etc.

Holiday Card 2007

If I were to tell you what I’ve been busying myself with recently, the list would look something like this:

• baking: can’t say, it’s a surprise
• knitting: can’t say, it’s a surprise
• sewing: can’t say, it’s a surprise
• crafting: can’t say, it’s a surprise

And so on, &c. It’s a wonder anyone out there in craftblogland has anything to talk about in the month of December. Of course, I’m hardly prolific in the craft department these days, if I was I suppose I could keep the gift-crafting to myself and share the non-gift crafting with you. Ha, fat chance there’s any non-gift crafting going on! Anyway, the holiday card I made this year is about all I can share by way of craftiness, even though the glue is barely dry, nevermind that none have been written or posted. It’s not a palette you’d probably expect from a holiday card (the card itself, nor the setting above), but I’m crazy about blue, brown, and orange at the moment. That orange watering can in the background? Won it at the library party a couple of days ago. Along with an assortment of other orangey backyard goodies. A little something to help me take my mind of winter and start dreaming of spring and summer. So lovely! So, anyway, back to the card: it’s your typical craft store creation, really, and not what I had in mind for this year’s card at all. But as soon as I spotted the bird-shaped craft punch in the store, I knew what had to be done. I picked up the alphabet stamps (in the shape of typewriter keys! Who could resist?), got out the blank, ivory cards, some scrap paper bits, and set to work. I’m pleased with it.

Some other newsy bits and links:

• I have a new nephew! His name is Zach, he was born 3 weeks ago, and I am absolutely in love with him. I can’t go 2 days without seeing him, truly. I’d post a picture but I have to get permission from his parents first (I keep forgetting to ask!).
• I survived an earthquake! OK, it’s somewhat old news, and probably a bit alarmist for a minor-ish quake in California, but still. It was my first!
• My Ravelry invite came in a few weeks ago! Here’s my sparsely-populated profile. Go ahead and friend me, it might encourage me to actually spend some time beefing up my projects & stash info. I have to admit, it’s the stash cataloguing on the site that really intrigues me (librarian much?)
• I went to Alabama last week for a quickie conference. I saw very little of it, the highlight being a drive past the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, twice (from the airport, to the airport). Wish I had time to go in.
• Time Management for Creative People, a free e-book that is in my to-read file.
• If you work with Photoshop or Illustrator you might like this collection of brushes, patterns, fonts, etc. I nabbed this off someone’s blog and forgot whose, sorry.
• My parents gave us a crockpot this year and the onset of winter has seen me scouring the interwebs for good crockpot recipes. Got any? Here’s one I can’t wait to try.
• We saw Feist last week and she was even more brilliant than I expected. The Great Lake Swimmers opened for her and they were pretty brilliant too. Folksy with a lot of nice instrumental work, and a lead singer with an absolutely haunting voice.

There, I think we’re all caught up now.