Project Life Update - Week of 3/4 to 3/10

Check me out!  Getting stuff done, yo.

Part of my slacking off has apparently been slacking off with photos.  I barely had enough to do a one page layout for this week.  Actually, it worked out wonderfully because I only had enough to do a one page layout for the following week as well.  I've committed to trying to take at LEAST one photo a day this week to remedy the situation for the future though.

This week saw my tenth celebration of International Badge Day.  Yup - I was in a sorority in college.  While it may not have been as great of an experience for me as it was for some of my sisters, I still wouldn't give it up for the world.  I'd also recommend it to anyone.  It pisses me off when people refer to girls in sororities as "sorostitutes" or "sorority bitches" or crap like that.  It's so rude to tell someone who you know was in the Greek system "Well, I'd NEVER allow MY daughter to become involved in THAT TRASH!"  I guarantee you, you can be just as big of a drunk or a slut regardless of what it says on the front of your tee shirt, and to say that just because someone joins an organization that they must be those things is prejudiced.  I was not a drunk or a slut in college, but I know plenty of girls who were who were not Greek.

Off my soapbox.  :)

I have a really pretty bible verse that I found on Pinterest (original here), and my 24 week belly photo.  You know, it's a good thing black is slimming!  I also started knitting a sweater for the baby.  All I've done up to this point are dishcloths and those easy baby hats, so this is a HUGE step for me.  If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you may notice that the pattern is called the 5 Hour Baby Sweater.  Um...  yeah.  It took me five hours to get to the one hour mark!  In my defense, there were some problems with the stitch counts in the pattern.  I went through the comments on Ravelry and found another version of the same pattern with different counts.  On some parts, my sweater matches one, and in others, it matches the other pattern.  I decided that as long as it matches ONE of them, I'll be okay.  :)

The big thing that week was me getting my typewriter back from the shop.  I had seen this darling typewriter journaling card as part of a digital set on Pinterest, but the problem was that I didn't want to pay for the whole set just to get the ONE card.  Solution?  I sat there and stared at it and sketched that thing!

Do not underestimate my creativity when it comes to my cheapness.

Finally, after a few weeks hiatus, the freebies are back!

I came across this font and thought it would be fun to color it in for some cards.  I put a post on the Facebook page looking for some words to use on them.  A lot of the words were just too long and didn't look good when I tried them, but as you can see I did get some good ones.  As always, these are free for your personal use.  You just need to "like" my Facebook page to gain access to this and all my other printables.

Enjoy!

Project Life Update - Week of 2/26 to 3/3

Third trimester must be approaching because my energy is starting to wane again.  BOO!  This baby is putting pressure on my lungs so I find that even the bare minimum of physical activity (um, taking a shower?!?!?!???) leaves me short of breath and with a racing heart... kinda like I actually exercised.  I talked to the LPN (my doctor was out) when I went in for my monthly visit and she said that this is a perfectly normal symptom of pregnancy, and may just be a bit more pronounced due to my advanced age.

I've decided I don't particularly care for the LPN.

Due to said lack of wanting to do anything, really, I'm still woefully behind on my Project Life pages.  I was coming close to being caught up and then slacked off again.  I did just finish the pages from two weeks ago, so there's that.

I've been dreaming of pretty colored and patterned washi tapes lately.  Since I said no unnecessary spending for Lent, I haven't bought any.  I see such cute pages made with these little scraps of bright tape though, and I want to make some too!  Then I realized - I may not have washi tape, but you know what I do have a shitload of?

Heidi Swapp tape.  It's in a Ziploc because I was actually going to give it away, but then I figured, what the heck?  I may as well try to get some use from it.  I am in awe of how shoddy this product is.  Part of the pattern for the next roll is usually on there.  They're not cut straight at all.  A lot of them seem to have hesitation marks from cutting, like the machine got stuck and someone was trying to go back and forth to force it through.  Luckily this was given to me and I didn't spend my money on it.  I wonder if the stuff she's releasing these days is still as plagued with problems as it was when she first started her own line?  Remember the chipboard alphabets with the dried up adhesive?

Here's my left page.  I found the felt letter stickers at Michael's.  It was a bag of 100 that was part of their Creatology line for only two dollars!  They're really nice quality too.  I wish they had more colors.  My clothesline finally got put up that week.  The clothespin journaling card was found on Pinterest and came from here.

I did my own baby size/food comparison:

This is why I'm a fat kid, y'all.

There's a little blurb about finally finding a pint of Schweddy Balls (heh) flavored ice cream.  I included a little something for Leap Day (tell me you watched that episode of 30 Rock!) and some of my tweets for the week.  I mentioned Bubba's sleep issues (journaling card found here) and his new found love of Diego.

I just did a Google image search for Diego and then messed with it in Photoshop to get it the right size and to add journaling.  

On the right side, I have a cute little quote I found on Pinterest.  I shared some things I made that week, as well at how I'm trying to prevent charley horses this pregnancy.  The big thing we did that week was to go to a street festival and vintage car show, so there are lots of photos of old cars on this page.  I got all fancy and made it look like they were on old scrapbook pages in Photoshop.  I used some of the journaling cards that I designed on this page as well as one that I found on Pinterest (found here) for the Friday card.  You can find links for those on my Pinterest board for Project Life.

Oh!  And what's that on which my pages are resting?

I finally got my Olivetti back from the shop!  I just love this typewriter.  It's a whole heck of a lot smaller and lighter than the Royal, for starters.  The typeface (I was gently corrected when I referred to it as the font, heh) is just lovely.  It's smaller than the type on the Royal, and a bit more contemporary in style.  If you click on one of the photos of my pages to enlarge it, you'll see what I mean.  It's also a lot more quiet than the so-called "Quiet de Luxe."  I still love my Royal, for it's gorgeous classic charm, but man, I REALLY love this Olivetti.

I found it at an antique mall a while back.  It didn't work at all, due to the carriage being totally locked up.  The man at the repair shop said it looked like it may have been dropped.  I paid five bucks for it because I thought it was pretty and would look nice in my scraproom for display.  A few weeks ago I decided I'd take it in to the repair shop Busy Bee Lauren recommended to see if it could be fixed, and how much that would cost.  I was quoted $60 for the repair, and after discussing it with my husband, we decided to go for it.  I mean, how awesome would it be to have a typewriter for my Project Life stuff?

After I took it in, I decided to Google it.  The Olivetti Lettera 22 was designed in 1949, which I take to mean it was sold in the earliest part of the 1950's.  I found the original advertisement for it online.

According to this, the typewriter cost $88 new sixty-two years ago.  I paid $5, plus $59.95 for the repair (including new ribbon!) so I'm going to say I came out WAY ahead on this.  Hooray for antiquing!

If you live in my area, I highly recommend Mesa Typewriter Exchange.  Bill does good work! He must be a lot busier these days, because there are a LOT more typewriters in there than you see in this video.

Oh, and just for fun, let's tie up two random things from this post into one link:  hahahaha!  Google RULES.

Finally, I leave you with the good news that my Project Life pages have finally been freed from their plastic Generations by Hazel envelope and given a proper home.  Last weekend a quick browse through Hobby Lobby's clearance section scored me one of my favorite American Crafts 3 ring binders in the most perfect shade of green for a mere $11.88.  SCORE.

I just need to decorate that opening on the cover.  I'll get around to it... right?

My Stupid Baby Hat

Ah, how I love me a good, stupid baby hat.  The stupider looking, the better.  Looks like a fruit?  Awesome.  Looks like an animal?  Even better.  Has ears?  Too cute for words!

So, I started knitting.  I came across this pattern on Amber's blog (I'm reading back through her archives) and thought it was so cute.  Thankfully she posted a link to her Ravelry page that had a link to the free pattern.  I'm going to link you to my (woefully undeveloped) page as well in case you would like to knit up one of these.

Seriously, this is the idiot proof hat.  There are no increases or decreases.  You don't have to use double pointed needles or circular needles.  I used plain old size 6 bamboo needles that I bought at JoAnn.  If you can count, and can do a basic knit / purl, you can make this hat.  I'm a slow freaking knitter and I still managed this in just a few hours.

I used a blue wool that I've had since I was pregnant with Bubba.

Obviously I don't have a model around here on which to size this, so I took a balloon and inflated it to the circumference that Bubba's pediatrician paperwork said his head was when he was a newborn.  I wanted to hat to be about a six month size, so since it fits the balloon a bit big I think it will work.  This one will be a gift, because I don't have any blue baby clothes and I need things to match.  Need!


This is actually the second hat I made this week.  Here's the first one:

It uh... came out a teensy bit small.  It says that it's a newborn size, but it was a bit snug on my balloon dummy so I'm doubting it would fit.  Bubba's already adopted it for his kitty cat, which is fine by me.  I was surprised at how tiny the hat was seeing as how I followed the directions exactly, using the right kind of yarn and the right size needles and even making a swatch for gauge, which I never do!  Then again, my kid was born with a giant SIXTEEN INCH noggin, so maybe that's my issue.  I put the adjustments I made in the notes for the second blue hat in the notes on Ravelry so you can see what teeny changes I made.

Paper and String

Well, yarn to be exact. Here's what I've been up to the past few days. First of all, I was invited to a baby shower today, and of course, with me being me and all, I forgot to make a card until the very last minute. This morning found me playing with paper and stamps pretty much right up until it was time to leave.

This card took TWO HOURS!!! Let this be a quick lesson in just why it bothers me when people are always telling me that I should sell my work. Let's not even take into account the cost of materials, which really, were just papers out of my scrap bin, a pen, some adhesive, and a sheet of white cardstock. If you paid me minimum wage just for the two hours it took to make this, you'd be paying $14.50 for a greeting card. That's insane. So sure, someone would want to buy this, but they totally wouldn't want to give me what the work was worth. It's not in me to make shoddy work just to cut costs/time so I can make a buck. I have to do the job to the best of my ability, always. This is why I'll always be poor, I think!

I came across a card like this online somewhere, but of course, it wasn't handmade. It was just a regular greeting card. I recreated it using scraps of various patterned paper on which I either sketched things freehand, or even better, just eyeballed as I cut. I sketched on the ink details with a Zig Millenium pen. I also learned today that the only black stamp pad that I own is a Staz-On pad, which no es bueno. I had to creatively rearrange the wording on the front because my card was smaller than the original. I changed up some of the colors to work with what scraps I had too. I love this card. I think it's the best one I've ever made.

I also made my first scrapbook layout this year, not counting the stuff in the December Daily. Isn't that terrible? I mean, at this point, the DOGS have better baby books than my child. Granted, the dogs are a lot less work to look after, but still. It's sad.

The photos in this layout were all taken by my little man, who is fascinated with the camera. I don't let him play with it anymore though because he keeps getting his grubby little fingerprints all over the lens. Since it's just a point and shoot, it's a pain to clean.

This was kind of awesome, because I was checking out the copyright dates on the borders of the papers I used. I used one dated 2005 and one dated 2001!!! I also used some ancient Gin X rub ons and some Quickutz dies that haven't seen the light of day in ages.

This is the red wall in my kitchen. While I've enjoyed the red wall in my kitchen, I've been itching for a change lately. Apparently, the whole world has gone crazy for the combination of turquoise and red, and I am no exception. Here I thought I was being original too! So my thought is that I'll paint over that red wall and make a new window valance. Eventually, I'd like to paint my kitchen chairs a bright red, the base of the table white, and stain the top a super dark brown. Since in order to do that I need to first buy a sander, and to buy a sander you need some money, it's going to have to wait a while. What I could do though, was make chair pads.

I've been looking through a photo pool on Flickr called Interior Styling, and one thing that kept popping out at me over and over again were pillows made from granny squares. In a modern or contemporary room, they looked surprisingly good. I decided to make the chair pads this way using acrylic yarn because I figured it would be easy to spot clean. Besides, if I decide I don't like them I'm only out of a few dollars because acrylic yarn is CHEAP! (it's actually only $2.59 at Hobby Lobby)

The chair pads look kind of small to me, but that's the standard sized (14" x 14") foam insert for them. I think this will look really cute when the chairs are finally painted the red to match the cushions.

Now, I'm off to try and get that Staz-On off my alphabet stamps and maybe to take a nap.

Dishcloths - Finally!

I finally got off my slacker behind and finished those dishcloths I talked about ages ago! I decided to offer them on my blog before listing them on Etsy. If you're interested, each set of three is $12 plus $3 for shipping and handling. Each dishcloth is hand knit by yours truly from 100% cotton yarn and measures approximately 6 x 6 inches. They're great for scrubbing stubborn stuff from dishes due to their texture, but they won't scratch up anything delicate because they're soft cotton.

Best of all, you can wash them every day or so with the rest of your laundry (I bleach mine with the towels) and reuse them. That means that not only are you keeping those nasty cellulose sponges out of a landfill, you're not using them to spread germs all over your clean counters!

I have green and white: SOLD!

Tan and white - SOLD!

Pink and White -
If you're interested, first leave a comment here to call dibs on the one you want, then shoot me an email using the link on the left sidebar. I'll give you my PayPal info through that way. If you're local, you won't have to add shipping if you just want to pick them up.

Stuck.

You see this?

THAT, my friends, is my December Daily. The one that I was making for myself.

Yes, you would be correct if you reminded me (gently!) that it's already halfway through February. You would also be correct if you noticed that it seemed a bit... incomplete. You wouldn't be out of line if you wondered WHY it was in such a sad state, this far into the new year.

I can tell you the answer to that. It's because I suck, that's why.

This is where the "imperfect" part of Splendidly Imperfect comes in. This would be a "keeping it real" post! After all the whirlwind of Christmas and all of the December crafting frenzy, I just needed a break. I told myself that I was just going to take January off and not do ANYTHING. Obviously, if you've been with me for any length of time, you know that I don't really seem to be capable of doing that. I ended up embroidering dishtowels and knitting dishrags. I just need a creative outlet, I guess.

This book is almost done. Some pages need numbers still, some need journaling, and I need to print the photo for the 31st. Oh, and it needs a cover. So why have I not just buckled down and gotten the dang thing done?

Because I don't want to, is the easy answer. I keep thinking of all these fun projects I want to do. I want to make cloth napkins! I want to make that old dress I got at Goodwill into a skirt! I want to make a St. Patrick's Day bunting for my living room mirror! I want to get started on scrapbooking the baby's first year! I want to embroider more dishcloths! I want to make the baby an art smock so we can try fingerpainting! I want to make myself a new apron for fun!

Then there is the stuff that I NEED to do. I need to finish my sister/future brother in law's quilt. I need to make a gratitude album for my mother in law. I need to bake my neighbor the banana bread I promised her weeks ago. I need to make my sister in law's bridal bouquet. I need to get back into baking bread for us to have here in the house.

But I haven't done any of those things, because I told myself that I wouldn't start new project until I finished my old ones. Right now, that happens to be the December Daily album. There's a reason Ali Edwards tells you to premake all your pages - if you don't you end up spending way too much time thinking about them instead of just documenting your story and getting it done. I was a dope and was making them as I went along, then totally got behind as crunch time hit around Christmas.

There are only a couple hours of work left in this so it's totally stupid that it's not done and that it's keeping me from moving on to stuff I want to do. I guess I'm just uninspired and that's making me avoid it. Instead I've been reading blogs. I'll find an interesting one and read it ALL the way back to the beginning. I just keep it open in a tab and refer back to it here and there. So, if you have analytics and you're wondering who this freak is who has been camped out on your site for a week, um, Hello!

I'm starting to find that not doing the creative stuff is starting to affect me in other ways too. I've totally slowed down on my dishcloths. Where I was doing one a night now it's taking me a WEEK to finish one. I haven't been doing my chores as effectively. I'm cooking less. I'm just not motivated in general and I think this has a lot to do with it.

Therefore, I am stating here that I WILL finish that dang album by the end of the week. Then, I will make the book for my mother in law, and my sister in law's bouquet so I can get that in the mail. Hopefully those will happen next week. After that, my reward for finally getting those tasks out of the way will be that I get to make my napkins.

Hooray for that. :)

February 2010 Twelve of Twelve

Here are my twelve photos for February 12th!

Our healthy breakfast. I've really been in the mood for cold cereal lately, which means that the boy has been having it too. I have Chocolate Mini Wheats, Berry Berry Kix, and Fruity Pebbles in rotation currently. Bubba's a big fan of all of them, which I am sure is no shock. I had just watered this plant and it was sitting on the edge of the sink to drain before I set it back on the kitchen table again. You can just see the dog's water dish behind the box of cereal. We have to keep it up on the counter while the baby is awake because otherwise it becomes his personal splash pad.

After breakfast it was straight out to his table to play with his cars and trucks. The boy is truck crazy lately! He rolls them carefully along the table, in front of the television on the tv stand, and on the window sill. We bought him a little parking garage playset which he's also loving. You'll notice there is a computer mouse on the table - that is a car as well. Sometimes he'll make little pbbbblltttt noises to go with the cars. It's really cute.

He got these pencils for Christmas. He was standing next to me while I worked on a project at my scrapbook table, so I gave him these and a sheet of paper so he could draw.

He eventually got bored with drawing and wandered out of the craft room. A little while later I could hear him yelling at someone. I found him yelling at the neighbor out of the dining room window. He's very social sometimes!

We went through a TON of Carnation Instant Breakfast when I was pregnant. After a while we figured out that the canisters were a better deal than the packets and switched. The empty canisters were saved and covered with scrapbook paper. Now they sit in one of the Ikea Malm dressers in the living room and hold small toys. I took some photos of the contents and made labels for the tops.

This way, they're out of the way, but the baby can access them easily. I think it looks nicer too because there aren't toys strewn all about. That would drive me batty! He's getting better at picking things up and putting them back into the cans with a little prompting. He will also pick up the cans and place them back in the dresser, but that's pretty rare still.

I'm not a big fan of the traditional toy box where you just toss all the crap in one big, mixed up heap, if you can't tell.

For our snack today, we had some Black Diamond 5 year aged cheddar (SUPER sharp, SUPER yum) with some cracked pepper water crackers. Simple but delicious. That boy loves his stinky cheese!

The UPS man stopped by and brought us a package. My mother in law sent us a lovely box of chocolates for Valentine's Day. She even sent the good dark chocolates. Mmmm!

Our dog was stinky (I'll spare you the details) and got a MUCH needed bath. She wasn't particularly thrilled about it.

Afterwards, Bubba decided to have some playtime with his dad. He'll bring you a can so that you will hold it while he pulls off the lid with both hands. Usually what happens is that he opens the can and checks out the contents. If it's not his cars, he will go back for another can until he finds the one he wants. This is why I put the photos on the lids!

Working on the second to last dishcloth, and then I'll put them up on here for sale. You can look for those this week.

This was interesting. The baby was digging through the container with the alphabet blocks, and found one with a picture of a car on it. He picked it out and took it over to the table and then played with it like it was one of his cars! That reminded me that earlier, we were playing with one of the apps on my iPhone that has photo flash cards. Every time I'd pass a picture of either a car, truck, or van he would flip it back to that photo. It didn't matter the direction I was going either.

Like I said, the boy is REALLY into cars right now. The little green one came with his parking garage and is the current favorite. I was thinking about getting a few more, but he doesn't really need them. The construction vehicles are just too cute! I'll definitely be replacing the plastic ones with the wooden ones though if the need ever arises.

We've been renting Mad Men on dvd. I know we're behind the rest of the world on this one! We're halfway through season two. I want a shirtwaist dress with a gigantic crinoline now. Bad. Even if it will make me look like the Hindenburg. They're so pretty and girly.

And that was my day. Off to bed now!

Just call me Ambassador M

I was working on my makeup case entry, when this was brought to my attention:

Do you see it? Here, let me help you...

That's right folks - that's MY name with MY quote from MY blog on there!!! This is the first page (after the Flash intro) that you see when you go to their site. I'm on the front page baby!

(enter excited girl-squeals here)

I'm no Hemingway, and my experience with being published in print will probably end with those scrapbook layouts I had published long ago, but dang it, this is exciting. It's especially exciting when you notice the links for the other blogs on there... I'm the only one that isn't a dedicated food blogger.

So, if you're new here and visiting from that link, Welcome. Thank you for visiting my blog! This is my journal of sorts, so there is a little bit of everything that interests me here. If you're not interested in my knitting projects, or embroidery, or all the pretty junk food I make, or seeing photos of the cutest baby EVER or hearing the minutiae of the life of this housewife, and you just want to see posts where I've babbled about my undying love for All Clad, click here. I've tagged them all for easy reading because I'm guessing you didn't come here to hear about how I'm ridiculously enamored of MAC makeup.

But if you decide that you want to sit and stay a spell, well, new blog friends are okay with me too! :)

By Popular Demand

Since I've had so many people express interest in buying some of my hand knit dishcloths, I thought I'd go ahead and take a chance and make a few to sell. Normally, I don't really like to do this because you usually end up having a lot of people saying "You should TOTALLY do that! I would TOTALLY buy that/take that class" then I do, and I end up having spent the money to do whatever it was and no one ever follows through. It's very frustrating! I'm sure some of you other crafty types know where I'm coming from.

I picked out three colors to start. I'm going to sell sets of three 6"x6" dishcloths, each set in the same color (so three green, or three pink, or three taupe/tan), for $12 a set. That's only $4 a dishcloth, and since it takes me almost exactly 2 hours to knit each one, that's not too bad of a price! I think at least. I'll list them on Etsy when as they are finished. Of course, if you HAVE to have one of these colors, you're welcome to email me to call dibs and then I'll just have you PayPal me the cost plus $3 for shipping.

The yarn is 100% cotton and can be tossed in the wash with your regular laundry. I toss mine in with the whites, because I want them sanitized by the bleach. I does fade them a bit, but I'm okay with that. Also, because I didn't make up this pattern on my own (I think someone gave it to me, but I can't remember) I'm going to share it here for those of you industrious enough to want to make your own:

Cast on 30 st

*k two rows

k2, kp across, k2

repeat from * until dishcloth is square

cast off kside

At least, I think that's how it should be written. Very easy, just slightly time consuming. You could always cast on more stitches if you want a bigger dishcloth. I use the Lily Sugar and Cream yarn with size 7 needles.

January 2010 Twelve of Twelve

Did you know that there is a Facebook group for the 12 of 12 now? It's a fun way to get a little peek into the "everyday" of other people's lives. Here's your peek into my day.

First order of the day: Breakfast for the Bubs. Organic whole milk, organic blueberries, organic whole-milk baby yogurt, and bananas in a baby smoothie. I'm SUCH a dirty hippie.

Breakfast for the Mom - Chocolate frosted mini wheats. Most decidedly NOT organic, haha! I must keep a constant vigil over anything that I eat because if I don't, Bubba Grabbyfingers will make his appearance and put his grubby little paws in my food.

I was TRYING to get a picture of us playing cars together on the rug, but once he saw the camera he decided that he needed to be the one holding it. The fact that I didn't really feel like handing it over caused him great unhappiness.

Since he was no longer interested in cars, I moved on to finish a knitting project that I started the night before.

And I successfully completed it! No pattern - I was just sort of winging it based on a photo Elsie Flannigan posted on her blog. She posted a tutorial, but she crocheted hers and I knit mine. It actually took three tries to get it right. I think I'm going to make this again with a few minor tweaks. Either way, it's a really stupid hat and I luuuurrrrrrvvvveee it!

I made the pom pom by wrapping the yarn around my iPhone. That thing has a million and one household uses!

I did a couple loads of laundry.

I vacuumed too. I know - this housewife business is downright glamorous at times, isn't it?

We had the last of the tamales from Christmas for lunch.

We shared an orange for dessert. Bubba was determined to help get it peeled, not realizing, of course, that I had already peeled it. I think he just liked jabbing it with that little tool.

I cut out a bunch of felt hearts for an art project which I will post later.

After I put the boy down for a nap, I started dinner. I love this staggered schedule we are on. Up at 11:30, nap at 5:00, bed at midnight. It means that I get to sleep in, he's taking a nap while I'm trying to fix dinner and therefore not underfoot, his dad gets to spend time with him in the evenings after work, and I still get to be a night owl.

In case you were wondering, dinner was Mushroom Poached Chicken with Potatoes and Carrots. I found the recipe using the Whole Foods Recipes app on my iPhone.

Evening unwinding time! Checking Twitter and Facebook, having hot cocoa and a Little Debbie cake. Notice Bubba Grabbyfingers has once again made his appearance. Not two seconds after I took this photo he had impaled that thing on his index finger. Silly baby.

So there you go! My first twelve of twelve of 2010. :)

ABC - The Aftermath

As I stated way back at the beginning of the month, my motto for the month was ABC - Always Be Crafting. I may not have crafted every minute of every day, but man, it sure felt like I was coming close sometimes! I had so much to get done before family came to visit. Being on a very strict budget made it all the more necessary to stick with it as well. Here, in no particular order, are the projects that I can remember off the top of my head. I'm pretty sure this is almost all of them.

Pajama pants

I wanted us to all have matching pjs on Christmas morning, but it's really hard to find ones that come in both adult and infant sizes. I'm sure even if I were to come across them, they would not be cheap. I also have a problem buying things in holiday themes because then you can't wear them past the end of the holiday without looking like a total doofus. I ended up buying three pairs of men's pj pants on sale for $8 a piece at Target and making the third pair into baby pants using the directions in The Creative Family. I'm not so good with the pattern making though, so the baby's pants fit a little bit big and had to be pinned up in the back. That's okay, it just means he'll grow into them, right?

Knit washcloths

I made both my mother in law and my sister in law a half dozen each hand knit cotton dishcloths. I switched to these myself from cellulose sponges a few months ago, and we love them! They're textured just right to make them great for scrubbing, but they won't scratch anything. They're better for the environment because they're reusable. You just toss them in the wash at the end of the day so you don't have a sponge in your sink breeding bacteria. Some people think you can toss the sponge in the dishwasher and that sanitizes it, but oh, is that a yucky, yucky myth!

I forgot to take a photo of the finished ones. Duh.

Baby Non-Skid Socks.

Bubba was slipping and sliding all over the kitchen floor when it got cold enough so that he needed to wear socks. Someone told me that if you put puff paint on the bottom of them it would make them non skid. I also read it in Parents magazine, so I decided to try it. Not only did it not work very well, the paint peeled off after a couple of washings!

I like to call these his "Bad Word" socks.

Pinwheel Quilt

I don't even know if I should count this one. I bought the fabric, cut the squares, started sewing and pressing and sewing and piecing... and then ran out of time. I even managed to get about half of the actual pinwheels completed using the directions on V and Co's blog, but I was insane to think that I would be able to finish a full sized quilt in time for Christmas with all the other stuff I had going on. As a result, my sister in law and her fiance received a box with all the pieces and a promise it would be done in time for the wedding in May.

Felt Food

Now that Bubba as a play kitchen with pots and pans, I decided he needed some play food to go along with it. I know there are tons of play sets available out there with play food that are very reasonably priced, but the problem is that they're usually A) plastic and B) made in China. I'm not giving that to my baby who still feels the need to shove everything into his mouth! EW! There are some wooden ones that I liked (and plan to get in the future) as well as some really nice felt food on Etsy, but they're also kind of spendy. It's just not in the budget right now.

Fortunately, felt is super cheap! So is embroidery floss. I actually happen to have a ton of both in my stash of craft supplies already (I bet you're so surprised) so I decided to make up some things. I didn't have patterns, and just was winging it. I looked at photos of felt food on Flickr for inspiration. There was also a couple of orange wedges and a few slices of tomato for the sandwich that I didn't photograph because they were done after I took the photos. Oh, and the syrup on the waffle is detachable!!!

I sewed all these by hand while watching Bewitched on Hulu, starting with the first episode. That's also how I passed the time for a lot of my knitting!

Glitter Buckles for Ribbon

When I saw these on Jaimee Rose's blog a few months ago while going through her archives, I knew I had to make them. She said she paid $12.50 for eight of hers at a local shop called Melrose Vintage. Again, not only am I poor, but I am cheap as well, so I made some. I sketched out my own pattern before learning that Martha had one available on her site. Duh. I then traced it on scraps of chipboard leftover from other projects. Next, I took a Bic Mark-It marker that coordinated with the glitter I was using for that particular buckle and used it to color in the edges of the chipboard. Finally, I took Stickles and covered the fronts of the buckles. They had to dry overnight because I put a really thick layer, but they were worth the wait because the Stickles don't flake loose glitter everywhere like regular glitter and glue does.

My favorite ones were the ones made with the Platinum Stickles and gray Mark-It. The Black Diamond didn't turn out very well. I think it would have worked better if I had colored the chipboard base black before covering it in glitter. After they were dry all I had to do was thread some wide ribbon through them. These would be great for gifts that had to be shipped because they look pretty and you wouldn't have to worry about the bow getting crushed.

Cake Pops and Cake Truffles

I decided to stop calling them "Cake Balls" and start calling them "Cake Truffles." I think that sounds nicer. I had someone order some cake pops, and had a lot left over. Then I ran out of sticks so I had to switch from pops to truffles.

Pops are DEFINITELY easier.

Stockings

Since family was coming over, we were going to need more stockings! No way in hell was I going to pay $15 each for six new stockings (because you know they HAD to match) so I started to troll local thrift stores in search of fabric to make into stockings. I found this large lime green check for $5 and had enough to make them all with some leftover. I got the red burlap at Hobby Lobby for $3. Grand total - $8 for six new, MATCHING stockings. Not bad!

Tamales

I'm counting these as crafting because they are a LOT of work. I had my friend (pictured above) over to help. This was only my third time making them myself, and it was SO NICE compared to last time. I had the stand mixer to make the masa instead of having to hold a hand mixer. I had the Multi Pot which held a lot more water under the steamer basket and needed less monitoring than the smaller pot I used last time. I also had better help - he didn't whine and complain the whole time and was eager to learn. That's always nice! We made about 8 dozen, which isn't a lot compared to what some people made, but we also only ever had two people at a time working on them.

I just lack a posse of tias and cousins to help, I guess.

Peppermint Marshmallows

Another thing I got from Jaimee Rose. I tell you, that woman is a bad influence on me! The recipe is from Martha, the containers are from the Dollar Tree, and the labels I made in Photoshop and punched out using my EK Success scalloped punch. I was surprised at how easy they were and am no longer a candy-making virgin. I even have the candy thermometer to prove it!

Sugar/Gingerbread Cookies

Again, technically not a craft, but still requiring a lot of time and work and some level of craftiness, so I'm counting them! I made so many of these. Some were sold, some were given as gifts, many were eaten. I hung most of the gingerbread ones on the tree in lieu of ornaments this year as I didn't want the baby knocking any of my ornaments off and breaking them.

Ornament Wreath

Yet another thing found by Jaimee Rose, this wreath was made using the directions given by Eddie Ross on his blog. I was lazy and skipped the hot gluing part, and regretted it when I lost a couple ornaments. I used shatterproof ones I got for $10 at Target. If I put this out again I'll go back and do that step. I also ran out before I completed the loop and just filled the gap with a big-ass bow.

Christmas Cards

I went super simple this year - the boy's photo with Santa photoshopped into a simple background with a short greeting. I made them 4" x 6", sent them off to Walgreens with a coupon code, and had them printed for ten cents each. They were then mounted on a rectangle of plain white cardstock to make them feel more "finished" and mailed out in envelopes that I ran through the printer.

Play Kitchen "Art"

I made this little sign in Photoshop for the baby's play kitchen. It got printed out here on photo paper and then put into a frame that my husband found at the Walmarts for $3.

So there you have it - I spent more hours making stuff than I did sleeping. Come to think of it, I didn't sleep a whole heck of a lot this month. There were more than a couple of all-nighters pulled. It's the only way I was able to work without Bubba Grabby-Fingers distracting me. I would just take a nap with him in the afternoons to try and catch up a little. I had a few moments here and there where I worked on my own December Daily album. I do still need to wrap that up though, as having family in town puts a serious halt to projects like that.

People are always asking me how I find the time, but the truth of the matter is that you find time for what is important to you - this was important to me. If you think about it, I really don't go out much, I hardly watch television, I don't go to the gym or work out at all, and I don't have a job besides caring for my child. I decided that since I wasn't very good at anything else, I was going to rock this domesticity thing as hard as I could.

Next month though - I'm taking a break! HA!