Better

It's been a busy few weeks. First there was the church talk. Then preschool was at my house. And then I decorated for a big church meeting. That pretty much wiped me out for the month of January.

Sure it may look like I only had three things going on but I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm not a fan of being busy. I very much enjoy having one major task at a time that I can plan and execute at a reasonable pace. This is a luxury I have been granted since graduate school and I'm not about to take it for granted. My ability to multi-task diminishes significantly in the winter. Because my brain slows down? Also I'm prone to Seasonal Affective Disorder. Shocking, I know. All of the previously mentioned events happened pretty much simultaneously. Well, at least within three days of each other. Which is why my mind was a mess trying to organize my thoughts and pull everything together. Fortunately everything went swimmingly.

I made giant crepe paper roses! And tissue paper pom-poms!

I had lots of help with the pom-poms, thank goodness.

I was much better at the roses after I had made about six of them.

And I thought the end result was quite lovely. What do you think?

Now that I have all of that behind me I can focus on the major MAJOR event of the month: Z-cakes's birthday. My time for planning grows lean, my friends. Her birthday is less than two weeks away! Now I'm wondering if I should do a family party or a friend party. Or both? Cupcakes or layer cake? New birthday crown? (yes) But as I have said, I am running out of time! Decisions must be made! Any and all input is welcome!

Anyway, while I'm here, I might as well make a list of the things I've been doing instead of blogging lately. Who knows when I'll be back after all.

:: Watching Downton Abbey while working on my embroidery calendar.

:: Knitting

:: Playing Words With Friends

:: Thinking about blogging

:: Going to bed at 10:00

:: Instagraming

:: Helping Z-cakes change in and out of her ballet clothes 12 times a day

:: Making dinner every night, yo! Except on leftover night

:: That's pretty much all I can think of right now.

:: XO to you all

:: Happy 6 more weeks of winter

Made

This Christmas definitely helped nudge me out of the crafting slump I've been in for, what, a year now? My handmade gifts weren't as varied as previous years and I'm okay with that. Perhaps I'll narrow my focus and start to actually excel in one or two crafts rather than doing a bazillion sub par crafts? Yeah, you're right. Probably not.

I started the month by adding to my needle felted ornament collection after I panicked thinking we didn't have enough ornaments for our tree. Update: We had plenty. Anyway, the fox and mushroom are the new guys and only took me an evening. Ah needle felted animals, you would think I would make more of you considering how much I love you.

Also for the tree, super duper glittery ornaments. I made these while Nate was not home (nor did I mention to him that they had been made...he found the glitter trail all by himself) and nobody was allowed to touch them. Their sparkliness was totally worth the mess.

I decided to make tent for Z-cakes to replace a completely unacceptable pup tent I made for her this summer. I made this decision around the time that a rational person would decide that there wasn't time before Christmas. Pshaw. I used the pattern from Meg's Growing Up Sew Liberated. I made it with the giant roll of canvas that I had tucked away in my basement. What's that? You don't have a giant roll of canvas in your basement? Huh. Weird.

It turns out that tents were a super hip gift this year. Ahem. I mean, I totally knew tents were the raddest so I made one because I'm hip like that. Also, Z-cakes loves it.

And now: The Knits.

An adorable hat for my sister-in-law. This is the kind of hat that I would only make for a fellow knitter, which she is.

{details on Ravelry}

I also made these fingerless gloves for the same sister-in-law, because she lives in Portland and it can get cold there.

{details on Ravelry}

I made a hat for my Nate. I figured after watching me knit for nearly seven years, he probably deserves something hand knit for himself, right?

{details on Ravelry}

P.S. I recently updated my Ravelry project page with photos and words and everything. It took a lot longer than I wanted it to so if you're a Ravelry user you should probably check it out if only to make me feel better.

Weekending

To say that I had fun at our first ever letterpress class this weekend would be a devastating understatement. I was positively giddy the entire time. I could have spent hours at the Idaho Poster and Letterpress studio searching every drawer and fingering all of the gorgeous type. But since our time was limited, I pulled a few cards and then busied myself with picture taking and question asking. Good luck getting me to shut-up about letterpress from here on out.

But that wasn't all that made our weekend so fantastic. We also went to see Ira Glass speak at BSU! I figured seeing this show was as close as I was going to get to having him over for dinner. Of course I loved every second and wish I had it all on tape so that I could listen to the entire thing again. If he is on his way to your town, I would highly recommend attending. And if you do, let's chat about what it is like to tell people about your weekend plans. For example, I had this conversation several times in the last two weeks:

"Any plans for the weekend?"
"Yeah! We're going to see Ira Glass!"
"Blink...blink. To see what?"
"Oh. He's the host of This American Life. A...radio program?....on...NPR?"
"Ah."
"Yeah. Anyway..."

I hope your weekend was equally as wonderful. Today Z-cakes and I both have coughs so we're going to be wearing flannels and watching a lot of movies. I can't say I'm complaining.

Tag Team Tompkins

Please tell me you love Tag Team Tompkins newest letterpress art as much as I do! Diane and Madeline recently sent me some of their latest work and I could hardly wait to share it with you. My collection of Halloween decor is growing with the help of their Scottish Proverb, and I'm pretty sure my mom needs this pack of Halloween prints don't you think? Isn't the black with silver ink just gorgeous?

I also have four of their Dire Warning prints waiting to be hung in Z's reading nook.

And now for my exciting news. Diane + Madeline are offering FREE SHIPPING to Narrating Life readers for the remainder of 2011! Stock up right now if you need some Halloween prints of your own and while you're at it, perhaps you need a few Christmas gifts? I'm just sayin'.

To take advantage of Diane + Madeline's generous offer just use the code MWSHIPFREE (domestic addresses only) between now and the end of 2011!

Many kind thanks to Diane + Madeline. Happy shopping!

BFF

So last night I was sitting in the basement watching So You Think You Can Dance on Hulu because that is what I do in the summer. As I watched I whipped up another set of matching friendship bracelets for me and Z-cakes. I also thought about how she had insisted that I paint her fingernails the same color as mine. That is when it occurred to me:

Z-cakes is totally my best friend. Even though I'm a friend who sometimes has to put the other friend in time out or tell her to take a bath or a nap.

I know you can't see the colors of the bracelet very well with this picture but can you see the brown? It is a rusty brown that I never would have put in a bracelet in a million years. But that is the color that Z-cakes chose and when she makes a decision, it sticks. Turns out the color works perfectly and Z-cakes is probably cooler and more color savvy than I'll ever be.

Happy Friday friends! If you want to make a bracelet for your BFF you can find the beautiful tutorial/refresher here.

tag team tompkins

The lovely ladies at tag team tompkins never cease to impress me. This mother/daughter pair (Diane and Madeline) have such a knack for finding endearing quotes that I adore and then pairing it with a charming paper cut silhouette. I can think of a spot in my house for nearly every one of their prints. Here are a few of my current faves:

{all photos via tag team tompkins}

If you haven't stopped by their shop lately, I highly recommend you do so.

P.S. Madeline and Diane wanted to find a way to reach out to those who have been struck by devastating spring storms and tornadoes. They realized that they already had the perfect print in their shop! Purchase this print during the month of June and 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the Red Cross to benefit recent storm victims.

Guest Post :: Jill's Favorite

Please welcome Jill from, Creative Musings and Such, to Narrating Life. Jill is witty, down-to-earth, and totally capable of inspiring the masses to save the postal service with good mail. You're going to love the gift that she has put together to share with us today. In fact, I kind of just want to make one for myself right now.

When I am going to give someone a gift, my approach is usually to be as thoughtful and personal as possible. I believe this stems from the fact that my Love Language is gifts ("Don’t mistake this love language for materialism; the receiver of gifts thrives on the love, thoughtfulness, and effort behind the gift. If you speak this language, the perfect gift or gesture shows that you are known, you are cared for, and you are prized above whatever was sacrificed to bring the gift to you. A missed birthday, anniversary, or a hasty, thoughtless gift would be disastrous—so would the absence of everyday gestures." --Gary Chapman) so it is a big deal for me to do the best I can for the person I am giving the gift to.

Disclaimer: this is not always possible, especially when giving a gift to my husband who after 16.11 years of marriage is still a mystery wrapped in a riddle and is practically gift-resistant.

But I digress...I have a great love for sending and receiving mail, so several years ago when I participated in a blog swap called Pink Christmas I came up with the idea of making a Good Mail Kit for the woman I was assigned to send a gift to. I didn't know her personally, so the best I could do was to use her color preferences and initials for the cards and labels I made to go inside the kit.

For her kit, I used the medium size of the world's cutest suitcase as the container for the kit. I then took various card/envelope sets and used rubber stamps and rub-ons to create specific sets of thank you notes, birthday cards, and thinking of you notes. I also included some smaller notes to serve as cards to include with gifts.

Along with the various sets of stationery, I included several of my favorite smooth-writing black pens, a sheet of postage stamps, and some good mail labels (made by me).

I ended up giving this gift two more times as I continued to participate in the Pink Christmas swap (which is no longer happening) and improved upon my idea each year by wrapping each set of note cards in ribbon, because it looks more festive and really, who doesn't love ribbon?

If you were making this gift for someone you know well you could include a small address book or printed copy of family addresses so they could keep everything in the case. You could also make or order address labels so they could just stick them on the envelopes (this may be particularly helpful for those who have a tendency to find excuses for not writing notes).

You may have also spied the cds I included with my Good Mail Kits; those were just a Christmas music mix I included just for fun, but if you know how to make those I'm sure your recipient would welcome a mix from you as well.

I gotta say, this gift just makes me happy. I have a room overflowing in mailing supplies and stationery, yet when I look at these Good Mail Kits I find myself wanting one. Is there a name for this obsession, stationeryitis perhaps? I don't know. But if loving it is wrong, I don't want to be right.

Handmade Holiday 2010: A series about making it happen.

Guest Post :: Jessica's Favorite

Please welcome Jessica from Running With Scissors to Narrating Life today. This girl is a whirlwind of creativity. Every time I turn around she's posting another finished project on her blog. I'm happy she's here to share a great gift idea with all of you!

I'm Jessica from Running With Scissors, and I have a gift idea that is affordable, meaningful, and meant to please the family member that is hard to shop for.

This gift was inspired initially for my own mother-in-law, who is always the person I have the most difficulty shopping for. Of everything I've given to my mother-in-law either purchased or handmade, this has been the best. All it takes is gathering wedding photos from the family and framing them together.

Below is my favorite wedding photo:

Lilac and Earl Holman, my mother-in-law's parents. They were married in October 1929 a week before the stock-market crash--the beginning of The Great Depression. I love her flapper wedding gown, and she kept the bouquet and wedding shoes all her life.

A simple photograph can be such a meaningful gift.

So to get it all together:

1. Collect photos

For me this was the greatest challenge, as my husbands grandparents have all passed away and I had to get some photos from aunts.

2. Scan them on quality scanner

I didn't have one at home, so I went to a photo kiosk scanner and bought the images on the disk. I think I went to Walmart. There is also Kinkos for high quality scans.

3. Print your photos

I used http://www.winkflash.com/-- I like the fact you can choose the white border and matte finish.

My parents were married recent enough, their wedding photo was in color, so I was able to edit all the photos to be black and white.

4. Frame photos

For my mother-in-law, I just bought a simple frame that was already matted for three 8x10 photos.

For the black border on each photograph, I actually just used electric tape for a thin border, rather than paying for/ making another mat for each photo.

I arranged this gift to my in-laws with their wedding photo in the center, then on the right the bride's (my mother-in-law) parents wedding, and on the left the groom's (my father-in-law) parents wedding

Both my mother-in-law and father-in-law loved this, showing their own wedding and each of their parents. My husband's other siblings also wanted one for their homes, and I think a lot of the grandkids thought it was cool to see all the weddings in the family together.

If you have access to farm windows, which are becoming popular and therefore expensive, (I found mine on the side of the road on a junk pile in Missouri), it's another cool way to display the photos.

For myself, I did both sides of the family. The top row is my husband's parents and grandparents. The bottom row shows my parents and grandparents.

I repainted my window and attached the photos with black electrical tape from the back. You just have to scrape the tape to get any air bubbles out so it looks like a perfect black line and you can't even tell your photos are taped to the glass!

I hope this helps someone have an idea for their hard-to-shop-for family member!



Handmade Holiday 2010: A series about making it happen.

Guest Post :: Michelle's Favorite

Please welcome Michelle from {Chez Moi} to Narrating Life today. I think the fact that Michelle had an incredibly difficult time choosing her one favorite handmade gift to share with you should tell you a little bit about her creativity. I'm glad she chose this gift that she did, it is so thoughtful and generous.

Confessions of a Compulsive Copycat

People think that I am creative. In fact, I am not an idea person. If I ever have an original idea, I think it is reason for a new holiday to be declared or something.

But I love to make things. I adore it. So I am always on the lookout for ideas of cool things I can make. I have made a lot of handmade gifts, but none of them are really exciting and new, you know? Quilts. Tons of people make quilts. Photo cards. Ditto. Flower brooches and headbands. Everybody makes those. Embroidery projects. Christmas ornaments. Felt stocking advent calendars. Taken from Martha herself. Little gratitude journals. Personalized ephemera tins. Copied, all of them! (Mostly, anyway.)

My husband tells me that I overvalue originality, and that execution is a big part of creativity. I agree. But I still am a teensy bit neurotic about my copying compulsion.

Anyway, for the purposes of Miranda's great handmade holiday series, I finally narrowed it down to something I made from just the germ of someone else's idea. I had read somewhere in blogland about a woman who gave her husband The 12 Dates of Christmas as a gift. I knew immediately that that was a gift my husband would greatly appreciate. And perhaps never having seen the finished project pushed me to come up with my own ideas.

This is a simple project, and one that didn't take me very long. (And that's saying something, as I tend to agonize over every little decision.) And, as an added bonus, it only cost me $1 to make! (I bought the book and had all of the other materials on hand.)

I started by finding an inexpensive book at a thrift store. The one I found was called "The Creative Mind," which just happened to be perfect for Marc, who is truly an idea person.

I brainstormed date ideas, so that I would have one for each month of the following year. (This probably goes without saying, but I made sure all of the dates were things I was actually willing to plan and do!)

Then I took some gang tags, which I think are just inherently pleasing. I measured the tags, added a little extra, and marked a rectangle on one of the first pages of my book. Using a ruler as a straightedge, I cut out the shape with an x-acto knife, not all the way through, but just through enough pages that my little gang of tags would nestle neatly within. (The rectangles of book paper are a happy by-product; I have used them for countless projects since.)

I then decorated the tags with patterned paper, rub-ons, stamps, and paint. I love ribbons, so of course I had to tie ribbons at the top of the tags.

Marc later told me that this was his favorite gift I have given him, ever. Wow.

Handmade Holiday 2010: The series about making it happen.

Guest Post :: Destri's Favorite

Please welcome Destri to Narrating Life today. Destri is the founder of the wonderful blog, The Mother Huddle, and I'm fairly convinced that she is a wonder woman. If you don't already read TMH...well...it's obvious what I'm going to tell you to do. In the meantime, here is Destri's current favorite handmade gift.

I have to admit it wasn't until the last few years that I truly understood the value of a handmade gift. I have always loved them, but I don't think I appreciated the time and thought that went into them until I started giving them myself. The whole process involves a bit more passion and results in much more emotion than simply picking up something that is on sale. Even if it is something simple, for some reason it ends up more memorable.

For instance, I only have a few friends that I exchange gifts with every year, and only one from high school. Even if it has been a year since we have talked, every year we manage to give a gift for Christmas. She has usually always bought me something nice for my home or some fun smelly lotions. But the year I remember best is the year she was unemployed. She came into my work with a single caramel apple, wrapped up all pretty in a cellophane bag and ribbon. This wasn't your ordinary caramel apple, it had about five different layers of goodness. What made this significant, is that this came from a girl I had never known to step foot into the kitchen. She informed me that she made it all by herself, and that it was in fact the best caramel apple I would ever eat, and I had better like it, because that was all she was giving for Christmas that year. To date that was the most memorable thing she ever gave me, and by far my favorite.

She is just taking up sewing and so this year I am giving her something to help get her started. A pin plate and a bundle of fat quarters. I don't know about others who sew, but when I am sewing I usually wind up taking a bunch of pins out of the pincushion and lay on the table, it's just easier. Then I saw a pin plate, genius! I love mine at the side of my sewing machines for easy pin placement too. They are so easy to make. Here is how:



Find a small pretty plate. I found this one at an antique shop for $3.00, score!



Take one large magnet disc or a few small ones and some heavy duty glue, I like E-6000.



Add a little glue to the back where the magnets will go.



Put the magnets on the glue, and watch them try to slide together, kinda cool. Hold them in place for a minute, and let dry.

Viola'! You have a magnetic pin plate. In this picture I am holding the plate up, the pins stay on! Am I the last to have seen these? Or have been all the rage for years, and I am just getting wind of them. Either way, they are simple to make and are the perfect little gift for the seamstresses in your life.

Tie one to the top of a yard of pretty fabric, or a fun pattern and you're one handmade present down, in about five minutes!

Like Miranda said, it's not too late to add a few handmade things to you gift list this year, just pick one or two more time intensive projects, and a few easy ones like this and you'll have a less stressful season!Thanks for having me, and a big thank you to Miranda for inviting me to her happy little place on the web!

Handmade Holiday 2010: A series about making it happen.