Quoting Neil Gaiman…
May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.
(A little blurry – it’s hard to photograph things on the tree!) We found these little wooden crayons at a craft store. We painted each one a different color and gave them names like “Rachel Red”.
Tatted snowflake. I taught myself how to tat with both a shuttle and a needle. This one is needle tatted with pearl beads. I am not very good at tatting, but I can make these snowflakes! I have a blue and a yellow one on my tree (which is funny colors for snowflakes…) and I also made dark red ones with gold beads in the centers that look like poinsettias.
This was the year of ultra simple stained glass. Took a community ed class (which was a terrible disappointment) but I was inspired to cut these simple diamonds and Andy (the electronics geek) used his soldering skills to put loops on the top.
Polymer clay snowmen. These were fun. Simple blobs of mixed white and sparkly clay with button eyes and beads for mouths and scarves or hats or earmuffs.
A tour of my tree. I wanted to show off some of my handmade ornaments. Funny enough, I know I have made many more than this, but we weren’t always good about keeping one of whatever it was for ourselves. I will have to remember to photograph my mom’s tree some year! I made this little mouse when I was in highschool? Middle school? It was a long time ago. He has a pipecleaner in his tail so he sits on top of a branch and you wind his tail around to keep him in place.
This is the first ornament I even made. A project with my mom when I was less than 2 years old. I made a pattern for an ornament inspired by these birdies, which you can find in my etsy shop.
One year when I was in college I made everyone a personalized felt ornament. Andy got this frog in a stocking. My parents have two beavers carrying a log (but each going a different direction), my inlaws have bluebirds. My sister Beth has a “duck-bunny” which is an inside joke about her college band uniforms.
Little snails made from coiled rope. This particular specimen has a few puppy tooth marks in it. Hmmm.
More to come…
Have I mentioned that my mom has a blog? Go visit “…and a hive of silvery Bees” to see some of the coolest hoarfrost photos I have ever seen. That’s one of hers above. Wow, huh?
Thanks much to everyone who bought something at the Holiday Sale at Cafe Wren! If you looked me up here because you saw me there, welcome!
Holiday gift making is in full swing around here, which gives me nothing to tell you about because then I would ruin the surprise. So, here’s a little project for you that I thought it was time to post again.
The original purple cow christmas tree ornament came from a 1970′s church bazaar and was purchased by my Grandma. It is the favorite ornament of my youngest sister but sadly the original had a run-in with a mischievous puppy. So this is my reproduction of the Purple Cow. Download a free pattern and instructions for your own cow.
THANK YOU! Wow, can you believe almost 300 comments? I am speechless! Thank you to everyone who visited and entered. I have another giveaway planned for sometime soon, so stop by again.
The Winners.
To choose the winners, I created my very own handmade random number generator. I asked my sisters, mom and mom-in-law to each send me 2-3 random numbers but I didn’t tell them what they were for. Then I put those numbers in to a hat and drew out the 4 winners, matching the number to your comment number. Thank you random number elves.
Congratulations to pamela, Beth and Kari who won custom initial ornaments. And our “grand prize” One Yard Wonders book went to saganaga. Look for my email in your inboxes.
Welcome to Blog Giveaway Day. I am participating, along with eleventy-seven other bloggers, to give away fun handmade and crafty stuff via the Sew,Mama,Sew blog.
1. Make a comment on this post answering this question: What is your favorite handmade object?
(Don’t worry if your comment doesn’t show up right away. I have to approve it first. I will do that whenever I can throughout the day.)
2. Make sure I can contact you. Enter your email address in the comment form. There’s a place for it. It will not be published, so no one but me will see it. I will not send you spam. But I do need a way to contact you if you are a winner.
What is my favorite handmade object? My collection of handmade Christmas ornaments. I have ones made by my mom, sisters, aunts, neighbors, me, my husband, nieces & nephews and friends. Every one has a story. Every one is different.
Three random winners will get a custom alphabet ornament. You tell me the letter you would like and your favorite color. I will make it custom for you. (Those in the picture are keytags, I will put a long ribbon loop on your ornament.)
One random winner will get a copy of the new book, One Yard Wonders! I am a contributor to the book, so I am already a big fan and I have an extra copy. See my post from a few days ago for a tour of the book and my projects. I will sign it for you if you want me to.
If you don’t answer the question in your comment or I can’t contact you, your entry is disqualified.
I will ship internationally.
Contest is open until Sunday December 6 at midnight CST. Anybody who comments before then is entered.
Comments are now closed. Thanks for entering. I will announce winners soon!
I am participating in “Blog Giveaway Day”. That’s tomorrow! (How did that get here so fast?)
So check back tomorrow for lots of giveaways and freebies.
(Don’t comment on this post. Read that one above!)
