camera dump

Also known as Christmas gifts in April.  But such is what happens when you leave your camera at a far(ish)-away friend's house, and having an extra to use in the meantime (thanks Mom!) means you have no incentive to rush to retrieve it.

The far(ish)-away friend is also mama to my Godson, and though we don't exchange anything huge at Christmastime, I wanted to give them a little something (their gift to us? The puzzle cheese cutters!):

A Dr. Seuss book and matching FP-stenciled shirt for the littler guy--
















And this bag, my first project on my new machine (had to try out the overcast stitches and the letters--kinda small, no?) for his big brother--









 






which held this random assortment for printing:
















We've got our own sunprint kit around here too, just waiting for the right collection of treasures and the perfect bright, lazy day.

the coolest birthday gift of All Time

A great friend, who was first a freshman-year-in-college next-door-neighbor, then sorority sister and next-door-neighbor-again, then after-college-roommate, then bridesmaid, then bride-who-had-me-as-a-bridesmaid,

(let me interrupt here to say that I was never a bridesmaid until after my own wedding--not sure what if anything this says about me)

has a daughter who's turning four.

We brought her this.
















Filled with these.

To use with this book, to make really delightful thumbprint creatures.  Ed Emberley is some kind of genius.

The awesome idea of pairing do-a-dots EE's book belongs to Amy from Let's Explore--she has some links to do-a-dot printables in her post--throw in a Sharpie and you're golden.  Do you ever get a pop-in-your-head idea, though, that you just can't let go?  I had one at about 7 o'clock last night...
















The pouch (clutch? bag?  not sure what to call it) is just fabric & batting sandwiched HouseonHillRoadCoffeeCozy-style, quilted TallgrassPrairieStudioUrbanGarden-style then sewn up the sides.  I tacked the flaps down, because they were flipping up like a part time job.

The exterior is a fat quarter from Connecting Threads (not so crazy about the quality of these fabrics in the long-term sense--anyone else have thoughts?), and the lining is almost the last piece of my all-time favorite thrift store shirt (which also made an appearance here).
















Kind of Hope Valley with the violet, don't you think?  It even coordinated with the Tinkerbell wrapping paper.

I don't kid myself that the do-a-dots will stay inside permanently, but I'm sure she'll be able to think of plenty of four-year-old-type things to put inside.

Please feel free to copy this idea (it's not mine, after all--my m.o. of late), unless you're planning to be invited to any parties-in-common with me.

A (kind of) handmade Christmas

I had a million ideas for handmade Christmas gifts for Alex swimming around in my head, and ended up getting two of them finished.  No matter, he certainly had enough to open and seemed to really understand Santa this year.  One of them (if you can even call it handmade) was not his favorite to open (not so showy and not easy to just jump in and use it), but we certainly had fun with it today.

















A quick web search led me here, so I chose my favorites and then added in this, plus supplies for this, and this, (most of which we has around the house...all I bought were the containers, a new box of food coloring--because coloring liquids adds interest to all experiments--and goggles--because goggles add interest to everything).
















Today, since we had no power and it's way too cold to go outside, we got down to business.  Raisin and bubble business, that is.  As a former teacher, I know I should have tried the experiment ahead of time...since I didn't, I'm glad I didn't tell him what was going to happen, because...no dice.  It certainly makes sense that carbonation would carry the raisin to the top of the glass, but there was just a mighty fizzing action and that was it.  No matter, it was still pretty impressive.





















As was the food coloring action.

















And no, we did not use beer...but we did learn that yellow plus blue makes green.

Tomorrow, or the next day, a 2009 recap and some goals 2010.

I am a Godmother

Again, actually.  I'm guessing that two will be my limit, but the two I have are darling so I'm OK with that.

I finished the blanket.  Just in time.  Wove in the ends this morning.

It wasn't a gift for the baptism, but today was the right day to give it.

I am 80% pleased with it.  Blocking certainly helped it along, and I think it would have benefited from another round, but see above.  There's a sort of unintentional wonkiness to it that I don't adore, but it's soft and warm and cozy, which is all a baby cares about, I suppose.

I decided to crochet the panels together, because Jared Flood knows everything, and I think I'm pleased with the result.  Unlike his gorgeous blanket, I think there's definitely a wrong side, but the other seaming options I tried just weren't cutting it--plus the stretching Jared talks about was a real concern here.  The border is four rows of garter stitch, which necessitated weaving in eight ends instead of two (knitters, if you think about it, you'll know why), but I just wasn't sure I'd have enough yarn to do five.  Of course, I have an entire small ball left--always the way.

I had planned to make his actual baptism gift, but am trying to be more realistic about my to-do lists and decided that something handmade by someone else would be lovely and just fine.  I wanted it to be traditional but not stodgy,

and I think this qualifies.  It's from this wonderful, accommodating etsy seller, whom I would recommend in a heartbeat.  He basically worked his tail off to make sure I'd have it in time (because who doesn't order an important gift on Thanksgiving when the event is a week away?).

 The air was cold, the kids were cheerful, and the church was gorgeous.

A beautiful day for a baptism.

for baby ben

Our neighbor and friend just had a baby boy, and as soon as he was born (so I knew the sex and the name), I got started on this:

and this:

We had a beautiful day yesterday, so I was able to get outside for some photos (unlike last week when I had to take every picture indoors since the sun was always hiding!).  We were also able to get the Christmas lights on the bushes...which is a good thing since weatherwise, it's apparently all downhill from here.

One more day for the giveaway!