yay for holidays!

 They are always so enjoyable, especially when they're full of family, friends and little kids getting tons of toys!  We have had a wonderful holiday season so far, but we still have one more Christmas, a turkey dinner at my sisters and New Years traditions and celebrations to go!  It started with the ward Christmas party in early December, then we had Christmas at my moms house!  I can tell you, my homemade holiday was a hit.  To the right is the doll I made for my niece.  My niece decided to name her Maria. OK, she's not so Puerto Rican nor is she a Shark, but that's okay! 

To the left is the one I made for Lydia.  Her face isn't as cute, but I like this ones dress better.  I even made little cap sleeves!!!  Before I gave her away, I put a pretty litte braid in her hair with a pretty white bow. 

When Lydia got it, she put it in to her mouth.  SUCCESS!  Lydia also got the cashmere pig that I previously posted about.  That one stayed in the mouth longer than the doll, so even better success!

Update on the Snuggle Sack made for my sister, apparently, the lone ranger, Lulu, like the big snuggle sack all to herself.

If you look to the right, you might be wondering - what the heck is that?!?!  It's ROSE SOAP.  Mom and I made this soap one saturday... and well, the color didn't quite turn out the way it was supposed to and ended up looking like poop... so we went with it!!  They became prank gifts for a few individuals.

I also made come cat nip toys for the brother and sister that don't have little boys, little girls or little doggies...  That left Fletcher and Dana!  I knew they both had some crazy kitties, so I came up with some fun designs for the kitty toys.  I made sort of a tug of war ball, a Wilson guy, reminiscent of the Wilson I made for my kitty about a year and a half ago that she loves.  He's about 4 inches tall.  Then there is the weird pulley thing with a super long string to drive your kitty nuts from the comfort of the couch!  Below that we have some kitty ice cream cones!  I love these!  While I was making the first one, my cat wouldn't leave me alone, so I had to make a few of these in order to be able to have some give away as gifts.  My particular favorite is the Mint Chocolate Chip one.    All of these we made with 100% cotton yarn along with cat nip wrapped in thin tissue paper.  

 

 



On Tuesday of the Christmas week, we had my work "Holiday" party.  We got to go to the boss' country club, grub out and go bowling at the alley in the country club.  It was a ton of fun!  It did not end up being the best round of bowling I've ever accomplished, but I can say that Dave and I walked away from the party $70 richer... but only because Dave is a beast.  We went to Dave's dads on Christmas Eve and had fun there.  We made the decision early on that we were going ANYWHERE on Christmas day. It was a great decision, because we had a great time!

Here is a picture of the "roast beast" that Dave made.  I must say my hubby is quite accomplished in his cooking abilities.  It's amazing having him around!  He always makes some great meals!  This one is just one of many, but particularly special because it was Christmas.  For Christmas day, we let jonah play the DS Santa got for him, I watched the Other Side of Heaven, Annie and Todd came over for a little to share a few laughs, and after Jonah fell asleep on the chair, Dave and I had date night (at our humble abode) and watched Inception! 

Here are a few other gifts I put together.  To the right is a blanket I put together for my niece, Sydney (d'oy).  Its much bigger than it seems to be in the picture.  It's about 6 feet long and about 3 feet wide.  I made blankets similar to this one for my sisters last year.  I think I posted previously about them.  Since I wasnt able to get my sewing machine working last year, I sewed their blankets all by hand, with the occasional assistance of my cousin's sewing machine.  This year, thank goodness I am a genius, because I got my machine working!  This one is solid!  It should keep her rocking at her sporting events for years to come.

 

 I also made these beauties.  Again, they're the Mali Wedding bead that I love so dearly.  It's just hard getting beads that match, since the normal look of mali beads are all missmatched...  at any rate, I love these, and they went to the wonderful Annie along with the gorgeous red ones (that were previously posted) when she came to visit on Christmas.

 AND FOR THE GRANDE FINALE!!!  Le Piece de Resistance!  I made this fantabulous necklace for my little crazy sister, Merry Ellen.  I love it and think it's hilarious!  It's already made it to her Facebook profile picture.  SUCCESS.

 I also made a sketchbook holder with pencil and tool pockets for Katheryne, but I didn't get a picture of it! 

I hope whomever you are, I got your creative juices going!

I love Bleach... and dachsunds.

Weird, huh?!  But look what it can do to t-shirts!!!  I mixed water and bleach, about 1/2 and 1/2 and then took some regular paint brushes and painted away.  My only suggestion would be to NOT leave the paint brushes in the bleach/water combo to wait for your return, because you will come back to no bristles on your wooden stick that used to paint things!

I got an old green v-neck shirt and I painted a tree on it.  I grabbed a pink shirt and painted some flowers.  The bleach make the fabric on the pink shirt turn white and then the green shirt go brown.  I didn't take any decent pictures of the pink one because it was taking forever to dry.

My gorgeous sister, Dani, has 3 Dachsunds.   On the left is a picture I stole from her Facebook account of 2 of her dachsunds.  The third dachsund that is not pictured is a lovely example of a black and tan dachsund.    At any rate, Dani found these wonderful things, called snuggle sacks, but didn't know how to go about making one...  Never fear, Dani!  Your crazy crafter sister is here!  I found some really awful upholstry fabric and then also bought some really cheap fleece on Black Friday, whipped it together, threw in a little cotton quilt batting and there we go!  Below is the Abby-made "snuggle sack."  It's much bigger than what it looks like in the picture.  It's about the size of a pillow case.  I hope her grogs love it!

I will be updating soon in regards to Doll # 2 that has brown hair and a blue, poofy, dress as well as a new snuggle sack.  Apparently the dachsund not pictured is a wee-bit concerned about her personal space and will need her own "snuggle sack."  Sorry, Princess Lulu Wellington III, I should have known.

Update on Christmas Crafting!!!

I love Christmas.  I haven't said it to anyone else yet, but I keep saying, "Merry Christmas" to my hubby.  He thinks I am crazy for saying it so early, but why not say it?!  We've got our Christmas tree up and our mini Jonah Christmas tree and the other small decorations - that means it is time to say Merry Christmas.  So to you, reading, whoever you may be, "Merry Christmas."  And I mean it!

Christmas is wonderful for so many reasons.  But I wish to discuss my favorite reasons of all... CRAFTING!  I feel like such a crazy when I say that, but ya know what?  I don't care.  Crafts are awesome. And if you don't think so too, you're either crazy or you've never crafted a day in your life.  I suggest you try it out.  Because, like I've said... It's amazing.   You get to spend your time wisely, doing something that actually bears a physical, giftable, result.  Here is an update on what I've been up to when I can get my mind off of Christmas.  As the goal this year is to make a Handmade Holiday, I think I'm doing pretty well.  While we purchased gifts for most, I am making a bunch of gifts to coincide with the other gifts.  I'm not even that excited about the purchased gifts. Here is what I've been working on.  If you are family, you will probably see one of these gifts or two go to one of your kids.  If you have a notion that your kid would like a particular item, please let me know so that I can be certain that one gets to your wee one...

<----- Piggy's alllllll finished!  Isn't she cute?!  I think I will name her Penelope, after a Russian Pot Bellied pig one of my aunts had when I was growing up.  She will be going to one of my many lovely nieces.  Merry piggieness! 

Here is the Martha Stewart Tutorial. 

If you would like one, let me know - there is only so much of the sweater left.  I am going to make a grey/white/pink one for Jonah...because he said he wanted one... but I think because I have been spending all this time making stuff for other kids.  It's ok.  I can understand that.

Say hello to my new little lady.  The picture on the left was from before I gave her a multi-colored leopard print dress.  She is not entirely finished yet as I have to paint on her face.  I went Black Friday shopping at JoAnn's where they had fantastic deals on fleece and flannel!  And this lady is one of the many creations to come from that shopping trip.  Her head is made of BRIGHT red yarn.  This was probably the most challenging/time consuming part, but it turned out great.  Whoever the lucky little girl is who get this will have a lot of fun doing her hair... and to prevent fraying of the yarn hair, I just tied a little knot at the end of each strand.  LOVE IT!

Bunnies galore!  I have made a few bunnies this year so far.  I like bunnies.  They have big, cute floppy ears and because of that, you can make their bodies look like anything = hard to mess up.  Gotta love that! 

The one on the left is denim with some tan cotton remnants from some Pillow cases we made in Young Womens for ConKerr Cancer: A case for smiles.  

The one on the right was made out of a pair of gloves from JoAnn's that cost a whopping $1.  I made the bunny in about an hour and a 1/2 and it was my first time.  The best part (that you can't see) is his little bunny tail. 

Obviously, I have been going a wee bit nuts about all of these projects, but they're keeping me focused on the goal - a fantastic Handmade Holiday.

To the left is a washcloth I knitted up one night when I couldn't sleep.  My mom and I make soaps and bath salts and sugar scrubs and all sorts of fantastic things every year and I thought it would be fun to wrap up the bars of soap in knitted cotton wash clothes. The great thing about the Stockinette stitch (the pattern in the center of the cloth) is that its smooth on one side and rough on the other.  I use these washcloths a lot and I love them!

This blue bear on the right is something I did out of boredom - again.  Because I didn't have a pattern, he is a little bit funky, but I love him!  I think he's going to one of Dave's nephews, but again... I just have to finish his face.  I must have something against faces or something.

On to the personal/family note...
Thanksgiving was fun!  We had a huge Family/Friend celebration at the Trolley Stop.  I will add pictures of the plethora of food that was there.  Here are pictures of my cupcakes!

This is Kentucky.  We visited KY on Thanksgiving weekend.  It was gorgeous!  Can't you tell by the pictures!

Brothers and Sisters with Babies!  To the left is my brother, Jay, with his daughter and his work gear.  We had a surprise pizza dinner for my step-dad at South Park Tavern. It was a ton of fun and he hated us for surprising him.  They have great pizza and 1/2 off their L and XL pizza's on Mondays.  Ha. Ha.  To the right is Dave's little sister, Amanda, with her little cutie Conner while we were in KY for Thanksgiving. Isn't he SO adorable.  He's got some squeezable cheeks, for sure.

November... already?

WHAT!  Snow/Hail and Ornaments? Christmas stuff already!!  Yahoo!  It feels like January was just yesterday...

I love the Holiday season, like I have said on previous occasions.  The picture here is of what I found on top of my car on Saturday morning.  Jonah and I were headed out of the house to go to the 2nd Street Market.  Heating up the car was a must.  It gave me a moment to put the suet in my bird feeder, AND to take this semi cool pic! 

Here are some pictures of recent holiday projects that I have promised to update on.  To the right is an ornament I hand painted.  It's meant for Big Dave, who is my husband's father.  Big Dave (who's actually just tall and skinny) has a blue house. Yay for ornaments!

Here is the PIG!  All finished, well mostly.  I have to put in the eyes, nose lines and finish the ears.  YAY!  I made this out of an old 80's pink and grey argyle cashmere sweater that I bought at the Seven Hills resale shop in Cinci for a whopping $0.25.  It was just so soft and so pink that I couldn't just send it back to a resale shop - I had to do something with it, and wearing it was not an option.  I am going to make another with the argyle parts, too.  Look forward to seeing that more towards Christmas.

 <---  A huge piece of rose quartz gets a simple twirled sterling setting with the work of the great sterling wire and my (stolen from my great mom) pliers!

Here are two pairs of earrings (Captain Obvious).  They're both Swarovski crystal sets with the wrapped sterling settings...  what can I say, twirls are my thing this year!

 

 This is Peruvian ...something.... maybe Agate? Yeah... I think that's what momma told me.  I twirled it again.  Both the back of the rock and the twirled setting lay flat in the back.  Any takers?  Don't know who  I want to give this to yet...

 And a set of antique Mali Wedding Bead earrings... but these are for me.  I <3 yellow.  It was one of the accent colors for a friends wedding this past October and ever since then, yellow is my obsession.  Well, not really.  I don't sit and think of Yellow not stop, but if someone were to randomly ask me what my favorite color is, I would happen to say for the first time in my life, "YELLOW!"  My normal favorites have always been a mossy green and a rusty red.

And then I have something entirely unrelated, but something that I am very  proud of... my hubby! He works so hard at his job at the base AND at his other job - SCHOOL.  He's in his final year and STILL has a 4.0. He works a full time job as a program manager doing really cool things with really cool people and he does a great job at it, then he comes home and works his tail off on school work.  He never ceases to amaze me. This is a paper he wrote on Indo-US relations, blah de blah stuff I couldn't even begin to understand and he was told that he should present and some smarty-pants symposium.  Love him and his hard-working butt.

Bring it on, Holidays!

I love the Holidays. Not because you get to see family, eat tons of food or anything - well, okay, that, too... BUT because of crafting! Now, I'm not some granny that just knits all day long in a rocking chair (though I do love a good knit every now and then) I just love figuring stuff out and putting it together! My hands are itching at crafting. While it is the week of Halloween, I haven't done any Halloween crafting, but there is good reason! CHRISTMAS! I am planning on handmaking a lot of gifts this year. I am going to keep most of them quiet on here, for fear the sisters are looking! However, those who I am sure would never happen to stubble upon my humble blog will surely find a place here.

For starters, I have a pink cashmere argyle sweater, circa 1987. I have been dying to do something crafty with it for YEARS. I discovered it's destiny a few weeks ago. PIG. Yes. An awesome little cashmere stuffed pig. Luckily, there is enough sweater to go around for about 3 little piggies. Here is the how-to from good ol' Martha. I will certainly be sharing photos of the finished product. Because I don't have scanner/printer at the house anymore, one of myfavorite parts of the whole project so far was recreating the pattern! I needed to make it bigger than the 3 inch one they have on the pattern. Yay for MATH! I never liked math before now. Math has been put to good use, finally, after all these years.

I'll share some of my past productions from Christmases passed.
Welcome sign, simple Acrylic paint on wood

This one was a gift to myself - a family tree! It's cardstock cut out in a tree and leaf pattern. Light leaves are women and dark leaves are the men. Left side is my side Dave's is on the right. LOVE!

My big projects from last year were blankets. My littlest sisters are swimmers and needed something that was personalized and fun! I love these blankets. I chose colors and designs that match their personalities. Merry is wild and crazy and enjoys a good neon color or two. Katheryne is mild mannered, wise, and reflective. Sky blue and simple flowers suit her. I hope they loved them, too! I took these two photos while still in the making-of: process. I stitched "Katheryne" with a yellow embroidery thread.



Other items I made last year include but not are limited to:
homemade soaps: Man soap (that was brown and smelled like a yummy outdoorsmen), rose soap, milk, honey and almond soap, tea soap (with variants of mint and chamomile YUM)
bath salts: we made a "citrus", a "soothing" scent and a "fresh." The scents were mixtures of all sorts of scented and enriched oils
sugar scrub: i think there was only one kind to this... possibly two since I think we made two batches.
Table top cornhole: this was Dave's surprise. Luckily he was gone for a week before Christmas, so I was able to get it done in time. Dave was pleased with the gift and they have been a lot of fun ever since! I bought the set and then painted and poly'd myself. No stencil, baby. Just pure talent. Here's a picture to prove it.


purses: for the wee nieces. I also purchased finger puppets from IKEA and I put them in the purses. They were made out of a tan fabric and I threw together some flowers out of pretty fabric, ribbon and buttons and voila!
and more!

A Christmas tradition of ours is Painting Ornaments. While I have painted quite a few ornaments in my day, here is of my favorites:


I'll be posting more about Holiday Handmade! Yah for holidays!

my "lunch" to carrillon park and back.

I work a regular 8-5 job, Monday through Friday along with being on call every 3rd week. My first job post-college, I had a wonderful walking buddy. We had scheduled walks in between our conference calls, phone screens, and resume perusing (we were on a recruiting team). I am in my second job post-college. I am an HR manager for a small Senior Home Care Agency. When I was based out of our Cincinnati Office, it was absolutely insane how busy I was. I would get to work, and then, after a day of running around and running ragged, I would realize that the day was over and then I would also realize that I hadn't eaten anything because I was so busy. I did this to myself nearly every day, or would finally eat around 4 or 5. Yikes. Let me tell you, it did not do wonders for my mentality, psyche or waistline. At one point, I even felt like I was having a heart attack - crazy, right?! Ridiculous. Luckily, about 2 months ago, I was transferred. I no longer have to commute for 2 hours a day, I get to see more sun, and I am MUCH less stressed in our Dayton office. Thank goodness. It has done wonders for my productivity, especially at home and with the family. I am a more normal functioning citizen of society (see how I said, "more." Yeah, well, we all know I am nowhere near normal, but I can at least try). I am no longer exhausted! I have even started CRAFTING again. Thank the heavens. I love crafting.

Back to my original point, work. In my new office, I get the chance to actually TAKE a lunch. I have elected to start walking on my lunches and then come back and eat. Yesterday, I got to walk a few miles to one of the most beautiful parks in Dayton, Carrillon Park. I feasted during my "lunch." Fall was beautiful and I took it all in. As afore mentioned, I am back to crafting, which of course means I am back to photograpy! Below are some of the pictures I took at the park on my "lunch" break. Love.