A Crafty Little Christmas Part II

As I reflect on A Crafty Little Christmas, I'm now searching for shortcuts to the gifts.  For Whisking you a Merry Little Christmas, rather than coming up with your own cookie mix just go to the store and buy a pre-mixed cookie or brownie mix.  You could do cocoa with mugs as well.

Have Yourself a Crafty Little Christmas/Chanukah

So the economy is in the stinker.  I can't help but wear my accidental environmentalist and cheapskate-ness on my sleeve.  If you're near and dear to me, stop reading, or this will be a Christmas Day spoiler.

My siblings and I have had a $50 limit for a while but this year I'm going to make my $50 stretch as far as it will go by recycling and using things around the house.  It's more of an experiment to see just how much quality stuff I can get out of my $50.  Christmas should be about giving things that people wouldn't normally buy or make because they don't have time or the ability.  The commercial aspect of Christmas has really driven the heart part underground so when I say "things around the house" that sounds cheap and crappy but there are some pretty cool things you can do and A LOT of them for under $50.

I've had crafty little Christmas' before and if you're looking at this list hoping for inspiration the night before Christmas, be prepared for a long night.  I started my prep for Crafty Little Christmas back in July and have started putting things together lately.  Today is November 14, if you're reading this today, "git 'er done".

Here is my workshop list:

1.  Stick it in Your Ear:  This Year's Soundtrack; I'm making a cd of the top 15 tunes I've listened to all year.  I listen to NPR in the car, downloaded tunes and pod casts every where else and the only time I hear anything new is at a movie or in a trendy shop where I probably don't fit in anyway so I would love to hear what other people are listening to.  A mixed tape would be an awesome gift.  Don't think too hard about what the recipient would like, give them your top 15!  Don't even think about buying a new CD jewel case!  Make your own origami cd case or take two pieces of fabric, sew together, turn right side out and hem for a quick cd case.

2.  A whisk, a wooden spoon, an old spaghetti sauce jar and the dry fixings for cookies with your cookie recipe.  Oh yea, tag it with "Whisking you a Merry Christmas or Happy Chanukah".

3.  I'm making my own notebooks out of recycled paper, using the comb binder I now own and unique things for notebook covers like cereal boxes, VHS boxes, cake mix boxes etc.  You get the idea.

4.  Bath mitts.  For the kids I bought NEW towels and I'm making them into bath mitts with eyes and fins.  I'm sure Martha can help you embellish but very simply, just trace your hand onto a towel, give yourself about an inch for seam allowance and to make it ridiculously big for bath tub scrubbing.

5.  Tree ornaments.  I'm using scraps of fabric to make all sorts of new ornaments for people's trees but in fabric that is trendy/decorator/suits their fancy.  My sister in-law really likes Mickey so guess what she's getting?

6.  Sweater buddies.  For $1 or $2 at a thrift store, you can pick up a nice, shrunken sweater that can be easily dismantled and turned into a stuffed animal.  Martha (of course) has the instructions: www.marthastewart.com (tip: search for one of a kind woolen gifts).

7.  Yeah, people will probably get shopping bags from me this year.  Go green or go home.

8.  iPod cozies.  Take the stuff you didn't use off the shrunken sweater from your sweater buddy in #6 and make a cozy to keep iPods safe.

9.  Pre-made scrap book pages.  I'll be the first to admit that it's not that I don't enjoy my family and it's not that I don't like scrap booking, I'm just not very good at it.  I would love somebody to commandeer my pictures or just give me pages and say "here, put your pictures in here".

10.  New stockings.  I'm making new stockings and resisting all temptations to put names and years on the stockings.  The thing about Christmas stockings is that some people cling to their sock with great sentimentality and some of us want to shake it up a little bit every year.  Why not give a stocking that can be given away as a re-gift for the next year or handed down to a child?

11.  Frozen dinners.  Don't grimace.  I love this.  Make a huge batch of chili and save off two nights in containers as a gift for somebody.  It kind of sounds lame, unless of course you have kids and a full time job and then it sounds like a little piece of Heaven.

12.  Hand shaped cookies.  Back in my magnetism posts I went over what grandparents go "Wow!" over.  If you thought they liked junior on the fridge, just wait until you trace his/her hand onto a piece of paper and then use that as a template for sugar cookies.  Give grandparents little hands they really can nibble on and you will have a winner for sure.

And that exhausts my creative list.  Somebody is going to have to come up with a list for me to work off next year.  As soon as I have pictures, I'll start posting.  In the meantime, people, please add to the list!

Special Olympics Scarves

Do you want to volunteer for the Special Olympics?  Can you knit or crochet?  Well, I have a project for you!  The organizers are looking for 5000 scarves to give each of the athletes.  So far, they have over 1000 and need quite a few before the games start in February.  If you're interested, click the link embedded in the title of this blog entry!  Scarves are due by January 15, 2009.

How Martha is Getting Me into Trouble This Week

I saw an episode of Martha Stewart a few weeks ago where they did a simple embroidery with felt.  I'm hooked.  Just one more way for me to put stuff on my eco-smart canvas shopping totes.  I made one for myself for the zoo.  It's unbelievably easy and incredibly addictive.    Anyway, this is what has been keeping me from posting lately!

Black and White Issues

Black and white weddings are really popular and with good reason.  I don't know of a more exquisite color scheme.  I've had a lot of orders from brides lately and one of them is having a black and white wedding.  She ordered a gift for a bridesmaid from me and then posted my shop on a wedding forum.  I was pretty thrilled just to get posted somewhere else! I got so excited (probably a little too much so) that I decided I would make an eye mask in a black and white damask fabric.

Yeah, that turned into bookmarks, coffee cup sleeves and of course, magnets.  I started thinking about the eye masks though.  It's a great 30 minute project and Martha (of course) has a template.

My thought process wandered from there.  I have a book with a template for an eye mask in it but I don't dare use it because it strictly forbids using any of the patterns for re-sale items.  Okay, I get it.  Copyright protection is a good thing but how far is too far on some of this stuff?  I'm really glad Mr. Business Card didn't copyright the shape of his business cards it would cost me a bloody fortune every time the kids wanted a 2"x3" rectangle cut.

When does something become non-unique enough that we no longer need to worry about copyrights?  I have my own bag patterns that I have created, and I'm really very fond of them, but is it really necessary?  If I invent a new wheel and even if the wheel is similar enough to the old wheel but new enough to garner interest, have I broken an agreement I may or may not be aware of with Mr. Wheel?  When is my interpretation of the wheel different enough for me to sell my own?  What expectations should we have for a genius idea like the wheel?  Shouldn't I be happy everybody else wants to make their own?  My kids are pretty good looking.  Should I investigate protecting their image now?  If they run for public office someday, I could make a mint off every campaign button.  Maybe that's the problem, the desire for money outweighs common sense.

Why isn't it more of  a simple black and white issue?  I need a lawyer.  Especially if Martha sues me for linking to her website.  Please don't sue me Martha.

Just stuff it....

I'm a purger.  Even though my office desk is a bit messy, I generally don't like to keep things.  Once it's been used to its fullest potential, I donate, recycle or throw it out.

Even though I'm a purger, I still like to do things in a conservative or ecosmart way.  When I started my side business I realized just how expensive it is to start anything up.  In order to sell things you need to have things to sell.  That seems simple enough.  So, I had to buy supplies.  The more I got to know the industry, the better I was able to understand the demand and what people are looking for.  In handbags, people are usually looking for something extraordinary and that means, for me, using a lot of designer fabrics.

Designer fabrics are expensive.  They are typically about $5 more per yard than fabric you would pick up at a local craft/fabric store.  These fabrics are not carried at local fabric stores like JoAnn or Hancock Fabrics, you have to either order them online or go to a specialty quilt shop.  The first time I used one of these designer fabrics, I was very careful.  When I finished making whatever I was making I had scraps left over.  I felt a pang that a purger rarely feels.

I couldn't just throw the little scraps away but what would I ever use them for?  The same thing with thread.  I go through a lot of it and a lot ends up getting cut off the end of a seam.  At first I had to just resolve to throw it away and then I came up with an alternative, stuff it.

Now, when I sew, I keep a small bin next to my sewing machine and throw scraps into it.  I can always dig through it and grab a scrap for a covered button etc. but if it doesn't get used in a timely manner, I take the scraps and put it in the middle of things I make for the kids.  My example here is a little globe.  I made one for both of the kids and while the outer, cushy stuff is fiberfill, the core of the globe is made up of scraps I used.  

It's my way of saving some money and reducing what I put into the garbage.  Yeah, I used the globe as an example because I'm a bit amused that the directions called for the hole for the stuffing to be located in Antarctica.  Just in case that one flew by you, think ozone.

Eco-Smart Ideas

As you are aware, I love to post my eco-smart ideas and findings in my blog.

I saw the best one yet today at a Thai food place. A woman walking out of the restaurant carried out a large, quart sized yogurt container. I couldn't help but wonder, why on earth did she have a yogurt container in her hand? It took me a minute and then it dawned on me, the eco-smart solution for styrofoam carry out containers is to bring your own re-usable container.

Why didn't I think of that?? If you're going out to eat you already know the portions are going to be too large (unless you go to one of those places with cloth tablecloths) so why not bring your own carry out/to-go container?

Just another "duh Nik" moment.