Getting ready for tomorrow: a little pumpkin pot de creme in my grandmother’s china.
an army of them!
I hope you have a lovely weekend. Happy Thanksgiving!
It’s hard for me to get full on christmas crazy until after thanksgiving, but that time is just a 12 lb turkey away. I do have a few christmasy things made already, thanks to the fabulous Betz White. Betz asked me to take a look at her online course: A Fab Felt Holiday, do a project or two, and tell you all about it (and offer you, dear readers, $10 off)
I’ve never taken an online crafts course before, which is ridiculous because they are super awesome. You can sit at your kitchen table with some coffee and bits of felt and Betz will sit right there next to you and tell you how to make an adorable gingerbread houses and humongous snowflakes and poinsettia brooches (and lots more).
Betz’s course is from Craftsy, which I hadn’t heard of before, which is also ridiculous because it is fantastic. Craftsy’s focus is on well produced video classes and tutorials. And they are very well done. Fab Felt Holiday course has 7 projects with a video tutorial for each that you can watch and pause and skip ahead and use however you like. You can also ask Betz questions while you watch and take notes too–Craftsy has got it all covered.
I chose to make the poinsettia brooches (obviously). I printed out the template at 100%, 75% and 50%. The 50% was a frustratingly small, but everything tiny is adorable. I like the original size, but not everyone is crazy for a big, big brooch–75% is the way to go for those people. All these felt flowers have a pin back so you can put them on your winter coat, but you can also slip a ribbon through the closed pin and use them as gift toppers: 2 gifts in one! Put one on top of a little box of cookies and you have a pretty fantastic teacher gift.
To see more fabulous felt holiday projects, check out all of the stops on the Fab Felt Holiday tour. Or just go buy the course and make your own!
Week of October 3rd: A Sewing Journal
Week of October 10th: House on Hill Road
Week of October 31st: Maureen Cracknell Handmade
Week of November 7th and 14th: Stumbles & Stitches
Week of November 21st: Elsie Marley
I am determined to crochet a snowflake this year. Preferably more than one, but after the first hot mess I made, I would settle for just one. I used a Martha Stewart pattern and it was actually quite clear, but my thread was too thin and I couldn’t work with it at all. These linen ones make me want to try again:
Crocheted snowflakes just look so lovely hanging in a window…
or strung together to make a garland…
or crocheted around a bit of wood…
or crochet together to make a christmas scarf.
Crochet totally beats out knitting when it comes to making snowflakes (oh I’m totally keeping score). Most of the time crocheters get the short end of the stick (and the shaft at yarn stores—seriously what is the deal?), but those beautiful, delicate snowflakes are all crocheted.
Of course crochet can’t stay classy for very long, oh well.
snowman toilet cozy : : santa toilet cozy
This whole redoing the kids room thing is taking forever to finish. It might have something to do with the three kids living in it. It doesn’t help when you paint the dresser, hate it and have to paint it again. The After pictures are coming I promise (here is the before) it’s just taking a leeetle longer than I thought. edited to add: here is the after post!
So what are all these leaves doing on the wall? I couldn’t figure out what to put on the big wall between the two windows. I wanted to get this awesome ice cream print, but the big map was on the neighboring wall and it would have been too many big things in such a small room.
I decided to leave it blank and use it like a classroom bullitin board– putting up little crafts my kids make or things to celebrate the season. First we had a pompom garland up (which you can see in this post) then some bats (behind me here) and now leaves. I had my kids run around the block collecting leaves, then I dipped them in wax, and we stuck them up with washi tape. I had envisioned the leaves laid out in straight rows like a scientific collection, but the kids had other ideas.
I first saw the wax dipping thing on Martha Stewart (of course) but she uses beeswax and ooof that stuff is pricey. Then I stumbled on this post where the leaves are dipped into plain old paraffin wax (2.99 at the grocery store and apparently you can wax your snow shovels with it?).
After about a week up on the wall, the leaves are starting to curl a bit, which is a bummer. If you have the patience, you should probably press them over night or even after you dip them. Maybe dipping them twice would make curling less likely? They are pretty nonetheless and I think they would make a beautiful thanksgiving garland.
Thanks to a sick, crabby baby the giveaway got extended overnight :) The winner of Little Bits Quilting Bee is #39 Melissa D from suburbanitis:
Melissa D says:I absolutely adore the rainbow quilt! Wow.
Even if you didn’t win, do check out the book. It is a fantastic resource and a great reason to go fabric shopping. If you are looking for more good crafting books (or looking to fill up your christmas list) I have a bunch of recommendations in my Amazon store. And for all the books I’ve reviewed you can go to my library page.
Have a lovely weekend!
