Christmas 2011-Giving

I had a fabulous Christmas. Got to enjoy some quality time with my family as well as my husband. It was relaxing and cozy, everything I ever want Christmas to be.


Now that Christmas is over I can show you some of the things I made for Christmas.

Doctor Who travel mugs. These I was actually willing to buy but I couldn't find any that weren't ridiculously expensive. These are for my in-laws (hubby's sister and her husband) I paired these with a jar of  peppermint hot cocoa that we made.

As I've said before Doctor Who is very popular in my family. Also my brother-in-law is a truck driver so I wanted to make sure we gave him something he could actually use. This is what we came up with. I directed this one and my hubby used his photo shop skills to make it happen. We wanted to keep these.

Another embellished T-shirt. This time for my 4 year old cousin. He loves all things Thomas the Train and his initial happens to be T.

These onesies are for his little sister. She was born November 16th and is adorable.

There's a few other things that may get pictures taken of but I'll leave it at this for now.

I have another post to write on the awesome quilting related gifts I got as well as the purse my husband made me! yes made, all by himself. It's beautiful.

Hope everyone had a great holiday.

Home Made Christmas

There's not a lot I can show about this year's home made gifts but I can talk about my reasons for doing so.

It started out as financial. There's been more than a few Christmas's where the hubby and I were either poor starving college students or just flat out broke. I love Christmas though so this isn't going to deter me. Plus as a quilter I have built up quite the stash of fabric and other crafting supplies. So really I just need to get innovative.

Here are some of the gifts I have made in the past:

Felted wool TARDIS picture I made for my father-in-law (Doctor Who is a big favorite in our family, I really wish I had a picture of this one. I'll have to try when we're back for Christmas. He has it hanging in his office.)

Sunflower pillow for my sister-in-law

No sew Wreath from V and Co

Lavender and Flax seed eye pillows (links to the pattern I use as a rough guide, I don't mess around with interfacing but  I did make both the pillow and the carrying case)

Personalized Note cards

Knitted beanie's 

There's quite a few other things I've made but these are just a few.

 So Our financial situation has changed quite a bit. We're by no means rolling in money but both being gainfully employed helps in that department. 

This however has not stopped us from continue to try and make most of our gifts. I had a conversation with the hubby last Christmas about as we move forward financially I still want to continue to make gifts. 

To me it's just so personal in this day and age of disposable consumerism. Things are getting  more and more expensive and less and less durable. I love being able to make things in specific colors or patterns or reference favorite things in pop culture that I may not be able to find otherwise. 

Sure it takes extra time and a lot of thinking outside the box but to me it's well worth it. 

Do you make Christmas gifts? If you do/have what are some of your favorite things you have made? I would love to hear-I'm always looking for new ideas

Tutorial?

This is safe to talk about amd show since it's already been recieved

Or alternately titled why I currently fail at writing tutorials.

So I was going to try  and write a tutorial for this advent calender I made for some dear friends in Georgia. This is one of two pictures I took, they were nearly identical. Not only did I forget to keep taking pictures I didn't even take a picture of the finished product. DOH!

I had fun making it though. Most of the pockets have little activities for them to do as a family like decorate the tree, make a Christmas craft, take a family photo etc. Those that didn't activities have mini candy canes for the kiddos. I've written myself a set of the cards and eventually want to make one for myself, so maybe next time I'll remember to take more pictures. or rather pictures at all.

Major props to those crafting and quilting bloggers that write tutorials on a regular basis, it ain't easy.

Fun with Felt

I've had this idea floating around my head for a while now and I finally did something with it. It's not exactly how I envisioned it, but I'm happy with the first try results. I'm going to give it to a friend as a belated birthday present

inspiration

I've been greatly inspired lately by the world around me. Mostly the North Beach neighborhood in San Francisco.

I'm currently a nanny and thats where my family lives. we walk alot as well as go to the park everyday. the little girls outfits are just fabulous. you can totally tell which ones have asserted their independence through style and are now dressing themselves. those are the most inspiring. no fear in mixing and matching colors or patterns. which has given me some ideas for girls clothing. which poses a problem considering I A) have no design background so dont know how to get my thought to paper and B) do  not know how to sew clothing. minor details right?

I've also been inspired by wrought iron gates that are just everywhere. the designs in them are just begging to be quilting designs. I also don't quite know how to get those out on paper but the results of me sketching those are slightly better then the clothing sketches.