Overwhelmed? Me?

I just finished making a list of the projects that I'm currently working on and ones that need to be started and finished. The number is 30. 30 projects. Sewing, knitting, crocheting, designing, printing, assembling. And those are just for Christmas! There is an entirely different list of projects that need to get done in the not-too-distant future: Norway Trip blog, printing, framing, painting, photo albums, hanging, thrifting. Phew.

Today is going to be all-projects all-day. I'm not even going to bother getting dressed. I think it's going to be a very good day.

Here is my favorite song right now. It's officially my new running song -- the one I switch to when I need a burst of energy to keep me going. Enjoy!

Sampler

Remember this? I started this little sampler back in February, and I think I finished within the month. Since then it has been waiting for a frame. I have the hardest time finding frames I like! New frames from the store are SOOO boring, but I never seem to be able to find anything cool at the thrift store or garage sales. They're all just as boring. I finally just got a plain old from Michael's. Simple may be best for William's room, anyway. That's where this will actually be hung...if we ever get around to it.

Ripples

Look at all that clash-y goodness!
Looking for an easy, mindless craft I could work on while also keeping William off the counters, out of the fireplace, out of the toilet and away from my purse, I settled on crochet. Crochet seems much easier to set down and pick back up than knitting -- especially something like this that's just simple single crochet.

I've been wanting to do a ripple afghan since seeing this one on Alicia's blog a couple years ago. I still like hers better, but I'm pretty happy with mine.

I used Vanna's Choice yarn (that's right...Vanna White) and a pattern from this book, also Vanna's. Who would have thought? There are actually a number of afghans I'd like to make from this book and I really love her color line. Also, even though the yarn is acrylic, it seems much softer and was much more enjoyable to work with than most nasty acrylic. Score!

I worked on this afghan for a collective 1-2 hours per day for about two weeks. It was super easy and quick and it's the perfect size for a snuggle on the couch with one's honey. And I looooove the way it looks with our couch! I just love that pea green color with the silver sage couch -- one of my favorite color combos! Those two colors along with white furniture are actually what my dream craft room/sitting room are made of. Yum!

Oh...come to think of it...that's the color scheme of this here blog, isn't it. :)

Terrarium

My dad has a thing for junk. He has a lot of it. All kinds of things that no one wants or has a use for anymore. Old film projectors, spot lights, motorcycle parts, radio broadcasting equipment, pretty much anything you can think of (and things you probably don't realize exist). He has built an entire mini radio station in his backyard from mostly free stuff that other people were going to throw away. He is finishing a little camping trailer that he has built from other peoples' "trash". He is amazingly resourceful.

When I was growing up, he took an old vintage blender (you know, the cool futuristic silver ones) and turned it into an aquarium. With fish in it. It was incredibly cool. He also gutted a computer monitor and made it into a terrarium. It was the first terrarium I had ever seen and I have never forgotten it. And since then I've been a little bit obsessed with them.



Lately it seems that I've been seeing a lot of terrariums on the bloggernets and I've been wanting to make one for a long time. And thanks to the sweetest, most generous girl on earth, I finally have! I recently won a scarf give-away on her blog, and because she is so sweet and knew of my longing for some moss with which to make a terrarium, she included some moss and 3 adorable little mushrooms she made herself with my scarf (which I love!). I squealed many times in opening the package.




The other day, William and I finally put this terrarium together and I LOOOOVE it so much. Who knew 2 fish bowls, some rocks, moss and little mushrooms could bring so much joy into my life? Maybe I'm some sort of freak, but isn't it gorgeous?? And so easy! You should seriously considering making one of your own.

Oh yeah, and before the month is over I had to show you this page of my calendar. Doesn't that paper about kill you? Crap I love it. I need to do something incredible with it. The only question is WHAT?

Hoping for some inspiration...

...and fast.

Raddest Calendar Ever

Dudes, look at this calendar John got me for 2009 from Paper Source (now open in the The Oaks mall! It's actually a huge problem for me. I could spend the entire day there. And have.)


At first glance, it just looks like a really beautiful and lovely calendar.



However, on the back of each month, you find that there are stencils for fun projects!




Each month can be cut into pillow boxes, gift tags, bookmarks, etc.




Fun, environmentally friendly and gorgeous! It's basically one of the most perfect creations ever. I really hope they do this calendar every year.




P.S. Look at February!! I can't stop looking at how the weeks/dates/days are all perfectly in sync. The month starts on a Sunday and ends on a Saturday. It's just so yummy. I wish every month had 28 days. It's so tidy and nice and organized looking. Who can I talk to about arranging that?

Just a couple more...

Two of my favorite ladies should be getting these in the mail today, so I'll post these pics now (and, if they don't get them today...then surprise!).

For my lovely soulmate-on-many-levels friend Christen of The Deliberate Life -- a late little Christmas present.

Christen would know how to fix the punctuation/grammer of the above sentence. She's cool and smart like that. She actually gets paid to do it.

And for my wonderful, beautiful, talented sister-in-law Christi (see her etsy shop, Tickled Whimsy) who fixed all of my broken necklaces while we were in Utah. Thank you so much!

Bethany made this tree.
Love you chicks!

January? Really?

I had this whole commentary on the weather I was going to ramble on about. You know, about how it's January and how it shouldn't be 80 degrees. About how windy it is and how I hate the wind. How I got hit in the head with my trunk lid (door?) when I was putting groceries in yesterday because of the blasted wind. About can't I get a *little* bit of a change of weather around here, for goodness sake? Etc. But...you've heard it all before. And you just heard it again. I'm annoyed, we'll leave it at that.

Does it get better than acorns and owls?

So instead, look at the adorable coffee/hot drink sleeves my sister and I made!Bethany spent 10 days here with me before Christmas and we had so much fun. One night included making these little sleeves and they turned out so cute. We also both made one for a friend each. I wish I had pictures of those, too, cause they were adorable.

Enjoying our Christmas-y beverages

I've got lots more to share from the last two months, but I'm now off to my kickboxing class. Just wanted to let you all know that I'm still here!

The Felting of the Fox

So, last August while I was on bed rest with nothing but crafting to do, I ordered all of these little critters from Crafty Alien. For one reason or another, it took two months for her to send them to me which meant that my plan of getting them all done before the babe showed up didn't happen. And now here we are a year later and I'm just now finishing a couple of them (I did get the owl done before Will was born).

I was going to do a tutorial on felting but...I forgot and only took a couple of pics. So, it's probably not terribly helpful, but I'll post the pics anyway.

All the pieces knit up and ready to go.

Soak for 5 minutes in hot, soapy water. Then roll and squeeze each piece around in your hand until the individual stitches disappear.

All of the pieces are now felted. Stuff with batting and shape as desired. Allow to dry overnight.

Attach parts and applique face, etc. Allow to roam free.

Will loves the owl but it took him a few minutes to warm up to the fox. He seems to like it here.

Ok, so I'm pretty bad at following directions and have to read things a million times to understand what they're telling me. And even though I read the instructions many times, I still missed a step or two. Haha. So, this fox has plenty of mistakes. The white belly was supposed to be appliqued onto the body pre-felting, which I did not do. And the tail wasn't supposed to be stuffed. Haha. So the tail is like...as big as the body and the fox can't stand up at all. It's pretty comical.

I still have kits for a squirrel and a raccoon but felting the fox and the deer in the same night kind of burned me out. So we'll see when I get to those. However, the raccoon kit has gone MIA. Typical.

Advent-tageous

Ok, How cute is this advent calendar? Jenny at allsorts just posted the pattern and I'm so making one. It'll probably take me all month but it'll be fun to have next year!

I'm also working on another felt stocking so that William has one at home and one at Grandma's house in Utah. I hope I get it done in time -- it's hard to do much of anything around here. Everything is slowly accomplished in 5-10 minute breaks when we're not nursing or playing. Good thing this kid is so cute.


I went running this morning for the first time in basically year. Holy crap. I'm so out of shape. No big surprise -- but it was pretty ridiculous. I've got a long hard road ahead of me.

But for now, William and I are going to walk down the street and finally mail some things while I listen to music very loudly. My dealing-with-stress method of choice? Denial and Distraction.