Kelee: Making Handmade Valentines

We are sharing a family cold. (Except for Ben, whose clean living has finally caught up with him. It's funny. I figured I'd only ever say that sentence sarcastically.) We've been cooped up for days determined to keep this cold to ourselves. We're stingy like that. When medicated, we don't feel terrible so we have been going a little crafting crazy. Besides, we are all in the Valentine's mood. Even Gritty Kitty. Don't ask about why she's furless in those furless spots. It's best you don't know.

The Girlchild is still young enough to not be jaded about Valentine's Day. She has yet to experience the pain of unrequited love, loneliness, broken hearts, and those obnoxious people who preach about how we should show love all year long and not just on one day. I'm happy I was born all year long, but I'm not going to bake myself a birthday cake everyday. Although, now that I've thought of the idea...

This was us for most of the morning yesterday. Luckily, it was super duper cold so we didn't feel like we were missing out on much by being stuck inside. We decided to make little heart necklaces for Apple's friends at school.

Our original plan was to put three hearts on each necklace, but when we actually got around to making them we found these pretty pink seed beads that we'd bought about a thousand years ago and decided to go with two beads and one heart.

They turned out really sweet looking.

I also got to recycle a bunch of necklace wire because tiny little girls have tiny little necks.

I made them where they'd fit the little girls about the same spot where I like necklaces to fit me. I asked Apple if any of the girls have exceptionally large necks, but she was little help.

While I was making these, Apple spent a very long time working on a butterfly.

She developed her own technique for making it and worked on it for a few hours. It was pretty impressive to see her work so long on something. Must have been the fever. It was a lot of work. Each little blob was individually made and added. I am not saying it is the most butterflyish looking creation, but I am saying I am impressed with her arting skills.

She's going to give it as a Valentine gift to someone but she can't say who, and I'm not allowed to ask questions. She also made a heart using the same technique.

Then we made some handmade Valentine Cards. I cut out the hearts for her and she did the rest. Our supplies were limited to construction paper, red glitter, glue, and markers.

I asked about the "Wee Love" one. She said it was "Wee! like on a roller coaster and love. Get it?" Maybe I do. I suggested that she give that one to Isaiah since we know his parents.

And finally, we made some bigger hearts to give to Apple's favorite teachers as pins. Only we have no pins. I am not sure what we're going to do about that. I've exhausted our one local option for crafty-supply shopping. Oh well. We have until tomorrow to decide.

I think this will be my last blog post about Valentine's Day for this year. However, both kids are home sick from school today so you never know what kind of crafting nonsense we'll get into.

Kelee: Sewing a Twirly Skirt

It's Super Bowl Sunday, or as we call it at our house – Super Bowl Sunday. I'm a true Mississippi girl at heart so on Super Bowl Sunday I do what a lot of Mississippi girls do on Super Bowl Sunday. First, I finished up about a gazillion hats that I had half-finished and stuck back in my yarn boxes.

Then I went to a reception at our neighborhood Cooperative Gallery – Artist inResidence. After that, we made a twirly skirt from sparkly heart fabric. Finally, we are watching the big game. Apparently we have not stressed the sportyball education in our household because the girlchild said, “Can I be for the Red Sox?” And the boychild thought that the winner of the coin toss was the winner of the game.

The gallery event was totally fun. There were tasty foods, interesting conversations, and an art raffle. We bought a raffle ticket for a Vermont Bag Lady bag and lost. The winner, however, was our friend Cheryl, and she gave the bag to us. Okay, fine. She gave it to Apple. Look how cute, though. I really like the Vermont Bag Lady's bags. Very unique and very well made.

I found some fabric on sale at our local yarn and fabric store yesterday, and I had a pattern for a very twirly skirt that I've been wanting to try. When we got home from the gallery, the family guys were playing a video game. As fun as watching others play video games can be, we decided to try to make the skirt.

The fabric that I bought was called cuddly flannel. It was on sale for only $2.50/yard at my local JoAnn's. Check it out. It had glitter hearts already built in on it. Glitter hearts! How could we pass that up? It seems pretty nice. Soft and a little fuzzy on the back and not prone to wrinkling, which is good because we are not an ironing family.

Together, the girlchild and I crawled through the twirly skirt instructions. It took me longer than it should have just to read the instructions. Long enough that the Apple got out a dry erase board and wrote encouraging slogans to urge me along. Things like "Good Job Mama" and "Are you going to ever finish this? Check one: Yes or No."

I had to ask for some help with the hem and would have asked for more help if my serious sewing blogmate Alison had been home earlier. I would have NEVER figured out the hem instructions without her help or a youtube tutorial. I am happy with how it turned out, though. Better than my previous efforts.

And way twirlier. The poor little carsicky girl almost yakked while testing out the twirliness. 

 The waistband is a different material. This one below. I see now that it easily gets covered up by the shirt. I think I'll make it longer in the next one.

I also think it's about time that I make myself a twirly skirt. Maybe I'll get around to it on the next Super Bowl Sunday. Although, I can probably do without the glittery hearts.

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Kelee: Perforating Tags

I don't want to get too religious in a crafty blog, but this is something that has been weighing heavy on my heart. Ben and I are some of those rare devout people who remember our New Year's Resolutions and keep them holy. Usually we make fun and productive Resies, mostly about art. Finish that album. Make myself a new hat. Buy more yarn. Learn to use that new pedal. Find the perfect homemade Twinkies recipe.

One of mine for this year is to keep up with my crafty sales. Don't get your 1040s in a wad. I record my sales through our store and pay all the proper sales and income taxes on them, like the sweet law-abiding lady that I am. However, they just melt right into the cauldron o' sales with the used copies of Dr. Mario for Gameboy Color and Bell Biv Devoe on LP. It was very hard to keep up with, however, since Ben works at the store way more often than I do. 

We have conversations like this:

Ben: You sold a hat today.

Kelee: Yahooo! Which one?

Ben: I think it might have been green. Or perhaps red. Or, did you have a blue one?

Kelee: Well, who bought it?

Ben: I don't know their name. You would know them, but it would take me too long to try to describe them.

I don't really blame him, though, because we work a lot of hours, see a lot of people, and I make a lot of hats. He can't be expected to love them all as much as I do. I love them most when I bump into them in public. I have to restrain myself from patting people's heads.

Anyway.

I came up with about 437 different complicated options for a system of keeping track of what sells – each one more difficult and elaborate than the previous. One involved pulleys. One was so expensive that we'd have to remortgage our son to pay for it. Then I discovered the Tonic Studios 806 Mini Rotary Perforator, which I purchased for under $10 from Amazon.com (I'm not sure if you've heard of them, but they are on online shop that sells pretty much every item in existence. They aren't very well-known, though, so I am sure they will appreciate this plug from me). Then I found these super fancy little tiny tags with strings already attached to them at our local Stationer's shop, AKA Staples. And some Sharpies of color and a new pen.

Remarkably, the Tonic Studios 806 Mini Rotary Perforator actually works. I've perforated nearly every perforatable surface in my house. Including my tags.

Let's pretend that the crooked nature of the perforated portion is an aesthetic choice. 

I just tied those fancy little things onto a hat and hung them up for sale.

Now all we have to do, is trick some unsuspecting sucker into buying a hat, rip the perforated portion off the tag and promptly lose it.

In theory, we will save the ripped off part long enough that I can delete the hat from my etsy shop, record the sale in my sale-recording spot, and mark the hat as sold in my Hats For Sale database.

I even added a secret super special code on each tag that will correspond with a number in the Hats For Sale database. Only, in real life, my etsy shop has been unattended for so long that the squatters have built-in shelving and this Hat For Sale database does not yet exist.

Still, the code looks fancy.

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Kelee: Valentine's Day Hat

My little girl is all about pink and hearts and love and glitter, so Valentine's Day is right up her alley. Of course, so is Thanksgiving because she always gets the two confused and has been thankful "for passing out hearts" for the past three Thanksgivings. She's a pretty rocking little girl so when I made her a new hat with the pink yarn she picked out, she also asked for me to make a mohawk on it. Or a fauxhawk. Or a yarnhawk.

If you haven't made these before, it is easy enough. You just make tassels pointing up. She's been wearing the hat contentedly for a while now, but with Valentine's Day coming up, I got tempted to heart it up. It turned out to be easier and cuter than I'd expected. First I cut out a heart from some felt.

I put a few drops of some fabric glue on it and stuck it to the hat then embroidered on it. I would recommend, however, that you skip the glue and do the decorative embroidering before you attach it to the hat. I had to sew through the glue in some parts and it was really hard to do.

Apple couldn't help but to be lured into the embroidering of her own heart. In the traditional reclined position of an expert embroiderer. 

I ended up with the all my thread ends and stranding on the inside of the hat. If you embroidered the heart first and then attached it with some decorative yet functional outlining of the hat, that would be enough to secure the heart onto the hat and it look better on the inside of the hat. If you are concerned with that sort of thing.

It looks great on her giant head and is the perfect mix of sweetness and rocking - just like my little girl.

 I embroidered the word "love" in cursive because I love writing in cursive. That's not really why. I was hoping it would look tattooey. The girlchild embroidered "love" and "mama" on her own purple felt heart. Sniff. Sniff.

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Basking in the Chrimbo Glow

You can tell it's the day after Chrimbo because I ate toffee, fruitcake, and cold, leftover Chinese food for breakfast. Plus, I haven't showered or left my pjammies in a few days, and my only goals for the day are to shower, to sled, and to nap.

In years past, I've gone crazy making gifts of Chrimboness for the various people in my life. This year I just tried to keep up with special orders for sales and the baking of various Christmas candies and cookies. However, when asked for her gift list, my sister specifically requested with respect and love, "I don't really need anything. I don't know. Why don't you just make me one of those little crafty things you do." Free reign crafting? Yes!

crochet stockings

I really wanted to make her crochet slippers. When we were children we got crochet booties from some old lady every Christmas. My sister always wore hers. Now I get to be that old lady! Last year I made my family stockings in the style of Great Aunt Lolly's crochet stockings that we'd grown up with. Once after a bit too much eggnog, we snatched those stockings off the window and wore them around the house on our feet so I knew they were functional. And since I wanted them to be really warm, felting was a must. I used a big crochet hook and double-stranded the yarn. When I finished them, they were huge and I was convinced I'd have to also give my sister a foot stretcher if I wanted them to fit her.

However, they felted up very, very nice.

 

I totally love the way they turned out. I wore them around for a while. You know, to ensure quality. I gave them to her yesterday, and she either liked them or is an excellent liar.

Little Man asked me for an all-green hat with a pom-pom. I think he was just trying to make me feel good, but it totally worked. I made the Girlchild a hat with a flower on it. I made some for special orders this Chrimbo that she'd asked for, but they were selling like hotcakes in the store. It was nice to give them hats that were first draft rather than all the "too ugly to sell" ones that I typically give them. Here they are in them and their handmade pjammies that my blogmate Alison made and gave them.

And there's the whole family (although I am behind the camera) doing our annual Chrimbo Day Sledding with warm heads.

  

Now that I've showered and spent a few hours sledding, only one goal remains to be accomplished.

Alison: Head ornaments

I'd been making cloth dolls and ornaments like mad. Lost all the pictures of the early ornaments and dolls though. So discouraging. These are my latest ornaments. I have eight smaller cloth dolls traced on muslin and ready to sew, as well as two larger ones. Those I will begin after the holidays.

The latest - with human hair, thanks to Ben Maddox.

heads - ornaments - after they're painted.

Just after they're baked and before they were painted.

This is what happens when you don't hear the buzzer on the oven.

This is one of the first head ornaments I made. I like its simplicity and serene look.

Kelee: Get Stuffed, All About Crochet Felt Stuffed Animals

Every time I see a mother antibacterializing a grocery cart handle, I picture that baby as a college student snorting something white off of the toilet at a rest area. When I'm applying the second batch of sunscreen to my kids, I try to guess what kinds of tattoos they will litter about on their smooth skin. When I am arguing with them about how much no-sugar-added fresh-pressed organic juice they can have (well, it still has a lot of sugar even if it is naturally occurring sugar), I picture them taking shots in their college dorm before they even go out for the night. I'm not a pessimist. I just enjoy the juxtaposition of the amount of care and detail that a parent puts into a small child's well-being and the amount of harm and danger into which a teen to twenty-nine-year-old puts him/herself. Even as I sit here writing this (having sent my preschooler off to school with a hat, mittens, and reduced-salt peanuts), a gaggle of teen girls walks by sans coats and smoking. I get it – the rebellion, the feeling invincible, the spreading of wings. I know it is necessary and healthy (not the smoking), but I am already dreading when it happens to my kids. I hope they'll be late-bloomers and make it to college before their debauchery really sets in.

Very early in the morning of Sunday, October 16, I forced my kids to go with me to take the dog out. We went to the next door park so everyone could run about – everyone except me and the dog since we don't run. I saw a squirrel crossing the road and before I even thought about it, I heard myself saying, “Look at that squirrel wearing a little hat.” Only it wasn't. I tried to play it off like a joke. I couldn't get the image of a squirrel wearing a tiny red crocheted hat that tied on out of my head, though. I considered contacting other local yarny people to yarn bomb the local wildlife, but rabies makes me nervous. I realized that if I made the squirrel out of yarn that I could make it wear a wide variety of hats and clothing. I'd crocheted small, cuddly creatures before, but it's been a while. It's on my “I've Been Meaning To Do That” list, which is a lot like a “To Do” list that is infused with regret and guilt. So I did it. Only I made a cat, which my daughter promptly claimed as her own. She is very cute and smart-looking in her red and black sweater vest and matching red skirt. I felted the bejeezus out of the poor cat, too. I soaked her in super hot coffee-tinged water and threw her into the dryer with a weeks worth of whites. Wash, rinse, repeat. 

Probably a year or more ago one of my customers -- let's call her Sharon Z. No, S. Zecchinelli -- gave me the ultimate DIY kit of needle felting goodness. She'd tried it and decided it wasn't for her. I'm always happy to welcome new crafts and crafting supplies into my harem. This needle felting stuff has been weighing heavy on my I've Been Meaning To Do That list. Needle felting the face onto the cuddly stuffed crochet animal would be something like killing a bird in the hand with two bushes. 

There was something about making this very cute, preppily dressed cat that made me want to make something a little more, er, edgy. As edgy as a crocheted woolen stuffed animal could be. Let me introduce you to Punk Bunny. With her dainty features and soft pink nose and lips, she has a lot of cuteness to overcome, which is why she rebelled with a carrot tattoo on one arm and a heart on the other.

You can tell she's smart, has a dry since of humor, and switched from saying "tinkle" to "piss" around eighth grade. Punk Bunny runs around with a crew of fellow punks from good homes. Like Punk Elephant. He is, as you can obviously tell from the plaid shorts, British. Although his trunk is covering it in this picture, that is a peanut on his shirt. My blogmate Alison needle felted the nut on his shirt. You can tell by his rotund belly that there is not many a teatime that he misses. He's very hardcore right up until his Gram picks him up to drive him home from school. 

They've been childhood chums with Punk Sheep since nursery school. He's dainty and has a secret crush on Punk Bunny. He's self-conscious about his skinny legs. 

Alison suggested we put "Sheep are the shit." on his shirt. I didn't want to have to explain that one to my recent reader daughter. His hair is real sheep's fur. I needle felted it into his head, and his face and hands are undyed yarn. He has a really sweet face. 

Punk Pig really has the most to overcome. First of all he's pink. Being cool increases in difficulty exponentially the pinker you are. It's a fact. Punk Pig has got to constantly watch his weight because being a fat pig is just too cliche. Only, counting calories is also not very cool.

The Punk Animals like to hang out, listen to music, smoke ciggies, and pretend to be cooler and tougher than they are. 

As you can probably tell by all the crocheting and blogging and hanging out with small children and baking of cookies, I am neither punk nor edgy. That's why the edgiest thing I could think of was adding "z" to the end of a word rather than the standard "s." Don't let my hardcoreness startle you.

Right now these guys are for sale at Artist in Residence gallery in Enosburg Falls. I have to tell you, though, we miss them hanging out around our house. Sometimes when the kids and I were watching movies, we would set these Punk Stuffies on the couch to watch with us. My daughter said if they don't sell in three weeks then I get to bring them home to reside with us.

 

Here we are at the gallery crappily explaining how to needle felt.

Making all these just made me come up with more ideas for more crochet felted animals that I want to make. I'd like to get to work right away on them, but I have a feeling it will just get added to my I've Been Meaning To Do That list until after Chrimbo.