My mother-in-law gave me a heart-shaped Peppermint Pattie! I was even MORE excitd when I split it open and it was PINK inside! :)

( +1 )

Happy new year people!
I ate so much in xmas and new year's party that I need to diet hard soon as possible.
Here's some pictures from the xmas party my mom and I cooked for our guests.





( Click here for more pictures )

Scarf, headband, fingerless gloves.

I didn't make this as a gift, but realized that it was cheap (6.00 for yarn), easy (really super-beginner stuff) and fast (took about a day and a half of actually working on it all). The yarn is Red-Heart in bon-bon and amethyst.

( close up of a glove )

Don't worry, once I realized those couple of ends were sticking out funny I fixed the issue. for some reason I had to see photos to notice them -- go figure.

( Pattern for the gloves )

The scarf is just straight HDC in the back loop to the length and width I wanted the scarf. The headband/ear warmer is the same thing, joined with a slip stitch on the short ends, then edged with two rounds of SC.

When it was all said and done, I even had enough left over to make my dog a matching sweater.

I seriously think this is going to be my Go To gift for a while.

Who is the gift for? An old friend I just started talking to again.
What is the occasion?  Just a random, "I appreciate you", kind of gift.  He's been there for me the past couple of days while going through some things.
List at least three of their interests:  Dungeon & Dragons, reading, plays in a band, plays guitar, music (duh)
Any stipulations or things to avoid (i.e., has to be something small, or they already have enough scarves, etc.):  Small would be nice.  I have to send it through mail and I don't want something overly huge that'll cost me a ton of money to ship.
What kind of crafting do you do?  Polymer Clay, Knitting (I knit with looms (knifty knitter), not needles).  I can sew, do paper crafts.
Name some other crafts that you would be willing to try:  Just about anything that doesn't involve any kind of drawing.
Do you have a price range for materials?  Probably the most I'd be willing to spend is $20.
Do you have a time limit to make this present?  Not really.  Since it's a random gift it can be sent whenever.  I'd like to get it done by the end of the month though.
Any other information you'd like to include:  This is a guy.  While knitting a scarf would be super easy for me...I'm not really sure if he'd like/appreciate it.  I'll have to ask him about it and see what he says.

A surprisingly tasty dish:



More info and recipe here.

(The walnut & beet salad, also yummy, is here.)

First, a BIG thank you to the person who suggested me putting together the yarn bouquet for my step-dad's mother. She is a breast cancer survivor and so I found two different tutorials on making the knit boobies to donate... SHE LOVED IT!!!

Now that the holidays are over, I need to start getting to work on my wedding party gifts. I know that one of the gifts will be handmade journals for the writers and sketchbooks for the artists. I'd like to make the paper out of recycled materials and maybe put some oils, leaves, glitter, etc into some of the paper mixtures. I was wondering if anyone knew of any good paper-making tutorials (like ones that you yourself have tried). I own Stolen Sharpie Revolution book that has a tutorial on making paper, but it didn't turn out quite right... possibly because the person I was making the paper with didn't understand at all what we were supposed to do. Anyway, that's one of my ideas, so any ideas on the paper stuff would be very much appreciated.

My fiance and I have decided that the majority of gifts that we give to people for Christmas next time will be handmade. I'll update periodically on progress because we'll start a lot of stuff soon because we'll be traveling this summer. I plan to make soaps for people, but I won't have to do that until closer to Christmas.

This was kind of a ramble. Anyway! Thanks in advance with any help on paper making :)

From this recipe.

 

One of my *favorite* foods are egg rolls.. and never have I seen egg rolls with these kind of wrappers.  Exotic - and yummy!