Crystal Madrilejos

The holidays are coming to a close and, jeez, am I exhausted! But in a good way :) Not much is better than exhaustion brought on by getting to spend time with the family, eating too many good foods, putting up holiday decorations and making gifts for friends and family. Not to mention this little one that I’ve been growing is making me more tired than all those things combined!

On Friday, we will be finishing up week 32 (which means baby will be here in about 8 1/2 weeks) and we’re not nearly ready for him or her. The holiday really put baby preparations on hold. Once we’ve recuperated from this holiday season, we’ll be going full force until February 26th!

We ended up not getting a real tree this year. We almost went completely tree-less, but changed our minds at the last minute. Luckily, my sister had a little fake tree that she usually sets up for our niece that she let us borrow. And it worked out perfectly. I don’t think we have enough ornaments yet to decorate a big tree, and we definitely don’t have the space for one. Needless to say, the felt ball garland didn’t get done in time. Oh well, there’s always next year!

–c.

Taken out my window while flying to the U.K.

–c.

Generation 2.0 isn’t a total overhaul, just a tweak. In version 1.0, I made it to accommodate rectangular tissue boxes. But it turns out that because of the way the tissues are layered in the box it doesn’t work too well to pull them out upside down. They tore. So this one was made for square tissues boxes and it works much, much better since the tissues are layered and folded inside the box. It was made for our friend Michael C.

-a.

After seeing the cat pillow that I made for my co-worker’s niece, another of my co-workers requested one for her niece as well! She requested it a few months back and I hadn’t gotten around to making it until recently and I am very happy with how it turned out.

The first cat pillow was for an infant so I had to be sure everything was sewn down completely because I know babies have a tendency to tear things off and eat them! With this version, I could be a little more fancy with the details because my co-workers niece is a little bit older, beyond the eating things phase. I didn’t have to worry about all the edges being satin stitched so it was a little easier to make more complicated shapes.

I had complete creative freedom, but my co-worker’s one stipulation was it had to have a cat pattern on it somewhere. I was lucky to find this one! In case you were wondering, I’ve been using flannel, felt and polyfill for these recent pillows. But I’ve used many other fabrics in the past. I usually have a hard time coming up with ideas for the faces. There are just too many possibilities!

–c.

On top of it being basketball season, we are in the thick of football season as well. And for me that means a few more hours a week of crafting while Andrew watches the game.

Recently during games, I’ve started making a garland of little felt balls for our Christmas tree. I’m using the leftover cuttings from when I trimmed down the felt I made a little while back. It takes awhile to make these, and it’s a little messy and makes my hands hurt a little. But it’s still fun nonetheless! I doubt this garland is going to get done before Christmas. Maybe it’ll be done by the next one.

Not sure why they are so fuzzy or if that’s normal, but oh well! I found this tutorial on the Martha Stewart website if you’re interested in trying your hand at it.

—c.

Taken in Nantes, France while wandering the streets in the afternoon.

–c.

[Image via Condé Nast]

The past few weeks have been full of Christmas present making, birthday gift buying, baby stuff planning and baby shower invite designing!

We’ve been making the majority of our presents for a couple of years now; which is fun, budget-friendly, as well as, time consuming. In my family, we mainly do presents for the kids and just a gift exchange for the adults since there are so many of us. Andrew’s immediate family is smaller so we buy gifts, but we’ve also made gifts for them in the past.

This year we got an early start and many presents have already been completed. I’m really excited about them and want to post them but I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise for some people!

So instead I will post about a few of the gifts that we’ve made in the past years. You can read past posts about Christmas gifts here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Apron and cookbook for Monica: Designed and sewn by Andrew. Made from thrifted fabric.

Bag O’ Shapes for Arwen: Designed, sewn and screenprinted by myself and Andrew. Made from canvas, thrifted fabric, and polyfill. This is something that we eventually hope to make more and sell in our etsy shop.

Doll for Abigail: Based on this design from a Japanese craft book. Crocheted scarf and a skirt made from a doily.

Leg Warmers for Abigail: I designed and crocheted these, but it was difficult because I’ve never made a pair before and I didn’t have Abigail to try them on as I was making them.

Crocheted Bag for Mariela: I crocheted this from a free pattern that I found at JoAnn Fabrics. Made with Bernat Handicrafter Cotton Naturals (you can find the pattern online here at the Bernat site, but you need to sign up for a free account.)

–c.

In thinking about what to get some of the nieces and nephews for Christmas I remembered seeing wooden guitar cut-outs that the Make Believe Company was making. So I did my own versions. One is based off of my Fender Coronado. The other is a Les Paul.

The latter was given to a friend for his daughters. Before I started his I asked him what his favorite guitar was, he simply texted back: gold top. It worked out quite nicely seeing as the top is technically golden.

Here’s our nephew Falcon mid howl. He has an interesting way of holding the neck but far be it from me to tell someone else how to rock.

As you may have picked up on from my use of the past tense and the visual of Falcon rocking, these guitars have already been distributed. So Christmas presents was the goal but they turned into Autumn gifts instead. Oh well, there’s never a bad time to give a gift.

-a.

PS – We have video of Falcon, too! It’s hilarious. If we can put it up we will.

Our lovely friend Angela gave this to us recently! It’s a paper cut portrait of us on our wedding day, with the words “Nothing Can Change This Love” (which is the title of the Sam Cooke song that Andrew and I danced to at our wedding).

It’s absolutely stunning and we love it so much. Angela makes beautiful paper cuts and never ceases to amaze me with her talent. I wish she had a website that showcased all her work so I could share it with all of you, but until then take a look at these detail shots. Super fantastic!

–c.

Surprise! Another crocheted toy for the baby!

This one though is not from the same pattern book as the others I’ve made recently. I found the pattern online here. But I only followed the pattern for the body/head part because I didn’t read the whole pattern before I started. I didn’t realize that the legs are knit and not crocheted and I don’t know how to knit! (Though I sorely want to learn.) So for the legs I just winged it and surprisingly they turned out better, in my opinion, than the ones in the original pattern.

How, you ask, do I have all this time to crochet? The answer is: It’s basketball season. The CAVS have been playing every other night it seems and after last season, and in my heightened state of emotions, I can’t seem to take the anxiety. So instead of actually watching the game, I crochet during the game so I don’t get so worked up. It’s been working out quite nicely. I finished two Christmas presents during the last two games!

–c.