Craftiness

I was very crafty this Christmas.  I guess it was all the time I sat at home with nowhere to go.  I am not very crafty at all, I get totally stressed and never like the finished projects, which is why I give most of them away, so here are some of the things I am actually proud of.  I think I am turning into a crafty stay at home mom, only in thought, not in practice yet.

I made Aubrey a baby blanket that took all summer long.  I bought the material in Boise, but just couldn’t figure out what I wanted so it turned into just another thing we had to pack.  After we moved, I finally picked a pattern and got started.  My OCD kicks in when I start organizing and it takes me weeks of rearranging the pieces on the floor until I am satisfied, which is never 100%.  Ask me sometime and I can tell you what is wrong with every quilt I have made.  I sent my mom tons of pictures of the different choices and she was very nice to help, but I don’t think she could tell the difference.  I am pretty happy with the result.

I made 4 crafty items for Christmas.  I was dreading making Aubrey a stocking for Christmas after the trauma of making mine and Bob’s the first year we were married.  (Here is the post on that adventure.)  It took me two years to find a stocking that was similar to ours, lots of digging in my mom’s craft drawers and many trips to the store during Thanksgiving to make sure I had everything before returning to the sticks.  As usual, it took many days of arranging, cutting, fixing, and doubting, before I could commit with glue and thread.  Every time I look at it, I see something I want to change, but it’s done.

I wanted to make Aubrey something handmade, so I made a tag toy.  I should have been simple, but that’s not how I work.  Again I ransacked my mom’s craft supplies for ribbon and spent 3 days just looking at them deciding which to use and 3 more days figuring out where they should go so the pink ribbons weren’t together and the polka dot ribbons weren’t too close and that each side was different enough from the others so that it didn’t look like I tried to make a pattern.  And what fabric to use because I only have bright colored thread that will clash with most colors, and I don’t want it too girly, and not something that is the same as a ribbon…  Lots of brain power goes into these little things.  Is your brain tired yet?  All I had to do was sew two pieces of material right sides together with the ribbon pinned in between and a plastic bag pinned on one side, but not that side that is against the sewing machine foot because that  will make it slide all over, so it will be in the middle when it is flipped inside out.  Of course, remember that the ribbons have to sewn pointing in so they will point out when flipped.  This took more than one try obviously.  Here is the result – one blue side with pink stitching, and one red side with green stitching.

My next project was a hollow book for my dad.  Bob’s brother-in-law made a couple of these last year and I was pretty impressed.  Again, very easy instructions, but not an easy process.  I found a book at the DI called “Deadly Pleasures”, a collection of mysteries.  I filled it with chocolate and an ITunes gift card, two of my dad’s pleasures.  It took much longer than expected to cut over 1,000 pages with a dull Exacto knife.  The blisters and the cramped fingers replaced the mental exertion for this project.

My last project was a little gift to the grandparents from Aubrey.  She made “Mistle-toes” for them with a bag of kisses.  Shouldn't be too hard, right? Paint, stamp, paint, stamp...  Then I real half way through that it would make more sense not to have the paint on the other side of the table and running back and forth.  And then baby kicked the plate off the table with clean foot, which was now not clean, and rubbed her feet together and on the table as I reached down for the plate with one hand trying to hold her and her feet with the other.  Then she made “extra” leaves while stamping and tried to see how far she could smear her foot before I lift it up. The other foot was easier since I reorganized and was now proficient.  Add a few thumb berries, glue on a title to hide the “extra” leaves, and Ta Da!

Good thing Christmas only comes once a year.  I better start planning now.