(*Originally posted October 28, 2006 on the now-defunct Lizzie's Desk blog. There is some minor editing.)A very strange thing is happening to me this week.
It began yesterday, with the arrival of the newest edition of Better Homes & Gardens. Flicking from page to page, I started to salivate. I started to get the shakes. I almost broke out in song.
It was wall-to-wall Christmas.
I'm a big Christmas person - have been since way back. I actually like to go shopping on Christmas Eve. I'm nearly always done shopping by then but I'll go out anyway and soak up the atmosphere. I get excited when the shopping centres start pulling out their decorations in October. And now that I have kids, I have a legitimate excuse to spend hours in line for Santa.
My husband is not on my level when it comes to all this yuletide hoopla. He'd rather just sleep in, eat a little, drink a little and sleep some more. He just doesn't understand my Annual Urge To Craft...
...which brings us back to this week.
Felt ornaments do it to me every single time. Crochet - blah. Sewn stockings - whatever. But handmade felt decorations? I get a sudden and violent urge to head to the nearest Spotlight store and stock up big on fabric and notions. I even buy bags of buttons to sew onto the ornaments, because we all know a country-themed felt ornament without buttons is like a snowman without a carrot nose (which reminds me, I'm out of orange felt...)
The problem with my fascination for felt ornaments is that even after I've bought sheet upon sheet of felt, I find it difficult to make the time to actually make the ornaments. Which kind of defeats the purpose of course. Each year in January I tell myself to start making one or two a week and by Christmas I'll be able to decorate the house top to bottom with the little critters...and every year I forget. Until about October, when the shopping centres start getting all Kris Kringle on me and magazines start arriving filled with pages of stylist-designed, perfectly symmetrical, country-themed Christmas trees. And then I remember.
Even though this year I'd be starting more than a little late, I've decided to put my money where my mouth is (or rather, where I've built my Felt Cave) and just make something. It's a tough call - November and December are traditionally the worst month of the year to try to do anything constructive around here, between the schools breaking up for the year, the Christmas fetes, the city and community Christmas pageants, the insanity that is Christmas shopping and the annual debate over whether it is worth driving an hour to see some Christmas lights (which, for the record, are spectacular). On top of this some fool (me) continually forgets that assignments are due to be finalised for the year in late November and for some inexplicable reason I've signed up for NaNoWriMo yet again even though 1000 words would be an achievement, let alone the 50,000 it requires. In short, I am officially an idiot. (Note from Ed: Okay, I didn't sign up for NaNoWriMo this year - 2007 - because I'm finally smart enough to realise it's not my thing, LOL)
Yet despite all of this, the urge to make something out of felt continues. So the challenge is just to create one thing. One tiny little Christmas tree, gingerbread man or angel.
Oh, that reminds me....they had the most adorable little clothespin angels in Better Homes....
Cheers,
Lizzie
It began yesterday, with the arrival of the newest edition of Better Homes & Gardens. Flicking from page to page, I started to salivate. I started to get the shakes. I almost broke out in song.
It was wall-to-wall Christmas.
I'm a big Christmas person - have been since way back. I actually like to go shopping on Christmas Eve. I'm nearly always done shopping by then but I'll go out anyway and soak up the atmosphere. I get excited when the shopping centres start pulling out their decorations in October. And now that I have kids, I have a legitimate excuse to spend hours in line for Santa.
My husband is not on my level when it comes to all this yuletide hoopla. He'd rather just sleep in, eat a little, drink a little and sleep some more. He just doesn't understand my Annual Urge To Craft...
...which brings us back to this week.
Felt ornaments do it to me every single time. Crochet - blah. Sewn stockings - whatever. But handmade felt decorations? I get a sudden and violent urge to head to the nearest Spotlight store and stock up big on fabric and notions. I even buy bags of buttons to sew onto the ornaments, because we all know a country-themed felt ornament without buttons is like a snowman without a carrot nose (which reminds me, I'm out of orange felt...)
The problem with my fascination for felt ornaments is that even after I've bought sheet upon sheet of felt, I find it difficult to make the time to actually make the ornaments. Which kind of defeats the purpose of course. Each year in January I tell myself to start making one or two a week and by Christmas I'll be able to decorate the house top to bottom with the little critters...and every year I forget. Until about October, when the shopping centres start getting all Kris Kringle on me and magazines start arriving filled with pages of stylist-designed, perfectly symmetrical, country-themed Christmas trees. And then I remember.
Even though this year I'd be starting more than a little late, I've decided to put my money where my mouth is (or rather, where I've built my Felt Cave) and just make something. It's a tough call - November and December are traditionally the worst month of the year to try to do anything constructive around here, between the schools breaking up for the year, the Christmas fetes, the city and community Christmas pageants, the insanity that is Christmas shopping and the annual debate over whether it is worth driving an hour to see some Christmas lights (which, for the record, are spectacular). On top of this some fool (me) continually forgets that assignments are due to be finalised for the year in late November and for some inexplicable reason I've signed up for NaNoWriMo yet again even though 1000 words would be an achievement, let alone the 50,000 it requires. In short, I am officially an idiot. (Note from Ed: Okay, I didn't sign up for NaNoWriMo this year - 2007 - because I'm finally smart enough to realise it's not my thing, LOL)
Yet despite all of this, the urge to make something out of felt continues. So the challenge is just to create one thing. One tiny little Christmas tree, gingerbread man or angel.
Oh, that reminds me....they had the most adorable little clothespin angels in Better Homes....
Cheers,
Lizzie
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