Handmade Holidays: Stocking Ornament

Only a week to go! How are you coming on all of your Christmas projects? I admit that I'm woefully behind. I've been carefully plotting and planning since September but in my case all that planning rarely turns into action until the very last minute. I'm a procrastinator. And I'm ambitious. The two don't usually go hand in hand but I'm working on it. I have piles and piles of projects started in the craft room and there are a few that I intend to bring to fruition and a few that will likely still be sitting there next spring. I'm enjoying my late nights of sewing and wrapping, with my Christmas music playing, and my Yankee Candle Christmas Wish candle burning. These really are the best days of the whole year for me.

I wanted to share with you this little stocking that I managed to complete. So far he's a loner but the plan is to make a dozen or so for my tree. Granted, that is not likely this year. But maybe next. This little stocking was so fun to make. I was at the Franklin Mill Store this summer and I came across this delicious Michael Miller herringbone organic cotton and I knew it was going to be a on my tree in some way. My first attempt to sew with it went miserably. The cotton is very thin and wiggly under the machine so my first stocking looked like...well...let's just say not good and leave it at that. I was so disappointed with that first attempt but after putting it aside for a little while I decided to try using some lightweight fusible interfacing on the fabric before sewing the shape. Needless to say, I was pleased with the result. I loved the stocking so much I almost didn't embellish it. Almost. But I had this plan to make felt holly leaves and a felted berry so I went ahead and added it. I figure I'll make a few un-embellished and make a few with the felt leaves and berries.
Now to turn my attention to the GIFTS that I still need to make! One week to go!
Merry Christmas!

Simple Snowflake Ball Ornament

Time is flying and I'm in a rush to cram in as many holiday projects as possible. That means that I get very excited over simple projects that don't take much time, are good for mass production, and inexpensive but look elegant and when you're done. That's how my simple snowflake ball ornament was born. I needed a project that matched all of the above criteria and since I'm always drawn to snowflake crafts, I started experimenting with a package of rub-ons that I picked up at Michaels. Here is how to create these lovelies:

First, gather your supplies. I used Delta Ceramcoat in Pearl but you can use any acrylic paint you like, a clear ball (note: works best if you clean the inside with a dab of alcohol first, but who has the time? I skip this step and rarely regret it), and some rub-ons. I used these snowflake rub-ons but the world of possibility is wide open on this one. Go bananas with whatever rub-ons you like.

Pour your paint into the ball. You need a goodly amount and I realize that isn't very specific but I would estimate that it takes 1 - 2 Tbs to coat the ball. This depends very much on the viscosity of your paint. If you have thin paint it won't take much but thick paint will require more to coat the ball. You may need to add more as you work on the next step. (Note: you can add more than one color of paint for a cool swirl effect. The kids love mixing colors. I'll post some of their work soon.)

Next you want to roll the paint around inside the ball to coat it completely.

Now turn the ball upside down on a disposable cup and let the excess paint drip out. I recommend walking away and letting it drip for an hour or so. At this point you can assess whether or not you're happy with the paint coat. If you are, you can move on to the rub-ons. If not, go ahead and reuse the paint that dripped out to add another coat of paint to the inside of the ball. I found that older paint that had thickened left with me perfect coverage from one coat and thinner paint required 2 or more coats to get nice even coverage.

I don't have a visual for putting the rub-on on the ball because I just didn't have enough hands to manage the photo, even with my helper (the helper is my daughter, if you hadn't guessed). All you need to do is select the rub-on you want to place on the outside, place it where you want it, hold it tight, and rub the heck out of it with your popsicle stick...er...craft stick. Getting it perfect on a round surface is tricky but if you hold it nice and tight and rub hard so it grabs the surface of the ball, you'll get it.

The final step is letting the inside of the ball dry completely, so leave it overnight if you can, right side up with the cap off. Then when you come back, stick the cap back on the ball and voila, you have lovely little snowflake ornaments!

Handmade Holidays: Gingerbread Houses

It's December 1st! The Christmas season is upon us. As I do every year, this year I made lots of plans for all the gifts, crafts, and cards I wanted to make and as happens every year this is the time when I realize that I'm running out of time in a hurry. I am determined this year to make at least a few new ornaments for the tree, craft a gift or two, and generally enjoy the season. So I decided to start with our annual tradition of making gingerbread houses.

My mother and grandmother always made gingerbread houses every year and I thought they were magical so I am determined to preserve the tradition with my own kids. They love it and I do too. It's a big mess, no doubt about it, but well worth it. My houses are far from perfect but in the end I get over the imperfections and enjoy the end result.

My tips for dough - most gingerbread doughs will work but make sure you use plenty of flour. If the dough is too sticky it will bake up soft and a soft house will not hold up. And make your royal icing nice and stiff so it will grab the pieces and set up quickly. It truly is like cement once it sets.

So bake a batch of gingerbread and make yourself a merry little house. You won't regret the effort.

Let the Christmas Begin!

October, one of the best months in my opinion, and Halloween, with all it's delights, have faded away and it's a cold November 1. The Christmas spirit is upon us! Okay, maybe not entirely, but for sure this is the pre-Christmas season (as my dad calls it). This is the time when we still have a full month (almost) to enjoy the remnants of fall before the hectic and joyous holiday season sets in. This is the time when all the promise of a magical holiday season is coming and we can enjoy the sweet anticipation. This is the time to prepare for the First Feast of Christmas (aka Thanksgiving). Soak it up. Breathe it in. Enjoy every minute.

Felted White Pumpkin

White pumpkins are all the rage, aren't they? I am the proud owner of both of the pumpkins pictured here. One was grown by family and one came to life through my own blood, sweat, and almost tears. Well, I exaggerate, it really wasn't hard at all. I grant that my felted pumpkin is a far cry from perfection but I adore it. I like it even better than it's orange mate (not pictured).

To make this little guy, I used core fiber, white and green roving, a felting mat and single felting needle. You can find all the supplies here: http://www.weirdollsandcrafts.com/needle-felting-roving/felting-fiber.html I highly recommend you save yourself the headache and just order what you need. A.C. Moore and Michaels do not offer felting supplies that are worth the drive to the store (though I confess it's been a while since I checked Michaels and I don't want to give them an undeserved poor mention - they do have clear glass ornaments and you'll need those for an upcoming project) and JoAnn has some roving and some decent felting supplies but no core fiber. I was exceedingly frustrated last year when felting was really taking off in the craft world and I couldn't find any supplies anywhere. It was my neighbor that found this site and ordered a set of supplies for me, so a special thanks goes to Jane.

It was very easy and somewhat thereapeutic to make. The materials are soft to handle and this is a low-mess project so you can even do it in front of the TV. But, if you noticed I mentioned blood above, don't get too absorbed in something else and stab yourself. Those needles are very sharp! I am speaking from experience.

There are loads of good tutorials out there on how to do this. Martha Stewart has a great one and I like this one too: http://www.flickr.com/photos/17292505@N05/sets/72157607186893130/

I hope you give it a try! I'm dreaming up Christmas projects to use with this technique and if you're really hooked, look up Betz White's blog: http://www.betzwhite.bigcartel.com/product/felt-stitch-holiday-iii-online-workshop-10-18-11-12

Have a wonderful evening! I hope you get tomorrow off too.

The Joys of Fall

The joys of fall: The pleasure of picking apples and selecting pumpkins, the feeling of the warm sun mixing with the cool air, the sights and smells of the leaves beginning to change, a pumpkin spice latte on a cool afternoon, and of course, the multitude of pumpkin crafts and Halloween decorations waiting for me in the craft room all combine to make fall a truly delightful season.

These pictures are from my trip last weekend with the kids to my parents' house in Maine with our friend Maria. (Tim stayed home to build us a pretty incredible new entertainment center for our newly re-arranged and painted livingroom.) How are you celebrating the season?

Blog Redux

It is time. Time for a blog redux. It was a long, hot summer and not a whole lot of craftiness was happening around here for one reason or another. Add to that my ongoing internal debate about what I really want for this blog to be about, and you have a bad case of blogger block. I suspect that Martha Stewart would say something like "create the blog you want to read" and then "make it beautiful". Pretty clear instructions, yes? Time to get off my lazy rump and be the blog. (As I write this I'm sitting with my feet literally up, sipping coffee, listening to the children arguing down the hall, and thinking about those 3 large pumpkin cookies I just ate. So maybe not "off my lazy rump" so much as just being productive whilst on my rump.) So here goes nothing. Let's start with an early fall recap, shall we?

Busy June So Far

It's been awhile, I know. Sorry about that. Things have been busy around here. On Friday I turned 32 and my daughter made me this beautiful cake. She also orchestrated getting me a gift card to the Cheesecake Factory (thank you, Jane!) and we went out that night to stuff ourselves foolish. It was a good day.

Yesterday I took the kids to Candlelite Quilts to pick out more fabric for more projects. We are never lacking for projects. Gunnar wanted to make a bear and Annika wanted to make a pillow. These are the results.

Ugliest bear ever? Or terribly sweet because it was carefully planned by a 3-year-old boy? You decide. I think you know where I stand on it. And Annika's pillow? I love it. She has her own style. She was so particular about the fabrics she used that we had to have fat quarters cut from bolts because she wasn't happy with the zillions of pre-cut fabrics. That girl!

Fun with Patchwork: Sachet & Pincushion

Remember the patchwork pillows I made a few weeks ago? Those are right up there on my list of best projects ever. (For clarification "best" for me means creative, clever, quick and easy.) So why NOT take a fabulous pillow and miniaturize it? Fill it with crushed walnut shells and it's a happy little pincushion. I've been meaning to make a pincushion for a while but I only got this idea yesterday. Lindsey was coming over to make more pillows and poof, the marriage of my need for a pincushion and my desire to make a pillow netted this little gem. I love it. It's hard not to feel happy and creative when I look at it. I used a bright mix of Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane and Sandi Henderson's Meadowsweet fabrics to make it bright and summery. I'm planning to make a bunch so that I can switch them out for different seasons.


After I made mine, I thought they would make great gifts. So I made one for a fellow crafty sewer, my friend and neighbor. I wanted hers to look soft and romantic and that gave me the idea to make it into a sachet by filling it with lavendar. I am so happy with the results! Of course, the kids got hold of it and it is currently doubling as a hacky sack. At least it smells nice while they kick it around.

I hope you too are enjoying a gorgeous day. Happy Crafting!

Strawberry Granita

I forgot - I did make something! The kids and I made this refreshing and tasty strawberry granita that we saw on Elizabeth's blog, The Waspy Redhead. It was delicious and the kids were enthralled with the idea of making our own "slush". Elizabeth's recipe uses less sugar than most recipes call for, so I felt like I was earning extra mom points both for making something with the kids and for making something that was entirely made of fruit. Okay, "entirely" is an exaggeration, but I'm counting it as a win either way.

Have you read The Waspy Redhead? You should. She's cool. She's BFF with my sister-in-law so I feel vicariously cool when I read her posts. And go make some granita! It's good stuff!

Long Time No Craft

You may have noticed this by now, but I really love to make things. I mean really. But the thing about making things is that you have to keep doing it to stay in the groove. If you take too long of a break you risk losing your mojo. That's essentially what happened the last two weeks. After my pillow-making bonanza, I slowed down, took a little break, and lost my groove. Have no fear, it will be back. I've read that artists have ups and downs and that it's best to just ride those waves. And I've read that you need to work at making art part of your every day, squeezing it into the tiny spaces of time that you can claim for it when you're a busy working mom. Maybe I read too much and haven't been crafting enough. Maybe I should stop reading articles about finding time to craft and just DO IT already. So that's what I plan to do. But not tonight. And realistically, probably not tomorrow either. We just have a lot going on right now. It's good stuff though, the stuff of life - playdates and softball practice. I will keep making my lists of projects and sooner or later I will get cracking again.
Until then, here is a recap of the last two weeks in pictures.

Fun with Patchwork Pillows

I made a bunch of pillows this weekend. 3, to be exact. It was great. Lindsey and I found the pattern on Alicia Paulson's website and I think it changed my life. Alicia calls it a magic patchwork technique and she is not joking. The pattern was well worth the $6 it cost to download it. In the pictures above you can see the works in progress. We started with a trip to Candlelite Quilts to select our fabrics. Lindsey has a great eye for colors and patterns. She went with yellows and blues for hers and I chose greens and reds for mine. Then we stopped in to JoAnn to get pillow forms, interfacing, and piping. I'd never worked with piping before so I was nervous about that aspect of the project. Then we cut squares and about an hour and a half later we had these. Amazing! That's Lindsey, there working away on her perfect-for-a-summer-cottage pillow. (Work in progress photos credit to Maria.) Unfortunately the photo we took of her final product is slightly blurred but you get the idea.

Anyway, my pillow was so popular in my household that the kids fought over it and we decided it would be fun to let them make their own. So back to Candlelite Quilts I went, both kids in tow, on Saturday morning. They each selected 4 fabrics, though they would have come home with about 20 each if I had let them. You really should see them in action. Annika has a good eye (she's 6!) and she selected the greens that you see in the pillow above with stripes and dots. She's good, huh? And Gunnar is a little more bold in his selections. He started with black prints and added in some vibrant colors. He has a rather eclectic fabric stash at home. I was determined not to intervene in their selection or layout. I didn't. You can see the results.

It's a fun, fast project. I highly recommend it!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Baby Britches

I completed a pair of baby bloomers. Happy day! In truth, "completed" is a stretch because I haven't yet stitched the elastic casing on the legs and waist closed. I'll get to it. Eventually. At any rate, this is an accomplishment for me because I haven't done any garment sewing since I was about 12 and I wasn't particularly good at it back then. But I got ambitious and wanted to try. I've had a bee in my bonnet to sew baby clothes for my various baby relatives and in particular a baby that will be here in the late fall. I can hardly stand the anticipation! I just love babies and sewing for the babies I love is so satisfying. I hope these fit!

The pattern is from Emma Hardy's book Making Children's Clothes. The fabric is by Sandy Gervais for Moda.

Loving Lavender

Isn't lavender lovely? I've been inspired to add more lavender to my life by reading Kaari Meng's book Home Sewn and looking at her incredible store French General. (When I say "looking" I mean browsing virtually. Someday maybe I will go see the real thing.) She infuses her life with lavender and it seems like a good thing to do. It makes me feel like frolicking through the French countryside. I've also been inspired to bring more lavender into my life from reading a favorite (and non-classic-literature-grade-writing) novel. And then on top of that my gorgeous friend, Maria, came over last night and suggested we make some sachets. So we did. It was fun and fulfilling. You can see the results here. Maria is also the art director (for my imaginary craft company) and she gets full credit for staging the photos shown. She's great. Really, really great and I'm lucky to have her in my life.

And while I'm at it, thank you to all of my loving and supportive friends and family for always being there. Love you all.

What I've Been Up To Lately

Hello there! I know, it's been a while since I posted anything. Sorry about that. To quickly recap, here is what I've been up to:

Made a birthday bag for a dear friend

Bought some fabric

Had a wonderful, fun, relaxing and delightful Easter with my family and friends

Made a tasty sour cream coffee cake

That about sums it up. I'm also busy working on some sewing projects and if I ever finish one I'll let you know.

I hope you are having a joyful spring!

Red Velvet Afternoon

Happy Monday! I hope you had a nice weekend. I sure did. We had gorgeous weather, perfect for bubble-blowing and flip-flop-buying. We are now back to typical spring weather in the northeast but the lovely weather we had this weekend is enough to remind us that warm weather will be here soon.

This weekend also brought the release of New Moon on DVD and if you are a Twilight junkie like me, that is certainly worth celebrating. I did so in style, with my gorgeous friend Maria, by perfecting Red Velvet cupcakes. Actually, that's a gross exaggeration. We do not get the credit for this particular version of perfection. We made an excellent batch of cupcakes by following (almost exactly) a recipe perfected by many outstanding bakers before us. Here is the photo evidence:

This recipe was easy. That's a primary factor for me in successful baking ventures. Many of the red velvet recipes I have tried required a lot of separate mixing of ingredients and careful blending but this one worked like a charm just by throwing everything in the mixer and letting it go. Well, mixing the wet stuff first and then adding all the dry and mixing - no separate bowls. They cupcakes are tasty and not dry at all. And the frosting - can you go wrong with sugar, butter, and cream cheese? I don't think so.

I got this recipe from my neighbor, who got it from The Cupcake Project, and prior to the cupcake project it went through all sorts of revisions.

2 1/2 c. cake flour (we used all-purpose and it was fine)

1 1/2 c. sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tbs cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 1/2 c. vegetable oil

1 c. buttermilk

2 tbs red coloring

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp white vinegar

Mix the wet ingredients together and add the dry. For real, that's all we did. Then bake at 350 for 20 min, but start checking on them at 15 in case your oven is different. You don't want to overbake them.

Frosting:

8 oz cream cheese

1/4 c. butter

3 c. powdered sugar

Mix like well. Slather on the cupcakes. Eat your heart out.

Rainy Day Baking

Is there anything than baking on a rainy day? No. Well, maybe. Okay, I suppose if I really think about it there are a lot of things that are better than baking on a rainy day, so I will revise and say that one of my favorite things to do is bake on a rainy today.
Today we made these. They are Chocolate Snowquakes, from Country Living. The recipe was first (or so I think) in their Christmas magazine 6 years ago but now it appears in the Country Living Merry & Bright book.
They are so very good. In fact, they are Annika's favorites and she always asks to make them. They are so good. Did I say that already?

Recipe:
1 stick unsalted butter
3/4 c. dark brown sugar
1/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 c. dutch process cocoa
1 1/4 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. milk chocolate chips, optional
Cream together the sugars and butter until fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients until combined. Add the chips, if desired. Roll the dough into 1 inch balls (I use a small cookie scoop and skip the hand-rolling) and roll the balls in powdered sugar. Bake at 350 for 9 minutes. Eat and repeat.