Should I...

Make a mosaic of my favorite picture from each month of the past year?

Make an even bigger mosaic of all the stuff I made last year?

Make a slideshow of both and set it to music?

Drink another beer?

Call my daughter home before it gets much darker?

Watch another episode of Arrested Development and fall asleep on the couch?

Really, I don't know. Sure it's the end of the aughts and all, but do I have to do anything? Hasn't it all been done?

Oh wait! I haven't yet seen a collection of headers from '09. Do you know how much I love making headers? Seriously, if I could, I would change my header every day.

So here is my year in headers.














12 headers. I love them each so much. Each one speaks volumes to me about the past year. The change of seasons, the food we ate, the places we went, and most of all, the places we stayed. Our foothill home, filled with our favorite companions. It's a very good place to be.



For visiting.

Help!

I've fallen on the couch and I can't get up.



I'm held captive by a warm quilt and my hands are tied with crochet thread.

I desperately need to go to the grocery store for food and there are several loads of laundry to fold and put away, but the only thing I seem to be able to get up for is more coffee and wood for the fire. It's a good thing my husband is off for the next five days. He can pour the coffee and get the firewood. Teasing. Sort of.

And just in case you're getting sick and tired of crocheted strawberries, here's another little project that's keeping this happy hooker busy.



Finger puppets. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law, as I see them in single crochet. I love them. There are more finger puppets to share once I free myself from the couch.

Happy New Year!

May Your Days Be Merry And Bright

And may all your berries be ripe.

May you travel safely, laugh heartily, sleep soundly and love deeply in the days to come.

There'll Be Marshmallows For Toasting

Homemade marshmallows. Melted chocolate chips. Graham cracker crumbs. A very patient husband with a little propane torch. Smores without campfire. Yum.

I'm tired. Bone tired. Almost cry in the grocery store tired. Go to three different post offices to send a tiny package out of the country tired. Can't wait for propane torch yielding husband to have a few days off of work tired. Staying in my pajamas as long as I can tired. Good tired.

But enough belly aching. I'm tired of complaining. My kids are on a nice long walk with their big cousin (who's probably thrilled to be done with her first semester of college!) and I've got eyes to embroider on a sock monkey and flannel pajama shorts to stitch up. I'm going to need another pot of coffee to go with my egg nog. It's the most wonderful time of the year, or so my Jingle Bell Rock Pandora station tells me.

Homemade Baker's Twine(ish)

I absolutely love the look of baker's twine, but haven't yet invested in a large spool. Instead, I make short lengths of improvised baker's twine as needed.



It's super simple - just use your sewing machine to zig zag along a length of twine or yarn. I use a wide and long zig zag stitch and pull the string from the back as I stitch.

Experiment with colors of thread and string and length of stitch. One of my favorites from last December was grey wool yarn with white thread on the bobbin and red thread through the needle. The possibilities are endless.



I love to wrap gifts almost as much as I like to make gifts. This package is one of my favorites - I made a bread/reusable produce bag out of a tea towel (Ikea - 49 cents!) with a homemade drawstring. I attached a little hand crocheted strawberry (I'll publish the pattern after the first of the year) as a hint to the content of the package (can anyone guess what's inside?).



Here's another fun and easy gift wrap - make a large envelope out of brown craft paper or a brown grocery bag using a large zig zag stitch on the sewing machine. Punch two holes up top and tie the envelope shut with custom twine (white thread on red crochet thread).

Happy wrapping! I've got some more twine to make and strawberries to crochet.

Felted Wool Mistletoe

As promised, here's my version of mistletoe.



It's really super simple. I made it one evening using supplies on hand - just my kind of project.

Supplies:

Thin gauge wire
Green felted wool
White buttons
Red ribbon



Step 1: Cut small leaves from felted wool. I used an accidentally felted cable knit sweater, and the cables provided the perfect leaf shape.

Step 2: Cut an 8 inch long piece of thin wire (I used 24 gauge silver craft wire). Thread wire through the leaf using a running stitch, bend the end of the wire towards the back of the leaf to hold leaf in place.

Step 3: Thread white button onto wire.

Repeat these three steps to make as many mistletoe sprigs as you would like; the more, the merrier. Arrange sprigs together and use a small piece of wire to hold the arrangement. Curl the tops of the wire around a pencil. Wrap the cluster of mistletoe with a red ribbon.

I searched several stores for thin red velvet ribbon, but found none. All the large spools of white thread were gone too! I think it's a good sign and must mean that many people are making their own gifts this year.

I hung my mistletoe in the doorway between the dining room and kitchen, and I love it so much I want to kiss myself every time I walk under it. So make yourself some mistletoe and smooch away!

Beeswax Acorns Tutorial

Supplies:

Acorns
Beeswax
Play-Dough
Small pot
Aluminum can

Step 1: Melt beeswax. Place a small amount of beeswax in an aluminum can, place can in a small pot with about an inch of water. Melt over medium heat.



Tip: I bought an old pot at the thrift store for $.99 to devote to beeswax.



Tip: Crimp the aluminum can with your fingers to create a pouring spout.

Step 2: While beeswax is melting, make your acorn molds using the Play-Dough. Roll the Play-Dough into a short cylindrical shape and press the acorn down into the top of the Play-Dough, twisting a little as you push down. Carefully twist and pull acorn out of the mold.



Tip: If you're handy with tools or know somebody who is, tap the top of the acorn with a small screw to create a handle for pushing and pulling the acorn out of the mold.

Step 3: Pour melted beeswax into the Play-Dough mold.



Step 4: When beeswax dries (about ten minutes or so), remove the beeswax acorn from the mold.



Step 5: Wash any remaining Play-Dough off of the beeswax acorn.



Step 6: Pop the acorn cap onto the beeswax acorn.



Tip: If you want to hang your acorn, poke a small hole into the acorn cap with a sharp nail before attaching the cap to the acorn. Make a loop with some string and pull the loop through the acorn cap using a small crochet hook.

Thank you Gardenmama for encouraging me to write up this tutorial. Sometimes I just need a little push to photograph and document my process.

Should I or Shouldn't I?

There's been quite a bit of creative energy flowing through our foothill home as of late. There's always an underlying current, but at times our system really amps up and you can almost see sparks. My question is, should I share all our recent ideas or are you too overwhelmed with your own creative energy right now? Maybe your system is on overload and if you plug in one more idea, you might crash. Then again, maybe you need a little creative recharging.

We both know the answer to my rhetorical question. I should share. I have to share - it's my nature. When I put ideas out there, even more ideas flow to me. It's a win-win situation for both of us.

So I'll start off by sharing some pretty easy and basic projects. These are things we've made using materials on hand. In fact, I haven't spent a dime on any of the ideas I'll be sharing over the next few days. Frugality fuels my creativity.

Got contact paper? Make some adhesive snowflakes.



We cut white contact paper into squares, folded it as we would fold regular paper for snowflakes, and started snipping. Peel and stick for an instant splash of winter on your windows.

Clear contact paper makes great gift tags/bookmarks.



Avery finished her shopping early and wrapped her friends' presents. She made gift tags that double as bookmarks using clear contact paper, a pair of scissors and an old National Geographic magazine. Punch a hole in the top of the bookmark, string a ribbon and it's a wrap!

No doubt you have some cardboard laying around the house from online gift shopping (the only way to go, really). How about a little cardboard reindeer?



Use Google Images to find a reindeer silhouette, enlarge the image to the size you want, cut out a stencil and transfer the image to a piece of cardboard. Cut out the reindeer using an Exacto knife or scissors, then give your reindeer antlers using sticks (yes, I do have sticks lying around my house - a beautiful cluster of manzanita branches currently adorns my mantle). I think this would make a cute gift tag or ornament.

That's it for today. I'll be posting a few more projects over the weekend and the beginning of next week. Here's what you can look forward to:

- Beeswax acorn tutorial
- Homemade baker's twine(ish)
- Felted wool mistletoe
- CD case made from greeting cards

See you again tomorrow!

MYOB

I don't know when I started saying it, but I find myself saying it several times a week to my daughter. As a coworker of mine used to say in her East L.A. accent, "She's getting in the mix and she doesn't even know the flavor."

Mind Your Own Business.

It's probably not the nicest thing to say, but sometimes we all need a reminder to keep our nose out of other people's business. Especially our little brother's business. My daughter knows exactly what I mean when I say MYOB.

I try to follow my own advice and mind my own business, but sometimes other people's business is just so dang entertaining. For example, my fellow Freecycler's business; you can learn a lot about a person by what they offer and request on Freecycle. I've thought many times about unsubscribing, but then I read a really interesting Freecycle email, such as this one:

Wanted/ Teddies - Lingerie size 1X

Does anyone have even one teddy that they don't wear anymore? I gave mine all away when I swore off men though they were size L. Now I am engaged again and..., I have no preference what color, lace would be wonderful something that hooks up the back, looks a bit like an old fashioned corsette with straps to hold up stockings. Thank you very much!

That's some interesting business! It's practically a short story. And frankly, she made her business my business by asking if I had any unused lingerie, though it's really none of her business if I wear teddies anymore. My business time is my business, but I am dying to know if anyone responded to her request. I'm sure there's more to this story.

But MYOB is not just about business. It can also stand for Melt Your Own Beeswax, which is what we've been doing lately.

Hand dipped beeswax candles. They're a little bumpy (OK, almost obscene), but they sure were fun to make.



Beeswax acorns with real acorn caps. You might know by now that I adore acorns, and these beeswax versions are completely adorable. I used a real acorn to make a mold out of Play-Do, poured melted beeswax into the mold, and removed the acorn when the wax was dry. Pop the acorn cap on and it's done.

I've got a row of beeswax acorns waiting for caps, and I'm going to attach a string through the caps to make little gift tags. I'll cut an oak leaf from felted wool, and if I'm really motivated, I'll stitch the gift recipient's name on the tag. Or maybe just write it with a Sharpie.

If you want to MYOB too and need some beeswax, pop over to Natural Earth Farm. Tonya carries the cutest little blocks of beeswax, and I'm sure she'd love you to mind her business.

I actually stopped to write this post while I was in the middle of reading my friend Patricia's most recently published essay. Stopping part way through an essay says a lot about my attention span, but even more about Patricia. Reading her writing makes me want to write. Her essay is entitled "Be Your Own Best Teacher", but it was originally titled "Homeschooling My MFA".

MFA does not mean what you think it means, or should I say it doesn't mean what I thought it meant, but you'll just have to go read her essay to find out for yourself. Writing is definitely Patricia's business, and I'm glad she doesn't mind sharing it.

Now barring any further distractions, my MFA is off to finish reading the essay before I drag it out to find some more acorn caps.

If I Could Freeze Time

Then the clock would be as frozen as the icicles hanging off our roof.

Icicles!!! I've never lived under a roof with icicles before! Here in the foothills of California, we see snow once maybe twice a year, and when it does fall, it rarely sticks for more than a few hours. But this snow has stuck around all week.



We love it. Can't get enough of it. We're in and out of our snow gear from sun up til sun down.



Thank goodness for warm boots, wool socks, and hand-me-down snow gloves from our big cousins.



Thank goodness for grandpa's old snow shovel.



Thank goodness for a gas dryer, because this clothesline is out of commission.



Thank goodness for snow. We will miss you when you're gone, but we're so glad you stayed so long.



(And yes, I took many, many pictures of the snow.)

Merry Making

Or, "Where I've Been and What I've Been Doing".



Pull up a chair and join our apparent custom. For the third year in a row, we've left the big Thanksgiving table up in the living room and set up "Craft Central". I think it's a reaction to the sad fact that just prior to Thanksgiving there is very little crafting going on at our house. Cooking and cleaning do not go hand in hand with crafting and creating, and I bet you can guess what I'd rather be doing.



So now we craft all day, every day. Neighborhood kids stream in the front door, grab a pair of scissors and get busy.



We cut and color.



We embroider



and applique.



We stuff



and we string.

If we ever finish anything, we will gift.

We don't have too many traditions, but of the few we have, this just might be my favorite. So bring your own project, or pick up one of ours, and join the merry making.

The Seven Year Old Boy

He's quite an interesting character. Quite different from the six year old boy. A little more mature, a little more sure of himself. When offered stickers at the doctor's office last week, he simply said, "No thank you. I don't need any."

We've been playing a lot of Hide and Seek. Every time he finds me or I find him, he hugs me tight, as if he missed me dearly during our brief separation.

We've also been playing a lot of Apples to Apples, and every time he is the judge, he picks his father's card, no matter what. The seven year old boy is fiercely loyal.

He called me from the roof yesterday. On his own cell phone. Yep, the boy has his own cell phone. In fact, he's the only person in our house with a cell phone. He bought the phone with his own money, then earned an extra $20 to add air time.

"Hi mom! I'm on the roof." Words that make a mother's heart quicken, grab the camera, and run outside. Except the seven year old boy disappears when the camera is present.

That is why the mother of the seven year old boy must take pictures while the boy is asleep.



Ah, how I love to watch him sleep.