Wrapping It Up.

Can anyone stand one more Christmas picture? It's amazing how quickly the holiday disappears after taking so long to get here. I had mentioned in a past post about putting my energies into wrapping, and I must say I was MOST HAPPY with my results. I wrapped all the luggage tags this way (and other small items)...using the most christmassy, beautiful pages from my millions of catalogs as paper, tied with a simple butchers string. I thought they looked great and were a perfect way to recycle. After all, someone put a lot of thought into the layout and design of those pages, so why spend money when you have best designers working for you?



I'm pretty good at recycling and composting, but I think this new year, I'll try to be even better. If everyone would just do ONE THING of their choice every day, what a difference it would make. Top of my list is trying really hard to remember to carry my cloth bags into the market, and NOT remember they're in the car as I'm checking out.

One Christmas Project

I didn't make a lot of things for people this Christmas. I've given so many good and bad homemade things over the years that I've decided not to subject my friends and family to anymore for a while. So I put my efforts into the wrapping and when I felt like I just HAD to do something with fabric I made these for my co-workers. Luggage tags.



The idea is not mine, but I took it and made it better by adding some dangly things and using more than one piece of fabric. And using fancy stitches.



I used the plastic luggage tag that's put out by 3M UNITEK and stitched it to a rectangle sandwich and layed strips of fabric along the top edges to secure it. Some I made fabric ties for and some I just used the loop provided in the package.



They're about the size of a postcard and very bright, so when all those dark blue bags come rolling down the ramp, their's will stand out.

A Litter of Greetings all over my floor...

A day's project. Making little trees that make little cards for the holidays.

Peace

Kate's homemade gift

Holiday Scene

Hanging from the ceiling at work...a sun to celebrate the return of the sun on December 21st, a snowflake (in front of the sun) to celebrate winter, colorful balls and poinsettias (not hanging) to celebrate the holiday season...pretty. And when you're laying in the dental chair, these are right in your line of vision.

Frayed Edges met yesterday for more of a holiday lunch and gift exchange as opposed to seriously sharing art and critiquing. It was wonderful to do nothing but visit at this busy time of year. And everyone had made homemade gifts to share....pictures soon.

I love to finish a project and see the results all snuggled in a pretty box ready for delivery. I might love it as much as red felt flower(check out her show display), though I have great intentions that sometimes never see the light of day. I made these pins for a show and sale my friends Kate and Hannah were doing and it was such a pleasure to send them off, but not before I took this picture.



The pins were in an article in Quilting Arts magazine several years ago, something like "A Hundred Pins in a Weekend", (Issue 9,:30), which speaking of, have you seen the great 2001-2006 article index in the back of the latest QA magazine? What a great idea! They've probably done it before but I don't remember ever seeing it.



Here's a closeup of the pin. Once it's done, I've attached it to a little card the same size as a business card. Actually, I use my business card program to make it and print it on Avery Clean Edge Business Card stock. It makes a pretty piece and people seem to really like them. All made from leftovers, which is the best part!

Nutcracker close up and personal

Every Christmas season my sister and her husband's ballet company perform the Nutcracker all over the state, starting the weekend before Thanksgiving way, way up north in Maine. Robinson Ballet has been doing this for at least 25+ years. Long enough for their son, Ian,( see my archives for the brag on Ian) to grow up and go from one of the little children in the opening scenes, to Fritz, the naughty brother who breaks the Nutcracker, to dancing the Cavalier to his mother's Sugar Plum Fairy, and this year coming home from NYC (Paris actually) to dance with a fellow professional dancer from NYC. Victoria. Beautiful and graceful, long neck, long legs. Youth. By the time we got backstage, they had already changed out of their costumes, but this is what Victoria wore:



They hang them upside down to keep them fluffy.

Ian is like a kid magnet. He's one of those kids that gets right down on the floor with the kids and let's them climb all over him. So, of course they LOVE him and no mattter where they are, start the climb...even in a crowded backstage aisle.



We attended the afternoon matinee and since they had time before the next performance that evening, we hung out at the student union at UMO. The little ones were more than accomodating with well deserved massages for the dancers:



Ella and Maureen



Charlie and the Sugar Plum Fairy. He was a little shy of her at first but then got right into his duties! I could go on about how the kids were so excited to see Ian actually dance and JUMP and SPIN (how come he's doing that?) or how anxious they were for the end to come, but I won't. It's a great holiday tradition, one I hope everyone enjoys with a little kid sometime.

My sister, maureen and her husband Keith and Ian...maureen is turning 50 next week, and when you see her onstage she still looks like a teenager. I told her I was very happy there was finally a sister with a 5 as the first age number. It's been a lonely 6 years.



Family Portrait