Getting Craft-y

Lately I've been getting excited about doing crafts. 

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I hand-made all of the thank-you cards for the two baby showers I've had in the last two weeks.  Plus I've made a few Christmas cards, and other whimsies.  I'm not really great at it yet, but with the limited supplies I've got, I think they turn out just fine.

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I started quilting some coasters for my living room about 2 weeks ago, but I kinda' got side tracked - it's pretty tough to start with something so small, because there's no way to keep the fabric taut and my stitching keeps getting lost in the batting.  But I was practicing for my first big project: I want to make quilted Christmas Stockings for my little family.  I will get back to this eventually, but....we might just have to use socks this Christmas.

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When I put the haitus on quilting, I turned to the idea of sewing.  Now, I don't actually own a sewing machine, but it's on the top of my Christmas wish-list.  I have a few ideas, mostly gleaned from Jill's blog, "homemade by Jill".  My first project will be a quiet book for William.  It will be his Christmas gift, even though at 4 months he probably won't get too much use out of it - soon enough he'll have all the little felt pieces to chew on and eventually he'll get to all of the fine-motor-skill activities "hidden" in its pages.  After that's finished, plans for William's 1st Birthday gift are already in the making.  A play house - Jill's was made to go over her kitchen table, but I think I'll make mine to fit on a PVC pipe frame so that I can collapse it when necessary and keep it even if I ever get a new table.

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Today I thought of a great gift for my sister-in-law for Christmas - earrings!  My mom is having a jewelry party next week, this is what inspired the idea.  Unfortunately, the jewelry from this party is fairly pricy, and I have a budget to stick to.  So off to Michael's we went.  I bought a small jewelry-making kit with my 40% off coupon, and a few bits and pieces to make my own earrings.  I love them! I want to keep them for myself.  Once I had the various pliers, the earrings probably cost me about $4 and 20 minutes of my time.  And they look great!  They're not perfect - they are my first attempt, after all, but I do like them.  I hope Em does too.

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