Homemade Christmas Roundup. Yeehaw!

Howdy y'all!  The Christmas season is here and gone, but I wanted to share with you some of my homemade gifts from this year.  I took a little siesta from quilting and ventured out into new crafting territory.

Crafted Gift #1: Some personalized playing-card wreaths for my great-grandma, grandma and great-aunt (and first dive into my new hot glue gun!).

And a closeup of those snazzy little playing-card flowers…

Group shot; everybody smile!

Crafted Gift #2: Some little pieced stocking ornaments.

Crafted Gift #3: My first dive into embroidery!  A "She Splash" hand towel for my brother Adam (it's a quote from our very first home video in 1987).

Crafted Gift #4: Some homemade silhouettes for my mom! (One of each of her 4 kiddos)

In order of appearance into this world: Me, Adam, Luke and Karli.  Please note that the silhouette of me is, in fact, me, and not a llama.

Crafted Gift #5: Country Western Coasters for Grandpa Marvin!

Hold up…let's take a closer look at that Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton coaster.

In the words of Grandpa Marvin, "Well…hoooowdiieee do!"

I also ventured into the "personalized tea towel" world, but, alas, I don't have any proof.  You'll just have to believe me.

One last thing I have to show you…I did not make these.  Nor did I buy them.  But I most certainly did rock them in the store.

Let the zoom-in commence…

Heck yes these are moon boots.  I can't believe no one snatched them up!  Perhaps everyone else had the same thought I did.  "Well, these are really cool, but…what am I thinking?  I'm just not her."

Nor do I have the matching star-horse.

Happy 2013, everyone.

Hi-Tech Nuns and Harry Potter

This morning I went to hang out with the old people, and it was lovely as usual.  We made some bracelets, watched part of an old Cary Grant movie and ate Christmas cookies for breakfast.  A perfect morning.

Towards the end of my visit, I spied a nun who came to spread Christmas cheer.  She brought a friend with her, and at one point the Sister said to her friend, "Just shoot me a text on my cell."  My reaction was a bit something like this:

...Shocked and clutching a land line in a scrumptious mock turtleneck.  I guess I just never think of nuns as being hi-tech.  I picture them living a simplistic old-fashioned kind of life--praying the rosary, serving those in need, and occasionally smacking the back of a young wrist with a ruler.

And it made me think, this nun is even more hi-tech than I am.  I am 27, currently not residing in a convent, and yet still use the old land line as my primary mode of telephone communication.  I do own a $10 trac-phone (at the insistence of my husband, in case my car breaks down somewhere...sensible enough).  And while I have been known to use it occasionally (even the 25-cent text feature), most of the time it sits in the bottom of my purse, either dead or off.  I'm trying to get better about this.  Whatever, I'm not much of a phone-talker anyway.  Thank goodness for good old-fashioned email and facebook!  Maybe someday I will be as hip as the nun with the smart phone.

Where does Harry Potter come into all this?  He comes in on a riddikulusly unrelated note, of course.  (Ahem, I do know how to spell ridiculously...previous spelling was for the enjoyment of the Potter turbo-fans.)  As we all know, 'tis the Christmas season, and this year I got one of those "wild hairs" to make a random Christmas sewing project.  Unashamedly, I present you with my Harry Potter Christmas pillow...

These are a couple of simple lines from the first movie, only ashamedly, I got them backwards on my pillow.  Oops!  Oh well.

I wish you a very Happy Christmas!