secret things

I am always super excited at least a month before the holidays, but once they are over, I AM DONE! I seriously need to tear down this Christmas House & put back up Regular Old House.

But first a few secret things I had been working on as Christmas presents…

A petite shawl for my petite Grandma, just a little hug when ever she needs it. It’s a Japanese pattern from this lovely book & can be found on Ravelry too.

 And for my Sister I stitched up a jewelry frame, she is a collector of vintage jewelry and I thought what a lovely way for her to display her favorite pieces. I loosely based it off this Lion Brand frame. I went with a different stitch and their assembly was a bit bulky for my frame, I didn’t use batting, cardstock or double-sided tape, I just stretched and stapled the crocheted lace over the back & using spray adhesive attached a piece of fabric to the wood backboard. Then pressed it into the frame, it was a really old wood frame covered with a plaster resin so it didn’t have any sort of sensible way to attach the backing board so I just nailed it on.

 I also made her a creepy sweet cicada brooch.

Every fall when we clear out the garden, we notice we’ve lost a few of my handmade markers and every spring we find some of the lost buried deep in the ground, swallowed up with love.

Also for my sis a set of spoon garden markers, I have a deep love for old silverware, I have accumulated such a collection of it and finally have a way to put it to good use. I just love the beauty of the rustic tarnished silver so elegantly detailed, I smashed each flat and then embossed them with blocky type.

EDIT: I would put up a tutorial on how I did these, but there are plenty of great ones already online, like here and here!

May the new year kiss you softly & bring peace everywhere in 2012.