Elf on the Shelf returns

Our little elf Owen has joined us again this year. We love his crazy antics. For fun, I made him a foppish little capelet to wear when he has tea. Enjoy the free pattern!

Materials: fabric (no-fray fleece or felt), 12" of holiday ribbon

If you use felt, you'll need no seam allowances. Just cut as shown on the fold. Stitch or hot glue on the ribbon. Fasten with a scrapbooking brad or spot of double-sided tape and you're ready to pen sublime fiction and enjoy a bit of tea and cake.

Tomorrow, I will post a pattern for a superhero cape -- just as easy as this one.

Christmas Elf 2011

I know it's crazy late to be posting Christmas pictures but I do have a full-time job, people. I had photoshop hidden and forgot to save these.

So this is my bean as a Christmas elf. We have been doing this every year since she was born. Check them out here.

I wanted to start a tradition of buying a hat on Etsy for each year but I bit the bullet and made one myself. I found a quick tutorial online and lined it with fleece. I made the pattern a bit smaller after making a test and I shouldn't have. With the lining, it was too small. It would have been perfect.

Mantelscape

For the first time ever, I styled my mantel for the holidays. I've had most of this stuff for years but I usually just toss it all up there. This year, I wanted to do something special. I pulled out all the white and silver.

Z and I made the trees. It took me about 45 minutes to wind and hot glue the yarn around the tall tree. I might add another layer or some color next year. We glittered the other cone with super chunky glitter.

The deer is my favorite. I got it last year at Crate and Barrel I think. I was with my mom in Manhattan and after seeing the Rockettes. We walked all the way up 5th Avenue (?) looking at the lights. On our way back down the next street (Madison?), we shopped for a long time. The jingle bell garland is from there too.

Last year I found the perfect cylinder vase for the jingle bells. The plate with the birch trees and single cardinal is from TJMaxx. They have the best holiday stuff.

This is a bit of the top. My vintage favorites mixed with the Martha Stewart Santa tree topper from back when she was just out of prison and wasn't too good for Kmart. Oh why doesn't she love us poor people anymore? I liked buying Martha stuff at Kmart. There is no Macy's near here.

Oh, and just so you know, I think I'm using the word Mantelscape somewhat ironically. I really don't take myself that seriously.   Edit: just realized the typo in the original post. Mantle is actually a correct spelling but not the more common one. Oops.

Elf

 

If you remember from this post, I started planning Z's elf apparel in October.  I found the vintage dress and shirt at a thrift store this summer. The shirt has little candy cane piping around the Peter Pan collar. I am shocked that both actually fit. I couldn't find red elf-enough shoes so I cut out holly leaf shapes from felt and hot glued them on and added a couple of red plastic beads. 

Clearly, the best part is the hat. I got it from this seller who was awesome. She made it for me in a green velvet. The red dress had originally come with navy blue grosgrain ribbon around the neck so I picked it off with my trusty seam ripper and added a ruffle in its place with some fabric Kirsten was super nice to include in the package just for this purpose.

Last week we went to New York City for the first time in a holiday season. Santaland at Macy's was not bad -- we even got to see a fight between natives while standing in line. The photos are really terrible, I know. I'll get some more on Christmas Eve.

Production

So I finished the several hundred stockings that my crazy self volunteered to make for Z's school (ok, 20). What was I thinking? I don't know. But they hung them on the mantle of the faux fireplace they have taped on the wall of the classroom and apparently loved every minute of it. I got as full of a play-by-play as I'm ever going to get out of the two-year old.

I don't know what's with me but every once in a while I go into batshit production mode around the holidays. One year I made a ton of these little elves. At my mom's church they bring these advent baskets to the shut-ins (wow, is that PC? prolly not, huh). There are usually around 40 of them. So I made about 50 - 60 of these guys -- most to give to the shut-ins but I know that a lot of my friends have at least one, and also family members -- and I have one of each color.

I'd share a tutorial with you but I remember getting the idea from one of those fliers they used to have hanging around at Michael's -- you know before the internet. I used those sheets of foam for the ears, handstitched the little felt hats, made their little noses from polymer clay, and I very clearly remember using a q-tip and blush for their rosy cheeks. I am a freaking factory! I can't believe I painted every face and every lock of hair.

Anyway, I'm super busy lately and have been pretty stressed out but when I started writing this post, I began to feel better. Tomorrow, check in for an AMAZING interview. I'm really excited about this one. I'll get back to the dollhouse posts shortly after. I'm taking a couple of days off but I will share my stocking tutorial with you as soon as I recover.

Oh yeah, and that mirror is not dirty. It's vintage. It was born in 1911 with our house.

It's never too early to think about Christmas elves

Today has been a particularly crap day at work and it's not even noon. I headed to Etsy for some retail therapy, specifically in search of Zadie's Christmas 2010 elf hat. Yes, I can make an elf hat. I know. But I think it might just be my own little tradition to buy a handmade one each year to start off the season right.

Last year I bought this cute white one from Swirly Hats. The striped one up there was a custom order from a seller who normally makes all this cute stuff for Blythe dolls. How awesome was it that she agreed to make this cute hat for Zadie? I just had to measure her hefty toddler noggin.

I did sew that fleece dress in the top photo. I think I used an existing dress as the pattern. I wish you could see the back. I set in some pearly Western snaps for the closure. The silver belt is just wide ribbon meant for wrapping packages and the fleece was some trim I had. I have a box in my basement of Christmas craft supplies. Silver shoes from BabyGap.

Last year I was way more busy so I didn't make anything she is wearing. The red velvet jumper is from Old Navy, as are the striped shirts in both photos. The black shoes are the standard MaryJanes they always have at Target.

This year I found an amazing corduroy jumper at a thrift store and at a different thrift store I found a white button-up shirt with GET THIS: red and white candy cane piping around the Peter Pan collar. Seriously! I am on the hunt for some green and white striped tights and if she is still in an 8, Zadie will wear her silver shoes and I'll make something to cover up the purple metallic flowers.

I am leaning toward asking a seller to make this hat in green. What do you think? I am sick of looking at pictures of those hats with the long skinny tails wrapped around them. Why are there so many? They are not elfin. No.

OK, if you're still reading, for Christmas I have a tutorial all ready for an easy Christmas tree skirt. I did it last year but it got too late to post it. We are avid elf book readers around here so I'll post all of our favorites with reviews. Of course, I have a few other things up my 3/4 sleeves.

Special Delivery

So elves are our favorite. Then beans. Then monkeys. You would think that we like monkeys the best since we have so many of them but no. It's the elf. It's just really hard to find a good elf.

Zadie demanded this elf and I liked how it looked in its shipping box like a pauper's coffin.

I absolutely must have this

Someone should buy it for Zadie.

I was coveting this monkey doll that my postnatal (with baby!) yoga teacher had with her in class today to keep her son occupied. I checked out the website and found this elf.

I almost bought the monkey even though we're a little worried that's the only animal our kid will know when I saw this wonderful sprite: a dream come true.

To end... I would like to add that my Fall line will feature elves. It was going to be a secret but this little guy made me want to spill the beans!

eta: someone just splurged and bought this crazy expensive doll probably more for herself than for her baby...