Ornament Swap: Why I Love the Mail

After seeing the lovely ornament that Claudia made last year for the Cake and Pie holiday ornament swap, I felt inspired to participate this year . . . I've never done a swap before, so I was a little nervous, but I'm loving it so far!

Why?

Because people are sending me cool things in the mail!! I love the mail. I love to go and check my PO Box. I get movies by mail. I get books by mail. My sweetie's Dad has a good job working for the Post Office, and that just makes me love the mail even more. I love getting things in the mail, and my family, with a few notable exceptions, are not big on sending holiday cards or gifts. Sadly, most of my holiday mail can be divided into two categories: catalogs and requests for charitable donations. This is the first year in a long time that my mailbox has been full of holiday goodness and surprises!

These are the first three ornaments I got . . . I am particularly fond of the gingerbread cat! And I'm amazed at the sturdiness of the glimmery glass ball - it made the trip in a padded envelope and survived intact! See? The mail is good.

Today, there were more wonderful surprises! A sweet owl ornament in a mushroom-decorated envelope from the UK, and an amazing mushroom ornament with a snowy forest card from Washington State! It's like fate! It's a woodland fairytale match made in heaven! And, crazily enough, the card from the UK made it here without a stamp . . . perhaps it was elves? Or, just more evidence that the mail is good.

(You'll have to wait to see the ornament I made, 'cause I'm working on a tutorial for next week's Last Minute Holiday Madness Event.)

Speaking of great mail, Sister Diane and Brother K. sent me one of their Holiday Zines!! As far as I am concerned, this means I must be on Santa's list of good girls this year.


And if you want one, I think there are still a few on sale over at their shop . . . my favorite part is the strangely fruitcake-free holiday disaster calendar centerfold.

Making Memory Jewelry . . .

I got the chance last week to teach not one, but two Memory Jewelry classes! One of them was my regularly scheduled one, and another was a custom one for a friend of mine . . . It's a great class to teach this time of year because everyone's working on gifts . . . making ornaments with pictures of their dogs and jewelry for their relatives . . . most of which I didn't photograph! But I did get a few great shots to share with you . . .

Geekery and Knitting and Crochet

I think I've made it pretty clear that I'm a big geek. The Sweetie and are in the process of watching all the X-Files episodes, season by season, start to finish. So, it is no surprise that I'm a big fan of Joss Whedon, the guy who's behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer (yes, I own the entire series), Firefly, and now, Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog. And all my fellow crafty geeks are well aware that the knitted hat (complete with pom-pom and earflaps) that Jayne recieved from his mother in the Firefly episode "The Message" may well be the most re-crafted geek knitwear item on the interwebs - and here's a pattern and blog post to prove it. (Of course, in terms of longevity - as opposed to current popularity - we must give props to Dr. Who's scarf - it even has its own website).

So, you can imagine how delighted I was to see this interview with Joss (via Craftzine) in which he not only proposes that Underworld was originally about the epic knit vs. crochet battle, but that it was abandoned to tell the less controversial tale of the vampire vs. werewolf conflict, he also offers up some very compelling advice:

"So I think that ultimately, my advice is what my advice always is: Make stuff." - Joss Whedon, in an interview on CrochetMe.

Read the whole interview for more geeky goodness.

And if you're really wondering if knitting is as dangerous as, say, vampires, werewolves, or international terrorists, be sure to check out this video from the Colbert Report - which I found via Extreme Craft. (I've tried to embed the video and it didn't work yet, so just click on one of the links to see the video).

It's Really the Holidays Now!

It really starts to feel like the holidays for me right after Thanksgiving. My grandmother always used to take the turkey carcass and make turkey soup, and it's a tradition I carry on - right down to the Tabasco! Something about the soup bubbling on the stove says, "Yup. It's really the Holidays now!"

Of course, the thing I do that my grandmother never did is save the bones and use them in art.

In a previous post, someone asked about preparing the bones. I'm still in the process of perfecting my technique - and I have to admit that I would love to have a box of flesh eating beetles (like they use on Bones) for Christmas! But, for now, I'll just give you a quick description of how I do it . . . and if you've got any suggestions, let me know!

1. Boil the turkey - this helps get the flesh off the bones, and gives you a great broth. Be careful not to boil it for too long, though, as this can bring the yellow fats in bone to the surface and leave you with greasy bones - usually, I bring it to a boil, then let it simmer.
2. Run cool water over the bones and clean the last of the meat and flesh off with your fingers.
3. Mix about a cup of bleach in one or two gallons of water and let the bones soak in it for a few hours. Remove, rinse, and let the bones air dry. Again, I'm still working this out . . . if there's too much bleach, or you leave it in too long, it can make the bone brittle and powdery.
4. Once the bones are dry, I seal them with a matte gel medium or a matte spray sealant. Then, they go in the art. Fun!

The Etsy Shop is Live!

HURRAY! I got the Eyes Aflame Adornments Etsy shop going . . . I loaded up six
different button designs, and I'm just tickled pink. It takes me back to the 80's when every girl in my middle school had a cluster of 1" Duran Duran buttons pins to her denim jacket!
While none of them will be Duran Duran, I'll be getting some more
button designs and jewelry up this week . . .

I'm glad to finally be a part of the Etsy community - there are so many great artists from
around the world who sell their handmade goodies there - and there's a lot of vintage finds and great craft supplies available, too.


And of course it's a great excuse to make more stuff! And to hopefully trade with a bunch of the other wonderful vendors - of course, I'm also going to pull together a Christmas list
with a heavy emphasis on the handmade.

And if you're local to Portland, I'm also selling at
Crafty Wonderland this year on December 14th at the Convention Center along with an amazing array of other vendors. The first 200 people in line to get in when the event opens at 11 am will get goody bags full of niftiness donated by the vendors . . . like a local Sampler. And yes, I donated about 50 buttons . . .