Homemade for the Holidays

Like the past 12 years of my life, I am working with my mom to make our Christmas presents for the family. We decided that it would be nice to etch some different kinds of glasses with different designs for the family. I have officially finished the ones for my family, and am now working on the ones for Craig's family and our SLC friends. So far, they have come out quite nicely. I even made an Instructable for it today and it has already been featured and gotten quite a few hits and comments.

Coffee mugs for my uncle:

Wine glasses for the grandparents as well as some friends (these are for the friends):

Beer glasses for my aunt and uncle:

Beer glasses for Craig's dad, Craig's brother, and my brothers:

I was going to make some glasses for my parents, too, but I had a change of thought. I realized that my parents wouldn't really care about the glasses, and have enough glasses of their own. Then, I found the best knitting pattern ever. My parents love sushi, and I thought that they would get a kick out of this.

This picture shows: the cucumber roll, clam, octopus and tuna sushi pieces. There is also the decorative grass, wasabi and pickled ginger. Since then, I have finished every other piece of sushi except for the rice on the eel and shrimp pieces. I have them on the coffee table and everyone who sees them thinks they are the funniest thing ever. I agree. I think I might knit an I-cord in white and put a chopstick in it to make knitted chopsticks to go with them, but I'm not sure.

Thinking About Xmas Presents

I've been super busy with teaching and have been feeling really not creative lately. But today I realized that I need to think about Christmas presents for my family. Every year my mom, brothers and I have thought of and created presents for the whole family with a specific crafty theme. Here is a list of the presents of years past and the years that I remember...

1995: Salt-dough basket and napkin rings and decorated napkins (remember that paint that you made raised dots with that created a pattern? We used that).
1996: Quilting
1997: Latch Hook Rugs
1998: Fimo decorated items (pens, pins, earrings, butterflies, etc)
1999: Decorated Candles and Homemade Beeswax Candles
2000: Picture Frames
2001:
2002:
2003: Mosaics
2004: Decorated Christmas ornaments
2005: Knit hats, scarves, and backpacks
2006: Homemade Calendars and pj pants

this year, I decided to pick up a knitting pattern that I had seen last year but hadn't convinced my mother to use: Vanezia.

I can even make some to make for Craig's parents!

So I went to Michael's and bought a whole bunch of stuff (pictures coming, I left my camera in my classroom), but bought the wrong kind of wire. Note: bead stringing wire is MUCH different than beading wire. Now I have to go back out and buy some new stuff. Ah well, too bad I LOVE craft stores. :)