Not in the mood

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Patti_is_knittinginflashes

I’m starting to panic. I just realized that it is almost the middle of November. Duh! I’ve spent most weekends cleaning, decluttering, and trying to get the house in some order so I can relax more in December.

The past several years I’ve done what I call Christmas Wishes. It’s the same thing as an Advent calendar where a person opens something everyday starting December 1st, be it a reflection, small token, ornament, or treat. It started out with anything under $1 such as a free pencil or emery board though sometimes I included a booklet of stamps or a gift card. It was fun for my adult children and their spouses.

Then grandkids came along so I included them. The adults got dropped like a hot potato.

Last year I gave each family a small artificial Christmas tree and each day was an ornament for the tree and a sweet treat. I made those “sour cream” packages for the ornaments. Cute but time-consuming.

Yes, it’s mid-November and I haven’t started on getting these put together. It take a long time to do this and I need to have them ready by Thanksgiving.

I was thinking of doing the same thing with the ornaments but also adding an ornament making craft every few days. Such as candy cane reindeer:

Or these candy cane mice from Martha Stewart:

I just have to force myself to get in the mood.

B is for bottle

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Patti_is_knittinginflashes

A wine bottle to be more specific.

Mr. Aitch and I drik wine…occasionally. Most of our wine bottles are the typical green, brownish green, dark green, or very dark green.

The little bottle on the far right contains a special olive oil now.

We emptied these this morning.

Just kidding.

A few years ago I saw a large wreath in one of our local restaurants with 2-3 beautiful red wine bottle, grape leaves and various hanging grapes on it. I decided to make my own.

We bought the same wine and saved the empty bottle for my project. I suppose I could have asked the restaurant to save some empties for me but what fun is that?

My wreath isn’t nearly as large as the one in the restaurant and only one wine bottle fit on it.

But I like it.

And so did one of the teenage trick-or-treaters we had the other night. (I whispered to her that the bottle was empty.)

Any suggestions on what to do with all our empty wine bottles? Please leave suggestions in the comments!

Craft group

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Patti_is_knittinginflashes

Before I go any farther, I am posting this from my iPad. I apologize in advance for any inconsistencies with the formatting, spelling, and general wonkiness.

Mr. Aitch and I are house/dog sitting for his brother this week in my hometown. My aunt also lives here so we’ve been spending time with her as well.

On Monday I went a senior center where she leads exercises for the residents. I am embarrassed to admit that I couldn’t keep up with them. These women (including my aunt) are at least 20-30 years older than I am.

Yesterday we went to a craft group. I took my knitting with me and the ladies there wanted to know all about my felted bag since I was working on the one for my sister. They weren’t quite sure how that flat piece of knitting was going to end up as the 3-D bag.

I did finish all the flat knitting and now have to sew the loose squares and side seams before I add the I-cord edging.

The colors are really charcoal and lime green.

The ladies also oohed and awed over my next project: Sheep Carousel Tea Cozy. I hope to get started on that soon.

Here is a picture from the craft group. Unfortunately I didn’t think to take a picture earlier as one of the ladies had already left. So from l to r: my aunt Evelyn, Josephine, Dorothy, and Deo. A lovely group of ladies.

God Bless America

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Patti_is_knittinginflashes

Tank top part 2

On Saturday morning the twins and I decorated another tank top. With America’s birthday just around the corner I thought we would do a patriotic themed tank top.

Materials we used:

Tank tops, cardboard, painters tape, textile medium, acrylic paint, Stained by Sharpie markers, old toothbrushes, tongue depressor (not shown), alphabet stamps and star stamps.

I inserted the large piece of cardboard inside the tank top so the ink/paint would not bleed through to the back. Using the Stained Sharpie marker as the ink, I stamped God Bless America near the front neckline of the tank top.

I taped the edges and made stripes using the painter’s tape to keep the white parts white. I also taped off the area for the stars.

We tried to splatter the paint on the tank tops but the technique just wasn’t fast enough for 3-year olds. So they took matters into their own hands and “painted” with the tooth brushes.