wise craft

Yippee

Its been a great mail week for me so far.  I could hardly contain the embarrassing amount of childlike excitement I had when this bunch of goodies arrived from Jackie of Littlest Flower-

(Kids, I need a brief moment to myself to enjoy this goodness, please eat your lunch quietly...I'll be back.)

The piece de resistance, the reason this whole swap began, was because I so loved the linocut owl print she did for her son's 2nd birthday.  And now, I have my very own.  (sigh...)  There is a wall in my house that's been waiting for its arrival.  One of the reasons I love it so much (other than the fact that I adore owls) is because it's totally out of my area of knowledge and expertise.  I could never do this.  It is so so lovely, she was even so sweet as to give me info on the size IKEA frame that it would fit perfectly into.  Oh my!  Now I need to make a trip to IKEA (insert an evil, self-gratuitous laugh here). 

But she surprised me with an owl softie she made!  Although I couldn't really tell you how cute it was upon opening, because it was immediately confiscated by a small hand and taken to a bedroom tea party. ("Hey wait honey, that's mom's owl!")

I did get it back eventually, and got a closer look. He is sitting in my favorite knitting chair at the moment. 

I love the "HOOT" on the back.

She also included a really beautiful embroidered piece she found "op shopping" (a term I love by the way, Jackie)-

and these sweet little wooden ornaments which are now on our Christmas tree-

Jackie, these are all treasures.  It was so fun to get to know a fellow blogging buddy this way, especially one so incredibly talented.  This will be hard to top this holiday season.  Thank you! Thank you!  Thank you!  I love it all so much!

On the crafting front, I am still knitting tiny sweaters and loving adding more and more details to each little one.  And thanks for all the comments, you guys really know how to put a spring in a gal's step.  I can't imagine what I'm going to do with all of these little guys, so if anyone is interested in a Christmas ornament swap, email me at blairpeter@comcast.net and one could be yours.  Currently, my beloved Nikon camera is on its way to a repair center in New Jersey, but I hope to be able to take pictures of the new ones I've made and post them on Friday.

Cozy Little Sweaters

 

What does someone who is obsessed with sweaters and wants to make something for the holiday season do over the weekend?  Knit Christmas sweaters, of course!  I got this idea to make garland out of little sweaters.  Inspired by a combination of the egg cozies from here, and too expensive for me yet unbelievably cute little ornaments from here, I became an obsessed/possessed little mini-production line of one over the weekend.  I grabbed every appropriate shade and color from my full-to-spilling-over stash of yarn and got to work.  I am pleased as punch, and don't really know if I can stop myself from making more.  Think of the possibilities!  A tree filled with these!  Miles of sweater garland draped around the house, on chairs, over tables, on gifts, someone please stop me!  (You can see more detail here.)

I wish I could show you the rest of them, as well as how great they look all strung together, but 'tis not to be.  I'm having some technical problems either with my computer, or my camera (no one is sure).  I spent most of Sunday on perma-hold with various people trying to figure out what was wrong, but to no avail.  So, I am going to resist getting on the computer on Monday, to give me a mental break from it, or I may go nutty.  So leave me lots of comments to look forward to :)

Over the weekend we began other Christmas decorating and planning as well.  There were lights to hang, trees to decorate, and Christmas songs to hum.  Our gift giving list has greatly simplified itself this year, much to my relief.  Emma and usually set aside a day to make handmade gifts for her to give to family and teachers.  It's a day that she and I look forward to each year and this year we have some friends joining us.  These are usually very simple kid-generated handmades with adult help.  In past years, we've made soap spelling out letters of the person's name, beeswax candles, magnets, and Emma has painted pictures on small pre-stretched artist's canvases.  I love to watch her beam with pride as she gives them out on Christmas day.

May the computer gods show mercy on me and cut me a little slack here soon.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Peeping Friday

How appropriate that Camilla's peeping Friday would be our refrigerator, just a day after it is filled to the brim with Thanksgiving leftovers.

Here is a very tiny peek...leftovers and a butternut squash that did not make it onto our table yesterday.

The other side of the door is much safer.  We don't have many magnets on the door, but I do like a clever one.  Most are of kid-produced artwork, but there are a couple that were given to Peter and I that I think are very telling about our personalities.

A magnet given to Peter-

One given to me-

Happy Thanksgiving

Today, I am thankful for my family, friends, our wonderful life, our health, my ability to cook, all the clean laundry I did yesterday, a few moments to myself, my kid's smiles, the cookies I made with them yesterday, the movie we will cozy up and watch tonight after the kids are in bed, this blog and the friends I've made through it, and so many other things.  Life is very, very good.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Christmas inspired

I'm finally start to get into the holiday spirit.  There is just too much out there to love this season.  Anthropologie is killing me with these cute ornaments.

I am also totally inspired by Angry Chicken and her nesting dolls.  My children love these, you were think they were holding pure magic the way play with them.  But, being the deprived children that they are, they have none.

Then, coincidentally, I just happened to see these last night-

They are done by an artist name Trisha Krauss.  Custom painted portraits of your family in a set of nesting dolls can be yours for a mere $800.  But ladies, wouldn't this be something fun to do ourselves, of our own families??  I'm adding this to my list of things to make before I die.  Its an amazing idea.

I'm inspired by the advent stockings that Stephanie is doing at little birds.  It reminded me of a long thought about but far from done idea I had of custom stockings for each family member.  I got Emma's done a few years ago, but then ran out of steam.  So, this year Ian will finally get his very own handmade stocking, which I'll post a picture of when I'm done.

Tomorrow, as I am basting the bird, I will be knitting some of these-

Maybe along Hillary's thinking about mini-kitchen Christmas trees, maybe I will need a tiny closet tree to hang these little guys on.

Random

This is a little late for Amy's dishtowel Tie One On, but when I saw this great dishtowel, I had to make it into an apron for myself.  Made by a company in the UK called Sukie. Now I'll have it for puttering around the kitching cooking on Thursday.

Random sums up all the things that are going on at our house right now.  Randomly crafting... randomly cleaning...randomly preparing for Thanksgiving and Christmas...randomly relaxing  (I've typed that word so much its starting to look weird.)  Its that time of the year when I have projects everywhere.  Sorry Peter, I know it drives you nutty.

These are the thank-you notes that Emma is sending to her friends from the party.  Its a stamp she made last summer, during the "Mom, I really want a Westhighland White Terrier" phase (which seems to have cooled, by the way).  She found some images of them and made a stamp.

I'm working on a new look for this page.  What do you think?  The more I write, the more ownership I feel of this blog.  I thought it high time for it to reflect more of me.  I'm not sure I'm satisfied yet, so it may look different next time you see it, yet again.

Goodness all around

Rediscovering the joy of playing with beanbags... (and notice Ian's slippers- all the best slippers are made for kids)

As the kids get busier and a little older (sigh....), I appreciate the days when we can just be at home, not running off to some scheduled event, birthday party, or school.  On Saturday, the kids stayed in their pjs for most of the day until Peter dressed them to take them on a walk through the "forest" near our house.  I chose to stay in and craft.  Brrrrr...too cold for me....

I also mailed off a package of goodies to the lovely and talented Jackie.  I admit I love putting swap packages together!  It all started with this amazing owl linocut she did for her son.  I have an incredible weakness for owls, so one thing led to another.  It should make it safely to Australia in the next couple of weeks.  I have the perfect place in mind for the owls.

Also this weekend I found an incredible sweater.

I found it at Goodwill for $8.  I cannot resist preppy!

It is duplicate stitched with all sorts of golf icons.  Love that little pink and green thing-y above, is that a winning golf cup?  Did the sweater wearer win??

Hmmmm....now, where is my bermuda bag with the monogrammed initials from high school???  Its been waiting its whole life for this sweater.

It's in wonderful condition, but a little old lady smelling.  I smell something like this and immediately think of my childhood.  Isn't it your sense of smell that is strongest at bringing back childhood memories?  I remember all 3 of my great aunts used to smell like this and sip a lot of black coffee...interestingly enough, I think this sounds a little like me back in my college days.  : )

But, alas, for fear of walking around smelling like I've been in an attic for thirty years, I washed it.  I don't know if the method I was taught by the local yarn shop is common knowledge, so in case anyone is interested in knowing how to wash a 100% worsted wool sweater (vintage or otherwise) that you have no intention of felting, email me and I'll be glad to let you know how.  I've had great success and I think its much better than drycleaning.

I'm seeing such great Christmas ideas here, here, and here, but honestly, I can't get my head around the fact that its a little more than 4 weeks away.  I'm feeling a little unorganized about the whole season, but I'm not going to let it make a Scrooge of me.  So, this morning, I cooked up a little scheme that I'll tell you about in my next post.

Brand New Bag

I wanted a new bag, so I copied this one out of one of my Japanese craft books.  Here's the original-

I really like the way it turned out, although I think I may make another one and put some heavier interlining in it to give it more body.  That's always a challenge for me when trying to work my way through a pattern out of a Japanese book, the interlining- what weight, fusible, non-fusible, all those annoying little details. 

What I like most about this bag was the way the accent fabric peeks through at the sides of the pockets and on the underside of the strap.  The dark brown and bright green combo is making me happy at the moment.  I even used a magnetic snap, cause a girl's gotta keep her goods from fallin' out.

This weekend I will be...
- Making 25 beanbags for a friend who is also a drama/dance teacher.  She needs them for her class.
- Attending a 10 year anniversary party for some very good friends at one of my favorite restaurants in Seattle.
- hopefully sewing, sewing, sewing away on holiday gifts

Happy weekend!

Japanese Craft Books

I have created a Flickr set of all my Japanese craft books, with their ISBN#'s.  Next I'll make a comprehensive list here as well.  You can view other crafter's libraries and some of what they have created from them here. 

I'm off to our local Japanese bookstore tomorrow and maybe I'll have a new one to post about.

hummmmm while smiling

Hear that sound??  It's my sewing machine, stitching away on all sorts of fun little this-n-thats.  Cold weather outside has made me run for the happy refuge of my craft room with a cup of hot tea.

My obsession du jour is zippered pouches.  These are giving me much needed practice in the zipper installation area ("I've been bad, so I must put in a zipper") and I'm having fun making each one unique with ebellishments, embroidery, and appliques.

This one is for a dear friend's birthday.  The embroidery is a picture her 5 year old son drew of her, which I did in a cornflower blue embroidery floss on a light beige cotton.  I stitched it onto the pouch using a very bright green thread for constrast (although it doesn't show up in the photo)  The body is pale blue wool felt and the lining is a tiny blue print.  She and I both have a obsession with storage, so I'm hoping I'm nailing this one and that it will be well-used.

The other pouch in the first photo is a surprise for someone who regularly reads this blog, so more on that later.

Smiles from some fun I've gotten this week.  Rose read that we were looking for artwork to adorn our fairy house and offered up a selection of postage stamps from her own collection.  They are just wonderful and we all have our favorites. 

Emma likes the swan, but I am partial to the tree with the blackbird and the moon.  I thought fairies would like landscapes, but think they will love the butterflies too.  I think we'll be hanging them all (Emma and I plan to make little ribbons with flowers at the top to hang them).  Thank you so much for taking time to send these Rose.

More smiles today while watching my son Ian singing Aretha Franklin's "Say A Little Prayer for You".  I especially like it when he belts out "The moment I wake up/before I put on my makeup...".

More smiles from the blogging world, notably the colors and images I see here and some well-spoken sentiments here.