Philadelphia Art Museum

Since I'm such a SoCal girl, snow is still magical to me, so I couldn't resist taking some pretty snow pictures while I was in Philadelphia. I'm just glad I didn't get stuck at the airport like last year!







I've been to the snow in the mountains before, but it just feels so different to see snow in such an urban setting. I would love to live in a snowy area - I think I'd make a good East Coaster ;)

Jake's College Fund Piggy Bank

I just wanted to quickly share this little guy that I doodled on. My parents were giving a cash gift to my young 4 year old cousin for Christmas (by request of his mother who lives in a small SF apartment and is up to her ears in toys), and so we thought this would be a cute way to give the money.

This is just a plain white ceramic piggy bank - from Hobby Lobby I think, and I used gold and silver Sharpie paint pens to decorate both sides.

I filled one of the sides with some random swirls in gold and then added in dots and highlights with the silver. I actually had kind of a hard time coming up with nice swirls that weren't too hokey-looking (i.e. like something 10 year old me might have drawn in the margins of the class notes), but I think it turned out nice!



I'm hoping that by posting this, other people will be able to use this as inspiration (or a template!) if they also find it difficult to creatively fill a surface with doodles. (Side note: you know who is the freaking master of creative doodles? Alisa Burke. That is one talented lady.)

As always, I would love to see your DIY project if you make this!

Neapolitan Baby Set

First up in the holiday making craze is this adorable Neapolitan colored baby hat and booties set.  This one has been a surprising favorite among Ravelers because y'all are just suckers for tiny things with ears aren't you?



You can see more of the specifics and my notes about the patterns and yarn on Ravelry: hat and booties. I made the 6 month size for the hat and rolled the brim up.



It was super easy to whip this up, I finished both the hat and booties in a couple of hours during the post-Christmas dinner lull. We even went out and bought a skein of this Bernat baby blanket and a J hook at Wal-mart on Christmas eve because my mom just decided that she needed a handmade gift for a baby shower like now. 

Everyone loved these when I finished, so they make a great project especially for new crocheters - very fast with super bulky yarn and maximum cuteness! I hope it fits!

Here's to 2015.

This more or less captures the essence of my holidays (but my life is not as cute as this illustration).

There was a lot of crafting, cat petting, eating, and snuggling up in my new giant scarf and pj pants.

Illustrations from a McDonald's ad (with this adorable song) if you can believe it :)

I just got back from Philadelphia, so I've been getting back into the swing of things with work and cleaning my room after the craftermath of the holidays. Look for a couple of handmade gift posts coming soon!

In other news, I've joined Instagram! You can follow me if you like - it'll mostly be craft WIPs, bikes, guinea pigs, and San Diego!

Let's hope 2015 is a more productive year around the blog :)