Christmas Gifts, Crafts, and Cookies!!

These are my latest in the world of tatting. There's four of each, and I will be joining them together with jump rings when they are fully starched and blocked:

I joined the 25 Motif Challenge this last week, so I will say that these are four different motifs. They're not fully finished, but they will be the first in my go at the challenge!

These were all tatted in a size 20 of HDT from Lady Shuttlemaker, "Icicle." I used two different patterns, one was the December pattern from Georgia Seitz site for beginner tatters, located here. The next one up was the same pattern, just doubled and taking out a ring/chain and joining to one picot in the center. The third was a crochet pattern that was translated into tatting, however I've lost the pattern. I'll see if I can find it before my next post..

Since I have gotten confirmation on some of my threads getting through the mail, I feel its alright for me to post what the cards looked like before being put in the envelope:

I had the origami paper sitting around from about three Christmases ago when I made a tree that was completely decorated with nothing but origami cranes. Wow, that was a while back.. I was still in school at ITT..

The envelope is made the same way that Katie did over at Katie's Tatting Khronicles, though I think I may have made mine before she did, except she made them way better than mine!

It may not seem like much of a Christmas craft, however I am working on M's Christmas present at the moment:



He's getting a nice journal; parchment, 200 total write-able pages (or 50 sheets folded in half) and bound with some thread that I need to dye tonight so it will be ready in the morning. I'm using tea for this one, which will be a new experience for me. It's going to be bound in a Japanese stab-binding style, mostly because I like the stitch and it's easier than some of the other styles. I'll try to post some pictures of the entire process -- this is a really good way for re-binding books that are loosing their spine or have been passed down.

I also got bored when I was taking the pictures of the parchment, and decided to share with everyone one of my orchids before the blooms fall off:



This is my newest addition to the growing plant life of my home. I'm surprised that the blooms have lasted this long.. Maybe it's because I'm keeping the temperature the same constant 73 degrees?