Handmade Holidays 2014, part 2

I got some more finishes under my belt!  Only 218 started projects left pending...

Just kidding.

Sort of.

:)

Anyway, here is the felt nativity set I have been working on for Timothy.  I think I spent a total of $12 and 3 nights of cutting pieces and glueing while we were watching tv.  If you want to make your own, this is where you can get the templates.  And you heard me correctly, I glued the entire thing together, no sewing.  

It is located in our living room, right under the advent calendar where all of the pieces are now located.

We started with Mary, an angel, Joseph, and then the donkey so we can start with the angel coming to tell Mary and Joseph that Jesus is coming.  Then they can hit the road and start walking through the palm trees.  I think eventually I want to just glue the palm trees and manger to the background, but then I need to add three more pieces.  Maybe another camel, a fourth angel, and a barn cat?  Not sure, but we will see if I can get the scissors back out and dig through the pile of felt and crank through a couple more pieces.

Jared and I laughed about the fact that they look like they are in sleeping bags.  :)

And right before Thanksgiving, I got this cute pillow to the chair in the living room.  It lasted a whole 3 days out and then was put in the box until next year.  At least it will get some more daylight next year.  :)  I got inspiration from this pillow I saw a few weeks ago.

Timothy didn't want to smile, but he wanted his picture taken.  Go figure.

The back :)

The new owner of the pillow.  She totally took it over and slept with it every day.  :)

Edit: I forgot to include the link for the advent calendar that I made last year.  If you want to make one yourself, CLICK HERE.  :)  Onto the dentist with Timmy and then the sewing machine!

Handmade Holidays 2014

WARNING: This post contains a LOT of felt and yarn.

Work in progress: Table runner (small squares are actually brown)

Campfire out of felt for Timmy's birthday (aka Mr. Camper)

Woodland creatures masks out of felt (in progress).  There is a fox, bear, deer, raccoon, and owl.  :)

I learned how to double knit!  Working on a snowflake scarf:

Felt nativity.  These are pieces that will be going in the advent calendar I made last year and there will be a piece of felt on the wall for Timmy to play with.  I just need to get some people done!

Death Star is done other than some lines I need to sew on around the thing.  It took almost an entire bag of batting!

Timothy, making a mess and shoveling snow, his two favorite things to do this week :)

All Good Gardens Come to an End and the Rhythm of the Needles

The garden is done and has been since September.  (please bear with me as I catch up on my fall)

I am always sad about this day, when everything gets ripped out and thrown in the compost heap or lawn bags to head to the tree dump.

Timothy is the one person who looks forward to this day all summer...finally he is allowed to play in the giant dirt patch in the backyard!  He has been so patient, helping us pick tomatoes and beans, talking about driving his trucks in the dirt all summer.  He has been dutifully turning the soil over and giving all uncovered worms a ride in his dump truck.  :)

The garden produce has all been consumed, frozen, dried or canned.  I can once again walk in my pantry without tripping on the dehydrator and canning tools!

With the coming of the colder weather, the knitting needles and crochet hooks have made their annual reappearance as I now turn to hibernating in my home until April comes, hoping for a January thaw and good packing snow on a day that isn't too windy.  

You might be laughing, but it is 15 degrees out and the wind is blowing the snow horizontally, so I am feeling slightly desperate for just one fresh, garden tomato.  Thankfully, the bucket of yarn and patterns I have been slowly collecting over the last few months are calling me and I have some time to joyfully answer. 

Here is what I have been up to:

Christmas gifts!  This scarf is actually done and waiting blocking, ready to be gifted to one of my relatives.  :)  Check one off of the list!

A hat for Timmy!  This was a lot of fun and was a good refresher on the double pointed needles.  It is a little big, but needs to be blocked and has some wool, so it will tighten up just a bit.  I am thinking that I might add a fleece lining to help with the wind factor.

It is also reversible and Timmy wanted to show how big it is.  (I may have bribed him with a piece of halloween candy to model his newest winter clothing article)  :)

Next, something on the needles for me, an oversized shrug (it should have the structure of a shrug, but the coverage of a sweater) made with some lovely wool.  This is the fisherman's wool from Lion Brand and it feels soooo nice as it contains some of the natural oils in the yarn.  This is a longer term project, especially with homemade gifts taking over my to do list (and in my mind, take a much higher priority to other things, like say, the laundry).  :)  So thankful for my patient husband!

And speaking of my patient husband, I have a gift of his currently in the works, too.  If you can't tell what it is, that would be a death star pillow half done, not a yarn bowl.  :)  I love my nerdy husband and when I showed him the idea he was really quite giddy over the idea of a death star pillow.  I am crocheting it with two colors of gray so give it a little more texture and other than counting obsessively to get the correct increases, it is an easy project so far.

Progress

I haven't given an update on what I have been working on for the craft show in awhile.  The pile of finished projects is slowly growing.  I am hoping I can kick myself in the pants and get some of these piles a little larger.

9 art folios, 3 art wallets, 6 crayon rolls.  I just finished 6 more crayon rolls and I have a zillion more folios and wallets prepped and ready to go.

10 more car carriers...I have already sold 4 of these and Timothy has one too (product testing).  :)  These are really fun to make and I am hoping these will sell well.  I have some tractor fabric that is going to be turned into a fun variation of this!

I don't spend all of my time behind the sewing machine.  I have 10 of these little mug sweaters just needing buttons and will have another 10 that will be ready to be blocked sometime next week.  Here is how they work:

 

Naked mug.  Very beautiful (thanks Kim and Thom!), but too hot to handle when filled with beverage.

 Nice and cozy.  :)  I am thinking these will sell well because everyone knows one coffee or tea lover, if not several, and it is a great gift to pair with a nice bag of coffee or with a box of teas.  We will see if my theory holds.

And a couple of pictures of Timothy, who decided to read to me this morning.  :)

His new favorite is my old Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever!

getting ready for the car ride

I am starting to stress about the car ride to Michigan.  Almost 2 whole days with a child stuck in his car seat.  For the record, my parents took one and a half days, but with a 16-month-old and a 28-week-pregnant momma, I am anticipating many more stops.  Sounds like a nice, relaxing trip for my hubby, don't you think?  :)

We are stocking my husband's ipod with childrens' music (yay for being a elementary music teacher!), purchasing a personal dvd player for the meltdown times, and packing lots of fine motor toys and activities.  That goes for me too...I'll probably end up doing only half of the projects I am packing for myself.  Anyway, I made this I-Spy bag for Timothy tonight:

Lots of different little things to find in a storm of rice.  I have seen a lot of these online lately, but just this morning I found this post and she answered a lot of my questions.  The tissue paper trick was a lifesaver!  My sister-in-law is also hosting a toddler busy bag swap and this is going to be part of my contribution.  I made this one up quick to test it out on our trip.  We'll see how it survives being thrown in the van.  :)

No gardening today...my little sweet pea didn't take an afternoon nap (after last week taking several 3 hour naps, I don't understand), but hopefully tomorrow I will get the rest of my cool weather crops in the ground.  I am also hoping to pull together a few more activities for Timothy.  Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Art for Timothy

I found these awesome Eric Carle alphabet flash cards last year while we were still living in St. Louis and knew that I wanted to hang them on the wall. When we moved here, the nursery was just too small and I had other things to hang up anyway. Now that we have been working on his new room, I thought they would be perfect. I am still thinking of adding 3" letters next hanging off next to each card...unfortunately the letters on the cards are on the opposite side.

We also found these awesome stickers at Menards that are different color circles and the border on the wall was born...5 packs of stickers later. :)

A couple of months after finding the alphabet letters, we found matching number flash cards...