Wee Wonderfuls

a few projects

I've been wanting a hat like Gwyneth Paltrow wore in Sky Captain, a creamy knit hat with a huge bulky brim  - of course I can't find a photo anywhere. But I did find my size 13 circular needle in my Mom's sofa so I knit this over Christmas.

And here's the pouch I owed my sister... finally got my zippers on the 23rd. (thanks, lame usps - the upside is super nice Sheri at fabricsunlimited sent me a replacement package which arrived today. so now I have an excuse to buy twice as many!)

And finally, I wanted to play with my new sashiko needles and thread so I made this little drawstring pouch for the cutie beaded hair clips Santa brought me.

a little bit of this and a little bit of that

Here's some of my Christmas loot...

Cute little silver panda cups that Tim put in my stocking on top of some glittery fabric I found on sale at the Joann's.

Illustration by Marcel Dzama from the very cool Bed, Bed, Bed book and CD from They Might Be Giants that we got for Oscar.

Besides playing with my new toys I've been catching up on my magazines. Here are some things I've found.

Digital reprints of Lucienne Day's textiles at twentytwentyone.com. I love dandelion clocks. And  Riga - it looks like a quilt. More on 1950s Colors from Elle Decoration that is inspiring me... "So what can we learn from the free-thinking 50s? Above all, be bold. Reject the safe option of calm neutrals and careful coordination. Think the unthinkable. Choose a cocktail of piquant colours and assertive patterns which spark off each other." I'm searching through my stash for fabrics in the palette they illustrate in the article - classic 50s mustard and primrose, boldly contrasted with shades of grey, turquoise and powder blue. Unfortunately it seems that all I have in my cocktail is pink.

Speaking of my stash, here are the new fabrics my Mom gave me for Christmas. A little Ginger Bliss and some others.

And here's something crazy... diy at jcrew?

more randomness tomorrow...

Recharging

ahhh, it's over. We had a such wonderful Christmas! Chicago pulled out a White Christmas at the last minute. Woke up 6:30 Christmas morning to snow falling. Awesome! Oscar had such a great time. I thought he was going to wear his voice out from making the car noise for 3 days straight. He got so many great presents. And actually a manageable amount of toys. Thank you family for showing restraint!

Now that it's all over I don't know where to begin. I got so much great crafty stuff for Christmas - craft books, pattern & design books, fabric, japanese quilting magazines, a needle felting kit, and so much more. I'm trying to get organized. I have a hundred projects I want to start right now. And I've got big plans for my craft room and for this site. Actually big plans for everything. New Year's frenzy is kicking in.. let's get this Christmas stuff out of here and redecorate, let's give up carbs, let's get new jobs and start businesses. But first I have to finish eating all this chocolate and then maybe a nap.

Christmasbots

Tim made these awesome decorated sugar cookies this afternoon. A last burst of holiday activity before the serious relaxing begins. Boy am I ready for it... Oscar is in bed in 47 minutes and counting, wine is ready to be opened, cheesy movies on deck and presents are being wrapped in the other room for me to open!

Happy Holidays!

Oscar's Bunny

I finished up my last handmade Christmas present last night - a stuffed bunny in pajamas for Oscar. I wanted to make him a bedtime companion like Little Bear's. Not that he has eyes for anyone but beloved Kanga, but maybe someday. So I set out to make him a bunny that looked like these cuties... here, here, here. And then I made him little pajamas in polka dot flannel fabric that coordinate with the flannel sock monkey fabric of Oscar's new Christmas pajamas.

I'll have to remember in the future, that the crunch of holiday deadlines is not the best time to be trying to design patterns. First of all, he's HUGE. I have to work on my scale! Then, he looked like a donkey in the first iteration. Still kinda does actually. After much tweaking I got him to where I'm satisfied enough. But I really wish I'd had to time to make another one. But that's Oscar's fate - playing with a bunch of prototypes!

I'm glad to be out of the craft room. Today we bake!

are you trying to freak me out?!

are you?

it's working

is this the blair witch?!! terrifying. though cute bracelet she's rocking.

I love it! Thank you Tania!! xoxo

Ok, back on track

I hate to jinx anything by typing these words but, Oscar is back to normal. Happy, napping, sleeping through the night. Good boy!! And the end of my Christmas project list is in sight! Things are getting festive around here. We got a little bit of snow over the weekend. Not exactly The Snowy Day and nowhere near enough to justify the bitter cold. But it was nice to watch it fall.

Here's a finished Christmas gift. If you're Katie NO PEEKING!

two steps back

After feeling so accomplished yesterday, life is sucking today because Oscar has gone from being a little off - waking up at 5:30 instead of 7, fighting all his naps, fussy all day, to being totally broken - up from 1-5am last night. After consulting the ridiculous useless  books yesterday we decided to put him to bed an hour early. This works for something like 94% of babies between 12.5-12.8 months 59% of the time in 38% of the world. Math was not on our side last night. I even checked my old standby for guidance - The Trixie Update archives. Apparently Trixie did not break at 12 months like Oscar - even though her warranty was up.

So I'm too tired today. I was supposed to be making Oscar Christmas pajamas out of this sock monkey flannel. Instead, making this unauthorized ornament is all I can handle.

check

If you're related to my husband, stop reading now - Christmas surprises ahead!

My to-do list is shrinking. We finally FINALLY got an ok photo of Oscar taken and printed out and the Christmas cards are in the mail. And my packages are in the mail too! What was holding up this whole process was zippers. Cute Clover zippers I ordered with little ball pulls that I could use for these pouches I was making. I've been anxiously waiting everyday for the mail-lady to bring them to me. But she denied me. So I had to go to the Hancock and get crappy colored plastic zippers. So here they are, not as cute as they could be. But the good news is I've got cool zippers owed me and then I can make some more!

Snowmen

What do I do when the projects are piling up, the Christmas cards are unaddressed and nothing has been baked.. make snowmen of course. Unauthorized projects are my downfall. I spied little snowmen like these on one of Kitty's Oriental Craft Shop's listings and had to give them a try. They're made from cheap gloves, scraps of flannel and tweed, a shiny bead bracelet I had, some floss and a little blusher. I love them.

Unfortunately even their sweet little faces aren't making me any less of a stressball today. If my maillady doesn't deliver my long awaited goods yet again today my outgoing packages will be sitting here another day and I'll be another day closer to crazy. Probably wouldn't bother me so much except that Oscar is pushing me closer to the brink by refusing to sit still for a Christmas card photo and by choosing this week to give up on sleep altogether.

These things cheer me up though... tiny orange making via Kottke and Loobylu's friend Christina's Christmas village.. it reminds me of our HO scale Christmasland which unfortunately has to live in the attic until Oscar is old enough not to trample it.. 15?