Early Christmas Makings

Autumn is an active season for me. With the change from summer to Fall, my focus changes too. This time of year is my favorite. The weather is better, although it's been unusually windy here lately. No matter. There has been a bit of a shift this year though. For one thing almost all my Christmas shopping and making is done. That's extremely unusual. Everything is almost all packed too. It's weird. Not that I'm complaining. Now I can focus on making shortbread, butter tarts, gingerbread, my amazing antipasto, and for the first time ever, bacon jam. Yes, you read that right. It's for on top of crackers and boursin cheese. I can't wait to make it, and I'll let you know if it was a winner or a bust.

So, it's been almost 2 months since I last posted. That's some kind of record for me. I actually thought about shutting the blog down because I was so tardy. I thought better of it because there's still some good ideas on here for people, especially the Christmas Sleigh Ride posts, which are still popularly frequented every year. Plus, I share things I've made and also include the location of the free patterns that I've used. Yes, I'll just keep this little blog up and running for a while longer.

Let me show you what I've been making lately. If you're on my Facebook page, you've probably seen some of these, but please bear with me if you have. 

Most of these hats were donated.

I've also been making peek a boo pals from Gingermelon again this year. I have a 2 year old granddaughter that I think needs them. Plus once my other granddaughters realized I was making more (they each got 3 last year), they put in their orders for 2 or 3 more.  

Here they all are - - I have another lamb to make, and if I have time, I'll make the monkey (not shown) for my sister in law, who still sleeps with her monkeys everywhere she goes. No word of a lie. One of the many reasons I love her so !

They are too adorable, aren't they? Toys that will create memories, I hope.

I also had some custom hats to make, two of which I am still working on so won't show you just yet.

This one I made for an elderly lady using wool she picked out. It was that awful kinky wool. You couldn't tell where the stitches were in it. Terrible stuff, but she was happy with it. 

It originally came from this pattern, which is a free pattern but is no longer available as she's removed her blog, unfortunately. I do have the pattern on my harddrive still, thankfully.

Next, I made these, but I'm not sure who they're for yet. 

These two hats are a bit slouchy and the red one isn't finished yet. I'm thinking of putting one of these white fur pom poms on the top.  I still have to put a leather tag on the red one too. 

One more thing. I like to print off my own tags for Christmas. This year I was looking for something more plain. White or black. I find the other tags interfere with the wrapping paper. Anyway, here's what I found. They're "honest gift tags" from Bunny Peculiar (check her out) and can also be found on my Pinterest Christmas board along with some other tags and ideas too. 

Well, I think that's it, but really, that's enough anyway.

You all have a nice weekend, maybe I'll do a Bacon Jam Post soon - - 

Blessings,

Carmen