A Crafty Christmas in Review

Christmas was wonderful! But I'm so glad that I have no plans with friends or family tonight. Not that I haven't enjoyed my time with them very much, but I have some catch-up to do, like telling you how I feel about my partially handmade Christmas now that it's over (finally).

The handmade Christmas started because I was learning how to sew, I didn't suck at it too much, it would be tons of fun, and a great way to save money on holiday gifts. My budget numbers aren't super accurate because this year I would occasionally buy craft supplies for non-holiday projects with holiday money (oops ;) ) and I can only find last year's planned budget, not what I actually spent. So I think I saved....

drum roll, please...

$60

Which is six months of Netflix. Three rounds of Applebee's 2 for $20. Twelve tickets to $5 Tuesday at the movie theatre. Not a terribly exciting amount, but better than nothing.

Oh, I forgot that I a couple less gifts this year in general, but let's still live with the assumption that I saved $60. Go me!

Making Lee a UofL snuggie (super easy pattern here) makes up for years of UofL smack talk, right? Both in the past and the future. As I was telling some friends this morning, with everything that's gone on with their basketball program in the past eight months THE JOKES WRITE THEMSELVES!

Were the stress and long nights worth the savings? Yes and no. If I can start early again next year, I think I'll do it again. If I procrastinate and realize that it's December 10 and I two purses, one snuggie, four notecards, and a year of happy to finish, then I'm just going to Etsy. (Should I remind everyone that I started planning my homemade holiday on September 3?! What went wrong?!) I would rather spend the holidays baking and watching Christmas episodes of Friends than cussing at Laura the sewing machine, swearing every ten minutes that if I ever get a machine with a serger stitch I will never iron open another seam again, and pouting about being the one-woman holiday sweatshop. (This is not meant to diminish the joy or heartfelt-ness of the handmade gifts I gave to my friends and family, because you are wonderful and totally worth it, but maybe next year, I won't procrastinate and you'll also get Christmas cards, cookies and a saner wife/daughter/sister/friend.)

I already have some ideas for next year, which I plan to start on in July at the latest. I promise.
magnetic calendar
argyle ornaments
typographic coasters

Note Cards for Everyone!

A lot of this gifts I made this Christmas were note card sets.

These went with the gifts I mailed.


Perhaps this will encourage my friends to write me real letters? I do love real letters. I should send more myself.

The cards were a nice break from sewing. You'll have to wait until next week to see how the totes turned out.

I made my sister some with Texts from Last Night on them. We love that site!

I tend to keep them pretty simple.

Not only is it easier, but I tend to have a clean, simple aesthetic.

I also stamped some simple gift tags and sewed some bags to wrap the cards in.

A Year of Happy

Perhaps the Christmas project I'm most proud of is the one that was the easiest (sort of). For Caitlin, I made A Year of Happy: a jar filled with 365 hand-written quotes (or it will be when I mail her the rest). The quotes are mostly from Caitlin's favorite movies, TV shoes, books and people, along with some happy memories. (Although I might have included a happy memory that was with someone else. Oops!)



Despite the simplicity of writing things on coordinated paper and cutting them out, it took a very long time! I only sent Caitlin the first 195 and hopefully in January (February, March...) I can get the rest done. Surprisingly though, I haven't run out of quote inspirations yet. We'll see how I'm doing once I get to 320.





Mod Podge, more paper and stamps helped to decorate the top of the jar.

Finished

I think I'm finished. I'm sure something little will come up, but I think I'm done.

The presents are all made and I can see my dining room table again.



The gifts are under the tree.



And in about seven hours I will be home-home, snuggled on the couch with some of mom's pot roast (my favorite) and a bourbon slush (another favorite).

Ever since I buckled down into holiday craft mode about ten days ago, I've been going non-stop, staying up at least an hour later than normal. I'm exhausted, but happy. Next week we'll start seeing some of the goodies I made, but first, a nap.

Super Crafty Weekend!

It feels like super crafty weekend but then I didn't get nearly as much done as I had hoped. I also suspect that those hopes were unrealistic. Anyways...

I finished the square of the baby blanket I was working on, and counseled with Aunt Billie on how to do the border. She's modified it some which will make it easier, but it still seems kinda daunting so I'm procrastinating on it now. Oops.

I used this tutorial to make a check book cover. Although a little tight, it works and I'm super excited since my old checkbook cover was ruined in the great cat-pee-tastrophe of 2009.




And I completed one of the purses that I had planned on making for several people's Christmas gift.

It turned out a little smaller than I thought, and I had toyed with switching to fabric cubes with fun things in them instead, but everyone needs a small purse for some occasions so I'll be churning out more of these very soon!

Thanksgiving is this week which means my free time is now totally devoted to gift making. *sigh* If I had only started sooner...

UPDATED: Oops! Totally forgot to link to the purse pattern which is here. And all the lovely fabric is from Joann!

Crafty Progress

The knitting is starting to come together I think! The baby blanket is starting to look more like a blanket than scarf...maybe?


I also made some more progress on another secret project. I think it's a secret. I can't remember what I've said about it before. Hmm...I should finish it this week and it will cease being a secret soon.



My goal is that if I work really hard and finish secret project and make lots of progress on the baby blanket this week, then I should have tons of time in November for Christmas gift making. The hopefully-not-too-lofty goal is to finish gift crafting in November and dedicate December to holiday baking and other general merry-making.

(Caitlin, no this secret thing is not your mysterious birthday present, which I hope to finish in early November.)

Two Dollars

I'm Catholic; Lee's Presbyterian. Sometimes to bridge the gap at dinner, I will say a freestyle grace.

I'm horrible at freestyle spoken prayer. (Not that anyone can be really bad at prayer because the important thing is that you pray, doesn't matter what you say.) I go off on tangents and say awkward things. For example, a few months ago while I was freestyling grace before dinner, I said, "Dear God, I just want to thank you for all the amazing and wonderful things you've blessed us with. [So far, so good...] I know a bitch a lot --"

What is wrong with me?! So in an attempt to apologize to God for all my complaining when I know how lucky and blessed I am, I said, "I know I bitch a lot." This is why I like to stick with "Bless us O Lord".

But in all honesty, and moving past my use of the b-word during prayer, I do complain way more than I should. I always want more when really, I have more than enough, more than most even.

When I think about areas to improve as a person and Christian, I think the biggest thing for me (and really what it all boils down to) is loving and giving generously. Sharing your love, time, fortune, gifts, chocolate chip cookies, extra tickets, hugs, anytime minutes generously with no holding back. Love love love. Give give give.

We were at Lee's church yesterday (I go to mass every week. Sometimes Lee comes too. Sometimes we go to his church. There's lots of church.) and the minister had a particularly challenging sermon seeing as he gave us all money. For real.


As we were reflecting on the story of the widow's mite and how when we give it's not from what belongs to us but from the abundance God has given us, he told us to pass out the envelopes that were at the ends of the pew. Inside was $2 to give to someone in need this week.



I'm really excited about my $2 and a chance to be a better giver. I haven't decided who's getting it yet. Louisville seems to be a hot spot for people collecting money at intersections, more so than anywhere I've lived. Or, my best friend just had her appendix taken out so she might need some flowers, cookies, or trashy magazines. (Okay, maybe trashy magazines aren't the best idea but they would be appreciated by the person in need!) Lots of options!

I was out one afternoon walking through the Highlands with some friends, one of whom was a friend of a friend I had never met before. We wandered by someone asking for money and friend-of-a-friend just gave the woman $5. As we moved on, someone made the comment wondering if the $5 was just going to the liquor store across the street, which was exactly what I was thinking. But then friend-of-a-friend said, "Well that's between her and God." Friend-of-a-friend is very wise.

Goal for my 26th year: Give more. Love more. Don't ask questions. Just give and love. Starting with this $2.

And maybe complain less too.

Katie Learns to Knit

Now that I've conquered the worlds of sewing and cooking (sort of), it's time for knitting. One more year (or ten) and I'll totally be able to take Martha Stewart in some sort of domestic duel.

After knitting and purling for a couple hours with Aunt Billie last week, it is now my job to take her awesome vintage knitting guide and make a scarf. So far all I have to show for my efforts are the knitting guide, but I'm surely going to have that scarf (mostly) done by 7 p.m. on Wednesday.



I have already ambitious knitting goals, of course. Can I make this baby blanket in time for a November baby shower? If not, I already have a back-up, easier (I think.) plan: baby cocoon.

UPDATE I tried to knit on lunch today at work and the book was of no help. I've had to turn to YouTube and I think I might have figured it out. I have 36 decent-looking stitches cast so now I'm ready to knit-purl-knit-purl-knit-purl-knit-purl-knit-purl-knit-purl...

Labor Day Sale Fiesta

One of the highlights of the long weekend was the huge sale at Joann Fabrics, which included a 10% off total purchase coupon. Clearly, this was a sign from God that it's time for me to begin my holiday crafting.

After reflecting on the things I bought I realized how much (I think; I hope.) I'm going to be saving by making Christmas gifts this year. I spent $36 at Joann and got some earring hooks, fun card stock, and the fabric and magnetic closures for the purses I want to make from this adorable free pattern. But let's just focus on the purses. I spent about $6 on the fabric (BOGO fat quarters) and $4 for BOGO magnetic closures. I still need two more of those but hopefully they'll be BOGO again soon. I also didn't get the small bit of heavyweight interfacing they need (The line was quite long!) but that should be $1. So essentially, these four purses -- four gifts -- will cost $15. I might need to pick up some thread but that's still a huge savings when normally I spend $15-$20 each.

Check out the lovely fabrics I've paired together. The top fabrics will be the outside of the purses.



Do we like?

As for things I did not save money on, I could not find fabric I loved as much as I loved these place mats at World Market, and after a month of waiting for them to go on sale I just bought them. However, they are perfect and awesome.

The Paper Anniversary

The traditional gift for your first anniversary is paper. Lee and I had previously decided to not really get each other gifts but to spend the money going to the zoo (pictures later this week, perhaps?) and to a nice dinner. However, when I saw this craft project, I knew it was the perfect present for my lolcat-loving husband.

Here is my piano-playing paper cat. He's not great at playing the piano, but is generally fun to look at.



The instructional video for this project is both informative and entertaining, if you want to watch it.

Oh, and Lee gave me some beautiful peachy roses.

 

And I forgot to share this earlier, but obviously I survived the dentist last week.Go me! I didn't even cry! Although there was a bit of flinching. 

Christmas!

 Some homemade by moi Toaster Strudel art from last Christmas.


I've been thinking about Christmas for quite some time because A. I love Christmas and reflect on it year-round (What gifts do I want? What gifts should I give? Is it acceptable to watch a Charlie Brown Christmas in April? I miss it.) and B. I'm trying to do a lot of homemade gifts this year so the time to start planning is yesterday!

I have been planning for some time now and things are finally starting to come together so I can start crafting.

Is it wrong that I love making these homemade gifts (or I think I will when I start very soon) because it's like buying gifts for me?! Beads and fat quarters and stamps and card stock! I don't get to keep the fruits of my labor, but I get to keep the tools and have fun crafting!

So far, I'm thinking about some purses, cards and earrings. Oh the fun I will have with my 10% off entire purchase at Joann Labor Day coupon fiesta!

What's Inside

I'm sure I caused you all great anticipation on Friday by sharing a picture of a box and mysteriously not revealing what was inside, since it was my mom's birthday present and she makes up a crucial 5% of my readership.

Mom has now received her gift so I can share it with the world: I made her super cute earrings.



I used this tutorial from Clever Nesting that I mentioned awhile back. Yes, it is just as easy as it looks, and it makes for some pretty inexpensive earrings. For the findings and beads it breaks down to about $1-ish each (considering I waited for a Michaels bead sale and a Joann findings sale) and the 3-in-1 tool and wire cutter were $7-ish each.

One note: When I originally got my supplies I got the bulk bag of silver-plated fish hooks and felt like they bothered my ear a little so I went back and bought the sterling silver. They're a bit more expensive (Actually, the packages are about the same price, you just get 40 hooks less.) but they look nicer and feel nicer so I think it's worth it.



Happy birthday mom! :)

Presents

My mom's birthday is Monday and since the family (Even Grandpa!) is coming to visit on Sunday she will receive her handmade gift them. Since mom is this blog's #1 fan, I can't reveal the handmade surprises in store for her yet, but I will go ahead and share the cute handmade box I crafted from this tutorial.



Happy weekend! :)

Stitch-tastic Cards and Awkward Photos

I was trying to be clever and easy at the same time and decided to try my hand at stitching some cards for a birthday present.

It was easy and it wasn't at the same time, meaning it took a couple nights (while watching Season 1 of The Big Bang Theory) and the hole punching (Push pins work better than the embroidery needle, in my opinion.) was a bit tiresome and produced some hand cramps, but I'm generally pleased.



I got the fireworks pattern from Sublime Stitching's flickr. I was really pleased with these.



The "e" is my favorite; the tea cup is my least favorite. The tea cup is taken from some random clip art and I just printed off a big "e."

I'm still working on my technique a bit, but I think there's some potential here.

In other DIY news, in an attempt to save money I've decided to try to trim my own bangs. I bought some real-deal hair scissors yesterday and gave it a whirl. I am quite relieved it turned out alright.



I never know what to do in photos. The standard smile seems too cheesy but then my other faces are just weird.
I'm awkward.

A Homemade Gift Everyone Can Love

This Christmas I'm making a bunch of homemade gifts. Partly out of financial concerns, partly because of my new craft obsession. However, some people are difficult to make things for. They might not be interested in anything my limited skills can make, especially if they're a boy (Although I have thought about sewing some ties.). But I've found an excellent idea for some of the blanks on my holiday gift list. (Yes, I'm already planning this. Don't judge. I'm super organized!)

Homemade Skittles Vodka from Mix That Drink.

Who doesn't want to see this under the tree on Christmas morning?!


image: Mix That Drink