My favorite Christmas craft project this year has been creating these cute little guys, who also got a bonus "bed roll"/sleeping bag to keep them safe and cozy on their journey to a little Denver friend, who is 2. 
The bears are made of wool felt; the bed roll of flannel and cotton, quilted with batting in between.
I was a little sad to package them up yesterday and send them on their way, but Roxie will take very good care of them. 
I am hoping to do a great deal of my holiday shopping from DIY artisans, and I sure would love a few of those goodies for myself! In a nutshell, this says it all:
"Buying handmade is better for people, better for the environment, and better for giving truly special and well-crafted gifts. The ascendancy of chain store culture and global manufacturing has left us all dressing, furnishing, and decorating alike. The connection between producer and consumer has been lost. Buying handmade helps them reconnect." (taken from http://www.buyhandmade.org/)
As I mentioned a couple weeks back, we decided to make our own hot air balloons after reading an awesome book, The Great Round-the-World Balloon Race, which really captured the imagination of R (as it did with L about 3 years ago). Both kids loved that you could come up with a "theme" for a balloon and decorate it accordingly. It's been awhile since I've done papier mache, but I decided we could handle it and that it was the best medium to create our own balloons.
Lo and behold, we did it. I am so excited about how amazingly cool our floating machines turned out. L's theme is Arctic Circle, and I love how she captured the cool colors of the Arctic and the cloud-like appearance of looking down on a continent from space. She has an arctic wolf there, a snowy owl, and two penguins. R's theme is Sea Creature World, and he has little crabs, starfish, fish, and then a jungle on the side. And mine? Well, I guess I'll call it Bluebird Morning. I didn't exactly have a theme going in, I just knew what cheerful colors I wanted to use and that I wanted birds involved.
Now that the balloons are done, the kids have had such a fun time floating their small plastic animals around the house on "rides." I think they feel a real sense of accomplishment at having made something neat enough to play with. Here are a few photos of our process:
During my blissfully quiet spring break, I managed to sew up a pattern that I'd seen and envied on the MayFly blog in February. It's for a child's apron-of-sorts, or a smock with a pocket - a "smocket." They are meant to be worn over jeans or leggings and not really as a dress. 
Ruby and Roxie got to unwrap theirs when they were here almost two weeks ago (first photo below left). Their pockets were made with some vintage linen/appliqued placemats I found in Seattle last October. I have one more (the orange one with my embroidered kitty) for a little special someone who has a birthday coming up at the tail end of this month. I love them and wish I had the nerve to wear one myself!
My leisurely holiday this week included lots of sewing time, a little reading, a movie (Reign Over Me, quite good!), long walks, and -- my new new addiction -- learning to embroidery all fancy-like. My new book Sublime Stitching is a blast, teaching all sorts of nifty stitches and including about one hundred iron-on patterns. I am so hooked.
The stitch that made me crazy (in a bad way) was the chain stitch, which I tried over and over and just couldn't get right. I even missed half of The Office last night, even though it was on right in front of me, because I was so intent on mastering it.
At 9:10pm, something clicked and - voila! -- chain stitch mastered! (left photo below). I'll be attempting to put all my new-found skills toward this adorable little kitty today. 
Despite being chained to the computer for work these days, I managed to squeeze in a little time four hours of sewing time yesterday for a couple new babies-to-be-born that we "know." I made crib blankets, little snuggly-sleeper blankets, and burp cloths. The material just killed me, it was so cute, cheerful, and retro . . . pinks, browns, bright blues, and kiwi greens - lovely. I may have to make a return visit to Jo-Ann's to buy the rest of the bolt and make something for myself!
It was great to get my craft-goove back on - however brief - even though I had a backache last night and was super crabby at dinnertime 'cause I got too focused and didn't eat enough during the day. I think my family might hate my craft days.
Well, was this ever fun. We participated in Mini Swap II this year -- a chance for crafty bloggers to exchange small, mostly homemade gifts between one's family and another, with the kids especially in mind. Names were drawn by Molly at Mommycoddle , and children were encouraged to help make or choose the gifts to be sent to little friends in a far-off places.
My kids were thrilled to learn that their swap friends were located in Baltimore: "Baltimore, COOL! (pause) Mommy, where is Baltimore?" Sage and Zander are 4 and almost 3 respectively; their mom is Heather. We decided to hand-paint oodles of beads for them. The photo of L. & R. painting in this post is evidence that they quite enjoyed the task. To see what else we packaged up, see Heather's blog!
And, heavens, we got an amazing box of goodies from the Von Markos, who braved a blizzard and head colds to get the package to us.
Inside were two gorgeous and so-soft crocheted bags (L's is gray with a homemade flower pin, R's is chocolate brown and has a little pom-pom caterpillar); supplies for learning how to crochet ourselves (the yarn is scrumptious!); a bag of tea, great homemade earrings, and some body balm for me; a wooden puzzle for R, and some chocolate crabs, which the kids devoured in a hot second. Everything was wrapped in piles of pastel tissue paper, which looked so pretty all together I had to get a photo. Heather, thanks so much, this was such great fun!
I believe I have expressed my love for potatoes here before. If I am stressed out, I head for the nearest potato and start to carve. I love my latest round of potato art -- rows and rows of birdies, lots of branches, some pears, a couple raindrops. I've made a few collages with the birds and just think I could do that all day. While I am in freelancing zone, however, I had to put away all my crafts so I wasn't tempted to drift away from my work to find myself in a stamping stupor.
