Brown paper packages

Christmas gifts are all wrapped up and ready to be delivered! The wrapping's definitely my favorite part. I really like the look of red string on brown kraft paper. And it's nice that I actually have gift tags (leftover from the craft faire) prepared beforehand since usually I just use scraps of wrapping paper at the last minute. Seeing them sitting all nicely in a Christmas-y pile makes me happy.

Holiday Busyness

I can't believe Christmas is less than a week away. I've been scrambling to buy gifts for everyone on my list, and am relieved that Irving and I decided to buy tickets to a musical for our family instead of buying gifts. Sometimes I really feel like no one really needs anything and we all might just be adding clutter to everyone's homes. But it really is fun to give, receive, wrap, and open gifts and who doesn't need a little fun?

With all the holiday and work busyness lately, I am only dreaming about all the things I want to make. Our company has a 2-week shutdown starting next week. I'm really hoping I'll get to make stuff, but with a trip to New York and a huge family dinner to host, I'm trying to keep the list short.

Flying high

We recently had a family "kite-off." We were to each make a kite, which would then be judged for design, cost, height and stability of flight. I decided I wanted to make a frameless kite since it would only require sewing. Unfortunately the day of the kite-off turned out to be balmy and completely windless, and my kite needs much more than a gentle breeze. I didn't win, but hey, my kite was the prettiest! Plus, it forced me to finally open up my brand new sewing machine and now I can't put it away. I did finally get to see it in all its blue and yellow glory one afternoon when we took a trip up to Half Moon Bay.

First craft faire

Well, my first craft faire has come and gone! I had so much fun preparing for it and was a little nervous, wondering how people would respond to my stuff. Everything went pretty well though, and I learned a lot from watching what people did and didn't buy.
















It was hard deciding how much to charge for the goods, and about halfway through the faire I even changed the price of one of the items. The gift tags were most popular, I think partly because they were the least expensive.








I also had some Christmas-y and non-Christmas-y blank cards and little gift enclosures with matching envelopes.
















Figuring out how to package everything was just as fun as making the cards and tags.









I was itching to do some patterns after being inspired by the Japanese pattern book, so made just a few saddle-stitched notebooks too.









I can't believe how much fun all of this was! Much thanks to my wonderful hubby and friends who came by to visit and to man the booth while I went to the bathroom. Haha. One brought me lunch, another a Peet's vanilla latte, and a third milk tea from my favorite place! Boy was I wired in the afternoon.

Kinokuniya finds

Recently I stopped by the Kinokuniya book store near me to browse around. I didn't see anything that I *had* to have in the crafts section, so I was wandering over to the stationery when I saw this and stopped dead in my tracks.
















I love Japanese patterns. How can anyone resist a cover like that? Of course I had to buy it.






























It's too bad I can't read Japanese, but I've been flipping through this book quite a bit, trying to figure out what makes these patterns so appealing. I love how they're so simple, often just one or two repeating elements and colors. It's been good inspiration for me while working on my craft faire goods.

Something else I picked up at Kinokuniya -- I'm thinking maybe they would look cute if they were framed in 3 small, square, dark wood frames...