Merry Christmas

Just stopping by to wish you all a very merry Christmas.  I'll be spending my day getting some sewing done and watching Doctor Who!

I hope opening presents is a little bit easier for you than it was for this kid.  ;-)

Impossible Present from Royale on Vimeo.

 

Merry Christmas!

Mom's Handmade Christmas

I finally had time to photograph my mom's Christmas presents.  It has been really gloomy out so the pictures aren't great, but they'll work.  :-)

I made her a felt iPhone case

and a matching felt purse from the Cute Stuff book.

I also gave her framed 11x14 prints of two of my 365 pictures that she liked.

This is my last Handmade Christmas Post.  I hope to make even more handmade gifts next Christmas.  One thing I learned from this year?  Start early!!!  :-) 

Cute Stuff - Felt Purse

Today I have another handmade Christmas gift to show you.  I was so happy to be making Christmas presents because it meant that I could get out all of my crafty books and look through the fun patterns.  I haven't made something with a pattern in a while.  I've been trying to come up with my own original craft designs so much lately that my pretty books have been neglected. 

I decided to make my Aunt this felt purse from Aranzi Cute stuff.  I love felt and sewing purses so this seemed like the perfect project to try. 

{CraftyPod}

I changed it up a little bit by appliqueing a flower with a button center on the pocket instead of the patterns they had in the book.  This is me we're talking about afterall.  ;-)

This was a really simple bag to make.  I like that it's made out of felt so I didn't have to worry about a lining or anything.  Isn't felt the best??

I will definitely be making myself one when I have time.  I'm thinking about trying to make the straps a little bit longer on the next one.  These are fine for this size bag but I don't really think it's meant to be an over the shoulder kind of bag.  I think this one makes a great everyday purse or bag to hold books or crafts.

Longhorn Phone Case

I tried to make as many handmade gifts as I could this year.  My sister went to the University of Texas so she's a Longhorn for life.  She lives in Denver now so I wanted to try to make her something Longhorn themed.  I decided since I had been making a lot of phone cases that it might be nice to make her a case to keep her phone warm in the cold winter weather.  No, not really.  ;-)  I just thought she might like it. 

They don't have any burnt orange felt at the store I usually buy my felt at in Austin (shocking!) so I ordered it on Etsy from Material Edidence.  It's 100% wool!  I've never used 100% wool before because it's kind of expensive.  It is so soft!  I wish I could buy it for all of my projects, but the blend that I usually use is pretty wonderful, too.  I buy it at Stitch Lab.  They have amazing colors!

Here's the finished case!  I think it turned out pretty nice.  It was really hard to cut and stitch that tiny Longhorn.  I think it came out pretty close to the actual logo.  It's not perfect but I'm happy with it.  :-)

I'm trying to decide if I want to make more Longhorn phone cases with the leftover felt or if I should try something else with it.  I was thinking of maybe making some Longhorn wrist cuffs, too.  Any suggestions?  There's only a little bit left but I think I could get one or two more small projects out of it.

Craft Academy Christmas

I made christmas gifts for all of my coworkers again this year!  This time I to made the drawstring bags we learned how to make in Craft Academy.  They are simple to make and very cute.  :-)  I made eight bags!  I used three different fabrics and four different colors of bias tape.  No two bags are the same.  I think they turned out pretty cute! 

Sorry for the poor quality pictures.  I ran out of time to photograph them before it got dark in my house and I needed to wrap them. 

Recognize the fabric?  I used the left-over to make bunting!

Merry Christmas

Just wanted to stop by and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.  I hope you have a wonderful day.  :-)

365 Project - Week Thirty-Four

As Christmas was getting closer and closer I was starting to get more and more nervous that I wouldn't have time to get any good Christmas pictures.  I got pretty lucky this week and was able to go to a couple of places in Austin and take some great Christmasy pictures.  I didn't make it out to everything but I got the two main places I really wanted to get so I am very pleased.  :-)

Here is my sort of Christmasy week thirty-four.

Day 232

 I was on the UT campus on Saturday seeing a show ab Bass Concert Hall so I decided it  would be the perfect time to take a picture of the tower.  It was a really pretty day outside and the tower looks great with the blue sky in the background. 

Day 233

I went to Mozart's in Austin to take pictures of the pretty lights and eat yummy treats with my friend Maja on Sunday.  They even have a light show complete with the UT fight song and a Christmas light longhorn.  Only in Austin!  ;-) 

Day 234

 This Nativity is in front of the Catholic church in Buda.  I've been trying to get as many Christmas pictures as I could this week so I thought this would be a perfect picture for Monday.

Day 235

 I went to take pictures of the Zilker Park Christmas tree on Tuesday.  I love it!!!  So amazing!!  I've never been able to take pictures of it so I was very excited! 

Day 236

I drive past Buda City Hall every day on my way home.  I thought it looked kind of pretty with the white lights all around it so I walked over and took a picture after dark on Wednesday.

Day 237

In Buda they have a Trail of Lights at Stagecoach Park.  This is just the second year.  I didn't get to go this year but I did get to see the cute sign B&B Quilting & Gifts made for the trail since I live across the street from them.  :-)

Day 238

I took this picture in front of Sue Ellen's Florist in Buda.  I thought they were kind of cute so I decided to go over and get one last  Christmas light picture for Christmas Eve.  :-)

Merry Christmas!

Coffee Break - A Hipstamatic Holiday

I have been able to go see some really pretty lights this week in Austin so I thought it would be fun to show you a few of my Hipstamatic pictures for our coffee break today.  :-)

on Sunday I went to Mozart's with my friend Maja and took a few pictures.

On Monday I stopped at the Catholic church in Buda to take a picture of the Nativity for  my 365 Project.  I took one with my Hipstamatic, too.

Last night I went with some friends to take pictures of the Zilker Park tree.  It's so pretty!!!  I had so much fun spending the evening with friends, too.  :-)

After the tree we went to Amy's Ice Cream.  It's not Christmasy, but I had to take a picture of the cute cows! 

Are you ready for Christmas yet??

Music Monday - Christmas

It's time for a Christmas edition of Music Monday.  Today I have a couple of Christmas songs to share.  It was hard to pick since there are so many great Christmas songs so I decided to pick some that might not get chosen quite as often.

Let's start with a silly one.  It's the Grinch song!  This is one of my favorite Christmas movies!

And now for a little more Zooey Deschanel and Will Ferrell.  It's not really a Christmas song but I think it counts.  It's on pretty much every Christmas album and it's in Elf. :-)

Welcome Christmas

I feel like I've been a bit of a

Lately. 

I've been stressing about everything I need to get done and all the other craziness I'm dealing with right now that I just haven't been able to get into the Christmas spirit this year.

Well, today all that changes.  I'm going with my mom and her friend to see

I'm so excited!

I'm going to try to make it out to see some of the fun lights around Austin this week, too.  I say try because I'm still super busy.  Any recommendations, Austin people?

I want to go see the light show at Mozart's Coffee.

It looks so magical!

I also want to take pictures of the tree at Zilker Park.

I am totally jealous of this picture!  Amazing!!

There's really tons of other things I want to do but these are the two things that I must do before Christmas.

It's time to Welcome Christmas!

What fun Christmasy things do you like to do?

Christmas is Taking Over!

Look what happened to my prints from AJ the Purple! 

I have them hanging up in my living room in the corner that I put my Christmas tree.  I didn't really want to take them down so I just made some cute little felt decorations for them.  :-)

The present is dark purple but it didn't photograph very well.

This is what it all looks like together...so far!  ;-)



Christmas Light Garland

Since my Christmas decorations are not very traditional this year (and my tree is way too small for lights), I decided to do something completely different for my Christmas lights.  I made them out of felt!!!  Are you shocked??  ;-)

I just made it the same way I made my bunting.  I cut all the little lights out of felt and sewed them into the double fold bias tape.  Easy peasy!  :-)

I think this is my favorite part of my Christmas decorations so far!

Christmas Ornaments

Even though I have a tiny Christmas tree that doesn't really hold ornaments very well, I wanted to try to make some cute little felt ornaments.  So, I bought a bunch of cookie cutter and used them as my patterns.  Then I used embroidery thread and buttons to embelish them and make them extra cute. 

So far I have made a Christmas tree with button ornaments

A puffy star

and an embroidered snowflake. 

What do you think?  I have a total of 18 cookie cutters so I'm going to do my best to make as many of them as I can.  I still have to make Christmas presents so I'll see how far I get.  :-)

Have you been working on any Christmas projects?

Christmas Tree

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving.  This morning I volunteered at the Turkey Trot in Austin getting people registered for the race.  The money from the race goes to Caritas of Austin.  I thought it was a worthy cause to help out on a day like this.  There were so many people there!  That's what I love about Austin.  Instead of just sitting around on Thanksgiving, people want to be active and help their community at the same time.  Next year I'm going to run it!  I actually plan to run a few races next year.  I miss running.  It's such a great feeling to finish a race or run just one more mile.  :-)

This weekend I will be busy working on my Christmas presents and more Christmas decorations but I thought I would start sharing what I have up with you over the long holiday weekend.  Let's start with the most important decoration...the christmas tree.

My inspiration this year is Charlie Brown!

Instead of trying to have big, elaborate decorations I decided to keep it simple.  I have a tiny Charlie Brown tree and I'm making the rest of my decorations.

What do you think?  This is my very favorite Christmas tree ever!

Strumpet's Christmas Ornament Swap

I'm a bad blogger.  I meant to tell you that I joined the Strumpet's Christmas Ornament Swap last week so you could join in on all the fun, but I got so busy I haven't even had time to post this!  Oops.  Well, anyway, I joined and I'm so excited to make a fun ornament to share with my swap partner. 

I can't decide if I want to send one of these Fabric Star ornaments that I made last year or if I want to do something completely new. 

I may or may not have already been working on other ornament designs when I heard about this.  Stay tuned later in the week to see if I was.  ;-)

Coffee Break - Christmas Ornaments

I ordered my new Christmas tree this weekend!  I hope it gets here by the end of the week.  I have pictures to take!!  :-)  Since I'm getting into the Christmas spirit I thought it would be fun to look at some interesting Etsy Christmas tree decorations today!

I love this felt Christmas Tree from Blakeswork!  The colors are great, too.  I have blue and silver wintery themed ornaments.  I guess I will just have to keep dreaming of a white christmas.  I live in the wrong place for that!

This hand blown glass ornament from Jenn Goodale is amazing!  I would love to learn to do that some day.

Oh my gosh!  That's a soda can!  These are made by oOoCuppyCakeoOo.

Of course I had to pick a Monster Hatchling ornament from Dingogirl66!  That is hilarious!

Well, that's all for now.  I'll be sharing lots of other decorations I find in the coming weeks.  I hope to have some of my own Christmas projects ready to share this weekend!!  :-)

Have a great day!