handmade christmas: oragami wreaths

I saw this tutorial (via Craftzine), and made a few of these wreaths this evening. They're cute and very easy. I'm glad I had some Christmas-y oragami paper on hand.

handmade christmas: lino prints

A few crafty updates:

I bought a sewing machine about a month ago. A nice one. I got a good deal on it, but it was still quite pricey. I will post some photos of the beautiful machine along with some of the things I've made with it soon. But for now, I mention the machine just to say that the purchase pushed me a little further in the handmade Christmas direction. I attempted a handmade Christmas last year, and didn't get too far. This year, because of forethought and new sewing capabilities, I think I might be able to do it. And I'm excited! I've tried making a lot of new things, and am having a blast!

I took a break from sewing this past week and devoted a lot of time to making linoleum cuts. Not everything worked out perfectly, but here are some prints that I was pretty happy with.

Christmas cards...

... and a set of book plates.

sophie and other thankfulnesses

My sister and her family came down for Thanksgiving. I finally got to meet my newest niece, Sophie. She's a cutie. Here are a couple photos from today.

I had a lot of fun playing with the big kids, too. They've grown up so much since I saw them last Christmas. Anna especially. She's a very small two-year-old (so small that I wondered briefly about the possibility of her being a primordial dwarf... but no, she's not), but listening to her talk, she could probably pass for four or five. She's very precocious and talkative -- a delightful conversationalist. Here's a conversation we had tonight, before she went to bed. I think we were talking about how she's a big sister now...

Anna: Sophie has a big sister just like you had a big sister.

Me: Do you know who my big sister is?

Anna: I don't know.

Me: Your mommy is my big sister.

Anna: I don't know. I don't think so.

Me: No really, she is.

Anna: I don't think so.

Of course, I then showed her photographic evidence that Amy and I grew up together, and finally she believed me. Makes me wonder who she thought I was, and why her family was making the effort to see me. But I guess she does have a lot of unrelated "aunties" and "uncles," so maybe she thought I was just another one of those.

The Sonnichsen six are all heading back to Tianjin tomorrow morning, but will be back for Christmas. I'm really looking forward to more hang out time with the kids. I attended a conference that my school was hosting this weekend, so that sucked up a lot of my time. Aaron attended as well, which was one of the reasons they all came down in the first place. I wasn't originally planning to attend many of the workshops -- figured I'd go to a couple things and then leave early each day. But the sessions far exceeded my expectations, I found the workshops helpful and enjoyable, so I ended up going to most everything. It was a strange experience, though. I actually found myself feeling disappointed that the conference was so good, because it meant that I wasn't skipping out more to be with family. Well, just a few more weeks until Christmas!