12 Days of Christmas Swap...finally!

OK here goes--I'm finally going to post the crafts I sent and received for the 12 Days of Christmas Swap. To explain the swap a bit, we had to make 12 items for day 12, 11 items for day 11 and so on. So here's the stuff!

Day 12:
*I sent her a recipe book filled with 12 low-fat dessert recipes and I also sent her some cookies. I didn't get a picture of the book I sent her because I forgot.
*She sent me 12 ornaments for my tree! They were all so perfect,




Day 11: I sent her 11 handmade Christmas cards and 11 smaller note cards which I also forgot to photograph before sending out.
She sent me cookies!

Dat 10: I sent her stuff for her birthday! My partner loves Beauty and the Beast so I themed this day around that movie. I made her:
A birthday hat with flowers and Belle on it!

A small Chip made of polymer clay. My very first try with polymer clay and I love it!

A necklace with gold rose beads (that I found in NYC!) and a beaded heart. There was also a matching bracelet which I can't find my photo of.

A keychain with shrink plastic rose charms. My first try with shrink plastic too! It's so fun!

A small Belle cross stitched ornament.

A small cross stitch of the rose under the glass from the movie.

An embroidered and stuffed Beast doll. I backed it with this fun white fur that I had. I love how it turned out.
I also made a birthday card and something else that I can't seem to remember what it is. Sad I know.
She made me: Tons of great jewelry!! Two fabric cuffs with Nemo and Wall-e fabric, two resin pendant necklaces with Nightmare Before Christmas and Kings of Leon, pearl beaded necklace and bracelet, another beaded necklace with red and pearl beads, a necklace with some polumer clay beads, and a necklace and bracelet set with jingle bells. All so great.

Some of my faves:

Wall-e fabric cuff!

A Nightmare Before Christmas resin and beaded necklace.

Day 9: I sent her a bunch of supplies in 9 themes like fat quarters, glues, ribbons etc.
She sent me: Disney themed day! A scarf in Mickey Mouse colors, Thank You cards inspired by the Queen of Hearts, A HUGE Nemo totebag that is awesome!, A Monsters Inc t-shirt, A Wall-e needlebook, some Mickey Christmas cards, and a Quasimodo beanie that ROCKS! I love Quasimodo and it's so hard to find things with him on it! and maybe a couple other things--can't remember now. But it was all awesome!


Day 8: I made her cross sitched ornaments! Mario, Donald Duck, gingerbread man and letters to represent herm her husband and her dad.

She made the most wonderful items for my kitchen in such great colors and so well made! She's a pro! She even included some button details that I love!
Set of 2 placemats, set of 2 napkins, setof 2 napkin holders, set of 4 coasters, 2 potholders, some resin magnets, a recipe box and the most awesome apron EVER!


Day 7: I made her: Jewelry! A green beaded necklace with matching earrings, A Walt Disney Charm bracelet, an Eddie Izzard necklace and 4 Disney Christmas pins

She made me things based on things I love like shows, bands etc. A How I Met Your Mother tshirt, A Lost tshirt, a Juno notebook, some Harry Potter magnets, A Sublime Stitching embroidery pattern, A Jack beanie and some Ween iron-on transfers!!!!!


Day 6: I made her Christmas embroidered napkins and towels , a soldering kit and glittered candle holders. I will do a seperate post for the embroidery.
She made me stuff for my house! 2 pillow that perfectly match my bedding, and Nightmare Before Christmas themed items for my bathroom that I couldn't get a good photo of, but there was a shower curtain and ringsm soap dish and a painting.


Day 5: I made her 4 place settings and a table runner based on Adventureland. The place settings included a placemat, napkin and a napkin ring. Here's a pic of the table runner.

She gave me some knitting looms, knitting needles, lovely purple yarn to get me started, crochet hook roll with a few hooks and a notebook with some step-by-step directions with pictures! I have everything I need!!


Day 4: I made her tshirts for her and her husband with a bonus jar of whimsies.
I love how the shirts came out!
Ralph from the Simpsons

Jack

Darth Vader for her husband

I'm With Swarley as a reference for our shared love of How I Met Your Mother!

She made me 4 Disney themed photo albums based on theme parks!


Day 3: I made her things for her kitchen based on Adventureland. 2 tiki paintings and a small shabowbox.
One of the paintings

The shadowbox

She made me Dolphins themed items for my boyfriend.

Including a most beautiful lap quilt! Astounding!


Day 2: I made her a purse and an ambroidered fabric banner. I will do a more detailed post of the embroidery on this banner because I love it so.

She made me a cute fabric scarf and a crocheted beanie!


Day 1: I made her a pop art inspired painting of Mickey Mouse.

She made me a lap quilt of my own!


Alright! That's it. If you hung with me this far thanks! I know it's a lot of stuff but I wanted to show off the work that I did and the great stuff that I received. So a couple more posts about it to show more of the embroidery and my Christmas crafts are done!

Two more gifts

I'm really trying to get the Christmas stuff over and done with! So here's a couple more Christmas gifts that I made but forgot to take a picture of at the time, so just took these recently. Hopefully by the end of the week I can post all the 12 Days of Christmas Swap stuff and be done with Christmas for good until next year!

First up is an ornament I made for my step dad. He is a banjo player and while perusing the Internet one day, just wasting time looking for drawings and things to embroider, I came across this snowman playing guess what?-------- a banjo! I immediately printed it out and held on to it for several months knowing that I wanted to do it for him. It's just so cute!

He's mid-song and plucking away.


Then, this pillow I made for my mom. I wanted to do a cardinal for her as a representation of my grandmother who passed away 2 years ago. She loved cardinals and my mom and I always think of her when we see a cardinal. This pattern is an Aunt Martha's. I absolutely love it and I think my mom did too.

Bit of a close-up.

I really wanted to capture the depth and soul of the bird. They are so beautiful.
I backed the pillow with this cute heart fabric.


I think the pillow was the most satisfying thing I made for the holidays. It was full of meaning which makes it special.

So that's it for the personal gifts. I will get the swap photos up soon because I'm proud of all the things I made and love all the things I received.

Something for me

It's strange. I was so busy making things for others and just working away. When I finally finished everything, it felt weird to not be doing something. So I picked up the hoop again and stitched this lovely deer design from the Sublime Stitching "Forest Friends" set. I've been wanting to do this one for a while. I went for a monochromatic color scheme, except for the green vines, and just kept it simple. I really like how it turned out. I'm not sure what I'll do with it--perhaps I'll frame it and actually have something of mine on my own wall for a change.



As for what else is going on this week:
*I'm looking forward to a three day weekend
*Pineapple Express=very funny
*Sale at Sublime Stitching
*Stitching for the Valentine Tea Towel Swap and my sister's birthday
*Want to go see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
*Went to the chiropractor and he's says I've improved!
*Listening to Peter, Bjorn and John right now
*Bought tickets to go see Anthony Bourdain!!!
*craving cake

Crafty gifts

I was so busy over the holidays between crafting for the huge 12 Days of Christmas Swap, gifts for family and friends, cooking, visiting etc. that I'm kinda behind on posting photos of my crafts. So here's some of the things I made for family and friends. I primarily made embroidered ornaments this year and a few tea towels.

Cute little snowman for my cousin and his family. The patterns are Aunt Martha's and are adorable. Every one of them was so cute! Most of the front fabric is a flour sack towel that I cut up because I messed up a transfer. So instead if it just sitting there calling me stupid becuase I can't spell (duh) I decided to salvage it for these smaller items.

There was also this one I made for my aunt. I mean come on--how cute! I just backed them all with felt, added a cute ribbon and pinked the edges. Really simple.

This one was for my brother-in-law.

This was for my sister. They are both from the Black Apple patterns from Sublime Stitching. I adore these patterns. I really liked how these turned out. I tried to use subdued colors that were subtle but pretty.

Don't they look just like them! haha

The little reindeer went to my grandma. I got this pattern from a huge book of iron-on transfers that I found at a flea market. It's straight out of the 80's and filled with hundreds of patterns--some cheesy and kiddish but the holiday stuff is really great.

The cute kitty was for my cousin. I went with a sushi theme for her gifts because she loves it. Check out that gold collar. Meow!

So I also made a sushi towel for her. These are also Sublime patterns. I think she really liked them both.

I like the steaming bowl of rice! Too cute.

Sexy pinup got mailed away to my friend in Hawaii. She hasn't been living there long and she's so supportive of my craftiness. So I wanted to send her something. I thought--hula girl? tiki? palm trees? but she's so bloody sexy that I thought a pinup would be appropriate! (hee hee) Plus I know how it is to move a lot and have to buy things over and over-especially smaller items.

Her hair matches my friend's color. And wow---small faces are hard! It's difficut to get the subtleties of the features. So I think I need to practice doing faces.

And just look at that rear! Woo hoo! Super sexy. This is also a Sublime pattern.

So that about wraps it up for now. There are a couple more things that I seemed to have forgotten to get a picture of so I will have to take one and post later.
I still can't believe that I finished everything. I did just about everything in a week. I was so busy with the 12 Days swap and that took up all of my time. So next year, no procrastinating and no swaps around the holidays. Too much stress!! But it all worked out and I'm pleased with everything.


Just for giggles, here's Maggie with some of her stocking stuffers. She got some new toys that she really liked.

Let's kick off 2009!!

I hope everyone had a great New Years! I actually took it easy with my Colby--we stayed around the house and watched the ball drop. The photo of us over there was on Christmas Day at my mom's--I realized that I didn't take any photos on NYE. It was actually nice just the two of us. I don't see him very often during the week due to opposite schedules, so I like when it's just us. Not a bad way to start the new year.

So what do I hope for the new year? I'm optimistic for 2009. I'm sorta doing the typical thing of getting in shape and losing weight and all that, but I also want to focus on my overall health. I've already been to the chiropractor and he's getting me sorted out. Turns out my back aches sometimes because of a birth defect--who knew? Gotta love x-rays. I need to start taking better care of myself if I plan on seeing 2010!

I've also deemed that this will be the year of creativity. I will focus more on my painting and really try to finish a substantial amount of pieces. I would love to show my stuff but I have to have something to show!! So paint paint paint! I,of course, still want to do crafty things too. That really makes me happy. I like making things for other people and have a list of things I want to make that needs to get checked off. I received a crochet/knit kit in the 12 Days of Christmas Swap (I will post on that soon) and I WILL learn to crochet and knit this year and make really awesome things!

I also want to focus on just one craft swap at a time. While I love swapping and receiving great pieces from awesome crafters, I got a little overwhelmed last year. So one at a time and do a great job. This will be hard for me because there are usually several I want to do at a time. I've already been tempted! I've joined the Embroidered Valentine Towel swap and am focusing on that.

I also would really like to leave the country this year. Colby and I have been talking about a trip to Europe for our vacation perhaps in the fall and I really hope it happens. We just can't decide on where--way too many options. But we love to travel and haven't been doing alot of it lately.

Also, I want to purchase one piece of original art and some smaller crafty items. If I want people to buy things from me, I feel I should reciprocate with purchasing from fellow artists and crafters. I would ultimately like to purchase one piece of art a year to start a nice collection. They don't have to be totally expensive. You can find great pieces from emerging, local artists for cheap. The hard part will be being selective. I mean I can't buy everything I love! So I will have to choose wisely.

Well--I guess that's it. It's alot and I know it will be tough, but it's nice to have goals. Each swap I finish successfully with no stress, or painting I actually finish, or pound lost will be a step in the right direction. Here's to a 2009 filled with positivity and creativity!

P.S. I also hope to be a better blogger. I've realzed that I'm behind on posting-like NYC photos and Christmas crafts. Blogging has really helped me stay focused and organized so I need to be more on top of things! TTFN!