Tater & Emily

Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts

holiday shipping deadlines

Hi, all! I hope that you are having an excellent time of the season. I wanted to tell you about a few important deadlines for the shop if you hope to order something in time for Christmas:

The absolute last day to purchase a made-to-order or custom item to have probable delivery by December 25 is December 1.
The absolute last day to purchase a ready-made item to have probable delivery by December 25 is December 15.

If your purchases are made after these deadlines, they will probably not arrive in time for Christmas.

If you have other time sensitive deadlines, please contact me at the shop.

christmas cheer via instagram

No Comments »

one of my fave presents

another fave present--hat with ears!

Finally hung this up after working on it for a while. I love how it turned out!

one of the gifts in my advent swap. Love it!

mmmmm….Christmas dinner

Christmas wasn't on a weekend this year, but a day off in the middle of the week feels like a weekend, right? Here is Tater, wishing you a Merry Christmas while she wears the sweater that my mom sent.

christmas tree, oh christmas tree

No Comments »

I haven't found a tree topper that I've liked, so a burlap bow it is!

When Rich came over and saw my tree, he said that I should take some better photos of it and post them. He really likes the rustic feel to it and I do too. What do you think?

Christmas time is here

No Comments »

The other night, I drove down the street and purchased this cute tree. The tablescape still needs work but overall I am happy with how this area looks. I actually have enough ornaments to lightly cover the whole tree now. (If you remember a couple years ago, I only had enough to cover the front of the tree. ) so far, Tater has left the tree alone which has been par for the course each year I've had her.

How are your holiday decorations coming along?

post swap: make a scarf!

No Comments »

Today I wrote a DIY for this lovely scarf at Yonder! Julie and I have collaborated together to show you all a couple of DIY Christmas gift ideas. Check it out here.

DIY post swap: knitted pillow

No Comments »

I am so happy to collaborate with Julie from Restless Hearts Yonder on a couple DIY posts. Julie and I have admired each other's crafts from time to time. I remember being especially blown away by them last year as she made Christmas gifts for people. She admired mine too and this year we decided that we would collaborate on DIY gifts. I wrote a DIY on her blog for a hand-stamped scarf and she wrote one for a knitted pillow (below). Keep reading to learn how to make your own knitted pillow.

So one of the things I know a lot of us do around the holidays is look for inspiration. I will spend a considerable amount of time on pinterest throughout the year, looking for "diy" project ideas. This year, I've take some of those ideas and turned them into actual projects that I will be giving as gifts. It's saving me money and getting me to be creative at the same time. This project was inspired by a lot of the knitted pillow covers I've seen out there. I knew I could make one for myself, because essentially all this is is a scarf folded over and sewn up the sides. I bought a nice chunky yarn in an oatmeal color and really love how this turned out. Give it a shot...I know you'll love this too!

There are two parts to this project: knitting and sewing. For the knitting portion, you can use whatever pattern you like...I, for one, am not a super experienced knitter so the ribs were complex enough for me. If you look closely, you will see that I messed up more than one time (talking and knitting at the same time!) but it's not noticeable enough for me to want to rip it all out and start over! You can use all purl stitches, you can use all knit stitches. If you know how to cable stitch, be my guest (I have not mastered that one yet). My thinking was that I wanted this pillow to be simple, but I wanted the texture to have some visual interest (hence the ribs). The sky is the limit, think of whatever you'd like! You could also do a pattern including other colors or a design of your own!

Here's what you'll need:
-knitting needles (I used a size 10, but probably could have used bigger ones)
-yarn of your choice (I used this kind)
-cotton fabric big enough to make a pillow insert out of
-polyfill or your choice of pillow filling
-a sewing machine or needle and thread
--a tapestry or plastic yarn needle with a large eye

For the knitting:

Cast on 40 stitches and straight stitch one row. From then on this will be your pattern: knit 5 stitches, purl 5 stitches. This will create the ribbing pattern. Stitch this for as long as you'd like (I had a specific size pillow in mind when I started), just remember that your piece will be folded over length wise to create the pillow cover so make it pretty long. In the end, mine measured 29 inches long.

After you're done knitting you will cast off and end up with a scarf looking piece. Set it aside and grab your fabric for the pillow insert. I made a pillow insert because putting batting into something that was knitted sounded like a mess. Take your knitted piece and stretch it as far across as it will stretch and measure it. Then measure the length. Take those measurements and make a square with your fabric, just as you would for a pillow. Sew around all the sides leaving a small hole to fill it with batting.

After you've filled your pillow, sew it shut. Then take your knitted piece and pin up one side. Put the pillow into the knitted piece--it's going to be really fluffy and might seem like your knitted piece won't be able to fit around it, but it will! Pin the pillow around all sides so that the pillow fits inside.

Thread a large eyed needle with a long piece of yarn. You're going to sew up the sides with a simple running stitch. Leave a tail at the end of your first stitch and tuck it underneath your stitches. Do this around the edge of your pillow. I found it easiest to do this while standing so that I could get the proper amount of tautness around the edge. Make sure that if you do the ribbing, your ribs match up when you're doing this--it's just like matching stripes or plaids!

When you're done just tie a simple knot and tuck the rest of the yarn inside the pillow. There you have it!!

I hope you enjoy making a pillow for someone this holiday season! I'm still debating whether or not I should give this as a gift or keep it for myself!! Happy crafting!!

find me here, here and here

second annual ornament exchange

No Comments »

Hey folks! I would love to offer to organize the second annual ornament exchange. I hope that you can join us!

Since living on my own the past few years, I have been slowly amassing home decor items. One of the items I sorely lacked was during Christmas--ornaments. This was even more apparent to me two years ago when I only had enough ornaments to decorate the front half of the Christmas tree. I have a few more this year than I did last year but still not enough to fill a whole tree. I thought maybe there would be others like me out there who have been slowly growing their ornament collection. Hence, the Second Annual Ornament Exchange. (Bare with me while I use the graphics from last year…not much extra time equals no new graphics!)

Partners:: I will pair each participant with one other person.

Cost:: It's free to participate but the ornament you send to your partner must have a minimum value of $5. If you go above and beyond the $5 worth, that is up to you and your partner. Also, if you make or sell ornaments and would like to send one of your own products to your partner that is fine AS LONG AS your product fits your partner's interests (more info about that below).

Shipping:: This gift exchange is open to international participants. I understand that some of you will be interested in items from other countries and some of you would prefer not to pay that much extra for shipping. Please be sure to specify in your comment below if you are willing to be paired with a person from a different country or not.

Schedule:: Sign-ups open today, Monday, November 25th. Sign-ups will close Monday, December 2nd. Partners will be announced Tuesday, December 3rd. Packages must be shipped no later than Tuesday, December 11th so we all have the ornament in time to admire on our tree.

Share + Admire:: If you'd like to share photos of the ornament/package you are sending or receiving feel free to post them on Instagram with the hash tag #ornamentexchange2013. Also, you can share them on your blog and either link back to this blog, comment below with the link, or email me about it. I look forward to sharing some exchanged ornaments when this has finished.

Getting what you want:: The questionnaire includes a section for you to fill out to help your partner pick out or make an ornament that is sure to be something you'll like. So answer the questions thoroughly!

The sign-up:: If you wish to participate in this ornament exchange please fill out the questionnaire below. Please copy and paste the questions into a comment at the end this post or email them to me at jean (dot) emily (at) gmail (dot) com. Submitting the questionnaire is your commitment to follow the guidelines as they have been explained above.

::QUESTIONNAIRE::

Name:

Email Address:

Country in which you live: (as well as if you are willing to have an international partner or not)

Your interests in ornament type: (share some of your preferences to help your partner choose or make an ornament for you - i.e. colors, styles, specific item(s) you would like inside of the ornament, texture, a link or two to other ornaments you are interested in, etc.)

5 words to describe you or your style:

Link to your blog/shop if you have one:

Anything else you'd like to ask/share:

Help spread the word about the Second Annual Ornament Exchange by posting a button to your blog, sharing on Twitter/Facebook/Pinterest and any other social media site you use.

Best wishes and I cannot wait to see what we send each other!

Just stopping by to say...

No Comments »

Office Update

3 Comments »

We finally decorated our office for the holidays. We have been swamped with paperwork and neglected our decorations for a few months. Neglect no more! The last photo is of me getting ready for our agency's holiday party.

oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree

1 Comment »

How lovely are thy (thine?) branches. Tonight I decorated my little 2 foot Christmas tree. I know last year I splurged and got a lovely real, 6 foot Christmas tree but this year I decided to hold back. If I can find the right tree that doesn't cost me an arm and a leg that I will get a real one, but otherwise, this little fakie is it. It's kind of charming in its own way, isn't it? I covered it in my large, regular-sized tree ornaments, but it still looks pretty good.

Oh, what's the rest of the stuff in the picture, you may ask? Well, gifts that I've been working on. And a couple of orders I received. And other things I've made, inspired (Pinspired?) from Pinterest. I'll do a larger post about that at some point, but I need to wait until my recipients have their gifts!

When it snowed this weekend, I really got in the mood for Christmas. Sure, it's in the 50s now, but this weekend was magical. Christmas, here I come!

ornament exchange - last day to enter!

No Comments »

Hi Folks!

It's the last day to enter the ornament exchange! You have until midnight EST to enter (if you're within a couple hours of it, I'm okay with that too). To read more about it, click here. The info you need to email me or comment below is pasted in for your convenience.

::QUESTIONNAIRE::

Name:

Email Address:

Country in which you live: (as well as if you are willing to have an international partner or not)

Your interests in ornament type: (share some of your preferences to help your partner choose or make an ornament for you - i.e. colors, styles, specific item(s) you would like inside of the ornament, texture, a link or two to other ornaments you are interested in, etc.)

5 words to describe you or your style:

Link to your blog/shop if you have one:

Anything else you'd like to ask/share:

ornament inspiration: store bought

No Comments »

So many fabulous ornaments are out there, aren't they? Last time, I posted about DIY inspiration for ornaments this year and today's post is about store bought. Of course, store bought doesn't just mean mass produced...I included some Etsy stores featuring handmade items as well. Take a look and I hope these photos inspire you for your holiday season.

Thats Vintage Baby on Etsy

Farm Sack Threads on Etsy

the Heads Creation on Etsy

iHartFelt on Etsy

AM Radio on Etsy

West Elm

Crate and Barrel

If you haven't had a chance yet, sign up here to participate in the first annual ornament exchange. There are only a couple of more days to do so and I don't want you to miss out! For those of you who have already signed up, thank you!

Christmas in...June?

2 Comments »

That's right. It's June. Not even July yet. Time to break out future Christmas decor. Now, the reason I started writing this post is because my lovely Uncle Jeff loves to create crafts and is quite good at them. Also, I received and sent some pretty spectacular gifts since we have arrived home from the Bay Area. The first of which is this purse from Nicole at Pussycat Vintage. Remember when I won a store credit at her shop? Well, this is the purse I picked out! It is a great vintage piece; I especially love the color and the rivets.

It's pretty great, isn't it? I am very happy with it. If you would like to see more items, take a look at Pussycat Vintage's shop before it is closed for a little while under renovations. (Also, if you haven't checked out my guest post over on her blog, take a look here.)

I shipped out another package this week. Someone bought one of my mini chalkboards. I have been playing around with packaging and will probably continue to do so for a while. I try to reuse packaging as much as I can but also play with new bits as well. I had this custom stamp made for my shop and I have loved using it so far!

Now on to my uncle's ornaments. I am always impressed by the ideas with which he comes up. He had asked me which colors and animal I liked and came up with the ornaments below. They are fabulous!