WARNING: Very photo heavy post!

I just finished next year’s birthday card for the Coastal Calligraphers Guild. LOVE it! I can’t share until next year because I want it to be a surprise for members. Tease right?! Anyway, I’ve been doing lots of crafty stuff and baking but not much calligraphy these days. I thought I would take a moment to recap what I’ve been doing to make up for the lack of calligraphy. Sorry lettering friends – hope you enjoy some other stuff, too!

I made this little ipod hoodie for my oldest. It took much longer than I expected but I love how it came out. Found the pattern on Ravelry but originally it came from Colorado Moms. Thanks for sharing such a cute pattern! Wonderful gift for the teen in your life.

My cousin recently had another baby girl. I made this sweater dress for her. I’m not usually a clothing knitter but more of an accessory knitter. This took some work but I was really pleased with the result.

Let’s see … what else. . . last Christmas I did a few house portraits for friends of my parents.

What else? … A totebag for my aunt and purses for my mom, my other aunt, and two other friends. This bag (except the tote) is my favorite pattern (as you can tell) and they were made from the Zest Tote Bag pattern at Joann.com. Note, I skipped the flower and made the straps longer than the pattern.

Made this cute little dog harness for my mom and dad’s dog. Found this wonderful free tutorial here at the Moda Bakeshop.

Made this laptop bag for my mom. I doubt I’ll make another one. I loathe working with foam. This was a store bought pattern.

Every year I try to make one gift that I can give to all the folks on my list. You may recall my maple syrup bottles a few years ago. This past year it was conversation starters. I made these from scratch … it took a lot of work and organization. I wouldn’t recommend it! I see now they sell these things in various places. I also made the snowflake ornaments but I will blog about those separately soon.

This was a gift for my parents friends who are also now our friends. Their last name is Parrot. I’ve tried silk painting a few times. I still need some practice. But this was fun.

Made these for friends of ours that have a little girl and also a set for my uncle’s son who recently had his first. I made a little cloth drawstring bag to put them in and crocheted a drawstring bag for the second set. SO CUTE! This was another great etsy find! Barnyard Balls by patternplay on Etsy.

Made quite a few cheer bows for the cheer squad at Imagine School where all my kids attend. These took some work as I had to actually make the sequin ribbon because it doesn’t exist anywhere else! I cut fabric strips and used fuse-a-seam to adhere the strips to ribbon. Each bow had to be assembled and stitched. I used instructions from this great ebook, Cheer Bow Instructions from No Bow No Go.

This was a birthday gift for my little cousin who is more like a niece. She’s a doll! I think she enjoyed playing with these. This was another store bought pattern.

I baked quite a bit throughout the year. I won’t post all of them. But my favorites were the pumpkin and chocolate whoopie pies. YUM! Oh look … a tiny bit more calligraphy! 🙂

Truly,
Erica