Holly Jolly Crafty Christmas!

Way back in the beginning of December at the insistence of my four year old we went out on a rainy Sunday to get our tree. I was pestered into putting our tree up and decorations out earlier than planned. Bottom line, my boy has the spirit!

So hard to get a clear picture with all the rain.

As we go careening in to Christmas (where the heck has the time gone) we have done our fair share of holiday crafts. The first of which was a handmade stocking. A stocking made for Loki's bunny because if Bunny didn't have  stocking "how would he get any presents?" I agreed quickly because believe it or not an idea formed instantly.

The Low Down:
Material:  Two pieces of red sparkly poly felt, some scrap yarn and a wide eyed blunt tipped needle. Embellishments of choice, ours happened to be a pink iron n B.

Right sides facing.

I drew out a stocking  shape then I cut it out and punched holes in the felt. 

After this I went back and widened with the blunt needle.

I then handed it over to Loki. He was impressively good at sewing it up. He didn't skip a hole and the only tangles came from the yarn being too long (which I had to adjust) .  It was super fun and simple.

Working into the wee hours of the night. Please excuse the grainy pictures.

 After it was done I had Loki tell me where to place the B and then ironed it on for him. Not ready to let a four year old operate a hot as fire iron just yet.

A boy, his bunny and a freshly hand made stocking!

Gingerbread Goodness

We have been busy around here with all sorts of fun holiday activities. We chopped down a tree, hung our stocking and we are renovating a small part of our house. Yes, we added on the stress of knocking down a wall to our holiday checklist.

Amidst the chaos of saws and hamming we made our very first gingerbread house from scratch! With the help of my sister and niece we managed to engineer and pretty good looking structure without the use of a template. We googled a basic recipe and set to work.

All the pieces.

Ready to get started.

Working hard.

Royal icing to stick things together.

It's done!

The proud builders.

I did all the sticking together of the house pieces and then I let the kids do the rest with no help and very little guidance from me. Although I did have to sometimes spread the icing on or blob it where directed. I think we all did a pretty nice job.

Unselfish Knitting

I have been knitting a ton of stuff for myself lately. I have three projects half way done and a couple more I'm dreaming up for me and only me. I also have two that are done except for blocking, sigh, I really dread blocking.

 I have a couple of ladies I know due with their first born, one of them a girl. I took that as an opportunity this past week to take a break from my selfish knitting and whip up a tiny girly cardigan.

I have long been itching to knit something girly and so I took this as my chance. What's funny is that when I was searching for patterns I had a really hard time. Most of the newborn knits where things that I'd knit for the boys, hum? The other thing that made it hard was my time frame. I needed something quick, but cute. Cutting it close is an understatement. I cast on Tuesday for a sweater that needed to be done by Sunday. I finished knitting on Thursday, wove in ends on Friday and gifted on Sunday. Phew! Talk about speed knitting.

 I'm really pleased with this little cardigan. It was such a fast, fast knit with enough stuff going on to keep it interesting.

The Low Down
Pattern: Lillie Baby Cardigan
Yarn: Liberty Wool
Mods: I used size 10 needles to make it a tiny bit bigger. I did one extra buttonhole (4 buttons) by knitting 5 extra rows and Knit 19 rounds (left out Purl row)for sleeve then worked 2 repeats of feather and fan.

I used silver buttons but really wanted to go for red or bright green. I wasn't sure if the mom to be would like the contrast so I played it safe and really like the way it turned out. The end result is less baby more classy.