FINALLY!!!

Well folks I've finally gotten around to posting this long awaited guide to the fruits of my late nights of Christmas crafting. Perhaps you'd like to get yourself a snack...this is going to be a long one! I'd like to start out by saying that this Christmas season, following the worst Christmas season of my life, has probably been one of my most memorable. I really enjoyed every minute of time I spent dreaming up the perfect crafty gifts and executing their construction. Although I'm not sure I'll ever have the time to construct Christmas to this magnitude again I will definitely be making some heartfelt gifts a part of my Christmas routine in the years to come! Without further ado...

Let's begin with a couple of cheats. This little apron was actually constructed for my second cousin, Marlo's, third birthday which was the first week of December. It totally counts because we all know that Christmas comprises the whole month of December and a week or two of January as well. I was quite proud of how well this turned out considering that I didn't have a pattern for it!

This is the toy box that Daddy made for Sofie this year. Originally I had plans to paint it to match her crib quilt but Daddy was dead set against me covering his nice wood up with icky paint. Just to be sure I wouldn't RUIN it he dragged out the construction over several weeks and didn't bring the completed project home until around 10PM on Christmas Eve! What a stinker!

Now on to the non-cheats! This is a little house that I made out of these great cardboard sheets that arrived along with our order of Sofie's one-year portraits. Unfortunately, I'm not always the brightest bulb in the box and this one has already found a new home in the dumpster :(. This was the last craft I completed and I assembled and painted it late into the night on Christmas Eve in the middle of the living room. After Christmas, when I was working on tidying up the hurricane that is post-Christmas I realized that it was too big to fit through the door to Sofie's bedroom. It had a brief stay in the living room followed by a visit to the kitchen underneath the coat rack where we piled our coats on top of it because we could no longer reach the coat rack. It was a brave little house, but alas, it couldn't stand up to the pressure exerted by the weight of all those coats piled on top of it and the roof finally caved in. Oh well...good thing it was practically free! Next time I'll remember to make my cardboard constructions a bit more flexible!

This next one is probably the present that I was most excited about creating this year. It is an advent calendar that I made for the Vance family. I was so excited about it because of my intentions to start a little family tradition with it's help...send off the calendar to Auntie Sam sometime in November and get it back by the first of December all full of treats. Doesn't that sound like fun! I'm already collecting goodies to fill up all those little pockets!

This is a car organizer that I made for GranDebbie. She is the proud owner of a brand new car and I thought she might like to have a fun organizer to keep it neat and tidy!

This is an ornament that I constructed for Kyle and DeAnna. It is a replica of the new house that they recently purchased. Maybe if you're lucky I'll go fetch an actual picture of the house for you so you can grade my handiwork! I also made a decorative throw pillow for Kyle and DeAnna out of the fabric from the bridesmaid dress that I wore at their wedding in October. It was made to match their new bedset. Alas, it is the only craft that I failed to take a picture of. Maybe (again if you're lucky) a little fairy will take a picture of it for me and send the picture to my email so I can post it for you!

This next one teaches a valuable lesson...If you're going to try your hand at a few crafts you had better leave lots of room for hiccups. This was my big hiccup this year. I should have known better!!! I wanted to grow a little herb garden for my mom who has often remarked in the past that she would love to have some fresh herbs growing in her kitchen. The problem is that my thumb is decidedly ungreen. I have been working on keeping these dumb herbs alive since way back in October. As you can see, three of them are sort of alive, and the fourth never even bothered to sprout!

These salt dough snowmen were a fun and easy project that was also with my mom in mind. She collects snowmen and Santa figurines which she displays in her curio cabinet each holiday season.

And last but not least...this was our gift to Grampy Dan this year! He received a similar gift two years ago to announce the impending arrival of Miss Sofie Bean Claire Worm. (I really thought I had posted a picture of it on this blog way back when, but it turns out that this blog didn't come about until January of '07...after Christmas!)

This is also the REAL reason that I have been dragging my feet on this post. I wanted to wait until after our first prenatal appointment, and the reassurance that everything is progressing normally, to make the announcement that we are expecting Baby #2, The Sponge! We trekked out this morning, all three of us, to visit the midwife that delivered Sofie sixteen (short!) months ago and had ourselves a little heartbeat party...BA-BUM! I have a LOT more to say on this topic, of course, but for now I think this post is long enough!