It's Christmas Time!

Well, sort of. Every Christmas I scramble to make sure I have everyone covered. Last year I thought to myself, "Self, why don't you ever plan ahead?" And thus an idea was born. I searched Ravelry's groups until I found one dedicated to planning for Christmas in advance. Well in advance. It's not even the end of January and I have most of my gift list hammered out, including friends I made at the end of last year that weren't even on my gift list before 2011!

The best part is that each gift I make gives me an opportunity to try something new, improve on old skills, or get to know a person better. After getting most of the kinks in the list worked out, I thought it might be a good idea to share a few of the ideas I plan on using this year.

Personalized Tote Bags
I have been making these for two years now and the little ones love them. As the girls get older though, I find myself wondering if the bags are nice enough, or if they're starting to look hokey. The solution to my problem came while I was searching the web for gift ideas I could use for my Bridesmaids. This tutorial was easy to follow and the pictures hooked me right away. By December, I will have made more than ten of them!

Total: 10+

Photo From Elizabeth Anne Designs: The Wedding Blog

Goddess for All Seasons

My readers know I am Pagan. I am not shy about this and neither are my friends and family. Not all of them share my religious views, but I have found the perfect gift for those that do. In my quest for the perfect gifts, I turned to Ravelry once again and stumbled upon this wonderful pattern. I followed the link to a tutorial, which I promptly copy and pasted to a word document. I rarely crochet, but soon after starting I was flying along. Within two hours of on and off work I was almost to row 20. Not bad for a beginner, eh? The only change I would make to the tutorial is in regards to the base used to keep the goddess standing. Originally the pattern called for a Go Snack container, which is something I never buy. I also felt that using plastic in gifts meant for nature worshipers was a little rude, so I switched to a more "natural" alternative. Instead of the Go Snack container, I will be using a miniature bolster made of white cotton squares sewn in to tubes and stuffed with bamboo fiber fill. By adding a few rocks to the bottom the bolster will be heavy enough to keep the figure from falling over while maintaining its form.

The Goddess for All Seasons tutorial is also linked to several tutorials for garlands that can be draped on her according to the season. I may or may not crochet these, but I do intend to make several pieces of "clothing" for each goddess. As if that wasn't enough work I will be finding nice wooden cases for each goddess, so that she has a home when they can't have her out and stand for when they can.

Total: 7

Photo from Ravelry: Crochetqueen's Goddess

Wheel of the Year Skirt

I have gone on and on about the skirt I made for Samhain last year. The pattern I used was adapted from an Anticraft pattern titled "Wheel of the Year Skirt". Unfortunately I can not share the pattern with you because it is only found in their printed book. If you're interested though, you can purchase a copy here.

Total: 2

Photo from Etsy shop that is no longer there. =(

The rest of my gifts aren't nearly so specific. I'm putting together a JUMBO housewarming basket for my best friend, as well as spa kits for both of my sister in laws. My mom is also getting a gift basket, but hers will be coffee themed because her favorite coffee shop doesn't have a store anywhere near her. I might go in to more details on these later, but for now I am happy with what I've got. =D

Ritual Skirts...

As some of my friends may know, I altered a design I found in a craft book to create a wonderful Samhain ritual skirt last year. My ultimate goal is to have a skirt for each Sabbat and a few general ritual skirts for non-holiday rituals.

Unfortunately my plans have been put on hold due to time and money constraints. This means that I do not have a Yule skirt and I will not be making an Imbolc skirt before the Sabbat is upon us. Instead, as a treat to myself, I am going to spend some time on Imbolc meditating on the meaning of the Sabbat, reading entries on it in the books I own, and designing my ideal Imbolc ritual skirt so that I may sew it when I can afford the materials. I must say, I am really looking forward to this year's Sabbats, whether or not I have my skirts. But that is content for another blog.

I know my posts lately have been incredibly short... and rare... but I am making an honest effort to be online more often. There are so many crafts I want to do but my time is limited. Hopefully I can budget my time better, however, and get more done so I may share it with everyone. At the very least I will have one of the pomanders for the wedding done by the beginning of next week and I will have that to show you.

New Year, New Determination

Last year I was rather lax with my crafting goals. This year I do not have that luxury. If I want things done in time for the wedding I will need to focus. As it stands I stil have not finished the first pomander, though I intend to work on it tonight. My slippers also need dying and we need to get started on several other crafts. To make it easy on myself I will be listing them on the side of the blog, so I know what is left to do.

Wish me luck!

Definitely Paper

The pomanders are almost certainly going to be made out of paper. My mom found a great blog that provides a DIY for the paper flowers, which I will link below. The only alteration I would make to the instructions is this: When you're gluing the flower on to the styrofoam ball, keep a pen handy. Decide where your flower will go, then use the tip of the pen to break a hole in the ball, large enough for the stem of the flower to fit in to. Fill the hole with hot glue, then insert flower. This lowers the height of the flowers and prevents them from tipping over.

And now for the link: The Smith's Paper Pomanders

That's all I've got for right now, but most of my free time has been devoted to making one of these as a test product for my wedding so I've been a little hyper-focused!

New Pomanders

So, quick note, because I am eager to workout: The pomanders for the wedding may actually be made out of paper! My mom found a great How-To for paper pomanders so we're going to give it a try.

Yep, that's it for now lol.

Change in Plans

So much has changed dearest blog. The terrarium design, the floral curtain, my sewing skills... everything!

The terrariums will only have spirals on every other jar, which will cut their time in half. Thankfully mu MIL had roughly 20 Ivy Bowls stored in her closet, which saves us about $20, because we decided to go with a uniform kind of bowl instead of recycled jars.

 We've also decided to order two beaded curtains from the Internet, which will make the floral curtain unnecessary. In the end it will be cheaper and prettier, which is why we abandoned the original idea. That doesn't mean that I have fewer crafts to do though, because new ideas have popped up!

We nixed the wedding quilt because of cost to my Bridesmaids, who were thinking of doing it as their wedding gifts. The woman my Maid of Honor was using for advice quoted her a cost of $2000, which is ridiculous. Unless they're contracting a professional Amish quilt maker, it should not cost that much. G and I have some great fabric stored in our closet that we used as a ceiling dressing in our old apartment, so we're opting to weave that with fake ivy for the altar cover. My MIL had quite a bit of ivy stored in her garage, so we've got that covered.

In addition to a wonderfully woven altar canopy, I've taken on the project of making pomanders for all of my bridesmaids. At the moment I am thinking of making them red, though I may change them to white. I know it is not orthodox for anybody but the bride to carry white flowers, but there is very little tradition in our wedding. =P

We're still planning on doing the memorial charms for my late SIL, as well as a seating chart and a few other crafts that I can't remember at the moment. This is why I have a big binder, because I can't seem to keep everything straight!

Guilt...

I have neglected you, dear blog. I have also neglected my crafts. Unfortunately it is because school has started again. But, I have been trying to make it up to you.

I started painting jars for the terrariums. You know, for the wedding? Yep, those. Pentagrams on the bottom of each for protection and spirals for decoration and/or guidance on the actual jars. Almost all the jars have lines of glue where the label was affixed at the factory, so we're going to put our own labels on the jars, saying why the plants inside were planted there. I'm loving this wedding more and more every minute.

Other than that I've been lazy. I'm sorry blog, I'll be better from now on!