christmas goodies!

so i'm lame. the only thing i took a picture of was the bag.  the rest i have pictures of, however, some of them are not the actual gifts given so forgive me. i'm exhausted. 

first off, the bag.  or the provence summer string bag, if you will.  i fell in love with this the second i found it.  yet, i found it after i had started other gifts for people. those projects were quickly scrapped as i worked on 4 of these babies: 

isn't that lovely?  i made this green one, a red one, a blue one, and a purple one. it was a labor of love really. soooooo tired...now i have to make one for me!!!  

headwraps for the nieces.  green for kassy, turquoise for kaitlyn, blue for kailee, and orange for ellie.  

and for my most favorite cousins, bath sets that included a face scrubbie and a bath poofie.  these may look small, but i must say that the poofie takes more time than it looks like it should. 

now what i don't have pictures of are the beanies that i made for my nephews.  red/black/and white for sack, black/white for caleb, and hot pink for josh. yes, he requested hot pink.  in fact, all the nieces and nephews got to choose the color of their gift.  i must admit, the hot pink hat was my personal favorite. it turned out awesome. i'll have to get a picture as soon as i can. 

my very favorite gift though, was for my dear brother in law.  it wasn't even crocheted, but it was awesome. i made him a nice picture frame. with a picture of me in it.  i just wanted to make sure he remembers how much he loves me. :)

in fact, is has THIS picture in it: 

now he'll never forget how awesome i am. never never never. 

holy crap i'm so tired!  now what to make next? i have a couple gifts left to finish and mail, but then i'm DONE!

a snuggie? pillows with swear words?  a new lampshade? move onto valentine's day? 

it's a christmas miracle!

no really, i'm not kidding.  as i get older, i'm getting better at finishing what i start (with regards to crocheting that is), so when i come across a project that i haven't finished, it bugs me a little more than it used to.

i started this kick-ass-ghan when i was 14.  yes, you heard me folks, when i was 14 years old. i'm 31 now.  so 17 years ago, my mom and i ventured out and bought i'm guessing 18 skeins of cheap yarn so i could make an afghan.

mom has an afghan that we all still use.  she made it when we lived in the apartment that flooded out (that's a great story so you should ask me about it sometime), so round abouts 1st grade for me.  she did hers with 3 strands. it's been washed so many times that it's practically felted even though it's not even made out of wool.  it's the heaviest, warmest blanket ever.  i wanted one of those.  although, i'm guessing we were strapped for cash because mine only uses 2 strands.

as i was getting out my christmas decorations over the holidays, i came face to face with it again. it's been packed away ever so carefully, waiting for me to pull my head out and finish it.

i must say, that i was a tad embarrassed when i pulled it out of the plastic and realized that it has been nearly finished all this time. there were only 2 skeins of yarn left, which were for the fringe.

i added 3 rows. 3. 3 rows until it was finished. sometimes i wonder about myself.

i then had to remind myself how to make the fringe. apparently, this takes a genius because i was stuck for a minute and was about to google it when it came to me.

it's mauve.  i make fun of mauve.  however, it was 1993 so you're really going to have to cut me some slack. my room was pink.  oh, and sage green.  pink and sage green.  lovely.

that said, i do think that it looks awesome with my grey walls and white bedding.

congrats me!! 

christmas crafting

i often have the sudden urge to glue and mod podge.  wackiness will then ensue: 

i think it turned out quite adorable. i took it to work because my office is so very very bare.  

this next one was from a long time ago.  i got the idea reading craft blogs.  apparently christmas is all about wreaths and advent calendars.  not that it wasn't before, i just didn't pay any attention.  this is a reindeer from my super saturday days.  i stained it and then put this lame blank wreath around it's neck. that worked for about 20 years.   then i decided to to this: 

isn't that so cute?  just some yarn and a few beads i had layin' around.  i don't know why i had these ginormous beads but they sure came in handy.