Happy Crafty New Year
It appears that I am not very good at this blogging business, although I do have some reasonable excuses. Early in December I came down with the Worst Flu Ever, which included a nasty bout of strep throat. Good times. I was down for at least a week and when I finally started to feel better, I had to catch up on work (both the thesis and the stuff that pays). Any remaining time was devoted to the holidays: cleaning the house and decorating around mid-month and then some serious baking/crafting closer to Christmas.
It's been a bit of lean fall semester for us, seeing as we're both students and there hasn't been a student loan. We managed Christmas by selling books (almost $300 on books we didn't want or didn't need. Not to mention the extra shelf space that created). We ended up buying books for each other for Christmas (we are hopeless). For friends and family, gifts have all been homemade. So while it's been a busy season, it's been a very Crafty Christmas.
I went on a crazy baking spree, baking sugar, shortbread, and gingerbread cookies, rainbow slices (a freezer cookie that we had every Christmas while I was growing up), and five star squares (a delicious and ridiculously easy concoction of graham cracker crumbs, coconut, butter, condensed milk and aero bars. Other than taste, nothing redeeming about them). All of these cookies made for tasty presents. To make the presents extra special for friends, I made some ornaments: 
The idea for that little guy came from one of my favourite craft books, Plush-o-Rama. They're meant to be made in felt, and frankly, felt would have been much better than flannelette. The fabric is the perfect colour, but a real bitch to work with in such detail and at that size. Alas, I couldn't actually find felt in a gingerbread-esque colour. I did make a "christmas pickle" ornament with felt and that turned out fantastic (I'll post a picture later - my camera is in Ontario right now). I need to investigate where I can buy felt in more colours and in larger quantities.
Anyway, I have made a crafty New Year's resolution: I'm going to learn to sew. This may sound odd on a craft blog, but I can't use a sewing machine. I particularly cannot use my own sewing machine. And I am determined to learn this year. So far, my downstairs neighbour has been helping me out by doing some machine sewing for me, but I really need to do it myself. It really speeds up the monkey making process. In November, I set up the craft desk and last week I tidied it up and found an extension cord for the sewing machine. All I have to do now is figure out how it works or buy a new machine. As you can see, the sewing machine is featured prominently on the desk. I am determined to figure it out. 
And as pseudo-resolutions, I hope I'll get better at this blogging thing and manage to find more time in my days for crafting.
Posted byHello Pineapples! on Wednesday, January 02, 2008
filed under: arts and crafts, fabric, ornaments
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