sugar body scrub for the girls. really easy to make, loosely based off of a recipe for salt scrub i found in the book gorgeously green. basically just sugar, oil and essential oil. a nice (italian made) glass jar (the container store) added presentation points, i think. and jeremy designed and laminated the tags for me. good guy!
a dog bed for my brother's new pup jenna. kind of a strange picture, the flowery print is our curtain, not part of the bed! i made the bed out of sunbrella fabric--it's mildew & fade resistant, and anti-microbial. muddy pawprints can be easily wiped off, instead of having to wash the whole cover. one side has a velcro opening, into which i stuffed 2 king bed pillows. i searched the thrift shops for used pillows, but the whole idea of buying that kind of thing used really skeeved me out, even if they were to be used only for a dog bed. in the end i bought them new at ross, for only a few dollars more than they would have cost used. now i just need a picture of jenna enjoying her new bed!
i also made another bed for a much smaller dog--little mo-mo who weighs about 12 pounds! i used pink and green striped canvas on one side and a pink and green english rose-type print on the other. i stuffed it with a euro pillow and gave it to my friend kelli, who promptly told me it's to pretty for a dog and she's using it as a decorative pillow instead. :)
jeremy and i collaborated on this next one. his "ama" (grandma) (lucy's great-ama), who loves lucy dearly, is mostly blind. jeremy had the idea of recording lucy's voice so that ama could enjoy hearing her at any time. i knew that build-a-bear sells 10-second voice recorders that can be reprogrammed over and over. we got lucy to giggle for a bit, captured it on the recorder, and i made a little l-shaped pillow with velcro closure to put the recorder into. as lucy grows, we can keep capturing cute little snippets for ama to enjoy. needless to say, this gift was a huge hit. i want one for myself!
i made a few of these totes. the shape is based on the amy butler nappy bag pattern, but i did my own thing when it came to the pockets... the original pattern had way too many for my taste. i made 4 of these bags, all in different prints. just when i thought i had it all down pretty good, i found myself struggling, breaking needles and muttering about heading down to the mall. note to self: do not become overconfident. in the end, they all turned out. i'd like to make one for myself, but i think i need a bag-crafting break for awhile. let the wounds heal, you know?
my sister-in-law asked for seed packets, and since we happened to have pumpkin and butternut squash seeds drying on our windowsill, i made these little cloth bags and stuck in what we had. the bags were made out of scrap from a vintage baby blanket (that's where the pretty embroidered edge is from) and they fold closed with velcro. the pumpkin and butternut squash (it's not a pear, people) are cut from felt and ironed on using stitch witchery. the bags are also not the same size, as you can plainly see. this is because i am not careful in my measurements--or because i simply didn't measure. i'll let you guess which is true in this case. 
little kids got bookbags (complete with books inside... and a lil' candy). no pattern here, i just whipped them up to the best of my ability. they are very similar to the picnic blanket tote i made awhile back. the bags are lined with coordinating fabric and have little front pockets for stuffing cool things. it's never to early to get kids start on resuable bags, right?
jeremy got in on the crafty action--he made this shirt for his dad using a freezer-paper stencil and paint. the picture is not good but the shirt is very nice--it's made to look like a street sign. i want one too, jeremy!
i made a few aprons from a few tea towels i picked up at anthropologie--but never remembered to get a photo before wrapping them up and giving them away! bummer, because i think they really turned out nice. the idea came from a book called bend-the-rules sewing, which basically attaches twill tape or grosgrain ribbon to a width-wise tea towel, and adds a couple of pleats. i made them a bit fancier by backing the tea towel with coordinating fabric and making my own apron ties out of the same. perhaps i can get a photo of them in action sometime.
i made a few aprons from a few tea towels i picked up at anthropologie--but never remembered to get a photo before wrapping them up and giving them away! bummer, because i think they really turned out nice. the idea came from a book called bend-the-rules sewing, which basically attaches twill tape or grosgrain ribbon to a width-wise tea towel, and adds a couple of pleats. i made them a bit fancier by backing the tea towel with coordinating fabric and making my own apron ties out of the same. perhaps i can get a photo of them in action sometime. i also made a photo slideshow set to music. the photos in the slideshow were taken at a group camping trip over the summer, and copies were given to everyone that attended. i used imovie-- a great program that is pretty user-friendly. i highly recommend playing with it if you own a mac!
i did rely on etsy for one gift--a pair of slippers for my brother. despite not showing up on time, they are very nicely handmade. much better that i could have done. and i get to extend the joy of the holidays by giving them to him tomorrow.
well, that's pretty much what we gave. i'll be back tomorrow to post about what we got!
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