The Year in Review

Amy had a great suggestion today; instead of making resolutions about how next year will be better than the last, one should celebrate the year gone by and all the successes along the way.

This year we reveled in the best things there are:

Beauty,
Creativity,
Treats,
Love,
Togetherness.

A pretty good year.


1. Chocolate Dipped Doughnuts, 2. Felted Sweater with embroidered pocket, 3. Cinnamon Sunrise, 4. going quickly, 5. Heart French Toast, 6. planting, 7. Sculpture Garden, 8. Stream under Summit, 9. Up a Tree, 10. reflection, 11. Sweet Ride, 12. Dewdrop, 13. Strawberry, 14. Fathers Day Cake with Strawberry Jam, 15. Sunrise, 16. heron, 17. Through the woods, 18. Harvest time, 19. Untitled, 20. Teeny Tiny Frog, 21. Face Painting, 22. In the River, 23. As Big as a Falcon, 24. Sky-Blue Water, 25. Last Beach Day of the Summer, 26. Is that my bus?, 27. dribbling, 28. Pumpkin Whoopie Pies, 29. Brown/Teal Scarf Close, 30. Binoculars, 31. October Morning Light, 32. Reading at the Breakfast Table, 33. Arr, I'm a pirate!, 34. homemade marshmallows, 35. Waiting for the Bus, 36. Snowy

December Five and Twenty, fum fum fum

So far we've had a perfect morning of presents, burned bacon, more (not burned) bacon, waffles, Charlie Brown, and cookies.
I hope you find togetherness and love today.

Merry

Making

The present extravaganza is fully underway, and I have some goodies to show for it -
Scarves for various folks on the list.My kids keep telling me that their teachers have scarves already, but they're all getting one anyway.
I have seen homemade marshmallows on more than one blog this season, and (follower that I am) I just couldn't resist making a mountain of them myself.

I tried my hand at coating some of them in chocolate too, they're tasty but not too pretty.
Still to come, more scarves and cookies...

Fa La La

I am fully in the spirit of the Christmas Season!
I have been making sweet treats all day, cookies are on the horizon, and I have been listening to Christmas music all morning.
New this year -can I tell you how happy these make me?
I don't really know if I can put it into words.

My lovely Elder Hug-a-Bug is 6 today.
These are two songs that are on our playlist lately.
The first one makes me think of our not-quite-so-little lady, who really is quite remarkable.
The second one is her current favorite.

Brrr

Swapping Complete (at least on my end)

The deadlines for two swaps come up this week, and I have everything finished, and I am making my final trip to the post office this morning.For the Holiday Traditions Exchange we were supposed to share our favorite holiday traditions (duh) and I chose handmade gifts and baking.
I wove a small neckwarmer type scarf, embellished a stocking and baked some cookies.
Now, I am off to the post office, via the Children's Museum with the Younger Hug-a-Bug, and my swapping will be complete.
This whole thing has me feeling quite Christmas-y, and I am happy to say that we got our tree and village up yesterday.

They look terrific when all the lights are out, even with the sun coming up...

Fun Stuff with Felt

I am teaching a new class at Treadle Yard Goods this weekend.
This is my first time teaching sewing.
I have taught knitting for 7 years now, and I am sure this new class will go o.k., but every new endeavor brings its own anxiety...

We're making different projects with hand sewing on felt.
When I peruse all of the crafty blogs out there sometimes there are projects that are too good not to make at home - Juicy Bits' felt crowns and Angry Chicken's barrettes are two of those projects.
I modified each of their designs to hand sewing, and did some other tweaking, but I really want to thank those ladies for their great ideas.
I'll be sure to tell my students about these creative ladies when I get to class.

The Elder Hug-a-Bug loves her crown, and it's such a fun project, I hope it'll be a hit with the class. (this picture is from last year)


For the class, and because there's a 4-year-old's birthday coming up in a month, I made a birthday crown.
Another project that I am really excited about is this treasure bag - I took inspiration from a piece of vintage ribbon.
The vines are embroidered, but everything else is little pieces of felt that I adhered with wonder-under and then sewed on with a running stitch around the edge.
I was a little worried about the lack of symmetry in my stitching, but I am choosing to embrace it.