Santa!!!

Here's a little video of the kids and their cousins the moment Santa makes a delivery at our Christmas Eve celebration at Nona and Grandpa's.

Santa = Grandpa jingling Bells and leaving a big red bag of toys outside the front door.

Our Solstice Celebration.....

Baking Cookies

ArtA Night Time Drive
Hot Cocoa by the Fire

(See their Solstice Jammies there? They chose the fabric themselves.)

Felt Fun...

4 thick felt coasters + 1 coaster cozy...
A Handmade Holiday gift for a friend.

Thick white felt + blanket stitch + decorative center stitch + 4 fun thread colors
=
cozy modern fab

A Gingerbread Village...

What fun it was!

I'm sorry!

I had no idea that that silly You Tube Widget was causing my blog to be an uploading nightmare!

Chris Just told me tonight that he had been having trouble viewing my blog since I added that thing.

So. It's gone now.

My apologies.

I was wondering why my views had dropped so much...

A Custom Whimsy Order...

Complete.

On to another.

Soon I will close up the Plumm shop so I can focus on
crafting gifts and decorations for our family and friends.

Only 2 weeks left until the Christmas.

And

11 days until winter Solstice.

Because, for us, the Holiday Season is primarily about celebrating the change of the season...
we'll give the kids a gift on December 22 to celebrate the Solstice.


Pajamas...if I can finish them in time!

Tis the Season...

Holiday Card production has begun!

We always try to take a quirky photo of all four of us...not the standard posed picture of the kids...for our cards.

This year I decided that, since I took the Handmade Pledge, I should make our cards rather than order them.

I had an assembly line set up on the kitchen table most of the weekend which involved...
a paper cutter, a 20' tall stack of pretty papers, double sided tape, scissors, coffee, a ruler, 2 kids, markers, envelopes, an address book and yummy snacks!

We are almost finished...just a few more messages to write.

Then stamps.

I love the feeling of sending all of those personal messages of joy out to all the folks we love.
Anticipation of our cards reaching their destination...Mixed with the triumph of accomplishing it yet again.

A Holiday Gift...Perhaps...

This is my first time with the double pointed knitting needles...I always suffer through with the Circular needles. I was always so sure one of the needles would slip out and being lost forever. So far, nothing of the sort has happened.

I must say, I am converted. This is a MUCH better way to knit a round hat.

This hat may or may not be a Holiday gift for someone who I'm pretty sure doesn't frequent this space. I am going to remain vague on it's destination and inspiration, just in case...

Found It!...

This Year's wrapping paper...

(Are you catching the opalescence?!)

Do you search high and low until you find just the perfect paper?

Each year I expend almost as much energy looking for paper as I do creating things to wrap it in. This year was no different. It's taken two months of serious searching to attain this delicious wrapping. All worth it.

My standards are, but not limited to:
It has to be non-Christmas-ish,
unexpected,
bold or graphic(or both)
not traditional holiday colors,
somewhat or very hard to find (so no one else will have it),
fun for the kids
sophisticated enough for the adults...
and just generally perfect.

Last year we had ultra glossy hot pink paper with ice blue bows. Loved it.

And..yes..I am also a meticulous gift wrapper.

Think of the gift tag possibilities with this paper!

What are you using this year?

Whimsy...

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For the holidays this year I created a new listing in the shop just for custom Whimsy hats.
I get a bunch of custom requests every year from folks with great color ideas...so I hope this will help streamline that process.
It will allow anyone to purchase the 'custom hat' listing and then tell me exactly what colors and sizes they want when they checkout.
No need to buy one of the existing listings and then wonder if I will know to make it custom...

If anyone is interested, because of their popularity, the wait for hats right now is 7-10 days. I'd like to have my last Christmas order in no later than 12/14... just to be sure it will arrive in time.

So if you're considering an order...don't delay!
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Our sweet friend Hanna models a Whimsy hat...