I was completely taken aback by the gifts the girls and Fatty made for me.  I really thought I would get some paint-your-own pottery.  The girls love to do that and it would be easy enough for all three of them to accomplish when they went on their secret mission.  I was wrong.  So wrong.

Instead, Fatty took the girls to blow glass!  Blow glass, people.  I have never blown glass and I had no idea that six and eight year olds would be able to blow glass.  Well, they did.  And I was flabbergasted when I opened the package.  Inside were three gorgeous ornaments, each unique and lovely.  If the packages hadn't said who they were from, I think I could have guessed.  All three glass blowers thought of my tastes, but they each put a great deal of their own personality into their creations.

White, blue and green from Jane

White, pink, purple and red from Kate

Green, red and yellow from Fatty

They outdid themselves, didn't they?  I am in awe of this gift.  I think these are too pretty to sit in a box all year long, waiting for December to be hung.  I am going to hang them in front of a window next to our kitchen where I can admire them all year long. 

Lucky, lucky me.

Sometime last fall, maybe in November, I told Fatty that I thought that he should make ME something for Christmas.  I think I was in the middle of knitting his sweater and feeling a bit overwhelmed about how much I wanted to make for others.  At the same time, I was sad that I never receive handmade gifts.  Well, not from my family.  If you know Fatty, you would understand the quizzical look he gave me.  I said something like, "I don't care if you burn a CDfor me.  Would you please just make me something?"  He thought about it and a day later, he was in.

How it happened, I am not sure, but somehow I managed to transform this into each of the four of us (Fatty, me, Jane and Kate) making something for each other.  I knew I could manage the girls' gifts for each other and for Fatty and kept my fingers crossed that he would manage to help them make something for me.  I want my children to understand that thought and the time that goes into making a gift for someone.  I really wanted to do something to counteract the clothes debacle of last summer.  It is important to me that they appreciate handmade.

Well, the girls and I tossed around lots of ideas.  Most were rejected because they were just impractical and in some cases impossible.  Fatty thought his hat was his gift - it wasn't.  I knitted the girls' gifts in front of them and they never asked me what I was doing.  Fatty took the girls away one Saturday afternoon on a secret mission.  That left me guessing.  Jane took some craft supplies she received for her birthday and made something beautiful for Kate.  Kate made something in Jane's favorite color.  I sewed for Fatty.  Fatty spent an afternoon on the computer creating something for each of the girls.  Between the four of us, we used fabric, thread, plastic, pencils, yarn, glue, wood, glitter, ink, metal, glass and paint.

There were secrets - some kept better than others - and lots of plotting, planning and actual crafting.  Christmas morning it all unfolded before my eyes.  It was amazing.  Everything was made with great care and love.  And everything was received with an open heart and immense gratitude.  And they were all given with much anticipation and excitement.  It couldn't have been better.

I told you I was saving my favorite for last.  Back next week with all of our creations.

You are good guessers....the puppy wasn't mine.  That is the work of Anna Maria Horner - it's available as a download at her site.  I did reduce it significantly to fit on the baby t-shirt.  The rest were mine.

OK, back to the handmade.  Did you wonder what those mysterious gifts in the muslin bags were?  I made all of my nephews softies.  Three got patchwork elephants -the pattern is in Last-Minute Patchwork Gifts and is by Hillary Lang of Wee Wonderfuls.

From top to bottom:  for Kenan, for Declan and for Finn.

I loved sewing this pattern and can see myself making more.  It is really straight forward and surprisingly easy to put together.  I used corduroy for the bodies and cotton for the ears and blankets.  I love how the textures and the fabrics are both patchwork.  I wish I would have made the eyes smaller, but I didn't follow the pattern for that part.  Lesson learned.

The other three nephews got robots.  This is also a Wee Wonderfuls pattern.

on the left, for Evan, and on the right, for Ian.

for Miles.

I have made this pattern before and it is easy, too.  There is more sewing involved than there is with the elephants and the embellishing can be simple or very intricate.  I went with simple here.  Miles's robot had his control panel sewn on the machine and I like it just fine although the hand embroidery does show up a bit better.  Also, I had originally planned on making Finn a robot instead of an elephant, but I cut through the seam on one of the robots and had to remake one item.  The elephant was faster so that is what he got.

That's it for the nephews.  There is more handmade to come....I am saving my favorite for last.

I have a prediction....you are probably sick of Christmas gifts, but I think you are only going to get sicker.  Really, I have some stuff to share.  So here I go - the beginning of the handmade gifts.  I made much less this year than I did last year.  For many reasons, I think this was better (time, energy, stress, appreciation of handmade, etc).  My six nephews received the highest quantity of handmade goods.   Here is part one - the t-shirts.  I am especially proud that all but one of these designs were drawn freehand by me.  Can you guess which one wasn't?

a turtle for Evan

a penguin for Finn

a whale for Miles

an elephant for Ian

a puppy for Kenan

and a giraffe for Declan.

Looking back on these, it is really evident to me which one isn't mine.  Maybe that is because I made them - who knows?

Back tomorrow with handmade, part two.

I am in Telluride, with Fatty and the girls and part of my family.  The skiing is good - the snow is soft, but man, it is cold outside.  It has been a nice getaway so far and we have a few days left.  Christmas was wonderful with the exception of a very bad cold.  In fact, it was so good that not only did Santa come, but the tooth fairy paid Kate a visit too.  Both of my girls have lost teeth on Christmas.  Crazy, huh?

So 2007 is ending.....and, geographically speaking, I am right where I was when it began.  I'mlooking forward to 2008.  I have a mental list of resolutions that I plan on putting on paper in the next few days.  I also have some handmade gifts to share and some new knitting on the needles.  Lots of good stuff - well, at least I think so.

Happy New Year to you.  I just have a feeling that 2008 is going to begood - really good.

The shopping is finished.

Most of the presents are wrapped.

The holiday cards are ready to go.

There is a wee bit of knitting to finish - mostly weaving in ends and sewing in a casing.

I am not stressed.

Let me repeat.  I am not stressed.

And Scout is finally using her bed.  No cat nip involved either.

That, in itself, may be a Christmas miracle.

I am going to take some time off from the blog to just be.  I hope you have a splendid holiday filled with fun and laughter, family and friends, good food and drink.

I have a great feeling about 2008.  See you then.

I got together with some of my craft swap buddies Wednesday night to do a yankee swap.  I have no idea why it is called a yankee swap, but basically we all agreed to make one big(ger than normal) item instead of the standard 5 people, make 4 things.  We drew numbers and the (un)lucky number 1 opened a gift.  Number 2 could steal the item number 1 opened or open another package.  And so on. And so on.  (Remember those shampoo commercials?).

I was very excited for this swap.  I have so many ideas that I want to try out, but most of them are not realistic when I am making 10 or so items on a budget.  Other than the fact that I started and finished my craft Wednesday (those gifts for the nephews had to go in the mail!), this was a perfect swap for me.

My most favorite thing I have made since my patchwork bag is this blanket.  Really.  Truly.  I had a hard time giving it up.  It came out exactly how I envisioned it in my mind.

I was completely inspired by this gorgeous blanket on the Purl Bee.  Of course, I put my own twist on it.  I bought the dark charcoal gray wool at my local fabric store (on sale!) and then made a patchwork binding out of fabric from the stash.  This bugger was hard to photograph - and it was about 6 p.m. and dark at the time - so I don't think its true beauty comes across.  But trust me, it is luxurious.

It measures about 60" square and the binding is 1 inch wide on each side.  And it was fast to make (about 4 hours including 1 1/2 hours of hand sewing)!  The hardest part was figuring out how to balance the patchwork pieces - I am a bit nutty about scale and color.  That's probably why I have never tackled a real quilt.  But I digress.  The second hardest part was the hand sewing of the binding.  I rushed this bit - you can see the slip stitch - if I could have taken my time, the stitches would have been more uniform and less visible, I am sure.  I don't think it matters.  It went to a great home.

In case you were wondering, I did buy enough wool to make two.  I had a feeling I might need one, too.

I finished all the gifts for the nephews and mailed them off yesterday.  Phew!  The only trouble I encountered was how to wrap some odd-sized, soft items without having to buy overly huge boxes.  This is what I came up with.

Muslin bags!  I cut large rectangles and sewed up two sides - actually, I used the serger so it didn't matter if everything wasn't lined up exactly so.  I popped the items in and closed them with a bow.  Had I thought of this sooner, I would have freezer paper stenciled or appliqued right onto those, you know, to dress them up a bit.  Oh well.  Maybe the kids can do that with their moms....just a thought.  Of course, you can use any fabric, but I had this on hand and it is inexpensive, so it fit the bill.  Also, it cost a lot less than a big gift bag and tissue would have.  Finally, they were easy to throw in a box and send just like that.

I know I promised a finished project - that'll be tomorrow.  Back to my Christmas cards.  Yes, that's me, always at the last minute.