Christmas Cards: See what I did there?

When I was little, my Nana would pin up previous year's Christmas cards around the fireplace. Or maybe it was around the record player area. We don't have a fireplace, and this is near our record player area. Every time we look towards the kitchen, or walk that way, we can see the holiday love in card format. Plus we can see the really cute Eleanore. See what I did? A quickie mat job, with awled in holes, a bit of twisty wire and some buttons, and we got ourselves a cute little way to hang a picture. Looks like I cut off some of the detail from the top. You get the general idea though.

Christmas

Because my toddler niece can't surf the interweb superwell yet...



Yeah.

My sis-in-law requested crochet cupcakes for the little one. Apparently my niece loves cupcakes. Who doesn't love crocheted food? Crochet pattern central has a whole page devoted to their patterns.

I started these last night and finished 'em up today. half a baker's dozen. Acrylic from chocolate cupcake to fluffy frostings. That purple one on top is a horrible yarn that was near impossible to get through. So I left off the ruffly bits on the edge there. See the light blue one? The "frosting" yarn was almost cottony. Acrylic comes in so many different colors and textures - it's frustrating to hear folks turn up their nose at acrylics. ...

I couldn't have done it without bittersweetblog. Thank you!!! I changed a few random things with with some of the cupcakes - the original ruffly edge was too bulky for me, and a coupla the cupcakes are a few shy of the 30 stitch repeats.

holy hilt holder, batman!

Sacred Snatch Designs, possibly my new favorite blog if only for the name.

Also, if you need to see a felt model of "girl parts," check here.

And yeah, I did carve that stamp, thanks for asking! It's the second stamp I've made. I made a few more afterwards that may or may not end up as Christmas presents.

And no discussion of girl parts and girl things is ever truly complete without a mention of Cunt, Inga Muscio's book about, well, a lot, but involves everything related to the c-word. And then there's

ChristmaHanaKwanzSolika

Wha?

Yes, kids, that's right. It's mid-July, and you know what that means.

Time to get crackin' on the Christmas crafts. Yep. If I'm gonna get everything done, I gotta start now.

I have to be somewhat vague since I have a reader or two on my Christmas Gift list. However, I am making a whole bunch of washcloth blanks. 8 inch by 8 inch single crochet in solid colors that I can later embellish with cherries or skulls or flowers or the F word. I gotta do a bit of a assembly line style this year or I'll go crazy. Or maybe the uniformity will make me more crazy. We'll see!

There will be:
washcloths/dishcloths for most of my family
embarrasingly matching hats for all the kids (2 nephews and 2 nieces by then)! From this book from my sister. I've got a bit of a twist on the pattern though :) and I won't tell you which pattern, but it's easy enough to guess if you're so inclined.
more hats: for brothers, cousins, etc
plants in decorated pots for local family
notebooks: either embellished or made from scratch for the creative types.
earring holders: for the folks I know who are jewelry fans. hot damn, I love Crafty Chica for many reasons, one of which is this tute

I think that's all the assembly line stuff. Maybe I'll make the nieces and nephews stenciled shirts too. Hmmm.

In other news.... HELLBOY II TOMORROW!!!