Happy 2011!!!!!!

I am sending out a Happy New Year to all you craft minded savants!!!! I also would like to send out belated holiday wishes. I wanted to blog during the Christmas holiday, but I chose crafting instead. There was just too much to get done. Crazy me decided to make this a handmade holiday, and you know there is nothing like waiting to the last minute. With that in mind, I would like to share all that with you before I move on to 2011 and my goals and such.

First I'll start off with the gifts that other people asked me to make for them to give to others. Two of my co-workers asked for gifts for their daughters and I was too happy to oblige them. The first was a painter's smock.

The fabric is a raincoat type material that I saw at JoAnns and thought would be perfect. I trimmed it out in some bias binding and found a tye-dye in hues of hot pink to make the mini pocket which I embroidered her name on. I got a very happy momma when she saw this.

The second was a hat and scarf set of my own design.

I used Deborah Norville's Everyday Collection yarn I found at JoAnns. The color is Parrot. It was pretty good to work with and it's anti-pill. The yarn was variegated so I worked it up Vanna's Choice Baby Yarn in two different shades of pink, Pink Poodle and Berrylicious to bring the colors out. The little diva this was made for likes her garments blinged out so I had to make sure I was on point, so I added the stones for a little extra. I didn't want to disappoint. I heard the 3 year old was shocked on Christmas morning. She couldn't believe the set was for her and loved it.

The next gift I made was for another co-worker who is expecting his first baby any day now. I used Manos Silk Blend for this one. I found the pattern on Ravelry. It's called the Maile Sweater. This was a quick one to throw together at the last minute and they loved it.


We did Pollyannas at work and the person I got asked for wine and a wine glass. I was aiming at giving her two glasses but time was running out and I wanted to do something special so I tried my hand at glass etching. I finally got it on glass number 3. She loved it and the personalization I gave to the gift. I'll do a tutorial for this in the future. If anyone is interested before I finally get to it, here are a few tips. make sure your stencil is secure on the glass. You can use blue painter's tape or masking tape. When picking out stencils and they do have specific ones for glass etching, go with a larger pattern than a smaller one. The smaller it is the harder it is and you will get smudging. Trust me, I learned the hard way. Always use gloves. The etching cream is nasty.

I made a few gifts for the other secretaries in the office. Sticking with the whole handmade theme. I went with earrings. I knew it was something I could do in a night, and boy did I have fun. These are not the greatest pictures(photographing these earrings were hard) and I know I didn't get pictures of everything but this is what I have. Excuse my earrings on the side. Hey, I got home from work took my earrings out and got busy.

I had to make a bracelet for one of the ladies as she doesn't have pierced ears.


I didn't make anything for Mr. D for the holiday, but I'll make up for that by his birthday next month hopefully. I did make a few items for the mothers though. My mom was very easy. Since I was on a role with the Burda turtleneck for the Sept. issue, I knocked out three for her and another two for me. Mine are not photographed here but one is all black and the other is blue and white striped. You know staples for the wardrobe. Anyway, my mother loved them. She especially loved how well they fit. It was really easy to fit her. She can pretty much wear anything that's in my closet. That was a great thing for me when I was younger. I use to raid her closet before getting dressed to go to school. Her pants never fit me, but I didn't care. I only wanted the tops anyway.

For my MIL, I made 2 nightgowns using BWOF 12/2008-114.

She loved both of them, and was shocked when she found out that I made them. Then she told me they looked kind of big. Mr. D then promptly told her, "Hey, they should fit you, she measured it against one you wear now."

After getting all that done, I made mini banana bread loaves for the neighbors and a dress for me for the Christmas holiday. It's BWOF 5/2009-103. I cannot stress to you how much I love this dress. I wore it to my office holiday party and Christmas Eve to church. I received so many compliments. There are a few adjustments that I need to make to it but I'll talk about that later. I do need to do a review on it. Oh and the fabric used was from the August PR Day trip to NY. I purchased the fabric from Metro Textiles for $5 a yard. It was so worth it and the fabric was a dream to work with.

My final dress for the year was a quick and easy one for New Years Eve. I sang that night, and wasn't going to make anything, but crazy me at 2:30 in the afternoon decided to jump up and run over to JoAnns to see if they had any stretch velour to make this cute little number. It's a franken pattern of yes, the Burda turtleneck pattern and I used the skirt portion from my Christmas dress. I figured it looked pretty good for last minute thinking. I received quite a few compliments on this one as well. At the end of the night a gentleman walked up to me with his wife and said, "We love your dress but how are you getting out of it. We don't see any visible zippers. " I smile and started laughing and then explained to him about the fabric being stretchy. I like this dress very much and plan on making it again. I think it will work well for work with a cardi or jacket.

That's it for me right now. Up next. Goals for 2011 and hopefully a small recap for 2010.