Holiday Craftiness

So this year, I decided to have a totally handmade Christmas. My goal was to make gifts for everyone, and I mostly succeeded. I did end up buying a gift for my parents, but it wasn't an object -- I bought them a night at Indian Springs Resort in Calistoga, including 2 mud baths, for while they're here visiting in February.

Anyway, here's a sampling of what I spent most of November and December working on (uh, instead of posting here).

I made a purse for each of my sisters.

Here's Dana's:
Isn't the fabric for the body absolutely lovely? I almost didn't want to give this one away because I loved it so much. It's the Birdie Sling pattern, from Amy Butler. The body fabric is from the Garden Party Line by Anna Maria Horner. The handle is a brown and white polka dot. I'm not sure what fabric line that was from. And I lined it in either pink or brown cotton. Can't remember now.

And here's Ryan's:

The body fabric is Mocca, by Alexander Henry, and the handle is also an Alexander Henry fabric, I think, but I can't figure out what line it's from right now.

My mom got flannel PJs, which were actually for her birthday (right around Thanksgiving). I'm sorry this picture sucks so much. I wish you could see the adorable yellow buttons better!

There are pants that go with this pajama top, by the way, you just can't see them on the hanger underneath the top, which is long-ish. I would not make my mom go pantsless on her birthday :-)

And for Dan, a cabled scarf, knit in a lovely soft green yard. He wasn't sure he was a scarf person, but it looks great on him!

And also a hat, which looks kind of boring in this picture, but is quite cute on. I love, love, love the flap and wooden button:

I also made felt-lined fabric coffee cup cozies and peppermint bark for everyone at work, jars of caramel-pear butter, and a few other miscellaneous things. I couldn't get a good picture of the coffee cup cozies, but they turned out great. So great, in fact, that I get compliments on the one I saved for myself everywhere I go. I'm seriously considering setting up shop and selling them!

Oh yeah, and I also found time to squeeze in a couple things for myself. A red cabled hat with a pom pom on top:

This is totally why I learned to knit, by the way -- so I could make exactly what I wanted instead of searching fruitlessly for it at stores. And what I really, really wanted this year was a thick, warm, red hat with cables and a pom pom. Voila :-)

And, finally, a pair of fingerless mittens, which I learned to make in a class I took at Knitterly in Petaluma.


So anyway, now that the holiday craft frenzy is over, I'll hopefully find more time to post here. Of course, my camera is currently kaput (the third one in three years! What am I doing wrong????), so I need to get that fixed, first. Does anyone have any advice on how to fix a stuck lenscover. It's just a little point-and-shoot digital camera, and the little lens shutters that open when you turn the camera on are jammed. They open partway, but then get stuck, and they don't close all the way, either. Grrr.