Handmade Holiday 2013 in the Softie Sweat Shop

Handmade Holiday 2013 is well underway, and an impulsive decision to take part in a vendor market a week in advance has me churning out the softies and Xmas tree ornaments in what I’m now calling my Softie Sweat Shop. The Softie Sweat Shop offers workers comfortable working conditions and many benefits, such as dry fingertips and tiny stab wounds.

I’ve been working in a lot of multiples, as well as working on many softies at once so I’m never bored with my projects. If I’m over owls, I set them aside and work on sugar skulls. If I don’t feel like coming up with creative details, I can cut out a bunch of starter softies to decorate later. It’s a perfect system! Never mind the haphazard chaos of my crafting room, where various piles of in-progress projects sit in random areas, sometimes under books, craft supplies or a cat.

Here are some of the fruits of that labor--things that will be available for sale tomorrow, Saturday Dec. 14 at the 12th Avenue Patio Sale at 12th Avenue and Desoto (unless it rains, then here is a sneak preview of my soon-to-be-awesome etsy shop)!

If you're a devoted fan who has followed this amazingly consistent blog for several years, you might remember these little pencil/makeup/change bags from the time I failed to sell them at the Port City Market circa 2009. They're still available, but demand is obviously high!

 These are larger sugar skull softies but for all you know they're microscopic because this photo has no scale. They have a little bean bagginess to weigh them down and help them stand upright. They're probably 6 or 7 inches high and they have little "fug" tags on them.

 I really like this angry looking cat. I'm hoping a lot of other people also really like it and that this shared interest will translate into cash in my unsold felted money bag.

 Please tell me owls are still a thing. I made a whole bunch of them.

Whoa. Do you even understand how serious this is? I had BUSINESS CARDS made, because when it comes to felt, I mean BUSINESS. Special thanks to Sam with knitting company Meat Warmer for designing these cards!

More sugar skulls. Come buy them!

Handmade Holiday 2012 Kickoff Craft Challenge!

This year, I was even more pumped about the holidays than ever! I had vowed to put off my excitement until October 31 had come and gone, and on November 1, I had my first Holiday Craft Night for the impending Handmade Holiday 2012. Yay! I started out with holiday ornaments, and after nearly a week of daily crafting, I decided to challenge myself to create a softie ornament for each day of November.  

Day 1: This is Jimmy the Fox. I found a great piece of very thin, rust colored corduroy in the remnants bin at JoAnn's. I love the texture and look of the fabric, but I've found it frays and tears easily. Oh well. This fox was inspired by a locket my friend Bekah gave me. Bekah says, "Foxes are the new owls."

Day 2: But owl ornaments are in my Handmade Holiday roots, man! I wanted to make an owl from the corduroy as well. This one is called Hoo-boo, and I tried to make him look more expressive with eye brows. Success level: modicum. 

Day 3: Perhaps because I started my holiday crafting so close to Halloween, I started working on a sugar skull design. I don't particularly love sugar skulls, but what I do enjoy about them is that the design possibilities are pretty endless. They're colorful and they can incorporate needlework and wool felting. Also, if I was to make an attempt to sell something, I think a lot of people would buy these, just judging by how many chicks I know that dressed up and painted their faces dia de las muertos-style for Halloween.

Day 4: I think people like to be reminded of Halloween during Christmastime, also, like in The Nightmare Before Christmas. I loved embroidering the flaming diamond on this one's forehead. This is the one I'll probably keep for our own tree. 

Day 5: I decided to make another fox. This one is called Winky, because she's winking. I think she turned out superior to Jimmy, but it's still very difficult to have decent craftsmanship with that delicate fabric, dang it. 

 Day 6: A good way to churn out several softies in a row is to work in multiples. My least favorite part of making these skulls is cutting out the skulls, shaping the lower jaws and cutting out eye holes, so sitting down and doing those jobs on two ornaments was very satisfying. It freed me up to then focus on just the colorful design elements once I completed the grunt work, which makes working on them much more fun. Just a little ways away from having these two complete, and if I do it today I'll be one up on my month-long challenge!

The first six days of this grueling challenge beg many questions. Will I be able to keep up this breakneck pace of crafting? Will I crumble under the weighty pressure of the looming holidays? What further demented designs will spring forth from this maniacal mind?? Stay tuned to this enthralling blog to find out! 

Better Photo of Christmas Tree Alien!

Surprise! I DO give a crap! I know you were silently begging for it, so here it is: A better photo of Christmas Tree Alien! For those of you who may be thinking, "This isn't a very good picture either," allow me to offer a retort: I only said I might post a better picture of Christmas Tree Alien. Lower your expectations or you're dooming yourself to a life peppered liberally with disappointment!

Christmas Tree Alien is a leftover breed of semi-immortal aliens that landed on Earth many thousands of years ago. He's part gen (ultraterrestrial, core-dwelling, wish-granting beings that become invisible and then speak to chosen ones like myself, guiding them to fulfill their destiny in the universe) and part something else. His ancestors helped organize the ancient arrangements of massive structures that form the magnetic vortex through which his and other kinds landed here on Earth. He is charged with managing those arrangements so that one day his kind may return, and this he does from the clandestine locale of our Christmas tree, Olivia.

And I gotta say he's doing a really great job.

Handmade Holiday Continued!

Fuck it. I love Christmas this year. I spent my Sunday crafting silly ornaments and making holiday confections while listening to a playlist of festive holiday music with my boo, and it was SO AWESOME.

Curling up on the couch with a felting needle, watching Labyrinth. Wrapping gifts I know the recipient will love and laugh about and think about the years of friendship attached to it. Meow-singing along to carols I don't know the words to. Powdered sugar everywhere. Giggling. Christmas rules. You just have to kind of make it your own.

And here I thought the first post-Boardwalk Empire Sunday would be a massive disappointment.

These are the easiest holiday treat to make in large quantities and they offer a satisfying combination of salty and sweet. For these reasons I will now share with you the instructions for preparing them.

First you need a bag of small pretzels, red and green M&Ms, wax paper, and chocolate and/or white chocolate flavored bark. It has to be the chocolate BARK, so look carefully. Melt a few squares of bark in a glass cup or bowl in a microwave for increments of 15-30 seconds, but don't completely melt it, because it helps to have a little malleability to it. Spread pretzels on wax paper and spoon a small dollop of melty bark on each one. Stick an M&M on each and let cool.

Make pretty bags by wrapping one end of a small box in shiny wrapping paper. Slip the box out of the unwrapped end. Crease the sides of the "bag" and reinforce the seams with tape. Fill bag with chocolate pretzel treats, adorn with ribbon and deliver to friends. Feast on smiles.

I just love these little owls and each one has a different character to me. This one is kind of a spunky, little baby owl. He hasn't really learned the ropes yet, but the wiser ones I made previously will help him out. Hopefully there are many more owls to come because my friends seem to like them a lot.
To top our mini tannenbaum, Tobi wanted a starfish. I love Tobi's felty requests. Sometimes I unload my growing collection of craft supplies and I just stare at the rolling mountains of felt, misshapen balls of brightly hued raw wool, and tangled spools of string and yarn and become immobilized by the very lack of creative boundaries. Then Tobi swoops down on his frazzled heap of girlfriend and gives me a little project to tackle, and suddenly I have a vision, direction and a constant source of encouragement. Thanks, Tob.
Now stick with me here, people. My boy also wanted a little a Christmas tree alien, and like I said, I feel no less than compelled to oblige all of his Christmas crafty desires. Let's critique this photograph: It's too dark and a little blurry. Maybe one day I'll give a crap and post a better one.
Here she is: Olivia. Some of the gifts beneath her are even real.

Handmade Holiday

It's been a while, followers. I've spent my blog hiatus thinking about how to take better pictures of my creations with my new camera (which is very mysterious to me), wondering whether to start completely over with my blog or get a URL, and moving. But the holidays have catapulted me into a crafty wonderland, so I could neglect my little blog no longer.

In the past, I’ve found the holidays abhorrent and completely full of shit. Red paired with green is a visual monstrosity, driving within a 30-mile radius of the mall becomes a rage-inducing disaster and don't even get me started on the music.

But since last year, I changed my mind. Not about red and green or my fourth quarter shopping center boycott, but about celebrating the Christmas season with unbridled zeal. See, the holidays cry out for crafting—be it in DIY décor, handmade gifts or creativity in the kitchen—and boy, do I love crafting.

Here are two cute owl ornaments I sewed and felted for our new tree, which we call Olivia.

This one is an onion ornament. The Onion show commercial kept coming on, and for some reason, that seemed like a good idea for an ornament. I'm not sure about this one. Maybe I'll make some other veggie ornaments to go with it.

Happy Holiday Crafting!