Year in Review

1. Close Up of Letters, 2. Garth Williams Pillow, 3. Dreaming of Paris, 4. Water Color Girl, 5. Paris Swap Bag, 6. Curbside Cabinet After: Little Pink Kitchen, 7. Apron, 8. Simple Sewing Hat 3, 9. Lad, 10. Baby Sweater

I branched away from the knotted bag this year and tried some new things. These are just a few of my favorites. I am glad I have a flickr set of Made in _____ for each year. It reminds me of just how productive I have been.

Black Apple Doll for A Big Apple Baby

Today I am going to a baby shower for Cliff's best friend's wife. Cha Cha is a successful couture milliner. (I can not wait to see the toppers this kid will wear!)

Kevin writes about his adventures in NYC and dreams of one day opening a Jazz club.
No ordinary shower gift would do for this eclectic couple.

I picked out this onesie with the new daddy in mind.
Then Cliff saw this one.Turns out Bukowski is Kevin's favorite poet. The quote says, "Sometimes you just have to pee in the sink." Makes me think "college dorm neighbors" more than "baby girl." But, apparently, that's my issue. We did order it in pink to feminize it a bit.

The shower is at a country club. I can only imagine the grandmother's reaction..."Pee in the sink?" Ug. So, I threw in a cute pair of Baby Legs and made a Black Apple rag doll to soften the overall gift. The doll is quite easy to make if you remember not to over stuff the legs and arms.



The funny thing is that we had the shirt sent straight to my in-laws since the shower is here. My mother in-law opened the package and was quite perplexed. I wish I had been there to see her face. Bukowski as baby wear is lost on her too.

Now Stash Away! Stash Away! Stash Away All?

Well, not quite all. OK, not even close! You would hardly even see the dent I made in my "stash," but I did manage to do almost all my Christmas gift giving crafts with just my stash.

I bought the cute houses fabric for my aunt's apron.

I bought the rice, flax seed and essential oil for the many Heat Therapy Kits.

My mom gave me ink-jet fabric as an early present.

Everything else came entirely from my stash!

For My Brother & Sister-In-Law On Their Wedding Day

Graphic from our grandparent's wedding guest book.

Easy Spend'n Lemon Scented

This summer I found a copy of the book Home Spa Recipes and Techniques to Restore and Refresh at the thrift. I snatched it up with the intention of making all kinds of spa gifts. However, after reading the recipes, I found that they just weren't practical with our pesky shipping issues.

My sister in law is a huge home spa girl and I decided to gift the book to her along with a Rice Heat Therapy Bag and a Cooling Eye Pillow. I found this tutorial on Sew, Mama, Sew!

This is a most satisfying craft!

I bought ten pounds of rice at Smart and Final for just under $10 and some lemon grass essential oil at Whole Foods for about $5. Then using my stash I made 6 heat therapy bags! A little over $2 of bulk flax seed produced 4 soothing eye pillows. And, the tutorial includes a pdf with beautiful tags!

I did modify the tutorial a bit...

- I didn't bother with the measurements. I made all my bags by tracing a piece of legal sized notepaper.

-Lemon grass is one of my favorite scents. It's fresh and light...only if used sparingly! About 6-10 drops of the oil scented all ten pounds of rice!

-I found that making channels for the rice made the pillows easier to sew and more even too. The best formula I found was to divide the pillow into three equal channels.

-I didn't use velcro for a closure. Instead I made an additional overlapping flap on the back .


Cliff liked them so much I made one for him.

Una Crafty Chica En Su Cama

One night, not too long ago, I saw this video tutorial on Diary of a Crafty Chica. It's a gift card book!

I was supposed to be resting.


But, I had some paper, cardboard and old Christmas cards just calling my name.

So I turned my bed into a workshop and got busy. Multi-tasking I'll call it.

Last Minute Inspiration

I am preparing to leave for NJ on Wednesday. By this time next week my brother will be a married man! So exciting!

What do you do with wedding and shower invitations? They are too beautiful and sentimental to throw away. I usually put them in a photo album with pictures from the event.

Thanks to my new love, ink jet fabric, I came up with a last minute project.


The colors on both invites are very pale. The wedding invite has silver ink- hard to photograph. They are not so washed out in person. These will be a small housewarming gift for when we visit!

Crafty Playdate- Part Two

I did't bake cookies this year. I didn't participate in many church activities. I didn't hit the mall. But, watching/helping my friend craft her holiday gifts made my spirits bright!

To top it off, right in the middle of our crafty fun, the mail lady called up with news of a package.

Cookies from Jodi! Christmas cheer indeed!

Aren't these coasters fun? Both patterns are from Bend the Rules Sewing.

Tale of Two Trees

Bleached Bottle Trees have been on my to do list since Sara started this flickr pool.
These trees came in a two pack from the 99Cent Only Store. I used about a cup of bleach and some water to dilute it. Not very scientific really. It felt like a magic trick. I love the end results and the slight variations. The Crayons would love this! Maybe to decorate for parent gifts next year?

A Flat Christmas

Recently I posted that little email meme with a question about "decorating theme" for Christmas. As I think more about it, the theme for this year has been "A Very Flat Christmas."

Our first guest of the season was Flat Stanley. He was quickly joined by Flat Abby.


My parents came for a combined Thanksgiving/early Christmas celebration and my mom agreed to transport any packages for the Florida family- so long as they were flat. And, she herself requested a flat present.


It's a good thing we celebrated early as I have since spent a lot of time flat on my back. Not entirely really. I am getting better every day and feel so much better than I had imagined. But, it sort of goes with the theme.

Here's what I came up with for my Florida family. Unfortunately, not one but two scheduled get togethers had to be canceled. Upon returning home from caring for me, my mom became very ill. She has a really bad ear infection. Since she is deaf in the other ear, this really scares her. She may even have to drive from Florida to New Jersey for my brother's wedding next week. Today she goes to the doctor and I just pray that her ear is healed so she can fly!

Akk! That's not fun! Anyway, back to my Flat Christmas post. Melinda, you can either look away or receive your gift "virtually" right now. By the time everyone gets together to exchange gifts it will be a surprise all over again.

So, for the men- restaurant gift certificates from Restaurant.com. I just picked restaurants close to their homes. I hope it works out well because this place has *great* deals.

The kids all got I Spy mini quilts that fold into pillows. Of the four, this is the only one I got photographed.

I swore up and down that this year I was going to use what was in my stash! Then I saw this super cute houses fabric at Joannes. My aunt is a real estate agent who hosts her big family and extended friends. Surely, she could use another apron. I used the pattern in Simple Gifts to Stitch but modified the neck to button rather than tie.

Be sure to click on the picture to see it larger. The house pattern reminds me a bit of A Black Apple House. So many artists have fabric lines. I keep waiting for some fabric label to pick up Emily's work, but for now this will have to do.

One of my cousins has four children under six. That's a lot of birthday entertaining. So I reasoned that a handy birthday bunting in gender neutral colors might be handy.

Colorful, festive and flat, but impossible to photograph in our apartment.

I wanted to do something different for my other cousin because twins get a lot of duplicate gifts.
At this point, my mom was already in LA and I also knew about my surgery. I was forced to think and sew quick and use just what I had on hand. I turned to flickr and wasn't disappointed.



These gifts were easily packed. Now, I hope my mom recovers in no time flat!

Crafty Playdate!

My friend Josie is a go to gal for just about anything. Shopping, protest marches, parties or church, Josie is game. Another great thing about Josie is that she is a former teacher she gets my lifestyle and she gets where I am financially. She is on the same wave length there. In fact, right now Josie is between careers, so she really "gets it."

I love having my vacation time in November and December, but most of my pals are at work. So when Josie called the other day to invite me to go shopping, I was pretty disappointed that I wasn't up for it.

"No problem" she said, "I also want to make some gifts- like crafty. Would you want to do that?"

Yeah! A crafty playdate!

Several times she asked if she needed to bring anything. Did I have any supplies?

Imagine Josie's surprise when I sat her down with a pile of craft books and told her she could basically choose any project. When I showed her "the stash" she became a believer.

The day included Christmas music, grilled cheese, good conversation and craftiness!

At the end of the day she had a beautiful apron for her grandmother! Doesn't get much better than that!

Christmas Meme

Since I am not up to much else, I thought I would play along with this email my cousin sent here on the blog.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Love wrapping paper, but since I travel with gifts and the airline security will unwrap anything wrapped, it's gift bags for me. Last year I made a bunch out of my sister in law's bridesmaids dresses.

2. Real tree or Artificial? I love and appreciate both. My in laws have real and I enjoy that every other year. My mom has two fake trees and I enjoy that too. I have this dollar store tree.

3. When do you put up the tree? Day after Thanksgiving or thereabouts.

4. When do you take the tree down? When I am at my parents every other year, I help my mom take down her trees before I leave town. Usually right before the new year. It's a depressing job to do by yourself.

5. Do you like eggnog? Oh Yes!

6.Favorite gift received as a child? My parents, my grandparents, aunts, even my great aunts and uncle made me gifts. I have saved only a handful of childhood things, but they are the homemade ones. My dad made me a toy stove in 1974 which I played with for a very long time.


7. Hardest person to buy for? Most people are equally hard because their packages need to be mailed or carried on the plane. I can only vaguely remember what it was like to shop without size or weight restraints. At Tuesday Morning I saw a terrific Mickey Mouse bowl. The bowl itself was just his pants and feet. It was so cute, and oh so affordable, but very big. I know a certain Mickey Fan Club family that would have enjoyed such a bowl. But mailing it, no thanks!

8. Easiest person to buy for? Myself. Darned sales are so tempting! My mom is easy too because she tells me what she wants.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Several. Tis the reason for the season!

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail -postcards lately.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? When I was a kid my mom would only let us open one present on Christmas eve. More than likely the only thing under the tree was something from our Great Aunt Rosie. It was usually something like a plastic canvas pen holder that she had made. I sort of worry that my little cousins will one day think the same thing of my handmade gifts.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Don't have a favorite. So many are good. Just saw Four Christmases and really, really enjoyed it. It was my treat for staying in bed all week, which may or may not have added to it's enjoyment. I was afraid that all the best parts were in the ads, but it had me laughing. Ouch!

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I shop and craft all year long.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes, especially when I taught at Wealthy Public School. I practically counted on re-gifting those extravagant teacher gifts. Nobody ever looked a re-gifted Yankee Candle in the mouth!

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Candy Cane Joe-Joe's and Dryers (Eddies) Peppermint ice cream.

16. Lights on the tree? white

17. Favorite Christmas song? Bruce Springsteen singing Santa Claus is Coming to Town puts me in a festive mood as does The Little Drummer Boy.

Jersey, that was special for you!
18. Travel for Christmas or stay at home? Travel home. We alternate years between our NY and Florida parents.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? probably

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Probably a bow.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? No dispute there, Christmas morning at both parents.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Not enough time to enjoy all the activities possible.

23. What theme or color are you using? This year the theme was minimal. Whatever I could get out the day I learned I was going to have surgery. The color is always red.

24. What do you want for Christmas this year? I have already gotten all that I could want for Christmas. My parents spoiled us early over Thanksgiving. My surgery went well and I am on vacation. I'm pretty content.

25. Who is most likely to respond to this? ?

26. What is on your stocking? It's knitted with my name and a fuzzy bearded Santa.

27. How old is your stocking? It's vintage 1970's

Plan....B....C...Heck! Plan Q!

You know what they say about "plans."

Well, lots of people have lots of things to say about plans and none of it goes like this..."Plan to craft all vacation and get that time uninterrupted."

So, in a nutshell:

Two weeks ago today my parents arrived from Florida for an early Thanksgiving. While on the ride home from the airport I received a call from my beloved Dr. Chung* with the news that I had large and possibly dangerous uterine fibroids that "really should come out."

I called the lovely Dr. Dwight* (truly an angel among men) and he informed me that an "ab myomectomy" would require 3-6 weeks recovery.

Miss vacation or miss school? What about traveling to my brother's wedding in NJ on Dec. 20th? I *really* did not want to miss school. So I prayed that I could have the surgery while on break. At the same time, I needed to be recovered in time for my brother's wedding.

There was so much to think about. In the meantime, we enjoyed our time together.


Flat Stanley at Paramount on the set of Dirty, Sexy, Money.

We enjoyed an early Thanksgiving with about 50% of the trimmings. My mom helped me get a lot of errands done-just in case they could schedule the surgery.



"Flat Abby" also came to visit that weekend. It was a full house.

I prepared as though it was a possibility, but really doubted that could get organized so quickly the week of Thanksgiving.

I mentally prepared for missing school in January. My mother flew home.

By some miracle of medical scheduling, Monday morning I received word that the surgery would be in two days. I quickly decorated for Christmas and cooked up some meals to freeze.

I was in surgery at Good Samaritan one week later. It happened so quick that I was only able to Google about 100 horror stories and join one Yahoo group.

It went textbook well. Much better than any nightmare I might have had. They removed three golf ball sized fibroids. It freaks me out that there was anything resembling sports equipment undetected inside of me!

Now, I have been home for a week. My mom is back to police my activity. Basically, I am bed bound. Yesterday, I did ride along to return some videos and the city never looked so beautiful!

Today, I have another field trip- to the doctors and if I am good, maybe Denny's.

I am feeling less sore and walking a bit better each day. Really and truly, the body's ability to heal is nothing short of miraculous.

So, happy belated Thanksgiving! I am so very thankful for my doctors and the excellent, caring staff at Good Samaritan Hospital. I would shout my gratitude from mountain tops if I could get out of bed! In the past few years I have had less than stellar experiences with medical professionals. I have routinely felt like a number among numbers. Now, I have found the best medical team a girl could want and it has changed my life. Spending Thanksgiving in the hospital almost seemed appropriate!

*Truly, if you live in Los Angeles and you are looking for doctors who are medicine for all the right reasons, these two are for you!