Amberism

Meet Anna Caroline

Anna is a play on a family name on my side (a lot of Anne's, and my sister's middle name is Anne) and Caroline is Steve's Mom's name. We don't really think outside the box when it comes to names, do we? At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter you know? She is who she is, and what I name her really doesn't matter.

These 3-d images are creepy, eh? I think I prefer the 2-d!

The Quilt

Last March (ahem), I started putting together this little doll quilt for my god-daughter's birthday. I had it all pieced together, and even started on the embroidery and then... I don't know. Stopped, I guess.

I picked it up again just before Christmas, determined to get it done and sent to her as I knew she was getting a Maplelea doll for Christmas. I am SUPER pleased with how it turned out.

I didn't do a superb job on the binding, or the quiting. It's machine quilted, even though my Grandma - the quilter extraordinaire - kept asking me if I was going to hand quilt it. I kept laughing. I can't imagine I'll EVER hand quilt because whoa, that's A LOT of work. Even piecing this together was a lot of work. But I am still pleased with the end result and my first foray into quilting.

It's a free pattern, offered here, except I changed the butterfly applique to the embroidered butterfly that my god-daughter had drawn. It just makes it a little more personal for her, you know?

Stella (Claire's doll) seems to like it, I hope that Taryn (Julia's doll) does, too.

Kid Designed Stuffies

I'm almost done the handmade holiday blog posting, in case you find this agonizing. Just think, my New Year's Resolution was to start on next year's Christmas crafts immediately so there is just going to be that much more talk about crafing. Yay! Right?!

These little guys were made for my neice and nephew. This was really my god-daughter, Julia's idea. I think what happened was that she wanted an Ugly Doll and Michelle took one look at the price of an Ugly Doll and told Julia that Auntie Amber could make one. I assumed all this because the next time I saw Julia she asked me to make her an ugly doll like it was a given I could. At the time I had absolutely no idea what the hell an ugly doll was so I told her she'd have to draw me a picture. This led to a conversation about the book Stitched In Time, where there is a featured project of a horse that the author's niece drew and the author subsequently turned it into a (gorgeous!) stuffie.

And so... I've been meaning to make one of Julia's drawings into a stuffie for, oh, about a year. Except that her brother, Ben, also drew me several pictures to be made into stuffies and for the life of me I can't find those drawings. Ben has asked me consistently where his 'ugly doll' is, or if I've knit him a stuffie yet. Like maybe an owl? Or a bat? He asks every time I see him, so I couldn't in good conscience make a stuffie for Julia and then not have one for him, too. I'm getting a new pile of drawings from Ben, so until that happens I'm holding off making the doll for Julia.

That is why my niece and nephew had their drawings turned into stuffies and once again Michelle and family are strangely suffering for no real apparent reason. Talk about a whole bundle of fail going on here. That said, now that I've made these I learned a lot and so the next ugly dolls I make are going to be SO much better than these. So, you know, there's that.

I should have just bought a damn ugly doll and saved you from having to read those last three paragraphs.

Steve and I both think these dolls are seriously creepy and couldn't possibly imagine a kid enjoying them one bit. My kids, though? LOVE THEM. I had to tear that ugly "rabbit" out of Claire's hands while she screamed "MY BUNNY" after I had her pose for these photos.

Callum randomly draws me pictures and then demands that I make them into a stuffie for him. I've started something. You'll also notice that I rather stupidly put the face on the wrong side of both dolls. At least I'm consistent.

Callum's Creations

Now that Callum is getting older, the concept of giving is really starting to sink in. It is a lot of fun, he will often spontaneously draw someone a picture and then demand that I send it to them as a gift.

For Christmas I took a couple of his recent drawings and copied them onto shrinky dink paper to make necklaces and key chains that he allocated to certain family members. Once the pictures were traced and shrunk (after a few mishaps) Callum decided who got what and then my Mom and him sat down and he picked the beads he wanted for each necklace. The only exception is that I picked one of the fish for myself because I'm the Mommy. I was in labour for 30+ hours, I get to have SOME perks, yes? Callum (with Grandma-Mammai's help) picked out the beads and strung it, though.

This pile of gifts is for my sister-in-law's family whose gifts I've yet to send out. Auntie Michelle is going to be sad to hear that her keychain broke. I'd make another but I'm out of shrinky dink paper. Callum is also upset that Auntie Michelle's present broke, so I'm sure in no time at all, he'll be figuring out a replacement gift for you Michelle!

The little bracelets Callum made for himself and Claire, with Grandma's help. His says "Monkey", his nickname although I have no idea why I call him Monkey, he really isn't a monkey sort-of kid. Claire's says "Yummy" because, well, that's what letters were left.

I think the keychains and necklaces are super cute, even if they aren't exactly high quality (clearly NOT high quality). I'm really pleased to see my family using their Callum-made keychains, and my Mom wearing her Callum-made necklace! It also pleases Callum to no end, too.