More Christmas gifts and Muffins

Christmas was better then I expected this year. The drive down to L.A. took around 7 hours because there was horrible weather through the Grapevine, but for me it went super fast since I just crafted the whole time....Craig drove it all! I had no problems driving, but he wanted to.

Christmas Eve was just spent driving to L.A. and when we got there his Mom had some tamales and soup, and we rented the movie Traitor. It was just nice and relaxing, and I ended up falling asleep at like 10pm lol. I don't think I've ever been to sleep on Christmas Eve that early!

The next day we got up around 8 and were at Craig's grandparents house in Laguna Beach by I think 2pm or so. I brought all those cookies/truffles that I made a week before, and I was so happy that everyone LOVED them. They were all impressed....I thought it was kind of funny since I made the easiest things ever lol.

We then opened presents and we got a lot of giftcards for the baby, which is awesome :) One of Craig's cousins put on the scarf I made her and never took it off...it was still on when she left! I'm glad she liked it so much.

On Sunday we went to my parents house for Christmas and that was a lot of fun! We had pizza and Rave cake, exchanged gifts and my grandparents came over for a bit.

I had made this for my Dad's parents since they've been to Japan a few times, it's an embroidered cherry branch. The pattern is from Urban Threads.



This was for Craig's grandparents since they LOVE birds...they have bird stuff all over their house. Unfortunately I bought a cheap frame and couldn't get it unwrinkled no matter how hard we tried...I actually didn't finish it until Christmas morning so we couldn't even run to the store for a better one. That was pretty disappointing, but I told his grandma she could always switch frames if it bothered her, and she just said "Oh! I thought it was supposed to look like that!" I guess that's a good thing? :P

The picture sucks because I was in a hurry and there was horrible lighting in the room. Pattern from Urbanthreads.com again.




This Tinkerbell pattern took so much longer then I thought it would, but I also usually only make tiny ami's. It was so worth it though. I think she is super adorable...even though I couldn't figure out the second half of the arm pattern, so I just made one up! Pattern from Crochetfaery on Etsy



I also made my Mom this Tinkerbell phone/card holder which was just made out of felt, embroidery floss and a Tinkerbell applique from Joanns.



For my brother I made him a Triforce scarf from Zelda. I don't even know if he's gone to my parents house to get it yet though!



And because I was hungry, I made cranberry orange muffins :)

....the boxed kind from Trader Joe's lol.

Wine Embroidery, Ninja Turtle Beanies and More!

I was planning on visiting my parents today to drop off Christmas gifts and go to the mall to try and find pants that fit for Craig's grandparents house heh....but I still was not *quite* done with all the gifts I needed to drop off. So today I'm finishing the last 2 gifts and baking, and tomorrow I'll go to San Jose.

I embroidered this little picture for 1 set of grandparents, and I got the image from Urban Threads.
This is before I ironed it obviously lol. I'm also doing another picture for the other set of grandparents that I need to finish up today.

If it's kind of hard to see, it says "I love cooking with wine, sometimes I even put it in the food."






I also made some Ninja Turtle beanies for some friends...which I hope they don't read this blog haha. The only thing I wish I did differently was to cinch the middle between the eyes, I couldn't decide on which way I liked better...and now that I mailed them I wish I cinched it.



Craig and I got way spoiled by our friends in Alaska....look what they sent us!

Top left to right:

- Blue Alaska princess shirt for me, which my belly is to big for at the moment haha, but it will be great after
the baby!
- Chocolate Moose slipper socks for me which I loooooooove.
- A remember Alaska Once in a Blue Moose tote for baby stuff.
- 3 CDs for Craig from 36CrazyFists.
- Alaskin Yoga t-shirt haha it's awesome.
- A cookbook for the Ulu they sent us.
- 2 onesies...one is a polar bear skull and crossbones :), the other says "Alaska Grown"
- A really pretty and soft shawl for me, which is currently on the back of my chair in case I need it.
- An "Alaska Grown" shirt for Craig that matches the babies.
- An Ulu. It's a type of cutting tool that is popular over there...I'm glad for it because our knives suck, I had to keep asking Craig to help me cut the sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner.



My parents also gave us our Christmas present early...a mixer! Yay! Baking will be MUCH easier now!

Christmas Gifts and Baking

Today I'm going to my grandparents house, but I wanted to share a few pictures first. I've finished*most* of my Christmas gifts, and here are a couple of pictures that I know the recipients wont see first :)

2 "One Skein Scarves" from the book The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller. These are super easy and really cute, so I made them for Craig's 2 cousins. I also might make one for Shellie, depending on if we do anything for her birthday. The green picture here was taken at night so the color is a bit off, but it's a nice Olive green. Both were made using Caron's Simply Soft Eco yarn.





I also attempted freehand embroidery on a onesie that I'm going to give to Craig, it just says "Punk", but I made the U into a smiley because it was so huge lol. It's not the best looking, but eh I'm sure the baby wont mind :)



I also spent yesterday baking, and I think I might make 1 more thing, depending on if I finish my crochet projects.

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies. While I really really love the flavor of these, I do wish it was more of a chewy cookie recipe instead of cake-like. Next time I will try adding banana to a chewy recipe :)



Beinjinho de Coco aka "Little Coconut Kiss". I was actually surprised how chewy these were, they are definitely more of a chewy candy then a cookie like I thought they would be. Craig said "Grats babe, you invented a new gum!" LOL. They aren't that chewy, but I think he wasn't expecting chewy either.These don't get a fancy plate because my dishwasher is the size of a toddler, so paper it is :)

This recipe is pretty much the one I used, except I omitted the cloves and rolled them in a mixture of powdered/granule sugar and coconut flakes.They have a slight natural coconut flavor, and they are really neat. I think they would be better as like a gift for a little kid, dyed all crazy colors.



I didn't get a picture of all my baking since I wanted to put it in tins asap, but I also made Martha Stewart Pecan Squares and omigosh they are so good! Superediculoustupid (can you read that? lol) fattening, but oh so good.


Chocolate Cream Cheese Truffles mmmm these are my favorite of everything I made. So good, so chocolaty and tangy....and cheap to make! They are a bit soft, but I'll just tell them to keep them in the fridge or something. I wont post her image here, because I love her site so I don't want to take her bandwidth.

Mini Holiday Swap

Since my partner received her package for the Mini Holiday Swap, so I can post the pictures!Two of the things she said she loved are Nightmare Before Christmas, retro/rockabilly...so I tried to craft using that theme. I crochet a black scarf and attached a felt cherry applique that I made, crochet a Jack Skellington ornament, and that white tree from a few posts down. I also sent her some Christmas Hello Kitty stickers and a Rudolph pez dispenser.

I had my second doctor appointment yesterday, and I've only gained about 10lbs so far,and I'm like 20/21 weeks...which surprised me since I feel like I've gained a lot more then that! I do have to go for another ultrasound since they weren't able to get an accurate picture of all the chambers in the heart...but that's ok with me because that means I get to see the baby again :)

I've finished all of my Christmas shopping (although I forgot Craig's Uncle, oops!) and I've just got something like less then 10 projects to finish and I'll be done lol. They are quick projects though. If I have time I also might make some ornaments for everyone. We'll see!

Christmas Tree

I FINALLY have the tree up! I actually set it up on Monday, but then I though "Hey! I'll crochet a long scarf to act like garland! That would be cool!"

Doh.

Never. Again.

It actually wasn't to bad, I just did rows of double crochet with a single crochet border, but I never thought it would take me 3 days of crocheting for HOURS each day. The tree doesn't seem that big, it's 6 foot...but it's a skinny tree. The one thing that sucks about it is that I must of done the color changes pretty evenly, because half the tree is red/green and the other half is pink/blue lol.

The bulb ornaments are from a little craft store that had tubes of them for $4 each, so one tube was red/gold/green and the other was blues/purple/silver. The rest of the ornaments are mixtures of WalMart and Dollar Tree. If I have time between all the present making, I'm going to crochet a few more ornaments for it.

I think the tree topper is kinda ugly though, but they didn't have much of a selection at WalMart.

I do need a tree skirt though, I've been thinking of just going to Joann's and getting some red velvet and some white fun fur and just making a big circle with the red velvet and gluing white fun fur as trim since my sewing machine isn't working.

Here are a couple of bad pictures...it was hard to take them since it's sunset and my huge sliding glass door is kinda south west. Tomorrow I'll try for better ones in the morning.

I put my little sled girl on the tree too :)

This picture makes it look a little bare, I have no idea why...it's plenty full :)

The other day I sold my first pattern! Woohoo! I feel bad, I was supposed to go to the grocery store today to get some little items and go deposit Craig's paychecks....but my back is still kinda sore and I feel just weak today. I hope he wont mind to much when he gets home :P

Handmade Christmas Trees

It's still November, but already I'm in a Christmas mood. I even put on some Christmas music the other day while I was cleaning! Don't tell Craig though, he hates it haha.

I've been meaning to make these for *years*, but I just always got caught up in Christmas giftmaking that I never had much time for decorations. Since I have PLENTY of time on my hands these days, I decided to just sit down and do them. They were super fast, maybe a half hour each..tops.I think some other colors might be fun, like a white tree with aqua and magenta accents. They are also pretty cheap to make so I definitely could make more.

I put them up on Etsy, but I have to say that I would not be to sad if they don't sell :)

This white one might look kind of sparse as far as decor goes, but the yarn is just so soft and fuzzy with a hint of sheen...that it really didn't need much added decoration.



The green one is probably my favorite, I might even make another one just because it looks so Christmasy to me :)



See that glittery Noel decoration? I just bought that for $2.50 in the $1 (haha yeah doesn't make sense) section at Target! I love all things glittery. I think that would also be easy to replicate with the wooden letters at Michaels and some glitter.



Craig has off both Saturday and Sunday this weekend, so I'm going to try and talk him into running to the store to buy a fake tree. I was going to get one yesterday at Wal-Mart, but they were kinda heavy and I always hate asking for help. They had a 4 1/2 foot one that I think would be perfect, and small enough to store in our apartment until next year :)

I've also finished 1 small item for my Mini Christmas swap partner, and I think she'll love it. Her tastes seem completely different from mine, but that's good....it gets me to think outside my normal crafty ways :)

I'm not sure if blogger is a good place for me, it ALWAYS cuts off half of my pictures...or it takes me forever to find the right size. They really need to widen the space where you post, even if just a little bit.

Christmas Ornament Swap

I signed up for a Christmas Ornament Swap over on Craftster, and I was done within a week. I guess that's what happens when you aren't currently working ;)

I'll put bigger pictures up on Flickr when my partner receives her package.








We didin't really have any specifications, except for it to be Christmas related. So I crochet a retro Christmas ornament with Roxycraft's awesome pattern. The pattern calls for it to be crochet in the round, but I did it in a spiral...it's just an easier technique for me. I used Caron Simply Soft in a Cranberry color, and Patons Divine Brilliant in the sparkly silver. They were out of the sparkly red, but the cranberry yarn had a sheen...so it worked. It looks much more vibrant in person, I had JUST gotten my new camera that day...so I was still figuring it out :)





I got the santa ornament idea from her wists, there was a beautiful handpainted santa face with a white fluffy feather perfectly glued on top. Well I cannot paint that good heh, so I got those rub-on faces at Michaels and just used that. In place of the feather I just glued some white fluffy yarn. It is a little crooked, but it's still cute :)



The embroiderd ornament is just a little snowman with the words "Let it Snow" above him. Super easy and it only took maybe an hour.



At Michaels I found some Candy Cane Pop Rocks which I thought were pretty cool, and a little tube of holiday M&M mini's. The Hello Kitty Christmas stickers are from the $1 section at Target, and the take out box I stuffed with packing peanuts for the santa ornament.

My swap partner should be receiving her package any day now, so I hope she doesn't find this post first! :)

Since I'm crazy and love crafting, today I signed up for another Christmas swap!