allsorts

Elves need shoes! A project to keep you in stitches.

Whether you call them shoes or clogs, an elf must wear something on his little feet... it's cold up there at the North Pole! How about these wee felt booties? Here's another one of my all-time favorite Christmas patterns for my crafty friends.

Click -->here<-- to download the pdf pattern.

Use a fairly heavy felt for these, as the lighter weights don't hold up as well. The pom pom on the toe isn't just to be cute, it hides where the four points meet (which for me always turned out a tad messy). I like to use Perle Cotton to whipstitch the seams and edges, I find it much easier to work with than stranded embroidery floss and it looks great.

The next photo happened after I opened a lovely candy cane and I discovered it was invisibly broken inside the plastic wrapper. Sad face...

And guess what, there is an Elf Clogs group on Flickr where you can see lots of clever and creative versions made from the pattern. Add yours as well if you decide to give it a go.

So... clog on!

By the way... the painting is finished upstairs and they've started sanding the wood floors. We decided to give up on doing anything downstairs until after Christmas to retain what's left of our sanity... but everything upstairs looks fantastic! I haven't been able to get many good pics because there always seem to be workers or ladders or plastic covering everything. I'll share as soon as things clear out up there, then I can show you the colors we picked!

Cheers,

Jenny

Peppermint Advent Calendar Pouches ~ revisiting some projects of Christmas past

So my friends, how was your Thanksgiving? Are your scales tipping a bit heavier now, like me? We had a fantastic holiday, spent with my family in Louisiana (where they really know how to cook). So now with the season of thanks turning to the season of joy... let's talk about Christmas crafting! Like I mentioned last week, I will be recapping and updating some of my most popular patterns and tutorials from the last few years. Did you realize I've been doing this Allsorts blogging thing since December 3rd of 2004? Yikes! Along the way I've shared some projects that many of my current readers may not know about. So what do you say we start with my Advent Calendar Pouches? They first showed up on my bedroom mantel in 2006, as seen below, and appeared again last year, when they were incorporated into the above arrangement in my studio.

These are super-simple to make, but of course you'll need to make 24 or 25 of them!

Basically what you do is cut the long shape from white fleece or felt, embroider the number on the rounded end and add a button where shown. Then fold up the square end and whip stitch around the edge and add a length of floss to he rounded end. Fill your pouch with your selected treat (the pouch size happens to be perfect for a square of Ghirardelli chocolate) and a little paper 'dangle' ~ then fold the pouch closed over your garland and wind the floss around the button to hold it closed. Each day as a pouch is opened, you hang the dangle from the button, to show the progress towards Christmas Day! Like this:

Click -->here<-- to download the printable for the dangles. Just print on card stock, then cut out and attach a loop of string or thread.

I love that there are so many creative Advent calendars out there. In fact there is a Creative Advent Calendars group on Flickr for people to share photos of any kind of calendar they've made. Check it out, and add your own pics if you like!

Cheers,

Jenny

A scotty dog for Christmas?

Yes! I want a scotty dog for Christmas, who doesn't? But since that is very unlikely, I suppose the next best thing is one for my iPhone. And yours! When this adorable vintage scotty dog image popped up on Pinterest, I thought it would make the cutest wallpaper... with a tartan plaid background of course! Did you know that Carnegie Mellon University's mascot is a scotty dog, and their school colors are tartan? Isn't that the coolest thing ever? It's a great school (I know because my daughter went there) but I'd go just for the opportunity to see bagpipers wearing tartan and marching with scotty dogs! Now that is awesome.

Wow, I'm rambling today. I blame the paint fumes. Anyway, there are four background colors to choose from, and as before I did one with the scotty for your lock screen, and a plain plaid one for your home screen. Here are the colors you have to choose from:

And here are the download links. Just right-click and save to your computer (or control-click on a mac). More detailed instructions on how to install on your iPhone can be found here. Or if you are reading this on your iphone, click on the link to open the image, then touch and hold for a second and you can save the image. Then go into your photos and click on the little box with the arrow in the lower left corner and set to use as wallpaper. Easy!

scotty-iphone-red                      

plaid-iphone-red

scotty-iphone-blue                    

plaid-iphone-blue

scotty-iphone-aqua

plaid-iphone-aqua

scotty-iphone-yellow

plaid-iphone-yellow

Hope you likey. And I apologize that there aren't Android-friendly versions. I tried to learn how to make them work for Droids, but they use a different kind of technology so a simple wallpaper won't work. Sorry, I really tried!

By the way, I'm planning to do a retrospective of all the Christmas patterns, crafts and tutorials I've shared through the years. That should be coming up soon, maybe beginning just after Thanksgiving. So check back often!

Cheers,

Jenny

What does Christmas taste like to you?

To me, Christmas tastes like peppermints and candy canes, of course!

Maybe with some gingerbread and teensy bottles of milk...

Maybe as cookies...

or with some cocoa...

link ~ link ~ link ~ link

Or perhaps a little on the dark side... of mocha!

Or in a chocolate brownie... mmmmmmmmmmmmm Yep, that's it.

Cheers,

Jenny