Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Signing off
Signing off to ring in 2009 with a family camp-in, snacks and fun. See you next year with a holiday recap and some new work in progress.
Wishing you a sweet New Year!
Jill
PS: Look closely at the big man's features, all carved from a lovely butternut squash. The word for 2009 is "Improvise". :)
Sunday, December 28, 2008
All is Calm
1. Custom White Felt Wool Beads #2, 2. quick embroidered coaster..., 3. Vintage buttons and brooch bracelet, 4. White Felted Hearts Made From Recycled Sweater, 5. mummy and baby polars, 6. White on White, 7. blooms in white, 8. Handmade by me, 9. Handmade By Me, 10. Handmade Pink Christmas Ornaments-I love glitter!!, 11. Handmade bed, 12. handmade ornaments
Friday, December 19, 2008
That's my boy!
Monkey love
Stella and Irene had to travel a bit to arrive in the hands of those girls but from all reports it was worth the trip. The legwarmers worn by Irene were custom made for this special monkey as was Stella's super cool hat. Both were whipped up by Miss Momo, ten years old and an eye for monkey fashion.
We love you and miss you Stella, Irene and the monkey keepers. Merry Christmas to our favorite peeps. :)
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
December's Mini Quilt Swapping
My first thought was to fit each of the five in the quilt somehow. I must have sketched out forty different way to make that happen. In the end though, the sketch I liked the best was a pared down Wizard of Oz theme (Kim's favorite movie, and one of mine too).
Each of the hanging charms is made from fabric handstitched (quilted almost) onto two layers of wool felt. I know I said I simplified this quilt but I still couldn't fit everything in that little quilt and so the charms were born. I think they might be my favorite part and I'll probably make more of them eventually. I think they might make really cute little pins.
Kim sent me a beautiful mini as well. I love it so much that it deserves a post of its own. Yes, I did make the happy noise when I opened her package. Check back and see how pretty Kim's mini is! Its already found a very happy spot on my kitchen wall. :)
Monday, December 15, 2008
Cozy
Created with fd's Flickr Toys.
Friday, December 12, 2008
mmmm....cookies
It smells like Christmas around here. Cookies are beginning to pile up in the most unexpected places. Unexpected because someone's children have already eaten at least half of the stockpile. Its alright, I'm a very creative cookie hider.
The latest batch making my house smell so good is the classic Alaska cookie. Named by G when he was to young to pronounce Molasses and during a time when the grandparents were driving from NY to Alaska every summer. Alaska cookies were born. G won't touch chocolate anything but will eat a spice cookie anytime. Go figure, if I couldn't positively identify that giant head of his I would have sworn they switched babies at the hospital. We love him anyway of course, aversion to chocolate and all.
If your in mid-Christmas baking hysteria or haven't even started these are a great, make your house smell amazing cookie that will keep until the big day (if you hide them well).
Alaska Cookies
1 1/2 cups butter
2c sugar
2 Large eggs
1/2c molasses
4c flour
4tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
2tsp cinnamon
2tsp ginger
1tsp cloves
So you mix them in the typical cookie like way, roll into balls, roll in sugar and bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes. I'd watch the first batch to see how long it really takes. Apparently my oven is a little quick and I swear they were looking done in 6 minutes so use your own judgement. Let me know if you give them a try!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Let's try this again...
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Darn Camera
On to bigger and better things, I won something ! Woo hoo! Can I get a Woo Hoo? Yes, I did make the kids do that for me at breakfast. They already know I'm crazy, it will be okay. I left comments on an embarrassingly large number of blog giveaways yesterday, all organized by Sew Mama Sew. They hosted a great blog giveaway day and Elizabeth at Oh Franson deserves a great big thank you from me because oh, did I mention, I won! Elizabeth had up for grabs four postal boxes filled with all kinds of cool fabric and one of them is headed my way. She has a great site with tons of tutorials that I'll be adding to my bloglist. Alright, so one more woohoo for me and off you go to check out Oh Franson.
PS:Neenee-the curtains are awesome! Now get off this site and go paint something...Christmas is coming! :)
Monday, December 1, 2008
Thankful
I've actually had a pretty productive couple of days making Christmas gifts, unfortunately I have nothing to show you because one of those adorable kids has wandered off with my camera. Someone's probably making an awesome video of the dog. I'll be back soon to post some actual photographic proof of gift making but until then I'll be hanging out with my husband. We'll probably just be looking for the camera together but it still counts. :)