished the pieces with my beeswax polish.

And tied them into little bundles.  I'm thinking I should make some little fabric pouches for these though.

I think these would be a great little toy to take with us to a restaurant for W to entertain himself while he waits.

In other holiday related news, I completed exactly none of the Holiday Grand Plan's week 1.  That means this week I need to complete Week 1 and Week 2.

How are your holiday preparations coming along?