Mused: What I did this month

Nanowrimo ate my brain for awhile.  While I was writing up 50,000 words and finishing my novel, almost everything else fell by the side of the road.  But no longer!

I not only finished my novel and hit the 50,000 word mark, but I have accomplished quite a bit of crafty-ness as well.  Luckily.  With the holiday season upon us, I had better get my butt to work, right?

So today I am going to take you through a few of the projects that I have completed.

First, and my current favorite, is a scarf that I will present to someone who shares my love of vampires.  I got the idea for this project from the Vampire Knits book.  They had a freebie design that was called a Tourniquet Scarf.  I can't knit, but it was pretty easy to crochet.  It's supposed to look like a big wound on your neck is dripping down the tourniquet.

I'm still working on the kiddo's Harry Potter scarf.  He likes Ravenclaw.

I finally finished the advent calendar, and just in time too.  It is now hanging around three walls of our house (windows and closets keep me from having a large amount of blank space that isn't already decorated).  The kiddo has had fun with it so far and I hope that continues.

I am sending out my Solstice cards to a few people in a Swap-Bot swap.  I am very happy with the way they turned out.  Plus, I wrapped them in scrap paper rather than use a new envelope!

And my biggest accomplishment?  Finally deciding on a planner system for next year.  It's always a struggle for me because I have so many different ideas of what to use.  I settle on an idea, then think, oh wait, I want this too!  But this year I have decided to go with a 5.5 x 8.5 binder.  That means I can take out and add things to it as I want to.  And I finally found the binder!  It was an obsession to find one.  I wasn't able to thrift one, although I did make a binder from an old photo album and cardboard, so I ended up paying money to buy this one new.  But it was cheaper than buying an actual planner and I can customize it the way I want to.

Have a great weekend!  I hope you accomplish everything you set out to do.

Mused: Advent stockings

Last year I made a paper chain with events to do with the kiddo each day as a count down to Solstice.  This year I made stockings.  Or am making, they aren't quite done yet. 

I came across a wonderful pattern on the Martha Stewart website, I believe.  I lost the link for it.  But it was a how to on making mini stockings from paper.  And I thought it would be adorable to have a bunch of little stockings strung across my wall for my calendar this year.

Unfortunately, my wall space is odd and I have to search to see where I'm going to put them up.  I don't have a long stretch of wall in this apartment.  My hallway is full of closet doors.  I could put them high up, but I want the young one to be able to reach them himself.  I think there might be a spot in the kitchen/dining room. 

The green slips are going to be what the activities are written on.  I'm going to put a number on each heel or toe and add a little loop to hang them from.  Then I will put them up with a ribbon/string running between them.

Are you counting down the days?