Pom Pom Maker Review

Even though you can make pom poms with cardboard, I still love my new Pom Pom Maker. I reviewed it for Craft Critique. Read my article HERE.

Christmas Prep

This time of year is so busy! We try to keep things low key, but I dunno. It is just the time of year when everything happens all at once.

Remember, when things look wonky, another word for that is "charming". Case in point, our star topper:


I don't know about you all, but we didn't adjust that much with our gifts this year. Mostly because we did all that adjusting awhile ago. We don't exchange with nearly as many people as we used to and it is much easier. I put a lot of pressure on myself to make a bunch of things and I don't need to do that. I like the Handmade Pledge and all, but sometimes buying practical things like lotions, lip balm, and socks is really simple and easy and eases the time pressures of the season.

Of course, the season isn't really about the gifts for us. We have fun every night doing Advent readings, singing, and stories with our kids. We've been attending a new church and are happy to see that our children are connecting with the bible stories and theology in nice ways that they haven't before.

Here is a glimpse of some of what I've been making. I can't say what these things are for fear of discovery!



The gift below involved lots of little snaps. I am mad at the manufacturer Dritz. I just might boycott them. $2.50 for 7 size 16 (tiny) snaps?!? My friends, that is only 7 halves of the snaps, so in a package you only get 3.5 snaps! *grumble* The Prim company (available at WalMart) charges about $1.50 for an actual full set of 7 snaps. Maybe I'll get my revenge and write an article about snap buying woes at Craft Critique. I ended up using both of those types from the notions stores and found that they are interchangeable and then I ordered a big bunch of different snaps online to use later.



I thought I could put away my sewing machine and then I remembered that I wanted to make these:


Finally, I got a couple of pom pom makers for my birthday this fall. They are so fun! I'm using up my fuzzy acrylic making a stack of them to use on our gifts:


Overnight tonight we expect a foot of snow with a inch of sleety ice mixed in. I'm about 80% certain my children will not have school tomorrow. I hope to get some baking done! Granola and pumpkin bread! Mmmm... This weekend is our favorite holiday party at John's and our McKee family Christmas. Nana comes on Monday. Yay!

Colorful Lace

So colorful! I used this tutorial.



I hung it on a shrub outside to drip dry. I hope to use this to make a birthday banner for my daughter. We've decided to have a crafty themed birthday party. It'll be much later in the summer when we are less busy. Last year we did a star theme, and the year before that, we did rainbows

Perler Bead Projects

My camera has pictures trapped inside it that I have to deal with, so that has slowed down my blogging. I have a delicious pile of newly dyed yarn soaking in my sink right now. It's to make up some new wool crochet flowers for my Etsy shop. Wool flowers will be better sellers for me in the fall, but it turns out that in Australia, they are just now getting ready for winter, so several of my flowers have sold down under!

I went into my project archive at Flickr. Have you all ever played around with Perler Beads? We also call them melty beads at my house. Another brand is Hama Beads. They are really fun and easy. Here I was going to do the whole Simpson family, but I didn't have enough blue to do Marge's hair and the pixelized images I had of the Simpson kids weren't as good as this one. My son uses this as a coaster next to his bed.


I made these goofy video game coasters as a silly gift for a friend. I think he was a bit baffled by them, but they were only for a laugh.


My very first swap on Craftster was a perler bead swap and I made this Chococat for my partner:

She also liked lotus flowers so I designed this little container with perler beads. The lid is attached and opens and closes.
about a year later she wrote to me and said she was engaged and kept her ring in the box for safekeeping at night,.

I made an elephant to spiff up a notepad. These beads shrink up when you iron them, so if you plan to try this, make it larger than you think you need for the notepad.

Finally, they always have little holes in them from the beads, so I used that to make a little patch for a pouch.


We used these beads as a party activity at my daughter's birthday a few years ago. Be careful with the hot iron around enthusiastic little children! Don't ask me how I know this.

Fresh Dyed Yarn

I've been making felted wool flowers and came to the point where I needed more colors. One 40% off coupon at JoAnns, a large skein of Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool, and several packets of Kool-Aid later and I have this fruity scented colored yarn. Yummy!

Here's the mess of dyeing supplies. Kool-Aid is a bit neon, so I toned down the colors a bit by splashing in diluted drops of complimentary colors. I also used vinegar and the microwave:


Dozens of people have already done this and blogged tutorials, so I'm not going to bother with that. This is a great thing to do with the kids, but my kids are at school and I still think it's pretty fun! Knitty did an article about the process HERE. Note that Kool Aid and food dyes only work on protein fibers like wool or silk. It will not dye acrylic or cotton. It will also dye your fingers, but not permanently.

Here's a pic of the stuff I recently used up:


I'm making flowers like these:


I never get tired of flowers! These are stitched to safety pins because I like those much better than jewelry pin backs. They will be for sale at a craft show right here in Chicagoland. Check it out HERE.