Ms. Ellaneous crafts a life

Post holiday organization- Part one of...

G and I re-organized the "school/office supplies" closet and I began working on my closet.  I really need a better system for wrapping gifts.  I had no idea how much tissue paper I have.  It seems like I should never have to buy it again, and yet it seems like I never have it when I need it.  That goes for many of my supplies.  I have this feeling if I could just get organized enough I would know what I have and never have to re-buy.  Alas, I think I have fallen into a fantasy world.  I'm prone to that.

The other element that plays into my organization fantasy is bins.  If I just had the right organizational supplies I could achieve my dream.  It's a vicious circle of supply buying and buying for supplies, always with the holy grail of complete organization just out of my reach.  Stores like The Container Store, and sayings like,"A place for everything, and everything in its place" fuel my frenzy.  Sounds like I need another support group.

I have not sunk completely into organizational madness.  I have been working on a sweater for A1, making some extra soap,

and doing some drawing.

Is it any wonder I'm obsessed with the trees against the sky?

Christmas wrap up- Part 2

I can already feel myself moving into the "organization" portion of my year.  I'm so predictable.  But before I completely move on, I need to post some of my other projects, before I forget them.

This is some pottery from a class.  We had alot of fun.  The soap dish has knitting pressed into the bottom and the sides.  I saw the idea somewhere(?) on the net.  Mine is far less sophisticated but I am loving it in my bathroom, nonetheless.  I'm not sure what I will do with the tray.  I had fun making the "ruffles"

I finished socks for all the kids.  Unfortunately, A2's didn't fit :(

Fortunately, he has two younger siblings that can wear them.  It just means a re-knit.  That doesn't bum me out too much.  I love to knit. 

At the last minute I decided to knit my dad a hat, like the one I knit his Father, accept with an orange cuff, and do a charcoal for both my parents.

They love birch trees and cardinals.  The drawing is done in charcoal and the bird is painted with acrylics.  I'm not sure you are supposed to do that and I'm not sure I care.  It seemed to work out okay.

There was one other project I added at the last minute.  A quick replica of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree.  I made two, one for Mrs. M, but the idea came from Not that W's love of Charlie, and so she got the other one. 

I think that's about it.  Now onto the closets.  They are forever chanting "organize me, organize me".  It seems like the right time of year to listen.  Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Christmas round up- Part 1

I had good intentions, and you know what they say about good intentions.  I resisted the urge to buy a bunch of stuff until the very last minute, then it happened.  Luckily, I didn't have time to do too much damage.  To make myself feel better, I am choosing to look at my "Christmas issue" as a process.  I get a little better every year, and that's really all you can ask for.

The kids did a great job on their handmade gifts.  Here are A4's offerings...

Production work gets a little frustrating for him so there was lots of encouragement involved. 

A3 decided to stitch up some bookmarks with names on them and knit a hat for A4.

A2 did some crocheting for his sisters and gave A4 a coupon for a free Lego build.  (He will re-construct one of A4's sets for him) 

A1 did some serious knitting.  I thought about taking her out of school to help me, but she insisted on going to her classes.  She made leg warmer's for A3, her friend SP, and a pair for herself.  She made hand warmers for Grandma, a hat for her dad, a "geek" cuff for A2, a scarf for A4 and then a last minuted Christmas Eve hat for A2, in case the cuff didn't fit.  Here it all is...

I'm particularly fond of the snake scarf.  It looks so cute on him and it matches the hat A3 knit.

Ma made Christmas dinner and Not that W's family came to enjoy the day with us.  I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas too! 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Well, we're just about done.  I have half a hat left to knit then I'm letting the rest of my list go, until tomorrow.  I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas Eve!

Teacher gifts

This snowy weekend we held a little "Santa's workshop" with A1 and some of her friends.  We made the peppermint loaf soaps from Martha Stewart.  I have to confess that I have made these before and given them as teacher gifts.  Just not to these teachers.  It's a "new to them" gift.  So on Sunday we knocked out all of the teacher gifts in one fell swoop.

We have A LOT of teachers.  A1 made a loaf and gave a bar to all 7(!) of her teachers and then A3 and I made a loaf and divided it between the rest.  I did have visions of all sorts of teacher gifts, but this was all I could manage.  I hope they liked it.

Cookies

Here is a mere sampling of the cookie making going on around here.

These were made for a memorial service.

And these were made last night for A4's kindergarten class, after receiving a note saying the treats should be individually wrapped.  Treats! What Treats?  I'm new to the whole public school thing so I was NOT counting on 21 individually wrapped treats.  I guess I'll know next year.

We still have not made our family cookies for decorating.  I guess we need to add that to tomorrow's ever-growing list.

Advent

 

(A3 made the snowman in school)

Advent- Peace

Advent day- What day is it?

Okay, I'm falling behind and so are the Advent fairies. (I know, Advent Fairies?  Somewhere along the line these two phrases were put together and so it remains)  I had the best intentions, posting every day, deep inspirational sayings, etc. etc.  Well, as you may have read, not always so deep, not always so inspirational and, last but not least, not posted everyday.  Santa's workshop is a busy, busy place, and I think the head elf may need a drink.  So, I'm just going to post what I have and hope it makes sense.