Some Favorite Things

Just a few goodies to share, mild obsessions of mine this month.

I spend (=waste) a lot of money on hair accessories.  I see them in the aisle at Target and CVS, and I think, "Ooh, pretty!  That might work on my hair."  But it usually doesn't, and I throw it, and my $6, away.  But I recently tried again, and you guessed it, it works.  Works, like killah awesome works.  Can you say, chignon?

I just twist my hair up, stick in the Goody Modern Updo pin, rotate as shown in the instructions, stick it back in until it gouges my scalp (but the ends are rounded, so not irreparably), and Bob's your uncle.  Awesome tight bun of sorts.  The best part is, no scrunchie.  No bobby pins.  Nothing showing.  And because I'm more interested in being quick than being perfect, it's different every time! 

Works best when hair is partly damp.  Here are a few of my creations:

Super quick updo done in the car during a red light.  Stayed in all day.

This one took about 10 seconds longer than the first; I think I just got lucky that it turned out cool looking.  And I finally figured out to utilize my bathroom mirror in taking pictures of the back of my head.  I am so smart.

And speaking of updo's, I liked this that I twisted up with some chopstick claws from my bag while I had Poppy sequestered in a quiet room during church.  Just having some fun with my long hair.

Moving on.  Ginger and Hazel are big girls now, and it wasn't working to share just one laundry basket.  Filled up so fast!  And the socks, we used to put them in a mesh bag hanging from the laundry basket, but it filled up quick, too.  So I hunted around for a decent double hamper (= not dumb looking, and <$100), and came up with this one from Land of Nod, plus a separate basket just for socks.  It's been working great - I can do one kid's laundry at a time, and socks separately, which has resulted in fewer disappearing - always a bonus. 

Finally, a year after we made them, I got around to framing our bubble prints (one of my favorite Art Tuesdays), and hanging them in our naked stairway.  It doesn't hide how filthy the wall is, but it still draws the eye up and makes the house look more occupied. 

Hung with Care, pt 4

 Here's our final installment of the Younce Christmas stockings.  I mentioned earlier that my parent's socks were hand-knit by my Mom's grandmother.  And that they are large and very stretchy and hard to fill!  

Carol

Geary

 Here is my oldest brother Jeffy's stocking.  He passed away before I was born so I'd actually never seen his stocking until my Mom brought it over with theirs for me to photograph.  It's so sweet, isn't it?  I love how the bell goes along the heel.

And on Christmas Eve I got pictures of my brother Dave's family's stockings.

Dave's childhood stocking had Rudolph on it.  My Mom made him this grown-up one later, and it's covered with Celtic knots and celestial bodies.  She also made Michelle's; Michelle is from Seattle so Mom gave it a Mount Ranier theme.  She also loves soccer, hence the button that dots her "i".  

 I believe these three were store-bought, with the names added later.  We were having so much fun I actually forgot to ask about them!

But this one I know about.  Their fourth child, Freya, was born just this month, on December 1.   I think we are all touched by this because she is (probably) the last cousin/grandchild in the Younce clan, and she shares a birthday with the first, Tona's son Thompson (see this post.)

Hazel holding Freya when she was about a week old.

My Mom created her stocking, a yellow and gold sock with appliqued nativity fabric.  And the best part is, Mom happened to make a trip recently to see Maren's and Tona's families before Christmas.  She took Freya's stocking with her and had each granddaughter (girl cousin) do a part, so they each contributed to it.  My girls also helped when she got back.  So that's a little special aspect of her stocking that represents how much we welcome her and love her.

So that's it!  Another generation of stockings.  Thanks, Grandma.  Love you.

Hung with Care, pt 3

 Isn't this fun?  Here are my sister Tona's family's stockings.  I have to say, I feel especially blessed by this tradition and glad to be writing about it this year.  Because between my last stocking post and this one, my dear Grandma Younce, who started it all by making our own felt stockings in the 1970's, passed away peacefully on December 19.   Which makes it almost exactly 41 years since she made this: 

See, Tona's birthday is December 21 (happy birthday!).  Grandma went ahead and made a gender-neutral stocking, not knowing if the baby would be a boy or a girl.  As soon as she was born, Grandma added the pink and the name at the top, and sent it along for Christmas.  I love that it's a mobile, indicating just how young Tona was when she first received it.

It's a bit of a joke to us, that just as Tona is the smallest Younce, her stocking is also the smallest.  You maybe can't tell in the picture, but it's really quite tiny.  A single clementine takes up the whole toe!

The rest are descriptions in Tona's own words.

Don: This stocking was made by Carol Younce in 1989 for Don, who didn't have one of his own. His family didn’t have our same traditions, of course! It featured Don (with the sequins carefully matched to his actual eye color), skiing downhill into an unsuspecting Santa Claus. The trees are covered with batting snow, and there are jingles on the points of the red top. Front and back are medium-blue felt.

Thompson: Made in 1992 by Mom and myself, this stocking is dark blue front and back (actually darker than this picture suggests, almost navy blue). It features a Hoffman celestial fabric, adorned with extra beading and sequins. The name is gold cording, done by Mom.

Forrest: Made in 1994 of dark green felt front and back, this stocking features folk-art quilted pine trees (obviously a pun on his name) made by my Mom. The top has a plaid fabric, with jingles on the points. The name and hanger are both silk ribbon. Jingle on the toe. Lots of interesting sequins, including several sequin kangaroos.

Jacob: Peace/ Lion and lamb themed stocking rendered in red felt front and back. The lamb is made of shag fake fur and has sequined eyes. They are seated together under a palm tree with gold leaves. Name is written in narrow silk ribbon. Made in 1997 by Tona.

Halle: Made in 2000 by Tona, of dark green felt backing and white felt front. Sequined "ornaments" adorn a polar fleece and corduroy collage of pine boughs. Jingle and tassel toe. Name in burgundy cording.

Hung with Care, pt 2

My sister Maren posted her family's stockings to Flickr for us - you can see them here.  Don't forget to read the descriptions.  My favorite is Torin's, both because of the Bethlehem design and because she was so frazzled she made it backwards (knowing snicker.)

Hung (and Made) with Care, pt 1

 Some Christmas traditions are so ingrained in families that you don't even think about them.  It's not exactly that you assume other families do them, too.  It's that you don't even think about whether they do or not.

In my family, hand-made stockings are such a tradition.

My parents' stockings are long and skinny knit ones - like actually knitted by my mother's grandmother.  They're red, green and ivory, with their names knit around the top.  Great-grandmother Marie made them for everyone in the family, including my Dad when he married in.  And those stockings are maddeningly stretchy, making them tough to fill to the top year after year.

My Grandma Younce, my dad's mom, made the stockings for my brothers and sisters and me.  And most or all of my cousins on the Younce side.  They're all sweet beaded things, each different but along the same lines.  My mom told me they were made from kits - she guesses Bucilla - which were very popular at the time. 

 We loved them and I was always so excited to see mine again each December.  I also thought it was so cool that it looked like my name was spelled with an "X."  Love you, Grandma.

Then when my oldest sister was 19, she got married.  Suddenly we had a new family member.  And he needed a stocking.  So my mom, queen of clever applique, took the fact that he was a competitive skier, and whipped out a cool skiing stocking.  And a multi-generational tradition was born.

As in-laws, and then children, started to join the clan, each got a stocking made for them.  By my mid-twenties, though still single, I decided I wanted a "grown-up" stocking, so I asked my mom to make me one.  I wanted black velvet and Chinese silk.  And this is what I got:

 So freaking cool, I love it.  I added a little beading to the black and gold nativity fabric she worked in.

 Then when I did marry, it was time for Ed to get a "Younce" stocking.  We all know he lives for elk hunting, so I wanted a mountain scene, and my mom and I together came up with a red-headed shepherd boy sleeping in the mountains (Ed can fall asleep anywhere, anytime.)  We even found an elk button to sew on, at the base of the mountains.  My amazingly meticulous friend Kat sewed the name on, bless her, because I just didn't have the skills or patience.

 A few years later, Hazel was born. I remember wanting something simple, elegant, and above-all, something I could make myself!  Which meant not a lot of sewing.  But beading, I could do.  We were living in New York, and since Ed was always at work, I had nothing but time on my hands after Hazel went to bed.  My sister Tona helped me with the icicle-like beading off the bottom. 

 When it was Ginger's turn, I was ready for a little more work (and some more help from my mom.)  I wrestled with a few ideas, and, because of her name, settled on a plate of cookies and milk by the chimney.  My mom made the entire chimney, fire and stockings.  I made the milk and cookies.  I'm not proud of the iron-on letters, but I've gotten used to them. 

 Truth be told, I've had an idea for a different stocking for Ginger nagging at me for several years.  I even bought some of the stuff for it once.  One of these days I'll actually make it, then she can pick one or alternate, whatever she wants.

Last year was Poppy's first Christmas.  And I just wasn't up to the weighty creative task of designing or executing a stocking.  So she just used my old childhood one.  This year, I was more ready.  I had a few ideas, and started to hone in on the idea of a bauble ornament.  First, I sought inspiration.

2011 US Christmas stamps

Window decals at World Market

A DVD gift box that was tucked in my Christmas wrapping box - this was the final spark I needed!

 Getting started was the hardest part, but once I did, I worked really hard for a couple of weeks, and voila!

I traced Ed's for the basic shape (all of ours are slightly different shapes and sizes and I like it that way.)  The sock is of heathered green felt and the top is white minky.  I shaped the name out of pink tinsel wire, then tacked it on every 1/4 to 1/2 inch or so.

 By sheer luck I found these red-and-silver flat bauble ornaments at Michael's - that place is a treasure trove for projects like this!  They were the perfect accent to fill in the negative space.  I also love the loopy wired mesh ribbon at the top - I wouldn't have thought of that except for the stamps.

 The DVD case gave me the idea for an offset center, and I invested in a rotary cutter and self-healing board for cutting it out.  I wasn't sure what to put in the center until I found some spray-painted ferns at Michael's and thought they would do the trick.

 Mirror sequins hanging off the bottom finished it off.

 But I just couldn't stop there and had to bead my heart out on the back.  One big pack of mixed sequins makes for serious colorful fun.

 So there are our family's stockings.  I've solicited a few other family members to photograph and/or write about their stockings...seriously, I'm proud of mine but you've got to see theirs.  Individually and collectively, they are amazing works of art.  It's one of my favorite Christmas traditions.

Fashion Week

Hellooo. I've gone and made a new Listmania! list. It gives me the feeling of being organized. I think you'll like it:

Picture Books for the Burgeoning Fashionista

We have a few fashionistas around here. Poppy's got a new shoe fettish and likes to get her hair "done" in the morning with her sisters (though she won't keep any bobs in.)

And. I got the girls Fashion Plates - anyone remember those? Like this but the originals, with all the 70's hair and clothes. Paid an arm and a leg on ebay for a complete set. But I love them and so do the girls. Watch our walls for some new decor...

Happy Easter

Style notes: Hazel's dress - H&M clearance rack about five years ago. It was impossible to imagine it would fit her someday but I loved it so much I bought it and saved it up. Ginger's dress - Baby Gap about three years ago. Orange sash is double-sided satin ribbon from Paper Mart and tacked on by yours truly. Poppy's dress - Carter's, this season. Hair accessories by the talented Rotifera. I would have liked to sit them right on the grass but it was dewy so we had to use the Neat Sheet.