Under Over...Over Under

Each year I have to start thinking about Christmas a bit early because I have a handful of cousins that receive handmade items as gifts.  At first this was easy because there was so much of the art/craft world that I had not explored.  Gift giving gave me the wonderful excuse to play, expand my knowledge and buy all the new and exciting gadgets.  As the years have passed I have honed my skills and found what works for me, as well as paths never to be wandered again. ( I keep the gadgets because I have been able to use many in the most unconventional ways) Each year gets a little harder to be fresh in my gift giving so I have to get my creative juices flowing. 

 After a couple of lopsided and floppy attempts I am on my way to making woven coasters, each recipient will get a set of 4.  Yep, I got to purchase a lap loom and thanks to a store coupon it was under $15.00, score! (who knows what else I will be able to concoct with this)  With my crochet background I have a love for and a working knowledge of yarns so I picked out some variegated medium weight acrylic/cotton mix balls.  Variegated let me know the colors would work together and I did not have a great investment in multiple yarns in case this craft was a flop (like the crochet Christmas stockings).  I separated and balled the different colors because if used straight from the original ball I would only get one color per coaster.  This has turned out to be a nice distraction from my normal creating and it fills the criteria for gifts...east to ship, cost efficient, utilitarian ( some years not so much) and does not over tax me to make.  One year I was given family heirloom crochet squares and I took it upon my self to tat them together into blankets and gave them to the descendants for Christmas. They were much appreciated but that was the year I learned about being over taxed, never again. So I will spend my evenings under/over...over/under for the next few weeks and have that part of Christmas under my belt. Whoo!

Our family is expanding with the arrival of our niece Haprer and our way of helping out is getting to play with her brother Grant, 18 months.  Last weekend was my first diaper change in over 20 years and I had to work to get it on correctly but he was patient and we giggled through the process.  He has been a joy to watch as he thinks about and manipulates items in his path.  Sometimes we need a different point of view to help open up our world.  The great thing is he can say juice and Os (Cheerios) so I know he won't dehydrate or starve to death under our watch.

Enjoy whatever the day brings!!
Hilari