My Favorite Livestock, More from Ceramics 101

Let's kick off this week's post with an adorable picture of a pair of Alpaca! My friend Sarah and I used to be a little obsessed with alpaca. We dreamed of ditching our corporate jobs and owning an alpaca farm. They are soo cute and we could manufacturer and sell alpaca yarn. I was at an art fair this weekend and they had these two little guys out front. They were so friendly! They are still my favorite livestock!

This past week, I was finally able to pick up my pottery that I made during my last session of ceramics class. Take a look!

A mug

A bowl A vase. A pencil cup. You know, for your desk. A rather wonky vase.

And another bowl.

The Goose is Getting Fat. (A Project Round-Up) (And a Blogger Issue Remedy)

Christmas is coming. The goose is getting fat.

Am I the only one that remembers that song from grade school? We would sing it in the round.

But I digress. Christmas is coming. And if you are planning on any handmade presents, you best get started!

So here's a quick little round up of a few tutorials I've seen around that I think would make great gifts.

I'm kicking this off with a couple of sewing projects. Start these first! I love to sew, but let's be honest, it can be a little time consuming. But never fear, you have plenty of time if you start soon.

The Mama Clutch from Growing Home Not just for Mamas.

Organizer Wallet from LBG Studio Genius! This has a pocket for your iphone AND a notepad. (I'm a pretty modern girl, I still need an actual notepad.)

The following projects are fairly easy and inexpensive. So you could make multiples. Possibly for the people who help you out at work, for your kid's teachers, friends, just a little something to show that you've thought of them. (Because isn't that what presents are for anyhow?)

Felt Medallion Headband from Sew.Craft.Create. Cute for kids and adults alike.

Cereal Box Journal from The Long Thread Save your cereal boxes from your recycling bins, you could decorate the front with stamps. (I'm envisioning silver or white ink with snowflake stamps. Just a thought.)

Personalized Ceramics from Show Tell Share Look for inexpensive solid ceramics at places like the Dollar Tree and turn them into a great present.

Marble Magnets from Not Martha This is a perfect present for anyone with a cubicle. That covers quite a few people.

I've been suffering from terrible insomnia and was forcing myself to stay up until I was really tired. Think I've finally reached a level of true sleepiness. Here's hoping for a great night's sleep!

Happy Crafting!

(Quickly, on a completely unrelated note, I was having issues with functionality in Blogger. I couldn't select script to add hyperlinks, I couldn't cut and paste text. I could write posts and save them as drafts, but not actually post. It was incredibly irritating. I'm happy to report that after reading many message boards about this a very simple fix was installing and using Google Chrome as my internet browser. This seems to have fixed all issues. Thank goodness.)

A Final Halloween Picture, The Mystery Braid Cuff (Mystery Solved!)

Because they are the cutest things ever, here's another (and final) pic of my twin nieces, wearing their princess halloween costumes. I hear they got a lot of candy!!

Several years ago, I came across these directions on Martha Stewart, showing this really cool leather braid cuff. A mystery braided cuff. Recently, I came across some leather in my stash and decided to give it a shot. Let's just say that this is not the sort of thing you can figure out from a picture. Perhaps that's how it earned it's mysterious title? After several attempts, I finally had to just put it aside. Then I went to my #1 teacher, when it comes to handiwork that I don't understand from a picture, youtube! I found this video and was able to make my own mystery braid cuff in no time at all! Mystery solved!