christmas - this year

Well, it's gone... but it's going to be back next year! :)

This year my christmas gifts have been frugal. I must confess I didn't have the right spirit, and it's a pity, 'cause it was Smurfette#2's first christmas... but then again, she's too little to really enjoy it. Or maybe not. I don't really know. By the way, next year everything will be normal again.

Enough with that and on with the christmas! Most of my gifts where obviously handmade, and almost all of them where either lavender bags or dangling pot pourri in different essences (apple, orange, cinnamom, ...).

Every gift was nicely wrapped in cardboard little boxes with red raffia bows and some aniseed or orange touch (you know, christmas aromatherapy). Unfortunately, I didn't take a single photo of the wrapping, but Smurfette#1 did take photos of a dangling pot pourri.

please forgive the yogurt pot, we were having a snack moment...

ingredients

christmas - last year

Last year I didn't have a blog for my drabbles, but I did keep track of things. Here's last year Christmas little crafs, mostly made as gifts.

Neighbours' gifts
Some stuffed hearts, a little country in style, almost entirely hand stitched, in dyed cotton. Really pretty, and not only I liked making them, but also packing them. Plus, giving them for Christmas is just the top.

Pot holders
Always useful and never enough, in tablecloth and sweet old honeycomb fabric. You may also obviously conclude that I do love packing gifts...

 

 Stockings

I made them for my nephews. Maybe the design is not top-class (bear with me, it was my first time), but the outcome is nice... and when I filled them it really was better!

 

walking one morning...

... in my beautiful city.

Love to walk alone in rainy days listening to my iPod music (shuffle mode, thank you) and letting thoughts wander.

Inspiring, ain't it?

crafty christmas - more on nativity scene

Yesterday Smurfette#1 almost completed our nativity scene, and Smurfette#2 promptly proceeded to undo everything 2 minutes after. But that's one of the things about our nativity scenes: we set them up, reset them and set them up once again (several times).

Here are some sneak peeks. There are only the basics: the holy family (minus the baby, who's arriving on the 25th) and the animals (sheeps, ox and donkey). The christmas star is coming around the 20th and the three wise men will step on the scene on the 5th.

But for now, this is it:

I had fun building brick walls and also making the door.
I bought the little bricks in a craft store,
but the door is made with popsicles sticks and a wood skewer.

small blog meet - december 2011

 

Hello there! I'm linking up to this month Lynne's SBM (thank you for the opportunity!).

Make yourself at home and feel free to browse my blog and comment. Also, let me know what you think I should be posting to improve and keep up your interest.

Have fun!

crafty christmas - part 2

This year I'd rather make a nativity scene than a christmas tree... so I made a setting which is going to host the scene as soon as it's dry (I painted it today).

I don't like scenes with "wrong" environments, so I dropped the mountain cottage I used last year and bought some polystyrene and spent two days cutting and glueing and painting.

I also built lots of brick walls and this tiles flooring, and my well has now a little bucket that's really perfect.

Fortunately the statues are in the right size (I built up the scene without a model, I roughly remembered the size from last year...)

crafty christmas - part 1

This Christmas I'm feeling crafty... so here are some of my creations (which surprisingly don't involve fabric... for now).

These stars are very easy to do and they do give this nordic touch to the house.

Yes, I know... the lavender wall isn't christmas-y at all, but that is going to change soon (I hope).

new kitchen curtains

My kitchen curtains were old (and, I'm afraid, a little dirty) and I didn't have a replacement to change the look. I went to my local fabric store and bought some fabric to make new curtains: I chose a modern style. This is how they came out:

the complete view

detail

The heart is one of my purchases at Abilmente: I actually bought the red ones for the kitchen and the brown ones for the living room, but the curtains in the living room are far from being completed yet...

With a fabric scrap I made a wedding dress for Barbie#6... nothing for the scrap bin, this time.

Abilmente - Winter Edition 2011 : what I took home

This post is unforgivably late...

March and October are two of my favourite months, 'cause in Vicenza (Italy) - which happens to be 30km far from home - we have a wonderful fair: Abilmente. 

While in march it focuses on Easter, in october is all about Christmas. It's really fun and it's a paradise for creative souls... I always go and take home whatever catches my imagination... well, on a budget, obviously. I've found on my expenses that it's crucial to fix a maximum amount to spend, otherwise you end up compulsively buying just about everything. 

This year I was on a crisis-dependant budget, so I really didn't took home all I wanted, but still... 

NOTIONS:

that's for my cross stitch projects, that usually involve no less than 20 different colors... this should help me keeping things in order

again, for my cross-stitch, plastic bobbins to hold everything in place when stored away; stitch holders for my knitting projects; knitting needles for my socks projects (which I have, but never acted on)

RIBBONS AND STRINGS:

ric-rac and ribbons, intended for Smurfettes' costumes projects

something elaborate both for sewing and other crafts

some quality string, which I bought with package in mind.

I also bought some fabric, but I can't show anything 'cause it's secret projects related. That's all, for this year. Well, if you don't consider the brain overload I came home with...

shoe covers

Sis (who else?) needed a pair of shoe covers for her and Smurf#1 when they go to pick up Smurf#2 at kindergarden. The school has those horrible (and dirty) bags, which you use wondering who ever used it before praying they didn't have smelly feet... 

I made a little pair and a bigger one, and a little pouch to put them safely in Sis' purse. 

They really are easy and come together fast.

back again (hope to stay...)

Hello everyone!

I've been AWOL for the past month, mostly because my life got really messy in every possible way...

I've just realized that I missed the Bloggers' Quilt Festival - Fall 2011... shame on me! This has never happened before, and certainly I'll make sure it won't happen again any time soon...

So, sorry for the lack of blogging. Even if I haven't been active on blogland, I've been moderately productive in the sewing and quilting department. I'll show you everything in the next posts.

Thank you for bearing with me!

still here and working...

Hello everyone, I'm sorry for not being so present on my own blog... I'm still here (and well) and working on various things.

I'm going to be more wordy (is that even a word...?) very soon, but I've been having a hard time with taking photos... and I'm not fond of image-less posts. It's not a problem of my camera... I just don't have a time slot for that.

Space-time manipulation, anyone?

WIP wednesday #45

I wish I had more things to show you in this post, since it's a two weeks span WIP... 

COMPLETED PROJECTS:

- hair clips board for Smurfette#1

- light-blocking blind for the girls' bedroom

- napkin pochettes for Sis

- little pants for Smurfette#2

PROJECTS IN PROGRESS:

- basket ball holding net handle: (on hold - still don't have a clue for this...)

- lunch bag: on hold

- Secret project #2: planned, all fabric supplied, partially pieced. 

- craft room restyling: still lacks wall paint and minor details

- family room restyling: writing post for the 'before' and planning the 'after'

- Paths in my Garden quilt (king size quilt) - on hold 

- Secret project #1 (lap size quilt) - on hold

- Chains of Love quilt (twin size quilt) - on hold for priority reasons

THIS WEEK:

completed projects: 4

in progress: 8

new projects: 3

sew modern monday #36 @ canoe ridge creations

Very productive week end, finally!

I made little pants for my Smurfette#2:

Then some napkin pochettes for Sis:

And then worked some more on my secret projects #1 and #2:

That's all folks! See you next monday!