A very Midwestern thing.

Sometimes I think that I'm actually a 70-year-old woman. My favorite thing to do it knit, I have a kitty, staying home to sew usually sounds better than going to parties, and... I started a crafting circle with my mom, sister, and sister-in-law. The premise is that we have a theme and a time constraint, and each of us makes three copies of whatever we've come up with to fit into the theme, and mail them to each other. Example: the theme is stuff that is found in the kitchen, and we've got one month. My mom uses her embroidery machine to make some tea towels, my sister cross-stitches a little wall hanging with a fork and a spoon, my sister-in-law knits some washcloths, and I made oven mitts. Because I can't stop making oven mitts. Then we each mail them to each other on the agreed upon date, and yay! New kitchen stuff. 

I just mailed off my first round of boxes. We did Christmas ornaments for the first exchange. Figured it was seasonally appropriate. It was way, way harder than I thought it would be. I tried out four different ideas before I finally made something I liked. I guess I was worried that the others would put in more time than me, or make something that was technically more well-made, or that my ornaments would be ugly... I did a lot of fretting. If this is going to work I realize I need to let go of the fret, but it was the first time. I wanted to make something good! Here's what I finally landed on.

I used someone else's pattern. It kind of felt like cheating, but I knew that I wanted to make little birds, and that figuring it out myself was possible, but time consuming. So I just sucked it up and bought the pattern. I like to support independent artists like myself.

Cute, right? They have little hanging loops on top for the tree. I think the pattern's intent is that you make them as decorative things for your sideboard or something, but I think they will work as ornaments. 

Can't wait to see what everyone else made! I think this will double the number of ornaments we own. Still working on that aspect of grown-up-hood: not having a bare Christmas tree.