Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas one and all!

Thanks to Pam Kellogg and her request to participate in her 2016 Crazy Quilt calendar, I had a Christmas Card this year.

I looked at reviews of various card companies that would print out my own design.   I narrowed my search to TinyPrints, PaperCulture and Minted.

I chose Minted even though they were a tad more expensive because their Silver-Foil Merry Christmas design worked best with my embroidery.

When they arrived, I was extremely delighted with the quality of the card, envelope and packaging. I ordered the cards made from recycled paper.

The envelopes had a substantial feel and were perfect for stamping and embellishing...

I tucked in a little card that explained the embroidery...

It may seem old-fashioned...but I enjoy the process of making, addressing and sending Christmas cards.  

 The time it takes to address each one is time I take to reflect on the person to whom I'm sending the card...remembering our time together, sending gratitude for their friendship and lots of love and well wishes for the New Year.

And so from our house to yours...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

P.S.  Pam Kellogg is having a contest for her calendar next year.  Anyone can enter and the theme is "My Secret Garden".  Entries are due by July 1, 2016 and you can read all the details on her post here.  Maybe I'll see you in next year's calendar!

P.P.S.  Take a moment to enjoy this video Christmas card I received from Hand & Lock...

P.P.P.S.  I had a three-year hiatus from sending Christmas cards 2012-2014 but here are my cards from other years past...

2011
2010
2009
2008
2007

Magic on 34th Street

A restorative antidote to the pressing crowds at malls all over America, Jim and I were part of a different kind of flash mob this past weekend in our hometown of Baltimore...

Sending you all Beauty, Blessings and Creativity for Christmas and the New Year!

Priming the Pump

Hello Blog.  

It's been such a while since I was last here and I feel a little out of practice.  

Whenever I feel like I've fallen off the wagon with any habit, I just take the pressure off by priming the pump.

Eliminate the expectations...just show up and write something...anything...so we can get accustomed to one another again.

So first, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Though you never left my heart, I didn't actually come by and say that, did I?

I have been blogging for six years...I'm now entering my seventh.  I started getting these books printed on Blog2Print and I'm just waiting for them to announce a coupon before I print 2013.

Every Christmas season I think how wonderful it would be to blog about it all.  

And every Christmas season I'm too busy enjoying it all that I often don't even take pictures, let alone blog about it.  

I'm shooting for next year.  Seven is my lucky number so maybe in my seventh blogging year it might happen.

So, here I am finally settling into January, my favorite month.  I have a few monkeys on my back...aka projects/tasks that I've promised people...that I need to finish before I can delve into finishing Mrs. Rose.  I've also re-committed myself to Japanese Embroidery so that I can graduate by the Fall of 2015 so Japanese embroidery will be showing up here more often.

I have tons of playing ahead in 2014 and I'm eager to get started.  That's why I chose my word for 2014...

By that I mean...

create schedules for work...

until they turn into work habits...

until those habits become routine.  

All of which should lead to progress.

OK.  Progress is not the word.  Let's get back to WORK.

I'm pretty good at "work" when I've reached the flow stage of any project...but then I take too long a break in between before I show up to the next project...so...hence the word WORK. 

WORK hard, WORK consistently, WORK when you don't feel like working, WORK like someone is watching you and giving you a performance review...

But before I start talking about the work, I've got to close the book and talk about some highlights from Christmas.  This year rather than exchange family gifts, we decided to put all our names in a hat and choose someone to buy a gift for.  That means little kids could get adults, teenagers get each other,  etc.

That plan worked really well and it was great fun to see what the kids gave the adults.

My niece Allie had me.  She's standing in the pic below and giving me a gift which she made herself...

which is my absolute favorite kind of gift.

Isn't it marvelous?   

An Allie Original, ball point pen on canvas.

I love it and it goes very nicely with the colors in my sewing/dining room...

My husband Jim had Allie's twin sister Lindsey, spelled Linz.  Well, check out what my engineer of a husband who works in the lighting industry handmade for his goddaughter...

At first he started out with just an "L" but he didn't want to stop there.  

Linz even has a remote to turn it on and off and change the lights from strobing to fade to constantly-on...etc.  When you're an engineer you think of things like remotes.

Speaking of handmade gifts, check out this little Christmas hand towel knitted by my super-talented Crazy friend Irene.  

She's been knitting more than crazy quilting lately and I am one of the beneficiaries.  

If I find the pattern she used (knowing her she probably made it up), I'll let you know.

For Christmas, I had the Littlest One...she's in second grade now.  I'll tell you about her gift another day.

And lastly, my SIL has a birthday just before Christmas so I like to give her a little something since those folks that have birthdays around Christmas seem to get lost in the holiday shuffle.

I made her this spiral rope necklace...made with silver 15/0 and smokey 11/0 seed beads plus chinese 3mm crystals.  

It turned out lovely and goes with lots of things.  I can see more of these in my future.

I learned how to make it at one of the gazillion beading parties that they hold at my new favorite beading store, Bead Soup, in Savage Mill.  

I'll be back there on Saturday for another class with the amazing Erin Simonetti, loom weaver extraordinaire.  Follow the link to the snow and you'll get a glimpse of what we'll be making.

So much more to share.  I feel better already.  The pump is primed and I'm rip, roaring and raring to go for 2014.

Now back to WORK.

Which includes taking down all those pretty Christmas decorations...

I had fun decorating the house this last year.

A Warm and Cozy Holiday

Cozy love...

A Cozy is a perfect companion on a cold, snowy winter day.  It keeps your bed warm at night and it makes you smile just to hold one.

We've been making these microwaveable corn bags as a family for a few years now.   Cozies can get dirty over time and the corn can scorch after hundreds of heatings so almost everyone needs to make new ones.  

Plus they make perfect gifts.

We've honed our assembly line over the years so that we've become fairly efficient Cozy makers.

I was on the sewing machine...

My brother was the corner and thread clipper...

And the girls cut the flannel and ironed...

Filling the bags with feed corn is easier with two people...

One person holds the bag open while the other fills it...

I sewed over 40 Cozies in two days.  Nice flannel is getting harder to find.  I bought that snowman flannel over ten years ago thinking I would make us all flannel pajama bottoms for Christmas...

Oh well.  Now it's being put to good use keeping our friends and family warm.

I found the snowmen worked really well with this tartan flannel I found this year at Equilter.  I just can't seem to get Scotland off my brain.  

I'm eager to get back to my book once all of the Christmas crafting is through.

And this Christmas top hat?

I made that with my friend Marian at The Queen's Ink...a great scrapbooking store in Savage Mill, Maryland.  It's a cardboard hat that's painted black and embellished with "snow" and trimmings.

There's still lots of baking and making to be done so I'll post again when I can.

A Happy and Cozy Holiday to you all.

P.S.  Here's a tip sheet from making your own Cozies in case you missed it last time...from my house to yours...

Dressed to Chill

Ummmm....hi.....

Sorry, I'm just a little uncomfortable with the extreme close-up of my face.

Except for models, I'm not sure I know many women who are comfortable being photographed up close...



There.  That's better.  Now I can get a good look at you.

Susan wanted you to see my in all my finery. Check out my mink-trimmed hat and that special dress clip she added to the brim...

And my favorite part of my new look?

Well...probably the crystal pom-pom on the end of my hat...

Though I do like the ruffles on my scarf too.

I've never had a makeover before and it was quite a thrill.  Well...except for the nose job.

It hurt quite a bit when Susan attached my nose with that big, barbed needle.

Hey...beauty has its price.

Today it's snowing in Maryland so I'm looking forward to the snowman party that is sure-to-be in my future.   For the first time ever, I'm properly dressed.

Let it snow!

Out of Sync

Often, I find myself quite out of sync with the rest of the world.

Just as I'm settling into my home the week after Christmas...sitting back, relaxing and enjoying the tree and the festive glow that has overtaken my house...I see that my neighbors are already tossing their trees to the curb.  What?  I just put it up!  To me, Christmas just got here.  Yet the world seems to think that Christmas is over on December 26.  

And here I am on January 20, just finishing up the last of my Christmas posts, clearing the way for January.  And January is almost over.

And so this will be my last Christmas post and will officially close the Christmas season for me.  

Allow me to introduce you the little Crazy Elf I made for our annual Crazy Quilt holiday ornament exchange.

We each make an ornament, wrap it in plain white tissue and place it secretly in a basket.

I didn't get pics of all the ornaments this year but here is Mary and Bobbi with the ornaments they made for the exchange...

Mary made a crazy quilted Christmas cracker...

Simple but quite lovely and quick to complete.  She said she finished it in one day!  Sometimes simple is good around Christmas time.

On the opposite end of the simple spectrum, Bobbi made this CQ Parrot from the Amazon rainforest to commemorate her trip there last year.

I'm happy to say that this beautifully colorful bird has taken up roost in my Christmas tree...yes, it's still up.

I've received one of Bobbi's ornaments before.  You might remember the little jointed CQ bear I shared in this post?  Bobbi gives all those amigurumi artists a run for their money...though her art medium is crazy quilting, not knitting or crochet.

Unfortunately, when my friend Maureen unwrapped my elf, he was still in pieces.  So I brought him back home to get his act together.

Which required time.  It wasn't until after the New Year and the departure of the flu from our house that I finally finished him up...

I used the same pattern as the elves I made for my nieces...but this guy's face was borrowed from a vintage elf whose clothes were irreparable.

And it gives me great joy to work with my hands and without the pressure of a deadline.

And to take the time to find just the right "accessories" to give him personality...

Thank you Maureen for your patience.  One crazy elf is coming your way!

And thanks to the rest of you for continuing to celebrate Christmas made-by-hand which takes a bit longer than the commercial variety.

I remember I once started a bead journal piece called "Out of Sync".  I think I'll pull it back out after I've finished Mrs. Rose.

Happy January.

Learning to Ladder

Every Christmas my family exchanges family names for gift giving.  This year I got my brother John's family who has three girls.  This past weekend I delivered Part II of my Christmas present to my nieces.  Part I was the kneehugger elves which I posted about here.

Part II was a class on How to Make a Ladder Bracelet...

In the past, I enjoyed making gifts for the girls myself but, now that they're older, I find we all enjoy it more when they get to create their own designs and make something themselves.

That being said, I wanted them to get a good idea of all the bracelets that were possible once they learned the laddering technique, so I made them each a little bracelet catalogue....

Explaining what the gift included and giving lots of pics of design possibilities that I found on the internet.

The first step included a trip to the bead store...Accent Beads in Rockville, MD...

There were so many beads to choose from that narrowing down choices was challenging.  The book was a helpful reference as we shopped...and roundish beads work best since they ladder very nicely.

I love seeing which beads attract their eye and which ones don't...

And they each had a budget to work within so there was some degree of decision-making.  How could you maximize the number of beads within the budget while still getting what you love???

Ladder style wrap bracelets have been pretty popular the last few years.  A ladder bracelet is typically made using two lengths of leather cord and lacing beads between them.   I made my first one a couple of years ago which you can read about in this post.

The actual beading is fairly straightforward so it's a good project for beginners.  There are great videos and examples of many ladder style bracelets at Beadshop.com if you're interested.

Each girl got their own bead mat to lay out her stash...

And we hunted through my button stash to find just the right closures.  Everyone chose a shank button but you could use a two-hole button as well.

We made a half-hitch knot with the leather cord through the shank of a button and pinned it to the top of empty cardboard bolts from the fabric store.

This makes a great working space and allows you to place tension on the cord by secure the leather ends with either tape or another pin.  This set up helps to keep thread tension even as you ladder stitch.

We also used those big-eyed beading needles threaded with beading cord (you'll need two per person-I forgot that part)...

These needles are really easy to thread and rarely come unthreaded, a valuable factor when you're teaching someone how to bead.  The fewer frustrations the better.

And so we beaded for a few hours...

All the girls plus their Mom.  My SIL's birthday was Dec 20 so she was making her own birthday present...

And she didn't seem to mind, bless her.

We laughed and made mistakes and smiled and laddered and sang and drank tea... [Aside: They all think I drink a LOT of tea.  Evidently, they don't drink enough.]

After about five hours, some of us were able to make TWO bracelets...

And everyone made at least one.

Hands down, they all did a great job...

Thank you girls for a great day...I just hope you have me back again.  I promise to bring my own tea supply.

Happy happy Monday to everyone else.  

P.S.  The formula for the amount of leather cording you'll need for each bracelet is:

[(circumference of the wrist in inches) x (# wraps desired) x 2] + 14 inches = total # inches of leather cording needed

I share this since we kind of figured this out the hard way.  http://www.beadshop.com/projects/youtube-videos/