A Merry Christmas was had...

Completed and sent Christmas Cards

Christmas morning

Play time...
We had a lovely quiet Christmas starting with my parents coming over for Christmas Eve dinner of Beef Stew and Roasted Pears with pound cake and vanilla ice cream. Since we have no kids and had no house guests we slept in on Christmas day and had a leisurly time with breakfast and opening our gifts (just a few this year). The cats always have such a good time playing with all the paper and wrappings. Later we went to my parents for a nice Ham dinner and then to my Aunt and Uncles for some more festivity. Sorry for no postings, I was a but busy knitting and cooking and knitting and wrapping and did I mention knitting? up until right before we went to my parents. I hope all the gifts we made were well accepted and next time I need to start earlier!

Mom's Fair Isle gift Bag

Dad's felted Bowls

Brendan's handmade picture frames (5 were made)

Handmade pledge VS Wal Mart

Over 10,000 People have taken the Handmade pledge and The NY Times has also featured an article about the Handmade Consortium . Personally I choose to take this pledge for several meaningful reasons among wich were, using my stash of crafting materials, using my creative skills, giving people something meaningful and handmade which to me translates as "From the Heart", to encourage others to try making something to give and to remove myself a bit more from the consumerism of the Christmas holiday.
The bigger issue for me was well hilighted by the movie Wal Mart: The High Cost of low Price and really it just made me SICK!
I have not shopped there for years. I saw first hand what they did to small towns when we lived in Berea KY and after moving to GA I hated working at Mohawk because Wal Mart drove the prices down so far that eventually they had to close down all the domestic looms and outsource off shore. Sadly this year they then closed the whole textile division and some good friends of mine lost their jobs! We (Americans) are going to be dealing with even more of this in the future because we have moved from a society of making things that we need to relying on others to make thing for us. We use to make things for ourselves and now we just consume without thought to where it comes from, who made it and what the real cost is. Since I work in the textile industry I have seen first hand over the last 10 years how this industry has closed more and more US manufacturing facilities. Really I've just seen the tail end of another American Industry dry up.
All this being said, I'm encouraged by the small force of people out there that want to start making again and for the others that don't feel they have the time to personally make things I do hope this Christmas and throughout the year they will consider giving a gift of something handmade, made in the US, made with love and made by fair practice because it truly is the right and necessary thing to do.

2008 Pantone Color of the Year is Choosen

Pantone’s choice of blue iris, or No. 18-3943 has been choosen as 2008's color of the year.

In a statement, Leatrice Eiseman, the executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, said: “Blue Iris brings together the dependable aspects of blue, underscored by a strong, soul-searching purple cast. Emotionally, it is anchoring and meditative with a touch of magic.”
See the full NY Times article here .

Client Gifts

These came out so well, we will be handing them out tomorrow and I hope everyone likes them!

WIP's still knitting...

Still working on one of these:

One done:Ruffled Felted Bowls

And this will be another one of the Ruffled Felted Bowls

MSH 12.07 Mosaic Completed

MSH 12.07 Mosaic
Originally uploaded by we98bees

My second Monthly Scavenger Hunt is completed with the mosaic here. There were some tough ones this time like "furtive" along with some that were very fun like "merry", "horray" and "sleeping it off". I had many of the shots in my archives but had to go hunting for others such as "chocolate", "ice cream", "oil", "quote" and "turning it on".

Happy Birthday to my Dear Husband

I just wanted to make a quick shout out to my wonderful Husband! He has finally caught up with me! Big Hugs to him!

Brookside Gardens

Last Saturday PM we went to Brookside Gardens for the "Winter Garden Walk". This spectacular holiday lights show in the garden was so much fun, especially since we went with family and kids! We had great weather and were the last ones to leave because we were just having so much fun and taking our time looking at all the wonderful decorations. They have a welder that makes many of their features and most of the flowers like the sunflower below are made by taping bundles of lights together to create all sorts of different things.




This was the best part, the huge rainbow could be seen from almost any part of the garden, then as you walked under it they had a branch lit up like lightening and thunder booming along with the beautiful clouds and rain. The whole thing was magical and made me feel childlike.

First Snow

Coneflower with Ice

Coneflower with Ice
Originally uploaded by we98bees

Our first snow was on Wednesday which at our house ended up being about 4 inches. It seemed like fall just ended (hasn't yet technically) and we had about 6 glorious weeks of fall foliage color. Now, the snow has come and the garden is hibernating for winter but a few things haven't quite died back yet. I loved this Coneflower with the ice.

Christmas In Progress

Hot chocolate which will go with Tea bags in these mugs


Forcing Paperwhites (or as my husband calls them the "pee pee flower")


Scarf in Progress


Cards (inspired by these) in Progress

Monticello Wreath Making Workshop with Mom

The finished wreath has a boxwood base of greenery and features magnolia, holly, osage orange, dried orange pieces, dried okra sweet gum balls and poppy as well as other various greens and dried things from the garden. I wanted a wreath that was a contemporary take on a traditional craft. I really love it. This ptoject was so much fun especially since my Mom and I drove to Monticello together to take the workshop.


Once the base was covered we hung the wreath up on a stand to begin adding the "decorations". I was determined to use an Osage Orange as the centerpiece of mine so I began working with the larger pieces and choose an asymetrical format.



The straw based wreath forms were covered first by wiring bunches of evergreen to the form. I used Boxwood with a bit of Holly for my base.



The Supplies were laid out in baskets and bags of materials to use for creating the bases and decorating the wreaths.