I feel like an elf

I have made 14 stockings this year for my family members. Definitely a high, that is why I feel like an elf. 5 years ago two of my brothers got married in the same year. For christmas I made them and their wives stockings, this year they both of their wives had babies. Here are their stockings:
My father also likes to have stockings of all his family members in his house whether they are there or not, that includes grandchildren. By the end of the year he will have had 4 new grandbabies. Here are their stockings: (the two on the right are replicas of the first two, and the one one the left is a replicated below)
I never made my sister stockings for christmas after she got married, probably because I was too busy getting married myself. She is about to have her first baby so I made all of them stockings. Right now my total of stockings made this year is 9.
Before we go on lets have a recap, I love green tree material. Lucky little Evan gets that stocking at his grandpa's house. (His family goes with a different style so I didn't make him one for his house.)
Then I decided 9 stockings for one year wasn't enough, and I remembered that one of my brother's never got personalized stockings. He got married before I started making them. I drew his name for the gift exchange this year and so I decided to make him and his family of 5 stockings. Bring the total up to 14. Turns out some of by best stockings were made in the last batch. This is my favorite that I made this year. So retro classic christmas in my opinion. It reminds me of the ones my mother made for us as kids. All of these stockings are done in that style but the material is what I'm talking about for the retro style. It reminds me of one of my brother's stockings. This one was also exciting I thought because it got button embellishments. I decided to put them on since they went with the main material so well, and she is "the mom". Growing up my dad taught me "the mom" is special. Not to mention it has a snowman couple on the front just like her and my brother, and then a snowwoman with three kids, and she has three kids. I thought the material was perfect for her. I try to find material that I think goes well for the personalities.But since we are talking about stockings, I have to show the stockings I made in previous years for my little family. Since I love them so much. My husband is on the left and my son's is on the right. My husbands stocking is the plainest one I've ever made, it was custom made, he picked everything out, he said didn't want it sissy looking or something to that effect.
I love the trim on mine. Its the fanciest trim I've ever used, I can't afford to put that kind of luxuries on when I'm making 14. The trim was expensive. But I love it still.
As you might of realized there is a few duplicate looking stockings, that is because if they are not being used in the same house, I have no problem using the same material multiple times. And I think its kind of fun to share styles. My little niece mary got to have the same material as mine. And Jobo's cousin has the same stockings at his house. Its fun I think...
For some reason I have always loved stockings. My stocking at my parent's house was always my favorite decoration as a child I think it was because it was mine, not the family's. Thats probably why I now make stockings for my whole family (almost).

Holiday Craft #2

You may be wondering what happened to holiday craft #1, all in due time my faithful readers. Right now its time for #2.Mitten clips from martha. The look different, because my mom thought they looked better fat then skinny. They have clothespins on the back of them.

The first of the presents.

At thanksgiving, I gave my sister in law her christmas present. I made her a clock, the female version of Jobos. Know I realize this is way girly, but I was thinking it would look good in her new salon. And in my defense she is really girly.
Purple walls? Pink clock? I thought it might work, she might think its super ugly and not use it for all I know. But she said it was super cute and would match great.

Party Time

Last Friday night, we had the aforementioned party. My cousin turned 20, and she had a bash at my house. We also had her two brothers over and their wives. Here is the garland I found from Martha. As you will notice, it is the only martha craft I made. The hats, didn't not turn out to look so good, and they were much more challenging to make than martha made it seem. So they got cut before I even made one. It made me a little disillusioned in martha. I really really really wanted to make the clowns, but I had no time. And the turkeys...well I'm still hoping... Oh and no one could really have expected me to cut out napkins, if you thought I was actually going to go through with that, you are crazy.
Here is Jobo helping making the cake. He really liked it.
Here is the cake, so I know it totally does not look as good what I was trying to copy but I am so PROUD of it. First off, I have never made frosting in my life, and I made this frosting from scratch, and it turned out really tasting. I was really worried, because if there is one thing people from my father's side of the family like it is chocolate cake, my cousin requested chocolate when I asked her what she wanted. So there was a lot of self induced pressure to make a good cake, and as first time frostinger I was worried. But it turned out well, complements were paid, and I breathed a sign of relief after holding my breath for days. The way the cake looked on the other hand...it was lopsided I need my aluminum pans. And the decoration is obviously from an amateur but I was still so PROUD!
My hubby made food for MY cousins. How great is that man? I know I love him, he is so nice, its fabulous. He offered to make chimigangas, and of course I would never deny cooking help, since I am not a cook.
The birthday girl is on the far right. Here is Jobo entertaining everyone, none of them have kids, so Jobo is novelty.

A while back

A while back ago I sent out thank you notes for people who sent me birthday presents. I thought they looked really cute, so I'm posting it here. I didn't create this, I made it from my scrapbook software CD, unfortunately I'm not that talented, actually my problem is I don't have the right software to create things on my own.