Xmas Hats

I was stoked when my sister and her family moved to Denver. Not that I wouldn't miss them terribly, but it gave me four people to knit for who would actually need warm stuff! I made them all hats for Christmas.











Here's Jen wearing Lexi's hat:



And in this one Lexi was way too interested in pumpkin pie to cheerfully have her photo taken:



Who wants pie?

Felted Xmas Stockings

My new "gift item" this Christmas was stockings made from felted thrift store sweaters. These are fun, quick to make, and I think they'll be wonderful family heirlooms.

I made this one for my son, who loves anything black:





This one was for my daughter:





Here's the one I made for my daughter's boyfriend:





And here's my mom's:








And finally my dad's (this one is a little different on the front and back):









Everyone seemed to enjoy them. Next year, I'm making one each for myself and my hubby!

Ojai House Artist Faire

My friend Jean and I participated in a pre-Christmas art faire at a local shop, where we shared a table. It was an enjoyable afternoon, and fun to see what the other vendors were up to, but most of the attendees were just looking for ideas, I think. Can't blame them, I do the same thing!

Here are a few shots of our table.











We were situated under a huge old oak tree, which was beautiful, but not great for photos!

Melissa's Holiday Craft Party

We call her "ambitious Melissa," because she never met an idea she didn't execute. She has an annual holiday craft party at her house, and this year we all made holiday cookbooks. The assignment was to bring ten decorated recipe cards with your favorite holiday recipe, then we made the covers at the party. After all the stressing about making the cards, everyone came through with flying colors. Here are some of my favorites:











And here are my card and my cover:





I can't wait to try some of these delicious recipes!

Wine Harvest Postcards

The colors for this month's postcard exchange were awesome for me. "Wine Harvest" colors were everywhere in the California Wine Country, where we traveled the week of Thanksgiving. I took some photos and stole a few from some brochures (I wanted to add the grapes, and they were all gone when we were there) then turned them into a "Wine House:

Teresa's Red Page

I just looked back through my posts and realized I never posted a picture of the page I did in Teresa's Red journal. I guess I lost track of that amid all the boutique mania. And it seems I didn't take a photo of the cover, just a sort of chopped-off scan of the inside page. Oh, well. Here's that one anyway.



I'm not sure where the idea came from to create this "red hot mama's" dress from vintage postage stamps. I must have seen a similar idea in a magazine somewhere!

My Page in Pam's Rainforest Book

This is the third altered book I've worked on for the True Colors round robin (not including my own). Pam chose rainforest colors for her journal, which is a 33 rpm album binder. I found two photos I just had to use: one of a toad under a leaf and the other of a group of parrots in a tree.

Here's the toad page and insert:









And here's the parrot page and insert:

Bev's Color Quilt

Some of you might remember the color block collage I made for my daughter and her BF using my hand-painted papers. This collage is done on an 18 x 24-inch canvas. Here's a photo:



Well, I was just speechless when, after Thanksgiving dinner, Mark's (DH) sister presented me with a quilt she made based on this collage. The collage squares are 2x2, and Bev made the quilt with 4x4 squares of fabric, carefully selecting the fabrics to create the same effect as the original collage. The quilt is 42 x 50 inches. Amazing!



Bev intended it as a lap quilt, but this baby is going on a wall somewhere in my house so I can look at it every day. I was so touched that she would create something based on my design!

The Last of the Toddler Sweaters (for now)

Here are the last three sweaters I made for the boutique. The first two are repeats of designs I thought were particularly successful (and for which I had wool left!), but in different sizes.

This one is a size 1:





This one is a size 3:





This last one, in the style I'm calling "The Pippi Longstocking," is a size 4: