Like many bloggers out there I have been taking a little break. I haven’t wanted too, but we haven’t seen the sun in over a week and I can’t get any pictures that aren’t either washed out from the flash or blurry from too long of an exposure time. It is a bit discouraging. It is also a bit sad, since we really don’t have any good Christmas pictures. I guess this type of “action” shot will have to suffice.

Other than my camera woes, Christmas was really wonderful. It has been so nice to spend time with an amazingly “functional” family. I feel very lucky. Christmas dinner was pretty easy and not stressful even though we had it here at our house. I enjoyed cooking and was able to tinker enough to make what turned out to be a delicious cranberry relish and also some rum & maple sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are usually on my list of foods to avoid, but I may have to change my tune. It has also been nice to spend time on the phone with some of our family members who are in other parts of the world. We wish we could all be together!

Just in case anyone is on the hunt for fun, DIY, gifts to make for kids, I thought I should post more details for anyone who needs these ideas. Since my son wants to be anything except for who he already is (and maybe that, too) costumes are the way to go. Especially, if it gives the impression of muscles or super powers. To make these I am recycling some T-shirts from the Goodwill. The most important part might be picking fun color combinations. I used felt to cut out a large size first initial of the child who will receive this gift. I used thread the same color as the T-shirt to offer some contrast. I imagine it should be easy to hand stitch these on with an embroidery thread if you don’t have a sewing machine or feel more comfortable hand stitching.

I gathered the fabric for the cape and attached it right to the neckline and extending about an inch down the shoulder seams.

Here is that suit making it’s way into the box.

And the label that I made for the box, complete with warning! The warning comes from experience. After making a cape for my son I couldn’t keep him from trying to watch it flutter behind him as he ran. The worst disaster was when he ran into the corner of a cement wall. I finally convinced him to let me video tape him running as proof that the cape was, in fact, fluttering quite nicely behind him.

Here are four of them that I made. I made another one for my youngest nephew, and still have to make one for my son.

And here is another one boxed up and ready to go.

And yes, Ethan, you are my super hero. Especially, when you clean your room!

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I don’t think the recipient of this gift looks at my blog so I think it is safe to post pictures before Christmas. I need potholders, which might be why I keep thinking of making them as gifts for other people. I also think potholders are one of those things that people usually keep too long, until they are embarrassingly disgusting, so maybe giving people new ones will give them an excuse to retire some of their old ones. I want everyone to know that I can’t actually think of anyone who has kept their potholders too long. I guess it is fortunate that it really isn’t important enough to actually remember after you notice. So I made some potholders.

I have learned a few things about making potholders. First, they take too damn long to make! I would really have to perfect a simple design in order to ever make any money making potholders. And second, I am going to have plenty of potholders to choose from, for my own kitchen, from all of my rejected attempts. And third, if you are going to give someone potholders as a gift… it isn’t enough, you have to make something else, too. So I made an apron to go with it.

I was excited that I figured out how to use my sewing machine to embroider this design. It has been fun to figure out how to combine the different stitch functions to come up with designs I can use. Here is a close up of the detail on the pocket of the apron.

I am also sad that I forgot to take a picture of the hand towel I made to go with this set. You know, the old fashioned kind that has the cloth or crocheted top so that it can be attached to a drawer or appliance handle. But since I forgot to take a picture before I put it in the mail, I thought I should post this funny picture of my husband modeling the apron for me. See how supportive he is!

Since my husband roasts coffee, I thought it would be nice to give his fresh home roasted coffee as Christmas gifts. I feel a little bad that his craft has to be done outside while it is freezing cold. At least my craft gets to be indoors, usually with fabric and an extra heater aimed at my feet. I made labels for the bags of coffee and found a very cool resource for old cut and cap ornaments. Use like clip-art, only so much cooler! I printed these on Salay handmade paper, which I bought while in the Philippines, but you can also buy some of there products here.

On a similar note, this is what I get for having a husband who roasts his own coffee: You realize you are a coffee snob when…

… you walk up to the counter of a local coffee shop and ask, “What’s in your house blend?” The girl behind the counter says, “Oh, there is nothing in it! It is just plain coffee.” I stood there, blinking. Hmmm, I guess that wasn’t the answer I was looking for. The owner of the shop, who was standing nearby crunching numbers, looked up at me with an amused smile and said, “It is primarily Costa Rica, blended with a few other South American beans.” “Okay, great! I’ll try that.”

My mom made this stocking for me when I was little. I get it out every year and am never quite sure what to do with it. This year I am trying to find a place to hang it next to the stocking Daniel grew up with (and it’s mate, which his mother gave him since she didn’t know what else to do with it.) So I get the “make it yourself” genes from both sides of my family. My mom’s current craft is beading. I can’t wait to see what she makes for us for Christmas! And she is talking about starting her own blog. Way to go, Mom!

I have been busy. And am starting to feel a little burned out. It didn’t help to have a kid home sick for a whole week, a snow day with both kids home, and then the husband coming down with the same flu over the weekend. I am crossing my fingers that I won’t get it. I don’t feel like I have time for it for at least another week. I need to wait for some good sunshine to take pictures, but I am starting to feel like I don’t want to ruin the surprise for anyone for Christmas so I may have to just save up some of those pictures to post in two weeks. So instead of posting crafty picture, I thought I would put this up of my daughter sledding down the hill in the park next to our house. I am dreaming of more sunshine like this!

And here she is:

Saturday we picked out a tree. It is so fun to have kids old enough to get excited, get in the spirit of things and help out.

Daniel also took the kids out for a walk to gather the rest of the Christmas decor. Since we have moved so much I only had a few things, and I still don’t want to have to store a lot of seasonal items, so I thought bringing in some of the wonderful stuff we see outside would be better than anything I could buy. Like evergreens and some red “who knows what” for the front door.


Some neat red twigs. I hope they decide it is spring in our warm house and sprout a few leaves:

These cool red berries. Unfortunately, they are a little off the beaten path (which isn’t so much fun when it is below freezing!) I need to put them somewhere that will show a little more contrast.

And a few cattails for good measure, since they are everywhere when you live near a lake.

I got a little tired of being an assembly line for the kid’s christmas gifts and making the same thing over and over. I needed to do something different to keep me going. I have been experimenting with ribbon embroidery. It is really the ultra simple version and I actually like the way the satin ribbon looks better than the silk ribbon. I found some beginner stitches from Threads magazine online.

I thought I would try working with something small so I made a few potholders. I am not really very happy with the final outcome. I think I need to do a little more experimenting, but I am not sure it is worth the work just for a few potholders. So maybe I will have to use a similar design and create some pillows instead.

My workspace is getting messier. I just had to take a picture because of the tulle that is starting to spread everywhere and because when I needed a break from that project I just created another big mess on the floor. I am so thankful to have this room in our house. Unfortunately, it is the easiest entrance to use from the street so it hurts my pride sometimes to have people always enter the messiest part of the house and often not get any further than that. Oh, well. It is a small price to pay for a wonderful workspace.

I also wanted to apologize in advance to my sisters-in-law. I am sending your daughters these hideous Poofy Princess Play Dresses for Christmas. I am not sure what gave me the idea to make these, but I hope the girls love them!

Actually they weren’t lost. It has just been five years since they have been on a Christmas tree because I put them in storage instead of carting them across the ocean when we left for the Philippines. I made them all by hand about 8 years ago and since it was so long ago and my memories of making them are pretty vague, I get this weird feeling when I look at them. It seems impossible. But, it is fun to put these decorations on our tree after having them in storage for five years. Today is the day we arrived back in the US a year ago. I can’t describe how good it feels to be home. If you feel a little unpatriotic or disillusioned with your country, there is nothing like 3 1/2 years in the third world to bring tears to your eyes at the thought of being home. Christmas Day will be the one year mark for us living here in Michigan. We arrived in Michigan at 5:30am Christmas morning after a crazy ass road trip all the way from Los Angeles. We stumbled into the house and crashed for a few hours before we had to get up and drive to my folks house to enjoy the Christmas festivities (and bring them their grandchildren whom we had taken with us to that third world country and they had not seen in more than two years.) So getting out these ornaments has a lot more meaning than I ever imagined. It is fun to realize that I actually still like them. And now they make me feel like I am home in a way I never imagined possible.