Merry Old Christmas Day...

... and happy new year! Thanks so much for the e-mails... I'll be starting on new orders this weekend, and hopefully restocking Gingersnap with Munkeh, Cuddly Bunny and others in the next couple of weeks.

This is officially the last day of Christmas- how quickly did that go by?! In our house growing up (and in a lot of houses in Newfoundland, apparently) we celebrated the end of Christmas... we had another big dinner, and we even hung our stockings up again on Old Christmas Eve. We'd get a few little things this time; Mom would tell us Santa Claus was on his way back to the North Pole and if he had anything left in his sack, he'd give it to boys and girls who hung up their stocking. She later told us it was for things she had forgotten/put away and couldn't find on Christmas Eve. I'm making little Old Christmas gifts for Baby M. and for my little niece and nephews, but they're still not quite finished (will hopefully be done by tonight). I'll post pics when they are!

This was our first Christmas with Baby M. :) Of course, he's not old enough yet to understand what's going on (and loved the wrapping paper as much as any gift) but it was SO NICE. We did a lot of visiting and he was so pleasant the whole time. He's a happy little boy... hardly ever cries and is almost always smiling, and really is a joy.

I did a homemade Christmas for a lot of my family members and friends this year. My sister did, too- she made all the kids beautiful onesies with felt-applique designs on them (her own patterns) and fleece pants (and she has a newborn and an always-busy two-year-old, so I'm doubly amazed at her). I got out the felted wool sweaters again and made mittens!






The mitten part was pretty easy to do- the pattern wasn't hard, and felted wool is really forgiving, so if the seams aren't all quite the same, it's not noticeable. The toughest part was the design. I needle-felted it on the back of the mittens and it took ages! It's done with wool roving (dyed but unspun wool) and a special barbed felting needle... instead of, say, drawing a design, you use the needle to poke, poke, poke the different colours of roving where you want them. The barbs on the needle cause the roving to mesh together with the felted wool, and that's how it stays together. I made a pair for myself, too, and they're pretty cozy.

I've just started three pieces of artwork for an upcoming show I was asked to take part in... I don't know if the details have been released or not yet, so I'll wait to talk about it, but it's a fundraiser for a fabulous cause!