Psst. There’s a Christmas Trash Ties™ giveaway taking place at Sweet Life in the Valley today.
Read the post for how to enter. It’s a one-day thing & we’re well
into that one day — but you may still have a shot at it if you hurry!
Wait a minute. I haven’t ever shown the apple pincushion that comes in the Fresh Picked Pincushions sewing pattern. What’s up with that? The apple is certainly worthy of the pincushion parade that tromped through my blog last summer.
Look, here’s a mob of spirited green apples having a parade of their
own. Carrying their champion on their shoulders, they chant "Teacher oh
so bright & lofty, here’s an apple, sweet & softy," "Apple,
Granny, sweet & tart, thanks for making me so smart," and
"Macintosh, Gravenstein, Gra-nny Smith, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd
grade, fifth!" Sounds like they’re suggesting sewn apples as holiday teacher gifts this year. I’m thinking I agree with the apples (though they could certainly use some slogan suggestions.)
Maybe something more scholastic: "How many apples make a pi(e)? Three point one four — one five!"
Oh my, there goes one rowdy fellow shouting, "Apples are red, apples are green, here’s my gift, although you’re mean." What a rotten thing to say.
I could go on, but one more bad slogan might spoil the bunch.
What a wonderful week! We didn’t work at all, but played, played,
cooked, ate & played some more. My parents came over twice with
their Canasta cards. Dad & I make a formidable team. My brother, Ryan, brought over Rock Band. I killed my first two songs, ‘I’m So Sick" & "Psycho Killer."
At least ‘the band’ told me so, but they might have just been wooing me
to stick around. Which I did, playing the guitar & the base guitar
as well (I avoided the drums – those looked impossible). There were
movies mixed in and one trip to the gym with Rachel. Turkey-roasting,
pie-making, table-decorating, good-food-eating, nephew-squeezing. A
memorable Thanksgiving vacation.
I ended up skipping the tablecloth project
for 5 more hours of playtime, but did have fun with the folding-chair
covers. I arranged leaves from disassembled fall garlands onto each
chair back & stapled them (shh) to the copper slip covers. The
centerpiece is a large pile of the silk leaves, ready for raking. You
can’t see the leaf pile too well in my photos, but it was a fun touch.
I’m nostalgic for leaf piles as I haven’t had fall leaves in my yard
since I was a young girl. I used to splash them about and make a big
mess of my parents’ yard-keeping efforts. We had some great backyards
when I was little. One house had a stream in the backyard and a huge
vegetable garden. One had a ravine, a hammock in the trees, and wild
daffodils.
I’m planning a trip to PA next spring. I’m considering adding a couple of days onto the trip to explore my childhood neighborhoods there. We lived in OH for a while too.
We’re back in swing today. The furniture is freshly re-arranged from the carpet incident,
the house is clean, the refrigerator is full, and the air smells of
cinnamon pine cones. Though I’m in the thick of designing my next
collections, we’re excited to fully participate in the holidays this
year. Last year was a crazy, worky blur. We’re not doing that again.
We’re heading into the Thanksgiving bustle. I had planned to sew a
tablecloth and chair covers last night, a table design which started
out simple enough, but now involves tiered ruffles, piping and sashes.
As if Isaac’s and my creative symbiosis wasn’t enough to extend the
holiday prep from one day to four, while we were at the fabric store,
the dogs pulled up a section of our carpet and shredded the edge to
bits. Our night was then spent moving furniture out of the family room
and learning how to work a carpet stretcher.
One edge of the room’s carpet butts up to decorative tile and that
whole edge had to be re-positioned and secured. I’ve always wanted to
know how to do this, but it’s one of those skills I never expected to
learn. Now we’ll see how well the carpet stays puts. Let in the dogs.
Isaac is questioning the etymology of the word, catastrophe. "Dogostrophe is more like it."
As of yet, all we have ready for Thanksgiving are the goodie bags, but that’s a start.
Links!
BLOGS
Paint in My Hair
Quilt While You’re Ahead
Angry Chicken
True Up
Green Kitchen
Posie Gets Cozy
Weekend (Heather Ross)
Fabric Chick
Disdressed
Allsorts
Rose Hip
Soulemama
Junk Drawer
Notes from Elinor
Wise Craft
Loobylu
Molly Chicken
Indexed
Dioramarama
U-Handblog
How About Orange
Craftzine
Whip-Up
Purl Soho
Anna Maria
Fish Taco Magazine
Simply Me
Club Little House
Shim & Sons
Heather Hales
NOT BLOGS
Blissful Living Studio
Amy Butler
Oilily
Isaac Bailey Photography
100 wishes
Anna Griffin
Whitney English
Mary Engelbreit
Melrose Vintage
Country Living
Creating Keepsakes
The Toymaker
I used to go to great lengths to make sure every present I gave was
handmade and tailored to the recipient’s taste. Over the last few
years, I’ve realized that most people truly love to receive a gift card
now & then, so they can go out and get the very thing they’ve been
hoping for. This has been an adjustment for me. I felt kind of guilty
about the first few gift cards I gave, like I didn’t put enough time
into it. But, as the reactions were genuinely enthusiastic, I thought,
‘well, that was easy’ and I decided that gift cards can be very good.
There’s always one or two people on my gift list who gift cards are
perfect for. Like my dad. I never know what to do for my dad. My
sister, Julia, has pulled off some well-chosen shirts or gardening
books for him, but I’m always stumped. My most successful handmade
present for him to date was a custom-designed table mat for he and my
mom to play cards on. They love that thing. Who would have known?
I’ve certainly made things that were cooler than that, like a hand-cut,
metal bookmark that looks like a man climbing over the page when in
place. Crazy stuff sometimes.
I’m much more excited about planning gifts for my dad now that I’m
cool with gift cards as a safety net. What seals the deal for me is
that I can still make the box.
For my recent feature in Creating Keepsakes
(Dec 08), I designed a free pattern for the gift card box shown above.
If you are planning to give some gift cards and would like to dress
them up a bit, head to the pattern download page
or follow the ‘Gift Card Box’ link under ‘Free Patterns’ in my
sidebar. These little boxes are great for wrapping up buttons, jewelry
or candy too — or for housing a love note on top of a larger, wrapped
gift. Get creative.
xo–Heather
Bring on the holidays! Here’s the Flower Pinwheel project that is featured in the December 2008 issue of Creating Keepsakes
magazine, which is on news stands now. The Creating Keepsakes team did
an amazing job with the article. There are a ton of projects featured
and they did an impeccable job bringing it all together — it’s really
beautiful.
I’m thrilled with how this pinwheel design turned out. I had
originally planned the poinsettia pinwheel as a holiday decoration —
without concern for functionality. However, as I perfected the flower
wheel design, my fascination with the science behind the spin grew.
Isaac insisted that I couldn’t just make a pretty-looking pinwheel. It
had to function.
This is where a stash of supplies comes in handy. I rummaged
through my studio for eyelets, wire, beads, pliers, etc. and soon had
elevated my pinwheel project from pretty-to-look-at to
pretty-to-look-at & dang-fun-to-play-with.
These pinwheels spin like crazy.
With red cardstock and yellow centers, I made poinsettia pinwheels for
the holidays. With floral prints
and glittered papers, I made pinwheels straight out of Candyland or
Santa’s Workshop. This project is surprisingly easy and remarkably
inexpensive — especially if you’re a scrapbooker with a bevy of tools
and supplies already at hand.
Thank you for your patience if you’ve been watching for this pattern. I
had originally scheduled to complete the pattern by the end of this
week and have it available by next Monday. However, the December issue
of Creating Keepsakes shipped out to subscribers far earlier than I had
expected.
I was happy to work overtime this last week to design and post this
download for you as quickly as possible. I had to squeeze
it into an already-packed design and family schedule. I love this
pattern and am equally excited to have it posted a week before
originally planned (with the natural side benefit of having more pie-making time for next week, right? Isaac’s family tradition involves one pie per guest – well, practically).
Anyhow, go make some lollipoppish pinwheels and some twinkly family
memories while you’re at it. Have a happy kick-start to your holidays
this year. For the Flower Pinwheel download page, follow the link in my sidebar under ‘Free Patterns’ or click here.
Happy Holidays everyone — enjoy!
xo–Heather
**free Gift Card Box pattern also coming this week. And, we’ve posted our new holiday promotions and freebies for the store as well — follow the ‘Happy Holidays’ badge in sidebar**
Wow, thank you so much for your eye-care stories and advice. Charlotte
had an appointment with an ophthalmologist this last week and he’s
thinking glasses might just solve the issue without any patching
whatsoever. You should have heard how thrilled he was that we brought
her in so early. I guess there are issues that if left unresolved can
cause long-term problems and possible loss of sight – ay, ay, ay. The
doctor said that Charlotte’s a tad far-sighted in one eye and trouble
focusing that eye is what’s causing it to turn in a little at times.
We’re not too worried. He really did think the glasses would likely do
the trick. We’ll watch for progress over the next month or so, then
see what else is needed, if anything, at our next appointment.
Boy, did we feel clueless picking out glasses. Neither Isaac nor I
have ever needed glasses, though I’ve always secretly wanted some. We
ended up with flexy, bendy purple ones with shatter-proof lenses and an
elegant frame. They should be ready early this week. Now I need
advice on how to help Charlotte keep track of them!
Ophthalmology. O-P-H-T-H-A-L-M-O-L-O-G-Y. Ophthalmology. Two
crazy, extra letters in there. ‘Ophthalmology’ would have sunk me in a
Spelling Bee.
Hello to everyone stopping by from my article in the Holiday issue
of Creating Keepsakes. I can’t believe it’s already out (I thought
it’d be around Thanksgiving) — I can ‘t wait to see it. If you’re
looking for my Flower Pinwheel pattern or the free Gift Card Box
pattern, they’ll be available next week under the ‘Free Patterns’ section of my sidebar. Thanks! More on the CK article to come : )
Charlotte’s
eye has started to become a little googly — slightly ‘lazy.’
Hopefully a temporary eye patch over her stronger eye will force her
uncovered eye to get with the program. So, here’s one project that’s
never crossed my mind before — a custom, girly eye patch. Why not?
The rigid interfacing inside the patch is darted to bulge in the
middle. Then the fabric covering is cut on the bias so I could stretch
it over the form smoothly without darting it. Then there’s a black
fabric lining the inside. Not that you’ll ever want to make an eye patch.
Who knows if she’ll even keep it on. But it has given us all the
giggles a few times over — and kept things light. Anyone have some
good advice for this sort of thing?
