Yesterday evening, my doorbell rang, and to my surprise I had received a box from New Zealand! My Ravelry swap partner, Catherynne, had sent me my Bag-a-Licious bag swap package! Look at this cool loot:

I got a bag, of course. Back to that in a second. I also got a variety of cool New Zealand candies, a kit to make a purse/eyeglass kit, and some bag bling in my favorite colors! It was an amazing package, but the best of all was this bag, which is so cool I don’t have the words to describe it:

You know, every time I think I might be good at what I do, I look at the stuff the other gals on Ravelry make, and I’m reminded how much of a novice I still am in this hooking biz. (ha ha). Catherynne’s work is so perfectly executed and beautiful, I’m almost scared to carry the bag for fear of ruining it! Not too scared, though, because I just have to start using it right away. TOO TOO cool!

I love swapping!!!

My poor cat. He is just dying to be an outdoor adventurer, and I continue to stifle his mojo at every chance I get.

SpongeBob has taken to some drastic attempts to escape lately. He has managed to get into the yard a few times, nibble on some grass, and then get dragged back into the house. It’s not that big of a deal, except that my overly-dramatic children absolutely freak out every darn time. That part is highly annoying.

Anyhoo, when he’s stuck indoors, SpongeBob has begun exploring new heights … literally. My living room has built-in plant shelves in two of the walls, and SpongeBob has ogled those shelves many times; this week, he finally managed to get up there. When he doesn’t go that far, he at least likes to hang out on top of the kitchen cabinets.

Here he is, glaring at me because I have reduced his life to this: the only excitement he gets is hanging out among the fake plants in my kitchen.

The other day, evidently he decided to branch out. Simply sitting on high shelves wasn’t enough for my cat. Now he had to attempt to parachute off of them.

You know, life with cats isn’t quite as entertaining as life with Great Danes, but it’s a lot less destructive.

This year, I decided to go cheap and easy for teacher gifts. Plus, I think handmade is more fun and personal than a gift card or a lotion basket anyway. So, here’s what I came up with this year:

For my daughter’s two teachers, fun furry cell phone/iPod holders (I made these a while ago). I made a frog cell phone/iPod holder for my son’s teacher, who is frog crazy.

Then, Mike and I had to go to a Christmas swap at work, so I made gifts for our Secret Santa recipients. Mine was a football coach, so I made him a hat in school colors:

Mike’s partner was a fellow English teacher, so I gave her my previously-made-never-sold-on-Etsy springtime scarf.

In other school-related gift news, I made these motifs and stuck them on bobbi pins for Jillian’s classmates:

There are only four little girls in her class, including Jilly herself. So that made it easy. I wasn’t sure if they were going to do a gift exchange, so I figured I would make these just in case. If there is no exchange, then it’s not a huge gesture, and if there is one, she’s all set. Luckily for me, my awesome friend Steph sent me this way cool book, and I got my patterns out of it immediately!

I think my fingers may fall off by the end of all of this, since I still have two crocheted gifts to finish and two to start and finish, all by next week. Ack! I’m suffering from crochet ADD, starting and stopping projects like crazy. I can’t wait until January, when I can make gifts for upcoming Ravelry swaps and focus on my Etsy Shop and making things for myself. Ahhh.

Normally, I’m a person who enjoys keeping secrets. I like hiding things from people if it means they’re going to get a good surprise afterward. This makes me pretty good at things like birthdays and Christmas, because I feel little to no temptation to warn people about what they are getting.

However, in this case, I feel I can break my personal rules a little. Or, bend them, rather. As some of you may know, my friend Steph is pregnant with her first child. I am oozing with excitement over this, because it means I get to make all sorts of cute baby things for her little one. I haven’t started any of these projects yet, however, because Steph and her DH haven’t found out the sex of their baby yet. Once she tells me, I’ll be off and running. All of this she knows, so so far, I haven’t spoiled any surprises. However, here I go:

The other day, I entered a blog contest. I do this on a regular basis, and this time it paid off, because I won. The prize was this:

It is the cutest little set of baby goodies from this cute little site. I just couldn’t wait until after I send these to tell you about them. They’re SO amazing, that everyone who knows anyone who’s having a baby needs to go to the site right now and buy stuff.

I’ve had two babies of my own, so the site of a baby gift set isn’t anything particularly new or amazing for me. So let me tell you what IS so amazing about this set, which includes a blanket, bib, and two burp cloths. Here’s the list:
- The color choices are way cool. They’re a little on the masculine side, so I kinda hope Steph has a boy, but even if not they’re not SO boyish that she can’t use them for a girl. The thing I like is that they are cute without being cartooney; sophisticated without being pretentious. In case you can’t see well here, it’s a white background with polka dots in orange, brown, and pale blue.
- The sizing is great. The bib is nice and big so as to cover the baby’s cute little outfit, the burp cloths are big enough to cover Mom’s cute little outfit, and the blanket is HUGE! This is not one of those dinky little receiving blanket jobs that only lasts for the first three hours of the kid’s life. This one will last long into toddlerhood for little baby Davis.
- SOFT!!! Okay, it’s only one word, but it’s all you need. First of all, the patterned fabric itself is soft, so so so soft I wish I had sheets made out of it and I would never get out of bed. THEN, Jen (the lovely designer of these amazing products) has put a soft, furry-style lining on the back of the blanket and bib, and I’m telling you, it’s incredible. For those of you yarn lovers out there, I can only compare it to those really really really soft sheep rugs they sell at sheep and wool festivals. It’s THAT soft. This baby is going to sleep like, well, a baby in this stuff.

Check out a close-up of this fuzzy goodness:

So, Steph, sorry I ruined part of the surprise. But knowing me as you do, I have plenty of other ideas up my sleeve, and this is only one small part of the baby goodness I have in store for you. I have to live vicariously through you, anyway, because I can’t birth another demon spawn without upsetting the balance of nature. SO, now you know, you’re getting a really cute baby set sometime in the future. Fun, fun, fun!

Pregnancy is the greatest, isn’t it? You get to be fat and have people be happy for you and give you presents for it. That’s the life.

A while back, I posted a contest for someone to tell me what to make with my blue yarn. I got some good suggestions, and finally decided to go with Tanya’s idea to make a hat. Said hat has not been completed yet, but I HAVE managed to make Tanya’s custom item. She asked for a neckwarmer in blues/teals/purples (a gal after my own heart), so here it is!

I made it from my design for the Alice Cullen neckwarmer, and I’m going to make a few more for my Etsy shop soon!