Exhale
So the Christmas festivities have ended…finally. It feels like we’ve been “doing Christmas” since mid-November, which I guess we really have. It’s nice to be able to relax and exhale a bit - at least for a moment. I know there will be all kinds of excitement to come in the next several weeks as we await the arrival of the new boy, but for now I’m enjoying just sitting in this comfy chair and looking at the mess that needs to be put away…
Here are Rod and Alex enjoying a laugh earlier this week. That boy just will not smile a “real” smile if there is a camera around. Anyone else have that problem?
Finally, earlier today there was an attack at Playmobil International Airport. It seems that the pirates from Skull Island really wanted to get on a plane bound for Tokyo, but they didn’t have proper identification. They used various canons and shooters, according to Alex, and were finally allowed to board the flight. As you can see below, peace has been restored. It’s a good day.
Bless the Japanese
As a crafter, I am in awe of the crafty things produced by the Japanese - the fabric, the notions, the magazines and books, the fabric (did I say that one already?). All of these things provide me with endless ideas about how I can make my world a bit more beautiful with things made by my own hand. I’m not ashamed to say that - more often than not - the things made by my own hand only bear a passing resemblance to the original inspiration. I usually enjoy the creating as much as the creation, so it all works out. Usually.
One of the areas that I have been very reluctant to venture is to wool felting. I absolutely love the look of things appliqued with felted wool accents. At first I told myself my hesitation was because it is quite difficult to find wool felt around here. While that is still true, I have put together a list of online resources, so I can’t use that excuse anymore. When it really comes down to it, I think it’s because my artistic skills are seriously lacking. When it comes to drawing for embroidery or embellishment or whatever, if there’s a pattern, I’m all over it. If I have to do something free-hand, forget it. It will likely be completely unrecognizable. The good people at Clover, though, must know some other people like me.
That is a felting template, I think. I don’t read Japanese, but that’s what it looks like based on the photos. It will allow you felt that adorable hedgehog and the mushrooms, too, using the Clover felting tool and mat, along with the template thing. Here’s one of the projects they suggest - just too cute!
The people at Clover are also very generous with their project ideas and patterns. Check out this page, which is continually updated with great stuff. Each of the Lessons has at least two projects, so it’s not just whatever they happen to have in the photo. My seasonal favorite is Lesson 42, which has an awesome wall tree and decorations. They are all in Japanese, of course, but the diagrams and illustrations make it all very easy to figure out.
Enjoy! I’m going to try to find that template somewhere that ships to the US…
Filed under Craftiness, Shopping | Comment (0)Holiday Craftiness
I had some grand plans about holiday crafting this year. I was going to make some autumn-themed coasters for several family members to be delivered at Thanksgiving and thought I would make something handmade for everyone for Christmas. Oh, I was going to make entirely new decorations for the house, too. Uh-huh. Can I blame those crazy thoughts on pregnancy brain? We’ll go with that.
I started out well and had several projects cut out and ready to go when I got a call from my mom that one of my great-aunts had died unexpectedly. The three of us were planning to make the drive to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving, but Alex and I ended up making the trip about a week earlier than planned for the funeral. In the span of three days, I packed up everything we would need for the duration of the trip (including all fabrics, notions, and my sewing machine), drove 15 hours in one day to eastern Pennsylvania for my aunt’s funeral, and then drove 6 hours the next day to my mom’s house in western Pennsylvania, where we would be staying for the Thanksgiving holiday. Whew! That was quite a trip for a 4 year old and his 30 week pregnant mama! I’m glad we were able to be there for my uncle and family, though.
Since my family lives so far away, we alternate holidays between Pennsylvania and Alabama. Since this year was our Thanksgiving year, that also meant we were “doing Christmas” that week, too. I managed to get the Christmas gifts done for everyone, but had to drop my plans for the Thanksgiving gifts. Maybe next year. Using the awesome tutorial from Moonstitches, I made several owl garlands. Some were family names, but most were the basic (and short!) NOEL greeting. Sorry for the poor quality of the photo - natural light is limited these days and I never seem to remember to take photos during that 20 minutes of the day.
As part of the Christmas gift-giving this year, my grandmother got me some things I’ve been looking at for quite awhile. I’ve been waiting for them to go on clearance, but Target doesn’t seem to want to cooperate. Meet The Ducks.
I just love how the little ducks are all chatty, but the big one seems to have a look on her face that says, “These are *not* my children.” The little guys came decorated for the holidays, but I still think I need to supplement their wardrobes in some way.
There is still more crafting to be done before the actual Christmas holiday, so that’s my plan for today while Alex is at school. I guess I’d better get to it!
Filed under Craftiness, Daily Life, Family Stuff | Comments (2)Why?
So many people signed up for that post-every-day-in-November thing that I decided to try something different. I posted never-y day in November. I know that’s not really a word, but it worked best here.
I plan to post an update soon (we may have decided on a baby name!) and show photos of some crafty work, but for now I will leave you all with a question.
Does anyone know why Ms. Vega might be doing this? I’ve always thought of her as the smarter one of the two, but she’s not doing a lot to solidify that in my mind…
Pay It Forward
I think this is a great idea - and just early enough that I know I’ll be able to get it done before the holiday craziness takes over. I saw it on Driftwood’s blog, but I know there are others out there, too.
I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.
If you wish to participate please leave me a comment and copy the above paragraph and paste it into your next post.
I think I even have an idea of what to make…
Filed under Craftiness, Swap! | Comments (2)New Favorite Music
Ever since Megan (such a great name!) posted about Brooke Fraser, I’ve been hooked. Every now and then some particular artist will really just click with me and I’ll find that I want to listen to their music all the time. This certainly was the case with Brooke Fraser. The only trouble was that it was a very difficult task to actually get my hands on any of her music in the US. She’s an artist from NZ and her CDs are only available in the US as imports. I am very happy to report, however, that you can now purchase both of her albums on iTunes. I’m sure that has something to do with the US tour that she’s going on in November and December, but I’m just happy to be able to get the music! I’m also happy to see that she’s coming to Nashville, which is only a very short drive from here.
One particular phrase in Brooke’s song Albertine really sticks with me - and has since the first time I heard the song. She says “faith without deeds is dead.” I’m really trying to work at incorporating more deeds in my life. I don’t always succeed, but I’m working on it.
If I can get it to work correctly, I’ll post the video here from YouTube. If not, click on the link above to Albertine. All of her stuff is great and I hope you guys enjoy it, too!
Martha Stewart Clearance!
I stopped by our local Michael’s store today and was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few of the Martha Stewart Crafts items on clearance. I picked up a selection of notecards, but they had a wide variety of things marked down. It doesn’t look like anything has been reduced on the website, so it might vary by store. If anyone is looking for anything in particular, let me know and I’ll see if my store still has it. I hope this means they are making room for the Christmas stuff…
I also picked up these Animal Alphabet Cards for the new boy’s room. They weren’t on sale, but it was the first time I had actually seen them in stock so I snatched them up. I love the vintage look of them. Now that I have some decoration for the walls, we just need to get other things in there. Like furniture. At least the walls will look good, though!
Filed under Craftiness, Shopping | Comment (0)UK jealousy…
I have some serious jealousy issues regarding citizens of the United Kingdom. And, really, it’s not just the UK; it’s pretty much the whole of Europe. Why does it seem that you guys get all the cool stuff? For example:
My favorite show on television starts its new season today. I won’t get to see it on my television, though. Spooks is only on the BBC. Every now and then A&E, and more recently BBC America, will play watered-down, shortened for the overload of US advertising versions and call it MI-5, but it’s just not the same. The show is so intelligently written that it’s just plain fun to watch. (I understand from someone in the know that the technology is sometimes not in line with reality, but I let that slide since I don’t really know any better.) The only thing I’ve found on US television that even comes close to Spooks is The West Wing, but that isn’t even on anymore. Woe is me…
Other favorite shows are also UK products. Life on Mars, Gil Mayo Mysteries (apparently called just Mayo in the UK), Murder in Suburbia, Love Soup, and whatever else makes it to BBC America. Those two women on How Clean is Your House crack me up, but sometimes they provide a little too much information to make me comfortable living in my own house… And, of course, there’s Charlie and Lola, which brings me to the next item on my list…
Pink Milk is such a brilliant online shop! I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I was just window shopping there again today and was reminded of how much I love it. Obviously I can place orders and they will cheerfully ship overseas, but the shipping costs tend to be greater than the product cost when I shop and I have a hard time justifying that to myself. If you live in Europe and have a Charlie and Lola fan in your house, you really should check them out.
I’m trying very hard to convince my husband that we need to move to somewhere in Europe, but I haven’t been too successful yet. He claims that it would be necessary for him to have a job to make the whole thing work. I guess I can’t really argue with that. So, if any of you have husbands that are looking to hire other husbands - particularly one from the US - please do let me know so I can find something new to whine about…
Filed under Daily Life, Shopping | Comment (1)Recent efforts
As promised, here’s a brief update of what’s been on my work table lately. First up was a scarf for me. I had to make mine first so that I would know how to make Alex’s correctly, you see. *cough* I was able to find a good home for my much coveted Heather Ross fabric and incorporate some rich corduroy fabric. I love when I can put favorites together.
Here is the one I’ve started for Alex. Coincidentally, it incorporates some of his favorite fabrics. These are most of the ones we absolutely could not leave the fabric store without. I still need to piece together the back and put it all together, but it’s still 85 degrees here every day, so I guess there isn’t a big hurry.
This one is my favorite. I got a plain hoodie for Alex at Target, but it just needed something extra. I originally thought I would just use a freezer paper stencil to put something on it, but Alex requested an alien and those are just hard to do in a stencil. Then I remembered the awesome book that Heather and Andy got for Alex. As the title states, it’s the true account of the War of the Worlds radio broadcast - in a kid’s version. The illustrations are great and the story is well told. Quite obviously, I was inspired by the cover model. (The one on the left, in case you couldn’t tell for sure…) It hasn’t been cool enough to wear it yet, but I hope Alex likes it. If not, I might have to make one for myself!
It’s another…
boy. Yes, we will be welcoming a new baby into our house in four short months. I would show you the ultrasound pictures, but I’ve never been very good at interpreting those things and would probably just show you a foot or something.
As several other bloggers have said lately, I feel like I’ve been lying to a lot of people by keeping this secret for so long. There was a good reason. Two actually, or at least they seemed that way in my mind. The first had to do with history. A couple of years ago, we lost a baby - just a few short weeks after we had told everyone I was pregnant. For a still unexplained reason, I went into pre-term labor at just over 20 weeks. Our baby was born prematurely and died. This time around, I really felt like I needed to keep my mouth shut as long as possible so I wouldn’t jinx anything. Completely irrational, I know, but it worked for me. Now that we’ve passed that 20 week mark with nothing but good news, I feel better about letting people know. The second reason is about other people. I have several friends who are struggling or have struggled in the past with getting pregnant. I would hate to think that anything I say might contribute to adding to their hurt. Obviously I can’t hide or control the physical, but I can certainly control what comes out of my mouth (or keyboard).
And now, if you’re still with me, a request. Do you have any suggestions for names? We’re having a hard time coming up with ideas. We want something that is unusual, but not strange. Does that make sense? I’ve been checking out the top 100 names lists from various countries and have started a list, but none of them really jumps out at us yet. We still have time, as Rod likes to point out, but this is one of those things that I like to have settled as early as possible. Can you help me out?
And there will soon be some crafting/sewing posts again. Rod was out of town last week and took my little camera with him. He left his big camera, but I just don’t feel as comfortable using that one. Now that mine is back, I can take some photos and show you what I’ve been up to!
Filed under Daily Life, Family Stuff | Comments (3)
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