Happy New Year!

As usual, I'm not going to see the ball drop (usually I'm in bed reading), but I wanted to wish every one a happy and healthy new year. May you always have good friends and loved ones like the pair pictured here (my two little munchkins)!

The Ornament Junkie has her fix

These are my newest additions to my holiday decorations.
The Snow Queen is from Chris, my partner in Laume's Magical Yule Swap. She captured perfectly what I wished to be when I was a little girl- The Snow Queen, glamorously clad in blue and silver. The goofy little reindeer with the stubby antlers is Rudy, one of Saralee's ornaments. It was only after I bought him at her open house that I realized last year I also bought a reindeer- nothing like Rudy though. If you go back into my archives for Dec. 2007 you'll see last year's reindeer. The two stockings made from a cutter quilt were won at my guild's silent auction and were made by Barbara Barber (or, as we refer to her in the guild, the AMERICAN Barbara Barber, as opposed to the ENGLISH Barbara Barber). The wooly lamb was from a craft show at the middle school, crafted from wool from an area sheep farm. The crafter had reproduced all kinds of sheep, but this little guy just spoke to me more than his more exotic cousins.The tiny sea glass reindeer came from the bazaar today- whoda thunk ever turning waveworn beer bottle shards into a reindeer?

I'm not really in the land of the lost...

I'll be vending at the Ashaway Holiday Stroll Saturday, so I'm frantically making crafty giftie things to sell along with my Six Gables Designs patterns. Stay tuned...

Still time to make this

My contribution to Cotton Spice's Gift Countdown went up on the Cotton Spice Blog yesterday. This is the casserole/plate carrier I made for my quilt guild's silent auction. Click here for directions. These are very quick and super simple to make, but the rings can be a bit challenging to find. You can use key rings, as I did here, but they are a bit pricier. If you can find packages of metal or nylon rings, I would suggest you stock up, as you need 8 per carrier and you will probably want to make several. Other than the rings, if you quilt, you probably have plenty of fabric and pieces of batting already in your stash.

Laume's Magical Yule Swap

Here is my Magical Yule gift for my as yet unknown swap partner. It grew from my original intention of making a weasel in its winter coloration watching the sun rise at the winter solstice. Turn the panel to the sunset side, swap the winter weasel for a summer colored one, and you have a summer solstice decoration.
"Why weasels?" you may ask. It all started with the two-hundred some-odd ferret angels I made for Chere to raise money for her ferret shelter. From ferrets it was only a tiny step to weasels, and I loved the idea of the winter and summer coats.