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Wool Roving Ornaments

Confession... we are in full blown Christmas mode here. We are so "That Family"... you know the type that already has the tree up (or should I say trees) and lights on the house (although we haven't turn them on yet).  The kids wanted to decorate and it seemed like a good idea to me. It really was much better then spending the day after I host Thanksgiving frantically trying to get everything up so we can celebrate our Christmas with the in-laws. This year we have leisurely been decorating for the past two weeks... we just have to squeeze the extra table for Thanksgiving beside the tree.

Since the trees have been going up... we, of course, have felt the need to make ornaments. The kids and I made these simple, felted wool ornaments a few days ago. The kids and I felted the ornaments and Gammy added the ribbon loops.

Click here to get the instructions to make your own Felted Wool & Ribbon Ornament Balls or find them in our Free Patterns Section.

Gift Boxes

Just a quick peek at something new we are going to be doing here at Wee Folk Art. When we give gifts, not only do we want our gifts to be lovely, we want our presentation to be just as charming. So, we plan to start sharing Gift Boxes. These will be  collections of our crafts, thematically brought together, and packaged for gift giving. Most of them will be a combination of past crafts with a couple of new crafting projects thrown in. We thought it would be a fun way to repurpose some of our past crafting and to share ideas for your personal gift giving. Some of the Gift Boxes Themes you might see over the coming year will be Baby Showers, Father's and Mother's Day Collections, Girl and Boy Birthday Gifts, Bridal Showers, Teacher Gifts, etc. We think this is going to be great fun! We'll be sharing our Winter Blues Buster Gift Box (pictured here) in the next few days. This would make a wonderful Christmas gift for many people on your Christmas list. If you have any ideas for Gift Box themes you'd like to see over the next few months, just make a suggestion. We LOVE suggestions!  

The Abandoned Cart

My last shopping trip to Plastic and Batteries R Us occurred about 25 years ago. I normally got my Christmas shopping done early. Many years I was done by Halloween, but that particular year I was behind schedule. Not because I was lacking spirit. Not even that I was lacking the money necessary to finance the event. No… the reason for my delay was that my children were indecisive about what they wanted. The way I see it NOW… the problem was that they already had all the toys they needed AND the industry had not managed to produce an original toy that truly caught their fancy.

But it was Christmas. And Christmas meant gifts under the tree… many gifts under the tree. If my children were uninspired, I’d have to make the choices for them. So I joined the masses of other bedazzled parents, grabbed a cart, called on the Spirit of Christmas to inspire me, and started out. As it turned out, my strategy was simple that day. Buy what other parents were buying. I soon figured out what the “hot” items were, as parents stood in line to grab these toys off the shelf or to wait for the coveted items to be restocked. I found myself scrutinizing other people’s carts. In the end, I was victorious! My cart was full of toys that were sure to please.

I was lucky that day, because the lines were long, and while I was still four people away from my checkout clerk, I looked down at my booty, and I realized that this was ludicrous. There was nothing in this cart that was right for my children. This was obligatory buying at its finest! I could see the unspoken joy on the people’s faces behind me in queue when I got out of line. I made my way to a quiet area of the store, where I abandoned my heavily laden cart. I sprinted out of the store before I could change my mind.

I went back home, empty handed and decided then and there to reassess established commercialized Christmas practices. Instead of looking at what toys were AVAILABLE that year to purchase, I looked at my children and decided what they would BENEFIT from that year. Our lives were already full of rich and meaningful experiences. Why I felt compelled at Christmas to mindlessly buy toys the INDUSTRY deemed valuable, can only be attributed to environmental conditioning… Thank you, Pavlov!

So, that year I reclaimed Christmas… no, I CLAIMED Christmas as our own. Christmas morning there were still many gifts under the tree, but the nature of the gifts changed. As a family we began to explore the differences between, “I want” and “I need”, and to realize how fickle “Want” really is. To be honest, I am probably still excessive at Christmas… there is such a joy in giving… but I like to think the gifts I give today are more thoughtful and appropriate. I guess all those years ago, amid the chaos and confusion, the Spirit of Christmas DID inspire me. I am truly grateful!