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Since my parents do Christmas presents on the Eve, we didn’t have much planned for the rest of Christmas Day after opening our own presents. I was delighted that Starr invited us over along with Geneva, Layne and Phoenix. I always get so bummed out right after opening presents. So much preparation and excitement and hub bub for the one big day and then bam, all done. Of course it’s fun to play with all the goodies you got but I still get a little sad when it’s all over. So I was happy to prolong it just a little bit with a party at Starr’s house! Woohoo! I made pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, my now “famous” homemade thin mints, macaroni and cheese and some pretzles with chocolate kisses and M&M’s on top and homemade chocolate lollipops.

We played a fun game while we were there. Everyone gets a sticker on their back with the name of a celebrity that made the news that year. We have to guess who we are by asking yes or no questions to everyone else. It was so much fun! I was Michael Jackson and I was suprised at how long it took me to guess him! Yves was Bernie Madoff and he was the last to guess. So a bit later we did the White Elephant. Everyone brings a gift and one person picks a gift and opens it. Then the next person on the list can either take away your gift or opt to open a new gift. I goofed by only bringing one gift from me and Yves. The kids each got a gift but got to keep the ones they opened! I ended up getting scratch off lottery tickets (no winners, boo!) and Yves got coffee mugs and dish towel/mitt because Geneva was nice enough to be the one short changed a gift. The big prize was the Blue Mountain coffee I gave as a gift. Geneva opened it and it got taken by Starr. LOL. Brian made pulled pork sandwiches with homemade BBQ sauce, collard greens, butternut squash and slaw. Geneva brought over a wonderful green salad with cranberries and walnuts in it. It was really a fun time!

Layne, Yves, Geneva and Starr

Sylvie and a messy cookie

Sienna didn’t do too badly with the chocolate!

Sienna got a platypus for her White Elephant gift, which she promptly called a duck.

Nico watching excitedly as his dad Brian opens his gift (2 frames and M&M’s)

Phoenix got our puzzles!

The kids flocked around Yves a lot that night!

Starr and Sylvie

Some great peeps!

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Yes, I realize I am really behind in my posts and in wishing you all Happy Holidays. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves and got lots of great presents and spent time with the ones you love! I have the Jamaica vacation to write about as well as lots of swaps but wanted to start off with Christmas.

My parents came over on the Eve (as per tradition) and we all got our red envelopes. We gave my dad a OXO chopper and a melon slicer device. My mom got a calendar of Sienna photos. Sienna got a bunch of presents! She got some a new frog animal (she named Ribbit), wood blocks, a Winne the Pooh computer (which she promptly said that she was going to check her e-mail!), a vest jacket, fleece and sweatshirt with Tinklebell and some Tag books (she didn’t open the actual Tag device until Christmas morning since that was from us.) Then we went to eat at the East River restaurant in the Brooklyn Chinatown. It was all good!

Christmas morning Sienna woke up at 6:20 with excitement to open presents. They usually let me sleep a bit but Sienna came into the bedroom to wake me up! Well, how could I say no? Originally we were thinking of holding back some presents since Yves bought her a bunch of stuff and I bought her a bunch of stuff. We decided to just hold back one present (to save for her birthday) after spending 10 days with a certified brat of a toddler, it made us appreciate how well behaved Sienna is (for the most part anyway, she still is only 3 months shy of being 3!) And the fun begins! Yves got her a bunch of Melissa and Doug wooden toys. She got fake wood food, wood pots and pans and a set of instruments for her “band.” She also got the Tag Reader and another tag book from us as well as 3 more wooden puzzles and a tool set and bench from Santa. My brother sent her a Curious George write your own book set and from Jamaica, a ballerina wooden puzzle and some crocs. I gave Yves a diver’s watch, an F1 driving game, Boom Blox (2nd version) and sports set for the Wii. I also gave him the Christmas version of It’s Almost Sunny in Philadelphia. Yves spoiled me as well. I got the Hello Kitty sizzix that I wanted (for cutting fabric and felt! woohoo!) with a bunch of the dies. I also got a new pocket camera! Mine broke earlier this year and Yves was tired of me asking to borrow his (actually the one that broke was his too! He bought that one when Sienna was born to take quick shots of her!) We ended the fun by having a yummy breakfast of homemade buttermilk waffle and bacon. Later on we went to Starr’s house for a fun party that I will write about tomorrow!

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So I don’t want to leave the last post before vacation to be about pain. So here is something fun!

We went to the Kings Plaza Mall on Sunday. Yves dropped us off. He was supposed to come with us but when we went out to the car Sunday morning, the car wouldn’t start! The battery was dead! At first we couldn’t figure out why, we’ve only had the car for 7 months! Turns out the lights were left on! By Sienna! Sienna likes to sit in the front seat and “drive.” I usually let her but on Friday, we got back from our playdate later than usual so we were behind schedule. She had scooted into the front seat before I can stop her so since it was late, I just grabbed out of the seat. I only saw that she turned the wiper handle so I put that back. I didn’t notice she turned on the lights! I called my dad and he came and gave us a boost. Turns out that my dad saw the lights were on as they had stopped by on Friday just when we got home! He just assumed that they shut off by themselves. Argh! Yves was nervous to go to the mall and shut off the car and be stranded so he just dropped us off and drove back so the battery has a chance to recharge. Everything is fine now.

Waiting for Santa

Getting ready (I got yelled at for having my camera out)

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I’ve mentioned this numerous times before or at least something similiar, if I didn’t do crafts, I’d probably drive myself crazy. You know the saying idle hands is the devil’s work? Did I get that right? That goes along with an idle brain too. Not that crafting is rocket science but if my mind wasn’t thinking about crafts or making something, it would be focusing too much on analyzing all my daughter’s moves or any other such nonsense. People always marvel about all the things I make and I say, well I MUST! It’s my sanity! With that, here are some of the latest things I’ve done!

There’s a meetup group I belong to where Heather sells Stampin Up products. I haven’t really been much into stamping lately but I stay in the group because I like that the meetings are in Bay Ridge. She had a recent class at the Storefront making jewelry and I was super excited about that! The projects were making a bracelet using Build A Brads and a pendant using game pieces. Another project was making a pin stamping and painting on thin wood.

Here are some of the custom brads I made. You can then attach this to a bracelet. I haven’t commited to that yet.

Here’s the butterfly pin (wood) and the game piece pendant (the game piece is on the bottom right, I didn’t put my stamped piece in yet)

And of course, lots of swap projects too! I mentioned that I was in a lot of Christmas ornament swaps. They are fun as I get to try making lots of different ornaments and get some fun ones in return!

This partridge pattern is from Retro Mama.

This mouse is from Pimp Stitch.

I got this penguin template from the Crafts & Things magazine archives. It was actually intended for a card.

This house is from Orange Flower Patterns.

Snowman courtesy of Lion Brand Yarns

And other swaps besides ornaments:

Owl swap in the Felt and Stuff group. Pattern from Wee folk art. It’s actually a doorstop but I opted not to put any pellets in it. My partner was in the UK after all.

Crochet Christmas Light potholder. For the I Made This swap! LOL! (I downloaded this pattern last year and can’t find the link. If you want the pattern, please let me know.)

For an embroidery swap. My partner loves Doxie’s so I googled it and found this image to embroider.

This is the 2nd time I’ve made this recipe cozy. This time I used the recipe cards she created for this and included my favorite banana bread recipe. This was for the I Made This swap (same partner as the potholder above)

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I don’t have to tell you how much I enjoy crafting and making things. Truth be known, tho, left to my own devices I probably wouldn’t get much done! I can procrastinate and get lazy and then I would feel bad and really be down on myself and really never get anything done! It could be a vicious cycle. That’s why I’m so glad for swap-bot! Although I sometimes do wait for the last minute with some swaps, I try not to. Here are some recent swaps I’ve sent.

For the Halloween Felt Fun swap that I forgot to post before:

For the Wearable Kawaii Cute:

A Bear Brooch from this Felties book (which I adore!)

A Hello Kitty glass pendant

For the Crafting Queens group Profile Surprise (send 1 thing they like and 1 thing they craft) so I sent my partner 2 fat quarters and made 3 awareness pins from felt (breast cancer, kidney cancer and asthma).

I’ve joined a bunch of Holiday Ornament swaps and 2 of them were due in October. It was a little hard to get into the Christmas spirit before Halloween!

The gingerbread pattern is from Elsie Marley and the Santa is from a Japanese craft book I recently got.

The above 2 ornaments were for the same partner. The cow I kinda made myself from an image on the internet and the angel is from a Craft n Things archived issue. My partner likes cows and angels!

The following is for the Wacky Holidays November swap (you pick 4 holidays and send stuff for them)

Party with your Bear day (Nov 16) I crocheted the bear and put a party hat and included invites and confetti.

Recipe cozy for Cook Something Bold day November 8 (with some 2 “bold” recipes and blank recipe cards). It was a bit big for the standard recipe cards and I knew that but decided to follow the pattern anyway. I should have made it smaller or at least use the recipe cards designed for this.
I made a felt magnet for Deviled Egg day (Nov 2)
The last holiday I picked was Absurdity Day (Nov 20) and sent a silly fortune fish (the kind you put in your palm to “read” your fortune)

This last craft I’m posting was actually for a Winner Take All tag on one of the forums. The winner drinks tea so I made this tea bag cozy for her. I think it came out so cute I might have to make one for myself!

I can’t find the actual pattern I used but here is a similar one. I found the pattern! It’s here.

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Saturday was Halloween and we went to the festival at Owl’s Head Park. It started at 2 so we opted not to give Sienna her nap. Of course she fell asleep right when we got there! She woke up when we tried to put her in her stroller and looked around and realized where she was and voila! She was awake!

I wanna ride dat!

The Maze ride

The short bouncy ride

Sliding down the maze ride

Got a ‘babboon’

I’m ambivalent about how the day went. Nobody’s fault but my own. I had delusions of grandeur. Last year she was sick so this was really her first Halloween (plus I think she would have been too young to really get it last year anyway). I was picturing her getting so into it. There were bouncy rides at the park and she went thru one and actually liked it! It was a maze and at the end you go down the slide. I was amazed because the last time a bouncy ride was involved was at Sesame Place and that didn’t go well. Ha, well I spoke too soon. She wanted to go on a jump up and down bouncy ride next and that didn’t last. At least she didn’t cry. Then there was the slide one that you could go on 2 times. She didn’t want to do the 2nd turn even though she said she liked it. It was really kind of an up and down day for me. I guess me and Sienna were both overwhelmed. We decided to enter the Fairytale Forest and encountered hunchback Minnie Mouse, Winnie the Fooh and “Kookie” Monster. LOL. I think you’ll know what I mean when you see the photos below. She really liked that and it made no difference to her that these fellows were a little ‘off.’ HA! Plus ske kept asking where Mickey was!

We ran into Geneva and Layne with Phoenix dressed up as a zombie bride and Starr with Nico as a firefighter and Sylvie as a little ladybug. Earlier we saw Liz with her dinosaurs Henry and Nora. Kerry was also therewith Rory as Spiderman. I’m sure there were lots of other people I knew there that we probably passed without noticing. We opted not to do trick or treating since I wasn’t sure how Sienna was going to hold up without her nap. We ended up having an early outside dinner at Yellow Hook Grille and I’m glad we did because it started to rain near the end of our dinner.

Sienna woke up crying for me at about ??? I don’t remember now. Oh,maybe 1:30 in the morning. I wasn’t surprised because of no nap and the excitement of the afternoon. (Although she did do this Thursday night but that night her nose was bleeding, a lot!) I tried to calm her and she tried to get me to sleep on the floor in her room (also a repeat of Thursday night). Another repeat is that she wanted to get up and out of bed. She eventually woke up around 6 and Yves got up. Later that day, she had a fever of 100.3. She seemed better after tylenol but then it went back up later that day and we ended up putting her to bed at 6:30 (which is technically 7:30 for her since we had daylight savings.)

She’s better today (cross fingers!) and she slept through the whole night last night (cross fingers again!)

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Time for some Halloween fun! First and foremost, I want to note that I indeed finish the skeleton stuffie I started at Etsy Labs earlier this month!

I opted to do the face features with fabric paint instead of black felt. I like him!
These are the handmade items I made for the Harajuku Girls Group Halloween Swap on swap-bot. I included other Halloween related items but didn’t take photos of those. The black cat and pumpkin keychain are made of felt and I got the pattern from a Japanese craft book I recently purchases. The black and orange towels were blank from Kohl’s and I embroidered matching cute skulls, an image I got from a Stampin’ Up catalog! I used Saral transfer paper for this, which worked out really well although I initially bought it to transfer images onto felt, which does not work so well!

Then last week Geneva and Phoenix came over to help carve the pumpkin we got from Lawrence Farms. I never carved a pumpkin before! Geneva was kind enough to do the initial cutting and gutting. She let me and Sienna carve out the face. We even roasted the seeds, also something I’ve never done before!

The Jack O’Lantern barely lasted a week (we kept it indoors). I read that if you put cinnamon powder inside and the cut rim, it would last longer. I don’t know if this is true but it gave the pumpkin a dark and dull look. It started rotting about 5 days after. I was going to put it outside on the patio but wanted to wait until closer to Halloween. Oh well. At least I know how to do it for next year!

I am also proud of myself for making part of Sienna’s Halloween costume and the accompanying piece for Yves to wear.  You’ll understand what I mean when you see it. I’ll post it after Halloween so I don’t ruin the surprise.

Yesterday I made chocolate covered peeps and chocolate covered pretzel rods with sprinkles. I’m not really a peeps person but I saw this idea at Jacques Torres being sold for $1.25! (I thought I saw it for $1.25 but then saw on someone’s blog that it was $2.25) So since someone sent me peeps in a swap, I wanted to try it out. Of course the ones from Jacques Torres probably tastes better because of the quality of chocolate (it better for that price!). I still haven’t tried it yet.  I’ll probably give it away at the Halloween festival tomorrow.

The ones at JT had eyes on them. I was going to put them on but realized I had the gel frosting so it would probably get all gooey in the bag.

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On the 10th we headed up north to Lawrence Farms to do some pumpkin picking upping and meet up with Tammy, Mark and Zack. It was a real nice farm with apple picking and lots of other veggies to pick. They even had a play village, fresh apple cider donuts and some goats, sheep and peacock. A pumpkin was picked and a few apples too. I didn’t pay attention to the pumpkin picking thinking that it was just going to rot like last year’s pumpkin. Now I wish I did as Geneva and Phoenix are coming over to help carve the pumpkin! Oh well. I wish we could have stayed longer at the farm but it was a bit windy and we didn’t dress appropriately (mind you, we did know it was going to be colder and brought sweaters but that wasn’t enough!). Afterwards we headed over to Tammy’s house for some delicious chili and Sienna played next to a bunch of other kids. It was a nice day.

Yves’ got 2 real cute videos on his post!

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(I had to try Jacques Torres ice cream while in the area! It was yummy!)

Etsy Labs moved to their new location in Dumbo in September. They were having some real cool labs in October and I vowed to go to them more often. Well, I’ve gone to every one in October! (The last Monday is open craft night and I don’t usually go to that.) It was helpful to be able to head out earlier and get there around 4. In the past, I usually go after 5 and there are always a lot of people there that don’t even look up when someone walks into the room. Now that I have gotten there early the last few times, I understand why! We are all intent on working on our creations that sometimes we don’t even notice someone has come in! LOL. The first Monday lab was making a paper card called Exquisite Corpse and was being held by Esther K. Smith, who wrote the book “How to Make Books” (among other books). I didn’t really like my creation so much but it could be the fact that my desire to do paper crafts is not as strong (I’m really into felt and fiber related crafts). I also met up with Rachel, co founder of one of my favorite sites, swap-bot. She didn’t like her creation either.

My creation

Me and Rachel’s work (taken by Julie of Etsy Labs)

The 2nd lab was something I was really looking forward to because it dealt with felt! I met up with Rachel even earlier and got some wicked hot cocoa at Jacques Torres. We got to the lab a little after 4 and started pretty soon after. It was making a skull stuffie being held by Diana Schoenbrun and it was a pretty big project so I didn’t even finish it (I vow to finish it by Halloween!)

A sample skull on the left, where I left off on mine on the right!

Rachel’s skull

Suzanna’s skull

Julia’s skull

This past week I met up with Rachel again and we got some more hot cocoa at Jacques Torres. She wanted to check out the ice cream shop next door but it was closed! I wonder if it was closed for the season because it wasn’t even cold out, the temps about in the 60’s, still perfect weather for ice cream! Drat!
This day’s lab was making felt photo pockets with Kata Golda (who just came out with a book, Hand Stitched Felt). She supplied the prettiest hand dyed felt! I loved the way it handled. And I finished my project!

My finished felt photo pocket. I believe Kata says it holds 24 photos!

Me and Rachel’s finished pieces!

These are Chelsea’s bird (top) and Suzanna’s bird (bottom). I really liked them and asked if I could photograph them!

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So yes, Yves posted about going to this already on October 4 so here are some more photos. We’ve gone every year for the past 3 years, since Sienna has been born so it has become a sort of tradition. Unfortunately, we did not get to dance like we did last year but it was still fun.

Me and Sienna crafted a tissue paper flower at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum booth.

Sienna loves lollipops and one booth was giving out these DumDum lollipops (the same ones she gets at the doctor’s office) She cried until she was able to go ask for one.

Looking on the old buses was fun.

Back of the bus. I imagine it can get quite crowded back here.

Sienna eating her Mozzarepa like she did last year. Me and Yves found the empanadas we liked from when we tried them the year before last. (I thought it was funny to see how busy those cops in the back were!)

We ended up going to Barnes and Noble so I could use the bathroom and we bought 2 new Dr. Suess books for Sienna. She really likes (most of) them. We hopped back on the train afterwards. The time seemed so short but she ended up taking a nap when we got home. She was tired from all the excitement I guess. I’m kind of looking forward to when her naps end so we can spend longer amounts of time at places. I know I’m going to regret saying that though!

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