Little cross stitch angel for you

It's copied from a vintage doily :-)

It can easily be altered, just change the hair color and style a bit, color of the eyes, give her a candle in stead of a bell, perhaps a dove, use another simple form to decorate her skirt, perhaps just stripes - and you can embroider an angel on each side of a square doily or a row of angels on both ends of a runner... :-) She's perfect for an ornament or as a card decoration.

Meme, in Finnish

Ota lähin kirja, käännä sivulle 21, etsi rivi neljä. Kirjoita ylös, mitä siinä lukee:

Ojenna vasen käsivarsi mahdollisimman pitkälle. Mitä kosketat ensimmäisenä?
"Jouluun on kautta aikojen kuulunut runsaus"

Mitä viimeksi katsoit TV:stä? "Coupling" BBC Entertainmentiltä

Arvaa katsomatta paljonko kello on? Arvaisin että noin kakskyt yli yksi

Katso nyt kelloa, paljonko se oikeasti on? 13:11

Mitä kuulet tietokonetta lukuunottamatta? Liikenteen ulkoa. Pitää varmaan laittaa joulumusiikki soimaan :-)

Milloin viimeksi kävit ulkona? Mitä teit? Koiran kanssa aamukävelyllä muutama tunti sitten.

Mitä nettisivua katsoit ennen kuin tulit tälle sivulle? Kävin läpi Pienten ilojen joulukalentereja

Näitkö viime yönä unta? Totta kai :-)

Milloin viimeksi nauroit? Tänä aamuna, kun koira on niin ihana ja tuppaa suuhun :-D

Oletko nähnyt mitään omituista viime aikoina? Muutakin kuin oman naamani peilistä? Njaa... enpä osaa mitään omituiseksi nimittää.

Minkä elokuvan viimeksi katsoit? 51st state. Uudelleen. On se ihana :-D

Jos sinusta tulisi yön yli monimiljonääri, mitä ostaisit ensimmäisenä? Voi että... tämä tuli niin äkkiä, mutta jos kysyisit kahden kesken, vastaisin "kyllä"...

Pidätkö tanssimisesta? Kyllä vain :-)

Voisitko koskaan harkita ulkomailla asumista? Eh... asun Ruotsissa tällä hetkellä, joten vastaan "kyllä". Koti-ikävä on kyllä suunnaton.

Mitä on sen huoneen seinillä, jossa nyt olet? Vaikka mitä. Hyllyjä, valokuvia, tauluja, kuvia, omia piirroksiani, kortteja, lampetteja, muistitaulu, joululautasia, enkeli, koristeita...

Mitä olet tänään syönyt? Juustovoileivän.

Koska olet viimeksi halannut äitiäsi? Marras-joulukuun vaihteessa, kun olivat täällä käymässä :-)

More Yule links

Garnstudio Drops has a nice knitting/crochet pattern advent calendar
I like the things they give patterns to - except for the doggy jacket - my hubby would kill me if I tried to do something like that to our dog LOL

Tip Junkie gives tips on sites that give instructions or patterns for ornaments

Folding Trees gives instructions on kudusama balls, the Japanese paper folded flower balls.

Ellit gives a pattern for a felted heart pocket, in Finnish. (It really isn't brain surgery or rocket science, give it a try.)

P.S: I have never thought much of quilling... it has had a "kiddie craft" label on in my mind... but then I saw Yulia Brodskaya's quilling work... Oh my...

P.S.S. Go and see Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson's wonderful collages, they are amazing! Get ideas of what to do with wrapping paper... ;-)

A little inspiration

Gingerbread Snowflakes is a lovely blog... I could spend there hours :-)

Have a Polar Express Day - or any other movie day.

Crafty Synergy... I love Reya Feltman's rug idea... would suit perfectly my sister. :-)

Sew mama sew's handmade holidays

Handmade Holidays at get crafty

Today's Creative Blog offers something to see

Crafty Chica's Holiday Projects roundup

Sharon from In a Minute Ago has moved to Pin Tangle

Crafty Pod is also interesting...

Daisy Yellow isn't just for kids, neither is the Crafty Crow

How about Orange suggests ornaments to make

Red Shoes blog

Don't miss Lime and Violet's advent calendar!

The Blue Blog is always interesting, even though sockapaloooooza keeps waiting itself...

Green Kitchen presents a solstice calendar

Ho! I have been challenged!

Of course, San, I'll accept :-D I happen to like memes. They are like writing memes, and heaven knows I need those LOL

This is the challenging blog entry

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six random things about Ketutar

1. I'm a recovering over-achiever... procrastinating 90 % of the time and bashing myself for it.
2. If I had a shield it would be red, green and silver
3. If I was an animal I'd be a phoenix. Or a dragon. Or a tiger. Or a...
4. I'm a cat person, but I love our dog. He is the smartest, kindest, sweetest, funniest, best dog ever. I didn't even know they make dogs like our Boris :-)
5. I wish I had a lot of money and a huge craft room, so that I could by all the crafting supplies and tools and craft all day long.
6. I like baking

Here are the blogs I would like to read answers from:

This part I hate... I usually don't forward chain letters either. But I think I'll choose:

Maria pysslar och ler
The Holly Tree
Psychedelic Armadillo
Kaisan Kerällä
Made By Myself
Whimsical Bohemian

Also people I appreciate and whose blogs I read as often as I can :-)

O Tannenbaum...

Dollhouse Tree
crocheted tree I
crocheted tree II
crocheted tree III
crocheted tree IV
crocheted tree V
crocheted tree VI
crocheted tree VII
crocheted tree VIII
crocheted tree IX
crocheted tree X
crocheted tree XI
crocheted tree XII

More Yule patterns

really cute gnome - tonttu

Lion Brand's crocheted gnome

Alicia's gnome - she has also other cute patterns :-)

Yellow House's gnome

Sleepy Sarah - passes as a gnome too :-)

I really like Carolyn Christmas' patterns - they are not free though

Gangamoo knits free patterns

Crafttown's free christmas patterns

Crochet Pattern Central's Christmas patterns
and miscellaneous...

Roxy Craft - love the Santa Baby and Bo the Snowman

Sarahanns - very nice crochet patterns

Ana Paula's amigurumis

Then some dolls you can crochet - the outfit is optional, you know... you can use the doll pattern and dress the doll as you wish, for example to Dr. Who, Professor Snape or Jayne from Firefly...

lilwitch
Bethany Ballerina
Starlight the Pop Star
Mrs Claus
Hula hula Lula
Alice in wonderland
Amanda Jane
Amigurumi doll
Lion Brand's Bryan and Shelly
Peter and Pernille
Little Dolls
Stuffed Clown
Scarecrow
Ragdoll
Small ragdoll
Raggety Ann
"Captain Andrew"
Victorian doll
Goldilocks
"too cute" dolls
Topsy Turvy Dolls - these have skirts...
Tiny Granny/Red Riding Hood Topsy Turvy
Sprite
Snuffykin's Dr. Who dolls... Master Simm, Rose...
Little Princess
Party Girl
Sugar n Cream Lily
Lily doll
"Mega Man"
"Link"
Astronaut
Fantasy castle with characters
Sheila the Aussie Troll
another Troll
"Pretty Prunella"
Harry Potter doll

Then there's the bunnies, bears, cats and other amigurumis, that work as doll bases, if you just leave out the specific ears, tails and muzzles :-)
Bunny
Monkey
Mint Chocolate Bunny
Mr Funky Bunny
JoAnn Monkey
Chenille Rabbit
Heartfelt Bear
Beary Jackson
Amigurumi base
Tiny bear

Darncat Crochet has really nice amigurumi patterns, both free and buyable

Paper

Iris folding - really nice stocking ornaments done with this technique

tea bag folding - make pretty rosettes, medallions and stars from teabags

cone ornament

paper embroidery Christmas ornament - reminds me so of my childhood - at the 70's this kind of thread-cat-craddle-artworks were very popular :-)
You could use the shrinkydink ornament forms from yesterday.

Paper ball ornament - origami style

another

icosahedrons and other forms you can make of old holiday cards and magazines and wrapping paper scraps and what not

Paper polyhedra

"Greek Paper Ball" - we used to make these of straw

"Super cool" paper star

snowflake tree ornament

Using the wrapping papers to make ornaments

Paper ribbon star

Woven paper hearts - with many patterns :-)

quilled paper ornaments

Martha Stewart makes a stacked paper tree - use bamboo skewers in stead of knitting needles.
If you don't have the polymer clay or such, you can make your own salt dough.
P.S. I don't like MS and I don't like "condoning" - or recommending - her site, but the craft ideas are great. Unfortunately. I love the ginger dough birds. *sigh*

and a really cute crocheted baby penguin - not of paper ;-D

More finds in the internet

The Crafty Chica's Holiday Project Roundup

mmmcraft's paper ornaments - I love these :-)

Sugar n' Cream's Crochet Stash Baskets

Peppermint candy wreath

Crocheted pears

Stacy Sews tutorials

Crochet dilly pickle - works as Christmas Pickle :-D

Clogs for an elf

Shrinkydink ornaments - work even for cardboard or wood, if you don't have the shrinking plastics... though "they" say any plastic shrinks the same way in oven.

Owlies

Here's a tutorial on a really cute owl ornament
Scrappy owl bag tutorial - make a mini for the tree
Zakka style owl pennant - individually pass as tree ornaments
owl egg cosy
owl pillow - make a mini for the tree
owl tutorial
tutowlrial - you can have the owls spell anything you like...

Really nice stuff

Softies Central

How to get rid of bad memories...

The "bitch" is having "bad luck"... Wonderful. I'm so evil I'm actually enjoying for her misfortune.

But I'm still chewing her. I just can't seem to let her go and vanish into the whiny reality of an overachiever who is unable to take any responsibility of the consequences of her own actions and choices. That's her "bad luck", not some hex or curse or evil spell. She would get rid of it with some gratitude and counting her blessings.

So - I'm blessed by not needing to have anything to do with her. I'm blessed with her not being a part of my life, unless I myself choose so. Unfortunately I keep choosing so.
I'm blessed by being able to be happy about nothing but a pair of candles to celebrate the independence of my country. I don't have a house to decorate, I live in an apartment, and I'm happy not to need to worry about the loans, mortgages, upkeep expenses nor broken things. When we move, all my belongings will fit into a couple of boxes. My rental apartment is big and provides me with shelter from rain, wind, heat and cold, and clean water and indoors toilet with plumbing so that I don't need to care one bit about what happens to my "waste" after it leaves me. I lived in a house with no plumbing from age 7 to age 17 or so, and I know what people need to do to their "waste" with no flush toilets... and no day passes without me being grateful for the geniuses who invented the thing.
I'm blessed not to need to worry about swap packages being ready in time, getting "there" in time and the receiver being satisfied with what she got. It is lovely to get packages, but it is not nice not to get packages, and getting questions answered by nothing or a bucketful of abuse... Never again... :-)
I'm blessed with having a Paypal account that makes it possible for me to get quite a lot of things I desire.
I'm blessed with having enough money to be able to give to people who have even less than I do.
I am blessed with understanding, gentle and loving husband...

Now, I have been a bad girl and not posted about the sock club:
my hubby has seen that I got a replacement needle for the one I broke - ebenholz
He also got me some rosewood needles and Knit Picks Harmonics.
He got me a clover thread cutter which I have been drooling after for years.
He got me the cutest little silver sheep stitch marker, which I have managed to displaced, and some classy sock yarn, which I have displaced as well... I'm not too good at taking care of my stuff. Poor hubby.
I also have Anti-Craft book and two German sock books with multidirectional socks.
The first sock club pattern was Thuja.
There possibly is more, but I can't remember it right now.
Also, no pics, because I can't find stuff.

I managed to finish hubby's Yule Stocking. :-)

You could visit the Holiday Ornament Swap groups at flickr to get inspired :-)
2008 - 2007 - 2006

Also, read Joss Whedon's interview.
Jayne Hat
Here's some fandom crafting LOL

Another round in the internet

My Picot has really nice Yule patterns. Snowflakes and cute Yule tree.

Knitting pretty

Interlocking filet crochet - creates quite an interesting fabric - would do as a quick Yule gift scarf.

Thing-a-day Owl Package

Book of stars / Star Diary

Paula's Christmas Journal 2007

Santa Claus is coming...

I'm not whiny anymore. I apologize for the long lasting depressing title.

Here's some finds from an internet round today, 8th of December 2008

12 Days of Christmas Ring and Run

BTW, turtledove has nothing to do with turtles. It should be called turturdove, as it's Latin name is turtur. The bird is named after it's call, which can be imitated with "turr... turr...". Turtledove is a symbol of solitude, grace, harmony, affection and faithfulness, so giving a gift of a pair of turtledoves is a very precious token of love indeed...
So to me the ornaments and cards depicting a chimaera of turtles and doves are offensive. But - what ever rocks your boat. You don't need to mind me. I still love Christmas Krinkles.

tip junkie has lovely ideas and such.

Lime and Violet's Daily Chum has a Christmas countdown calendar thingy going on.

Arctic Stamper, Sari, has an interesting idea for a Christmas countdown calendar

Here's Ann Albers' Visions of Heaven advent calendar - a nice thought, affirmation, quote for every day.