project frenzy!

Hi, everybody! It’s been a couple of weeks since my last post. I have been frantically at work on all my Christmas projects. A significant bulk mailing (multi-piece Christmas card) and lots of surprises for gifts. Today I mustered up my courage and took my packages to the “po” and mailed ’em off. Wow, that feels good! (And let me tell you, I wasn’t the only resident of South Eugene that did the same) This year is exactly the same as other years in the amount of work I’ve made for myself getting ready. But this year the deadline was today, Mailing Day (Heck with Boxing day! Today was the last day to box everything up and check-box it right off of one’s To Do list. That’s a big deal!) instead of Christmas Eve at midnight or so. But this year I was forced to get done early so now I have a week to relax. That’s pretty cool.

I’ll post photos of my Christmas card soon, and the surprise projects after the 25th. For now, check out this funky version of an elf hat that I made awhile back, right after Thanksgiving when the Christmas projects were mostly still brewing on my brain’s back burner. That’s the problem – I usually don’t get my bright ideas until just before T-day, and then I just have to go ahead and bite off more than I can chew because the ideas are too good to pass up. And I truly do enjoy the projects, don’t get me wrong. Time just gets a little tight, that’s all. Like a few years ago… I think it was 2002. I had a new book about making handmade journals and memory boxes. So I dove right into making a hand-bound book or box for everyone in my immediate family plus BN and another friend (That’s 10 projects). It took way more materials than I thought and way, way more time than I’d planned on. I was living alone in my studio apartment and I stayed up ALL NIGHT on December 23rd, finishing them up. That was the pinacle of my tradition of last-minute Christmas frenzy. I sure was tired on Christmas that year!