I realize I’m a couple of days late, but we go out of state to visit family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and then we need to recover and reclaim the house (and this year Karra and I did some day after Christmas shopping to pick up the super good prices on ribbon, cookie tins, bows and tissue paper. I found a birthday present for my BFF in the process – double score!).
Well, the house is clean, the floor is mopped (nobody faint) and I’m at least thinking about what to feed the family. So, it’s time to post all of those pictures I promised before Christmas. I’ll start with the Christmas cards since they were the first project I finished.
Aren’t these guys adorable? I fell in love with the stamp and just had to make them. They are going on my etsy shop sometime this summer – I’ll talk about the etsy shop later; how much later I can’t promise 🙂
Next was the reindeer stamp that I think I’d like to be the logo for my etsy shop – after I learn how to draw it myself since I’m sure the stamp I bought is copyrighted.
Isn’t he totally cute? I just love the simple elegance of him.
The next ones came from an article in a magazine about a billion years ago – at 12 I’m sure. I haven’t subscribed to Country Woman since Hector was a pup. Not that I know who Hector is, but is sounds slightly less hick than “in a coon’s age” (which would give away my Daddy’s hill billy background!). Anyway, I kept the magazine just for this idea and this year I played with it.
The bottom three cards were the ideas from the magazine, but the little snowmen were my own creation. I really do love snowmen. I used pre-made bows on the candy canes that I had lef tover from projects several years ago and I found starfish jewelry beads for the star on the tree and just added a gold stripe on each “leg”. Inside of the cards, I printed a text from the Christmas Story in Luke 2 and signed our names. No writer’s cramp from signing 40+ Christmas cards!! I do still hand address the envelopes. I had so much fun with this project and intend to work on next year’s cards over the summer so there is no crunch time rush to finish them in early December!
After the cards were done I had to move on to Kurt’s stocking because the house was already decorated (courtesy of Kristen) and I needed to hang stockings on the makeshift mantle. Here they are – all three of the kids’ cross-stitched stockings!
I almost immediately started stitching my sewing room stocking, but I have the feeling it’s not going to be something that gets done in a year or two, but we’ll see what happens. Karra is working out the design for Joel’s “Bah Humbug!” stocking and that one will be a much quicker stitch!
I moved on from the stocking to Karra’s Spiderman sleep pants. I had bought the two fabrics that she had picked out at JoAnn’s in early November and when I went to work on them in December discovered that I hadn’t bought enough fabric!!!! ARGH! So, off I ran to JoAnn’s while Karra was at work and I found the cotton fabric but not the flannel one. I decided I would just put deep red cuffs on the flannel ones and bought some red flannel. And after the cotton Christmas pants were done, I discovered that I hadn’t bought enough red flannel for TWO legs of the flannel pants. Good grief, did this project get expensive! Off to the store AGAIN and made the decision to buy all new flannel for her. I found wall climber Spiderman flannel and bought 3 yards just to be sure. The previous flannel will make a nice pair of sleep pants for Kurt (whose ankles are showing already). Here is a picture of the cotton Christmas pants displayed on Karra’s leg because she didn’t want her picture taken.
The highlight of this fabric?? The Christmas balls have the silhouette of a spider on them! She went crazy over this fabric. How did I end up with a daughter that likes comic book super heroes? She’s also decided that owning her own comic book shop would be the coolest thing ever. I haven’t told her she would have to deal with people all of the time.
I don’t have a good close up of Kristen’s shepherdess doll or a picture of the pillows I made for Karra and for the couch, so I’ll save those for another post. Here is a picture of my Mom’s nutcracker (that she LOVED) that I had to take at my Mom’s because I wrapped it up as soon as it was dry and forgot to get a picture to share with ya’ll.
I got the idea for this from a magazine that had a Christmas vignette in a cloche. I knew right away that I wanted to do a nutcracker for my Mom and ended up using a flower vase and glass plate instead of a cloche. I even managed to get a nutcracker that was different from any my Mom already has – and she has got a LOT of nutcrackers!
By the time I was done in the Christmas Shoppe this year I was completely burned out on sewing and crafting. I did however clean up and put things away and discovered that I have about 12 projects ready and waiting for the burn out to be gone. A couple of them are even for next Christmas! I’m sure that there will be more DIMS days in 2015.
I hope that all of you wonderful friends in the blogosphere had a Merry Christmas and have a safe and blessed New Year!
And That’s What’s Happening on the Hobby Farm!
Happy Palace Hobby Farm 