beaded christmas gifts

i made beaded tree of life gifts for the family this year. these are my prototypes. i originally thought i'd make pendants for the ladies (as on the left), but working that small was hard for me. so i went larger and made ornaments instead (as on the right).


this is my parents' ornament finished. it's about 3" in diameter. holly & wayne's and jonathan & laure's each have different beads, but i forgot to take photos of those. so you'll just have to believe me that they're all similar and unique at the same time. :)


i did make a pendant for alicia. in blue, of course. :) it's about 1.5" in diameter.

post-it note holders

i made these post-it note holders for Christmas. and while i still have a couple that haven't been delivered, the ones pictured above have. so i feel comfortable sharing them. :)

two goals, one afternoon

i hosted a Pumpkin Slaughter party this past sunday. we had a great time. now i just need to do something with the bowls of seeds in my fridge before they rot. :)


must. remove. the brains.


jon l. taunting his pumpkin before starting the facial reconstruction.


kathy's sassy cat.


corlin's ghoul has spiky hair!


mikey's alien pumpkin has a probe under his hat.


and poor melanie's pumpkin's got swine flu!


april carved a cute owl.


and dave came! that's the second goal - i got to hang out with dave! i'm so glad he came. and impressed since he didn't know anyone else at the slaughter but me. hopefully the rest of my people didn't scare him too badly. :)


i'm pretty sure mike's attempting jedi mind tricks on beth in this photo.


jon l's pumpkin after the reconstruction.


becca's pumpkin's got a cute li'l smile.


and jes' has the biggest grin of them all.


patti's li'l elfin pumpkin head was simply adorable. although i hear it didn't fair well once she got it home. :(


and i forgot to take a photo of my own. so here it is a couple of days later, lit up on the front porch. see those black spots? yeah, they're ants. it's kind of infested. it's nature helping out the creepy factor. :)

halloween decorations

turns out i might enjoy decorating for halloween. :)

longer sleeves

i added longer sleeves to the tree sweater today. and, in case you're interested, i took some process photos, too.



here's one of the flat pieces, ready to attach to the tree. the long black string is what i'll use to slip stitch the sleeve closed. there's a short green string at the bottom left, as well. that's what i'll use to attach the sleeve to what's already on the tree.



attaching the sleeve to what's already on the tree is tricky to show because the colors match up. but it's a simple slip stitch through the bottom row of the sleeve to the top row of what's already sewn around the tree.



and then a simple slip stitch all the way up the length of the sleeve - pulling & stretching when needed to fit over any knots or bulges on the limb.



the sleeve, completely attached.

it's easy. and i've measured the next dozen or so sleeves ... so i think i'll go back to crocheting now. :)

22. crochet a scarf

hey julie ... remember asking me why i was measuring the dogwood tree out front? :)

when i wrote this goal, i kept it vague on purpose. the tree scarf (sweater?) was my original intention, but i wanted to be able to fall back on a traditional, human-worn scarf if need be. but ... i love my tree scarf! i even have measurements for the next six extensions - so you'll be seeing updated photos as i add to the project.

as i was sewing it on this afternoon, a fellow (in his 60s, probably) was walking by. he stopped and said, "nothing to do but dress a tree, huh?" to which i replied, "hey! it's getting cold out!" he giggled a you've-gotta-be-kidding-me giggle as he continued on his walk.

favorite yarn?

i may have found my favorite yarn. it's bernat's softee chunky. when you feel the entire skein, it doesn't feel exceptionally soft (softer than some, but nothing spectacular), but once you work it up? oooo, that's nice.

it's 100% acrylic and claims to be machine washable/dryable. i may work up a good square of it & run it through a wash cycle to see how it fairs. it if does well, i may just challenge myself to make a sweater or something. yikes! :)

fabulous weekend

i spent the better part of this weekend in indy with marlana. she's making jewelry to sell at convention, and i offered to help her get started. as it ended up, her mom helped her get started last weekend - which meant we were able to dive right into the fun part. :) we got a good amount of necklaces and bracelets made, and our trip to hobby lobby landed me with a couple of great pendants and a spectacular pair of earrings. i should show you a picture ... i took a picture ... let me get the picture ...



cute, right? but not really why i started writing this post. i started writing this post because i had an absolutely fabulous time with marlana this weekend. and i'll see her again on thursday when she, beth and i leave for niagara falls. i'm so excited! :)

alicia's Christmas present

have you patronized the store Monarch in schererville? it's a great little shop filled with all kinds of unique items. my pop-cap bracelet is from monarch. they actually sell a variety of pop-cap items. and when i saw one that looked like a great noise maker, i decided to make one for alicia for Christmas.



doesn't it look fun? it makes a great rattling noise as you shake the caps back and forth on the wire. i suppose after awhile it could get a little annoying, but what good toy doesn't get annoying? it was easy to make, and it goes well with her other musical instruments. hard telling if she really appreciated it when she opened it - but c'mon. it was Christmas morning and she's 3 (and a half!). she had lots of gift-opening to do, i certainly didn't expect her to stop and really play with it. after all, there was an actual walking pony under the tree. ;)



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'becca is heading to bed.