Thursday, December 11, 2008

At least the tree looks good...

... though the photographs are not the best. Ah well, maybe Santa will bring me a nice camera for Christmas this year!

So the story goes- we have had the same tree since before we were married. A lovely, vintage model that was older than my husband, and a total pain to put together. The base was gerry-rigged, it swayed precariously unless we spent hours tinkering with the various arms- but it was beautiful when I finally finished trimming it. It was lovely this year, too- for the 15 minutes it was up! It didn't take long this year (after about 5 minutes of pretty creative swearing) to decide that we needed a new tradition. So off hubby goes- and comes back with this giant.

A full 9 feet tall, it just fits against the foyer ceiling. I must admit that I was pretty skeptical about how it would look, but I am warming to it. It is a pain to decorate, though- I might just make him do it next year!
One of the reasons that I love decorating the tree is that there are so many memories that we have collected together.

This year, the kids helped make some cinnamon-applesauce ornaments, and Dome has already made several at pre-school. It is so nice to have them really involved for the first time!

Here is one of my favorites- a ceramic "Cat-Fish". Pull the cord and his head and tail bobs! The "Tumbler" from the Dark Knight series - guess who picked that one out? The Dark Knight himself watches over the tree - perched at the angel topper's feet...



My favorite dinosaur (Ankylosaurus)...



My butterfly- picked up during our anniversary trip this year (husband gamely trouped through three towns in search of antiques (ok, junk!)- what a trouper! The pic is from Dome's first visit to Santa- and the only one pic that we have were he isn't completely hysterical...

I made these cherubs for our wedding- they are just plastic wedding cake decorations with a little bit of rub-on gold wax. A bit of ribbon and they look just lovely. The picture of Gromit (from Wallace and Gromit) just behind is from a set that I made for our first Christmas together.

And, of course- last, but not least! No tree would be complete without a Wobbegong shark- he even blends in with the other decorations. Talented, those Wobbes...
Still working on the hats and scarves (if you can call two bags worth of fleece and notions languishing in the trunk of my car "progress"), and hopefully I will have them done this weekend.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Oh my, December already?

It never fails to amaze me just how time speeds up as I get older. Granted, I am not that old, but every year it just goes faster. I was just finishing up my son's costume, then stuffing myself with turkey (did my first one this year, and it turned out great!), now it is time to finish up my Christmas presents.

I was very much inspired by all of the blogs promoting handmade items this year, but I have yet to work out the details. I love this
sweet shawl on Laughing Purple Goldfish designs- I practically begged her to post the pattern, as I am not accomplished enough to try my hand at pattern making, and I just can't make heads or tails of some of the "easy" ones that I found online. I am still a novice, but I suspect that I could pull these off with some concerted effort. A few strands of funky eyelash yarn on the ends and I am in business.

I tried to link to the picture, but it crashed my machine twice. You will just have to use that extra calorie to click on the link- sorry!


This project is also on my radar- I have a lot of small kids to buy/make for, and these are fun and work up fairly quickly. I am thinking that I might modify the design into snow angels for two of the little girls- they are 3, and very girly-girl. The extra angel bling just might make up for the fact that they aren't Hannah Montana! The scarf will absolutely have to be purple, though. It is just a "3" thing. I have boys, so what do I know?


If I match up one of these with the sweet handmade fleece scarves over at Dabbled.com, I just might be the bee's knees this holiday season! Of course, robots will not fly with the girls, so I will have to come up with another motif to match the hats, but I am up for the challenge.


Of course, this color scheme would go great with this hat:



I love the repurposed glove idea- if only I could knit them myself! Ok, maybe not. 22 days and counting!





I also confess that I am totally addicted to surfing the offerings at OnePrettyThing. Definitely not for the faint of heart, these postings- or for the professional procrastinator (AKA, me!). Nice to look at, though. I can dream, I suppose- but if they keep coming up with a million good ideas that I desperately want to make but don't have time for? I just might have to kill them. In a very artistic and "homemade" way, of course!