greetingarts

granny tree

I never get my advent calenders made (or bought, for that matter) before December 1, so last year I thought I'd be smart and I got the Littlest Pet Shop one for 50% off after Christmas, but guess what?  I actually finished crocheting an advent calendar last week, and assembled it well before Thanksgiving even!  Huh, who knew?

It was November's mystery project from Sarah London, and I had no idea what it was going to be when I started.  I figured probably a tree, since it called for green and white yarn, but I didn't know it was going to be an easy, clever little advent calendar when it was all done.  I ran into a hitch, though, running out of yarn with just a handful of rounds left to go for the final granny square.  What to do, what to do?  I really wanted to make this out of stash yarn, and above all, I didn't want to have to wait to finish this project.

So I made the final granny square only 7 rounds large rather than 13, and turned it into a tree trunk.  The green grannies then have one more round of white fluffy yarn (mine was a novelty polyester I got from the 99 Cent Store years ago when I wasn't yet a yarn snob) crocheted around the outside, and then are folded diagonally, to form a triangle. The brown granny was folded into a rectangle at the bottom.  They form little envelope pockets, perfect for tucking goodies into, one on the left side, one on the right.  I think it worked out well, and I'm very happy with the final project.  The bows were purchased from the 99 Cent Store too (and I still have some left over), and the calendar is ready for hanging.

Our big tree is up, the ornaments were hung yesterday, and slowly the linens and candles and cardmaking supplies will find their way out of the storage boxes.  I can't believe Christmas is right around the corner.  Yay, bring it on!  I'm ready.

a rafter of turkeys

Got stung by a bee on my right hand Saturday around noon, and it just now stopped looking like a balloon and I can finally say it's about 98% back to normal.  Of course, then I went and snipped a piece out of my middle finger on my left hand about ten minutes ago.  Sigh.  Sometimes I feel like I should just call it a day and crawl back into bed.

Anyhow, luckily I'm not hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year, and I got all of the supplies ready in advance for the craft I taught to Rebecca's 2nd grade class this afternoon.

The girls helped me get 25 kits put together, complete with all the ingredients...  One sandwich creme cookie, some candy corn, a chocolate bell, two mini M&Ms of the same color, and a cinnamon red hot.  Add a dollop of chocolate frosting, and you end up with a cute little turkey guy.

If you don't have mini M&Ms, you could use mini chocolate chips, too.  I got the idea here.  And *my* very own brilliant idea was to use the containers from my kids' favorite Shrimp Wonton Soup (can you tell they love it?  Why yes, I had no problem coming up with 25 containers!), because they were too good to just toss in the recycling bin.  This afternoon, the kids constructed their turkeys on top of the flipped over lids, and then when it was time to go home, they just turned the empty containers over so that those became the lids and the lids became the bottoms, and brought them home that way.  Hmmm.  Doesn't sound so earth-shattering when I write it all out, but I thought myself quite clever...

Here's the other art project Rebecca brought home, a recipe for leftover turkey casserole, in a cute, decorated turkey paper bag.  I definitely moved up this year, not like when she was in Kindergarten and her father and I didn't make the Top 5.  No, this year, I made it on to every single feather.

Happy Thanksgiving, whether you're American or Canadian, or not.  Because, really, there's always something to be thankful for, isn't there?

chain letter, anyone?

A few (yikes, over 3!) weeks ago, I got an email that was sort of a chain letter, but with an arts and crafts twist.  Now, usually I would just ignore the letter and go on about my day, but I have a lot of trouble saying "no" to people I like, and I do like making things to give away.  And, sure, it would be fantastic to receive some fun mail from other artists instead of bills, credit card applications and supermarket advertisements.  Then, a couple weeks later, I got the same email again from Regina.  And if I can't say no to the lovely Jessica, I *certainly* can't say no to Regina!

For each email, I was supposed to make something - anything at all, it could be knit, crocheted, sewn, drawn, painted, molded from clay, cut out, whatever.  I was supposed to make it and drop it in the mail to the person listed in the #1 spot within a week.  Yeah, right, that didn't happen, but hey, at least I'm finally doing it... better late than never, right?  Anyway, then I was to move Jessica's (and Regina's) name up to the number one spot, and put my name in the second.  So three weeks later, I chose to make these two gecko buddies.  I used the Lion Brand pattern pretty much as it was written for the guy on the right, and then made it again, but this time all in one piece with nothing to join or seam together, and with a much shorter tail, for the fella on the left.  And I used mini scrapbooking brads instead of the googly eyes and some fingering weight yarn for the tongues.  These will finally be on the way to Jenny and Vesna by the end of tomorrow.  I hope they like them and that my geckos put a smile on their faces.

Now, I have a huge problem with putting other people on the spot, so instead of racking my brains and getting all stressed out about who to choose for the 12 (6 for each email I received) people I have to send this thing to, I'm just going to put it out here to anyone who wants to play along.  I've got 12 spots to fill, any takers?  Let me know... I'd be happy to pass this on!  Nothing like this has ever worked for me before, but I dunno.  I figured I'd keep it going at least on my part, didn't really take me much time and was kind of fun.  If I get anything back, wouldn't that be a neat surprise?

red crochet

The yarn for my new project arrived yesterday, in record time.  22 balls of 100% DK weight wool from Elann.com that I ordered late Thursday afternoon.  So great!  I'm working on something to give my sister when the baby comes.  Because I know the baby (still working on that name, guys?) will be showered with new things, but Mom will need some gifts and attention, too.

Also crocheted in red (but acrylic, this time) are two newborn hats I made a couple of weeks ago for charity.  I hope to have at least three or four more done by the time my guild meets again in December.  Every year at Christmas time we try to donate red caps - knit, crochet, any style, any shade of red - to hospital wards and baby charities.  These two were made with patterns I found on the internet, here and here.

I'm also working on something else, but I ran out of yarn on the last few rounds of the final granny square, and I refuse to buy a whole new skein for the few measly yards I need to complete it.  That's okay, after a little bit of mumbled swearing late last night, I came up with a solution that allows me to still use my stash. If I can get some of the stuff I'm doing for Rebecca's school finished so I can craft, I should be able to post pictures by the end of the week... Don't you hate when you have *real life* stuff that gets in the way of your fun?!

fun and games

Ever since we won the Game Night raffle basket at Rebecca's Open House last year, we've been trying to play board and card games regularly as a family.  And since my husband has been spending more time with us these past few weekends, we've had a lot of fun just staying at home and sitting around the coffee table, nursing our coughs and slight fevers, and laughing together.  We aren't playing Wii as much, we're playing classics like Uno and Trouble.

Pictureka is a lot of fun, a new game we recently discovered.  We own the Easter edition and the Halloween edition, and once we start playing the kids have a hard time stopping.

By far, though, the prettiest game we own has got to be Froggy.  AllModern.com recently contacted me and asked me if I'd like to choose something (for free!) and write up a review  for them.  I jumped at the chance and gravitated towards The Friends Collection from Sevi (my newest favorite children's company).  Every single toy in that collection is a work of art, and Froggy is no exception.  It's a memory game made of wood and vegetable-based dyes, with the most adorable illustrations.  The game is never the same twice, since you mix the pieces around before you start.

You spin the spinner and feed flies to your frog, trying to remember where the holes are.  Then you move the lever and if your fly stays afloat, the froggy gets to eat and you get to keep your points.  If there was a hole, then the fly will fall through, and the pond gets the fly and you lose your points.  There's memory, strategy (there are different point values on the flies) and luck involved, which makes for a game that all ages can play.  I realize that the price tag is rather high, and I didn't have to pay for mine, but truthfully the quality of the game is outstanding.

I just love looking at those smiling faces.  The ones on the game are pretty dang cute, too. 

it all got done

Somehow, we managed.  Target didn't have any plain white knee high socks or tights in Rebecca's size, and on Wednesday night I was kind of panicking when I remembered an old pair of the girls' footless tights that had a teeny paint stain on them. I'd dumped them in the box designated for charity, so I pulled those out and with some pinking shears, fabric marker, a can of Sprite and tape, I transformed them into Pearl the Cloud Fairy stockings.

With pinking shears, I cut the legs off as long as possible, then stretched one over a soda can.  Using tape as a spacer and to mask off the areas I didn't want painted, I just colored stripes with a pink fabric marker that I had left over from Rebecca's birthday party.  The tops rolled in on themselves, didn't need hemming at all and it was pretty perfect.  I didn't spend a dime, and it was very MacGyver-ish of me, don't you think?  I don't think my husband or Rebecca was sufficiently impressed.

And on Thursday I only stayed up until a little past midnight finishing up 26 of these candy corn bags for Rebecca's classmates.  See the little tag on the right?  Made by printing this adorable design by Babalisme onto cardstock (sorry, I don't think it's available for download anymore).  Jessie tried to help Rebecca sign her name on the tags, since they all had to get done at breakfast the following morning.  Cute, huh?  Rebecca was not amused.

And speaking of Jessie, here's the only sharp photo I could find of her in the hat.  

Trust me, it looked cute, and with a Hello Kitty Halloween T-shirt and the skirt I made last year, she was stylin' during trick-or-treat.  I also made some quick, reversible treat bags from the glittery ghost fabric seen in the background of the first photo and some Halloween Hello Kitty stuff I found at Joann.  Of course they wanted the HK facing outwards.  

There was plenty of loot for all... I'm off to sneak some Reese's cups.