Today is the last day to sign up for the mobile swap! Almost 100 amazingly talented people have signed up from around the world already.  So if you still would like to make and receive a mobile please email me at elsiemarleyblog AT gmail DOT com with the following information:

1. name

2. email address

3. website (if you have one)
4. mailing address

5. favorite colors

6. whether or not the mobile is for a baby’s room

Monday I will send out your information to your partner and you can get to making.  You will receive a mobile from a different person than you are making one for just because surprises are nice.

The picture above is my new studio.  I’m still in the basement, but I have a much bigger space and a window that even lets in some light once and a while.  Once everything is together I’ll take some pictures so you can see where the magic happens–though most of my magic has been sitting on the couch watching god awful tv since christmas.

Most of the christmas decorations are making their way back to storage and the house is looking pretty empty. Every year after all the lights are packed up and the sad little christmas tree put on the curb I wonder why I don’t have something beautiful to put in their place. We go to all this effort to make our houses glow at christmas time and then January comes around and suddenly they are so bare. There have been some really beautiful mobiles on the internets lately and I think one would look nice hanging above my mantle. So I thought I’d try to organize a little swap: a mobile swap.

If you would like to make and receive a mobile for your home email me at elsiemarleyblog AT gmail DOT com with the following information:

1. name

2. email address

3. website (if you have one)

4. mailing address

5. favorite colors

6. whether the mobile is for a baby’s room or not

That’s it! The mobile can be out of any kind of material using any design you can think up. Sign up by Friday January 18th and I’ll send you your partner’s information the following Monday. I’ll try to arrange it so you send to one person, but receive a package from another–just to mix it up. Packages should be sent out by Wednesday February 20th at the latest. I started a flickr group where you can post pictures of your mobiles before you send them off. And please feel free to copy and paste the mobile swap button onto your blog. So pack up the rest of that holiday paraphernalia and get making.

Every year my mom (hi mom) would somehow manage find a bird’s nest to put on our christmas tree. I grew up in Minnesota where there is several feet of snow and it’s ridiculously cold come christmas, so finding a bird’s nest is no small feat in December. So for the holiday traditions exchange one of the things I made was a nest. I was lucky enough to find a real nest (abandoned, of course, it’s cold here!) the very morning I was boxing up my package to send. It puts my little ruffle nest to shame, but I suppose my nest has a modern aesthetic (take that, bird).

The patchwork bit in the middle is a needlebook that I made for storing my partner’s popcorn stringing needles. We would string popcorn and cranberries most christmases, but I don’t think the popcorn string ever got all that long because, well, we would eat all the popcorn. The gingerbread man is a little stuffed ornament (I posted a pattern here and there are more I made here). We would make gingerbread men (and ladies) every year and before they would go in the oven we would give them extra legs, or no legs, two heads, six arms, basically creating an army of mutant gingerbread men that we would then cover in sprinkles and hang on the tree.

Now that I think about it, there was a lot of food on our tree growing up. I’ve always wanted to decorate my tree completely with food, not just popcorn strings and gingerbread, but gumdrop garlands and pretzel angels and marshmallow snowmen. But we have always had dogs, so half the tree would be eaten once we turn our backs. And now that we have two little kids they would pick up where the dogs left off and we’d be left with a bare tree. So maybe someday I’ll have a little tree way up high that I can decorate to my heart’s content.

That’s it. My package is somewhere between here and western australia now. I hope it (and our traditions) will be well received. I’m going to add this post to the sew mama sew Handcrafters’ Holiday meme because I’ve enjoyed reading everyone else’s posts.

Merry Christmas everyone!

My holiday traditions exchange is all wrapped up and ready to go.  I’d love to show you what’s in all those packages, but you’ll have to wait until my partner gets it.   Meanwhile you’ll have to look at the fabulous vintage wrapping paper I used.  Isn’t it fabulous?  There are only scraps left, but I cut some of the pictures out and glued them on white cardstock. And there you go: all my christmas cards made.  Now I just have to write them, address them, wrangle my children and take a picture of them, and get them to the post office.  Truth be told, they will probably end up being new years cards, because I’m slowly loosing steam.  Back to the wrapping paper.  I got this roll and two others at St. Vinny’s last year: one is printed with carriages and the other cute angels.  The angels are just a little too cute for me, so I’d thought I’d pass it on.  I don’t know how vintage it is, but the paper is sturdy and new.  If you like it, leave a comment and I’ll send it tomorrow when I go to the post office.

see my flickr site for bigger pics