Gingerbread House Ornament Finale & Heart Ornament

It's finally finished!

I decided to match the stitching color to the doorknob. While I was stitching it, all I could think of was green apple licorice so I'm imagining that licorice is what's holding my little gingerbread house together. Unfortunately, I'm afraid I'm too in love with it to give it to anyone else! The next gingerbread house I make won't be quite so elaborate and time consuming, but just as cute - I promise.

Anyways, I was feeling so accomplished after I finished my gingerbread house that I decided to tackle another ornament:

I simply cut out two red felt hearts and then a slightly smaller white felt heart. I started out by stitching on the stars, then stitching the decorative stitching around the heart. With the gold I had left, I went ahead and added the little gold centers. When I finished with that, I realized that in my enthusiastic haste I had forgotten to add my ribbon to my ornament. Luckily I was able to carefully sew it on without it showing in the front or the back. After accomplishing this magnificent feat, I sewed the back half of the ornament on and there you have it!

I still have several more ornaments to cut out and make. I can't believe that there's only one more week til Christmas! Between ornament making and knitting projects (all my knitting needles have a project on them), I'm going to be one busy little bee. I hope to have something nice for everyone on my list in time for Christmas. Wish me luck!

Gingerbread House Ornament, Part 2

Whew! Exams are finally done and now I can focus on making gifts for the holidays. Here's my progress so far:

I'm using the bright colored beads to simulate gum drops and the various white beads to simulate sprinkles., like they might use on a real gingerbread house - I've never made a gingerbread house before. The white beads are a combination of clear, frosty, and pearlized and both they and the colored beads were attached with white floss to the snow on the roof and chimney. I piped the door and the windows in brown floss to make them stand out, accenting them with the colored beads and the green button doorknob.

Next, I'll finish the snow on the back of the gingerbread house and then attach the two halves together. I haven't decided what color floss I'll be using to attach them together - should I use the same brown on my windows and doors, go with the simple white floss that I used on the snow, or go with a completely different (but complimentary) color? Decisions, decisions... I hope to finish the ornament this weekend sometime, maybe tonight, to show you  all :)

Meanwhile, I've been doing a little decorating around the house. Since we're in the middle of renovating, cleaning, and everything else we don't really have the space to put up a Christmas tree or go all out in our directions this year. We've hung a long strand of shiny silver tinsel around the door and hung our stockings with care.

Mine's the bigger red one, of course. I've also set up a little Christmas display on top of the electric heater that we have. It looks like a little black stove, has fake glowing logs and what looks like flames in the background. The only heat coming from it is the warm air being pushed out of the bottom. Perfect for cold toes and safe to boot. The fact that there's a Christmas tree and nativity set on top of this little stove makes me smile for some reason. Maybe it's the cheery flames and the sparkle from the ornaments.

The Lego Christmas tree was a present that I have one year as a stocking stuffer and decided it needed a more festive home with our darling little nutcracker and the nativity scene my grams gave me. The snowflake and the red ornament were crocheted by my mom, just like the adorable stockings. (I'm not the only one in my family who is crafty - all I learned, I learned from someone in my family!)  Here's a close up on them:

Gingerbread House Ornament, Part 1

Hello all! I know I said I would start a tutorial on my holiday-themed crafts on Friday but instead I was out having supper with a lovely couple who are like my extended family and some dear friends. We were having our own little Christmas celebration, fun Christmas poppers and all! It was absolutely delightful :)

Now, to business. I started out by sketching a simple gingerbread house design on a sheet of paper, working on the size and the decorations I would like to sew on it. I would show you the process but unfortunately, idiot me, I cut it up the sketch sheet to help me create the template you see below. I used graph paper to try and keep the pattern mostly symmetrical and cut it out. Then using my pattern, I set out to cutting all my pieces.

My base was cut out of the cinnamon color felt in the simple house shape that you see above. Next, I cut out the snow for my roof and chimney out of white felt and then, using the leftover scraps, cut out the windows and door. Finally, I'll decorate and assemble - you can see how I intend to assemble it above. For my decorating, I'm using floss that I bought in a multi-pack from Michael's and some beads and buttons that I've collected over the years.

Next snapshot, I'll show you how I've started to decorate my little gingerbread house!

I'm Not Dead Yet!

Sorry I've been so out of touch lately. Last week I wasn't feeling well and unfortunately, this week hasn't been much better. When I went in for my two week check-up this past Monday, the midwife prescribed an antibiotic to hopefully rid me of my sinus drainage and earache that's lingering from last week and the cough that started up this past weekend. Hopefully, I will be feeling better soon.

In the meantime, I've put the Bright Patches Blanket project on hold - temporarily. I've have forty-seven out of eighty-one patches finished and I just need to work on something else for a while. Since Christmas is only eighteen days away and we're a little tight on money right now, I've turned my creative juices toward making unique presents for our loved ones. I have a list of potential present projects for people (which I can't share, in case they're reading) and I already have some of the presents in the works. Almost everyone will receive a handmade felt ornament along with their gift.

We picked out our Christmas cards last Saturday. I'm actually looking forward to sending out Christmas cards from the two of us and the style we chose is simply beautiful. It looks like a woodblock print of a farm that's been tastefully colored in cheerful Christmas hues with just a little bit of glitter to make it sparkle. We have some colored calligraphy pens that we're going to use to address the envelopes and sign with, which will be a lot of fun.I can't wait to send them out - after all, this is our first Christmas married. It's very exciting! We already have some decorations and two darling stockings, courtesy of my talented mother.

Speaking of my mom, this evening I went over to help her assemble and decorate the Christmas tree. We put on some Christmas tunes and just went at it! It was great fun because my OCD would kick in randomly while we were decorating. Mom would suddenly hear the tinkle of the bells (yes, bells) and the rustle of the artificial branches and ask, "Are you moving something again?" I would see a huge cluster of ornaments or similarly themed ornaments all in one spot and would just have to move something. I'd just have to move that Santa ornament, as my mom joked, two branches over and one branch down before it looked alright. She threatened to leave a few times and just let me complete the tree by myself so I wouldn't keep moving the ornaments she placed. She even went so far as to threaten to color code the ornaments or have them all on just one side of the tree come Christmas day just to mess with me. It was great spending time with her and just be able to laugh about it all. Here's our finished product:

The Beautiful Christmas Tree!

Anyways, I'll do my best to post on Friday with something as equally festive - maybe with a few of my ornament patterns! And for those curious few, the kittens are doing really well. Good night!