Crafty Christmas

It’s been quite a crafty Christmas. I love making and doing but haven’t been able to find much time for that lately for all sorts of reasons. But I’ve been making more effort lately to do the creative things I enjoy so much. Priorities, and all that.

I mentioned I’d had a bash at serviettage (paper napkin decoupage). I turned out a couple of festive advent calendars and some rather nice candles. I also made this decoration but it’s slightly weird. It’s definitely shrine-like! It seemed a good idea at the time!

I finally got round to finishing my latest pair of socks. These are my Starry Night socks, made from wool reflecting the colours in that wonderful Van Gogh painting. For the first time I did some patterning on the ankle. It was slow going, and because of the multi-coloured wool, it doesn’t really show up, so I’ll stick to less fancy designs from now on. I’m also on the verge of becoming over-socked so will have to turn my efforts elsewhere for a while.

Don’t worry, I wasn’t about to stamp on Nessie!

I’ve been making some felt plushies too, inspired by the craze for those rather cute Happy Makers. I started off with some llama tree decorations.

And then Caiti is into minions so I had a go at one for her. Next came goodies to go inside my homemade crackers for the Dagg family, and then I did a few keyrings – a llama and a zombie kitty – just for fun!

Caiti made the octopussy like one – can’t remember it’s proper name – from a kit I gave her for Christmas. She’s been bitten by the crafting bug and rattled off this Grumpy Cat last night.

So I intend to have a bit more downtime in 2014. The trouble with working for yourself is that it’s hard to stop but is important to have a life too. And it’s fun to make silly stuff!

And even Rors got crafty too. He made some lovely soaps as Christmas presents. He made four and we’re a family of five, but one was so nice – the peppermint one – he couldn’t bear to give it away! So I was left soapless…