A Successful Holiday Season

I am back home tonight after a week of visiting family for Christmas and Chanukah. I didn't manage to give any truly handmade presents this year. However, I did give a few somewhat crafty things - my sister-in-law got a gift certificate to Spoonflower, and I gave my uncle some postage stamps from Zazzle with an image I drew myself:

I've really been wanting to try Spoonflower, but haven't come up with a really thrilling idea for a custom print yet - so let's see if I come up with something before my sister-in-law does!

As far as GETTING crafty presents, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law (from Mr. Moxie's side) gave me some craft books from Kumiko Sudo I've been really wanting to get: East Quilts West, Fantasies & Flowers: Origami in Fabric for Quilters, and Folded Flowers: Fabric Origami with a Twist of Silk Ribbon. I love love love Kumiko Sudo. Really neat graphic designs, combined with 3D elements, combined with cool color combinations. Sadly, I haven't had a chance to actually make any of the projects out of any of her books, but perhaps 2009 will finally be my year. :) I would love to make a soft "book" out of a sequence of her designs, especially the ones in Folded Flowers, but I don't know any little girls of the right age to give that as a gift.

They also got me Threadbared: Decades of Don'ts from the Sewing and Crafting World, a book published by the people behind the hilarious, and sadly defunct, Threadbared website.

And finally, they gave me Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking, a bread cooking book I've heard good things about.

Overall, quite satisfying!

Presence of presents

Today, I wrapped all the Christmas presents we're giving. Looks pretty festive! I went a little overboard with adding strips of contrasting paper, but I really had fun.

I enjoy doing quick, impermanent crafty things like this when I have the chance. I also got to help my sister-in-law decorate a cake a few weeks back. I like being able to be creative without stressing as much as I do over a "permanent" object.

More Basil At Once

The basil is finally taking off, so I'm able to get a good amount at once if I let it go a few days between trimming. Here's the amount I was able to get one day to sprinkle over salad & pasta with dinner:

We left town for a week for Thanksgiving and I was a little nervous how it would go with us gone - would the basil take off, grow into the light, and burn down our apartment? Happily, no. I trimmed the heck out of it before we left, so it looked like this:

And after we got back it looked like this: