Merry Chritmas

That's it... just Merry Christmas - perhaps I'll see you next year (well, unless something interesting comes a long, such as a pure white light (Ott light) to retake some of my photos and you'll hear from me sooner!)

Handmade Holiday con't, con't...

So the whole family is getting into a handmade holiday which is great!
A (age 9) is making scarves for her friends -

E (age 6 1/2) has just learned to sew and made this neck pillow cover (I made the muslin bag inside - no way was I trusting a 6 year old with sewing a bag that will be holding 5 cups of rice) -


M (age 3 3/4) is making paper diapers for his sister's stuffed animals (so that's where the spare roll of paper towels and bag of safety pins that I had set aside for pinning dance costumes went!)

I finished and delivered the chalkboard placemats for E's teacher and rice neck wraps and Coconut Body Scrub (Aunt Katie's Body Scrub recipe with coconut oil instead of honey) for A's teacher and both girl's RE teachers and my book club/knitting night friends. And I was cold so I made a neck pillow for our family as well and added flax filled eye pillows too! On both, one side is fleece and the other side is VSSS (shh! Victoria's Secret stretch satin - that's right, underwear!) that I purchased as a group buy from Kathy's Lace and Elastic Outlet



Hubby C, well, he was out of character this weekend and got all of our butts in gear as we, the unwilling, led by he, the uncharacteristicly tidy, did the impossible and now have an unmessy (although not yet clean, ie vacuumed, scrubbed and disinfected - well, except for the laundry room where I was...) that is nearly ready for Christmas! And tomorrow, 2 out of 3 kids go to school for several hours and C is home with me to continue the trend!

Nutcracker on Tuesday night and then the non-stressful holiday festivities can begin!

Handmade Christmas continues...

So, I'm well on my way to a balance of a handmade and a store-bought Christmas. We replaced (purchased commercially) most of our outdoor decorations that were destroyed in last year's snow (December 20th's Snowpocolypse I) and our fake tree had fallen apart. We put the broken tree topper on as we've been too busy to make a new one but I did make a new felt tree skirt while waiting for kids at their activities and school/bus.





Presents were going to be the most difficult handmade part of Handmade Christmas until I realized that it doesn't have to be handmade by ME! I bought handmade items for my mom and sisters on Etsy and Chris bought a handmade item for his sister as well as a commercially available game we thought she'd enjoy. In the spirit of handmade, we bought something to help my MIL make her handmade items. The Dads were too difficult - they don't use the handmade stuff (well, my FIL may use handmade golf tees but...) so we bought their gifts at traditional stores. Teacher's aren't a problem - I made bath scrub and soaks for Anna's classroom teacher and Emily's religion teacher (my co-teacher), a flax seed neck wrap for Anna's religion teachers (no picture since it's not quite done yet...) and chalkboard fabric placemats for Emily' classroom teacher (current project). I made marshmallow snowmen with a candy cane and hot chocolate for my religious ed kids too.





I wrapped most of the presents in black burlap and used handmade gift tags from Grace Graphics. So far it's been fun but I've got to get back to work! 10 days until Christmas and I'm not done with my handmade Christmas presents!!

The Christmas Season

So the Daisy bow continues to be my most popular seller rounding out to 100 sold since September. I can't say that I'm all that surprised as Daisies tend to be the girly-girl, bow-wearing crowd (it rounds out in Brownies and Juniors).


So I did my first Vendor Fair at the local elementary and I consider it a success as I made back my booth fee and then some. I did forget to take pictures while I was there - probably would have been a good idea but oh well, here's a pic of when I was arranging my table the night before in my living room (excuse the mess surrounding it - I've been one track this past week!)


We made it a REALLY busy weekend by adding in ballet class and gymnastics class to Saturday morning, a sick child to Saturday afternoon, religious ed and sick child getting worse and needing to go to the clinic on Sunday morning at the same time as Nutcracker ballet rehearsal and finishing it off with a fun evening of free holiday carols at Wolftrap. See us freeze our noses off in a favorite holiday tradition!

charitable buying

Just a quickie FYI - I don't sell on ebay that often but seasonal items do fantastic so I'm taking advantage of ebay's free insertion fee and eBay Giving charitable listings and listing some bows there. 30% goes towards Heifer International. With any luck, I can buy someone a chicken... with lots of luck, I can buy a cow! HaHa - a cow from a Hambuger!! total knee slapper!

Pictures

I take a lot of pictures - mostly really bad pictures of the kids, hubby, my bows, my house decorated for a holiday (eek! that 31 picture photo of the tree fiasco is haunting me at the mere mention!!) that have to be tossed to get that one decent shot but I'm actually talking about portraits right now...

Today was picture day for my preschooler. I forgot completely and let him pick his clothing out. Normally I don't mind him doin' his thing and not matching at the slightest but I got to preschool today and realized what was happening and sank... he's in a Redskins jersey that's on the small side for him and Clemson U sweats and has on crocs and poorly tie-dyed socks from summer 2009 that just look dirty/dingy... ugh! Well, at least I'll get to see the pictures before I buy them unlike my girls pictures - $25+ each for an 8x10, 2 3-5's and 8 wallets and I don't like them... E looks like she's afraid of the photographer (probably not that far off) but she's trying to put on a brave face - it's most certainly NOT a happy face. A looks smug. M is mismatched...plus he didn't want have his picture taken - his teacher called me so that I could come a bit early and see if he would do it for me (he did).

Ugh! is all I can say and if you have coupons to Picture People or Portrait Innovations, send them my way!!

Pie

So I BAKED the pie...

or perhaps am in the process of baking the pie...

Enjoy! and those looking for Christmas gift ideas, it'd be great to have one of those reusable metal don't-burn-your-pie-crust thingies... My SIL has 2 different sizes for 8 and 9 inch pie plates...

Handmade Holiday

Artfire is doing a DSLR camera give-away for telling how you're doing a handmade holiday... Both things sound like fun but I'm not sure how I'd implement a handmade holiday...

- I already made our stocking (Grandma Cowherd made mine when I was a kid, so vintage handmade?). Anna's is crewel embroidery - trumpeting angels over a shepherd (foreground) and the nativity (background). The rest are felt applique - Emily's is a patchwork of all sorts, a little Victorian look. Mike's is...um...what did I do for him - I was looking for the Bucilla trains but it's rare and discontinued (kit sells for $150 on ebay) and I went with my second choice but I can't remember and wasn't all that excited - ah - pictures don't forget - it's a red and white "knit sweater" stocking like this one . I just did Chris's last year - it's Tigger - but I didn't get the kit until after Christmas on clearance. Mine is felt Santa going down a chimney - love you Grandma! I did add to all the kits - reinforced with flannel backed satin lining so that (a) things don't pop out the toe and heel or anywhere else and (b) easier to get things in or out (well hello there undies in the toe that got left there last year)!

- I need to make a tree skirt... I'm working on my own design based on my felt board nativity. The following picture is not a good picture - it's cropped from the background of a so-so picture, see my daughter's hair in the corner?

I'm afraid that this project will either spiral out of control or will take years like my BFF's mom's tree skirt is (although she is hand embroidering hers so a bit more time involved). A hand embroidered table cloth might not be a bad idea but it would take me a long time to do (do I hear a New Years Resolution popping up?).

- I always make some new ornaments for our tree and these usually involve the kids. One year we put glue, glitter and curling ribbon in clear glass ornaments; another year, we did 6 point stars out of Popsicle sticks and yarn (so the dog likes to eat wool...); and another year we did pony beads on colored pipe cleaners in the shape of angels, candy canes (with a little lace for the white stripe), and wreaths (did not turn out well, fyi). This year, I'm thinking about a couple of things using some of my bow designs. The tree would work - anyone thing I can get this sculpture (double-sided) into the hole of a clear glass ornament?
(you can buy this clip here).

- Outside is more complicated. We have a tiny yard so there's not much. Last year, we had lit garland swagged across our double window and wrapped around our banister and giant light bulbs in our garden. The light bulbs broke during our mega-snow storm the weekend before Christmas.

Maybe I can chicken wire together lit presents on plywood or do some thing similar... or maybe use real garland... I think that I tossed the garland b/c it was not staying together

Ideas are hard when I can't just start on a project. I'm a do-er. My husband, Chris, would be the one that really kicks butt on the planning of stuff (sometimes to the point of over-thinking without doing a darn thing). This is why we are so good together - I can have a so-so idea and he can figure out how to make it happen and better than I could imagine. Over the years, he's gotten better at thinking fast b/c if he doesn't, I can't sit still and just start doing (so kitchen remodel happened b/c I pulled out the cabinets - um, yea, so it's a good idea to turn off the water before you attempt this kind of action).

- Presents would be something to work on though... I'm still working on my cousin's wedding blanket (1/2 way done!! woohoo - she got married in Sept, I started in April...). Here's a picture of the center piece of the blanket - I can't find what I did with the newer pictures where the bottom 1/2 is knit (it's combined knit and crochet) but my ravelry account has a 1/4 finished photo.

I have a million and one ideas but I'm not sure how they'd be received and helping my kids make handmade items, well, depending on their moods, I might not make it to Christmas... I think my girls would really like this crochet purse that I bought a pattern for a little while ago and quite honestly, my son would too - he loves to carry stuff around in little bags! ooh - ooh! maybe I could get the older 2 to make plastic mesh bags for each other. I think they are hokey though so I'm sure everyone would be mad when I eventually threw away the falling apart thing they make me... okay, we're going back to making cookie ingredient jars and bath stuff in mason jars... that's safe?? right??

I think I'll stick to the table for my homemade stuff... I might visit Clay Cafe and paint some holiday pottery with the kids or paint some things as gifts... We had a great time doing the lace overlay for my BFF's bachelorette (she's all party, can you tell?). I'm already hoping my friend Jacki makes a bowl that I want for my mom. Her stuff is awesome but so far, the colors just haven't been what I'm looking for (I have the prettiest business card holder from her! looks like flowers suspended in glass!)

And you just can't beat my totally awesome pies - I'm debating if I should freeze or can my pie filling to last until the holidays...

I can't believe it's November...

Wait! one more thing - my kid's (almost) HomeMade Halloween:

It's been a month but I'm OK!

So I got a sewing machine that works (yay!) and I've got a consignment deal and I'm just enjoying being busy. Those 2 days/week that I was supposed to have free while the little man goes to preschool - well, I've yet to stay home during them... which means that my house is a mess and needs to be cleaned and that I need to delegate responsibility on some of my volunteer stuff (I'm really trying but my type-A is showing!). Anyway, on to bow biz. Here's my new fav for young and old:



I call them Mini Cherry Blossom Folded Fabric Flowers - what a mouthful but it's descriptive and more SEO appropriate than what I'd like to call them! They are 1" fabric flowers on 1.75" alligator clips and I'm selling them for $4/pair.

For the Boys

People ask me all the time what I make for boys. I always say, "um... I make hairbows" but I'm expanding into making capes that I'm calling It's Curtains For You Villain! by hamburke on etsy. Well, I haven't listed the first one yet but the idea is that I make superhero capes, masks and wrist cuffs out of draperies or drapery fabric. Here's my first one:


Tell me what you think!

I've been great at posting

can't you tell? Anyway, vacation was tons of fun and I'm back and onto my birthday!! woohoo! Thanks to my sister, I have 2 new books to learn fabric and ribbon flower techniques. One specifically about kanzashi. I'm having a blast - take a look!





a fun one (not sure how I'll put it in someone's hair - I'm thinking of making it into a pendant):




^^yes, yes, that is a FULL inch of solid height!

and the piece de resistance - folded so nicely that I don't need a center OR Frey Check:

First Facebook only special!

I'm having my first special! I'm not publishing these on Etsy until Monday but I'm having a special presale on facebook

Crocheting by Dee

My MIL is awesome at yarn crafts. If you ever have a yarn related question (knit, crochet, making pompoms or even a rag-doll wig), she's the lady to go to. We're down here visiting and she has a pile of baby blankets that she made to sell at the church bazaar but weren't purchased (truthfully, some of this was our fault - she was visiting us during the bazaar so she couldn't market them properly). They are beautiful, soft and warm so I'm listing them for her on my etsy page.

The first 3 are crocheted out of Caron Simply Soft acrylic yarn. I'm using the same yarn to make a blanket for my cousin's wedding and Dee has made baby/toddler blankets for my children using this yarn - it is SOOOO soft!!





The next 4 are simple fleece blankets that Dee has added a crochet border to (also in Simply Soft). Most are scalloped shell pattern but the green one is a little different pattern. I don't know what it's called though.


I still have to photograph and list the remainder of the blankets (there's more fleece blankets and some flannel receiving blankets) but I also put up her crocheted monsters which have some hearts already!






I'm also asking her for a pile of cotton kitchen washcloths to list but she has a list of people that she makes them for already so I don't think I'll get them for a while. Some of these are really simple while other are guestroom-quality!

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N In the Summer Sun!

Love me my oldies! Gonna have a ball!

I'm headed out until the 24th but will leave you with what I made from that awesome fabric find.

Locked out!

Yikes! I locked my keys in the car when I went into JoAnn's to peek at their 99 cent fat square sale! You'll love the funky kanzashi flowers I'll be making from them! May create some and list in Etsy tonight but must hurry because a new episode of Psych starts in 32 minutes!!

Getting ready for the holidays

and getting distracted. Back to school!






Will have some Thanksgiving and Christmas stuff before long - I know it's way early!

long time, no type

I've been busy on Etsy! I've been making Daisy bows (for Girl Scout Daisies)


Crochet Bows:


Tailey Bows:


And Kanzashi Bows:


I've also done a couple custom orders for various teams:


Come visit me on etsy or like me on facebook for product updates and discounts!

Labeling bows

Under CPSIA, I need to have my bows labeled. I just came across this tutorial for making labels - it's a couple years old and directed at quilting people but not out of date and applicable to me as well: PatchworkPottery

Here's my result:

I did it!!

I opened an etsy store with the ribbon shamrock clip. Here I am Hamburke.etsy.com

Ribbon Shamrock

I worked out the kinks in my ribbon shamrock (ie scraped the whole thing and found another way). here I took the tutorial for a 5 pt ribbon flower from Pin Tangle's blog (she's usually WAY too advanced for me), and modified them by overlapping them to make a shamrock, added a button and VOILA! enjoy!



oh, on a side note, I'm working on opening an etsy store. Words of advice and encouragement would be helpful and I'll post the link when I've opened it up.