New voodoo doll holiday ornaments available!

Howdy!
Well, it's been far too long since I've written. Lots of things going on.
For one, I have been working on getting some voodoo doll holiday ornaments done. I was able to make 5 between holiday gift crafting and commissions. Here they are:

So cute! I need to make some for my Christmas tree.
Unfortunately, I probably won't have much time to make anything new for awhile. I will soon be on "maternity leave" because I am having another little mischief maker, due in February. Between a newborn and a three (almost four) year old, I won't have much time for working.
I am 32 weeks as I write this:

I am working on making an Alice in Wonderland theme (with an emphasis on the Mad Hatter) for the nursery. Here's what I have so far:

I think the white rabbit needs a pocket watch.
I have been playing around with different doll patterns so that I can eventually develop my own. Hopefully it won't be too long. So, stay tuned!
If I don't get the chance to write much, happy holidays everyone!
-mischiefmaker

Awesome Etsy sellers worth checking out

Unfortunately my husband's grandma recently passed away. Although it was sad, it was also nice to have (almost) everyone together in one place. While we were celebrating her life with his huge family (over 30 cousins and many aunts and uncles) I was in awe of what a wonderful family these two people, Grandma Rita and Grandpa Paul, have created.
In the 15 years that I have been with Jesse, I have noticed one interesting thing; his family is crazy talented. No really. TALENTED. There are artists in his family (including him), musicians, aerial dancers, etc. The list goes on.
I am pretty proud that my son shares their DNA.
There are a few who of them, like me, who are trying to make a living being their own bosses and have opened up shops on Etsy.com selling their handmade goods.
I thought I would take the time to promote them and their awesomeness.
First we have Rose who started Fetching Fashions, a collection of unique and colorful dog collars, cat collars and leashes. She designs the textiles herself and can make them in a variety of sizes. They are high quality and made to last.

 

Small Owl Dog Collar

Pink Polka Dot Leash

We bought a couple for our dog Gus and cat Sally.

She is currently running a free shipping Halloween special until November 2nd if you use the coupon code HALLOWEEN2014.
Next we have Rikki's Tropicals run by Natasha. She creates beautiful live plant art using orchids and bromeliads (air plants).

Large Glass Hanging Orb Terrarium

The plants are mounted on a variety of natural materials, hand-blown glass orb, ceramic pots and many other things.

Live Air Plant Wreath

Air Plant Necklace

3 Ceramic Air Plant Vases

We have one of her beautiful creations in a shell in our sun room that we got from her and we love it!
With the holiday season coming up, these would make great gifts for the animal/plant lover in your life. Or yourself!
Check out these lovely ladies' shops and give them some love.
Thanks!

I'm alive, I swear (warning: photo heavy)

Wow, I am a bad, bad blogger. This blog post is WAY overdue. Sorry! I am going to have to post this very late at night since this is the only time I ever have to get on the internet.

A lot has happened since I last posted. I'll start from the beginning.

First, unfortunately, we lost our dear sweet kitty Jack.

 

Jack has had problems since day one and is extremely fortunate to have found Jess. I really don't know who else would have put up with him. Don't get me wrong, he was very sweet and a cozy cuddler who would always sit in one of our laps and we loved him to pieces. It's just his bladder and allergy problems got out of control and we finally had to face the fact that he was miserable and probably uncomfortable 99.9 % of the time. We loved him and didn't want him to suffer anymore. We will always cherish the 10 years we got to spend with him. R.I.P. my sweet pain in the ass. We love you.

As promised, here are some photos from our Halloween. The theme this year was Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It blows my mind that some people have never seen this movie. It's one of my favorites!

Here we have my sweet little Legendary Black Beast of Aaaarrrggghhh!

 Here is Jesse setting up the Knights of Ni!

 Here's a close up of the Knights of Ni!

 Even closer...

 Ni!

 We made sure to bring them a shrubbery.

Here is our Bridge of Death. It was very perilous.

 We had to have a Black Knight, of course.

 I think the highlight of our Halloween was that Jesse had a running loop of bits from the movie playing for the Knights of Ni and the Black Knight and as a jogger ran by the Black Knight, he said, "Oh, oh, I see! Running away, eh? You yellow bastards! Come back here and take what's coming to you! I'll bite your legs off!" The jogger was heard laughing as he ran away. Love it :)

Here is our Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog .

 Scary, right? Jesse rigged him up so we pushed a button and he jumped up at you.

Here is the bridge keeper.

 Bridge of Death again at night.

 Our yard wouldn't be complete without a grail...

(Bad, naughty Zoot)

 Our Halloween party wouldn't be even half as good if it weren't for these wonderful people.

 Not only do they always come up with great costumes every year, Sir Robin and his minstrels (a.k.a. Jesse's brother Tyler and his cousins Drew and Kate) make the best homemade donuts for us all. I love them so much.

Here I am (she's a witch!) and Jess.

We had a blast and hope Sam did too, even though he had no clue what was going on. I think we picked a great first Halloween costume. I wanted something other than a peanut or any of the other overly used infant costumes. 

I think I have his (and my) costume(s) picked out for next year already.

Also, I would like to add how amazing my husband is. We were under the impression that this year wouldn't be up to our usual Halloween yard standards since we couldn't spend much money this year and didn't have a whole lot of time, but somehow Jesse pulled it off. And it turned out amazing. Drew and I were pretty skeptical when Jess told us about his Bridge of Death idea, but when he started building it I was just blown away. Not to mention envious of his ingenuity and creativity. I am thoroughly convinced he can do anything. If only he could get a job that utilized these skills...

Thanksgiving was pretty low key, although we had two or three of them and I ended up getting the stomach flu and was only able to eat a small portion of mashed potatoes :(

Christmas was pretty fun, despite the usual hurried-traveling-to-each-house-thing and Sam missing his afternoon nap. He did very well and I am proud of him. I must say, Christmas on my side of the family is definitely more fun with a little one to celebrate with.

Gus even got in the spirit.

Unfortunately we are now a one-income family since, if I were to get a job, I would only be working to pay for a babysitter or daycare and therefore I would rather stay home and raise my son myself. I make a little money here and there through my Etsy shop, but not enough. And Jesse makes just enough for us to keep our house. Usually. Sigh. Needless to say, I was having a very hard time buying Christmas presents since the only things I buy anymore are baby food and gas for my car. And since I don't bring in the money, I feel super guilty buying myself anything anymore.

So, I ended up making a majority of the presents I gave out. It took forever and I was working like a mad woman.

Here's what I made for my sister-in-law.

 I used the images from this book. 

My Mom asked for potholders since she burned hers. I made her this.

The other side.

 And this.

 The other side.

I found the pattern for these here.

I made my Aunt a dishcloth and dishtowel.

 And potholders.

Whew! I feel very tired but, strangely enough, very satisfied. Handmade gifts are the best :)

I even had time to make a cherry pie for my friend's birthday and a pecan pie and pear pie with gruyere baked into the crust for Christmas (I was channeling my inner Chuck. How dare they cancel Pushing Daisies after only two seasons), with the help of my wonderful husband who kept the little one busy so I could bake, and also wrapped all the presents for me. I don't know what I would do without him.

Now I plan to get down to business and start designing patterns to sell in my shop. I am really trying hard to bring in more money for my family, and really hope to make my little home business a lucrative business. It would be my dream job!

We'll see how that goes with an eight-month old...

I am dreadfully unorganized so that means I might go awhile without blogging or leaving my house. Don't worry, if that happens it just means I am being productive! Or that Sam is keeping my extra busy.

 This one is a little blurry, but still cute. He loves his ugly doll.

Times may be tough, tougher than I have ever experienced before, but my babies make it all worth it. Especially when I wake up to things like this.

Oh, and I am excited because my cousin got me this book for Christmas:

Holy crap I want to make EVERYTHING in this book!! And I plan on it, assuming I can find the time (and the yarn). Why do all these books always suggest the most expensive yarn??? And you always need like fifty skeins of it too. How do these people afford it? I'm just hoping I can find yarn in my own stash that will work.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday and a wonderful (and safe) New Years Eve! I will leave you with our family Christmas card (if only we could have gotten the dog and cat in there).

Fa la la la braaaaaaaains!

As the Christmas season comes upon us yet again, I am overwhelmed with things I planned on getting done but ran out of time and didn't. Nothing new there.
But I did manage to get a tree skirt made!

 I posted the pattern on Etsy but had a lot of requests for me to sell the actual tree skirt. Maybe next year.
Unfortunately, the tree skirt will cost a pretty penny because I used chunky wool and a lot of it.
I also made a zombie Santa:

He sold pretty fast. If I get a chance before Christmas, I'll have to make another one.
In need of a stocking stuffer? How about a zombie head key chain?

I plan on making a bunch of these guys since they don't take me long. And I have a bunch of key chain parts to use up. So if anyone is interested, check out my Etsy store.
I am excited that I now know a secret and can make a bunch of stuff I couldn't before. Let me explain.
My husband and I went to the doctor today and found out that we are having a baby boy. So now I can knit and crochet a bunch of baby boy stuff. I was kind of hoping for a girl because there are too many boys on my husband's side of the family (he has two brothers and two nephews), but that's okay because we like boys too :) I just have to resist the urge to put him in pink ruffled baby bloomers...
If anyone wants to know, no we don't have any names yet because boy names are really hard to think of for us, but once we decide we will probably keep that a secret. It just keeps us from second guessing ourselves in case others don't like the name.
I am due April 22nd and we haven't gotten anything done. Doh! Oh well. At least we can pick out baby stuff now.
So, that's my update for now. Keep checking the store for new zombie head key chains!
Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

We got hitched!! Part One

We did it!
And it turned out awesome! All our hard work was so worth it.
Our theme was essentially "home made" but it was also "Alice in Wonderland." I know a lot of people had a hard time understanding how that was all going to fit together, but I think they understood once they saw it.
We wanted it to contain aspects of all the things we love: hand made, Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton, Harry Potter, zombies, ninjas, good food, beer, etc. But most of all we wanted it to be fun.
Jess and I have been together for ten years, so it feels like we've already been married for awhile now. And since neither one of us likes being the center of attention, so we tried to make it less about "everyone gush over the happy couple" and more of the coming together of families and friends.
Since I have a ton of pictures, I thought I would separate them and do two posts. This one I thought I would just show all the decorations we had worked on. The next post I'll put pictures of the actual wedding.
But first, I wanted to show off the awesome gifts that we received at our rehearsal dinner.
We got this painting of Sally and Jack from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" from my friend Valerie and her brother Brian. Brian painted it

Here's the nameplate:
Our friend Viet painted this for usWe have really talented friends!
Malachi already wants some beer. Uncle Jess was very proud
Our wedding was held in Jess's brother Paul's backyard.
We didn't really have a dance floor, so we improvised. Jess made pillars to hang paper lanterns from
I crocheted party favors for the guests. Here's little guys I created using patterns from Christen Haden's book "Creepy Cute Crochet"
Here's a ninja
Here's some Pygmy Puffs (Harry Potter) from this pattern: http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/features/crafts/crochet/pygmypuff
I made Mome Raths based on this: http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2008/07/crafts_by_alices_crocheted_mom.htmlI crocheted our wedding cake. The goblets next to it were a gift from my aunt and uncle. Thanks Neenie and Woody!
Jess made five or six batches of homemade beer and mead and gave them all Alice in Wonderland theme names like "The Mad Hatter's Tea" and "Beware the Jabberwock."
For center pieces, we just filled mason jars with buttons, put one of those battery-powered LED lights on top, put tulle over the jar and put the lid back on with ribbon. My Mom sewed checker board placemats
Paul really doesn't like their shed and his wife Melissa really dislikes this big mirror they have, so Paul and Jess made a "looking glass." They covered the shed with yellow plastic and put the big mirror in front. Tada!
It worked out perfectly because all the little ones enjoyed looking at themselves in the mirror.
Jess and I made the Mad Hatter and the March Hare out of sculpey clay
They sat next to the guest book Jess made and the card cage I decorated.
These were our centerpieces at the food table that my friend Kellie helped me put together
Here was our kids table. The adults seemed to like it too
I glued tea cups to dowels and make these cute little path markers. We put LED lights in them and lit 'em up.
I also made big flowers out of ribbon and yarn, but didn't really get any good pictures of those.
We had a lot of fun making everything and wished we had more time to do more. But Paul and Melissa's backyard was so beautiful it didn't need that much.
Thanks again for letting us invade your house, Paul, Melissa, and Malachi! We love you guys!