It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Woosh! I'm still full! I hope everyone had a wonderfully bountiful and restful Thanksgiving. Jimmy and I took a few days off to enjoy the time after the holiday. As much as I love Christmas and everything that goes along with it, I love Thanksgiving for the fact that there is no pressure. No expectations. Except food!

I haven't visited many blogs until this morning, and I can see everyone has been very busy! I love seeing how everyone personalizes their Christmas celebration.

So we broke out the Christmas trees the day after...and the multitude of boxes! We have 2 trees, and lots of set-around stuff. And apparently, enough ornaments to decorate about six trees...yikers! We've had white lights on our trees for years and years, and last year we decided that this year we'd put colored lights on for a change. I'm loving it! It seems so very old fashioned. I'll have to wait for a sunny day to get some pics of the entire trees. But in the meantime, here's a peek at a few of our favorite things.

I found these little boxes of vintage ornaments this year at a flea market in Branson! I just love them! They say 25 cents in the corners.

A few ornaments from the tree and part of our village lined up on the mantle. My Mom and I painted all the village buildings years ago, and my husband (bless his heart!) just adores them. I'm pining to make some of the cardboard glittered ones I keep seeing around, but we already have this one, and do I really want to make more work for myself right now?

This is one of our many Santas! A tiny one, as you can tell by the mouse. But very cute.

Oh, and the ribbon candy up top; we found that over the weekend at a tea shop. I remember my mom's best friend always having ribbon candy out, and we'd actually eat it! I told Jimmy "for display only!" We'll see how that goes.

And.....ta-da! A finished knitting project. My very first. I'm proud...probably beyond reason. I even did a few rows of seed stitch at the top. Luckily, it's a fuzzy yarn, because it's not perfect seed stitch. Oh, yeah...it's a pouch. You couldn't tell?

I'm planning to lace a silk ribbon through it and put a bag of bath salts in it and sit it on a shelf, oh so cutely, in our bathroom. Maybe a couple of pom poms at the ends of the ribbon? We'll see. Very decadent stuff.

Thankful

Come, ye thankful people, come
Raise the song of harvest home...

The picture above is a crazy quilt given to me by a member of my church. It's over 100 years old and I love it. It's about 20" square with a velvet binding and tons of beautiful stitches. I've been scared to use it, but I got it out this fall and put it over a chair that sits by our sideboard.

I have lots to be thankful for, and I hope you do too!
Enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving Day and a great weekend!

Scissor Keeps

I'm working on a few of these scissor keeps for my etsy shop. I did this one in Christmas fabric because I use a good pair of scissors to cut my ribbon for my packages, and I thought it would be a good idea to have a nice holder for them, so they don't get used for cutting paper and other stuff. And I love these buttons, they look like gumdrops!

Then I have a couple of other non-Christmas fabric ones...



Now to get them finished!

Sewing kit and tote

The gift I spoke about was given on Sunday. My mother-in-law is a crafty person who likes sewing a lot. So I made her a sewing kit and a project tote, which we filled with some crafty magazines. These were the only pictures I got, and they are not terrific, but...

The green background above is a much softer mossy green.

It's got a pincushion, a small pocket for floss, a needle holder and a scissors holder. I want one!

The sewing kit turned out really nice, so I'm thinking about making a few more (one for myself!) to sell in my etsy shop. I have been a bad etsy seller, since I haven't updated my shop since I opened it, which is now one month ago! So, I've come up with a few ideas for some smaller items that hopefully will get me that first sale. This darned "pays the bills" daytime job sure can get in the way of getting things designed and made for the "love this stuff-crafty business" part time job.

And there are so many things I want to make...it's an endless list! But I know I'll never have the time to make half of the stuff I dream up, so I need to make myself concentrate on a small slice of ideas that can be practically implemented. Must.use.discipline. Stick to a plan. Right-o.

Red and pink; pink and red

The yarn bag is finished! I think I could carry about six projects at once in this thing. It's very roomy. I still want to make a couple of small drawstring pouches to put small stuff in...but that will probably have to wait until Christmas projects are done.
We finally got a sunny day to take some decent pictures, but I can never get the pink felt to look as soft as it does in real life. But soft or not, here it is:

The front has the crocheted flower. Those pinks don't clash like that in person. I stitched some oversized cross stitches up the center of the front and back, and over the side seams.


The back view shows the stitches and the underside of the handles. The top is a thrifted red wool blazer I felted. Very soft.

It's hard to see inside there, but I put one big pocket in a red and white print. You can see the gathers for the drawstring closure. I used the red and white gingham ribbon you can just see at the top for the drawstring. I trimmed the material with the red felt and then used my machine blanket stitch around it. That took over half an hour to stitch that...I thought it would never end. You can see the stitching a little better here-

I just love this fabric...it makes me happy. Red and pink, I'm loving that combo right now.

Next week I'll have some finished pictures of this. It turned out great, but Sunday is the giving away day, so it'll have to wait until after that. Until then, I hope everyone is gearing up for Turkey Day! Can't wait to eat some of this..yummy!

Needlework aplenty

Lots of different kinds of needlework going on around here these days! I've got several scarves I'm crocheting for Christmas gifts. I've got one done...

Two or three more to go.

I'm knitting (yes, an actual project!) what I hope will be a very luxurious pouch that I plan to line with some decadent fabric and tie with silk ribbon as a gift. Here's what it looks like so far...

Um, yes, that is knitting. I promise. Between the fuzzy yarn and the fuzzy picture, it doesn't look like much at the moment. But I'm actually moving right along...I hope. This will force me to learn how to seam up my knitting, because this will need a seam. And by the way, purling hurts! Yeow...my left hand that holds the yarn gets sore as it can be. Anybody else have that problem?

I promise I'll post a picture of the yarn bag as soon as I can get a good picture of it. It's so big, it's kinda hard.

Lastly, we hit the flea market this past weekend. And I got these goodies - another box of patterns including a great robe pattern I will just have to make (very Mary Tyler Moore-ish), a box of wool (cool box), a sewing book and some great fabric. I've noticed my eye just seems to gravitate toward sewing and needlework stuff these days. Wonder why?!

A bouquet for you

My little blog here is very new and unknown to most. I wondered who would find it, read it, like it. I never expected to get such a "pick me up" from other's comments. But, boy I do!

So, I'd like to offer those of you who have taken the time to comment and give me encouragement a bouquet of thanks. Well, and really, anyone who's reading (even if you don't comment...but hey, feel free!).

Daisies, because I'm really more of a daisy person than a rose person. I mean I like roses fine, but daisies are so cheerful and sweet, aren't they?

I'm very glad you are there. You make my day!

Goodies to be...

Here's a peek at the yarn bag...still some finishing details to be done before the big unveiling.
And here's the dishcloth...not blocked yet, but mighty pretty I think anyway. I'm going to do another one and reverse the colors, blue body and white border.

Stacks of fabric for things to be made. I adore the sampler fabric from Blackbird Designs, and I haven't had the heart to cut into yet, but.I.must..really! It needs to be made into many adorable things.

And these are going to be made into a gift...soon.

It was a sew-sew weekend

Lots of sewing, but not as much accomplished as I thought. A few things, but I never seem to get the volume of things done I think I will. Of course, I had to allow for some crochet...

This is the dishcloth...almost finished. Just needed the border, which I finished, but haven't taken a picture of yet. Love, love, love it! I really was planning on making two or three of these just for show, but holding it really made me want to scrub-a-dub on my face with it! The texture is wonderful, and it's got a good weighty feel. I have a feeling I'll be making a few more to actually use...very decadent to me!

This is the red felt purse I was working on...it's kinda wonky. I really like the idea of it...it's just crooked! Not terribly crooked, this picture makes it look worse than in real life, but enough that it will be one I keep for me. It's actually quite small and I have a hard time sewing small things. Give me a huge quilt and no problem, but give me a tiny purse and I feel like I can't quite get my hands around it! Of course, that wasn't any problem with this...

This is the yarn bag...actually, this is one of the handles. (I made friends with my macro button this weekend!) The bag is just about done...and it's big! Big, I tell ya. I won't have any problems carting around several projects with this thing. Did I mention it's...big?

I also got a couple of pouches done, cut out the fabrics for a new bag, started a crochet scarf, and did a little reading (Miss Marple). Absolutely did not touch the quilt...I gotta make myself finish that thing.

Friday Work(s) in Progress!

Lot of WIP's around here...hopefully next week, a few FO's (finished obects)! Since the crocheting and knitting seem to be coming along pretty well, I'm in need of a yarn/crochet/knitting bag. So that's the pink (yes, more of the super-thick pink wool blanket...I hope I get lots of projects out of it!).

The dark red is a new bag I'm working on. I hope to get it and several others made this weekend for my Etsy shop. Sewing marathon coming up...

And the quilt top is for a daybed / dogbed in our office. It's been on my wall for a couple of months now. I really need to get the borders finished and get it basted, quilted and off my list! I whizzed through making the blocks but then lost interest with the plain borders and new projects kept jumping in front of it. But I'm determined to have it on the bed before Christmas.

I've also got a crocheted dishcloth on my hook right now. I'm making a couple for the newly redone bathroom. And yet another knitting swatch...I really need to find a simple knitting something, an actual project to start, work on, and finish. I'm sick of swatches!

So I should have lots to show you next week. Have a great weekend!