Dear {Neglected} Blog

Dear {Neglected} Blog,

I would really like to say that I plan to update you soon. But the fact of the matter is, I simply don't have the time. I want to, but I also want to play with my kids. And spend time with my husband. And craft the night away. And, that's what I've been doing instead of updating you. Thanks for the fun!

♥,
Sam

P.S. To my Dear Friends and Readers, I'm moving all my crafting projects back to my personal blog. Feel free to follow me over there and I'll make sure I post my crafts {and possibly a tutorial or two when time allows}. I'm going to leave this blog up and running indefinitely while I transfer some of my links over {like the Ultimate To Make List}.

Coffee Cozy

{One last Christmas gift that I forgot about!}

Seriously. Easiest gift ever.

I even stuck a Starbuck's gift card inside the {empty} cup. I imagine I'll be giving these as gifts to friends and my kids {future} teachers!

Crocheted Christmas

Rounding out the rest of the homemade Christmas gifts are these crocheted items:

The Anarchy Irony Hat {from Stitch n' Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker} for my brother-in-law - luckily, he totally understood the irony of a crocheted hat with an anarchy symbol on it... and actually wore it!

A shoulder shrug for my youngest sister.

And the PDA hat and One-Skein Scarf {both from The Happy Hooker as well} for my middle sister.

{More} Hooded-Towels

One of my most favorite gifts that I made this year was the hooded towels for all of the kiddos in our lives. The one that I wished I could have kept for myself would have made me feel like super-Mom.....

... or rather Wonder Woman. My {15 year old} cousin requested this one and now loves her hooded towel.

The little boys in our life received hooded towels that looked like this:


I can just imagine them running around after bath time with their super-hero hooded towels capes saving the day! The emblems were made using freezer-paper stenciling on yellow cotton fabric with red screen printing ink - I took pictures of the process which I'll {hopefully} post soon.

One-hour Bag

My niece is just about as big of a Hannah Montana fan as they come. So what could be more perfect for a young girl who loves Hannah Montana than a Hannah Montana purse? Using the simple purse pattern {aptly named the One-Hour Bag} from RicRac, I made her this purse:

Looking back, I wish I had added something extra to it - a little embellishment like a butterfly, a flower, or just some simple bling. I mean, it IS a Hannah Montana purse after all!

{Sling Bag}

One of the Handmade Christmas gifts that I made was the Margaret Sling Bag from Oh, Fransson!. I simply loved the end result and for it being my first ever purse {made from a pattern}, I thought it was pretty easy to make.

My sisters were just a little jealous that it was going to my sister-in-law!

{Updates}

Now that the holidays are over {and have been over for more than a month now}, it's finally time to post about the Handmade Christmas gifts I made and to get back into the swing of regular crafting. Because thanks to Christmas, I've got a few new crafty tools in my craft space {Hello Yudu.} and one on the way {Hello Serger - I can't wait to meet you.}. And I simply can. not. wait. to spend some quality time with each of them. I'm also planning to write up a tutorial on the Cars-to-Go Carrier, so stay tuned!