Christmas cards were light this year and I’ll admit I didn’t send any out. I love sending and receiving cards but I just don’t get to them every year. The best card we received this year? No offense to the other lovely cards but this interactive make-your-own car freshener christmas tree rocked! I would have loved to actually put it in our car but a certain little boy was having none of it. And yes there was a bit more to it – a large card with family photos and signatures. Complete fun.
I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season. I’ve been busy beyond belief. I promise to be back soon with more projects I’ve done as well as a taste of how our christmas went per request. Here I give you a half eaten gingerbread man ornament made by yours truly. But really the credit goes to Jen and Meg. Meg from Elsie Marley initially created the pattern last year. At first I didn’t like it but it grew on me. I pulled it up on the computer one day to contemplate making it. Seth saw it thought it was hilarious – well that sealed the deal. Unfortunately, as it usually does, life got in the way and it wasn’t until Jen’s last pARTy that I got around to it. And really just because I hadn’t over committed myself, had reserved the day to be at Jen’s and Jen placed a bowl full of supplies in front of me. Man, she’s the best! Top that off with she had two pattern’s cut out: the original and a slightly modified one which I preferred and really got me over what had been holding me back originally. She sent me home with supplies to make a few more but of course, that hasn’t happened… yet.
Oops! Forgot to take a picture of a painted lighthouse photo I did at Jen’s last pARTy! And I just gave it away as a Christmas gift to a dear friend. At least I still have this one to show you. Though it is by far the poorer of the two. This a portion of a photo taken by one of my parents in the ’70s while on vacation in Door County. Using Jen’s techniques as before, I adhered the photo to a block of wood and highlighted the boats with paint. Rather hard to get a perspective here but you should know that it’s only about 2×3 inches. I had a hard time painting the boats as they were so tiny. I probably should have found smaller brushes. Oh well. I hadn’t even intended to do these two paintings only I was have a hard time getting my creative mojo on and was given other peoples scrap wood to work with. A few of my photos were there from the last time we worked on this project so I decided to go for it. Ah! It did the trick and I had a fabulous creative day with a bunch of kick arse women. I even got to use the wine basket my mom made me last year. I so rarely bring two bottles of wine anywhere but the basket worked so nicely maybe I’ll always bring two bottles from now on. The basket on the upper step? Handmade by a woman in Carlock, IL. Unfortunately, I don’t remember her name.
OK, these were just about the fastest Christmas gifts ever! Honestly! And I think they turned about pretty darn tootin’ good too. While posting about my own recent experience with painting on ceramics I came up with the idea of having the kids make a few and vowed to pick up some mugs when next at Ikea. Well, silly me, I have a case of plain white mugs in my basement already! (Purchased for a party a millennia ago.) Eleanor’s are the yellow, Seth’s the blue. Here’s how it went:
Other than forgetting to put some newspaper down, the only other thing that went wrong was that I let Eleanor see me push the tip of the marker in. Ya know, to get the ink flowing. She decided this was a necessary step in between every scribble. Silly me, at first I thought it was a good idea to let her practice drawing on paper. The yellow marker tip is now rather squashed.
And just how fast were these babies to do?
So fast, I couldn’t get any non-blurry photos.
I still want to do flower pots and I also think it’d be fun to do some ceramic tiles. Can’t you just see a bathroom with random children drawings spotting the tiled shower wall?
Oh, and the coaster? Made earlier today by Seth using Ikea’s Pyssla beads and shapes. You simply layout your design and then iron. Harder than expected (made Steve cuss a little), but turned out nicer than expected. I didn’t realize I could iron them until they completely melted, leaving virtually no resemblance to the original bead.
I’ve been tagged by the crazy, fabulous, sweet Ayama-chan. Who, incidentally is having a little fabric related give away. But you need to hurry to sign up as it’s only open until tomorrow. Here are my 7 things, with a holiday twist inspired by Jackie:
Now here’s where I’m supposed to post the rules and tag 7 others. Rule posting, no problem – tagging 7 others? How about just one – my favorite Eskimo friend, Tina. She’s brand new to blogland and one of my oldest friends.
The rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write seven little known facts about yourself.
4. Tag seven people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is posted.
Side note – boy do I hate posting without a picture, but I just haven’t had much photography time lately. Let’s hope things lighten up soon.
Went to see Santa on Sunday at Mother Earth Gardens. It was a nice, low key, no lines sort of event. So much nicer than seeing Santa in the middle of a mall or standing in line for an hour or more at Macy’s. Granted the annual holiday display at Macy’s in Minneapolis is a site to behold, I just can’t stand the lines. This was better. It’s where we buy our Christmas tree and provided a no stress, casual santa encounter. The minute we entered Santa’s room Eleanor started bawling beyond belief and Steve had to take her out. Seth was glued to my side at first but soon warmed up enough to give Santa his list:
Now this is where Santa got interested:
Seth now believes that Santa has a brother who lived right by Mount St Helens when it erupted in 1980. Do you see the look of amazement?
Now where in the world am I going to find volcanologist tools for under $20 in the next two weeks?
Note about the pictures: Although they invite you to bring your own camera to take the pictures, the fact that Seth was never more than a foot from me and Steve was tending to Eleanor made this impossible. Therefore, I purchase the pictures you see here along with some others on a disc for $10 including all rights. I wish I had gotten the photographers name as he was really nice and I appreciate that he made sure to mention I could put these online or where ever. Oh, and Santa was wearing his red jacket when we got there. But he made Seth laugh when he took it off to reveal his santa pjs underneath.
Have you been wondering what I’ve been up to? I hope so. I’d hate to think I haven’t been missed. The answer is my day job. It completely took over my life over the last month or so. Seriously. I haven’t even bought OR made a single Christmas present yet. Yikes! It’s getting a bit on the late side for me to make much this year but we’ll see.
Normally, I hate to mix business with pleasure – i.e. my day job and my blog – but I did do one minorly crafty venture for my new team that I thought I would share. Inspired by Carina’s lovely tea cup, I decorated some water glasses for each staffer (including myself, of course). Starting with inexpensive ceramic tumblers from Ikea and some Procelaine 150 markers, Steve wrote each person’s name on one side of the cup. Steve wrote it because he has the nice handwriting, not me. Then I added my rendition of our company logo to the reverse side. Awe, husband and wife collaboration……. Anyway, after letting them dry for a day I baked them in the oven and wallah! instant customized beverage glasses. Apparently, my crafty mojo isn’t completely lost.
Next time I’m at Ikea, I think I’ll pick up some other mugs or cups and let the kids take the Porcelaine markers to them. A little classier than the old paper insert into the plastic cup don’t you think? Ooo! Decorating glazed flower pots would be kind of fun too!! Hmmmm…. What other glazed ceramics can I scribble on?
Update: Coincidentaly Jen did this same project this last week – check her’s out here! They’re way cuter than mine since she was doing them for holiday gifts vs. a work thing like me.
