Inner Workings

A lot of my posts lately have been about the minions and family happenings with a little bit of knitting thrown in. If you visit my blog simply to see pictures of the minions, this post is not for you.

In case you haven't checked out a calendar lately, the Holidays are coming up in a hurry. Ordinarily I am already in a crafting frenzy but not this year. I'm sure the frenzy will occur... it just hasn't happened yet. I've decided that, as the minions are getting a little older, I want to focus more attention on the fun stuff, the traditions, the joy of experiencing the holidays through little people's eyes. That and I want to lessen my holiday stresses a tad. So what do I do? I join in on the Holiday Traditions Exchange and the 2nd Annual Holiday Ornament Swap. Incidentally, if you would like to sign up do hurry, I think the sign-ups end this coming Friday. I'm really excited! It'll be a little extra work but I am really curious to see what other people come up with and to see how their traditions differ from my own. There are some really talented people out there!!!! Of course right after I signed up for both of the swaps I was hit with a mini pang of "what if the recipients don't like what I send them? I mean, I think it's fun but will they?". That's just part of the whole process though, I get that feeling whenever I put a little piece of myself out there for a good critiquing. It's good though. Now, I'll be honest with you, I like my bubble, my cozy little comfort zone where everything is how I like it to be. However, I also think it is important for an individual to branch out and try new things. How am I going to teach this to my children when I don't do it often enough myself? All this over ornaments! Sheesh.

Now, back to the holiday gift giving! I have noticed that a lot of people are going Handmade this year and I think that is fabulous! LOVE the handmade gifts :) If you would like to go handmade yourself but don't happen to craft, check out Etsy, a wonderful site! In case you have never been to Etsy yourself and would like a good viewing of some of the things it has to offer, Aija over at Sock Pr0n often posts fun Etsy finds on Fridays.

All of this handmade talk has got me to thinking about a recent diddy I read in the Sept/Oct 07 issue of Piecework. It was a juxtaposition between the beautiful and flawless quilt and the used and loved (and probably flawed) quilt as seen through the latter quilt's eyes. There is a lot of really beautiful and incredible work out there and I sit and admire it all in delight and amazement. I'm thinking that I (and my handmade gifts) fall into the flawed (hopefully minimally so) and used category made out of love and practicality. I'm good with that because that's what I like to receive -- something from the heart. I'll make something extravagant and frivolous for myself one of these days (more than likely just to make it), but with little minions my time for knitting and sewing is limited so I stick with items that will be useful for and hopefully well received by the recipient. I craft because I love to do so and hopefully that works it's way into every stitch :)