Tweet tweet

 It appears to be bird week - although neither of these birds says tweet! The cockatiel is inspired by my son Chris's bird Archimedes. Archi, as we call him, used to say "Hey Baby" every time he saw me - probably because I taught him to say it. Last week, Chris was not available to cover him for the night. I walked up and started to pick up the cover. Loud and clear, "Hey Baby!" I guess he thought he could charm me and I'd let him stay up and engage with me. He does a great telephone ring, including talking caller id with a random caller name. And he randomly yells a LOT!

Anyway, I ordered some cute wooden bird shapes from Willy Kay Studios on Etsy a few years ago and we thought maybe

they could do a cockatiel for us. I painted and glittered the others right away but was a bit worried about pleasing Chris with the Archi lookalike. This seemed to be the time. He thinks I did pretty well!

The other one is from the just crafty enough

blog. I found it on pinterest and thought it was cute (and easy). It uses a doll peg (I had no idea what these were before this!), paint and a bit of felt.

I'm still working on a beaded ornament cover - maybe it will be done next week!

Twinkle twinkle

I got this cute kit from Stampin' Up recently. It says it makes 26 stars but I'm pretty sure these are plenty for the tree. Not only were there a lot of the star "boxes" but there were tons of embellishments too. My only complaint is that the adhesive on the sides doesn't stick very well.  I will need to use some extra sticky in some places.




I especially like this one. It uses six of the stars. I folded them

down the middle and glued them together. I can imagine doing it with all kinds of shapes.


Six ornaments to go. I've started on a few because things always get crazy in December - a lot of cookie baking. And  some festive fun. There are a couple of beaded ones that would need to be done over more than a week even in normal times! I think the coming attractions are two chain maille, two beaded, some painting and one more paper craft There might be one or two bonuses thrown in as well.

Easy Beading

These were fun! I got the wire frames from my favorite bead store: Fusion Beads They come with the three shapes made out of fairly heavy craft wire and a coil of very fine craft wire. There a few very sketchy directions and pictures of one of each kind finished.





It didn't go too well with that minimal help! I tried the heart and made a mess finishing it, unbending

the pretty curved ends and cutting some off. Fortunately I found some help at Beadaholique where they also sell the frames. They have a video which is very clear and has some great ideas. I also ended up buying some inexpensive Czech size 6 bead mixes to use as well as the filagree beads.

I made the star following their instructions pretty exactly - it's my favorite of the three! The filagree bead allows multiple wires to go through in different directions. Cool! I even more or less salvaged the heart. This was a fun project.

Tiny knitting

 After last week's time consuming ornament I thought it was a good time for something simple. This little stocking kit fit the bill. The only thing that took time was undoing it when my knitting was too loose for the needle I chose. Down to a size 0 - a little like knitting on toothpicks!

So, eight ornaments to go! At this time of year, the ornament ideas are everywhere. My favorite bead store (Fusion Beads) has wire beading frames I'm going to use next week I think. Stampin' Up has a cute star kit I had to have. Lots of Pinterest ideas.  Knitting ideas on Ravelry. My favorite online chain mail store (Blue Buddha)  is making its November Mailler's Choice something I'll need to try. And I think I might have a chain maille design of my own if it works.

I get really busy in December with my Christmas craziness -

many dozen cookies, handmade cards, too many decorations (go figure!), etc. I have a few more involved beaded ornaments that might have to wait for later.  But still,  plenty to choose from. And no doubt far too many leftovers for another time.