Crafting

Even though I've had very little to say lately I have been trying to keep up with the crafting. I haven't been very successful, but I have done the following:

I had the overly ambitious goal of making 5 coordinating stockings for our new family of five. I got the pattern from this Scandinavian Needlecraft book:

I haven't done much embroidery at all in my life, but loved the look of the wool stockings in red and white. The three girls will have red stockings with the reindeer pattern, Chris and I will have the white stocking with the snowflake. I say will because I only got two done by Christmas. They were intended for Bela and Mae, but halfway through the snowflake embroidery Mae changed her mind and wanted Reindeer. So I put my name on the snowflake and altered the plans. Luckily Santa was not too confused.

I also whipped up another version of the baby camilla sweater I made last year for Leslie's baby. I think I was off on my gauge on that one, so I went down two sizes and it came out much better. Gil is still swimming in it, but she wears it almost every day. Yarn is Quince & Co. Love them.

I have another sweater on the needles for Gil, a wool and cotton blend. Thinking by the time I finish it will be too small, but that just means I have a future baby present ready and waiting.

I still need to get a shot of Gray sweater #3, from the series. You've seen #1 and #2, I'll unveil #3 when I have a camera, some sunlight, and a free hand. That's a tall order around here these days.

While we were in Sanibel Chris' mom treated us all to a visit to the Shell Museum. We have been to Sanibel 4 or 5 times now, and have always decided not to go because we were too cheap to pay to get in. But I was glad to see it this year--beautiful shells from all over the world, and a great little learning center for the kids. They also had a display on Sailor's Valentines. Have you heard of these? This was the first time I had ever heard of them or seen one, and I was smitten. You can see some images here, but Bela was asked to create one special valentine for her class this year. The teacher plans to distribute one valentine to each child, instead of having the kids (parents) make one for each student. I love the idea, and so, inspired by the beautiful displays at the museum, I collected many small shells just before leaving Florida and found this cute, sturdy little box, and am hoping I can convince Bela to glue all these little guys into a pretty heart design inside.

Ours will be a very, VERY simplified version of the real thing.

As Gil settles into a routine (she's sleeping at night like a champ. She must really love me) I'm slowly getting some pep back in my step. Hoping to dive into all sorts of craft endeavors in the weeks to come!

PS - if you think I'm the only one crafting around here, you're dead wrong. Chris' crafts have established a permanent residence on our dining room table. Model airplanes are all the rage with him right now, and he spends hours filing and painting and gluing. But lately, he and Bela have also been doing some diorama magic as well. He spent weeks working on a mountain and then handed it over to Mae so her dolls could play on it.