More ornament exchanges

Here's an exchange ornament that will be winging it's way to New York on Monday. My partner for this exchange mention that she decorates her tree with mostly bird ornaments. I found this little robin in the October 2012 issue of CrossStitcher magazine. He just took a couple of evenings to whip up. I'm pleased with how he looks.

 All packaged up and ready to go.

This other ornament has already left for New Jersey. It's a takeoff on some ornaments I did last year. The silver, black and blue makes for quite the dramatic ornament!

Winter Wonderland

I've got one more exchange that I'm working on. This one will be origami and I'm also including a little bonus ornament for this group. It has to be mailed by Dec. 15. The closer I get to mailing them, I'll show you what I've done.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. I felt like I was on top of my holiday to-do list and now I feel like time is running out...oh well!

Little Houses all dressed up as ornaments

So, here's my ornaments for this exchange, all packaged up. They flew the coop last week and should pretty much be arriving at all their new homes! I realized after I packaged them that I forgot to take a picture of them just in their hoops. Luckily, I had taken an "in progress" photo, so I cropped it down to show the 10 houses. I hope everyone that receives a little house enjoys hanging it on their tree this year.

(It's a REALLY BAD photo, but it's the only one I had with all 10 ornaments together!) 

The packaging.

The cardstock color matched the color of the house.



Little colorful boxes in a row

Here's a preview of the ornaments I'm doing for an ornament exchange this year. I just finished stitching all of them and couldn't wait to show them off (there's actually 10 but a photo of nine looked better!). It's part of a pattern from the 2009 Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments issue. It's called "Winter Sampler" from Little House Needleworks. I only used a small portion of the sampler. Since I live in sunny Southern California, I never see snow (unless we drive to it), so I think I'm drawn to cozy winter scenes. Now that the stitching is done, it's time to finish them up. I'll shown them to you once they are complete.

...and the back!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

I finally did some cross stitching con't...

Since I haven't posted anything in three months, I realized I forgot to show you a picture of the back of my stitching. Well, I didn't think about that until after I packaged it up (pre-mailing package, luckily!). I love exchanging handmade ornaments but I also love to figure out a cute way to send them off. Here's how this is going out. I'll throw in a couple of fun surprises in the mailing package, but here is the ornament all ready to go.

And the back...

Okay, I think I'm done talking now!

I finally did some cross stitching!

It's my favorite time of year when crafting blogs are hosting handmade ornament exchanges. I'm not seeing any out there that are quite as large as the one freshlyblended hosted (if you hear of any, please let me know!), but I'm finding a few that look interesting and I'm willing to take the chance. If you're interested in the ones I've signed up for, just send me a note and I'll let you know.

So, first up, I found this lovely design in the 2012 Just CrossStitch magazine and I knew it would be perfect for an exchange. It's going to make it's home in Kansas. I hope they like it as much as I do. (It's in a 3 inch hoop.)

I think my next ornament will be origami. It's going all the way to Australia so I'm very excited about that. Once I finish that one, I'll post it as well.

Special note: If any of you are looking for a private swap, I would LOVE to exchange a handmade ornament with you - any type, any style! If you would only like to exchange a cross stitched piece, I'm totally onboard with that too.

Let the merriment begin!

Birthdays and baby showers...

...all need handmade present toppers!

Birthday at work (photo doesn't show that the flower is all pinks like the ribbon)

Topper for my friend that's getting the elephant picture

Work in progress for niece's baby shower (she's having a girl)

Just checking in on a lazy Sunday evening.

I think I need to re-title my blog.

I hope everyone is having a nice July 4th. Today was the perfect day to write something on my neglected blog. Too much work, too much reading and not enough time to do the crafting I love so much.

As you all know, besides cross stitching, I am completely obsessed with origami. I recently got to go to this exhibit in downtown Los Angeles at the Japanese American National Museum. It was amazing and made me realize what an amateur I am at origami, but inspiring none the less. So, practice, practice, practice is what I do to perfect my folding skills. There is always a piece of paper around so I can fold anywhere.

One of my girlfriends was born on December 24. I've always considered it kind of sucky that it falls right before Christmas so about a year after we met, I started celebrating her birthday on July 24 since I don't really ever get to see her on her real birthday. I call it her half-birthday celebration. One of the things she collects is elephants and the elephants' trunks have to be in the "up" position. She considers that to be good luck. I was going to fold an elephant for her as one of her gifts but I wasn't happy with any of the designs out there. Then inspiration struck.

Here is my pseudo-origami elephant gift for her this year...

I love it. I now think I need one for myself as well. I'm now looking at paper cutting projects since it was so simple to do (after about 3 failed attempts). She happened to be with me when I bought the paper and kept talking about how pretty the red paper was so that kind of sealed the deal on what paper to use.

I'm still cross stitching, just not very much or very often. I'm always in awe of what everyone else is working on out in blogland. While I don't comment often, I check on your sites at least once a week.

Happy 4th! Happy Cross Stitching! Happy Folding!