little skiers, mushroom cake, baby bears and stone houses

A post of personal odds and ends to wrap up the year:

Simple Christmas crafts are one of my favorite things (see: macaroni snowflakes, salt dough ornaments stamped and drawn, elf villages). Unfortunately for me, the will to craft doesn't generally hit until about December 20th, which means that I am either frantically trying to finish projects in the midst of epic cookie baking and assorted festivities, or have a bunch of half-finished Christmas projects hanging around after the 25th.

These little skiers were a two-season projects. They got half done last year, and the finishing touches were added this year. They are very easy to make — all you need is wooden peg people, popsicle sticks, hot glue and acrylic paint. The scarves are scraps of rick-rack, ribbon and twine, and the hats are the tips of lost gloves. Tiny pompoms, jingle bells and buttons add the finishing touches.

Another holiday project: mushroom cake. Inspired by Hither and Thither, using Sprinklebakes' (very delicious) recipe. 

Hugh has been busy wearing his bear hat.

And in other news, we bought a house: our very first. It was built in 1929 and has a secret bookcase door. We'll move in January.

Happy holidays!

in case you are interested

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The very first meeting, open to any and all. Topics of discussion will include Transcendentalism, Pilgrim's Progress, potboilers, moral pap, burned breadths, pickled limes, and the difficulties of balancing necessary work with personal ambition. Stop by and have a cookie - I'm baking them myself.

(If you like to plan ahead, January's book is The Light Princess.)

working on: stamped salt dough ornaments

A variation on the salt-dough ornament tutorial I did for Katy Elliott last year. They were rolled out and lightly stamped with ink before I cut and baked them.

Happy holidays!

holiday shop

Etsy shop open, from today through December 18th. Enjoy!

working on: little houses

 

 

It's that time of year again.

I didn't make as many elf villages as I did last year, but I did make them in two sizes - tiny and small. Some of them have fancy Japanese paper siding, and some have roofs that are shingled (apparently, the elf economy is immune to recession).

If the weather is bright enough today, I'll try and get better pictures so that I can officially post these and a few other things to my annual holiday etsy shop. As before, they will be sold complete with LED flickering tealights so that it looks like the tiny inhabitants are warming themselves in front of tiny fires.

working on: salt dough ornaments

I have a guest post up today at Katy Elliott's blog about making salt dough ornaments. For more pictures, go here.

cold days in cleveland

I was sad over the holidays that we didn't get real snow - it flurried on Christmas day, but barely - so I made some of my own. I finally took my snowflakes down this week, and real ones have arrived, right on cue.

I'm ordering a pair of these, going through soup recipes, and taking my cues from the dog:

Time to hunker down.

working on: macaroni snowflakes

I love doing little kid crafts, and this is one of my favorites. I made my first macaroni snowflake when I was seven - it was silver and had red glitter. It twinkled merrily from my parents' tree for the next twenty Christmases until an unfortunate encounter with a wagging tail sent it flying to the floor. My mother was disconsolate. To cheer her up, I offered to make her a new, better macaroni snowflake ornament ... and I did. I actually made 80. I gave most of them away as hostess gifts. This year, I decided it was time for another batch.

It's pretty fun. I came up with nine different shapes using just three types of macaroni - fiori, small shells, and wagon wheels. The best part is that you can have the unused materials for lunch.

working on: little houses

I love cardboard holiday villages. Finding vintage sets in good shape is difficult, and most modern sets are a little uninspired, so a couple of years ago I started to make my own, in a couple of different styles. They've proved to be popular gifts.

This particular model recycles old cardboard tubes as the base. I save the ones from the center of gift wrap, paper towels, lint rollers, etc. because paper alone isn't sturdy enough to make a solid little house. A dremel tool comes in handy to cut down the tubes and to bore holes for windows and doors. I think all mini-houses look better lit up - I love seeing light peeking out the tiny windows - and these are the perfect size to accommodate flickering LED tealights.