Everyone Got this one
I made an army of wine cork reindeer.
(Notice the newspaper that I used? It's clippings from the Battle of Antietam... reindeers attack!)
(Notice the newspaper that I used? It's clippings from the Battle of Antietam... reindeers attack!)
I used the following tutorial to make them. The whole post gives you a ton of ideas of what to do with your spare wine corks. I just think the reindeer were so cute. Mine are a little different (the picture isn't very good, sorry). I used brown pipe cleaners to make their rack more impressive. Also, the bulb for a nose wasn't doing it for me so I used red jingle bells. I added a string of green sequins so they could be hung on the tree or just to look like their reins. I had WAY too much fun making these.
The Men's Gifts
Domino poses with Dad's Phillies wreath and Mike's Orioles wreath.
I bought 40 baseballs off Craigslist for about $30. The seller was super nice and a huge baseball enthusts. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have sold me the balls if I hadn't said I was making wreaths for huge baseball fans (he required that I send finished product pictures. Nice guy!). So I used this blog post as a guide on how to do it. I didn't use softballs because I had so many baseballs it wasn't necessary. However, the coat hanger... ehhh not that great. These all kind of sag when on the door. Makes me sad. I would use two coat hangers the next time or loops of metal wire... something more sturdy.
Now, the Braves one for Jason's Dad was a different story. All the letters I got were from Michael's and I had to paint them the correct team colors. However, I wanted a little tomahawk to make it look exactly like the Atlanta Braves logo. Do you know how hard it is to find a pre-made one?! I ended up using scraps from Home Depot (they're really cool about it - just ask the guys at the back by the cutting station if you can have anything left on the floor). I glued it together using wood glue, painted it red, wrapped yellow ribbon around it and glued it to the back of the A. It looks pretty cool.
The Mother-In-Law's Gift
She got me heavily into sewing so I wanted to make her something special. She, and most of my husband's family, is a big fan of reading. When I found this bag pattern I nearly cried from joy. However, I hate paying for patterns. I think everything should be free. So I ended up using this free wall hanging pattern as a starting point for the book leaning side of the bag. As you can see below, it came out very nicely. The fun part was using scrap fabric for the books or fabric that she had given me to "play" with earlier in the year.
The pockets were the hardest part for me. I knew how to make a bag from an Easy Quilt's free tutorial on laptop bag making that I had done for my mom last year, but it didn't have pockets. I used batting in between the library book theme fabric, which I don't recommend because it got way too thick and my old Singer couldn't handle it (I broke a needle at one point... whoops). Also, the fabric I used for the interior was from a fabric website that I LOVE.
The Knitting Obsession Begins...
The Mistake...
Yeah. Easy. This stupid swatch shows you how "easy" it was for me at first. That took me about 3 hours of cursing, hissy fits, and wanting to chuck the needles out the window. Eventually, I calmed myself down and tried again. I got it right, but to knit a scarf in garter stitch took me forever it felt like. But I now know what I did wrong in the beginning. I was picking up stitches from the row before and increasing every, single row by 2-3 stitches. At least. So, when you're teaching yourself to knit, take your time to see where the needle is going or you're going to be VERY frustrated... very fast.
Bailey liked to help me along the way (shocking).
See? I eventually got it right. I finished this one and started on another one pretty much the next day.
Same stitch, same needle gauge (US8), and same exact boring style.
Ladies!
Now, for some stupid reason, I didn't take a picture of what I made for all my female friends (arrrrrgh, bad Laura). I made each of them a rice heating pad. I feel that at my old age *cough* all my friends are finding they have random aches and pains. So, I asked for their favorite scents, bought a bundle flannel fabric from Hobby Lobby and essential oils from Amazon, and sewed away! The tutorial I used wanted me to break it down into sections, but I ended up making three long tubes (instead of just a sack of rice that would bunch up and annoy my friends). I used ziploc bags for different scents, dosed it all, and shook away! Now, some scents faded faster than others I recommend "touching up" the scents before giving them to others to ensure they still smell nice. The smell of burnt rice is vile.
Well... those were my Christmas gifts! Yes, I had to plan in advance, but it was well worth it to see the look on my friends and family's faces when they opened them. Merry Christmas!
