Snowman Wreath

I bought all the things to make this wreath. And then it seemed like so much to do among the busy-ness of this week. For example, my sister needed me to pick my mother up at the airport and bring her to the house so that she could help with the girls. My mother told me 2:48 and then the day she flies she tells me 12:10. So I go to the airport at 12:10, which of course turns out to be the time she is taking off (to land at 2:48). This is not her first rodeo, people, so I dutifully went to the airport twice to get my mother. And then she needed to be fed. So I ended up bringing her to my sister's house in rush hour traffic. And then I got home at 7:30 and still had to feed myself and walk the dog.

And you wonder why I didn't want to make 11 pom pom snowmen. So I made the one. But it was fun and easy and I think I should make the other 10 so that I can have a fabulous new wreath.

I'd like to do this with a rainbow of scarves, like the original, but I am not buying whole skeins for two yards. So if you'd like to contribute, give me a holler!

Santa Appears

This is definitely the most cross stitch I have ever done in a Craft Month (number of projects, not necessarily number of stitches).

I give you Lizzie * Kate's Santa from the Stocking Sleds. I used most of the called for overdyed threads but I didn't have Bright Leaf (the gold around the edge).

I'm sorry that the blogging of Craft Month has been so haphazard. :(

Christmas Quilling

I did a small quilling project two years ago for the Craft Month Challenge. It helped me get over my dread of quilling that was instilled when my mother would have me make quilled snowflakes for the craft bazaar and sell them for .25/each. It was the 80s but damn, that's cheap. (I'm so traumatized I tell you this story every time I mention quilling. It might be time to put it to rest.)

I didn't use a pattern for this. It's a pretty basic project, I only used coils; no teardrops or marquis or scrolls. You just need paper strips (they sell them in the craft stores now/again), glue, and a toothpick. Seriously, you don't need more than that.

Christmas Card

I never got my Christmas cards finished last winter. I got sick (again) and was sick pretty much from Thanksgiving to Christmas. It was a laugh riot. And now every time I cough or sniffle at work people say, "Didn't you just get over being sick?" still.

So here is the card I have been hoping to complete for quite some time. Pretty much from the moment I saw the stamp set over two years ago. Warm Wishes

Unfortunately the craft room is in a state and I couldn't find the Warm Wishes stamp! Peace is an adequate substitute, but I fear there will need to be some craft room clean up!

Whimsical Christmas Tree

I made this Christmas yarn tree from A Million Little Things. Now that I am linking back to this and reading the directions and seeing Jill's tree, I've definitely made a variation. I didn't really crisscross my yarn like she did, and I used white glue not hot glue.

I chose Lion Brand Homespun in olive because I thought it looked most tree like. I also liked the texture.

I added the giant ball instead of a star at the top because I have so many giant felt balls. I bought several multipacks over the years and mostly used the middle size. That left the tiny ones for this project. And lots of those big ones. (I'm going to have to come up with a way to use those during some future craft month.)

This is such a simple craft that results in a delightfully whimsical tree.

Jingle All the Way!

I saw this made with a Stampin Up cling and a shadow box ages ago. So I finally got around to making my own! The cling was from AC Moore, and I didn't like that it had bells on the bottom, so I cut them off. This version suggested a change in colorway. I loaded up a glass cube with turquoise, silver, pink, and purple jingle bells because sometimes I like a nontraditional-color Christmas craft!

Candy Bar

And here we are at the end of Halloween Week. Our penultimate "fake party" has  to be a candy bar. You've seen them at weddings and at birthday parties, at showers and well everywhere. But the most logical of the bunch is the Halloween Party!

I have married the card I made at the beginning of this week with the label. I chose orange and black candies because I could. It's amazing what you can get these days. Whether you head to Party City or Amazon or your favorite local candy shop, the variety of candies you can get to match your color theme is amazing!  I bought most of my candies in the grocery store. And then tried to limit myself further because I can't really have all this candy in the house!

If you were looking for a wider variety you could add:
Black Crows
Mary Janes
Circus Peanuts
Orange slices
Licorice whips

On to Christmas!

I Don't Like Spiders and Snakes, Part II....

Actually I do like this spider. Just so adorable! I think this is my favorite craft so far!
There was a bit of a "everything lingers on Pinterest longer than it should" moment. I looked at the directions to these spiders on Monday, and by Tuesday the website wasn't working. Then I tried it on my phone and it worked again. Fortunate because the template was helpful. Here's the link. Let me know if you make one.

I might make more of these myself!

Mason Jar Madness: I Want my Mummy

When our power went out for four days, it necessitated a fridge cleaning. The entire top shelf was full of jars containing little bits of lots of stuff that we weren't going to finish. It was a blessing in disguise. However, we must have run the dishwasher eleventy-million times with jars. (Okay, maybe twice.)

I found these mummy jar votive holders on a lot of those "20 Easy Halloween Crafts" or "40 Easy to Make Halloween DIY Decor Ideas" that proliferate on Pinterest. Much harder to find the originator of this project. It's not rocket science though. It does give you the opportunity to use up the gauze that is becoming brittle in the first aid kit you keep under the sink in the bathroom.

Of course, now when I inevitably need gauze, I'm going to be going through the Halloween decorations looking for this!
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Sew Cute

I was so productive during that snow day! I did three loads of laundry (and folded and put away!); read three chapters of a book; walked the dog; made lunch and dinner; blogged; and made this pumpkin pincushion!

Because I did not have the called-for templates I went around my house measuring circular things looking for a 6" circle. I cut the pieces and sewed them back together. And then I took this picture because look how those points meet! They're perfect! And then you weren't going to be able to tell. {Sad trombone.} No, instead what you can tell about this, is that I sew a frickin' lumpy circle. LOL

I had a felt leaf, so I didn't have to make one, but it seemed naked so I did a bit of embroidery. The button is my conceptual stem.

Owl Are You Doing?

My alma mater's mascot is the owl. You can see part of the collection I keep at work behind me. (This picture with the #FlatAthena was for the alumnae association. I went with one with less cross-eye and more Athena.)

So the recent owl craze has been a boon to me. And I've loved every fabric owl with the folded beak I have ever seen. I finally made one using these directions: folded owl.

The pattern says it can be manipulated, but whether it was my incompetence or a problem with the pattern, I couldn't change the pattern size. (I guess I could have blown it up on the copier, but I have no spatial sense.) My owl came our pretty small. About 1.5". I think about 100% bigger would have been good.

I Don't Like Spiders and Snakes

When I started thinking about crafting for Halloween, this Deranged Centerpiece from Martha Stewart was one of the first ideas I settled on. I got the spiders and snakes from Amazon because I couldn't find smallish (or cheap) snakes anywhere. In fact, plastic animals (including dragons and dinosaurs) cost more than I think they should generally! LOL. (The dude is rubbing off on me.)

I don't think I'd like the person who sent me these much. But what a perfectly creepy Halloween decoration!