make Easter ornaments from Twelve Days ornaments!

Don't forget some of your Twelve Days Christmas ornament patterns pull double duty as pretty Easter ornaments! Choose lovely spring colors for French Hen, Colly Bird, or Goose a-Laying and Bob's your uncle. 

To buy the patterns visit mmmcrafts.etsy.com

repurpose your patterns for Easter!

Introducing my new Easter patterns... Just kidding! You guys said to remind you when you can repurpose the existing Christmas patterns for other holidays, so here's your reminder for Easter!

 
French Hen and Goose a-Laying are both especially appropriate for Easter, but if you choose springtime colors really any of the bird patterns work well IMO. Even Snow Bird works! But especially if you replace the stitched snowflakes on the wings with flowers! (Embroider a simple one with Lazy Daisy stitches or maybe steal the felt flowers from the hen or swan wings?)

Get the patterns here: mmmcrafts.etsy.com

PS I'm working hard on Lodestar. I'll update on that as soon as I can.

merry Christmas!

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices.

Merry Christmas!

a very merry Christmas to all

I'm not sure how I have missed it, but I had never heard the Pentatonix version of Mary, Did You Know. There I was, driving through my town to pick up my kid from school, minding my own business, listening to a Christmas playlist, and it filled my car. Then it filled my heart. Then it filled my eyes. Then I started to ugly cry right there behind the wheel as I was negotiating an intersection. It was an unstoppable force. Not good for driving safety, so I had to take some very deep breaths and just let it wash through me. 

I resist crying. I just do. Some folks only become more lovely when they cry. Their eyes get dewy and large and reflective. Crystal tears fall from their lashes and they become angelic and shimmery. That is exactly unlike what happens to my face. It collapses in on itself and my throat constricts and my nose becomes swollen and red. For several hours it's apparent to everyone from my puffy, red eyes and glowing nose that I've cried. 

However. Despite my blotchy appearance, it was a thing of true beauty that the account of God With Us in the arms of his mother touched my spirit like that, even when I've read it and pondered it and treasured it and heard it a thousand times. 

Mary, did you know that your baby boy

Would one day walk on water?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy

Would save our sons and daughters?

Did you know that your baby boy

Has come to make you new?

This child that you delivered,

will soon deliver you

Mary, did you know that your baby boy

Would give sight to a blind man?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy

Would calm the storm with his hand?

Did you know that your baby boy

Has walked where angels trod?

When you kiss your little baby

You kiss the face of God

The blind will see,

the deaf will hear,

The dead will live again

The lame will leap, 

the dumb will speak

The praises of the Lamb

Mary, did you know that your baby boy

Is Lord of all creation?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy

Would one day rule the nations?

Did you know that your baby boy

Is heaven's perfect Lamb?

That sleeping child you're

Holding is the great, I Am

Somehow I don't think younger Larissa With No Kids could have been as affected. She no doubt would have found it a faith affirming and lovely song. Current Larissa, Mother of Two Non-Divine Humans, hears it and it just cracks me in two. It gives me chills. What a blessed woman Mary was. And yes, she knew.

It was a moment I needed.

Merry Christmas to you. Today, whether or not you share my faith in Christ, wherever you are in the world, I wish for you a peaceful, joyful day, surrounded by those you love and filled with all good things. And only happy crying.

happiest of Thanksgivings to you, and my annual sale is on!

Hello hello to you. Today I plan to mindfully and thankfully devour sausage balls, smoked turkey, ham, pecan pie, pumpkin cheesecake, the WORKS. And to be especially grateful for delicious, lovely fat and sugar as I have been on WW since May and I'm ready to eat allllll the things to celebrate the day. There may be a faceplant in a plate buttered yeast rolls. (Humor and holiday splurging aside, WW has actually been really great, and I highly recommend it. I love to eat, and there's always something tasty I can eat for zero points. I've lost a good bit of weight and I'm feeling pretty fantastic about that. I plan to stay on it for the long haul. Tomorrow.)

Besides butter, there is much to be thankful for in my life this year, yes, especially this strange, sad, and challenging year. I've heard from so many folks who found a special refuge in all forms of handcraft this year, and goodness knows I have. I can just see in my mind's eye lucky people around the world being delighted and amazed to open their special handmade gifts on Christmas morning as a result of worldwide lockdown crafting. What a lovely vision. I'm so grateful if my patterns have played any small part in that joy.

Do you have plans to sew for Christmas? Better get crackin'. (I'm mostly speaking to myself there.) Today through Monday there's 20% off of all patterns in my shop, so be sure to take advantage of that if you've had your eye on a project or two. Be aware the sale is automatically keyed to my US time zone, Eastern Standard, so factor that in if you are in a different zone on our wonderful planet!

I wish you the warmest, happiest, most delicious time spent with your loved ones today, whether an unlucky turkey figures in there or not. We can all take some time to count our many blessings and say a prayer of thanks. 

Turtle Dove pattern in the shop!

I'm done, I'm done! Here's the second ornament in the Twelve Days ornament series, Turtle Dove. (Here's the post for the first set, Partridge & Pear.) I'm really happy with the way this turned out and I'm still loving the Sulky stabilizer which makes this handmade ornament series so so easy to make. If you can handle basic embroidery stitches you can totally do this project, and do it well.

The key is the Sulky Printable Stick 'n Stitch (formerly known as Sulky Printable Sticky Fabri-Solvy), a wonderful felt crafting stabilizer. You simply print my ornament pattern on the water soluble stabilizer, adhere it to felt and then embroider right through it. No tracing or transferring complicated embroidery patterns by hand. Outstanding! Read through this earlier post to learn more about how the process works. I've listed some sources where you can purchase the stabilizer in the pattern.

You can purchase this instant download Turtle Dove pattern PDF in either my Etsy or my Craftsy shops. Go to the listing to get more details on the pattern itself. I hope you enjoy it!

Snow Bird ornament pattern available!

Time to sit down with a Christmas movie and get your hand sewing on! The Snow Bird ornament is now available in both shops for instant download:
Etsy
Craftsy

I've made so many of these birds over the years, and I never get tired of it. They make special additions to your tree or lovely handmade gifts. The wool felt means they will last for years and years, if stored properly. I love to get out my felt ornaments each year. They are my favorites!

You know I like playing around with different color combos. I think it is so awesome to be able to make one to match whatever your favorite Christmas colors are, no matter how uncommon:

 I just made this retro pink one. I think pink looks so great on white Christmas trees. Some fine day I'm going to have one.

  I love gold tones too. This would be great on a woodsy foresty tree.

 Can't beat traditional red!

I always love turquoise and red together. A lot of my decorations are in this combo.

Happy hand sewing! 'Tis the season. I might be able to squeeze in a Partridge & Pear ornament pattern this holiday season too. It's my goal. I sort of lost my original patterns somewhere in the studio. I've ransacked the place and they are nowhere to be found. It's making me crazy.

snowbird ornament

*Late note: this is now available as the Snow Bird pattern in my shop.*

More fun with felt, floss and sequins. You might remember another version of this from way back when. Which was also the basis for the colly bird ornament. And the Blue Bird of Happiness.

I'm working on a hand sewing pattern for this bird. It will be coming soon! Hopefully in plenty of time for some cozy holiday hand stitching.

handmade gifts 2012, part 3

The last handmade gift is a reprise of the Phil 4:6-7 papercut I made for Robyn a while back. This version is for my sister, Leigh.

It fits an 8 x 10 inch frame. I changed it a bit from Robyn's with more leaves and no birds included. I included several background colors with it so she could switch it up and find one that worked best for her decor.

I gifted it to her along with a pillow cover you see folded and tied above that I made from some Crate & Barrel napkins. I forgot to take a picture of it on an actual pillow. Oops. It's a nice, Christmasy array of bold green stripes. I made it in my favorite, quick no-zipper-required envelope method, which took three napkins. Also no hemming, since the edges of the napkins are finished already. Boom.

In addition to those I gave some Rifle Paper Co. notes and the Penguin Classic edition of Cranford, in honor of the afternoons we spent watching the mini-series together and drinking tea. The scene about the oranges. Oh my word. "We will repair to our rooms... and consume our fruit in solitude." So funny. The book is a wonderful read, too.

That wraps up the making for Christmas. I had pie-in-the-sky visions of making the quilts for the girls, but I've set my sights on Valentines for that. Which is probably just as unrealistic. Oh, I did have one more handmade gift besides these, but you've already seen the photos. I made a gift of these two stockings to my lovely sister Lori along with some books. She's a book addict like me.

handmade gifts 2012, part 1

We draw names on my side of the family for Christmas. That means each member of my own family will get a gift for another member of the extended family. So, basically I had four gifts to take care of for our swap. I have never attempted a completely handmade Christmas. Way too overwhelming. I bow low to those of you who manage it! But I did try to include handmade elements with each name draw gift.

Even though I was struggling to get along with the new Cameo, I did manage to produce the papercut card sets you see above for my niece. She's the busy mommy of two toddlers, so I figured having nice cards handy would save a trip to the store. I designed both these cards a while back, here and here. Instead of cutting them by hand for multiples, I converted the files to DXF for the plotter. Yada yada. And they were done.

After they were assembled, I tied a couple of stacks together with envelopes and pretty ribbon. During the yada yada there were moments when I thought I could have cut each by hand and had them done faster. It was a learning experience but

1) I was very pleased with the cards I did manage to make and
2) now I have Much Knowledge.
To be fair, most folks probably don't get their Cameo out of the box and start importing their own custom cut files. I kinda skipped the whole crawl before you walk part.

I raided my awesome paper tower to produce a variety in eye-popping colors. Have I mentioned how much I love and adore my cheap, plastic paper tower? I have? Oh.

 

Sorry for the gloomy photos. It looked like a nuclear winter here for the last half of December. My new replacement blades have arrived promptly from Silhouette America, so I'm looking forward to giving this another try and seeing if the fine cuts/points/corners come out cleaner.

blue bird of happiness

I could certainly use a little happiness and hope after the last few days in America. I'm sorrowing for the families in Connecticut and hugging my own kids more tightly.

speaking of not having enough time in December...

I just found this felt bird ornament that was half finished from last year in my stuff. Oops. Remember when I crashed your craft party last December, Robyn? That was fun. The soup! The laughing! The busy makery around your table! Being jealous of your iron! Good times. Good times.

Poor forgotten bird. I'm going to finish sewing him up and get him on the tree. Hmm, he needs some dark blue on his very very red head, doesn't he?

If folks would like to see more of the Christmas crafts I've made over my blogging years, I've rounded them up for you in this aptly named set on flickr. 

Mistleholly felt stocking pattern now available! Also an etsy sale!

Here's the new pattern for 15 inch felt Christmas stockings, which includes both a mistletoe and the holly applique design. You can stick with one design or mix and match. And of course the color options are many. Make some to match your muted decor or your pink Christmas tree. You can go with traditional Christmas colors:

 Or something more merry and bright:

Or anything! That's the joy of making your own. Wool felt is available in soooo many delicious colors. This new pattern was inspired by the stockings I made for us last year, and of course now I want to make more in every possible color combination. I love putting combos together and squinting at them. It's my thing. I squint.

These stockings are a quick sew, all machine stitching except for attaching the sequins. Lots of instructions and diagrams are included to make everything clear.

Whip some up, hang them and stuff them with tiny toys, treats and, of course, a good book!

For instant gratification you can find the new Mistleholly pattern in my Craftsy instant pattern download store at regular price, no waiting.

BUT if you want to take advantage of the shopping frenzy this weekend to save a little on the purchase of patterns, visit my Etsy shop, where all PDF patterns are on sale for 20% off the regular price when you type in the coupon code MMMTURKEY. That sale will last through the weekend and is only in my etsy shop (believe me, if I could figure out an easy way to host a sale in my Craftsy shop also, I would). I'll do my best to email you the pattern within 24 hours of purchase. Don't forget to type in the coupon code to receive the discount!

Have a lovely weekend, everybody!

better late than never

(Late note: The stocking pattern I refer to below was indeed finished and here is the post)

This is what I have been working on lately. These are prototypes for a new felt stocking pattern based on these from last year (one of those is seen hanging on the left). My intention was to release the pattern in September or October. So. That's how things are going in my world. I'm still hoping to get this in my shop in time for Black Friday. Fingers crossed.

For you well-organized forward-thinking people who already have your handmade projects done or underway for Christmas, maybe these stockings will be ideal for next Christmas. For people like me who are typically saying to themselves on the eve of December 22, "There's still plenty of time, I got this", maybe it would be great project for this Christmas.

There will be two designs, one for mistletoe and one for holly if you like to mix it up that way. Ok, I gotta go work on this. LOL.

father's day cards

Fun with paper ties. The one on the right was made by me for the girls to give to Michael. They wrote on the inside:

"This is what our Daddy's SuperSuit looks like."

It is indeed his SuperSuit. He wears it six days a week. But no cape.

handmade gifts 2011: french hen for Shari

Another sparkly french hen ornament, this time for Robyn's sweet mom, who happens to like chickens.

handmade gifts 2011: french hen and colly bird ornaments

***Note: the French Hen ornament pattern is now available in my Etsy shop and Craftsy shop! Colly Bird will be coming in early 2015.***

Happy new year, everybody! My new year's resolution: More cowbell.

Continuing on with the parade of handmade, I present days three and four in the Twelve Days of Christmas ornament series for Robyn. (Here are days one and two.)

I went ahead and made two ornaments this year because I figure twelve years is a long ever lovin' time to wait for the complete set.

*No, that's not a typo up there in the title. It really and truly is colly bird.

merry, merry to you! and I made stockings I like.

My new (literally, I just finished them a few minutes ago) handmade stockings. Yay! These from last year will be retiring quietly to a thrift store somewhere.

The new ones are in wool felt with (of course) leaves and sequined berries. I like a little sparkle at Christmas. I couldn't decide on which color scheme I liked better, so I did two of each. I can't help wishing I'd done each in different color, but hoo boy would that have been busy looking. Maybe not in a bad way though? Hm.

They were pretty easy to put together. I sketched it out and made one several weeks ago then made three more last night and this morning. I was actually mentally writing the pattern as I went, so I will release a PDF version of this next year for the shop.

I'm so excited Christmas is almost here. I have some food to make for this Eve, and yes, some gifts to make. Small ones. Ha. But see you back here shortly after Christmas day. I have a few posts already lined up to go to show what I've been making in secret these last few weeks. Fun fun fun.

I wish each and every one of you a lovely, lovely, bright and peaceful Christmas.

what I'm up to.

Well, what I didn't do was shop on Thanksgiving weekend. Sorry, National Economy. I sat around and enjoyed the days by feeling thankful, eating large numbers of pecan bars (Thanks a lot, Leigh. No really. They are evil.), watching my family watch the Bama game and occasionally sending out a supportive Whoo! (I was at the kitchen table making an ornament), watching the 1st season of Gilmore Girls with my mom, and taking a very occasional walk.

 

I have to show you the wondrous Thanksgiving table my sister Leigh set for our family feast. Isn't it beautiful? (the off-topic birthday banner was for my nephew Michael). There was also a satellite kiddie table with equally fancy settings that is not in the picture. The main table is huge, but that is all an illusion. Underneath it is my Mama Graham's regular sized dining table. Over the top of that is a cleverly built ginormous round plywood tabletop that has additional support legs, which is brought up from the basement and assembled for special occasions like this. Leigh really should do a guest tutorial so you can make one too, huh?

We did something most agreeable this year after the Thanksgiving feast too: a Gently Used Jewelry And Makeup Swap amongst the older gals in the family. We all cleaned out our jewelry boxes and makeup/toiletry kits ahead of time and then drew numbers. Things got pretty heated. Almost violent. Lots of guilt trips. Some snide remarks. It was excellent! And I ended up with some cool new-to-me pieces (above, just some of my loot) and a new lipstick color. After we were done, my daughters got to choose some play jewelry from the leftovers, and then the rest was donated to a local thrift store.

The shopping apathy lasted through the weekend and somehow I let CyberMonday also slip by (I was busy watching Edward and Jacob worry over skeletal Bella) and now I'm kicking myself for missing out on the online deals on Calico Critters, which my daughters are pining hard for and which are priced like nuclear grade uranium. Sheesh.

What I'm doing on today, Dec 1st, is getting out all our Christmas decorations. I'm trying to ignore the fact that the contents of my china cabinet are all on top of the TV armoire and that I still have no floor in my kitchen. It's bare slab cement with construction paint lines, mystery stains and patches of old vinyl flooring in places. It's real festive. Being rectified soon. Crossing fingers.

I need to stuff the mirrored advent calendar before I take it downstairs. I dream each year of making tiny things to go in it, but of course at the last minute I bought some peppermint kisses, LPS teensies and some weird hairy animal pencil toppers who get an amazing hairdo if you spin your pencil. I also have tiny wooden ornaments for their (new!) small white Christmas tree. That will buy me some time and maybe I can put in something cool and handmade. I have ideas for tiny felt necklaces. And this will be our second year with the awesome Playmobil advent. The girls are excited to see that one again.

I've got a pile of needlebooks started and a few thousand felt ornaments I'd like to make, and some I've actually completed.

And. I kinda hate my handmade stockings. I'll be attempting those again.

Rapunzel hair recipe

Our witch and our Rapunzel had a lovely time. No handmade costumes this year, but some handmade hair. And the hair did get made on time, however, I recommend allowing more than an hour and a half to do it in. Which seems obvious, but I'm just addressing any fellow crazy procrastinators out there.

As I stood and contemplated the huge length of yarn on the floor, my daughter said maybe I should have just bought the pattern we saw at the store. I scoffed to myself. How hard can it be? Just a huge braid, right? Here's what I figured out:

Rapunzel hair recipe for kids:
Hugemongous one pound (16 oz) skein of yellow yarn
Two tall backed chairs, preferably heavy ones
Willing helpers (bribe with candy if necessary)
Spool of purple ribbon
Scissors

Place the two chairs side by side but a few feet apart, the overall distance from the edge of one chair back to the other being the length of the hair you will need. Mine was about five feet. Enough to go from your Rapunzel's head to her feet, knowing that braiding will take up some length. You can always trim it if it is too long.

Roll several feet of yarn off and cut it free. You'll use this to make ties. Tape the end of the remaining skein of yarn to one of the chair backs and start winding the yarn around the backs of the chairs. Tight enough not to sag a lot, but not too tight or the chairs will begin to tip toward each other. Now keep doing this until your skein of yarn is empty. This will take some time. This is where your helpers come in. Give them the yarn, show them what to do, and check on them every once in a while.

 

Feed a yarn tie under and around all the strands on one end and draw it up tightly, knotting it.

 

Carefully use the scissors to cut completely through the other untied end of the loop. Then straighten it out on the floor so the tie is in the middle like this:

Now have one of your helpers sit on one half of the hair on the floor while you braid the other half. Divide the half you are working on into three equal bunches, and lay them out on the floor. Start crossing one bunch over at a time, and put it down, keeping the lengths of yarn separated. Pick up the next section, cross it over, put it down, and so on. Keep combing through the yarn with your fingers as you braid to keep it smooth. Tie the braid off tightly at the end with more yarn. Trim as needed.

Have your helper sit on the braided half while you braid the other side. Same process.

Now you have two long braids that are connected at a part in the middle. Put that center part on your Rapunzel's forehead, wrapping the braids snugly around her head and crossing them in the back. Tie it tightly together there with a length of yarn.

Now weave the purple ribbon in. Unroll the whole spool. Poke it under and through the center part on the forehead and pull it through until you have half of the ribbon on each side. Now choose one section of the braid on each side and weave the ribbon to follow along it all the way to the end.

Once you reach the end of each braid, tie the two braids together with the ribbon ends. Then you can do like me and use the rest of the purple ribbon to go back up and weave the two braids together. You could also make a pretty bow at the bottom with the ribbon and use invisible ties of yarn to attach the two braids together in a few places.

If I had had the time, I might have tried to fill the hole in the back of the head with some kind of yellow fabric, but time didn't allow. Ideally, you could just use a yellow knit hat under the braid to give the illusion that it is a full wig. I offered to add some felt flowers to decorate the braids, but my Rapunzel declined.

After the costume was on, I smoothed my daughter's real hair (which is ironically very long, but oh no, Mom, it is not blond) back into a bun and then anchored the Rapunzel hair around her forehead and underneath the bun with long bobby pins. And it stayed put during Trick or Treating, despite much excited running and swinging of the hair.
 

And that is how I did it.

I have to confess that there were a few tense moments after the hair was completed, when my daughter announced that she had decided not to wear the Rapunzel wig. That I had just made. With much effort. At her request.

And I'd like to be able to say that I reacted calmly with a discussion about being considerate of others and properly appreciative of what is done for you. I really would. That discussion did happen in a few minutes, but I think my first reaction was more something like "Oh, you will be wearing the hair, and you will get happy about that or you will be staying home to hand out candy with Daddy." Hey. I'm not perfect.

But, as you can see for yourself in the photos, she came around about the hair and was very happy to wear it after all. Thank goodness.