Christmas Gifts

So I'm finally getting around to telling about my Christmas crafting. I don't know why it has taken me so long. But I promise I will try to be more diligent about posting. :)

I was pretty much broke this year for Christmas and so everyone got things that didn't take a lot of money. At first I was going to give everyone on my list handmade gifts, but that didn't end up happening. Let's just say my Christmas spirit was a little on the lazy side. But I did make some pretty cute things.

To start off with, this was my kiddo's first Christmas! So he had to have all the baby's first Christmas ornaments and jammies and outfits of course. He also needed a stocking. Everyone in my family (extended family included) has matching stockings that someone made for us. But I haven't requested one for Baby Z yet so I got creative. We had an extra stocking laying around so I decorated it for him.

 I just used glue and glitter for the name. I hot glued every green button I could find to make the tree. And then the star and the present are construction paper. I painted the red ribbon on the present. I think it turned out pretty cute. Except in the end it was a pretty small stocking and all of his gifts in it kind of got stuck at the top. Still cute though!

The next thing I made was a headband for my sister. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product (boo!) but it turned out pretty cute. And I actually used the sewing machine for it! haha. It pretty much confirmed the fact that I do not sew well at all. Even in inch long straight lines. I got the idea from this post at Make It & Love it. Here are the ones she made:

 I used an old t-shirt that I had tried to cut up for an off the shoulder shirt but it didn't turn out well so it was just sitting around waiting to be cut up some more. It was yellow which is my sister's favorite color so it worked perfectly. This was really easy and turned out pretty cute. I was going to make another one with some pink t-shirt scraps I had, but I ended up only having the sleeves and some really small pieces of it so it wasn't enough. But I plan on making more of these sometime because they are really cute! And I will definitely take pictures next time!

For my other sister I made a crocheted bracelet that also turned out pretty cute!

 It's just a cuff style bracelet about two inches wide. I used white yarn that I had at home and found a really cute large red (maroon ish?) button from our giant box of buttons. And it does button and unbutton.

I just stitched about 5 or so across and then double crocheted until it got to the right length. The button hole was done by double crochet in the first stitch then single chain 3 or 4 then double crochet the remaining stitches. Then I did one more double crochet row on top of that. Also, I'm not really brushed up on my technical crochet terms. I just wing it (what a surprise!) It was super easy and fast to make. I will probably end up having to make one of these for myself as well.

The last thing I made was a scarf for my grandmother. She actually requested that gift for herself because she had seen another scarf I had made. She bought the yarn for me so she could pick out the color and type she wanted. And then I got to work. This seriously took me so long to do and I'm not sure why. I just didn't work on it every day. It also turned out curly. I'm not sure how else to explain it. I was trying to go for just a straight plain scarf. I think what happened was that I crocheted it horizontally because I wanted the lines to be running the length of the scarf. And since I'm a little rusty on my crocheting, I added an extra stitch at the end of each row (I think). So I ended up with each row being a little longer than the last, which made it curl up. But I'm going to pretend that I meant for it to be that way, because it kind of looks that way.

Here it is laid out so you can see the width, and the fringe. She requested that it be long and wide so she could wrap it around her neck and chin to keep warm with.

And here I am modeling it. You can see the curly-ness here. But I kind of like it that way. Gives it character, right? 

So that was my creative output for the holidays. I actually enjoyed it. It inspired me to be even craftier next year! (But hopefully I will have some more funds available and I can be a little more generous.) All-in-all it was a pretty good holiday, even though my grandmother was in the hospital recovering from back surgery. We got to visit her pretty much every day, and she was recovering well. She's since been able to come home, praise the Lord! So here's to a new year and new craft adventures!

2012 A Reflection

2012 has been a life-changing year for me, literally. My son was born this year and my life will never be the same. I moved twice and had three different jobs (all at the same time). I started a completely new chapter in my life and I will never forget this year. This is the year I started figuring myself out and I hope that 2013 brings more of the same. I want to completely figure out how to be myself and do what I want to in my life. I want to provide the best I can for my son. 

I'm not really big on resolutions but I suppose my resolution would be to continue to better myself. Part of that would be to continue to build my repertoire of domestic achievements. Since I was pretty much broke this year from being on unpaid maternity leave (boo) I got pretty creative with some of my Christmas presents. I will do a post soon of all the things I made since everyone has gotten their gifts now. 

For now I'll just share how I spent my New Year's Eve. At home with my dad, sister, and son. I made chili using my mom's recipe, which turned out pretty darn good if I do say so myself. Then I made Oreo truffles and a crispy chocolate peanut butter truffle experiment. 

The Oreo truffles are just crushed Oreos mixed with cream cheese then dipped in chocolate almond bark, with a white chocolate almond bark drizzle. The others were crushed Ritz crackers mixed with peanut butter dipped in chocolate almond bark with a peanut butter drizzle. I've made the Oreo ones several times, but I wasn't sure how the peanut butter ones were going to turn out. The peanut butter and crackers didn't set up quite like the Oreos and cream cheese. But they turned out pretty good and I think I actually ended up liking them better than the Oreo truffles; not quite as sweet. 

My sister gave me a super cute wine glass for Christmas so I started my night out with one of the best drinks out there. 

I may have an obsession. I know it's bad for me but I've pretty much given up the idea of giving it up. You can't deprive yourself of everything you like, right? :) Then later on I filled my glass with champagne to properly toast the New Year :)

Overall, it was a pretty good day. Quiet, but good. Gave me time to reflect on my life a little bit. Even though I'm not in a place I would have ever expected myself to be, I'm moving forward. I expect that I will continue to move forward and find my place in the world. It is just taking a little longer than I thought it would. And I have the best person to accompany me now :)