This years Christmas Tree

Saturday, David and I braved the snow and went out to get our Christmas tree. We pretty much just grabbed the first one we saw since most of the trees were covered in snow and we were shivering. Usually we take a lot more time picking out a tree than that. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when Sunday after the tree had dried out and we put it up, we realized it was quite petite -not too much taller than David! But the tree is still looking good, despite being shorter than usual and so far it has survived the attempts by my 3 kitties to take it down, ornament by ornament.

Here are a few bits and pieces of our Christmas tree so far. I may be back with more...




This is what the cats like to do with our tree:


And when the ornaments are on the floor, all cats plead innocence:

Giving and Receiving

As much as I love giving presents at Christmas, I have to admit, I do love receiving a well thought out gift. This year David's parents got me a Gocco! That was quite a surprise...I can't wait to test it out, but I am going to set aside a day just for goccoing, MLK Day perhaps? Hopefully sooner, but we'll see. And then, if a gocco wasn't enough, David's Grandma made us a patchwork tree skirt (picture to come). This is perhaps my very favorite present. It has been a while since have received something 100% Grandma made! I immediately put it under our tree even though Christmas is over.

During the month of January I've decided to commit myself to a few things (and please note...these are NOT resolutions):

1. Finishing what I have started (namely a quilt I cut up and began to piece last March or April)

2. NOT buying any new clothing unless absolutely necessary

3. Spending quality time with my gocco :)

And lastly, today is my Dad's birthday! I won't share his age and I am pretty sure he doesn't even read my blog, but I thought I'd give him a shout out. I'm taking him to lunch and getting him a season of Scrubs for his birthday. Although my dad is not crafty at all, he encourages it...and bought me the most hideous Crochet magazine for a present last year. Even he admitted that, and we got a good laugh out of it in the end! It is the thought after all.

Christmas Panicing....

So I've been trudging along with Christmas things. I am dangerously close to NOT finishing some things. I have already not finished the little gifts I had planned for my co-workers. I really should have taken an extra day off work, but I didn't do that. I am crossing my fingers for a jammed-packed, activity filled day tomorrow -my only day off before my first family Christmas. Here is what I am making for most of my staff:

I have 8 more to make...I was just too pooped last night to finish, but these patchwork Christmas tree ornaments were super easy and fun to make! I am thinking of posting at tutorial about them (my first), because I didn't see any patterns out there like this in my many google searches...

We've only just begun

I've been trying this week to finish my wedding thank you's before getting crafty. And I'm almost done with those (thanks in part to a nice long wait at the car dealership getting my oil changed) so I can blog again. I'm getting caught up on Christmas too. Take a look...

WARNING: If you go by the name of MOM or are a niece or nephew of mine you should probably STOP READING right now. I'll play it safe and post a picture of the tree I made for my niece first, since I think only grown-ups read the blog:

This tree (from the book Softies) turned out so adorable I may have to make one for myself!

I'm also working on a scarf for my mom:

She wanted a brown scarf and I really need to get cracking on it if I am going to give it by Christmas...I feel that I should be a much better knitter by now. I still have only made scarves. And this thing has been frustrating me to no end. It keeps getting tangled.

And lastly, we've been working with our wedding photos to try and do some cool stuff with them as gifts...but man, it takes FOREVER to upload pictures to store web sites. I almost gave up. There has to be something better than these (I used Cord Camera and Target -which uses Kodak Gallery). Or else I am just spoiled with flickr. Don't know if it was just that there were so many photos or what, but both sites took several hours to upload all of our pictures. I will be happy to be done with those...but other than that I'm really starting to look forward to Christmas. I still have a ton of things to do in order to get ready, but I think I really kicked some craft butt today so bring it on!

P.S. Check out these fun FREE gift tags available for download from angry chicken. I think people who know me may be seeing these again...

Christmas in Space

Tree is up on December 3rd...I cannot believe it! This has got to be some sort of record for us...especially since the tree is real. Let's cross our fingers it doesn't dry up before the 25th!

We tried to kick the scrooge out of ourselves with tree decorating and holiday tunes. Our collection of ornaments is very hodge-podge, and I love it. I could never be a themed Christmas tree kinda girl. I much prefer a bunch of wonky ornaments. We have sloppy ones David or I made as children...dated ones from our childhood, REALLY old ones that belonged to great grandparents, glass bell ones from childhood ornament sales at school...and a whole slew of handmade ones. I came across cross stitch, crochet, beaded, stuffed, and much more. It got me thinking how this month really does bring out the handmade in people. Despite all of the commercialized Christmas crap you see in the stores, I like to think this month folks are making a little bit more by hand than they might have otherwise.

And so this brings me to end, the very last post in my month long journey. It supposedly takes 30 days to make something a habit so hopefully I have turned my blog into a habit. I posted 29 out of 30 days...I almost did it...and so I am taking tomorrow off, but not the whole month. No more of that, no ma'm! I'll be back, so keep reading!

Shrinkage

Man this weekend went by fast...and I did not get nearly enough holiday things done. We didn't even make it to Emmet Otter's Jug-band Christmas. Oh well...we did at least get a Christmas tree today (which Pudge has already tried to climb...this is gonna be fun). I just know, even though it is only December 2nd, I'll be getting it all done at the last minute again...but let's focus on the positive...I still have weeks at this point. Weeks...

Tonight I sort of procrastinated Christmas, which could be why I feel worried at the moment. But I made these lovely necklace charms with shrink plastic. I suppose I could give these as gifts, but I don't know that anyone has requested them. Although they did turn out swell! I'm pretty excited about them in fact. Take a look:

I "drew" all these images myself on the computer!!! You can see some better close-ups of the images here. I'm really proud of the bird...Everything turned out so much better than I expected. I'm planning to list a few of the better ones in the shop tonight! Finally, more than just lip balm! Also, the black and white ones are from a photo of Kelli I photoshopped. I'm just so happy with how these turned out! Because it isn't like I have enough crafts to do already. I guess I am just not a one-craft woman :)