Catnip Toys and Resolutions

I made catnip toys for kitties I know.

They were made just like this strawberry, with felt and roving and catnip!

Since the year is coming to an end I will share with you a New Year's resolution of mine: I am going back to the plan/goal I had when I started this blog, stop buying and start using the stuff I have on hand! The two projects next week were planned and started before this resolution so they are exempt (I bought the stuff before 2012 anyway), but starting January 10th you will see things made with things that have been sitting around my house. There will probably be more "what should I make with this" posts and some"look at this exciting stuff I found" posts. I am trying to clean up my craft room so everything fits in the closet, on my shelves and isn't overflowing like it currently is. I have a lot of stuff to get rid of!

I went on a Christmas Eve Safari and saw some taxidermy animals from Africa. Here are some Hipstamatic photos I took:

I also spent some time in an ice hut... such varied terrain.

These mittens should fit now!

I made these flippy top mittens for my friend. It was pretty difficult for me to judge the correct size for a large glove and started off by going way to big. I tore my knitting back to below the thumb and made the thumb shorter and wider then tapered in the top of the main piece.

They turned out pretty good; I was a bit sloppy with stitching the finger covering part, but they look fine.

 I made marzipan snowflakes dipped in chocolate!

I used Ikea marzipan and dark chocolate bars. I pushed the marzipan into a mold, let it freeze a little while so I could get them out, and dipped the bottoms into the melted chocolate. Here is a closeup:

I took the leftover melted chocolate and poured it into the mold. I forgot to tap the air bubbles out so they don't look very smooth, they will taste okay though!

I thought I didn't like marzipan, but gave it a try again recently (it's important to retry foods you don't think you like because your tastes may have changed) and it was so good. I am pretty sure my bad memories of marzipan are from that waxy Christmas stuff... gross (or maybe not)!

Update: I closed comments because I was getting way too much spam!

Workout Ball

Over the summer I started following Bodyrock.tv and doing their workouts. They use a slightly oversize soft medicine ball thing for some of their exercises and after seeing that other people were making them I decided to make my own.

I used Bodyrocker Chris_L/Flickr user Spaceguy19's pattern for the twelve piece/six sided ball and added top stitching on every seam so it would lay better. The top stitching became more and more difficult the closer I got to finishing, but I definitely think it was worth the trouble.

It turned out pretty good, I still need to get something for the weight and figure out the stuffing; right now I have a few pillows in it, but they are making it lumpy.

Glittery Shoes

I finished the shoes from last week; they are sparkly! After coating the shoes in gesso and painting them black I taped of the toes and modge podged and glittered them. I think they are quite appropriate for this time of year and totally different from their last makeover.

Work In Progress

Here are a few of the projects I have been working on lately.

This knitting has been a bit difficult for me. I had a hard time judging how big to make this mitten and ended up going too large; I should be back on track now.

I washed these shoes and the paint started to flake off so I have decided to repaint them. Next week I will post the finished shoes.

Wreath

Over the weekend I decorated the house for Christmas and I made this wreath to hang on the front door.

It is made with a grape vine wreath, a strand of lights, garland, and bells. Here is a closeup:

Tuesday was going to be my last post in this gift wrapping and decorating series, but my knitting isn't going very well and I had a cute idea for really small gifts:

For this packaging I used tissue paper, small plastic treat bags, and a little bit of ribbon. Really easy and really cute!