Merry Christmas!

Whatever your holiday persuasion, I hope it has been a merry one. I hope that you have spent your time surrounded by friends and family, basking in peace, joy, fellowship, and lots of yummy food. I spent the last few days making a mad dash to clean the house, wrap presents for E & L, and help prepare food for Christmas lunch with family.

During that time, I gave little pause to the crafts I intended to make for everyone. I'm disappointed in myself. I didn't even get half of them done. Okay, so I didn't even get 1/4 of them done this year. I'm sure glad I painted the North Pole ornaments several months ago. I have a dozen half finished sock monkeys waiting for their arms, ears, tails, and faces. My pigs are all cut up and waiting to be put together. The ornaments are only missing the hangers. *sigh*

I have a Christmas party on the 29th so now that the mad rush is over, I can get those ornaments finished up.  The pigs are just not happening this year. My hands are hurting just thinking about them. The monkeys will get done over the next couple weeks. The girls loved their Christmas presents. They especially enjoyed the computer, even with the crap ton of limitations and rules I put in place. Yay for parental controls!

My brother's Christmas has not been quite so happy. His mother-in-law passed away in the early morning hours on Christmas Eve after a near 8 year battle with cancer. She was an amazingly strong woman to have fought as long as she did. My sister-in-law is not in a good place right now, but she has my brother, her brother, and her father as an incredible support group. I think knowing her mom isn't hurting anymore will comfort her once she is able to deal with the grief. What is hurting them the most right now is that the baby is due in 2 months and the kid will not get to know his maternal grandmother. E & L took the news better than I expected. The visitation is Friday.

So the dishes have been washed, the left-overs put away, and the house put back in order. We are leaving the decorations up until after New Year's Eve like usual. The girls are in bed. I'm trying to decide if I want to spend the little bit of money I got from various relatives on more craft stuff, on the holiday clearance for little gifts next year, or on a camera. I have tons of craft stuff but I have staples that I run out of often and the girls are constantly raiding my hope chest for their own devices. The clearance gifts from last year pretty much saved Christmas this year since my parents had little money for gifts this year (Most of the gifts we did buy this year were either put on layaway for several months, came from a thrift store, or were purchased in January 2012.). My camera went missing over the summer and I didn't get one for Christmas (Mom forgot I wanted a replacement and got me a coat instead, although the coat was more a need than a want.). Decisions...

At any rate, I hope your holiday is restful and peaceful. I'm already eager to get the kids back in school and myself back to work. Have a fantastic rest of the week!

Love is love, no matter the back story. <3 DS

Homemade Holidays 2012

Since my flurry of activity yesterday (I admit it- I couldn't sleep), I have received  several emails from friends and regular readers asking when to expect pictures of this year's homemade Christmas stuff. I didn't plan to post anything until after NaNoWriMo since I haven't really had time to work on them but I decided, since I'm at 43k for the month already, to go ahead and take some pictures. If you'd like to see last year's posts, check out these posts for a reminder: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Enjoy!

First up, hand painted North Pole Candy Cane signs. These signs are made using card stock and wooden craft spoons. I still need to attach the ribbon hangers for these but that will only take a few minutes. I made 75 of these in total in September or October. These wooden ornaments will go to friends and family outside of my Grandma's side of the family who are getting the other ornaments (more on those in a moment).

Cute right? I tried to vary the number of stripes, directions of the signs and the lettering so that none came out looking like another even though they are basically the same thing. I hate handmade items that are carbon copies.

For my Grandma's side of the family, I'm making fleece pigs. They are little pillow-like ornaments. Grandma collected pigs so this year I decided to make a pig for everyone. I'm making 90 of them. I hope it is enough because they take a long time to make. I'm trying to convince Mom to help me with some of the sewing since I'm in the middle of NaNo but quickly running out of time to get these babies done. Here is a step by step picture demonstration of the materials and the work from beginning to end. Click the pictures for a bigger image.

 This is the materials for several pigs. I'm using pink and white fleece that I found on clearance, hair cutting sheers for a good crisp cut, two different kinds of ribbon, and 5 different colors of thread.

Here is the material for one pig. I picked a pink ribbon and tried to match the ears, legs, hands, and snout based on the size of the triangle I chose to use. I have 4 different sizes of triangles from 2.5 inches across the bottom to 6 inches across and varying sizes of ears, snouts, and appendages so that I can change up how they look.

 This is the two pink fleece parts that make up the body of my pig.

 I haven't sewn the pieces on yet, but this is how the ribbon, ears, arms, and legs sit on the inside of the back piece of felt. I'll attach them to the back so the thread lines don't show on the front.

 This is the setup for the front of my pig. White and magenta thread, the snout, and the front of the body.

 Here I have attached the snout with a simple cross (an X basically) and then decorated the face with magenta nostrils and white/magenta eyes. The stitching is very simple!

Here is the finished product with the back part and the front part sewn together. I'll be tucking the corners in on some of them to get more variety in the pigs. Overall, they are going to look super freaking adorable.

It took about 3 hours to cut out all the material. I have the noses sewn on about half of the fronts. I'm trying to do everything in shifts. I'm getting the noses done first, then I'll do the face details in a second round. Then I'll attach the hanger, ears, arms, and legs. The last part is putting the two pieces together and stuffing them. The part I'm trying to get Mom to do is sew the two sides together on two of the three edges, leaving me to stuff them and sew up the last side. If I did them one by one, like this pig, it takes about an hour for each pig. We'll see if I can get her to help me out in time for Christmas presents!

I'm also making sock monkeys for the kids. I gave one to my newest family member, my cousin's daughter. I'm not sure if I posted it or not. Here is a picture in case I haven't.

So what do you think? Do I have time to finish NaNoWriMo, 10 sock monkeys, and 90 pig ornaments? I certainly hope so. :)

All these pictures are mine but feel free to share them around. If you want step by step directions for the pig ornaments or ideas on other homemade holiday stuff, post a comment and I'll try to help you out!

Love is love, no matter the back story. <3 DS

Straight No Chaser: 12 Days of Craziness!

I love this video and it never ceases to crack me up. This is a group called Straight No Chaser singing their version of 12 Days of Christmas. Enjoy it with your family today.

Love is love, no matter the back story. <3 DS

Friday Five: Holiday Memories

I figured today's and the 30th's Friday Five could be about memories. Today's is my favorite Holiday Memories over the years. Next week, I'll list my favorite memories for 2011. :)

1. I've mentioned this before but my favorite holiday memory is the homemade Christmas ornaments my grandmother made over the years. We put them on the tree this year and I boohooed for a good bit after.
2. In 2005, I spent New Years with  my parents, my brother, two of my brother's friends, and a friend of mine. None of us thought to pick up alcohol. It was my first New Years after I turned 21. A neighbor gave us corn whiskey that resulted in a 6 hour tape of us singing a karaoke version of Cheeseburger In Paradise and Fins over and over again. Never again but it was hilarious.
3. When I was 16, I rang in the New Year with girlfriends from high school. I was introduced to the comedy of Eddie Izzard that night and an obsession was born. I still love the guy.
4. I may have the year wrong, but we had a blizzard in 1993 where the snow drifts ended up higher than I was tall. I was around 9 then so it may have been 4 foot drifts, but still. I remember making an igloo, several dozen snowmen, and sledding in the neighbor's field.
5. Christmas 2008 is my favorite for one simple reason. I graduated from college in December 2008 and Christmas was my first holiday with a degree. It was awesome knowing I didn't have to go back in January, that I could focus on work finally.

I could come up with a dozen more favorite memories but I have to help wrap presents tonight so I'll leave it here. What is your favorite memory during the holidays? Tell me in the comments below!

Love is love, no matter the back story. <3 DS

Thursday Thought: Christmas Gifting

I found this quote this morning and absolutely love it.

Christmas gift suggestions: to your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.
Oren Arnold

Isn't that beautiful? I think I live my life that way as it is, but I'm not perfect. I don't forgive quickly, though I do forgive eventually. I don't know that I have opponents per say but I am very tolerant. I would give everything to my friends if I could. I've done the customer service stuff for close to 15 years (and was very good at it, not just a warm body filling a spot). I definitely give to charity... donations every time I pass the kettle, giving of gently used toys and clothes throughout the year, Angel tree gifts every holiday, serving at the soup kitchen, helping others around me when times are rough. I try to set a good example for all kids all the time, but especially E&L. I'm better about respecting myself. What about you?

Thursday Thought: Happy Holidays

Pardon me while I jump on my soap box in today's Thursday Thought. If you are one of those people that have gotten your panties in a twist over someone telling you "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" then you may want to close this post. Or, better yet, keep reading.

I'm sticking a jump in here. You'll thank me later.

Friday Five: My Christmas List

Alright, I know I'm too old to have a Christmas list for Santa. But, I still have wants! I'm making everyone gifts this year, but that doesn't mean that I would refuse a store bought gift. haha This list is a little over the top and so totally not realistic, but I like to do this every year for giggles.

My Christmas List- Top 5

1. Kindle Fire. Don't get me wrong, I love my Kindle Keyboard and I hate anything touchscreen but damn this looks awesome.
2. Keurig Mini Plus Brewing System. It makes coffee. From little packets called K-Cups. They are flavored. It can't get much better unless it came with someone to serve it to me!
3. A knitted hat. I don't know what it is called but its the poofy kind that fits snugly around the head (like a headband I guess) and then has a poofy back where your hair can be pulled up in it. They just look ridiculously comfy. I like greens and grays for my hats, although I've been rocking a pink fedora lately.
4. An extremely wide banded watch. A band of 2 inches or wider of a soft material, preferably in black with a silver watch body. I like chunky fashions when I wear jewelry. Watches are no different.
5. A digital camera. Nothing flashy. No touchscreens. SD card slot preferred. Nothing remotely like Kodak EasyShare software (hate that crap). Green.

Love is love, no matter the back story. <3 DS

Homemade Holidays

I may or may not have spoken about my Homemade Christmas back when I did the Thursday Thrift posts. Either way, here is the story.

My grandmother made homemade Christmas ornaments every year for as long as I can remember. She had too many kids and grand kids to be able to buy presents for everyone. When a majority of the grand kids (we're all about the same age) were getting at that age where we didn't like anything anyone bought us (you know, that age), Grandma started making ornaments instead of buying cheap gifts. I know the first year or so, I didn't appreciate the handmade ornaments. I was too young to understand just how special they would become to me. As I got older, I learned how much love went into those ornaments. My grandmother died in February. I have every ornament she made me over the years. They are quite literally my most prized possession for the simple fact that I will never get another one. I have wanted to do a homemade Christmas for several years (it first came to mind the Christmas after Hurricane Katrina, when my family took toys to the kids since they weren't going to have much for Christmas) and when Grandma passed away, I decided to finally start doing it instead of wanting to do it.

Welcome to the month after! The month after NaNo that is. It is time to unwind and let the stress of last month wash away. For those of you that finished your NaNo novels, you have my permission to turn your inner editors back on and start working to make your novel the best it can be! Those of you that wrote but haven't finished your whole story (even if you crossed 50k), KEEP WRITING! I can tell you from personal experience, being able to write "THE END" on a piece feels amazing. It opens your eyes to possibilities that you will never realize otherwise. Keep going. You will reach the end of your novel with it is ready to end.

With the end of NaNoWriMo comes the beginning of my new daily posts. Today is Thursday Thought. Watch out for a post later this afternoon. I think I will try to find something about success, or finality, or something else appropriate.

I genuinely hope you enjoyed my NaNo journal, the daily writing prompts, and the little updates here and there. I hope that October's preparations were helpful for at least someone. From today, I will be alternating finishing the last few chapters of Immo2 and the final edit of Immo1. Still working on that cover for Immo1. I'll be there soon. Tentative goal: Immo1 ready for publishing and first draft of Immo2 by January 31st. :) We'll see.

Have a great month everyone. I'm making homemade Christmas ornaments, soaps, and tasty treats for everyone this year. I'll post pictures!

Love is love, no matter the back story. <3 DS

Friday Five: Favorite Holidays

I'm not sure why I have holidays on my mind right now. It serves for a good Friday Five though. My top five holidays:

Easter. I am not particularly religious and I don't claim affiliation with any specific denomination, group, council, sect, whathaveyou. Easter is my favorite holiday though for one specific reason. As a child, I didn't spend much time with my natural father's family (long story for another time). I missed a lot of holidays with them, but I always spent Easter with my Grandma. And Easter was almost as exciting as Christmas for me as a kid.

As an adult, I hold Easter above Christmas specifically for the memories I have of my grandmother. Easter egg hunting, the "treasure" blanket, and salami roll ups always jump at me. The "treasure" blanket is memorable because Grandma had many, many grand kids and so was not able to buy a lot of stuff for us. At Easter, she set out a number of toys and trinkets (Slinky's, water guns, play dough, etc.) and then would draw a name from a hat. Each kid was listed in the hat a certain number of times based on how many things she got for the blanket. 

It was one of the most awesome experiences of my childhood... the thrill of wondering if my name was going to be called next, planning out what I would choose and alternates in case my choice was snatched up by someone else, and the general euphoria of sitting around with a dozen other children doing the exact same thing. It was awesome.

Click the jump for the other 4!