Happy Holidays and Holiday Update!

It's been an interesting December as I've spent most of the Holiday sick, and a day of almost blindness (apparently I'm much more allergic to cheese then I thought). So I've spent a lot of time making presents for my family.

As a treat for all of you, and in the spirit of DIY, I'll share my Holiday thus far.

Struggling to stay in the holiday spirit and while totally useless for most anything, I decided to make presents for my whole family

For my step-brothers I made felt meat pillows which they seem to really like. These we're much easier to make then I thought and made pretty cool presents (although my step father thought I was incredibly weird). Here's one of the pillows being enjoyed.

Two years ago I made my husband a scarf for Christmas that he wore to bits, so he was in dire need of a new one. I like this one even more then the first one I made him. I knitted it out of wool using a basic knit and adding tassels. I think it looks pretty sharp! Here he is enjoying it! (He's worn it everyday since Christmas!)


My step father was nominated for Pulitzer for the book he wrote The Revenge of Thomas Eakins, an artist who he now greatly admires. So I painted his favorite Thomas Eakins painting on a picture frame for him. I bought a little wooden frame at Micheals, found the painting online, and painted it with acrylics.


My mother loves the painting of the Lady of Shallot by John William Waterhouse. So I painted her a picture frame as well. Both paintings for my mom and step-dad were difficult and for most of the painting I had to use the tiniest little brush... it was like one hair! Here's my mother loving it! (excuse the bad glare, I couldn't find my nice camera)


Lastly a good friend of mine commissioned me to paint a picture of his new baby as a surprise for his wife. I think it turned out pretty cute! I did it with oils, and yes, I was up till 6am finishing everything!


Fortunately I did manage to get some skiing in. Here's my favorite picture of the ski hill and a picture of me in all my skiing glory! So far we've just been going to Mt Baldy, California, which is pretty uncrowded and a fun intermediate mountain... unless it rains and ices up the snow!

I'm super glad to be back at my computer, as I have a ton of back blogs to catch up on! Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful, wonderful Holiday and actually keep your New Years resolutions! te he! My resolution is to have more home cooked meals, which shouldn't be too hard considering right now, we do zero a week.