This is what my works in progress sound like at the moment — at times it even sounds like this in my head…

Finish the ____________ for ___________. Pick up more yarn for the ____________ for _______________. Decide on the colour of ___________ for ______________. Start the _________ for ________________. Dig up fabric for _____________ for the ____________. Transfer knitting of _______ onto spares so that I can cast on _________ for _____________. Wait for the mail for ___________ for _________ and __________ and _____________ and hope you left yourself enough time to start + finish the project taking into considering shipping delays. Block __________ for __________. (wow, this one is impressive: means something is completed or very nearly!)

It often looks exactly like this in my head:

Anybody else? I keep thinking that I’m just a slip up from telling somebody what I’m making them — that’s how confused my brain seems

Over all though — it’s going to be a lovely gift giving season and I cannot wait!!

Meanwhile, i’ve got tiny helpers playing with wool in soapy water I’m also learning from silly mistakes — a 9×13 low pan is MUCH better than a bowl that can tip twice in 10 seconds!

I’ve got cool roving with beads of soap.

And I’ve got funky resists (another lesson learned: don’t use such a big bubble wrap for resist!)

A wrapping project from Eco-Wrapping Treasure Hunt!

Ok, the presents are going to be ready – how ’bout that wrapping? Here are some wonderful Etsy shops that will have just the thing you need to make fun, eco-friendly wrapping, cards, and tags. You’ll also be helping handmade artists at the same time. But hurry, the time is getting near!

Smock letterpress.

snowy652’s

The Craft Pantry featured in Childstyle, US Weekly & Hallmark Mags

FarAwayDesigns’s

Feeling crafty enough to try making some of your own unique wrapping? Here are some ideas.

How-To: Recycled Wrapping Paper Bows on Craftzine

Eco Gift Wrapping. Holistic Secrets with Rachel Avalon a great little video with some ideas for keeping your wrapping eco-friendly, economical and organized for all your wrapping needs.

Create Your Own Designer Papers – All Over Stamped Designs at About.com

You might also enjoy ECO-WRAPPING TREASURE HUNT!

I hope you’re officially inspired now

That’s a wrap!

Marg (re-thinking my wrapping strategy)

I have had a knitting break-through!! I have been trying to rib for ages with no success. I was on the verge of giving up and just sticking to knitted squares, but I can do it!!

Check out my knitting success!

It has been so wet recently that I have spent quite a lot of time hiding inside trying to dry raincoats and soggy shoes. While keeping warm and dry inside, I have used my time to face my knitting demons. I can now rib! Even better, I can do moss stitch too, and Irish moss stitch, and I can even knit little motifs!! I am so excited!

I had to move away from my normal knitting books and go back to basics with Penny Hill. So I am very grateful for her clear instructions. After all my knitting woes, it turns out that ribbing is actually quite straight forward!

Cold Moon.

It kind of seems like a misnomer to me. I mean, really, January and February are much colder. Much more wintry. Today it still felt like fall around here.

But then I think about the coldness in another way. A different way. What about the cold consumerism that has overtaken our Yuletide festivities? What about the coldness in my heart as I contemplate yet another busy month — a month with added responsibilities that make it even harder to remember to be kind.

So as I put together my Cold Moon Dreamboard, I thought about warmth. Warmth in my heart. Loving-kindness. Toward myself. Toward others. Especially toward my husband and the Little Bird. Especially toward harried strangers. Even when they can’t return it.

The red and the hearts in the midst of all the cool blue…those are my symbols here to remind me of the loving-kindness I’d like to radiate from the depths of my soul this month.

Yule. One of my favorite seasons. What can I say? I love the lights. The scent of pine. The excuse to bake. And bake. And bake. The brightness of children in the season. I even like singing Christmas carols. Seriously. I have favorites. I croon them as I drive. As I shower. As I put the Little Bird down for the night.

I especially like the idea of the light reborn, which is really what Yule is all about, right? We light candles, trees, the fire. It’s all about defeating the deepening darkness. So the bright light. The birds in flight. The pentagram on the tree.

At the same time, this season is one of comfort and moving inward. The sleeper. The woodpecker, who hangs around through the snowy season. The snow-covered trees.

Finally, despite the cold and the inward-hibernating tendency of the season, I want to remember to take care of myself. My body. Through yoga and running. I want to remember that adventuring outdoors in the winter can be magical.

So there you have it. A season of loving-kindness. And waiting to welcome the returning light. My heart melting the coldness around me.

(Want to learn more about Full Moon Dreamboards? Go to Jamie Ridler’s site here.)

Just like the rest of America, we put out all our Xmas decor the weekend after Thanksgiving.   Here are a few photos of the tree trimming from Sunday, Nov 29th.  This was David’s 1st year doing it, and he was really good at it.  Michael took the top of the tree, and David the bottom.  Daddy did the star, of course.

Dinner #1 @ Papa Dick’s

This year we spiced it up by playing a game of Trivial Pursuit after dinner, which was really fun to finally play together!  Thanks to Gma Sharon for serving up such a great meal!

Dinner #2 @ Aunt Katie’s

This year we changed it up at Katie & Justin’s.  We held our first Thanksgiving TALENT SHOW.  We had an assortment of talents … a sweet old gma that read a book called WALTER THE FARTING DOG … a science experiment (that provided a laugh or two) … some interesting body noises on cue … some sisterly lip synching … pet tricks … and lightsaber battle & mindtricks.  It was so much fun, and we can’t wait for next year!

What I associate with the holiday season is warmth and coziness. And of course pie and cheesecake. Oh, and See’s candy. And, well, those Reese’s peanut butter cup Christmas trees. Why they taste so much better than the regular peanut butter cup is beyond me.  Ever notice that? Anyway, back to warmth and coziness! I’m crocheting a blanket that is sure to keep me snug and warm this winter (hush. I know it’s still in pieces).

For the next twenty-four days of December I hope that you’ll follow along with Lauren and I as we document the month, the season, the calories, the crowds, the breakdowns, the breakups, the makeups… uh, you get it.

Recently, an email went around to a group of my girlfriends that usually gets together every 3-4 months for brunch. This time though, Cinda made the suggestion that instead of meeting out at a restaurant as we usually did, we have a potluck at her house and have a ”Vision Board Brunch.”

The response to her email was quite positive. So, this past Sunday, with supplies in tow, we arrived ready to create visual aides for our future. We each threw our stacks of magazines into the center of the floor and began searching for any images or text that went along with the experiences or things we would like to bring into our lives in the coming year…

Then, we went to work and started cutting and pasting…

It was so magical to see what results and creations began to unfold…

Jessica wants to go to Paris!

Mine is still a work in progress…

We all have so many dreams in life and those dreams are constantly evolving as we grow and learn from our daily experiences. Years ago, my mom taught me my first basic lesson on the power of intention through the form of feng shui. It was 1997, and I had decided to apply to attend Semester at Sea (a floating campus that circumnavigates the world as you attend college classes in between visits to different countries). At that time in my life, my world was so small and I did not realize that sometimes what we think is impossible can become possible. Financially and acedemically, attending the program was a far reach for me. Knowing how much the experience meant to me, my mom told me to write a letter of acceptance to myself addressed from the university and hang it on the wall (in the feng shui appropriate area). I thought she was nuts, but she made me promise that if I was to be accepted into the program and was able to attend during the semester I was aiming for despite the odds, I would give some more validity to her woo-woo way of thinking.

I was accepted and despite a long waiting list to attend during the Spring 1998 semester, I ended up getting in at the very last minute. More than anything, it made me embrace the idea that good things could indeed come through for me in my life if I made my intentions and worked at achieving my goals.  I have tested the theory so many times now and really believe that if we create clear visuals of what we want for ourselves and in our lives, then those visions can become reality.

The sun is out – time to get those projects organized. Use your project bags, plastic containers and any other method that helps you keep this season’s projects in their place. I’ve been finding it frustrating as I bounce back and forth on just a few seasonal projects and using bags and containers helps me keep everything in perspective. It’s too easy to fall apart at the last minute during this stressful time…no creative meltdowns allowed. Being crafty is a blessing and a curse…everyone expects something wonderful and handmade from you. We love sharing our talents and are lucky to be able to create wonderful items made with not only skill, but love. If the meltdown has already occured, no worries, scrape yourself off the floor and get back to it – you know you love it. I did a little of that myself yesterday. Can you imagine what it’s like at the North Pole around now? Exactly, suck it up crafties, there’s work to be done.
 
Stay organized and you can stay on the crafty fast track and race around the knitty treadmill this year. Woohoo! Was that flash of yarn and glitter you?
 
Stay tuned for some Etsy favs and another pattern round up for last minute gifts this week right here on this blog.

Marg (wishing I had a few elves on staff – do yorkies count?)

I still feel out of sorts and it’s becoming quite disconcerting.  Still no readily identifiable triggers, at least none that I can see.  My therapist thinks it’s because of R and all the drama that seems to surround that relationship.  I can see that, but I’ve been dealing with that since August and I’ve felt fine up til now.  One of the DBT counselors thinks I might be having a mild bipolar depression, given the lethargy and lack of motivation I’ve been describing.  I just don’t know, but I’m tired of feeling this way.

This morning I actually got some work done, which was a pleasant change.  I’ve been working on a pretty big project for the last 18 months and I’d really like to wrap it up before the end of the semester.  The problem, I have discovered, is that there is work that needs to be done that I don’t know how to do – it’s something my boss has always done.  And she’s getting ready to be out for 3 weeks having surgery.  So yeah, I’m thinking I’m pretty well fucked on this one.  We’ve got a team meeting this afternoon so I’ll bring it up then and see what she has to say.

My schoolwork is going pretty good this week, so far at least.  I’ve got my big project for the week about 99% finished.  I’m going to put the finishing touches on it after lunch and then turn it in.  I’ll just have to do the little weekly work and do my reading.  That should be a piece of cake.  I checked my grades yesterday and so far I’m getting an A so I’m quite pleased about that.

I haven’t touched my knitting or crocheting since Sunday.  I know I should, I just don’t have the ambition to do it.  Last night when I got home from work I ate dinner and then went and laid down in bed to watch TV right away.  No reading, no web surfing, no crafting of any kind – just pure laziness.  Everyone needs that kind of night now and then though.  It’s impossible to be “on” all the time.

Tonight I’m supposed to be taking R out to dinner at my favorite little Italian restaurant.  I’m hoping it goes well and we don’t fight.  I’m at a point where the last thing I need is more drama.

I few days ago a wrote a post about why I believe Warhammer Online failed to live up to it’s potential/hype, and Tobold took the following line and ran (out of context) with it:

Because unless you are a believer in the Eurogamer method of MMO evaluation, for most players a month or less is not enough time to fully evaluate a game, especially an MMO, and especially in it’s first month of release.

What he read from that line is that you must play a game X hours before you can determine if you like a game or not, which is of course silly. Obligatory Eurogamer shot aside, the point of the above is that real MMO fans should know more or less what to expect in the first month of any MMO, and given that baseline, certain reasons for leaving a game in month one just don’t apply IMO.

For starters, anyone who has experienced an MMO from the start knows that a games worst day from a tech/coding perspective is always day one. There is a very good reason the first month of any MMO is when you will see the most hotfixes and last-minute patches. It’s also the reason many MMO gamers today apply a mandatory 3-6 month waiting period to avoid just these issues. For everyone else, you make the conscious trade of polish and functionality for the rush that is a new MMO, regardless of who makes the MMO (Yes, Blizzards next MMO will also have issues in it’s first month, just like WoW did, the least of which will be massive server queues/outages in the first week/month, and you will see Blizzard apply hotfixes and patches at a pace not seen since 2004). The amount and scale of the issues will vary from title to title, but the fact remains the first month of any MMO is always a give and take between excitement and frustration. Anyone who leaves an MMO in the first month because of a server queue should not be considered an MMO gamer, and hence falls into the 60% “you don’t count” crowd. Thanks for your $50, enjoy your Xbox. (Not that this is an absolute, obviously if a title is released and has CTD or BSOD issues every 5 minutes for a month, then yea, you can stop trying to play it. But if the mailbox is a little laggy? Welcome to the MMO genre.)

And before someone brings up “You are competing with WoW today, not 2004 WoW”, please don’t. If a game is going directly at WoW, like RoM, then that might apply, and a game like RoM has to do something (F2P in this case) to separate itself. But does anyone really compare Fallen Earth to 2009 WoW in terms of UI polish, engine performance, or total amount of content? If you do, you’re Xbox misses you, or you should have just stayed with WoW in the first place (but I’m sure the FE devs don’t mind your $50, and the players appreciate you funding future content for them). For everyone else, you go into it knowing that while some aspects won’t be comparable to any MMO that has been out and patched for years, you know that the selling points of FE outweigh a fancy (and in WoW’s case, player made) UI or a list of 100 instances. WoW can’t compete with FE in terms of its setting and survival-style atmosphere, and if that matches up with you, fancy UI be damned.

Moving past tech/code issues, you have the fact that for any game doing something actually new, the first month is when those new systems/ideas are really put to the test. Something that works perfectly with 100 or 1000 people in a certain environment (beta) might not work as planned with 100,000 players, or might show flaws when player mentality changes and things start to ‘count’. The more your MMO is actually about being massive and multiplayer, the harder it becomes to predict player behavior on a large scale.

WAR is the perfect example of this in terms of its RvR lakes and PQs. In beta players populated them ‘just because’, and played for fun (silly notion that is), but once things started to count, they went empty and it was time to chain-queue scenarios. If you quit WAR because you found scenario chain-queueing boring (while subjecting yourself to it…), welcome to the 60%. (This should not be confused with Mythic’s inability to correctly remedy the Scenario/RvR/PQ problem quickly/ever. If you quit because 6 months later RvR still had issues, that’s a little different.)

The final point I want to make related to all this is about judging games in general. Readers here know I don’t find Aion appealing in any way, and actually wish death on the game for various reasons. I’ve also never played release NA Aion, so how dare I judge it, right?

Aion’s top selling point is that it looks pretty, and I can get that from a quick tour and screenshots/videos, plus I don’t find anime-lite a particularly enjoyable art style. I also know, based on its heritage and some quick research, that Aion is a massive PvE grind followed by a massive ‘PvP’ (PvE still, but shhh) grind. Then there is the fact that it’s end-game is doomed by design (fixed two-sided PvP with an exploitable PvE faction used to progress in PvP), so even if you remove all the other issues, that won’t change short of a real third side being added (the long-lost hope for saving WAR ironically).

The point is, after you’ve seen an MMO or ten, you don’t need to play one to get a good (but not perfect, as surprises happen) idea of what a certain title is trying to offer overall. Sure I can’t speak about the specifics of dungeon X in Aion as it compares to instance Y in WotLK, but let me know when my overall assumptions are completely wrong about either game and we can talk. Fairy wings don’t fix a broken endgame and an unappealing gaming style, just like a Deathknight and ten more levels of solo PvE don’t fix WoW getting easier and cheesier since 2004.

Amusing among all of this is that I almost skipped DarkFall because I know the general trend for overly-ambitious MMOs (especially PvP ones) is that they don’t work at launch/ever (sb.exe, Fury, current MO). It was only after Tobold reported that it was technically solid that I became interested, and obviously I’ve been impressed and very happy ever since. The day I read that Aion is no longer a soulless PvE grind and that it’s true multi-faceted end-game PvP is actually fun and again not a grind, perhaps I’ll take the free trial for a spin (assuming NCSoft has not AA/TR’d the game). And hell, if I read that Cataclysm has brought WoW back to 2004 in terms of challenge/design/focus, I might just have to dust off my orc warrior.

But don’t be surprised when come Cataclysm, I won’t be overly impressed with Blizzard recycling one raid instance and latching on another ‘grind to cap for one item’ tradeskill, even though I won’t be personally grinding out that tradeskill myself (odds are good I’ve already completed the one recycled raid in its intended form though).

We’d been talking about having a girl’s night out for awhile. We contemplated getting a hotel room and going out on the town, maybe a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant. Just something special and different. But come on people, this is a recession. And frankly, the home life is so much more cozy when its raining cats and dogs in Seattle’s nasty november season (November is the worst month here, by far). So for Jo’s birthday, we proposed a good, old fashioned, girls sleepover night.

It allowed for a night to just chat and drink wine. A chance for fiances and husbands to play video games AND to play mr. mom.

We were in our PJs SO fast. I mean, literally 5 minutes in the door we were all in flannel. Jo even bought new ones for the occasion. Awesome! Dana requested Gorgonzola Honey Bites (I mean, what is our house without them?!) and those were in the oven lickety split too.

Later on, the girls get crafty!

Starting out the evening, we whipped up some pasta dough and D’s kitchenaid pasta roller. We rolled out some sheets of pasta dough and taught the girls how to press ravioli. We did a sweet potato ricotta thyme filling (veggie friendly!). Paired with a yummy cranberry blue cheese salad, we had an easy simple and delicious dinner to chat over.

Next there was crafty time. We traced out some stockings and trees and cut shapes out of vintage Christmas books to create an early Christmas festive garland, while watching Because I Said So.

Did you think we’d forget dessert?! ha! Rainbow cake has been all over the blogosphere, and Jo has always loved funfetti, so we combined the two for some CRAZY cupcakes. I split the cake batter into 6 bowls and added a single color food coloring to each one. Then we spooned various colors into cupcake wrappers for fun rainbow swirl cake.

Paint Pots of Cake Batter

Pre-frosting

Nom Nom Nom

We finished off the night with some Sex and the City Season 6, more chatting in front of the fire. It was a wonderful relaxing evening and a great chance to really sit down and catch up. Probably would have been better if Dana and I hadn’t decided a 5k run was a good idea at 9 am the next day, but eh, live and learn, right?

Go see a photo of the whole group here

What a PERFECT start to the holiday season!

I haven’t actually seen the movie Pay It Forward, in which a young boy comes up with a plan for direct action and encourages people to do 3 good things for other people, creating a “charity pyramid scheme,” but I’m intrigued by the concept. So when I saw that Eco Yogini was inviting readers to participate in a blog version of the pay it forward philosophy, of course I wanted to get involved. I love memes and virtual connectivity, and I love crafts and mail!

Here’s the lowdown:

• I will make a handmade gift for the first three people who comment on this post.
• I technically have 365 days to do this
• What it will be and when it will arrive will be a total surprise

The catch for gift-receivers:

• You must have a blog to participate
• Before or after you comment here, you must do a write up of the pay it forward on your space and keep the “Good Karma” flowin’

You should know:

• I love crafting! You will receive something unique and marvelous and most likely knitted!
• I’m also a total procrastinator and leave everything til the last minute, so you might not receive it until November 2010

So if you want in, comment below! Be sure to include your email in the form (this will be private; only I, as the administrator, will have access to it) and I will follow up with a message.

These kinds of reciprocal actions are small, but I think they’re very powerful. Taking the time to make something and then mail it to somebody is a direct and active way to participate in the slow movement and craftivism. It’s also a way of engaging with “gift economy,” a grassroots alternative (based on social theories of traditional societies) to the dominant market economy where “valuable goods and services are regularly given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards” (hmmm… sounds a lot like karma yoga, n’est-ce pas?).

And just in case you need more inspiration, check out this TED Talk with Carl Honoré, journalist and author of In Praise of Slow.

May sound strange but yesterday I was searching my small library of books looking for meaning. I miss the joy of reading a new text. I was always a voracious reader but lately I’ve been rereading the same three books. The books in question just become more shallow with each successive read.

I stumbled upon a copy of Dante’s Inferno last night. I enjoy reading poetry aloud but this was a little more dark and moral than I intended.

Reading an illustrated copy of Dante’s Inferno before bedtime can result in some very interesting dreams. I just saw this artist on Mr.X-stitch’s website that brought the book to mind. It is disturbing and yet I could not turn my eyes away. Her work would make for a very interesting exhibition.

Beefranck’s Emporium – Alaina Varrone

I spent the bulk of my day in a knitting frenzy. I’ve got more knitting to do before tomorrow. Enjoy the link to Mr. X-stitch’s page he’s worth the trip.

As well as gardening, I have been known to attempt sewing. Last year I purchased a large amount of orange corduroy, for reasons that still elude me (possible grand designs involving a beanbag?)

So, what to do with two metres of flaming orange corduroy? Well, the answer was obvious: whip up some orange pants of course, complete with bright green knee patches, carefully embroidered with lion and stars.

Needless to say, because of their eye-watering properties, these pants are reserved for very special occasions. They’re particularly good for those times when I need to spot the three-year-old instantly – one is tempted to draw the ‘Great Wall of China visible from the moon’ parallel. Consequently, both the three-year-old and I to have to be in a *I’m ok talking to lots of strangers* mood, as when donned by said three-year-old, these flaming orange beauties inevitably invoke staring, pointing and lots of comments from the general public.

Once the pants were completed, I still had a large amount of fabric left. My compulsive creative streak soon took hold and these little creatures appeared: a giraffe, little owl and sleepy puss – the latter being a special bedtime buddy of the pre-schooler.

But there’s still some fabric left over! Watch this space…

Well, I did it. I went to the gym this morning at 6:30am. I need to go earlier though. It interfers with my husband getting ready for and getting to work on time. So, I will try and get out quicker tomorrow morning. Next thing to do for a 21 day challenge is giving up Dr. Pepper. That will be ugly, and I am not sure if I or my family will survive it. For now though, just getting my gelatinous rear to the gym in the morning is enough.

I did start cutting fabric for a diaper bag that I am making for a woman in my MOPS group. I got all of the exterior fabric cut and now I need to get the interior and the interfacing cut. Then on to the pinning and sewing. YIKES, that is the part that scares me. I am glad however that I decided to cut templates out of cardboard and then lay those on my fabric instead of just making random cuts. I would have cried a river if I had done that. What made sense in my mind for a layout turned out that I would have run out of fabric. I would have to have gone back and bought more fabric. That after I cried a river.

Well back to cleaning. I just picked up the kitchen and I have to run to the store to get stuff to make dinner for tonight. I am trying this new thing of doubling my meals and then freezing half for another day. Today is my first attempt at that.

Have I told you that I STILL suck at couponing????? In case I have not told you lately, yeah I STILL SUCK at it. I will just keep on trying.

TTFN,
K

So there’s a fair number of changes coming up for crafting with Mirkwood as the new diary explains.  Overall there are some nice additions and changes, but nothing overwhelmingly exciting.  I also found a good legendary page on the Lorebook so check it out – link is at the bottom of the post and on my links section.

• Multi-output Recipes allow for a single recipe to make variations of that item.  The pictures below show the item pretty well.  This is a welcome change, I just wish they’d do something similar for armor – having 4 of the same recipe is rather annoying.
• 

Legendary Item Crafting

• We will still be able to craft 3rd and 2nd ages up to level 65, however as a note – level 65 2nd age items are only available through crafting!  This will be interesting to see how this plays out, but it will certainly jack up prices on the AH for them.  These 2nd age recipes also require an item found in “dangerous, dark places” which I’m assuming to mean the new Dol Goldor instances.  The 2nd age requires 2 mithril infused ingots (or comparable item), 5 legendary fragments, and the Symbol of Celebrimbor – which is that instance item, and does not appear to be on the skirmish vendor.

Crafted Relic Recipes

• There’s a new slot for legendary items that can only be filled with a crafted relic.  There are 2 types:
  • Normal – boost agility, fate, might, vitality, will, morale, or power with one type being available per crafting guild.  However, they are not bound to your player so you can trade them.
  • Legendary – boost melee, ranged, tactical, or healing abilities with all guilds able to make all of them.  These add +390 rating to both the critical and offense rating for melee, ranged, critical, and healing.  However, these are bound to your character so in order to make these I’m you’ll need Kindred rank with the guild and Supreme Mastery, not just proficiency.
  • I looked on my characters, and metalsmiths make +might, jewelers +will, and tailors +fate – with +10 and +20 as the 2 options.  The +10 item is just ingots, but the +20 requires a “Compendium of Middle Earth, Volume 1” which is a barter item from skirmishes for regular marks and a special drop mark.  The Legendary requires a different Compendium but is also available from the Skirmish camps.

Trading up your guild reputation items is now available such that you can trade smaller items for the larger ones with the long cool-downs:

• 7 small guild reputation items equals 1 medium item of that same tier
• 3 medium items equals 1 large item of that tier (although Bullroarer has it at 5)

And finally some general crafting changes:

• The required ingredients for many of the “component’” recipes have been reduced
• Auto granted recipes no longer require items from other professions.
• Increased crafting experience for some recipe types
  • Auto-granted recipes = 6 crafting xp
  • Vendor purchased recipes = 8 crafting xp
  • Dropped recipes and reputation rewards = 10 crafting xp
  • One-shot recipes = 12 crafting xp

So some nice changes and I do like that they’re making crafting worthwhile but there still is something lacking for me.  Full article on the new crafting changes are over here.  Also, check out the lorebook as there is a really good breakout for legendary items.

Morgen ist es soweit! Das erste Türchen des CreaReich-Adventskalenders darf geöffnet werden…
Was wird sich wohl darin verstecken? Eine Anleitung, ein Freebie, ein Giveaway???

ADVENTSKALENDER 2009

Viel Spaß beim Fensterl aufmachen!

This is one of the ornaments from this year’s flock.  Some of you who have read this blog awhile might remember last year’s birds–they were patchwork and really cute, if I do say so myself.  I made ten birds this year, and they were almost as much work as piecing those little guys from last year together.  This is only because I am a slow embroiderer.  I followed the basic plan for the birds from here, but used the patchwork pattern piece from last year (actually from this book), slightly modified, for the bird’s bodies.  They’re made out of inexpensive felt sheets from Michael’s (ten birds=two sheets=about $.70), and I went through 2.5 skeins of white embroidery floss, using three strands of floss for the embroidering and af full strand (6) for the loops.  The embroidery of each flower features a french knot (here’s a how-to) in the center and five (or six, or four, depending on my skills that day) modified lazy daisy stitches (tutorial) to make the petals.

The original I based this on had lovely green garland between the flowers, but when I tried that it got crowded, so I just went without.  I was thinking about Scandinavian paper cutting (and my favorite danish-themed pajama pants) when I made them, which is why they’re just red and white.

Now that I’m getting a bit more settled, it is time to make a few thank yous for those who helped during the move. There were three families who stepped up and took our kids (which helped immensely!) and so I made three of this particular card in which I’ll stick a little gift card as an extra special thank you.

I was inspired and terrified by the Stamping 411 sketch this week. It really intimidated me! But I was determined to get my creative juices going so I dove right in.

My starting point in addition to the sketch was the Kaledescope designer paper from Stamipn’ Up! I was unsure about it but needed it for a young ladies birthday party so I had some left over. I actually quite like it.

The card itself is a pocket with the base being Tempting Turquoise. I flipped down the front flap and covered it with the designer paper (I scalloped the edge of it also). I then tied around it a piece of Crushed Curry ribbon (trying my hardest to have no polka dots show!).

I then cut out a piece of Crushed Curry cardstock and layered with with Whisper White. I stamped the little bird from Fun & Fast Notes and coloured him in with inks and a blender pen.  I am really liking layers and dimension right now and this card does not disappoint!

To emulate the circle shape, I decided to add a pull tab to the insert piece. The insert layer is Pretty In Pink layered by Crushed Curry. I added a 1 3/4″ circle of Crushed Curry, then layered on it a Green Galore 1 3/8″ circle. I lastly added a Tempting Turquoise button tied with some linen thread. I also used my white gel pen to dot around the outside of the Crushed Curry circle.

I hope the recipients enjoy them!