Papercuts, the Kind That Don't Hurt

Dad! If you chose today of all days to start reading my blog, Stop Now, you're about to spoil your own Christmas surprise!



So, in all my rambling, I forgot to mention that the Laughing all the Way design was made with cut paper shapes. The whole thing was done in less than an hour of relaxo couch time. So fun, right? The happy accident associated with all of this, is that my colored paper stash was dangerously low, so I had to dip into my origami paper instead. Eureka! Origami paper is ridiculously strong, it doesn't pull or tear, it has no grain to speak of, and it's white on the back for optimal sketching. After this discovery, and still being a little buzzed from the success and ease of my last papercut project, I decided to try my hand at something a little more complicated. I put away the scissors, pulled out the trusty exacto, and made this for my dad.
Cool, right? It's pretty small, the design is just under 4" square. Obviously, the design of this took a little more time. But I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly the cutting went. And I could do the whole thing without leaving my couch throne. Yeah, turns out I may have been a little overly optimistic about the morning sickness going away. Even so, I'm at least feeling motivated, and with having scaled back my usual holiday madness, I actually have time to play. With things like sharp blades. Woohoo!

Eating, Drinking and Being Merry

I'm rapidly approaching the 12 week mark and I don't know if things are turning around for me, or if the Christmas deadline has lit a toasty fire under my rump, but I had a pretty darn productive weekend. Of course, my phone was out of commission, which probably added a few extra hours to each day. My house looks like people actually live here (and maybe would even want to,) B and I made paper snowflakes and taped them to the windows, I wrapped, and sketched, and cut, and infused, and even snuck in a snowball fight. Pretty good, right? And I was actually hungry. I told Zion Saturday morning that I'd gladly rip out a throat or two if any unsuspecting schmuck walked by with strawberry mochi. Go figure.

Anyway, one of the projects I bustled over was this year's Laughing all the Way. The past few years we've made wine at Whatcom Winemakers, which has been a huge hit, and we've always called it Laughing all the Way. When word leaked that it wasn't happening this year, there were a few sour Anderson faces. So, in the interest of keeping everyone pleasantly imbibed this year, we're infusing cranberries in vodka. Fancy pants call this "Danish Schnapps". I call it "will it keep till June? Cuz it looks freakin' delicious."
The label always features a little Beckettesque figure doing something wintry, and this year, having about 1/10 of the energy needed to draw a detailed portrait, I went all Ezra Jack Keats on it. I'm so happy with it, and B is particularly thrilled with the cameo of a certain well loved fox. I'm thinking about making gift tags too, since we'll only have bottles for a few people this year.

Sorry if I'm spoiling the surprise for a few folks by posting this, I'm just feeling so good about being up to my old tricks again. Please be a good little elves and keep the label and the drink to yourselves so others will be surprised Xmas morning. Thanks!

**UPDATE** Vodka labels, gift tags, and a new seasonal header? I'm totally getting my money's (err... time's?) worth out of this puppy.

Oh, The Weather Inside is Frightful...

Check it out! B and I made snow globes. This project took quite a bit more hands on work by yours truly (I've yet to trust my toddler with epoxy) but he made all the executive decisions, wielded the eye dropper, added the glitter... you know, all the fun stuff. Here's the stuff we used.
There are tutorials for this all over the internet and, for the life of me, I can't remember which one I liked best. Sorry about that. This was just super fun. Recently B picked up the phrase "Ohmygosh!" and he squeals it ever time he upends one of these little jars. We had a whole pile of wintry plastic flotsam, but B couldn't part with a single walrus or polar bear. I'm a little bummed we don't have an arctic fox snowglobe, but Beckett's happy. He now has his snowglobes and a pile of new animal toys.

In the Meadow, We Can Build a Snowman

So... just because I'm personally stepping out of the handmade holiday game this year, doesn't mean I can't benefit from putting another (much smaller) pair of hands to work. Child Labor, you say? How dare you! I'm simply a wildly clever and festive mother. Ahem.Beckett made these, similar to these, with remarkably little help. I made the polymer clay carrot noses the night before, cut the arms to size and turned the kid loose. He had picked out the clay, the buttons and the pipe cleaners himself and was all kinds of amped about this little project. So, I just kicked back, hummed along to the Muppet's Christmas Carol, and watched, in wonder, as all these little guys appeared. Unfortunately, my evil plan to use these snowmen to add a warm fuzzy personal touch to my internet purchased gifts was thwarted. Thoroughly. My little cohort decided, after the fact, that we should probably just keep them all. So far, he hasn't budged.

We did another little project today, but I didn't snap any pictures during the 2-3 hours of daylight we had up here in the taiga. I'll get them posted soon, and hopefully a few more little numbers we've got cookin' around here.

Half Asleep in Penguin Pajamas

I was told, no ordered last weekend to post something, anything, just some puff to get the seasonally inappropriate jack-o-lantern off the top spot. So here goes. I am pregnant, due June 30th. I am epically pregnant, actually and spend most of my time horizontal. The rare vertical moment is generally spent scouring the internet for tear-worthy scraps of a few favorite tv shows. It's pretty embarrassing. Things I never would have cried over a few weeks ago make me gush, which given my general ice queen-ness (which was totally amplified in my first pregnancy- yikes!) is pretty fun. A pair of figure skaters skating to Once Upon a Time in the West made me weep, as did some cheesy youtube fan-made Being Human video.

I'm medicated now, after some drastic weight loss and a sudden and profound intimate relationship with my bathroom floor, but the meds cause comical drowsiness. I almost passed out open-mouthed in my mashed potatoes last Thursday night (thank you, Jose, for your watchful gaze and quick giggle reflex.) I'm keeping more than just 7up down, but still have that super fun sea-sick feeling, which might be a problem if I could get off the couch, but alas...

So, basically, I'm exhausted and miserable and happy and finding unbearable beauty everywhere I look. My house is a mess, my dog is sad, my son is neglected, and my husband takes it all with a certain calm amusement. He's like Eric Northman right now... mmm. Oh yeah, and I'm trying to downshift all of my Christmas project dreams into internet shopping reality. Sorry folks, I might have to put my usual "handmade holidays" on the shelf for this one. But anything exciting I complete (or even attempt) I'll post. Happy December, everyone! B and I totally cooled out to the Comcast Yule Log today, 'tis the season and all.

And Finally...

... the porch. Here's what I did on my parent's porch this year.Happy Halloween everybody, even if it is a whole week and a day late.

No!toro

Here is the costume that I literally shed blood, sweat and tears over in my mad Halloween dash. It's B's Totoro, and no part of creating it went smoothly. Despite it being so freakin simple, I hit snag after snag. The grand blooper cherry on top of this blooper sundae, is that B absolutely refused to wear the thing. He's a funny sensitive guy, and as stubborn as his mom, and something tweaked in him and there was no talking him into it. I almost cried, after all the frustration I had putting it together, then I remembered that I'm the parent, and to behave myself. He ended up happily trick or treating in his trusty Totoro hoodie, and all was well. He has the candy loot to prove it.

Oo De Lally!

So, I got home with about 48 hours of costuming left before the big day. Miraculously, I finished our fox masks. They turned out so slick, so much cooler than I expected, and they were so fun to wear. In other words, I like them.
About half way through, they looked like a big pile of CRAFT. Maybe even KRAFT. Like I would be pulling out the puffy paint and Mod Podge any second. But once the entire mask was covered in the crepe paper it looked lovely. My mom tried to steal them Sunday morning to hang on her wall. For those of you who know my mother, you know that no mere craft gets wall space in her home. It's the highest form of flattery. (She also took these pictures. She says, "it's all in the paws.")These masks were made with Crayola Model Magic built up on a blank mask form, then papier mache, paint and finally crepe paper according to the instructions here. I love the relief and the texture, and am a little obsessed with the way crepe paper stretches and bends. Amazing. My poor family will probably just be getting a mask menagerie for Christmas. The rest of our costumes were equal parts made and found. They were warm and comfortable, and though we wore them out to great party and were seen by friends, family and strangers alike, I feel like I didn't get enough time as Marian. I may start wearing leather vests and shawls around town just for the hell of it. I could just be that girl.Look at my Robin Hood, sans mask. How handsome is he? He can swash my buckle any time he likes. Word.

A Many Splendored Thing

Everybody knows the age old love story of the Narwhal and the Greaser. Ahh... Sweet Romance...

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Ok kids, I finally have a minute to say that this Fall, and even the end of the Summer, kicked my ass. I never realized how much of my free time (read: sanity) came from afternoon toddler nap time, and evening toddler bed time. But, of course, the apple doesn't fall far from the insomniac mother. It's been months of bed time battles, really a full scale war, culminating in a parental white flag of surrender. Beckett no longer naps. Which means Beckett is often cranky. Which means I am too.

So I have little time to write, and less time to do anything about which to write. And when you throw in an emergency babysitting week in California (to care for my niece) I didn't even get a chance to post all of the things I have been up to. I'd still like very much to do that. If you don't mind hearing about Halloween costumes after the fact, I'll be posting my successes and failures over the next few days.